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When I think about the possible last conversation between Ozai and Azula, I come to the idea that Ozai will ask his daughter to give him the last mercy - a quick death. For death will be a long-awaited exit for him. And and his last lesson of lightning bending. As for Azula, for her it will be the last gift to her father in their difficult relationship.

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What azula does after the war

Becomes a nomad after escape, travels the world, lives so many lives and experiences

writes many books and manuscripts about power in both politics and military and how it’s produced and maintained (the equivalent of the prince by Machiavelli)

pushes the limits of fire-bending to its impossible levels in yes combat but also in different aspects like medicine and industry

becomes a renowned teacher that firebenders from all over the world and for many years travel long distances for to learn the knowledge and skill and wisdom of

does many independent projects in the fire nation concerned with bettering it, from military usage to health to education to women’s rights

becomes the sun spirit

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If look at the subsequent comics that were already written purely under the DiMartino and Konietzko, the general line of primitivization of the narrative is quite noticeable.

You know, Aaron Ehasz, Katie Mattila(writer of “The Beach” in addition to being a staff writer), May Chan(staff writer for Book 3), and Alison Wilgus(a comics writer) wrote an official comic where Azula goes “my personal power doesn’t matter; only the will of the Firelord matters) and Zuko is puzzled by it.  I do wonder what the divide in the writing room(Aaron Ehasz mentioned there was one over Azula in general) over the idea of Azula being power-hungry.

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In fact, in canon, Zuko didn't have any friends except his sister's girlfriends. The situation changed only when circumstances forced him to cooperate with Aang and other friends of the Avatar.

And the problem with Zuko's character, in my opinion, is not only in the inconsistency and hypocritical combination of constant talk about honor with the habit of harming people who helped him in some way, but above all in his incontinence and aggressive reaction to any irritant.

Any child who even wanted to get closer to Zuko would simply be tired of Zuko's character. And the guy's violent behavior itself, combined with his fickle nature, would rather turn him into a school scarecrow. An outcast who is not bullied because he is considered a violent bully, but at the same time has no friends and is generally considered someone who should simply be avoided even by other bullies. Simply because none of the children can understand "what kind of person is he?"

Random headcanon

In general, when people first meet Zuko and Azula, they like Zuko much better. They project whatever they want to see onto him, while Azula is a lot off-putting, to say the least.

But over the long term, they generally find themselves liking Azula much better. Why? They find that Zuko is willing to betray and screw them over at the slightest opportunity for no reason whatsoever, while Azula behaves consistently and rationally, actually does what she's supposed to, and, surprisingly, mostly remains true to her word. Not to mention they find her "off-putting" nature is a side effect of her being awesome, capable, and a girl.

The only real exceptions to this trend are Iroh and Ursa, who among other things are massive misogynists who are eternally pissed about Azula overshadowing their golden boy. Essentially everyone else went through the cycle of liking Zuko and disliking Azula, before realizing that Zuko is a loser and Azula is awesome.

The only thing different about Mai is she finds Zuko being a pathetic loser kind of attractive.

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The saddest thing is that even though she was simply the perfect weapon for Ozai, Azula still received more support from her father than from her mother. If you think about it. How bad was it that a relationship just better than with a attack dog was enough to risk her life for this man? What was on the other side? That same mother's look at the little girl as a monster?

Azula is an abandoned child from the beginning of the story. Every child needs love and care and there was not a single adult in her life who wanted to give it to her.

Saying Azula got treated better is such a low bar. Even if that's true, it's not by much. Literally what relationship does Ozai even have with Azula? They hardly interact with each other and from what I can tell it's basically just Ozai ordering his personal attack dog cough-I mean subordinate-sorry guys, I meant daughter to do military conquests without any concern whether Azula comes back in one piece. Literally Azula is subordinate first, daughter twentyfifth to Ozai. As far as I can tell Azula is just doing gymnastics and Ozai gives surface level praise before giving another assignment and telling her to screw off and rinse and repeat 8th.

Even when Ozai actually thought Zuko 'regained his honor' by 'killing Aang', he still just sent him and Azula off to fuck around at the beach. Which let's be real, was just Ozai's way of saying Daddy doesn't want you in the house and trying to wash his hands of them without making it obvious. Ozai probably views Zuko and Azula more like his subordinates than kids.

