A Place For All My Random Hyperfixations

“Iroh the Old Man?”

*puts on hat or whatever*

Okay, this is true, but to be fair Zuko is also 75% of Iroh’s impulse control. Zuko is impulsive as all get out, but is able to get his shit together when everyone else around him is drinking Dumbass Juice (The Boiling Rock, Sozin’s Comet, etc.). Iroh is kind of the same way in that he took the liberty of ‘Angsty Nephew Wrangler’ for the majority of season 1 and 2, but Zuko did his fair share of carrying the brain cell between him and Iroh: 

Example 1: Iroh is a shopaholic Stuff Gremlin and the fact that he was probably in charge of the ship’s funds should be very concerning. 

Example 2: 

Iroh: *takes a nap for ten fucking years and is way too comfortable being naked in public* 

Zuko: please act like a human, I’m begging you 

Example 3: almost immediately after becoming fugitives, Zuko was the one trying to find food and be productive while Iroh made the Big Smart Brain Decision to make a might-be-but-might-not-be poisonous flower on the off chance that it would make some dope ass tea. 

And did he learn from his mistake????? 

Example 4: “What are you doing firebending your tea?!” is a good fucking question, Zuko 

What I’m saying is, that yes, Iroh was full of sage wisdom and did function as Zuko’s impulse control a good 90% of the time, but Zuko had to get his impulse control from somewhere. 

(bonus: In which Iroh conveniently ignores his nephew’s crime addiction because it gets him snacks)

Iroh: ‘my nephew is obviously stealing these things and not talking about his issues, this habit he’s developing will lead him down the wrong path’ 

also Iroh: ‘okay, he can crime a little bit’ 

Jet: Hey, what’s good? Wanna Be Bi(tm) Do Crimes(tm)? 

Iroh, internally: ‘Zuko do it, Zuko DO IT, I’M HUNGRY’ 

Zuko wakes up and everything hurts.

Most specifically, his scar hurts.

That . . . doesn’t make sense, he thinks, and reaches for it automatically. A strong hand catches his wrist before he can touch it, which seems–fair, yes. Probably a good idea, anyway, because spirits does it hurt. Just . . . so much.

“Uncle?” he asks reflexively, attempting to open his eyes. It’s surprisingly difficult. And Uncle is in Ba Sing Se, of course, but he’s on his back on a futon or bedroll or something similar and someone’s sitting beside him and his head is swimming and he’s injured, clearly, so options for who said “someone” might be are limited, really.

So it’s not Uncle, obviously, but . . .

“Nephew,” Uncle says, very quietly, and Zuko . . . blinks.

At least, half-blinks. The one eye’s in too much pain to open.

The ceiling is metal, he notes absentmindedly. That’s . . . odd. He was in the palace, wasn't he?

“What happened?” he asks, vaguely bemused. Uncle pauses in a very concerning way, and Zuko has about three heart attacks about just how badly he doesn’t want to know what he’s about to say before–

“The Agni Kai,” Uncle says, very carefully. “Do you remember it?”

Zuko frowns–just with the one side of his face, because again, his scar hurts right now. To the point that his whole body feels wrong, does his scar hurt right now.

“Um–which one?” he asks, because there’s been about a dozen this month alone, and frankly he’s getting really sick of fighting them at this point but if the old guard of nobles are just going to keep dragging everything out like this–

“With your father, Nephew,” Uncle says, very carefully.

Zuko . . . blinks.

“Oh,” he says, vaguely perplexed. Uncle never talks to him about that. “Yeah, I remember that. What about it?”

“Do you remember what happened?” Uncle says.

“The part where I disgraced myself or the part where he burned my face?” Zuko says, because it’s so fucked up and awful and horrible that he can’t even get upset about it anymore, except when he’s really upset about it. But if Uncle’s bringing it up, presumably he has a good reason to be, so . . . “Or the whole ‘go find the Avatar who no one even believes exists anymore or you can never come home again’ part?”

“. . . all of that, yes,” Uncle says, still sounding very careful. Zuko frowns a little–again with just the one side of his face–and then looks over at him. His body still feels weird and wrong, but . . .

But . . .

