SDK Chapter 18 Historical Notes: The Death of Prince Sado

I have taken many liberties with the excerpt in Chapter 18 of Shadow of the Dragon King, both for space and for relevance to the story. Since I don't want to mislead anyone on the historical record, though, here is a full translation of the scene(s) I used:

( Full translation with notes )

Background Notes on Crown Prince Sado and His Son Jeongjo

There's always a sense of completeness and a sense of strangeness when things come back to the beginning, right where they were supposed to end up in the first place. There's fulfillment, sure, but at the same time it's different from what you imagined, and the familiar is no longer familiar.

( On the tragedy of Sado and the triumph of his son )

Zuko's story as I depict it in Shadow is a composite of Sado's and Jeongjo's stories--both the disgraced prince and the resilient boy, and ultimately the strong king who overcame a legacy of violence and trauma to create his own legacy of forgiveness and compassion. Maybe it's naive of me, a political fairy tale, but I've never been averse to creating my own comfort when I need it. Besides, Jeongjo the Twenty-Second King of Choson, Lee San the son of a murdered father and grandson of his father's killer, already showed us that it's possible. He showed it in the most eloquent way possible, through the course of his life as both a man and a king.

Unreliable Narrator and 1st-Person PoV: Azula's Scene from SDK Ch. 18

( Notes on point of view and rewriting )

I'm still somewhat partial to the original version because I wanted to show that even monsters have motivation beyond "I want to make the hero's life miserable," but I think the final cut fits better into the story. For posterity, here is the original:

( Original Azula scene )