X

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Iroh turns out to be a surprisingly mediocre war leader when you look at his actions.

First of all, it is the Siege of Ba Sing Se. The siege of a city comparable in size to the largest island in the Fire Nation. A city that includes not only urban development but also villages and fields surrounded by a wall and providing the inner city with food autonomy. City that earthbenders can endlessly rebuild thanks to their abilities while waging an extremely effective sapper war. In general, the solution to such a problem obviously requires serious intellectual work from the general. Is Iroh capable of such work?

There are two testimonies about how this siege was conducted: Iroh: If the city is as magnificent as its wall, Ba Sing Se must be something to behold. I hope you all may see it someday, if we don't burn it to the ground first! "General Iroh and his army led a siege on the great Earth Kingdom capital for 600 days. After losing countless men in the siege, and with no end to the battle in sight, General Iroh ordered his men to retreat, an act deemed cowardly by Iroh’s brother, Fire Lord Ozai."

In total, we get a picture of an extremely mediocre general who simply threw his soldiers into the fire of war until his own son was among the victims of this meat grinder. After losing his son, Iroh immediately surrendered and led the remaining troops away, although he had already achieved success in the form of a breach in the outer wall, which meant he had the opportunity to deprive the inner city of provisions and, as a result, finally begin an effective siege.

And Iroh's departure also says a lot about him as a military man. Every warrior he led who died were someone's children or father. And he led them to this siege. So why did he kill so many people? Only to lose his son and leave, making all the sacrifices in vain! No wonder his abdication of the throne in favor of Ozai was so easy. No Fire Nation soldier could consider Iroh a worthy general after such a performance.

Azula is right in her own way when she scolds Iroh for not staying and taking the city. He thus betrayed all his soldiers, dead and alive, because his personal tragedy is above all else. And shouldn't the loss of a relative or loved one in war, on the contrary, embitter and make one even more eager to defeat the enemy? By the way, for some reason, Azula's criticism is often associated with Ozai's influence, but: Young Azula: Oh yes he is! He found out his son died and he just fell apart! A real general would stay and burn Ba Sing Se to the ground, not lose the battle and come home crying. - Azula is literally quoting Iroh himself here! And what is characteristic is that Azula herself continued to fight right up until the moment when she was bound by chains. And this despite the fact that, like Iroh, she was in a terrible psychological state. So yes, unlike Iroh, Azula demonstrated the character of a true warrior.

And what's most terrifying is the reason for the whole enterprise: Iroh: Who would have thought after all these years, I’d return to the scene of my greatest military disgrace. Iroh: Many times, I imagined myself here, at the threshold of the palace. But I always thought I would be here as a conqueror…instead, we are the Earth Kings personal guests, here to serve him tea. Destiny is a funny thing. Iroh: When I was a boy, I had a vision that I would one day take Ba Sing Se.

All that moved Iroh was his personal selfish dream. His personal belief in the existence of some special destiny that given him from above for the realization of his personal ambitions. It was to be his personal triumph, and it became his personal shame.

And what is characteristic is that his second assault on Ba Sing Se is also not very original. It is literally another direct assault by using superior firepower. The Earth Kingdom Army was disbanded. The city was guarded only by Fire Nation garrison. Having finished with this garrison, he could already calmly burn the flags. Iroh broke through the wall thanks to the power-up from the Comet, and there were no other serious obstacles in his path.

As for Iroh's motives, he again defines them through his personal destiny: Iroh: Only now do I see that my destiny is to take it back from the Fire Nation, so the Earth Kingdom can be free again.

Let's just compare Iroh to Azula.

There are a few important things to note right away. Azula, like Iroh, move to Ba Sing Se not on the orders of her Lord, but on a personal initiative. Also, she did not have a military rank or position, respectively relying only on the authority of her title and her father.

Her first attempt at pinning the walls of Ba Sing Se is already out of the ordinary. Use a huge drill in order to punch a hole in the wall of the city and immediately deliver the soldiers behind the walls. The idea is not bad, although even this size drill was definitely not enough to transport the required number of soldiers: And the single instance of the machine makes this attempt more of an interesting experiment than a real invasion. Tellingly, the loss of the Fire Nation in this trial attack is zero. Azula herself fought to protect Drill and, characteristically, did not react in any way to her friend's desire to stay away from the dirty fight that had begun.