They’re on a ship, he realizes. A Fire Nation one.

Well, explains the metal ceiling.

It doesn’t explain why Uncle is wearing red armor and a topknot like he hasn't in years, though, or why he looks so unspeakably sad.

“Um,” Zuko says, and attempts to sit up. His head immediately starts swimming even worse, and Uncle catches his shoulders and keeps him pinned against the . . . futon? Looks like a futon, yeah. “Where are we, exactly?”

“We are aboard a ship,” Uncle says. “I . . . may have slightly commandeered it.”

“. . . you paid for it, right?” Zuko asks, a little skeptical at that idea.

“Yes, Nephew, I did,” Uncle says, giving him a very tired, pained smile. Zuko doesn’t feel much better, seeing it.

“Is someone dead?” he asks, because he can’t think of anything else that would make Uncle look that way.

“Ah–no, no one has died,” Uncle says.

“Then what’s wrong?” Zuko asks warily.

“. . . you are injured, Nephew,” Uncle says, slowly. Zuko frowns, bemused. “And your father . . . I did not know he was going to do this. I am so sorry.”

Zuko . . . pauses. Looks around the room again, and then realizes: he knows this room, doesn’t he. He knows this ship.

This is the same ship he woke up on after the Agni Kai.

“Hold that thought, Uncle,” he says, then lifts his hands and looks at them. They . . . well, they are his hands, obviously.

But they’re not his hands, obviously.

“Huh,” he says, frowning in bemusement at them; turning them around like he half-expects them to stop being a thirteen year-old’s or something equally ridiculous. They don’t. They are very definitely a thirteen year-old’s hands.

Specifically, his thirteen year-old hands.

Huh.

“You don’t have to be sorry,” he says after a moment, putting his hands back down and glancing back to Uncle, who’s obviously the more important concern. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“I took you into that meeting,” Uncle says, his voice tight. “And I watched the Agni Kai. And I did nothing to stop any of it.”

“I know,” Zuko says. “But it wasn’t your fault.”

“It was,” Uncle says, his smile a sad and terrible thing. “You were there because of my actions. My mistakes.”

“You’re not the one who wanted to sacrifice all those soldiers,” Zuko says. “Or the one who decided to throw fire at my face.”

“You were there because of me,” Uncle repeats, his voice tight and his smile no less terrible. It occurs to Zuko, briefly, that Uncle must be thinking of Lu Ten.

He only ever looks like that when he’s thinking about Lu Ten, so . . .

“Uncle,” he says. “Really. It’s not your fault.”

“Nephew,” Uncle says, and his voice is somehow even tighter. Zuko tries to get up again, and his head swims again, and Uncle moves to stop him again. This time he grabs onto Uncle’s wrists and uses them to pull himself up, and then . . .

Well, then he’s sitting up, at least.

So that’s something.

He tilts his head and his hair slips into his eyes. It’s loose, and long. Not shaved on the sides yet, like he wore it the last time he was thirteen. He supposes he should cut it, but then again, why should he? He's not changing anything, after all.

Except for this conversation, he supposes, because that went very differently last time.

. . . hm.

"Uncle," he says one more time, and reaches out for him. Uncle doesn’t seem to understand what he’s trying to do, so he has to reach out a little farther, and then Uncle makes the connection and leans in and lets him wrap his arms around him and alright, yes: that’s better, Zuko thinks, and clings to him.

Just a little, perhaps, but . . .

Yes. He clings to him.

Uncle wraps his arms around him in turn, very carefully, and makes an awful sound.

“My boy,” he chokes. “I’m so–I’m so–”

“I forgive you,” Zuko lies, because of course there’s nothing to forgive.

H  E  ’  S   J  U  S  T   L  O  S  T   T  O  O   M  U  C  H

It’s all the same shirt, and he had it with him the whole time, even back at the Council of Elrond:

Here’s a close-up of the collar peeking out beneath the jerkin before they get to Lórien, and then the jerkin-less Lórien look:

And some longer/full-body shots where you can see the tunic between the splits in the jerkin when he moves:

Full-body shots of just the tunic for reference, as glimpsed in Lórien and Minas Tirith:

Here’s a link to some beautiful costuming research someone did on the whole outfit btw, if you want more details.

