HELP! Fic idea won't leave me alone. (MKR/AtLA fusion)

[Somariel]

So somehow I got an idea for an MKR/AtLA fusion and now the idea won't leave me alone. I really don't need an idea this complicated bouncing around in my head. Please, people, help me get it out of my head.

((I edited the title of the post to make the topic more clear. :)  --suzanami))

[Revolutionaren]

Is Fuu the last airbender?

[Milieva]

Is Fuu the last airbender?

*cackles*

[Somariel]

Is Fuu the last airbender?

Yes, she is. I wanted to preserve the elemental affinities of the Magic Knights, so Fuu ended up in Aang's role, Umi took Katara's, and Hikaru took Zuko's. (Naturally, the events would go quite differently, since Hikaru's personality is nothing like Zuko's. I'm actually considering having her decide right after the banishment that the way to restore her honor is to help the Avatar and that's why she's looking for Fuu.)

The character roles (and ages) I've assigned thus far are:
Aang = Fuu--14
Appa = Windam
Katara = Umi--15
Sokka = Ferio--17
Toph = Ascot--13
Zuko = Hikaru--18
Iroh = Clef--Iroh's canonical age (64)
Mai = Lantis--17
Ty Lee = Eagle--17
Ozai = Debonair--Ozai's canonical age (43)
Azula = Nova--16

And yes, this casting means the Umi 'ship would end up being Umi/Ascot.

[Somariel]

So my muse for this fic decided to drop in on me last night and I have a few new things for it.

First, I'm trying to decide if I should change the hair color for those characters who don't already have colors that appear in AtLA. (Changing the eye color as appropriate is a given.) If I do, I'm thinking that Hikaru, Fuu, and Nova would have the reddish brown hair that Suki has, Umi, Ferio, and Eagle would have brown hair, Clef would have gray hair, and Debonair would have either black or brown hair.

Second, I've decided that when Fuu ends up in the iceberg at the South Pole, she had already been separated from her mentor by being sent to the Southern Air Temple and was in fact running away from the SAT to return to her mentor.

Third, my muse is telling me that Emeraude wants to fill the role Gyatso filled for Aang and be Fuu's pre-iceberg mentor, but then some very weird part of me starts saying that if that happens, Zagato needs to fill Sozin's role and I start going "Whaaat?"

[Revolutionaren]

I sometimes think about a MKR/Game of Thrones fusion thing, I mean, it doesn't work at all but I like to think of Ferio as Jaime and Emeraude as Cersei and then I stop there because I'm too busy laughing myself into a coma.

I'm sorry, that's not helpful at all.

But I wouldn't go changing hair/eye colour. I appreciate you're trying to fit it more into the AtLA world, but I think you'd confuse the readership.

[Somariel]

Does anyone have any ideas for a title for this thing?

Also, would it seem weird to anyone else if I cast Mokona in Momo's role? Part of me is saying that it's a good fit, but the other part of me is saying that Mokona is God and it's incredibly strange to have him as just a pet.

@ Revolutionaren: I'll concede the point about not changing the hair color, but we're going to have to agree to disagree on the matter of changing the eye color. AtLA is so specific about certain eye colors belonging only to certain nations that it just feels necessary. (The biggest problem is with Clef, Lantis, and Ferio, who all have eye colors unique to a nation that their AtLA role is fighting against.)

[Revolutionaren]

Huh.

Well, Legend of Korra totally threw the whole eye colour thing right out of the window.

[Somariel]

Legend of Korra also has a lot more mixing between the nations than AtLA does.

[Somariel]

More ideas for this monster that won't leave me alone:

Lafarga would fit well in Piandao's role.

I'm being strongly tempted to cast Geo in Lieutenant Jee's role.

Emeraude is going to take the role Gyatso filled for Aang and be Fuu's pre-iceberg mentor, but Zagato is not taking Sozin's role. Given that Clef has Iroh's role, Zagato will fit nicely into Lu Ten's role.

I'm also being strongly tempted to say that Gyatso still existed in this fusion and was the monk who was assigned as Fuu's mentor at the SAT and the reason Fuu ran away from the SAT to go back Emeraude was that she found out that the elders at the SAT felt Gyatso was being too easy on her and they were planning on sending her to the Northern Air Temple.

[Somariel]

Would it seem too crackish to cast Mokona in Wan Shi Tong's role? I really want to include him in some form in this fusion and Wan Shi Tong seems like a better fit than Momo, given that Mokona is God in MKR.

