#fire hazards

[prodogg]

Royal drama queens

[phoenixyfriend]

One of my favorite groupchat gags is seeing a notification in the nsfw channel, taking a look, and being faced by the latest OSHA violation that @thisarenotarealblog has cursed us with.

Colloquially nsfw? No. Technically unsafe for work? Yeah. Very.

[ilikepjo24]

Sometimes I randomly think about how Zuko actually had the nerve to look Azula in the eye and go "No LigHtnInG tOdAY?"

Like, bitch? No lightning everyday? No bitches everyday? No therapy everyday? No functioning right eye everyday? No functioning right ear everyday? No symmetrical face everyday? No mother figure everyday? No father figure everyday? No will to live everyday? No honor everyday?

The most roastable bitch in the whole show actually tried to mock the girl that loves to cook him at any given chance and was genuinely surprised when it went south.

[waterfire1848]

Azula headcanon - The first time Azula hallucinated wasn’t during Sozin’s Comet. It was during that brief window when Zuko was reported dead.

[blinday]

Fire siblings reconciliation doodle. One day they'll get there.

[phoukanamedpookie]

Galaxy Brain take: Zuko projects his anger at Ursa onto Azula.

When I think about his resentment of her compared to the actual things she did to him that fall within the normal range of bratty little sister behavior, an Ursa-shaped hole popped up.

Then it suddenly made sense. If Zuko relates to Azula more as his surrogate mother than as his sister, his resentment toward her makes more sense.

Look at what Azula does. She comforts him when he doubts himself in "The Crossroads of Destiny." She freely offers him advice when he needs or demands it in "The Headband," "The Avatar and the Fire Lord," and "Nightmares and Daydreams." She seeks him out to take him away from the "depressing" house in "The Beach" and helped him work through his anger at himself too.

From the moment Zuko returned to the Fire Nation, Azula has, in her own words, been looking out for him. Zuko seems to lean on her a lot too, relying on her in ways he doesn't acknowledge and probably doesn't know.

Let me lay out a scenario.

After Ursa left, Zuko still needed a primary caregiver. Even then, Zuko was aware that seeking that from Ozai was a no-go. But who else does he have? It's just him and Azula. Azula, who's so smart and strong and capable and also invested in his well-being.

Yet there's still anger and sadness too big for him to understand and process at the time. He "can't" be mad at Mom for "abandoning" him. His loving mother is "good," and leaving him would be "bad." Azula is "supposed" to take care of him, but Azula fails at being Ursa. So for that, she's "bad," and everything that happens to him is all her fault.

Zuko doesn't relate to Azula the way a big brother does his little sister (see Sokka and Katara for a more typical example). He relates to Azula the way a disappointed child relates to the mother who failed him.

Before anyone gets it twisted, I'm not saying that Zuko deliberately put that expectation on Azula. When Ursa left, he was a child dealing with a situation and feelings too big and complex for him to understand. Putting everything he wanted from Ursa onto Azula is just how he, as a child, would have coped. It's not his fault that he needed his mom. He was a child. It's not Azula's fault that she couldn't be his mom. She was a child herself, and younger one at that.

If there is fault to lay at Zuko's feet, it's continuing to do this after he's old enough to realize that putting that expectation onto his younger sibling is inappropriate, especially when he has a more fitting adult in his life who is willing and able to provide the guidance, nurturing, and affection he needs. But old habits die hard.

It's just tragic all the way around.

[akiizayoi4869]

Azula and Zuko in the first half of Book 3

The relationship between these two was really interesting to watch back when book 3 first aired, and before Zuko defects. Now that they are no longer in a war zone, they act like your average siblings that have a rivalry between them. Zuko, of course, still sees Azula as an enemy. Meanwhile, Azula, interestingly enough, actually tries to have a relationship with him again, looks out for him, and seeks him out when she knows he's brooding. We see this in the very first episode of Book 3, when Azula goes to see Zuko at the turtle duck pond. We see it again in The Headband, where she confronts Zuko about visiting Iroh, and warns him to be careful.

Now, I know that a lot of people think that she was trying to manipulate him here, but she wasn't. She was just warning him to be careful about seeing Iroh. To make sure that nobody finds out about it. If she really wanted to screw him over with this, all she had to do was tell Ozai. But she doesn't do that. Hell, she could have said something to make Zuko not see Iroh in jail again either, but she doesn't do that. Just warns him to be careful and that's it. In Nightmares and Daydreams, when Zuko goes to her about the war meeting and demands to know why he wasn't told or invited, Azula reassures him that their father wants him there, and that it would only make sense for him to be there since he's the prince.

This scene here she could have absolutely been a bitch to him and just shrugged him off for interrupting her. But she doesn't. Finally, we have The Beach episode, where Azula finds him at their old beach house, because she knows that's where he'll most likely be at, just brooding.

And instead of letting him sit there and stew in his misery, she tells him to come down to the beach with her. Gets him to open up about what was bothering him (which, ironically enough, is one of the things that would lead to him defecting from the Fire Nation). So in a way, she was pretty much like a babysitter for Zuko for the entire time he was back in the Fire Nation, just making sure that he didn't do anything that would get himself in trouble and make Ozai banish him again, or worse. I've just always found this to be interesting, because despite the Fandom, and to an extent the writers, acting like Azula's sole purpose is to make Zuko miserable, we have moments like these that show the entire opposite of that.