One more bonus pic, where you can see it underneath the jerkin really well, which is absolutely the only reason why I’m including this very flattering and serious picture here:

Also re: @caranmerya’s hilarious tags:

What, you think Thranduil’s son would go on a diplomatic visit to Rivendell to confess that they lost Gollum, oops, don’t be mad talk to the revered Elrond Peredhel and not dress for the occasion? Cut him some slack, he didn’t know he was going to be going on a grueling Quest across half of Middle-earth to find a dwarf boyfriend go and find the sun threaten the future king of Rohan for insulting said dwarf boyfriend help a small Hobbit destroy the magic ring that said Hobbit’s uncle had once used to rob his father’s house and then end up on a detour to pop a scruffy mortal onto a dusty throne and face-off against the armies that killed his granddad and attend a wedding of two of (one of?) the most convoluted family trees in the history of all Arda and…

What I’m saying is, his being prepared to dress pretty at a moment’s notice is probably the least strange thing about Legolas, Frodo, come on now. Have some perspective.

#genuinely one of my favourite costume details that i’ve just like. incorporated into my own ocs when deciding their clothes #like what small changes can be made that can turn the same travelling outfit into a semi-formal one #and vice versa #i love character building and world building through costume design 😈 #i love practicality in costume. i love when the costumes are clothes

I loooove that the whole way through the Quest, the members of the Fellowship are just wearing the same stuff because that’s what they have with them! The only times you ever see someone actually change clothes, as opposed to just taking stuff on and off, are when there’s a legitimate explanation for where the other clothing came from (see: Gandalf getting new duds when he comes back as Gandalf the White and Pippin being given Faramir’s old livery when he pledges himself to Gondor. Or Aragorn’s velvet tunic that he wears in Rivendell! Obviously he can change out of his Ranger leathers and into something fancier there, because he lives there. Presumably he has a whole bedroom and wardrobe somewhere in Imladris. Frodo even mentions Aragorn getting dressed-up there in the book, it’s that noticeable).

And that’s so realistic! Those are the clothes they have with them, so those are the clothes we see them in. Bits and pieces move around and get added or removed for different scenes (like Aragorn putting on Boromir’s Gondorian vambraces after he dies, or Legolas removing his jerkin when he’s relaxing somewhere safe as pictured above, or Gimli ditching the armored parts of his outfit at the end in Gondor after the war is finally over, etc) but they’re all just wearing their existing stuff in various configurations the whole time.

(The only possible “where did that come from?” part of anyone’s outfit that I’ve ever spotted is that Aragorn appears to have two different under-tunics/shirts: a blue one and a red one. They’re not as noticeable as Legolas’s shiny shirt at least to my elf-obsessed self ahem so I can’t say for sure, but I think we see only the blue one throughout Fellowship and then the red one from the meal with the kids in Rohan onwards, so my guess is that the red one was given to him as a replacement for the blue in Edoras, either because of the big tear through the arm he got during the fighting at Amon Hen or because it was so dirty by then that the Rohirrim were like “no, please, it’s a gift, take it” lmao.)

Because they’re traveling! Because these were designed like OUTFITS, not costumes; nobody can manifest new clothes from nowhere when they’re out in the wild, and the costumers respected that reality. Nobody played any cheap tricks to sneak different outfits in to fit the mood of different scenes; they just adjusted what they already had to achieve a different vibe with the existing outfit, or left them the same.

The LotR costumes have so much genuine detail in their construction that they really feel like what the character, as a person, would be wearing, rather than just some costume that was slapped onto an actor for each scene. Not just in the overall visual design, but all the way through.

I know that there’s a lot of debate about who was “right” and who was “wrong” in the history between Hook and Rumplestiltskin, and I’ve always found the parallels here fascinating, so I’m going to offer up my two cents and hope it’s not overdone. :)  For reference — as promised in my last OUAT post — this will be pulling principally from season 2 episode 4 “The Crocodile” and season 5 episode 14 “Devil’s Due.”

