two ➢ voice

[restoringhonor]

[Filtered from Sveta & Howie]

Before I came here, the Avatar - my friend - was faced with the problem of wanting a nonviolent solution to a violent conflict. He was raised to believe that all life was sacred, and wanted to find another way to stop it, even though ending the threat permanently would restore peace and end a war that had.

I thought he was being naive. That violence was the only way to stop what was happening. But he found a solution that didn't end in murder while still eliminating the threat.

Obviously I don't know Howie or Sveta as well as I know my friend. But maybe that can work here, too.

... Does anyone need any assistance with what's going on?

[Private to Iroh]

Are you alright?

Comments

voice

[lifeafterhope.livejournal.com]

I never encouraged anyone to starve the soldiers or steal everything they owned and drive them to desperation, then refuse them all aid.

But there is no such thing as a war without death.

voice

[restoringhonor]

No. But that doesn't mean you can't fight with honor and justice.

Re: voice

[lifeafterhope.livejournal.com]

Honor is a luxury for the noble and the rich.

I have never wanted anything more or less than justice for my people.

voice

[restoringhonor]

That's not true. Honor isn't something you're just handed because of your social status. It's something you need to fight for, and earn.

Re: voice

[lifeafterhope.livejournal.com]

[She laughs cynically.]

Given the chance between honor and victory, knowing that defeat would mean children starved to death, women mauled and eaten by monsters, men cut down by their own king's men... what would you choose?

And don't tell me both. There's no time to fight for anything but life.

voice

[restoringhonor]

I'd rather do the honorable thing. At least I've set an example for my people, and died doing the right thing.

Re: voice

[lifeafterhope.livejournal.com]

I'm sure they'd treasure it for the next few hours as they all died in agony.

voice

[restoringhonor]

At least I'd have died doing the right thing.

Re: voice

[lifeafterhope.livejournal.com]

Your right thing is betraying your people to their deaths for your own selfishness.

Not entirely unexpected, coming from a Warden.

voice

[restoringhonor]

I fought with honor and we won. Choosing that over absolute victory freed my people from a cycle of oppression and violence that started a hundred years ago. Slaughtering our enemies would have done nothing but continue a pointless war that almost destroyed our world.

voice

[lifeafterhope.livejournal.com]

Count yourself lucky that you had a choice at all.

voice

[restoringhonor]

I do.

voice

[lifeafterhope.livejournal.com]

Not enough that you don't seek to blame me in any way you can for doing what I could for my own land.

voice

[restoringhonor]

I don't blame you. I just don't agree with you.

Re: voice

[lifeafterhope.livejournal.com]

And I don't agree with you. My brothers and sisters will always be more important to me than anyone's honor. Nothing will change that - not death, not this prison - nothing.

voice

[restoringhonor]

None of us are asking you to stop caring about your brothers and sisters.

voice

[lifeafterhope.livejournal.com]

You are by suggesting I should have "died with honor" rather than fought without caring about it - and left them to die in the dirt by doing it.

You all are every time you sneer at me for being an Inmate and tell me that I'm broken, that I need to be healed of taking any chance I could to free them from their suffering.

voice

[restoringhonor]

Who's been telling you that?

voice

[lifeafterhope.livejournal.com]

Pick a warden. You. Howie. Cage. Fordring.

None of you want to believe that any Inmate could have lived through anything worse than you and done what was right. You'd rather blindly trust the Admiral and work to break us down to suit you better. After all, he's paying you.

voice

[restoringhonor]

You might not be as bad as some of the other people here, but that doesn't mean everything you did was right. Believe me, I get how hard that is to hear, and it's not something you can accept over night, but it's true.

voice

[lifeafterhope.livejournal.com]

It doesn't mean anything I did was wrong. Look at Sveta. She cursed a city full of innocents to die and came here as a warden - and now she's betrayed the Light and is doing it again, to people she's meant to protect.

The Admiral's word means nothing.

voice

[restoringhonor]

Then why are any of us here?

voice

[lifeafterhope.livejournal.com]

You, because you've sold yourself for the privilege. Me - because the world loves its jokes.

voice

[restoringhonor]

Some joke.

voice

[lifeafterhope.livejournal.com]

As cruel as the rest of them.