The second run for Azula was successful. And here the radical difference between Azula and Iroh is manifested. Azula knows how to radically change tactics. Why fight against impregnable walls when you can take the city from the inside? Azula recruits the Ba Sing Se secret police. Ba Sing Se is taken and Fire Nation troops enter the city. Losses are again equal to zero. The Fire Nation didn't lose anyone. Ba Sing Se didn't lose anyone.

The tactics here are no longer military, but espionage and diplomatic. This is another key difference between Azula and Iroh. Iroh invariably invades Ba Sing Se only as a general. Azula takes on Ba Sing Se as a spy and diplomat. She finds the right contacts within the enemy elite. She encourages the enemy elite to defect to her side. And through the management of this elite, she establishes a puppet regime in the city.

And finally, Azula's motives, her most important difference from General Iroh:

Azula: For a hundred years the Fire Nation has hammered away at Ba Sing Se from the outside. But now we are on the inside, and we can take it by ourselves. Azula: I've plotted every move of this day, this glorious day in Fire Nation history, and the only way we win is together. Azula: We've done it, Zuko. It's taken a hundred years, but the Fire Nation has conquered Ba Sing Se.

Azula conquers Ba Sing Se not for herself and not for her personal destiny. She does it for her Nation. She does not consider the capture of Ba Sing Se her personal success, for her it is the result of a collective effort for herself and her friends and brother. This glory is not for her alone, but for the entire Fire Nation. Simply put, unlike Iroh, Azula is a patriot.

You can also pay attention to this scene:

Bujing: The Earth Kingdom defenses are concentrated here. A dangerous battalion of their strongest earthbenders and fiercest warriors. So I am recommending the forty-first division. Elder general: But the forty-first is entirely new recruits. How do you expect them to defeat a powerful Earth Kingdom battalion? Bujing: I don't. They'll be used as a distraction while we mount an attack from the rear. What better to use as bait than fresh meat? Young Zuko: You can't sacrifice an entire division like that! Those soldiers love and defend our nation! How can you betray them? Iroh: Zuko was right, you see, but it was not his place to speak out. And there were dire consequences.

In this scene, it is Zuko and Iroh who show themselves to be frankly incompetent military leaders.

An entire division, that is, about 10,000 people against a battalion, that is, a maximum of 1,000 people. Even if it is the elite against the recruits, it will be an long and difficult battle for the warriors from the Earth Kingdom.

10,000 recruits are not required to win, they are required to tie the enemy down in battle, and with their tenfold numerical superiority, this will not be difficult at all.

An attack from the rear will save most of the lives of these newcomers, since it will allow them to completely surround and defeat the enemy or force them to surrender in short time.

In fact, the tactic of luring by weakness is as old as the world. And what is characteristic is that this tactic really works. And what can Iroh say about tactics? Does he even know any tactics other than throwing corpses of his soldiers at the enemy? After all, it is really interesting that while Azulon and Iroh were running the war, the Fire Nation could not achieve a single impressive victory on the continent. For decades, an endless meat grinder dragged on without visible breakthroughs. But as soon as Ozai and Azula got down to business, the Earth Kingdom was effectively crushed and occupied. So in the end, Omashu had to be liberated personally by Bumi, and Ba Sing Se by the rest of the White Lotus. That is, the complete defeat of the Earth Kingdom forces is an achievement of the Fire Nation after Iroh left military leadership.

However, questions can be asked even about Iroh’s understanding of such a thing as subordination.

Iroh: Sailing into Fire Nation waters … Of all the foolish things you've done in your sixteen years, Prince Zuko, this is the most foolish!

Iroh practically calls Zuko a fool in front of his subordinates. Does he really not understand that by doing so he is completely destroying the guy's authority on the ship? Does Iroh even understand why it is wrong to undermine the authority of any superior in front of his subordinates? Or is the rank of general in Iroh's case nothing more than a consequence of being born the firstborn of Azulon and having excellent skills in firebending. The latter makes him an excellent fighter but has no meaning for leading even a platoon or a company.

