jeong jeong stan account

natla jeong jeong being in ba sing se is mostly just "shove all the characters into one city" (e.g. mechanist and jet in omashu) but it also feels like one of those adaptational changes to fix a "plothole" that nobody actually thought was a plothole. like, if hiding in ba sing se was an option for fire nation dissidents with white lotus connections why didn't jeong jeong do that instead of squatting in the woods? plothole! and it's like well first off they hadn't fully established the white lotus lore by his episode (heck, they hadn't even nailed down water-healing yet) and second and most importantly: perhaps there is a reason that someone who feels like they're teetering on the edge between human and monster would choose not to live in a city where there are like. other people. maybe a person like that would like. isolate themselves. bc they think they're a threat to everyone around them

btw i'm not gonna use she/her pronouns for natla jeong jeong until i see some signs of egg. sometimes characters change gender in adaptation, just look at general fong

also re: being resolutely optimistic about future jeong jeong - the liberties taken with the plot of atla plus piandao being in this season means that there is a non-zero chance jeong jeong & piandao will actually interact

maybe there's still hope that jeong jeong will be in character. i mean maybe when you're being cornered by an angry mob and you realize you actually don't want to die (despite thinking the world would be better off without you) you start spouting off nonsense about how you're one of the good ones and don't deserve to die. idk. i just want them to bring back the self-loathing

wait last post just made me realize they cut smellerbee and longshot from the jet ba sing se plotline in natla :( we don't get to actually see how jet's obsession with revenge on the fire nation is alienating his friends and preventing him from starting a new life in the city we just have him offhandedly reference that he's no longer hanging out with them. boooo

i like to imagine jeong jeong's desertion had a huge impact. like i think jeong jeong got up on a stage to give a speech to the troops and WENT OFF about the fire nation's lack of discipline and the brutality of the war and then pulled his fireball disappearing trick and ran off into the woods, and the fire nation tried to keep it quiet but an important admiral deserting is a hard thing to keep quiet and also there were so many people who saw what went down and heard what he had to say. major military operations are delayed or abandoned bc they need to find a replacement to lead them and also jeong jeong had SO much top secret intel and they just have to assume all of it's compromised. a lot of soldiers liked working under jeong jeong because he stood up to plans that treated them as disposable, was the guy in the war room who'd be like "this seems excessively cruel and puts our men at risk, let's have some restraint" and they start chafing against their new commanders and orders. morale takes a HUGE nosedive. there are a bunch of copycat desertions (e.g. chey), and some people suddenly decide hey i'm just. not gonna serve another tour. maybe take a break from the military and do something else. no reason. and once the story spreads to the mainland, military recruitment goes down, not even in a particularly anti-war way, just in a "well it kinda doesn't seem like a great gig if a guy who was AT THE TOP flamed out spectacularly". it's this massive logistical and PR nightmare for the fire nation military and that's why jeong jeong did it

not sure if jeong jeong's character being messed up bodes badly for piandao or if maybe there's still hope bc piandao has less complexity to mess up

natla is making me realize how much passive suicidality is a cornerstone of my jeong jeong characterization. like i don't think i've ever actually articulated that before but like. if you think you're 🤏 this close (a "razor's edge", if you will) to being a monster you might just agree with someone if they decide you're dangerous and need to be put down