A Fractal of Loops

When I read this the first couple of times, I think I misunderstood how this trade relationship worked and assumed these merchants were importing into the Ethuveraz. But that's not right. These are exporters, here to buy silk and various industrial goods.

I am not a historian, so my understanding of this part of real world history is from high school, supplemented by a handful of books about the spice trade. But my very basic understanding of how this played out in real life factory goods were concurrent with colonialism (don't ask me about cause and effect I don't know) and real world flow of trade that I learned was that silk and tea and spices moved towards Europe (in the worst possible way as they were being extracted by colonizing nations) and manufactured goods were sent back from Europe (still in the worst way possible with mercantilism).

But the set up in the Ethuveraz seems to be silk and manufactured goods go out, spices go in, and everyone seems to have tea about equally (iirc both Ethuverazheise and Barizhaise teas are mentioned in Cemeteries). And these countries seem to be on basically even footing.

I don't have anything interesting to say about this, in the historical sense I'm basically just throwing it out as bait in the hope someone better informed will be irritated enough to come and explain properly.

These little hints about what Csevet is getting up to when he isn't with Maia are just so interesting.

Csevet had a life at court as a courier before this, with a circle of friends, and, its implied, a lover. And then he went off on this message and... never came back. He became the Imperial Secretary and moved into the Alcethmeret over the course of like, a couple of days, and now he's arranging imperial marriages.

And I wonder what this whole insane series of events has looked like from the perspective of the other couriers, who were Csevet's colleagues until very recently. Are they happy for him? Are they frightened for him? How does his relationship with them work now? Is it awkward trying to see people when he has to leave the Alcethmeret or let them in? Or do couriers just pass their friendships along with letters anyway so its not that big a deal?

Gormened really seems to have a terrible job.

Because Zuko started as a good person, before he got the scar.

And Zuko has an extremely stable platform of support for most of the show.

Zuko couldn't have done it without Iroh's unflinching, unwavering belief that he could become a good person again. I've rarely seen any criticism of Iroh aimed at his unconditional support of Zuko- for good reason. It's a selfless act.

Similarly, I've rarely seen any criticism of Zuko saying that he didn't deserve Iroh's support. Maybe a few comments here and there about how ungrateful he is at times, or how he should have "suffered more"(?), but never anything outright saying that Zuko should stay exactly where he is in his misery because he doesn't deserve Iroh's helping hand out of it. And this is for a very specific reason- because A:TLA goes out of it's way to show very early on that Zuko was a good person and can be so again.

So Zuko's arc isn't really even a straight redemption arc. It's a recovery arc wearing a large redemption trenchcoat.

This is an important distinction because a raw, straight redemption arc is often unpalatable to the audience, because it starts with someone who isn't a good person receiving a helping hand out of their misery anyway. A redemption arc starts by looking like someone is forgiving an abuser. It starts by having sympathy for the bad people. It starts by engaging with them and listening to them and empathizing with their struggles.

"But they're a bad person, they don't deserve that kindness!" that's the point.

Certainly not to say that it's the job of the victim to be that understanding, helping hand- of course not. And extending kindness does not mean abandoning moral principles and not holding the person accountable for their actions, a la certain flavors of Harley Quinn-Joker romance nonsense.

But someone has to treat the bad person like they're a person if the bad person is ever going to stand a chance of getting better. Regardless of what the bad person "deserves". The bad person has to accept that help, of course, but there needs to be help (and more importantly, kindness) offered in the first place.