Of all Iroh's attempts, only one can be considered a tactic:

Iroh: It's almost twilight, Admiral. As your military consultant, I must advise you to halt your attack. The waterbenders draw their power from the moon, and it is nearly full tonight. You should wait and resume the attack at daybreak. Zhao: Oh, I'm well aware of the moon problem and I am working on a solution. But for now, daybreak it is.

But Iroh isn't saying anything here that Zhao doesn't already know. Given the decades of hunting waterbenders, this is something every Fire Nation officer should know.

Summary. All this together creates a very unsightly picture. Iroh is the spoiled son of the Fire Lord who imagines himself to be the favorite of fate. He is a bad tactician, he is a lousy strategist, he does not even understand the banal functioning of a military organization. At the same time, the success or failure of the Fire Nation as such is of little interest to him. What matters is his personal fortune. Will he be the favorite of fate or will he become its victim.

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I just realized I never shared pawlee and catzula yet so take these Yuri kitties :33

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Little reminder that we have no actual evidence that Azula was "born lucky" other than a second-hand quote from Zuko and that everything we see Azula do in the show is accomplished by skill, hard work, and perseverance and not luck

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Azula's Biggest Mistake

Tragedy in two frames.

This can even be used for social advertising. A well-behaved girl gets involved with an unprincipled young man and her life turns into hell.

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Interesting moment:

Zuko hires an assassin to kill Aang. Then he tries to get Aang to kill Ozai. In both cases, he tries to do dirty and dangerous work with someone else's hands. You can also remember how he hired pirates in the first season. And then he betrayed them, creating problems for himself out of nothing.

Iroh sends Zuko and Katara to fight Azula, which in the context of two against an entire enemy capital is pure suicide. He also sends Aang to fight Ozai, justifying it by saying that his fight with his own brother will look bad, apparently Azula and Zuko are strangers to each other in his opinion. That is, Iroh also willingly uses other people for dirty and dangerous work.

Ozai used Ursa to get rid of Azulon, and most of the achievements in the Earth Kingdom are provided by Azula's work. That is, Ozai may also not be without a desire to rake in the heat with other people's hands.

But when it comes to Azula. In fact, in all her operations, she always fought in the front lines. I can't remember a single episode when she dumped the dirty and dangerous work on someone else. Moreover, we can recall that Mai, who refused to fight the Avatar and his team who attacked the drill, did not receive even a verbal reprimand from Azula. The princess simply ignored it and rushed to solve the problem herself. In my opinion, this is a very characteristic difference between Azula and the rest of her family.

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The worst thing about this is that the comic writers don't seem to see a problem here. And that's a really bad message. A mother shouldn't behave like that with her child, it's just completely wrong.

When did Ursa lose Azula? The answer isn’t when Ozai started molding her or when she went to the academy.

It’s right here.

It’s when Azula in her father’s arms leans away from him to be closer to her mother. To look at her mother with hope that she will be happy or proud of her. That Ursa would close the gap Azula is extending herself to shrink. But Ursa shuts her down, can’t stand to put up more than a fledging performance of congratulations. To push her own child away with her words and towards someone she hates and knows she can’t trust.

Nobody took Azula away from her mother. Ursa never cared to embrace her. Even when Azula extends herself out to Ursa.

Ursa is a bad mom. And the ATLA writers keep on making her worse.

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Two key problems with the Ashes of the Academy.

Replacing the theme of imperialism with the theme of comic book villainous evil.

The ideology of this school does not revolve around declaring the Fire Nation exceptional, deserving to guide and judge other nations. Not around the idea of ​​the Fire Nation's superiority over others, at least in the style of "we bring civilization and railroads to these savages, but they do not understand their happiness and we have to fight them." Not around the veneration of the monarch and the sacralization of his image as the personification of the Fire Nation itself. Not around the more mercantile side of imperialism in the spirit of "they have so much land and we have so little and it is unfair, so let's restore justice and take their land for ourselves" or "if we do not exploit other people, then we will have to exploit our own people." Moreover, the ideology of this school directly contradicts the ideas of national unity in the spirit of "we are all part of the Fire Nation and fight for a common cause" or "we are all subjects of our monarch, we are one family and he is the head of our family". The key point of the ideology, because of which the whole "conflict" exists, is:

