If I owned Avatar, I would be a lot richer and know a lot more about my own culture.
This is what I came up with at 11 o'clock last night while half asleep. According to my sister's headcanon, Commander Bumi is married to Zuko's daughter, whom we've named Ursa for convenience, and Kya is married to the chief of the Northern Water Tribe.
I wrote and published this before the release date for Season Two could even come out, so if there's something canonically wrong (wow, it's actually a word!), I had no way of knowing that.
Edited on August 16, 2013. Minor changes to help it flow, and a few added phrases to emphasize Iroh's exhaustion.
Ah, good morning, Avatar Korra. What can I do for you? Oh, you've brought your friends as well? Hm. Would any of you like some tea? I was just making some. I'm sorry for the mess. With everything that's been happening, I've had very little time for anything but work. I'm very tired. Yes, Avatar Korra, in cases of extreme exhaustion, we firebenders can get tired, even if the sun's out.
Are you alright, Miss Sato? You look like you've been crying… I have a hankerchief… No? I'm sorry, Miss Sato, have I done something to offend you?
Mako, was it? It's the engagement she's worried about? And that's why you're all here? I don't see why you think barging into my private quarters on my ship is going to help anything. If you want to do something about it, you should be speaking to my parents or Miss Sato's father.
… My apologies, I'd forgotten about Hiroshi Sato's involvement in the Amon debacle. I'm very tired, you see. Are you sure none of you would like some tea? It's a special blend of ginseng from the Jasmine Dragon. I beg your pardon, but what do you hope to accomplish by coming to see me? As terrible as it is that Miss Sato was never informed of our betrothal, there isn't much I can do about it.
I'm the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation, Avatar Korra. The Royal Family has been practicing arranged marriages for centuries. My great-grandparents' marriage was one to increase the power of the royal family; my grandparents' marriage was one to strengthen the connection between the Royal Family and our nobility; my parents' marriage is one to ease global tension in an new era of peace. Every marriage in my family has a purpose, and mine will be no different. Please do not ask me why.
Do I like being "trapped and not allowed to choose my own wife?" Hmm… Forgive my insensitivity – I'm very tired – but I can't say that I really feel much of anything for it. I've known since I was a child that my wife would be chosen for me. Why don't I do anything? It's never worked out very well before. My life's always been planned out to the tiniest detail – any deviation would earn me a swollen hand, a sore ear, or a stinging backside. Or any combination thereof.
I don't think you understand, Avatar Korra. There are a lot of burdens that my family carries, the most important of them being the necessity of an heir. I am in my prime of my life, and as I grow older, the need for a child increases. I'm sad to say that my inheritance isn't something to sneeze at, which adds even more pressure.
You still don't understand? Why is my inheritance so important? Giving you the short version will make you angrier, so I suppose we all better sit down. To fully understand this, you need to have a more thorough understanding of the leaders of the world and how they got to where they are. Are you sure you don't want some tea? … Well, Avatar Korra, since you seem the most disgruntled, I suppose I should first explain to you the part that would affect you the most.
Water
Do you know who the current chief of the Southern Tribe is? Yes, Master Katara, your waterbending sifu and my grandmother. She is, at the moment, Chieftain Katara. The title "Chief" in the Southern Tribe is hereditary through the male line whenever possible. Because Councilman Sokka, who became Chief Sokka shortly following the death Chief Hakoda (and Avatar Aang, but that's irrelevant), never had any children, the title and responsibilities fell to his sister. When she dies, may she live for years to come, they will pass onto my father, and then to me. Forgive me if I sound ungrateful for it. I'm very tired.
You know, of course, that the chief of the Northern Tribe is Chief Unalaq, and that his wife is Kya, my father's sister. Yes, Avatar Korra, I suppose you could say that we're cousins, even while discounting the blood of two avatars that flows through me. Thankfully, they have two healthy children – though I will admit that Cousin Desna and Cousin Eska are a bit strange – so I have nothing to worry about with them. Surprisingly, Aunt Kya's marriage was a love match, and in no way arranged. Very hard to find amongst world leaders.
