#and to add onto it azula was the only one that knew about whatever zhao and lu ten had going on

[mugentakeda]

zhao and lu ten having a past is just an idea i stole from a fic i vaguely remember where jeong jeong taught them both side by side. heres how their storyline goes but kinda simplified

lu ten joins jeong jeongs advanced bending classes and meets zhao > zhao immediately hates lu ten for being quite a few years younger than him but still at the same level as he is > they have a rivalry that ends up turning into a very strange friendship (???) as they spend more time together > zhao realizes he can use their friendship as means to worm his way into favor with the royal family. and also just get nice stuff > lu ten knows zhao is using him and the royal familys money but just lets him and even feeds into it because he has no other friends/peers beyond his family members and has bad isolation problems. thinks giving zhao what he wants will keep him around (not realizing zhao has greed that cant ever be satisfied lol) > they end up becoming close enough (nudge nudge) that lu ten thinks zhao is starting to keep his company because he genuinely cares. and in a weird way zhao does but he doesnt actually WANT to lol so whatever they have going on is pretty off and on due to zhao reminding himself to keep his distance > ozai realizes that zhao is an ambitious man that doesnt mind abandoning morals to get what he wants so he approaches zhao and introduces him to his designs for the throne > zhao agrees, and since he agreed to joining ozais secret campaign he has this weird feeling of guilt combined with his selfish greed for fame and reward. these feelings end up resulting in very ugly behavior towards lu ten. like hes trying to squash any and all positive feelings between himself and lu ten to make the inevitable betrayal hurt less. and when i say ugly behavior i mean screaming matches and very violent sparring > lu ten holds off on joining irohs siege for a good year and a half (and thats its own piece of au lore i made up lol). azulon and ozais pressuring is annoying but not enough to get lu ten to budge. ozai tells zhao in secret that in order for his plans to work lu ten meeds to be at ba sing se. zhao tries to convince him to change his mind and lu ten finally gives and announces he'll be joining his father > zhao and lu ten dont have contact at all in between that and lu tens departure. lu ten is weirded out by that because zhaos work has never before prevented him from showing up at the palace to harass him before but hes too busy to look into it > lu ten heads to ba sing se. Shit Occurs between him and iroh and it ends up with lu ten right outside the wall. zhao (who snuck to the earth kingdom to watch and wait until the right opportunity to attack lu ten when hes alone) ends up showing his face > zhao gives lu ten this dramatic speech about ozais plans and this that and the third and him betraying lu ten for x y and z reasons. they fight > the fight is more of a game of chicken then how their past violent spars have gone which lu ten picks up on but zhao doesnt let lu ten escape from the fight. thats because zhao isnt trying to kill lu ten himself - hes trying to lure lu ten in a trap set by none other than the dai li, because ozai has been in kahoots with long feng (kill my brothers son for me and ill get my brother off your city for you) > the trap ends up working and zhao leaves lu ten to his fate with the dai li earthbenders and heads straight for the si wong desert to find wong shi tongs library (until ozai has secured the throne and he can return).

in the context of the dai li lu ten au, long fengs men beat the living hell out of lu ten but long feng ends up deciding to keep him alive for insurance (to use as a hostage in case ozais plan that he told long feng about doesnt work). when what ozai told long feng ends up being true and irohs army retreats, he still has lu ten and isnt sure what to really do with him. so thats how lu ten ends up becoming the first of many test subjects that will become The Dai Li Brainwash Special (tm).

in the context of just regular degular canon lu ten just fucking dies alone and business proceeds as usual. obviously zhao and lu ten never confront each other again even in aus where he survives because zhao ends up fucking dying himself in the north pole so yeah.

as for how all that effects zuko and zhao, zhao spends a long time going back and forth over regret and feeling alone because despite his toxicity lu ten decided to ignore it and try to understand zhao anyway (even if that got nowhere basically) and nobody else is dumb enough to throw a guy like zhao a bone in terms of companionship. he stomps it down because despite those feelings he would still do it again because he wouldnt give up his dreams and accomplishments for anything and wants to continue gaining. the short lived satisfaction he got from besting lu ten in their final confrontation is sparked again when he watches ozai and zukos agni kai.

lu ten and zhao had pretty unbalanced aspects to their relationship despite that never being really realized by either of them. first of all their was the status difference, the age difference, zhaos general personality that already sucked from the get-go but took turns for the absolute worst after he decided to join ozai, etc etc. but despite that, zhao never really felt the need to actually BEST lu ten in fights??? their rivalry era was shortlived. but the fact that their relationship ended in betrayal and death made zhao believe that if he did try to keep lu ten under his thumb then things wouldve worked out more favorably, so he tries that approach with zuko by constantly tormenting and harassing him and shit. he doesnt actually see anything of lu ten in zuko because lu ten was a prodigy on top of being a willful traitor to the fire nation (which is another au lore thing thats its own thing lol), and to zhao, zuko is a naive and weak failure thats cursed to forever be used by his betters despite his blind loyalty to ozai. he just seeks to stomp out all of his remaining sympathy and humanity and for short lived justification for what he did so he can move on with his sorry life by being a huge creep to zuko.

i keep saying illmake more zhao lu ten content but never do