Clear Vision
Perched on the end of his nose, the tiny round glasses gave him the appearance of a scholar, spoke of wisdom and intelligence. Ironic that someone so ignorant of the world outside, so sheltered, should wear them. Kuei, Earth King like his father and grandfather before him, was nothing but a useless doll who spoke the words of his advisors and had, up until his awakening, continued to believe that outside the walls of Ba Sing Se, the city he 'ruled', peace reigned, not war. He'd never had control of the city. The Dai Li truly ruled. And the most terrible thing was he never realized how much he was being manipulated. Kuei's entire existence was a bad joke. His life up to that point had been nothing but a waste.
He'd worn glasses since he was ten years old, a cheerful boy always smiling and always eager to see smiles on everyone else. Weeks of incessant complaining about blurry characters on the pages of his scrolls, all silly stories and legends, none factual, along with several close encounters with pieces of furniture, had earned him his first pair.
The king could recall the sudden rush of pleasure as everything came into focus. The faces before him were crisp and well defined, each freckle and wrinkle clear as a spring morning. He could read his stories without help and his body healed all its bumps and bruises. The little prince, as people called him then, ran happily through the palace and out into the gardens, not colliding with anything. They were the first thing he reached for every morning and the last thing he removed every night. The glasses truly were a part of him.
Years later, when other things finally became clear, when Kuei learned, thanks to the Avatar and his friends, that nothing in his life was real, the glasses were all that he kept from his years as a king. Wandering destination less through the vastness of his country, trusty best friend Bosco the bear at his side, Kuei's eyes were opened further. He learned about the Earth Kingdom's regions and its people, what it had endured for a century and what it was enduring yet. He kept those glasses on, careful to protect them at all costs. Never had he wanted to see so badly.