Earth
Custody of a child is a very serious thing in the Fire Nation. When I was four, my mother made me memorize who would take care of me if something happened to her and my father, and in what order. Family members would take precedence, so if I was orphaned while still a minor, my grandfather would raise me. He's my only other relative on Mom's side, so then I would go to Dad's. Councilman Tenzin would take care of me, because of the cultural connection Republic City has to the Fire Nation. If something happened to him and his wife, I would live with Aunt Kya in the Northern Tribe. Then I would go with Gran-Gran in the South Pole. If I have no family left, I would go to my godmother. Which means to say I would live with Lin Beifong – yes, she is my godmother. I'm sorry if I'm being snappish. I'm very tired. My parents wanted my godparents to be people they trusted, and they all grew up together. I don't have a godfather – they couldn't think of anyone else they trusted with me – so if all else failed, I would live in the Earth Kingdom or Fire Nation Courts.
Why the Earth Kingdom? I guess it's time for another history lesson. You all know the history of Princess Azula, may she rest in peace, and probably the fact that, five years after Sozin's Comet, she regained her sanity. She still had the occasional therapy session, or so my grandfather tells me, but she was sane. So soon after the end of a century-long war, the Fire Nation was scrambling to do whatever it could to prove it wasn't evil. To that end, my grandfather arranged a marriage between his sister and the Earth King's only son, Crown Prince Shuu.
Princess Azula was happy. She had learned to love her husband and her new country – she had always had an eye for Ba Sing Se, and now she could live as its princess. Grandfather describes just over sixty years of bliss for her. She had a daughter, Princess Kiesla, who in turn had two sons, Kuei and Puyi. By then, she was the Queen Consort of the Earth Kingdom, as Earth King Kuei LII had passed on.
But then tragedy struck. A virus spread throughout Ba Sing Se, wiping out hundreds of people every week. It was from the Fire Nation, a flu we usually get and get over when we're children. The Earth Kingdom didn't have the same immunity we do, and they died swiftly. Earth King Shuu was the first of their royal family to contract it – he was dead within days. Princess Kiesla caught it from her father, but she had been recovering from a fever, so she died the day after they got back the diagnosis. Kuei and Puyi caught it in their grandfather's last days, and lasted only two weeks longer, managing to outlive their father by five days. The Queen Consort was now the Dowager Queen, and was responsible for the entirety of the Earth Kingdom.
A year after her coronation, she came to the Fire Nation for diplomatic reasons – three years ago, now. I was home at the time of her visit, on the rare occasion I was granted leave from the United Forces. I remember she was distant, still caught in the depths of her grief. She refused to wear any color but white, and had five separate shrines set up in her room for each of her family members.
The night before she was to return to the Earth Kingdom, the Dowager Queen died of her own will. A servant went to rouse her to prepare for the journey, and found her dead with an empty vial of poison in her hand. (I remember the screams. "The queen is dead! The queen is dead!" How awful that they still ring in my ears.) Three years ago, my grandfather resigned as Fire Lord and passed the position on to my mother. For some reason, they could not find the Earth King's relatives, so the throne went to their queen's brother.
When my grandfather dies, may he have long years left, my mother will become the first reigning Earth Queen to be born to the line in four hundred years, and then it will be me.
But the Earth King doesn't rule the entire Earth Kingdom. Omashu is a city-state with its own governement and ruler. The last king of Omashu was King Bumi, my father's namesake, who died forty years ago, may he find enjoyment in confusing the spirits rather than us mere mortals. King Bumi had had children and grandchildren, but none of them could understand him. "Why do you just sit there?" they asked him during the days of the war. "The Fire Nation is knocking at our door and seeks to conquer us. Will you just let them?" He replied, "Yes." He was an eccentric man with genius bordering on insanity, and it took a lot of patience and creativity to understand what he meant to do. Patience and creativity that his descendents didn't have. They grew exasperated with him, and left to fight the Fire Nation. None of them survived.
So King Bumi needed an heir. He wanted someone who could understand him – someone who could wait and listen for the right moment, someone who wouldn't drive his kingdom into the ground through recklessness and impatience. He wanted someone who was unique and wasn't afraid to show it, flaunt it even. He found what he wanted in Toph Beifong, so he named her his heir.
When she died, all of her assets went to her only daughter, Lin Beifong. But as you know, Lin Beifong never had children. She had been in love with Councilman Tenzin, and she was crushed when he left her, no matter how unintentional it was. She swore to me, fifteen years ago, that she would never get married, and she would never have children. A Beifon, I am told, always keeps her word.
As I said, she's my godmother. She's written into her will that everything she has will go to me. That includes the throne of Omashu and the lucrative Beifong Estate. Unless she changes it before she dies, I will be the King of Omashu.
