Ooh... now THAT is a nice image. :) You must find some excuse to use it.
And yep - Zuko needs advisors he can trust. In my personal head canon, Fire Lord Zuko only gradually learns to be really good at public speaking. That, or he just incidentally says the right sort of things, because he's chronically honest. Sincerity, when used judiciously, can be a good thing.
I also love the idea of Zuko wearing elaborate, symbolic robes. Just a week and a half ago, the MacTaggart collection was open for viewing at the University I attend - it's a collection of hundreds of mostly Qing dynasty robes (along with a few older examples). They're all ridiculously embroidered with dozens of symbols, and, of course, I immediately thought "damn, the Fire Nation HAS to have a tradition of symbolism like this." My particular favourites were two robes displayed side-by-side - one belonging to an emperor, the other a from a boy emperor. On the one, the five-clawed imperial dragon was clutching the orb of wisdom (or so it was explained to me). On the child's robe, though, the dragons were smaller, and reaching for the orbs, but not quite touching them yet, indicating that they still had much to learn.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-02-19 05:37 am (UTC)And yep - Zuko needs advisors he can trust. In my personal head canon, Fire Lord Zuko only gradually learns to be really good at public speaking. That, or he just incidentally says the right sort of things, because he's chronically honest. Sincerity, when used judiciously, can be a good thing.
I also love the idea of Zuko wearing elaborate, symbolic robes. Just a week and a half ago, the MacTaggart collection was open for viewing at the University I attend - it's a collection of hundreds of mostly Qing dynasty robes (along with a few older examples). They're all ridiculously embroidered with dozens of symbols, and, of course, I immediately thought "damn, the Fire Nation HAS to have a tradition of symbolism like this." My particular favourites were two robes displayed side-by-side - one belonging to an emperor, the other a from a boy emperor. On the one, the five-clawed imperial dragon was clutching the orb of wisdom (or so it was explained to me). On the child's robe, though, the dragons were smaller, and reaching for the orbs, but not quite touching them yet, indicating that they still had much to learn.