I'll be very grateful if people actually reply to this particular post.

[suzanami]

Somariel referred me here and I don't know how I missed this but I very much approve. I probably read it when it was posted and meant to reply and forgot, as I am wont to do.

I LOVE how you distributed the characters into the roles.  at the most subtle levels it works SO WELL and shows you understand the role of the characters in both series - like casting Eagle as Ty Lee.  Hikaru's version of her banishment and Nova as her sibling, I absolutely LOVE IT.

I support Emeraude as Fuu's mentor, that'd work really beautifully - it would still take Emeraude out of the current plotline and interactions, which echoes a lot of the way her memory looms over the characters in MKR2. 

I'm really torn about Mokona being Momo's role and Wan Shi Tong's. (dang I had to look up a few side characters to refresh my memory, I watched ATLA two years ago for the first time and haven't rewatched it yet)  because obviously Mokona fits Momo's role to a T.  but I think, depending on how strongly you want to stick to every single detail of the original ATLA story, you really can leave out that character altogether.  Mokona as Wan Shi Tong is a LOT more compelling, and you could tweak Mokona's form slightly so it looks less silly - more elongated, less goofy smile, maybe creepy slight-open eyes, and a darker vibe overall.  at the end of the day, I think casting Mokona as Wan Shi Tong is definitely the stronger choice!

though I do agree that changing the character designs much more than hairstyles would be rough for readers.  it all depends on how much you want to stick to all the details of ATLA.  you can adjust a lot of things (plot/character, even the worldbuilding if necessary) with that artistic license.  you definitely want to change some things in the story because if it's beat-for-beat the plot of ATLA, even with the new characters, it could get boring knowing exactly what comes next!  my two cents!

[Somariel]

Somariel referred me here and I don't know how I missed this but I very much approve. I probably read it when it was posted and meant to reply and forgot, as I am wont to do.

I LOVE how you distributed the characters into the roles.  at the most subtle levels it works SO WELL and shows you understand the role of the characters in both series - like casting Eagle as Ty Lee.  Hikaru's version of her banishment and Nova as her sibling, I absolutely LOVE IT.

I'm glad you like how I've distributed the character roles. Eagle's personality and Ty Lee's do have a similar... vibe? Bounciness? Well, something quite similar, so once I cast Lantis in Mai's role, Eagle rather naturally dropped into Ty Lee's.

With regards to Hikaru's version of her banishment, there's a fic on FFN by DJNS called Reconstructed Destinies that rewrites the series with Prince Aang and Avatar Zuko and Prince Aang does pretty much exactly that. Hikaru and Aang have such a similar brightness of spirit that it seemed appropriate to borrow the idea. And Nova's origins in MKR made her perfect for casting as Hikaru's sister.

I support Emeraude as Fuu's mentor, that'd work really beautifully - it would still take Emeraude out of the current plotline and interactions, which echoes a lot of the way her memory looms over the characters in MKR2.

I really wanted to get Emeraude into the story somewhere and that seemed like the perfect role.

I'm really torn about Mokona being Momo's role and Wan Shi Tong's. (dang I had to look up a few side characters to refresh my memory, I watched ATLA two years ago for the first time and haven't rewatched it yet)  because obviously Mokona fits Momo's role to a T.  but I think, depending on how strongly you want to stick to every single detail of the original ATLA story, you really can leave out that character altogether.  Mokona as Wan Shi Tong is a LOT more compelling, and you could tweak Mokona's form slightly so it looks less silly - more elongated, less goofy smile, maybe creepy slight-open eyes, and a darker vibe overall.  at the end of the day, I think casting Mokona as Wan Shi Tong is definitely the stronger choice!

I'd pretty much come to the same conclusion regarding Mokona's role. I hadn't actually even considered leaving out Momo's role, but that's something I'll have to think about. I had come to the conclusion that I might slot Fyula into it.

though I do agree that changing the character designs much more than hairstyles would be rough for readers.  it all depends on how much you want to stick to all the details of ATLA.  you can adjust a lot of things (plot/character, even the worldbuilding if necessary) with that artistic license.  you definitely want to change some things in the story because if it's beat-for-beat the plot of ATLA, even with the new characters, it could get boring knowing exactly what comes next!  my two cents!

Other than hairstyles, the only actual changes to character design will be blue-gray eyes for Clef, Lantis, and Lafarga and dark honey-brown eyes for Ferio, so their eye colors are similar to MKR canon, but not actually of a color unique to a nation their AtLA role is fighting against.