That is, the fundamental element of the ideology of the Fire Nation, according to this comic is absolutely sick individualism. And this directly contradicts everything that any imperialistic, militaristic and similar systems in principle represent. It is impossible to create an army from individualists who only think about how to stab their ally in the back, from paranoids who strive to betray their friends before they betray them. Such people are generally almost impossible to govern, because there will be no guarantee that the order will be carried out. No monarch will support such an ideology, because he will not want to constantly worry about the safety of his power. The only war that such a society can wage is a war of everyone against everyone. Such a society is in principle incapable of building any empire. At most, it will be a very short-lived union of highwaymen. Therefore, no empire of the past relied on such a crazy ideology. A society with such morality can function only in fantasy. For example, in the world of the Forgotten Realms, where the dark elves live with exactly this kind of morality. You can also remember the Dark Eldar from Warhammer 40,000. Simply put, this is a fantastic ideology of chaotic evil villains.

But now we know where Azula went at the end of the Azula in the Spirit Temple. She went to conquer Menzoberranzan!

2. Lack of understanding of the objectivity of reality, that is, subjective idealism.

The metaphor is clear - children know nothing about the "real world" and evil propaganda defines their nature… Ooooh! Scared? Absolutely not. Reality doesn't work that way. A trivial example: in the comic itself there is a character named Hong. Her brother is supposed to go to the front lines and she worries about him. In the comic itself, this topic is reduced to idiocy about traitors from the colonies. But if you think about it, is this the only influence of war on the life of one specific child? A war that has been going on for a hundred years? Imagine, entire generations were born, grew up, lived and died during this war. Grandparents, parents, brothers and sisters - all of them are somehow involved in this war. Someone died in battle, someone became disabled, someone survived and brought back memories of difficult battles and trophies reminding of victories. Stories that family members tell each other, rumors that children tell each other, songs and music triumphant march of the Fire Nation civilization. Holidays and parades, days of mourning and rituals of honoring the fallen. War is reflected in the clothes that people wear introducing new fashion, in the kitchen determining the choice of dishes, war is reflected even in children's fairy tales. War is everywhere, even if there are no battles in the capital of the Fire Nation itself. Even if this academy only told about unicorns that eat rainbows and poop butterflies, it would not change the children's into pacifists. Because the world around them objectively exists.

These two problems can be combined into one - primitivization. Primitivization is the scourge of these comics.

PS. And just one more thought. If Ukano is such an opportunist whose main goal is to settle down in a warmer place, then he should not have rebelled against Zuko, but on the contrary, he should have forced Mai to quickly marry the Fire Lord and thus make the family stronger and richer.

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Ashes of the Academy quick reaction

Ursa blames everyone but herself for Azula's problems raising her. Azula was in a war? What war? She's just pure evil!

The world around us doesn't matter! Brainwashing is the absolute remedy - yeah.

There is no difference between stopping the war and losing the war, losing everything that was won during a hundred years of war.

The aristocracy has power and influence but does nothing with it because… Because between the scene where Azula is in chains and the scene where Zuko is standing on the balcony there is a script black hole!

Zuko is both powerful and powerless. The plot black hole obliterates any sense of who is responsible for what in the post-war Fire Nation and how society functions in general.

Mai's claim sounds really absurd. Mai is your boyfriend and you actively tried to make the Fire Nation lose the war, remember?

Yes, precisely because Azula burns everything for no reason, it is she who, even during her breakdown, did not throw fire at her servants. On the other hand, we have Zuko, who was constantly throwing fire at innocent people. Starting with his subordinates on the ship and ending with Aang. Simply put, the comic screws Zuko's characteristics to Azula.

So Mai didn't want to hang out with Azula. Okay. So Mai is just a hypocrite. Great character development.

So Azula lives to multiply suffering and destruction. Okay. Then again a banal question. Why the hell did the entire cast of the show survive Azula's captivity alive and well? And in Hokoda's case, even recovered? Why did Katara spill water under Ba Sing Se and not blood? Pathetic.

The writers themselves don't know why this whole idiotic circus with Kemurikage was needed. Perfect.

