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jellyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy · 3 months ago

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Azula’s behavior as a child

There’s so much misunderstanding about Azula’s behavior as a child. Often they’re exaggerated to the point that a simple making fun of a sibling will turn into ‘emotional abuse’. This post will go into every action that Azula has ever done that majority of the fandom deems apparently monstrous, and will explain why it’s actually illogical to call her a monster and an abuser for it. These points that I will counter are usually used by the majority that I’ve encountered on Tumblr/Instagram/YouTube/Reddit, in case some of you are doubtful that such arguments even exist.

1. Azula asking about the throne’s line of succession

People refer to Azula’s question here as cruel and monstrous because she was essentially wishing for Iroh’s death, but that’s not true. She was asking IF Ozai would be next in line to throne if Iroh were to fall in battle, and that’s actually comepletely normal for a child.

She wasn’t wishing for Iroh’s death. She was just asking out of curiosity if her father would be Fire Lord next. It was an insensitive question I admit, but children normally are insensitive. Every one of us have thought or maybe even asked about someone’s death whether as a child or as an adult. Just because it’s not a family member’s death that you thought of doesn’t mean you’re excused from being called insensitive or as the fandom generally calls it, a ‘monster’.

Here’s an example: Have you ever thought of who would be next in line to the throne if Queen Elizabeth II were to pass?

If you have wondered about this question or something similar to it, does this mean you want the Queen to die? No. You’re just curious about who will succeed her.

Or how about a more realistic thought that involves your family: Why hasn’t your father/mother gotten lung cancer even if they’ve been smoking for decades?

We’re taught in school that smoking cigarettes causes lung cancer, yet why hasn’t that person gotten that yet? Does that mean we want them to die? No. We just want to know WHY it’s that way even though they should’ve had it by now.

Questions regarding someone’s eventual death whom we personally know is actually normal, but not accepted and generally frowned upon in society. Children usually ask these questions and they’re forgiven because they have yet to understand how society works yet.

Point is, curiosity makes us ask questions. Children ask a lot of questions, especially when they’re curious about a lot of things. Azula was curious, and that’s why she asked. She didn’t realize it was actually insensitive until Zuko used their father as an example. Yes, Azula was perceptive and intelligent even as a child, but smart children are also known to be way more curious than other children. Also, Azula wouldn’t be asking this question if she actually knew the answer to it.

If Iroh were to fall in battle, it wouldn’t be Ozai who would be next in line but actually Lu Ten (who was still alive at that moment). The fact that she did not mention Lu Ten at all during this only means that she wasn’t completely aware about the line of succession. Ursa failed to answer her daughter’s question properly and to address this to which I have no idea why. It was either the Fire Nation was under Agnatic seniority… but that can’t be it since Azula was going to become Fire Lord and Zuko’s daughter, Izumi, has also become Fire Lord in the future or that Azula was simply not aware of the line of succession since she was just a kid after all.

2. Azula’s indifference to Lu Ten’s death.

We don’t know much or basically anything at all about Lu Ten, his personality or his relationships with the rest of his family but one thing’s for sure is that Azula wasn’t exactly indifferent towards his death. Before the letter of Lu Ten’s death had arrived, Azula and Zuko were chasing each other and laughing, enjoying themselves (sigh such a precious scene). Then Ursa reads the letter, Zuko approaches her out of concern and he’s shocked by the news of his cousin’s death.

Now look at Azula behind him. What is she doing? She’s holding her hands in front of her. I’ve read up about body language, trying to understand what Azula’s was saying and this was what I found. This is a position called ‘The Fig Leaf’. People generally clasp their hands in front of them when they feel vulnerable, uncomfortable at that moment and this position can normally be seen in funerals as well.

Azula was uncomfortable by the news of her cousin’s death. This can be seen from her body language. Now think, if Azula was cruel and didn’t care for anyone’s life, then don’t you think that she would’ve made a really rude and insensitive remark at that moment? If the creators wanted to portray her that negatively, she would have, but she didn’t.

Now when she critizes Iroh for abandoning the siege, it makes sense. From Azula’s perspective, Iroh’s action was an act of someone weak. He was Fire Nation’s greatest asset, a renowned General who’s taken thousands of lives, yet when his son dies, its somehow only then that he realizes that his killings actually have an effect on families. What? That was also what the families of those fallen soldiers were thinking when they had suddenly retreated. There’s also that possibility that Azula could’ve thought that Iroh was dishonoring Lu Ten by abandoning the siege. Iroh retreating from Ba Sing Se would’ve just meant that Lu Ten died for nothing. And that’s true. As a leader, you’re expected to put everyone else before you, no matter what happens. Iroh didn’t do that.

“A real general would stay and burn Ba Sing Se to the ground, not come home crying.”

- Again, true. Yes it was a tragedy that his only son had fallen in battle, but Iroh still had a duty to fulfill which was to lead his nation to victory. He abandoned that duty of his instead. If anything his son’s death should’ve made Iroh want to avenge his son’s death. It wasn’t as if he fought again after his son’s death and he retreated because they were losing, no. They were actually winning. He just retreated. Think about those soldiers who had fallen in battle. They went to war, knowing that they would die. They had accepted that fate because they knew they were giving their service to their nation. Their families knew that as well. But Iroh’s sudden retreat had only meant that those soldiers had died in vain.

“He (Iroh) didn’t take the Earthbenders’ defenses and their resolve seriously enough, and it cost him dearly.”

- Azula, Tale of Azula

Azula wasn’t taking pleasure in Lu Ten’s death or making fun of it. She even admitted that Lu Ten’s death was a great loss. No, she was just criticizing Iroh for abandoning his duties.