With regards to the plot, there are definitely going to be differences. For one thing, Fuu strikes me as being much more likely to take a more direct route to the North Pole than Aang did.

[Mokonalord]

Ascot as Toph == ALL THE APPROVAL! Just imagining him learning earthbending from badgermoles... *fanflails happily* And then I'm re-imagining the whole fight between Katara and Toph in "The Chase" but with Umi and Ascot. Like, Ascot only seeing to him and his pet/s needs (because come on, in any universe, Ascot's got to have some sort of animal friends), Umi ticked off by him not caring about the rest of them, them both getting increasingly stressed by the unknown enemy after them until Ascot says something that Umi just can't let go and then "Apologize!" "Why do I have to apologize, Sugar Queen?" "SUGAR QUEEN?!" ... Eventually culminating with her slapping him and him leaving because to hell with that.
Later, when they make up, she gives him that smile of hers, and Ascot's just like, 'Oh, crap, puberty, when do you get here?' *more fanflails over OTP*

Also, one suggestion cause I hadn't seen anything for her yet: Caldina as June.

[Somariel]

Ascot as Toph == ALL THE APPROVAL!

When I was considering who to slot into each role, that just really seemed to fit.

Just imagining him learning earthbending from badgermoles... *fanflails happily*

Not just learning earthbending from them, but actually being raised by them for about five years. I was unable to see Ascot fitting the "rebellious noble child" role Toph has, so I decided to give him a backstory somewhat similar to his MKR one, but adapted to fit the AtLA world. So in the fic, the Fire Nation destroyed his village when he was eight. He only survived because he was off with the badgermoles (Or at least, that's what he thinks. He came back from their tunnels to find the village in flames and no one else in sight and assumed he was the only survivor.), so, since he had always gotten along with animals better than people anyway, he just started living with them. When he needed stuff he couldn't find in the wild (like new clothes), he'd either steal it from other villages or farms in the area (when he was still to young to be taken seriously as a good earthbender and was also at risk of someone trying to adopt him because of his youth) or, once he was somewhat older, finding someone who was willing to give him what he needed in exchange for him helping them out somehow (earthbending, gathering wild herbs, etc.) or competing in the Earth Rumbles and using the prize money to pay for what he needs.

And then I'm re-imagining the whole fight between Katara and Toph in "The Chase" but with Umi and Ascot. Like, Ascot only seeing to him and his pet/s needs (because come on, in any universe, Ascot's got to have some sort of animal friends), Umi ticked off by him not caring about the rest of them, them both getting increasingly stressed by the unknown enemy after them until Ascot says something that Umi just can't let go and then "Apologize!" "Why do I have to apologize, Sugar Queen?" "SUGAR QUEEN?!" ... Eventually culminating with her slapping him and him leaving because to hell with that.
Later, when they make up, she gives him that smile of hers, and Ascot's just like, 'Oh, crap, puberty, when do you get here?' *more fanflails over OTP*

Those are some wonderful images. Do you mind if I actually use some of that in the fic?

Also, one suggestion cause I hadn't seen anything for her yet: Caldina as June.

I honestly don't know if June's role is going to appear in the fic, but if it does, Caldina does seem like a good fit for it. And actually, now that you've brought up the idea of her in that role, I have this image of Bounty Hunter Caldina being one of the few people (possibly the only person) who knows that Ascot is living with the badgermoles (maybe he helped her out one time when she ended up chasing her quarry into the badgermoles' tunnels?) and whenever she's in the area, she stops by the tunnels just to check on how he's doing and see if he needs anything.

And then she stops by the tunnels sometime after Ascot leaves with Team Avatar and freaks out because not only is he not there, none of his stuff is there. So she frantically searches his living space for anything whatsoever that might either explain his disappearance or let her track him and finds something with his scent on it, then uses her shirshu to track him down, hellbent on rescuing her 'little brother' from whoever forced him to leave his home and his friends, only to end up getting damn near flattened by the rest of Team Avatar when she comes charging into their camp because, after all, the last time the rest of them saw her, she was hunting them. And then Ascot recognizes her and gets the others to stop attacking and he assures her that he's really fine, he joined Team Avatar completely voluntarily, etc, etc. So she apologizes to rest of Team Avatar and they apologize to her and from then on, although she doesn't actually go out of her way to help them, she refuses to do anything that might bring them harm. And if the whole 'the Avatar disappears right before Sozin's Comet' thing happens in the fic, she helps them readily, simply because it's Ascot asking her.