[juniperhillpatient]

not azula “mentally torturing” 😭 zuko by calling him 🥺 dum dum & zuzu 💔

[uesp]

There's nothing quite like curling up in bed with a good book.

[phoeeling]

those posts about Azula and Zuko’s relationship by @zuko-always-lies and @wingsfreedom respectively got me thinking about the fire hazards. one pointed out what makes Zuko seem like he doesn’t care about Azula, and one pointed out what does. And it brought me to a conclusion.

Zuko parrots what other people’s opinions on Azula are. (Almost all of the time)

When we see Zuko’s first flashback in Zuko Alone, he’s hanging out with his mom by the pond. He says “Hey, mom, wanna see how Azula feeds Turtleducks?”

Zuko says this like he finds it genuinely funny and interesting. He views it positively. Now, Zuko immediately fails at mimicking her— as soon as the bread hits the Turtleduck, Zuko’s expression is shocked and horrified. That wasn’t supposed to happen, and he’s scolded by Ursa for it.

“Zuko, why would you do that?”

Ursa doesn’t assume it’s an accident. Ursa— and I’m trying to give her the benefit of the doubt, really— has a low opinion of Azula. She isn’t able to separate her trauma regarding Ozai (even if we ignore the comics, absolutely nothing isn’t traumatic about being married to a man willing to kill your children) from Azula very effectively.

Ursa has outright questioned “what is wrong with that child” in earshot of Zuko and Azula, to the point that the former actually remembers her saying it, and her Nickelodeon bio confirmed Zuko as her favourite.

While Zuko is processing, Turtleduck resurfaces and it’s mother attacks him. The rest of that part isn’t particularly relevant, what’s relevant is what comes after. It transitions to Azula “playing” with her friends.

“Mom, can you make Zuko play with us? We need equal teams to play a game.”

Zuko, who previously seemed to have a more positive opinion on Azula earlier that day, responds kind of aggressively with “I am not cartwheeling.

Azula points out cartwheeling isn’t a game, especially one that wouldn’t need teams.

“I don’t care. I don’t want to play with you.”

Zuko, just that morning, had no problem with Azula and no reason to, and is now acting needlessly aggressive toward her. Zuko internalized Ursa’s opinion of Azula even without Ursa outwardly expressing her negative feelings, and it further paints what we see of those flashbacks. He even joins Ursa in scolding Azula for her comment about if Iroh died.

The next flashback is awhile after, and Zuko’s personal opinion doesn’t seem to be altered to fit the bias of anyone else around him: Zuko is playing a tag-like game with Azula, and the two are laughing and smiling.

The scene after that, it’s unclear when it takes place. How much longer after. It appears to be late in the day, like sunset-ish. Zuko is fine hanging out with Azula until she insults him, and then he gets defensive. (Also note: when the two of them are spying on the meeting, as Zuko runs away, Azula actually turns to check on him as he runs away.)

Next scene when Zuko is lying in bed. Azula is sing-songy and mocks him about what she heard. Now, despite this— and I note— Azula suggests Zuko to flee the country.

“I’m only telling you for your own good. I know! Maybe you can find a good Earth Kingdom family to adopt you.”

In all technicality, what Azula is suggesting is treason and I think that might make her treasonous by suggesting it. She’s telling him to go against the Fire Lord’s orders— that would potentially further Ozai in gaining the crown, which is what really matters here— and telling him to live. All she’d have to do is say nothing and Zuko would be gone and she’d be heir.

(Not only that, but when Ursa asks Azula what was going on, Azula tells her everything.)

The next notable scene: when Azula tells Zuko no one knows where [Ursa] is and that Azulon is dead, Zuko says it’s not funny and she’s sick, which is probably the best instance of him parroting Ursa’s opinions.

Zuko also later ends up parroting Iroh’s opinion of Azula. We know Iroh doesn’t have a very high opinion of Azula— despite the fact Iroh isn’t looking at her during the Agni Kai, he remembers her as smiling. She also looks no different than her current appearance, which suggests Iroh doesn’t really see her as a child.

Iroh is immediately hostile towards Azula when all she’s said is hello, screwing up his expression. (Zuko’s screws up his expression too, but he’s made angrier expressions at Iroh.)

After the guard slips that it was a lie, then Zuko gets angry at Azula for an actual reason— and during the Chase, he wants to fight her. But when he’s talking to Iroh, he seems genuinely unsure on how to feel about Azula. “I know, she’s my sister and I should try to get along with her.”

Now, one thing to note— Ursa doesn’t directly say this from what we see. The closet she does is agree with Azula that it’s important for brothers and sisters to spend time together. Which means that he’s likely either parroting that sentiment from Azula, or that’s an original thought.

Iroh reinforces that Zuko should feel negatively towards Azula. “She’s crazy and she needs to go down.”

