They had two months of warning between the coup and the invasion to shuffle their best troops around. Elite nonbenders should have been a no-brainer. I’m betting they were closer to hand than the Dai Li.
Dude Azula said that she brought the Dai Li with her when they left Ba Sing Se. I seriously doubt anyone would be closer to the capital than the princess’s personal body guards
Also bringing in the archers would have been tactically stupid. The royal family’s entire plan relied on secrecy. If Team Avatar’s forces even caught a hint that they were expected, then the invasion would have been called off
Trying to summon their elite archers to the capital right around the time of the invasion could have alerted their enemies, and that’s not a risk that any decent commander would want to try
Also they literally won lol. The moment the eclipse ended, it was over. Having elite archers in the battle would have been redundant and pointless.
They needed to get the rebels into the city so they could surround them with war balloons. How would archers have helped their plan?
Yes, and wherever the Yuyan were, it was probably closer to Fire Nation than Ba Sing Se was. Lots of time to get them into position.
If the royal family assumed their enemies thought it was a secret, they’d have had to be as dumb as the Gaang not figuring out that it wasn’t. The guy who told Azula about the invasion escaped with the Gaang, and on top of that Katara brought the EK’s war plan complete with exact date on it straight to a disguised Azula just before figuring her out. Any reasonable commander would assume their enemy knows secrecy has been compromised.
Having the archers would be a basic common sense response to not being able to bend. Killing more enemies and losing fewer allies is always good. Also, the low ranking soldiers weren’t in on the plans, they didn’t even know firebending was going to go down, and were genuinely trying to fight them back.
They figure out that they were expected part way through the invasion when they still have time to retreat and opt to press on regardless. The eclipse advantage is not replaceable. They would have gone for it anyway.
And that proves they’re idiots, because they didn’t figure out that the FN would obviously know just from Katara had in her hands when Azula captured her. From the FN’s point of view, it would be absolutely unreasonable to assume the invaders still expect secrecy. Are you too dense to see that?
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u/YourMuppetMethDealer 13d ago edited 13d ago
It also wasn’t tactical to have all of their most powerful benders not limited by the eclipse act as glorified body guards
But I do need to point out that the archers are likely still in the earth kingdom and weren’t anywhere near the capital