I really should stop getting books about mental illness from the library

[terajk]

Book About Mental Illness in the Family that I Forced Myself To Read: "Siblings of people with mental illness respond in one of three ways..."

Zuko: "Nope, I don't think so, WHY AM I SUCH A FAILURE?"

Me: *stops reading book and takes it back to the library*


(I'll put up with an awful book in the name of research. An unhelpful book is another matter altogether).

Comments

[lizbee]

Yyyyeah, that doesn't work in our family. Granted, we all have our own problems, so I guess we sometimes swap hats.

And I don't see that working for Zuko, either. The Custodian role to an extent, but ... yeah.

[terajk]

Granted, we all have our own problems, so I guess we sometimes swap hats.

Yeah. Although I have no siblings, I imagine there are more possibilities than these three. neither my mother nor I are neurotypical, either.

And I don't see that working for Zuko, either.

Nope. In the book's defense, I don't think there are many self-help books called So You Have to Run a Country and Your Dad is in Prison and Your Mom is in Exile and Your Sister Could Just Kill You and Take Your Job.

The one thing that was really helpful in that book was when it said that sometimes there's a shift in how sibling rivalry works--so that, for instance, a sibling who is typical might think they can't compete with their sibling anymore. (Hey, I'm an only child--just the person you want writing a Very Complicated Sibling Relationship ;-)). Which I could see happening, although Azula would still compete with him as much as she ever did--and Zuko mostly related to her as a competitor anyway, so he may not know of any other options.

It's actually really hard for me to know how Zuko feels about Azula's mental illness anyway, because they all bleed into other things he has to deal with/issues he already had. The very first thing I got from Zuko was: "I am supposed to be the failure. Why can I do all these things my sister can't do?" (He may have been overstating the case, by the way). "WHY AM I RUNNING A COUNTRY UNCLE YOU SUCK I WANT MY BOAT BACK!"

(Which reminds me that I...sort of want a story or series of stories where Zuko slowly becomes disillusioned with Iroh. Not because Iroh is a bad guy, but because Iroh would really not be able to guide him here).

Some of Zuko's other feelings (so far) are: "My dad would send Azula away to prison and I don't want to be like my dad. Plus it will be weird if I start putting people in prison for war crimes, since I committed several. And Azula is the only person who knows what growing up with Dad was like; also, yes she is scary and my new friends are nice but it is REALLY WEIRD interacting with them and I know how to talk to my sister. Except when she doesn't talk like she used to. "

He would probably ask Katara to heal her, which means I have to come up with a reason why she can't. (Worlds where magical healing exists don't mix well with my narrative kinks. Dammit).

[lizbee]

Late comment is late!

In the book's defense, I don't think there are many self-help books called So You Have to Run a Country and Your Dad is in Prison and Your Mom is in Exile and Your Sister Could Just Kill You and Take Your Job.

This seems like a strange gap in the market. Surely that kind of problem is universal?

(Which reminds me that I...sort of want a story or series of stories where Zuko slowly becomes disillusioned with Iroh. Not because Iroh is a bad guy, but because Iroh would really not be able to guide him here).

Yeah. It would be hard to do, because Iroh genuinely thinks he's doing the right thing most of the time, but he still makes mistakes. My friend branwyn started talking about fic where Iroh takes care of Azula, but then she went off and turned it into a pro novel. Which is nice, and the draft is really good so far, and I guess her agent prefers that she's not writing fic, but I feel compelled to pout nonetheless.

He would probably ask Katara to heal her, which means I have to come up with a reason why she can't. (Worlds where magical healing exists don't mix well with my narrative kinks. Dammit).

That was another reason I decided to go with psychological trauma as the underlying cause of Azula's breakdown, rather than a biological issue. Then I just get to think cheerful thoughts like how fine-tuned lightning bending and electro-shock therapy mesh together.