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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Randy Ribay
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July 22 - July 24, 2024
There was no underground river here—was Ulo really powerful enough to pull moisture from the air to form the ice around her?
dreamt I was riding Lola above the clouds. I felt happier and freer than I have in a long time.” He paused. Rubbed the back of his neck. Took a deep breath. “When she descended, we were at the Southern Air Temple—but it was burning. Every tower, every structure. All of it—on fire.”
“Calm down for a minute, Mr. Giant,” came Gyatso’s voice. “What did I ever do to you?”
Major Aang vibes.
“I’m not his airbending master,” Gyatso said. “He’s not my airbending master,” Roku said at the same time.
Roku remembered Sozin once telling him that there were legends of Earthbenders so skilled at sensing seismic vibrations that they could tell if someone was lying by the way their heart rate or breathing changed. Unfortunately, this man’s earthbending—all rockslides and boulders and stone walls—seemed too dependent on brute force for such a refined application.
“Sure. But have you ever considered the possibility that . . . he totally would lie to you?”
Some of the dialogue has felt too modern.
“Before Kyoshi was identified as the Avatar,” he went on, “she was an orphan, a servant. She fought for justice because she could recognize injustice. She experienced it firsthand. She survived it. Her heart was always with the poor, the broken, the oppressed. That’s why she was a great Avatar. You? You—your family, your clan, your nation—are the oppressor. What can you offer as Avatar when you can’t even understand that?”
So long as there was poverty, criminality was inevitable. To make his people feel safe, he’d eventually have to find ways to ensure the nation’s resources served every single Fire National, not only the nobles.
No, these two weren’t working alone. Most likely, their low-life friends were lying in wait at this rock formation, ready to use their sandbending to subdue and rob and maybe even kill. Yes, Sozin thought, that’s what he would do.
Another hundred years and the entire place would likely be covered by the desert.
At the funeral, there would be no body to burn.
Random thought: This book feels like it is written by an Asian American, rather than the deeper East Asian cultural roots we got from Yee. That said, I think this book more closely aligns with the show’s sensibilities, while Yee’s take on Avatar feels more… authentically Asian. Mind you, this is coming from someone who is not Asian American.
Roku’s father looked up, eyes rimmed with red and aged a decade in days. He took a deep breath and quietly said, “You should have saved him.”
When Sozin didn’t say anything for a long time, Roku grew certain that it was because his friend agreed that the sea should have taken Roku instead of Yasu. After all, it was Yasu he had grown so close to since starting at the Academy, while Roku had been fading into the background.
Sozin draped an arm over Roku and pulled him close. “I’m not Yasu, but we’re brothers too, Roku. Never forget that. We will always be brothers. Always. Until the very end.”
I was hoping for a stronger bond here. It just feels like Sozin adopts Roku after Yasu’s death instead of them coming together because of a common bond.
He also noticed that the firebending he had been using to light his way required less and less energy. His flames burned as effortlessly as breathing. And as he walked deeper into the earth, he began to feel a thrumming through his spirit that amplified with each step and turn he took as if some great force was drawing him toward it.
Back when Sozin, Yasu, and Roku used to sneak into the Dragonbone Catacombs, they had come across a few scrolls that had described the clans that had lived on the Fire Islands long ago. Some of them were supposedly communities where benders of different elements lived together peacefully.
Roku flared with a sudden burst of sapphire flames that evaporated the ice and radiated outward like a shockwave,
Roku’s breath hitched—he’d never generated fire so hot it burned blue.
“Hmm,” said Wan Shi Tong. “Nobody from the Fire Nation has visited my library since Avatar Szeto, and that was centuries ago. I suppose you have also come to access my knowledge?”
So potentially only three Fire Nation citizens have met Wa Sing Tong.
“The new Avatar’s childhood journal,” Wan Shi Tong said, recognizing the book. “A unique contribution indeed.”
“I have scrolls on the Dumog and Eskrima fire-bending styles, which your clans forgot long ago. It would certainly be impressive to see a true revival of such skills.”
He learned that there were methods of channeling his energy into lightning, and methods for defending such strikes that borrowed from water-bending redirection principles.
Retcon? No longer an Iroh invention? Or did Iroh rediscover the skill independently from Wa Shin Tong’s library.
Only Fire Avatars like Szeto had developed a mastery over several of the powers or had wielded them at some point or another throughout their lives while in the Avatar State.
Slaying a dragon, for instance, did not increase the strength of one’s firebending by a thousandfold. In fact, it did not have any impact beyond the loss of a sacred beast’s life that angered the other dragons and disturbed their spiritual kin and the Fire Sages.
So why did he let dragon hunting happen?
And though a Firebender could learn to heat rock until it transformed to lava, the ability to bend lava belonged to skilled Earthbenders.
Sozin sighed, pushed back his chair, and stood.
Good to see his ambitions haven’t completely won out yet.
“But in the future, the world will belong to those who best understand the sciences, not to those with fancy fire-bending tricks good for little beyond winning Agni Kais and impressing girls.”
And with Ulo’s other lies now laid bare, she doubted his claims that they were nothing but nomadic extremists on a never-ending mission to rid the world of those they found impure.
It is possible did Ulo did meet extremist airbenders.
“They are alive,” Ulo said, anticipating the next question Roku couldn’t voice, “but injured. They were able to bend enough moisture around themselves to cool their bodies so you didn’t bake them alive. Of course, when the last droplets of water evaporated, so did their protection. Thankfully, we knew something was wrong because the fog had lifted, and we arrived in time to get them—and you—to our healer before it was too late.”