(Let me start by saying that I’m not really going to address the beginning sequence of flashbacks from Devil’s Due — everything we see about Milah and Rumple interacting once he gets home, how they handle Baelfire getting bitten by the snake, etc — because it is very ambiguous.  I’m not sure there is a distinct right or wrong up until a very specific point because which of the couple a viewer identifies with is largely dependent on an individual’s personal values and experiences.  After that ambiguity disappears, it’s because he decides to sell his wife’s — Milah’s at the time, though, in actuality, Belle’s — reproductive rights without talking to her first.  At that point, I disagree with any argument that he was not acting completely and totally in the wrong.  And, once that’s done, Milah absolutely has the right to take time and space for herself at the tavern.)

Instead, I’ll start with the first chronological event we see: when Killian and Milah meet in the tavern… and, as far as I can see it, both individuals acted with honor.  The first seeds of their relationship are sown when Killian knocks out the guy hitting on her when she didn’t want him to be, when Killian talks about a way out of her provincial life (discussing the spices in the air, etc), when he outright offers her a way out… and yet they’re both bound by their own personal codes of honor.  Milah rejects the offer because she has a husband and kid and responsibilities at home, and Killian abides by that because he wouldn’t go against her wishes.

Then we have the scenes in “The Crocodile,” starting out with the scene where Rumple goes with Baelfire to bring Milah back home from the tavern.  This scene is a touch complicated, especially since it’s after years of bitterness and the aforementioned deal with the apothecary.  On the one hand, there’s the fact that Rumple brings Baelfire to a tavern in order to manipulate his wife into coming back to a life where she does most if not all of the work and where it’s a bit rich for him to be accusing her of forsaking responsibility; on the other hand, she’s intentionally cruel to him and has been out of the house for a while despite having a kid.  This goes back to the earlier ambiguity of their day-to-day interactions; there isn’t, for the most part, an outright, objective right or wrong.  She returns to the house and promises to give life with Rumple/Bae “a try.”

The next thing we see, a villager tells Rumple that his wife has been taken by “the men who came into port last week” — aka Killian and his crew — and that they’re about to set sail with her.  And this… this is the scene that I think is often viewed incorrectly.  I know a lot of people who say that this scene is totally rigged against Rumple, that Killian was young and able-bodied while Rumple was neither, that Killian was cruel, etc… and, in some ways, I get it.

I also think, though: that’s the point.  The entire encounter is most assuredly a sham.  A test.

Mainly, because this entire encounter is completely and totally out of character for Killian.  If there’s one thing that can be said for him, it’s that he is absolutely a man of honor.  So, why then does he say, “I’ve had many a man’s wife?”  We know for a fact — albeit post-episodically — that he doesn’t make a practice of starting affairs with married women; as mentioned above, when we see him meet Milah in “Devil’s Due,” all it takes for him to back off is for her to say she has a husband.  The above quote is absolutely not the kind of man he is… but it is the kind of man who might pose a threat to Milah’s safety.  Similarly, “I have a ship full of men who need… companionship.”  The implication here is something that would never stand on Killian’s ship or in Killian’s presence.  The man’s code of honor is inherent to his personality — “good form,” etc — so the fact that there’s something clearly dishonorable being alleged here is important.

So I take the “it was cruel and mean and how dare he” argument and put forth a new one in its place: “it was harsh and effective.”  Milah said she’d give life with Rumple a try, but the main hurdle they had to overcome was his cowardice; she resented being lashed to the village coward, and (judging by the look of sheer surprise when Killian stood up for her in the tavern) hadn’t really had someone fight for her before.  This is also supported by the ending line of that scene; Killian’s scornful of Rumple because he’s a coward, because he wouldn’t fight for his wife.  (And there wasn’t really substantial proof that the duel would be to the death; Killian said Rumple had to fight for her, not that he had to win or kill Killian or any of the above.)  This was a trial by fire to test Rumple’s valor when it came to Milah, and he was willing to walk away with the belief that he was leaving his wife to be served as a favor to a group of pirates.

Now we fast forward.  Rumple is the Dark One; he’s found Killian again; and he purposefully bumps into Killian to provoke him.  To be honest, it’s true; Killian was a bit of a dick here.  He’s working off a code — his basic understanding of what manners should be — but he’s still intoxicated to some degree and definitely jerkish.

