The World Without the War

The World without the War is an Alternate Universe Fic by S-Michael set in a version of the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe where the century-long war never happened. Avatar Aang died sixteen years ago, meaning that the next Avatar will be (1) a waterbender, and (2) female. The Water Tribes do not have the best track record where it comes to women's lib, so Azula is sent to remind them not to try anything. Meanwhile, Toph is plotting to overthrow the Earth Kingdom and Zhou is planning...something...

Tropes used in The World Without the War include:

• Action Girl: Well, duh. Aside from canon, there's four female OCs to date (of various alignments) who are all very Badass.
• Affably Evil: Koh.
• Allohistorical Allusion: They sure do seem to readily scoff at the idea that the Fire Nation would or could (depending on where one lives) invade the Earth Kingdom.
• A Match Made in Stockholm: Amy and Tsu hook up. Lampshaded:

Tsubasa: "You've got some sort of late-onset Stockholm Syndrome or something?"

• Anti-Hero: Sure, Azula's a good guy, but that doesn't make her nice.
• Anti-Villain: Tsubasa becomes one when she is revealed to be The Mole
• Badass: Ironically, the only person in the main cast to have not have an opportunity to prove their badassitude (yet) is Amadahy--you know, the Avatar?
• Big Bad: Zhou. Hey, don't go...
• Big Bad Wannabe: OC Doro Kim has some master plan which others repeatedly state could never possibly work, though his incompetence is what makes him dangerous:

"The point is, it's only a matter of time until Dodo Head's plan crashes down around his ears. Which only makes it more dangerous from the perspective of Team Azula," Usani said. "You see, when the wheels fall off, the first casualty is going to be Sokka."

