Epilogue

This article is about the epilogue of The Shadow of Kyoshi. For other similar uses, see Epilogue.

"Some people in my country like to believe Avatar Yangchen watches over them. But you, Fire Lord. I can assure you that Avatar Kyoshi watches over you."

— Lao Ge offers a parting word to Zoryu after delivering Kyoshi's warning to him.

Template:Chapter infoboxThe epilogue is the closing section of The Shadow of Kyoshi.

Overview

Zoryu plans the future of his nation and receives a surprise visit from Lao Ge.

Synopsis

Inside a tower study in the Fire Nation Royal Palace, on an uncharacteristically cloudy night, Fire Lord Zoryu has dismissed Caoli, Chancellor Dairin's successor. Over the course of several meetings, the two have been crafting the official narrative for the recent turmoil in the Fire Nation, which Caoli proposed calling the Camellia-Peony War. Despite the fact the conflict between the Saowon and Keohso clans never erupted into open warfare, Zoryu approved of the name based on its poetic appeal.

Sitting amidst the artifacts of his predecessors, Zoryu ruminates on the message he received from Avatar Kyoshi that she had killed Yun. Knowing Kyoshi's inability to fabricate such a lie, Zoryu realizes that the false Avatar must truly be dead. In spite of his ruse with Yun's impostor, however, or the fact that the Saowon clan is now powerless to act against him given he has several of their members under house arrest, Zoryu grasps that his political struggles are not over, as the greed of the Fire Nation's prominent clans would drive them to incite conflict in the future against each other, just as Chaejin and Huazo had done.

Resolving to achieve his dream of a unified nation, one without the internal division of clans, their petty, destructive squabbles over honor, and where surplus resources could be given to those in need, Zoryu comes to realize he will have to fully change the power dynamics of the Fire Nation by bringing all the clans fully to heel under his rule. Though the process will likely take centuries, and multiple generations of Fire Lords, Zoryu knows his precedent of pacifying the Saowon will pave the way forward to his goal, taking solace in the notion of a future Fire Lord sitting on their throne with the realm in peace.

Shifting his focus to his more immediate problems, Zoryu begins to weigh the consequences of Kyoshi's demand that the Saowon be spared from execution. To Zoryu, maintaining the now dishonored clan is a burden; he doubts its members would accept being incorporated into the Fire Nation's military, and such a measure would require increased financial support from the throne. The Fire Lord ultimately opts for his initial, easier solution of culling the Saowon, the only choice without any personal cost to himself.

As Zoryu justifies how the nation will be rejuvenated by his actions, a thunderstorm develops outside, resulting in a sudden deluge of rain. In the face of such weather occurring after the Festival of Szeto, and the resulting bounty of natural resources it will help engender, Zoryu takes it as an auspicious sign of his reign to come. The young monarch is so lost in his reverie that he does not notice an old man on the tower window until several flashes of lightning reveal him crouching in the dark. While the startled Fire Lord falls out of his chair to get away from this intruder, the old man genially greets Zoryu, before questioning his identity given the rash of impostors he has heard about recently. Intimidated by the man's presence, Zoryu confirms who he is without resistance; the man in turn identifies himself by his monikers of Lao Ge and Tieguai. Lao Ge informs Zoryu that, while he usually acts in the role of an assassin, in this instance he is here to deliver a message for his friend, who Zoryu surmises is Kyoshi. The old man imparts that those in power like Zoryu are beholden to their commitments, and that they can always be reached. Having figured the Fire Lord might be tempted to commit and cover up his atrocities against the Saowon, Kyoshi sent Lao Ge as a reminder for Zoryu to be a benevolent ruler, a testament to her desire to preserve human life in the old man's view.

Offended that Kyoshi would implicitly threaten him in such a way, Zoryu tries to rise from his chair only for Lao Ge to send him flying back on it with a mere thrust of his finger to his chest. Momentarily dropping any facade of friendliness, Lao Ge delivers the other part of the message; that Kyoshi now knows she was wrong to ever deal in politics with Zoryu. The old man warns in final terms that Kyoshi is no diplomat, and that in the breakdown of diplomatic efforts, there is no greater force beyond her. With the message relayed, Lao Ge begins to leave the way he came, out the tower and down more than a hundred foot plunge; before he goes, and as a parting bit of wisdom to the Fire Lord, Lao Ge notes that while people in the Earth Kingdom pray for Avatar Yangchen to watch over them, he can assure Zoryu that Avatar Kyoshi will be there to watch over him. Feeling powerless, and in a fit of childish pique, Zoryu declares that Kyoshi cannot watch him forever, only for Lao Ge to laugh as loud as the thunderclaps outside.

Production notes

Series continuity

• Zoryu's generational plan to render the clans obsolete ultimately succeeds by the time Sozin ascends to the throne, as seen in the Core Book of Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game and throughout Avatar: The Last Airbender.
• Lao Ge laughs when Zoryu asserts Kyoshi cannot watch over him forever, the Fire Lord unaware that the assassin previously instructed Kyoshi in his method for immortality.

Character revelations

• Caoli succeeds Dairin as chancellor of the Fire Nation.

Goofs

• On page 340 of the hardcover and Kindle editions of The Shadow of Kyoshi, the word "to" is missing after "meant" in the following the text: "This is your reminder to be the benevolent Fire Lord she knows you were always meant be."