The Air Nomad would not shut up as he and Malaya followed the path along the sun-drenched hills. He spoke as things came to mind, weaving rambling narratives interjected with his own thoughts, opinions, or feelings on the events or the people he described. And he spoke expecting nothing in return, not even her attention.
Gyatso told her about the new Fire Avatar named Roku who wasn’t a bad guy—but might never be a good one if he never learned to stop overcompensating for his obvious lack of self-confidence by making rash decisions and trying to make himself look like this big, bad Firebender.
I feel like I’m being told Roku’s characterization more than I’m actually seeing it. And the story isn’t making commentary on the fact that the way Roku thinks in his POV is different from how others perceive him so this seems more like a fault of the writing than a deliberate inconsistency. Roku hasn’t been putting on a tough guy front this whole time, in my opinion. Not through his actions, at least, in my opinion.
“So, you’re saying I can ride one, but I need to find the right one?” “Exactly. They’re vegetarians and generally docile creatures, but if you try to climb atop the wrong one, that would probably be the last thing you ever did.” “Fair enough.” Gyatso scanned the surrounding trees. “Are you looking for one right now?” “Maybe.”
“Hunting isn’t about how accurately you can shoot an arrow or throw a spear. It’s not about how strong or fast you are, or how sharp your blade is. Don’t get me wrong—those things matter. But even more important is patience. Most of a hunt is waiting, watching for the right moment.”
“Yes. Avatar Roku. I’ve lived a long time but never had the chance to meet any of your prior incarnations.”
Suggesting he has lived for over 300 years?
“The power is not ours to claim. Just as the first of our kind relinquished their bending to the lion-turtles after returning from the Spirit Wilds, so must we leave ours in the cave.
Um… wasn’t this supposed to be knowledge lost to time until Korra?
It reminded him of the Royal Gallery in the Fire Nation Royal Palace, which contained the portraits of the past Fire Lords as well as paintings of the most important events in Fire Nation history. He had heard the portraits of all the Fire Avatars also used to hang in the Gallery—but then they had been destroyed by the False Avatar and were never replaced.
Roku pondered over these four scenes, trying to put the story together. The best he could guess, they told of how each of the Four Nations had invaded the island and destroyed the different clans at various points. But he wasn’t certain. He could definitely believe the Earth Kingdom could have done such a thing. Maybe even the Fire Nation if there had been a good enough reason. But the Water Tribes and Air Nomads? Not so much.
Roku felt as if he could hear the anguished cries of the islanders.
“Our people gathered to await their attackers, outnumbered and overpowered. All they could do was call out in desperation for the spirits to save them from certain destruction.” As he spoke, Ulo began to trace a finger along the sequence of scenes that had confused Roku. “That day happened to be the autumnal equinox, and as the sun reached its highest point in the sky, the spirit arrived. It filled the space with its energy. The benders among the people felt it flowing through them and channeled it to wipe out the invaders.” If Roku hadn’t experienced such a power for himself, he might not
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But Sozin remained at Roku’s side.
They bond through trauma the same way Gyatso and Roku do. But the result is different?
The Crown Prince of the Fire Nation had always been ambitious and driven, but he was more determined than ever to make the most of his life to honor Yasu’s memory. If Yasu’s death halved Roku, it doubled Sozin. If it made Roku retreat, it made Sozin advance.
Roku’s eyes went to Gyatso’s glider, only now realizing that he’d reached the hut through flight. “Your airbending is back?” Gyatso rubbed his face in frustration. “We. Can. Talk. Later.”
It was strange to stand before Roku. On the darkest of nights, Ulo enjoyed telling the clan stories he’d gathered on his travels about the different Avatars. They were largely haunting cautionary tales about the dangers of unchecked power. Gyatso had confirmed Malaya’s suspicions that there was little truth in this, but the image of the Avatar as a glorified executioner lingered in her mind as she returned the boy’s gaze.
Damn. How old is Ulo?
the Western Kingdom Trading Company’s search for some special mineral or rock was a front for the Earth Kingdom’s pursuit of the cave’s power.
“She was two years older than me,” Gyatso said. “Last year, she was on a relief mission in the southwest of the Earth Kingdom. The Western Kingdom Trading Company—the same company that sent those Earthbenders here—had been mining outside of this one village for years. They had ruined the soil, poisoned the water, broken the land. Those who couldn’t afford to move away stayed and kept working in the mines. They started to get sick. And the more they worked, the sicker they became. Soon, nearly the entire village was dying. Yama and the other Air Nomads had basically gone to care for these
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“The dying miners didn’t matter to the company. They’d outlived their use. The coal or ore or whatever had nearly run out, and the company was preparing to leave. But they must have dug too much or too deep. A sinkhole opened. It swallowed a huge chunk of the mountainside—including the village in which Yama and a few of the other Air Nomads had been helping.” Gyatso paused. “There were no survivors.”
I’d love to tell you more about my sister than how she died.
“Oh—I didn’t mean that she was right that it was a mistake for you to be the Avatar. I meant that she was right that you wouldn’t be able to truly see yourself as the Avatar until you stopped seeing yourself first as a Fire National.”
“Nobody in our clan besides Ulo knows much about the equinox ritual that’s supposedly responsible for maintaining Yungib’s goodwill—except that it requires sacrifices. I’m wondering if he’s not planning to take any pig-chickens or cow-pigs with him tomorrow.”
“I didn’t want to brag before, but I’m a pretty good Air-bender.”
