If I was an Evil Overlord: Avatar Edition
Dec. 2nd, 2007 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccastareyesSo, it's time for everyone's favorite segment, What Would Becky Do (If She Was Firelord Ozai).
Okay, so the good:
1. I have lots of prisoners from the Earth Kingdom and Southern Water Tribe. Some of whom the Avatar and his friends like, and several family members. They also appear to be the last vestiges of the resistance. (Except maybe the Northern Water Tribe).
2. My troops now know the Avatar is alive. While this increases the number of false positives in their reports, it decreases the number of false negatives.
3. Sozin's comet is coming soon. After that, things don't matter. So, I essentially need to fight a defensive war -- time is on my side.
The bad:
1. The Avatar and his friends escaped.
2. Zuko is going to join them.
3. I have no idea where Iroh is.
So, here's what I do. The Avatar is a softie -- and, by that, I mean that he's not a complete sociopath (like I seem to be). So, I go for the whole public/semi-public execution thing -- and make sure to do it one at a time, and in a way that is painful enough that there's not only death, but pain (but not gross enough that my people start wondering if I'm completely mental). Torture is optional and depends on my subjects tolerance -- I think it's pretty high. Anyway, I'm not after information -- I want to goad the Avatar into either acting hastily or surrendering.
Also, I should pull back my armies and go to ground -- the Avatar has to act before Sozin's comet comes back, so really, I only need to defend against that. No sense going to the victory party yet -- we can have a big post comet celebration next year, and I can get down with my bad self and go back to only worrying about coups, revolts and Azula poisoning my dinner.
That's the thing -- my lose condition is if the Avatar takes enough time to find out a way around my defenses, but not enough that he doesn't have time to act that out. I also have to get the intelligence I need -- that is what allowed me to win last time. So, that means keeping an eye on things and trying to figure out his plan again, while making it as hard as I can for him to come up with a plan. So, send out the spies looking for things.
(Keeping at least a few known revolutionaries free helps with knowing what to target -- and it lets me round them up when I need to boost morale.)
And find Zuko. I probably can't get away with doing unpleasant things to Mai to compel Zuko, but I can tell her that he's going to help his uncle and the Avatar overthrow the Firelord, and ask that she stay in the castle 'for her own safety' -- read: hostage. While setting her against Zuko would be full of mindfucky goodness, teenagers are notorious for doing things in the name of 'love' and 'friendship' over 'patriotism' and 'things that won't get me executed unpleasantly'. (Azula is safe -- the only reason she'd back a treasonous Zuko is if she thought it'd be better for her to let him kill me and then kill him for the throne. Since I'm already keeping an eye on her in case she tries anything, I probably don't need to take extra precautions.
Also, find Iroh. This is harder, besides getting some informants in tea shops -- Iroh is a clever tricky bastard, and I should have killed/crippled him when I had the chance. The best thing I can do is keep up a strong propaganda campaign convincing people that Zuko and Iroh are horrible people.
And for What Would Becky Do (If She Was Zuko) -- I sure as hell wouldn't have told my evil dad that I was gonna go free my uncle and join his enemies. I'd get more lead time that way.
It scares me that I can do that.
Okay, so the good:
1. I have lots of prisoners from the Earth Kingdom and Southern Water Tribe. Some of whom the Avatar and his friends like, and several family members. They also appear to be the last vestiges of the resistance. (Except maybe the Northern Water Tribe).
2. My troops now know the Avatar is alive. While this increases the number of false positives in their reports, it decreases the number of false negatives.
3. Sozin's comet is coming soon. After that, things don't matter. So, I essentially need to fight a defensive war -- time is on my side.
The bad:
1. The Avatar and his friends escaped.
2. Zuko is going to join them.
3. I have no idea where Iroh is.
So, here's what I do. The Avatar is a softie -- and, by that, I mean that he's not a complete sociopath (like I seem to be). So, I go for the whole public/semi-public execution thing -- and make sure to do it one at a time, and in a way that is painful enough that there's not only death, but pain (but not gross enough that my people start wondering if I'm completely mental). Torture is optional and depends on my subjects tolerance -- I think it's pretty high. Anyway, I'm not after information -- I want to goad the Avatar into either acting hastily or surrendering.
Also, I should pull back my armies and go to ground -- the Avatar has to act before Sozin's comet comes back, so really, I only need to defend against that. No sense going to the victory party yet -- we can have a big post comet celebration next year, and I can get down with my bad self and go back to only worrying about coups, revolts and Azula poisoning my dinner.
That's the thing -- my lose condition is if the Avatar takes enough time to find out a way around my defenses, but not enough that he doesn't have time to act that out. I also have to get the intelligence I need -- that is what allowed me to win last time. So, that means keeping an eye on things and trying to figure out his plan again, while making it as hard as I can for him to come up with a plan. So, send out the spies looking for things.
(Keeping at least a few known revolutionaries free helps with knowing what to target -- and it lets me round them up when I need to boost morale.)
And find Zuko. I probably can't get away with doing unpleasant things to Mai to compel Zuko, but I can tell her that he's going to help his uncle and the Avatar overthrow the Firelord, and ask that she stay in the castle 'for her own safety' -- read: hostage. While setting her against Zuko would be full of mindfucky goodness, teenagers are notorious for doing things in the name of 'love' and 'friendship' over 'patriotism' and 'things that won't get me executed unpleasantly'. (Azula is safe -- the only reason she'd back a treasonous Zuko is if she thought it'd be better for her to let him kill me and then kill him for the throne. Since I'm already keeping an eye on her in case she tries anything, I probably don't need to take extra precautions.
Also, find Iroh. This is harder, besides getting some informants in tea shops -- Iroh is a clever tricky bastard, and I should have killed/crippled him when I had the chance. The best thing I can do is keep up a strong propaganda campaign convincing people that Zuko and Iroh are horrible people.
And for What Would Becky Do (If She Was Zuko) -- I sure as hell wouldn't have told my evil dad that I was gonna go free my uncle and join his enemies. I'd get more lead time that way.
It scares me that I can do that.