Then Rumple reveals himself and asks about Milah before then challenging Killian to a duel… and this is the part that really, to me, settles who is “right” and who is “wrong.”  Because, in essence, Rumple gives Killian the same exact deal — if not a little harsher — than the one Killian had given him, all those years ago.  He requests a duel, though this one is pretty clearly to the death.  There is a power imbalance; Rumple is the bloody Dark One, complete with immortality and magic, while Killian is just a pirate with a cutlass.  There is something at stake if he doesn’t do the fight, but it’s not something intrinsic to his person; in other words, Rumple threatens not Killian’s life but his crew’s lives, similar to the way Killian seemed to be threatening Milah’s wellbeing and not Rumple’s if he didn’t duel.  (This is very important because it means that, if the person being challenged decides to duel, they are taking on personal risk for someone else’s benefit instead of taking on personal risk to avoid personal risk; it’s a selfless decision to duel, whereas the alternative would be more selfish.)

Anyway, it’s the same duel.  (Or, I should say, it’s at least the same duel… I maintain that the power imbalance between immortal magic user and mortal swordsman is a touch more extensive than the imbalance between mortal pirate swordsman and mortal-but-injured trained soldier… And also, there’s the fact that Killian already put himself at risk to protect Milah by telling Rumple that she was dead… Oh, and also the fact that Rumple put in the caveat that Killian had to sit an entire night preparing to die with the ability to run right in front of him even as he didn’t run to protect his crew/Milah… yeah, it was at least the same duel.)

And yet Killian showed up for it.  He showed up with his cutlass exactly at dawn, ready to die to protect Milah/his crew the way Rumple hadn’t been willing to fight for Milah so many years before.  He actually follows through on fighting.  He loses — although, I will point out, that Rumple betrayed any semblance of a code of honor and used magic in the duel, which is (to coin a phrase) bad form — and prepares to die easily, willingly.  And this, people… this is the difference between Killian and Rumple.  When put in the same position — the same trial by fire — Killian passes the test that Rumple failed.

Thus, is it any wonder that Milah goes to get Hook?  She puts her own life on the line to confront her ex-husband and save her new lover.  He fought for her, and she fights for him.  She’s clever about it, finding just the piece of leverage that might get through to Rumple and using it, and all because she’s found someone to fight for her.

I also feel like it’s necessary to point out that, when they get back to the Jolly Roger, the crew treats her as a second captain.  They respond to her orders and follow what she says.  She’s not, as they implied to Rumple, a party favor that they passed around, and nor is she some mere component of Killian (i.e. they don’t treat her like “the captain’s mistress” but as her own person, and someone who’s definitely in some degree of command).  What I mean by this is that the way we see the crew interacting with her further invalidates the earlier encounter between Killian and Rumple unless it were a test set up by Milah and Killian to test Rumple’s mettle.

And then, of course, there’s the fatal scene, and I feel like I’d be hard-pressed to find someone who thinks that Rumple acted appropriately.  (tbh, I’d be very worried if I found someone who did, because… murder?  Really?  Seriously, folks, feel free to reach out to me with explanations for how Rumple was right in the killing-Milah scene because I don’t understand and am curious if anyone has any logic to provide whatsoever.)  This scene is, to me, one of the best at summing up Rumple’s character flaws, if I’m being honest.  His anger at her for leaving Bae is, yes, partly at her, but it’s also in large part him projecting onto her because he left Baelfire, far more permanently.  He continues to not see things from other peoples’ points of view; he didn’t get how Milah was so miserable with him when she was doing all the housework and childcare while also being married to one of the town’s outcasts and getting no help from him.  His anger issues, because he can’t take hearing that she didn’t love him without deciding she deserved to die.  And his cowardice, hiding behind magic, because — even with immortality and everything else — he needs his powers to restrain Killian long enough to kill her.  This is probably not a very persuasive paragraph in terms of the thesis idea of Killian vs. Rumple, but that’s largely because I’m very confused as to how anyone supports Rumple’s position here, so I can’t foresee which counterarguments to provide.