The Fire Nation is waging a war to acquire colonies. That is, it is implementing a full-fledged program of development of new lands. So how do the inhabitants of the colonies end up in someone's minds as sympathizers of the Earth Kingdom? What kind of nonsense is this? These are literally the same people of the same nation. Why, in The Promise, they showed us that the inhabitants of the colonies themselves consider themselves to be part of the Fire Nation. And this is logical. So how on earth did they turn into traitors during the war? Where did this nonsense come from?

Azula didn't trust her friends. Okay. Then why the hell she didn't burn them in the original show and went to get new ones? If they were just tools to her, she'd just get new ones and that's it. In the last Hicks comic, Azula almost did the dance with Ty Lee just to avoid turning the girl into a roast, so what the hell? This is literally a pluralism of opinions in one head and we are not talking about Azula's head.

So why did Azula lose her temper like that if she didn't trust her friends from the start and didn't even consider them friends. Again?

What the hell is a children's academy? Am I the only one who remembers about the war? Okay, writers, I get it, the war had no effect on anything. It's all the fault of a bad school and a bad Ozai. One question, on who is this intended for?

Oh yeah, let's boil it down to evil for the sake of evil. Literally!

Writer! You yourself mentioned a crowd of traditionalist aristocrats at the beginning of the comic, and now it all comes down to an old granny with a Sith Lord complex. Is it so hard to just watch your own writing?

What kind of people will Zuko be trusted with? Where did these people come from? Who let this people into positions of power? How did all this even happen again? The plot black hole keeps coming back to haunt us.

This granny was really going to kill the teacher with a Dai Li agent? An agent who would just attack in broad daylight? Why would he? Why would she? Okay… Let's say it's designed for children under one year old.

But now there's a bunch of Dai Li sitting in the Fire Nation and waiting for Azula. What? What kind of nonsense is this? How many years have passed since the show ended? Are these agents infinite? And they work for themselves! What nonsense this all is...

I apologize for the confusion and emotionality. But it's just…..bad.

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Summarizing the result of exam scene.

The fact that the parents actually divided their children was perfectly highlighted by the exam scene. Azula completed both the theoretical and practical parts of the exam perfectly. And she even allowed herself to release a little fire in Azulon's direction, as if challenging and saying that even though she was the youngest child and a girl, she could reach the top. And Ozai bragged her, although his praise was very restrained and this was the greatest support she could receive. But Ursa and Azulon himself did not notice the girl's efforts at all. Here it is worth noting the difference in how Azulon looked at Azula.

and how he looked at Zuko

Ursa absolutely did not care about Azula's efforts, about her achievements, because against the background of Azula, Zuko began to look like a loser and this hurt the loving mother. Loving exactly one of her children. And what is characteristic is that not only Ursa but also Iroh saw Azula as a hindrance for Zuko. As a result, the young princess received the most eloquent confirmation that in her family there is exactly one person who cares about her efforts, who will appreciate her achievements, who is able to support her. And this person is her father, Ozai. And with Zuko, the situation turned out to be a mirror image. He failed both the theoretical and practical parts of the exam and, as a result, did not receive support from his father. But in fact, that's all. Apparently, at some point, Ozai simply gave up on Zuko and decided to focus entirely on raising Azula. Zuko's mother fully supported him and he remembered it. It does not matter whether he succeeded or failed, support was provided in any case. As well as from Iroh. That is, Zuko already had both a maternal and paternal figure in his life and their unconditional love and support. Accordingly, he did not need to strive for the ideal like Azula in order to earn Ozai's approval. Ozai's approval remained for him just a point on a list until the moment of banishment. He could afford to be lazy. Because not knowing important parts of his country's and his family's history at the same time, especially before the exam, could not be explained otherwise than by laziness in reading the books.

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To sum up the scene with the gifts.

