Just some notes on Dreams of the Dragon King/She Moves with the Sea:
I am rather proud of myself with these pieces. Compared to my other relatively long stories, I think that this diptych is logically, stylistically, and rhythmically coherent. There are a few missteps, but overall I believe that each small chapter says something on its own while keeping with the tone and movement of the larger story. For me, this is an accomplishment. :)
[The tone in this case being "blood-red despair" alternating with "bleak and boring," my usual style.]
The inspiration was, of course, dissatisfaction with the way that the original series handles relationships. I find Aang to be clingy, controlling, and immature, and I find Mai to be tepid, whereas Katara and Zuko have real chemistry. But then once I started thinking about how Katara and Zuko would actually play out, given the political situation... Well, I saw it leading to civil war. I mean, obviously.
I honestly cannot imagine Zuko being a good political leader in the Fire Nation, which is sad because I adore him as a character. He's just so uncompromising. It's his greatest strength, but I think it would be his total undoing as a politician, particularly with all his insecurities surrounding his family and his own status as a formerly outcast prince. I see Mai, by the way, as basically the hero of the story, even if she did actually assassinate Zuko (I think Katara's a little too quick to come to that conclusion, but even if Mai did kill him, at that point it was a mercy killing). I also gave her enough of a heart to resent having a relationship with a man who is obviously hung up on someone else. I also see her as being politically astute but really not committed enough to even pretend to care about ruling the nation in her own right. The best thing she can do is go find a perfect replacement.
Basically this whole story was me just calling it like I see it.
Same goes for the Air Benders. If Aang is going to bring back air benders themselves, I think he's going to have to a) create them (sex) and b) welcome them. I imagine that there are plenty of air benders who did not recognize their powers or were afraid to recognize their powers. Plus, in the aftermath of war, you'll have a bunch of non-bending converts attracted to a peace-loving, communistic lifestyle. Free love is naturally a part of that. To me it just makes all kinds of sense. And also that it would strongly go against the grain of Katara's own upbringing and values.
On Kaiza:
I always feel leery about original characters, but I couldn't think of anyone in the series who would really be a *good* Fire Nation ruler, so I invented Kaiza. In retrospect, I should have spent some time to give her a better, more unique, less harsh-sounding name, instead of just making something up on the spot. Anyway, the idea is that her goals are really quite similar to Zuko's, but she accomplishes them by making friends rather than enemies. Of course I can't blame Zuko for not trusting anyone, and it's about a million times easier for Kaiza since she doesn't have any baggage and all the nobles like her.
(If Zuko had just chilled out and married Kaiza like he was supposed to, everything might have ended differently... Perhaps Mai was being too sneaky when she could have just spelled it out for him. ...Oh well. ...Also, was Toph part of the Kaiza Conspiracy? It's possible.)
I didn't watch much of the subsequent Avatar series, but I find it ironic that my "correction" of canon actually leads to what some of what I saw in the Korra series: Aang having children with a deeply subdued Katara, no mention of Zuko, and a shockingly progressive Fire Nation.
...
Shout out to Sources/Inspirations. Basically any depiction of intrigue and politics in an Asian royal court, including:
The Tale of Genji
In Such Hard Times: the Poetry of Wei Ying-wu
Dae Jang Geum
Native pole-dwelling cultures:
The Snow Walker, a film about a Canadian pilot whose plane crashes, and he's taught how to survive by an Inuit girl.
Hatchet, Island of the Blue Dolphins, etc.
Also the album "Rivers" by Wildbirds and Peacedrums, which is full of imagery of oceans and ice and sexuality.
Looking back on it, I think that the parts where Katara went back to the South Pole were the most abrupt and perhaps the most out-of-character. Solitude is something that I prize highly but I don't know if it's really Katara. I love the imagery, and if I wrote it again I'd probably do the same thing, but... it might have been better if I had had her maybe integrate more with village life, because that does seem more like canon Katara. I think I turned her into an introvert because I don't really understand how extroverts function. Woops.