• Butt Monkey: No one likes the Northern Water Tribe. Not even the Southern Water Tribe. Also, Doro Kim gets zero respect--even Long Feng thinks he's an idiot. Oh, and he has an in-universe detractor nickname (see above). Yeah.
• Chekhov's Gun: A couple of the info dumps have turned out to have contained information useful to the story later. (Some planned, some not.)
• Chekhov's Gunman: On a date with Sokka, Azula mentions that her father got banished from the Fire Nation for attempting a coup. Guess who shows up in the very next chapter?
• Combat Pragmatist: Would Azula snipe airbenders with lightning before they've gotten close enough to counter-attack? Would Sokka hit Ozai in the temple with his boomerang while he was distracted giving a villainous speech to Azula? The answer to both questions is yes.
• Daddy's Little Villain: Tsubasa, though it would be better to say Mommy's little villain. Also, to a lesser extent, Hahn.
• The Dark Arts: There's a certain airbending discipline called voidbending and/or domination-airbending which is specifically called "a dark side to our art", but doesn't seem so bad...until later...
• Darker and Edgier: While the world of The World is no doubt a better place than canon, we see a darker side of it--bigotry, drug lords, Eldritch Abominations, etc. Also, people sure do die a lot. (Mostly Mooks, but still.)
• Did We Just Have Tea With Koh?
• Doorstopper: Eighty Two thousand words and counting! Is this a fanfic or a novel?
• The Dragon: Tsubasa was this to Kazane before her Heel Face Turn.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Kasha is introduced in chapter 2, but doesn't become important until chapter 4.
• The End of the World as We Know It: This is what will happen if the Phoenix escapes.
• Expy: Kasha is Victor Cachat, right down to identically-pronounced names. Usani is a gender flipped Kevin Usher.
• For Want of a Nail: Instead of wreaking Sozin's throneroom when he discovers the Earth Kingdom colony, Avatar Roku has a nice, civilized debate about it.
• Good Is Not Nice: Aside from Azula being one of the good guys in this universe, there's Mai, and Tsubasa before she's revealed to be The Mole and after her Heel Face Turn, not to mention Kasha and Usani.
• The Gump: Ilmarinen is somehow tied to the White Lotuses, possibly even responsible for their existence. Also, Wakaun is Hahn's father.
• Hannibal Lecture: Azula's Hannibal Lecture to Kazane takes up half a chapter, all told. And it's awesome.
• Heel Face Turn: Tsubasa, after her Heel Realization.
• Heel Realization: Tsubasa, after realizing that her precious voidbending was forbidden for a reason.
• Immortality: Ilmarinen is more-or-less type one, but it's temporary, lasting for "only" a thousand years, and then he dies for real...and it's been just about a thousand years. He's grooming Piandao to take his place.
• Fundamentally Female Cast: Not in a general sense, but the main characters are Azula, Katara, Sokka, Ty Lee, Mai, and two female OCs.
• Info Dump: S-Michael is fond of this.
• In Spite of a Nail: The point of divergence with canon is about a hundred and thirty-odd years ago, and yet all the canon characters exist (even Aang, though he's dead now). And Ozai is still evil.
• Jerkass: Tsubasa--impressive, considering that she's sharing a cast with Mai and Azula.
• Jerkass Facade: Subverted with Tsubasa. It turns out that under the facade is another jerk.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Tsubasa, again.
• Karma Houdini: Wakaun and later Kazane both escape being punished for their crimes, in spite of the fact that they were responsible for the kidnapping and attempted murder of Sokka and the Avatar, respectively.
• Lampshade Hanging
• Living MacGuffin: The Avatar for the first few archs, Ilmarinen for the latest, the latter also being a MacGuffin Boy.
• Loads and Loads of Characters: Eight different named OCs at this point, and most of the major canon characters make an appearance.
• MacGuffin Girl: Actually, Ilmarinen is male, and fully aware of his not-entirely-human status. Also borders on Living MacGuffin.
• Meaningful Name: Kasha and Usani are named for Victor Cachat and Kevin Usher, respectively (and Doro Kim is a vaguely Asian-ish take on their first villain, a fellow named Durkheim), Tsubasa means "wings," Wakaun means "serpent," Amadahy means "forest water", and Kazane means "sound of wind." At least, according to babynames.com. Also, Ilmarinen is an Ultimate Blacksmith out of Finnish legend.
• Memetic Badass: There are Toph Facts in universe here.
• The Mole: Tsubasa.
• Omake: Every so often there will be a chibi parody of what has happened thus far.
• The One Guy: Sokka.
• Out-Gambitted: Doro Kim is one of Long Feng's lackeys, and Azula is in town. What did you think was going to happen?
• Plot Twist: There's more blanked-out areas on this page than a transcript from the Reagan administration.
• The President's Daughter: Sokka takes a turn as this right after he and Azula hook up.
• Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Ilmarinen is one thousand years old.
• La Résistance: Toph's army of rebels and bandits.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Airbenders are peaceful vegetarians? Nobody told Tsubasa!
• Running Gag: In the Omake, Ty Lee being accused of being a lesbian, and an obvious one, at that.
  • Any time someone says "X couldn't possibly happen" (and it didn't happen in canon), it's about to happen!
• Schedule Slip: S-Michael managed to avoid it until the story went into have gone into hiatus. It appears to be back.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Phoenix. It's not really "evil", being a mindless beast, but if it is allowed to be reborn in the world, kiss civilization goodbye.
• Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: The Phoenix is inside Ilmarinen.
• Ship Tease: Toph/Teo. In the Omake, Katara/Ty Lee.
• Shout-Out: Several, including one to House of Leaves, a few to the bible The Bible (specifically Behemoth, Leviathan, and Ziz), and about half a dozen to the Cthulhu Mythos, of all things - hopefully, this isn't Foreshadowing.
• Sliding Scale of Villain Threat: Wakaun wanted to kill Sokka (Doro Kim wanted to start a war, but whatever), Kazane wanted to kill the Avatar, Zhou wanted to become immortal (and, presumably, take over the world).
  • Interestingly, S-Michael's villains' positions on the Sliding Scale of Villain Effectiveness and the Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness appear to be roughly inversely related.
• Take That Me: Much of the omake. And a rather subtler example:

Azula: "These leather pants are chafing me."

• Tall, Dark and Snarky: Tsubasa, of course.
• Unholy Holy Sword: Airbending, of all things! Well, to be more precise, certain airbenders can (temporarily) increase their power by sucking out a person or animal's soul! The truly scary thing is, they don't even know that they're doing it.
• Worf Had the Flu: The freaking Avatar was the next best thing to useless in the biggest fight scene to date because she'd just been held captive and immobile for several days and could barely stand. And the reason Ozai was defeated by Sokka, of all people? A lucky-shot sucker blow to the temple with his boomerang while he was distracted giving a villain-like speech.
• World Building: The whole point of the exercise is to explore the Avatar universe in greater detail...giving us things like airbender supremacists, slavers, criminal undergrounds, even Eldritch Abominations!
• Yuri Fan: There's some evidence that author S-Michael is one of these.