Fire
For several generations, my grandmother's family loathed the thought of arranged marriages. The roots of that are in the past of Lady Kanna, my great-great-grandmother. She was born in the midst of the Hundred Year War in the Northern Tribe. Her parents had arranged a marriage for her with the best waterbender of her generation – Master Pakku, who later became Gran-Gran's teacher, ironically enough. Lady Kanna didn't want to be forced into a marriage that she couldn't consent to by her own free will, so she left the North Pole and journeyed to the South, something I imagine was incredibly dangerous for a sheltered young woman in the middle of a war.
Gran-Gran didn't learn this until years later, even after she received Lady Kanna's old betrothal necklace as an heirloom. She learned to hate arranged marriages just as much as her grandmother did, but that changed.
My mother, Fire Lady Ursa, is the Fire Nation's only royal child of her generation. Because of that, the choice of who her husband would be was a very serious question. She would lead the first generation in a century to not grounded in war, and it was vital that she marry someone who would not only reinforce the idea of peace but someone whom the court would approve of. In other words: a foreign prince.
The problem was: there hardly were any. The heir of the Northern Tribe was already engaged to be married. The Earth King only had a daughter her age. Omashu had only a girl for an heir. The only possible candidate for marriage was the grandson of the Chief of the Southern Tribe, the great-grandson of the woman who ran from her betrothal.
My grandfather, Fire Lord Zuko, was desperate. He sent letters, phone calls, gifts, bribes, all manner of things to get them to agree. But Gran-Gran didn't want any of her children in a loveless marriage, and Avatar Aang didn't really understand the concept of marriage to begin with. It wasn't until Grandfather came in person and got down on his knees to beg that they listened. "He is the only one," he said. "I don't have another choice. If Ursa and Bumi don't marry, the only choice would be to marry her to one of my nobles' son. I've seen what they're willing to do – my court is cruel and merciless and will stop at nothing to get what they want. They can't stand the thought of a reigning Fire Lady. She wouldn't survive." They were engaged later that week. (If only they hadn't. Mother might have been able to have another child.)
I have no siblings or living cousins on my mother's side, so I'm the only heir my country has. I'm very, very tired.
Air
The Air Nomads have no concept of inheritance. At first glance, you would think that would mean I don't have to worry about them. Unfortunately, while they don't understand inheritances, they understand legacy. Avatar Aang fathered a daughter and two sons, one of whom is my father. A great man, bender, and peacekeeper, his legend falls unto those of us who can claim connection to him. I'm sure you understand what I mean by this, Avatar Korra.
His isn't the only legend I have to live up to. The grandson of three war heroes with the blood of two avatars running through my veins. Grandson of one tribe's chief and nephew of the other. The heir of the man who turned around a hundred years of war.
I'm very tired. Do you understand the pressures I live with, Avatar Korra? Yes, you might be the avatar, but that only means you are a balance keeper and trusted with great bending ability. You don't have to be burdened with leading the lives of thousands, burdened with the political machinations of the world unless you choose to be. I, on the other hand, live with the knowledge that one day, I'll have to deal with the pressures of reigning over most of the world. By the time I die and join my ancestors in the Spirit World, I will be the Fire Lord, the Earth King, the Southern Chief, and the King of Omashu. I can only thank my ancestors for not burdening me with the leadership of Republic City, the Air Temples, and the Northern Tribe as well. (Oh, but the gratitude is bitter and rotten. The weight on my shoulders force me to my knees, slave to my many peoples.)
I wonder what Fire Lord Sozin would have thought if he knew that, even if we lost the war, even without violence, the Fire Nation would one day rule the world. But I will be the only one of my line to control so much of the world. I understand that, to achieve balance, I must have at least four children to split my burdens with, and that they will start a new era of their own. But first I must have a wife. Unfortunately, as a prince, duke, and general several times over, I find it hard to find the time to sleep at night, much less find a girl to court and wed. I know my duty is to my people, to give them a stable line to lead them, and I know I have no choice but to allow my family to find my spouse.
Sometimes, I delude myself, telling myself that (maybe) it's for the best. My mother tells me that relations between nations have gotten even stronger since I was born, that many world leaders went from being fond family members or childhood friends to state rulers who share an heir. Through me, the world's gotten closer, and the people of the world celebrate me as their prince, their general, their future sovereign. If only it lessened the pressure put on me.
If you truly do not want this engagement, Miss Sato, I'm sure we can manage to convince my mother to annul it. Beyond my assistance in the Equalist incident, that would erase any connection you might have had to my family, and you would be free to marry whomever you choose. I fear, however, that I will never be able to free myself from the shackles that bind me.
I'm very tired.