Not much is known about Zuko's childhood relationship with Iroh, but the gift that his uncle sent his nephew is very symbolic: a knife decorated with pearls, with a motivating inscription and received from a surrendered enemy general. This gift plays on several levels at once. Firstly, it is not a simple knife, but a very expensive one, practically a ceremonial gift, and perhaps it was a gift for its first owner. The inscription demanding not to surrender without a fight is also characteristic here, appealing to the formation of a man's character. And this is not just a gift weapon - this is a weapon that the enemy general gave to his winner as a sign of recognition of his defeat. That is, the knife has an additional layer of significance, which together makes it an extremely valuable rarity. In fact, only the Earth Kingdom artifact or the regalia of the Earth King himself could have been a more valuable gift, but obviously such things should have been given to Iroh's real son - Lu Ten. As for Azula, she received a rag doll of primitive design (a stick in a robe, two stumps and a bun of hair) as a gift, although one could expect if not a gift reflecting the girl's character, then at least her status. There is only one thing to say about such a difference in the cost and significance of gifts - it was insulting to the young princess. And this difference in the gifts sent perfectly reflects the difference in Iroh's attitude towards Azula and Zuko. For Iroh, Zuko is a guy who should take the throne by demonstrating his strength and determination, and Azula is a capricious girl who forgot her place, which Zuko should show her.

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What's the morally worst thing that Redeemed! (DoBS and after) Zuko did?

Can you tell I really think that "Southern Raiders Zuko" was a jerk?

Please reblog, for more votes!

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There are a whole host of questions about this whole scene.

Why doesn't the whole city react to these fireworks? Where are the guards? Where is the army? Where are the officials? Where is everyone? Like Azula banished the whole city? Is this a joke??? The Hundred Years' War is underway. The capital is on fire. The heir to the throne is in danger. Hello!

What did Zuko want to achieve anyway? Let's say he and Katara defeat Azula, so what? The two of them against an entire country of which they are enemies! What did Zuko expect? That the entire army would simply not pay attention to what was happening? That the entire outcome of a century-long military campaign and the entire system of governance of a huge empire would depend on a duel? A duel that doesn't even matter because Azula is not the ruler of the Fire Nation!? A duel that he didn't even win because Azula was defeated by Katara!?

The ending of the Third Book is a placeholder. The show needed a fourth season, not this.

What did Zuko think was going on at Azula's Coronation Ceremony?

Cut to the plaza, the location of the Fire Lord's coronation, where only Azula and the Fire Sages are present. The scene cuts to the front of Azula, who is kneeling down on the plaza steps. She is seen wearing Fire Lord robes with her armor underneath. Standing behind her are Fire Sages, one begins to hold the headpiece over her head. Fire Sage: By decree of Phoenix King Ozai, I now crown you Fire Lord ...The sage suddenly pauses and looks ahead. Azula turns her head to face him. Azula: [Somewhat annoyed.] What are you waiting for? Do it! Appa is heard in the distance off-camera, and Azula turns back around to see Appa landing in the plaza courtyard. The scene cuts to a frontal shot of Appa; Katara is seated on Appa's saddle, and Zuko is standing on his back. [this is where my pictures are from, about] Zuko: Sorry, but you're not gonna become Fire Lord today. [Jumps off Appa.] I am. Azula: [Laughs.] You're hilarious. Katara: [Jumps off of Appa to stand beside Zuko.] And you're going down. The Fire Sage is just about to crown Azula the new Fire Lord, regardless of what Katara and Zuko have just said, until Azula signals with her hand for him to stop. Azula: Wait. You want to be Fire Lord? Fine. Let's settle this. Just you and me, brother. The showdown that was always meant to be. Agni Kai! Zuko: [Seriously.] You're on

It seems like Zuko couldn't physically hear the whole "By decree of Phoenix King Ozai, I now crown you Fire Lord" part. He was too far away. And he doesn't know that Ozai has declared himself "Phoenix King," either. Not even Azula knew that until Ozai went and did it, and there's no way for the Gaang to find out. They never mention it at all. So Azula being coronated as Firelord but it not representing her ascending to being supreme leader of the Fire Nation wouldn't even enter Zuko's head.

So Zuko shows up, and he sees a Firelord coronation ceremony being conducted without the usual audience in apparent haste, and being conducted even though the current Firelord (Ozai) is still alive and well, at least as far as he knows. It must look to him like Azula is trying to take advantage of Ozai's absence to usurp the throne for herself. Katara is probably not sufficiently familiar with the Fire Nation royal family and its traditions to catch onto the nuances of the situation, but "Ozai appointed Azula Firelord" is not something that would make sense to Zuko. He probably only found out the truth after the Agni Kai.

All of this potentially puts Zuko's actions before and during the Agni Kai in a very interesting light.