(Iroh should be in the right by saying that, should being the key word. She shot fire at him. But she only had to do that because he prevented her from fleeing the scene in the first place, meaning she had to come up with an alternate escape plan. She had already attempted to flee from battle semi-peacefully because she was outnumbered, meaning he outright risked his niece’s safety for no reason.)

When Zuko’s in the Fire Nation, he’s mostly neutral-positive on Azula. There’s no negative outside opinions altering his view on Azula, and that’s when they get along the most. Despite the fact Zuko is incredibly grumpy throughout all of S3. He’s still very Zuko about it, but he doesn’t hate her.

When he joins the Gaang, his opinion on Azula gets negative again. He seems neutral-sad when she nearly falls to her death and resigned when she survives, and says to Katara in Sozin’s Comet: “How would you like to help me put Azula in her place?”

When Sokka asks if he left behind anyone he cares about, he doesn’t say Azula: because Zuko can’t tell if he cares about Azula.

When Suki says “This is a rematch I’ve been waiting for”, Zuko literally parrots her. Suki has a reason to want a rematch— Zuko doesn’t. He hasn’t lost a battle to Azula, because he hasn’t been in a battle with Azula that actually resulted with either of them winning.

To summarize: Azula knows her and Zuko’s sibling relationship is wrong and wants to repair it. Zuko knows his and Azula’s sibling relationship is wrong and doesn’t know what the right is, so he mimics what everyone else thinks [about Azula].

And everyone is getting in-between them reconciling and building a health relationship. Ozai intentionally, Ursa unintentionally and Iroh somehow both intentional and unintentionally.

[prodogg]

My thoughts about the whole Zuko & Azula plot in „the awakening“:

So, Azula took Zuko with her back to the fire nation where they received a heroes welcome, then Zuko anxiously waited to meet his father, then Azula comes and questions him about the possibility of Aang surviving, Zuko hesitated to answer and rather badly lied in her face upon which Azula gets suspicious, she then meets her dad and tells him Zuko killed Aang, to use him as fall guy should anything really be a problem with Aang‘s death. Now you see Zuko lied to Azula because of the water and also because he doesn’t trust Azula for good reasons, when looking back at beginning of the Book 2 and the whole „father wants you back“ chaos, where Azula lied to Zuko. I think this also shows the tragic aspect of their sibling relationship, they where so far from each other that they couldn’t even trust each other. Now there are some gaps left by the show which had to be filled by myself e.g when Azula met with her dad or if she reported to him back in Ba Sing Se. I saw some takes that required Azula to be some 4d chess mind reader that could look into the future and also takes away her confidence in her own abilities, like lightning bending, which is imo ridiculous. Anyways these were my thoughts about the whole Zuko and Azula tension in „the awakening“. Btw Zuko not closing the door is like one of the most annoying sibling moments to happen.

Also if you bad mouth one of the siblings I hope your sleeves touch the water and get wet when washing your hands. These two will also come after you:

*cough* Anyways here a sweet moment of the fire hazards together:

[bibogbanshee]

I don’t know if the TV show answers this question or not, but in Disney's Tangled, where do all of the floating lanterns that they send off end up? Do they have people to clean them up? Those things are a serious fire hazard.

[waterfire1848]

Fire siblings headcanon - For most of a day, no one could find Zuko. Ursa woke up having to comfort a screaming baby Azula then went to check on him and he was gone. The entire palace was in panic and Azulon had to declare the prince missing. Finally, Ursa went to feed Azula and found Zuko curled around her. It was the only way Zuko knew to get her to stop crying.

[ilikepjo24]

Baby Azula’s favorite hiding spot/safe spot in under Zuko’s bed. Whenever her parents arguing got too bad or she just didn’t want to interact with people she hid herself under his bed until she felt like interacting with people. Zuko knows when she’s under there because she always steals ones of his pillows.

This is adorable but all I can think about is how Zuko reacted the first time it happened 💀

Imagine going to your room while your parents are fighting, being overwhelmed and needing to escape, he may or may not have noticed that one of his pillows is missing and then a little teary-eyed head pops up from under his bed, requesting updates in the argument.

[phoukanamedpookie]

Zuko and Azula are Tahani and Kamilah!

If you've seen The Good Place, you know I'm right.

Hear me out.

An otherwise extraordinary person struggles to live up to the accomplishments of a more talented younger sibling, leading to a jealousy, resentment, and toxic rivalry. Trying to beat or outdo this more talented sibling sometimes often leads to this otherwise extraordinary person making fool of themselves or putting themselves in danger.

For a long time, this otherwise extraordinary person remains too self-involved to notice that the younger sibling hated the way they were pitted against each other by their parents and other adults in their lives. But when that light bulb finally comes on, this extraordinary person would say something like:

"I'm sorry our parents were such wankers jerks, and I understand that you can't accept my apology, because that would quench your creative thirst. They forced us to compete, and that competition has fueled your art firebending for decades years. It's so awful, and I'm so sorry."

Alas, the comedic potential of a reconciliation between Zuko and Azula remains untapped.

P.S. Kamilah means "perfect." Sound like someone we know?

[akiizayoi4869]

This talk absolutely happened in canon and you can't change my mind.