An awesome Avatar fic, for sure. Very original too, imo. A bit heavy on the harem aspect but I can overlook that. For some that's probably a plus.
Probably my favorite aspect of this story has to be the kingdom-building elements as Zuko takes the reins of the newly minted Phoenix Empire. The story follows him as he travels across the world and starts incorporating different tribes, benders and teachings into his nation. So you'll be seeing earth benders, water benders and more. It's a bending nation, not limited to just one singular element, with emphasis on a cult of personality centered around Emperor Zuko.
It also is not at all shy about completely smashing the script in terms of the show's plotline. For some who hold the plot up as a sacred gospel, this could be a negative. Personally I like the direction its going. Emperor Zuko has even started propagating/indoctrinating that the Avatar and its "cycle" is a negative thing, that its keeping them from uniting together by forcing each bending nation to be separated.
There is no real conflict, at least thus far, in terms of martial threats. Zuko is OP and he trains his girls to be equally OP in their respective fields. So this isn't really much of a "action" fic and more focus on world and kingdom building.
I haven't seen Avatar in several years and my memory of it is foggy, yet I was able to keep up and follow this story well enough. I had to perform a few google searches to get appearances but otherwise the story is written and self-contained well enough that even someone with no Avatar knowledge could likely still follow it and enjoy it for what it is.
Also, the chapters are quite lengthy. Which is just awesome. You don't read the chapter in a few sneezes then get left with cliffhangers on every update. There's actual meat to each one and you're not left feeling like you blinked and missed something. It's great.
Honestly the only thing I can complain about, mildly, is pretty subjective. I think it has gone a bit far in adding to the harem.
Wasn't bad at first but near the end of the first volume some of the additions do feel kinda arbitrary to me and don't carry the same emotional or time investment building the individual character like the original girls did, and as a result does cause the others to fade in the background a bit.
It comes down to personal tastes I guess. If you want a bloodpumping action-adventure with lots of fighting and vigorous training montages with overcoming limits and surpassing challenges... not much of that here. If you like OP MCs that aren't psychopathic sociopaths, but still hold lofty ambition and drive with a focus on kingdom and world building elements and touch of lemon on the side... well, here you go.
The description tags him as a selfish MC but, personally, I think that's a tad misleading. Maybe my standards are just different due to all the Chinese cultivation novels I've read but this MC isn't really what I'd call selfish. He seems pretty benevolent in regards to wanting to uplift his nation. Insofar that a monarch can be without being unreasonably naive or passive, anyway. Though maybe I'm just a victim of his indoctrination. All Hail Lelouch -- I mean all Hail Emperor Zuko!
