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kd7sovI don't even know. This brain of mine...
Okay, so. I recently did a big reread of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. This is a fic which attempts to alter the Harry Potter story by changing a few starting points. For instance: magic is internally consistent; Petunia married a scientist, rather than Vernon Dursley; Harry Potter is a prodigy and a genius; and Voldemort is a considerably better strategist. But the main change is Harry: he is, despite his age, a highly-trained scientific observer. He does his utmost not to take things at face value (though he does fail, rather spectacularly, with broomsticks), but instead to figure out what and how. His goal is to understand the nature of magic and of Muggle science well enough to become a god and fix everything. (Somehow he doesn't seem to realize the intensity of hubris in this.)
More recently - including a few minutes ago, as I type this - I am also rereading an Avatar fic called Embers. It's... sorta-kinda the same idea? The author's put a lot of thought into how people would think and behave, given the geographies and elemental properties and so on that are displayed. But the big thing is this: in "The Avatar State" one of the vision-Avatars sets off volcanoes. One hopes he wouldn't do that without being able to stop them again. But Roku is unable to do such a thing in "The Avatar and the Fire Lord". Therefore, firebending knowledge has been lost. This is demonstrated, rather forcefully, when Zuko turns out to be able to heal with firebending. The plot spirals from there, encompassing a huge array of worldbuilding, including earth-based healing, airbender archer corps, and two-element benders.
So. Brain being what he is, these two ideas are attempting to merge.
The basic idea is simple: the monks encouraged aloofness from the world, not by flying away from it, but by thinking about it in a rational way. Unlike MOR!Harry, this version of Aang wouldn't be a particular genius or knowledgeable about our kind of science, but he'd have a very different outlook. Not Vulcan, but not so... bouncyrandom. Possibly Sokka (already a good tactician) would be given some measure of strategic skill as well.
The trouble comes in the form of what the MOR author calls the First Law of Fanfiction: if you make Frodo a Jedi, you have to give Sauron the Death Star. Because, you see, stories aren't interesting without real conflict and challenge. And I have no idea what to do with Zuko (beyond maybe "study your enemy's techniques", let alone Azula or Ozai. Also there are several characters I have reservations about letting into my head, even enough for ficcing.
Blargh.
Okay, so. I recently did a big reread of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. This is a fic which attempts to alter the Harry Potter story by changing a few starting points. For instance: magic is internally consistent; Petunia married a scientist, rather than Vernon Dursley; Harry Potter is a prodigy and a genius; and Voldemort is a considerably better strategist. But the main change is Harry: he is, despite his age, a highly-trained scientific observer. He does his utmost not to take things at face value (though he does fail, rather spectacularly, with broomsticks), but instead to figure out what and how. His goal is to understand the nature of magic and of Muggle science well enough to become a god and fix everything. (Somehow he doesn't seem to realize the intensity of hubris in this.)
More recently - including a few minutes ago, as I type this - I am also rereading an Avatar fic called Embers. It's... sorta-kinda the same idea? The author's put a lot of thought into how people would think and behave, given the geographies and elemental properties and so on that are displayed. But the big thing is this: in "The Avatar State" one of the vision-Avatars sets off volcanoes. One hopes he wouldn't do that without being able to stop them again. But Roku is unable to do such a thing in "The Avatar and the Fire Lord". Therefore, firebending knowledge has been lost. This is demonstrated, rather forcefully, when Zuko turns out to be able to heal with firebending. The plot spirals from there, encompassing a huge array of worldbuilding, including earth-based healing, airbender archer corps, and two-element benders.
So. Brain being what he is, these two ideas are attempting to merge.
The basic idea is simple: the monks encouraged aloofness from the world, not by flying away from it, but by thinking about it in a rational way. Unlike MOR!Harry, this version of Aang wouldn't be a particular genius or knowledgeable about our kind of science, but he'd have a very different outlook. Not Vulcan, but not so... bouncyrandom. Possibly Sokka (already a good tactician) would be given some measure of strategic skill as well.
The trouble comes in the form of what the MOR author calls the First Law of Fanfiction: if you make Frodo a Jedi, you have to give Sauron the Death Star. Because, you see, stories aren't interesting without real conflict and challenge. And I have no idea what to do with Zuko (beyond maybe "study your enemy's techniques", let alone Azula or Ozai. Also there are several characters I have reservations about letting into my head, even enough for ficcing.
Blargh.