Before I conclude, I do want to address one slightly-off-topic thing… Milah.  I will confess that I have serious personal qualms with her leaving her son behind to set sail, but I also very much disagree with the people who dismiss her as being heartless or careless there.  Do I think she was right to leave Bae behind, to leave him with Rumple as a father?  No.  But.  She wasn’t thoughtless.  She wasn’t careless.  We find out through Killian at some point that the two of them had carried on long conversations about bringing Bae, that both had felt guilty for abandoning him, and that both were worried about the environment that a pirate ship might provide for a child.  We also find out that they’d planned on going back for him at some point.  I think this is another instance in the show of a mother trying to do what’s best for her child; I just also think that Milah made the wrong choice.

However, I also vastly believe that the family unit of Rumple, Milah, and Baelfire was unhealthy and should not have persisted.  It was a relationship built on years of bitterness culminating in Rumple making a decision to sell their future, and it was deleterious to everybody involved.  I cannot believe that Bae would have had a substantially better life if Milah had stuck around than the way it ended up happening.

And also, it’s just important to notice how much Milah thrived away from Rumple.  (Because it’s not her being away from Bae; she’s consistently feeling guilty about that, and he continues to be her unfinished business after she dies.)  Not only does she get to leave the life she hated, doing all the work in a small town where everyone hated her husband and pitied her, and get to go on a life of adventure to different worlds… Not only does she get respect and an actual, healthy family in Killian and his crew… But the sheer amount of meta analysis that could be done on her clothing as compared to her mental state?? Massive.  I mean, she goes from drab peasant in rags and worn out clothing to a pirate queen, with bright colors, beaded shirts, and brocade.

So, long story short; I think that Killian — and, to a slightly lesser degree (principally because of leaving Bae, even though, as I said, I think she was just a flawed person doing her best in a shitty situation), Milah — were worlds more justified in all of their actions than Rumple was.  I think that, if we’re talking right or wrong, neither Killian nor Rumple were 100% right or 100% wrong.  I also think that Killian was more right.

It took a few weeks for everything to calm down enough for everyone to get together.

The 118 was adjusting to working under Captain Gerrard.

Bobby and Athena were adjusting to moving into an apartment half the size of their house.

Hen and Karen were adjusting to visits with Mara every chance they could get.

Chimney and Maddie were adjusting to having two young girls running around the house.

Eddie was adjusting to being alone.

And Buck was less adjusting and more enjoying his new romance with Tommy.

Killian Jones 100% threw the Lake Nostos fight, and here’s the proof:

Emma and Killian go at it for a while, until Emma is knocked onto her back and he taunts her - only for her to pull out the compass, and kick him in the chest, and get back to her feet.

Then she takes a swing at him, and he blocks it.

But Emma is aiming way to his right. He has to bend his body towards it to even catch it with his weight behind it. He could have just sidestepped it and let her momentum carry her forward, probably off-balance, and take advantage of that. Once he’s committed to the block, what he could also do is bring his sword hilt up, angle his sword down, so that hers slides off it past the right side of his body. Wouldn’t take any strength or effort, she’s already going that way.

Then he could step towards her, into her reach, with her sword safely out of the way past him. And either bring his sword around or just use his hook or knock her to the ground again.

But he doesn’t do any that. He goes the opposite way instead, using sword and hook to win the bind and bring both their swords across to the other side.

Why? Who knows. It doesn’t really gain him anything. Her sword really isn’t a threat to him at this point. He could just duck underneath it and win this fight. And Killian Jones is an experienced swordsman and he absolutely knows all of this better than I do. He knows how to take advantage of rookie mistakes like the ones Emma is making, the openings she’s giving him. But still, he does this.

And then he just… stays there. And looks at her. She has time to say “thanks” and take aim and throw a punch. He literally does not move. He’s giving her the world’s biggest opening and waiting patiently until she uses it.

And of course that little punch, which you’ll notice he actually bounces back from which is not a thing you can do if you’re unconscious, is enough to knock him out. Yep. Definitely.

And why does he bounce back from it? So he can have this moment and everyone can see that he’s absolutely definitely knocked out:

Totally not making this up. Look my eyes are rolling and everything Cora she beat me, 100%, nothing to be done, I’m out of this fight, oh no, timberrrrrr.