3. Azula’s mistreatment of animals/plants

Her abuse of the turtle ducks

I’ve addressed the turtle duck scene in another post but long story short— we’ve never actually seen or even heard from Zuko that Azula had directly thrown the bread at the ducks. His reaction towards mimicking Azula even contradicts the assumption that Azula actually harmed those ducks.

Mistreatment of flowers

Ok honestly, I find it ridiculous and just really desperate that people use this as one of their reasons to prove that Azula was cruel and a monster. Burning flowers, really? She was a firebender, a kid who was bored and being neglected by her mother who was happily chatting away with her son. What else could she have done to get Ursa’s attention? Take into consideration that Azula genuinely didn’t know why it was bad to burn those flowers, and Ursa didn’t help her understand this. Children don’t naturally just appreciate beauty. They learn to appreciate beauty. Ursa didn’t even try to get her daughter to understand that.

4. Azula’s abuse of her brother and friends

Let’s first discuss what abuse is. It’s when a person does something SEVERE to intentionally harm someone repeatedly, especially even though they’ve already been told not to.

I did some research and asked people I know who have siblings about their relationship with their older siblings. All of them said that they had made fun of each other, said hurtful things to one another when they were younger, ages typically from 2-10 and it would always lead to petty arguments and fights that would eventually needed to be settled by their parents.

What Azula and Zuko had was like every other ordinary petty sibling squabble. Azula would play pranks on her brother, Zuko would refuse to play with his sister of his own accord and apparently they’d even get into physical fights where Zuko would usually be the physical aggressor (as apparently he would even try to kick her). You could say lighting his bum on fire for ratting her out to their mom was severe, but you can also argue that they were both firebenders, which would mean that it wouldn’t have actually harmed Zuko that much. That move was like a shove for ordinary kids.

Her treatment of Ty Lee

Even as a child, Azula was competitive. This could be seen when she and Ty Lee were practicing some stunts and she failed to be better than Ty Lee at something. All children are petty, and so Azula’s response to this was to shove her and laugh. Children have this mentality of ‘You made me feel bad so I’m going to make you feel bad too!’ -which is what Azula did. It’s completely normal for children to respond like that whenever they’re upset. It’s either they say something hurtful, or they push that child, and then the other child would start to cry. That’s usually when an adult steps in to reprimand the child and explain to them why they shouldn’t do that. In this case, Ty Lee didn’t seem to mind it. After all, it was just fun and games for them.

Her treatment of Mai

So in Smoke and Shadow it was revealed that they used to have sleepovers together. There was particularly this one time when they had a sleepover at Mai’s and apparently Azula had made her steal her grandmother’s mochi and then ate it while the other two looked uncomfortable (probably because they knew they were going to get in trouble). Child Azula was like that one friend who was a bad influence, but we’d still be friends with them because they were fun to be with. In their case they were friends with Azula because she was the princess. Being associated with the royal family would’ve definitely had some benefits for their families.

Azula was the princess. She literally could’ve asked for anything and she would’ve been presented with it. We don’t know if this was before or after Ursa’s banishment but if it was after, then no one would’ve corrected Azula’s thinking of ‘I want this so I’ll take it’ as a child.

Mai had said that Azula made her steal that mochi as a child, but how? How exactly did Azula make her steal something that her own mother told them not to touch? Mai could’ve said, no, yet she did it anyway. By blackmail? That’s a possibility, but we’d never even seen her blackmailing even in the present timeline. Azula said that she had merely suggested stealing it, but Mai was the one who insisted on following through so this is what I think actually happened.

Azula suggested stealing the mochi. Mai said no in fear of getting in trouble, so Azula just said that she’ll take the blame if they get in trouble (she was the princess after all, what could’ve Mai’s mother and Mai herself done if the Princess wanted it?) Mai followed along until she chickened out at the last minute. Azula called her out for it so Mai insisted on following through to prove her wrong. But then Mai felt guilty after that and Ty Lee was nervous about getting in trouble so Azula was the only one eating it at the end.

Is it fair to call her a monster or abusive for that? No.

Was it bad and wrong? Yes.

Her treatment of Zuko

This is the part where I truly believe Zuko extremists take things way out of proportion (this and in the present when she usually makes fun of him). What was her intention behind telling him about this? To warn him. Azula herself had told him that it was for his own good. If Azula did want her brother to be out of the way, then she wouldn’t have come all the way to his room just to mock him about it. She wouldn’t have told Ursa this either. She would’ve just kept it to herself. If Azula was cruel, she wouldn’t have told anyone.

The only reason why she was behaving that way was because she didn’t know how to feel about it. Would her father really kill his own son? Was he actually really going to do it? She was a 9 yr old kid who loved her father. She wouldn’t have wanted to believe that he was capable of such murder, but she didn’t want to risk it either- and so she tried to play if off as joke, while still making sure that Zuko would be aware of what she’d heard.

Also I’ve seen people call her a monster or crazy just from Zuko’s mantra ‘Azula always lies’.

Do I really have to explain why it’s illogical to call a 9 yr old a monster for lying…? Studies have shown that children usually lie between the ages of 2-10. Lying typically peaks between the ages of 6-10. So Azula lying at that age? Perfectly normal.

Azula was mean as a child, but she was never a monster, or even abusive. Future Azula though, that’s a different discussion for another day.

All I can say is this. It’s fine to call Azula an abuser in the present timeline. That’s your opinion and it actually makes sense too since she showed some of the signs. (Although it’s still questionable since we didn’t actually see it as a repetitive occurrence and how severe it was to be called abuse and the fact that Azula didn’t actually show the other signs of an abuser… if anything, Ozai is the literal prime example of an abuser, and the only thing Azula and Ozai actually shared was their manipulation and use of fear against people except Ozai wasn’t remorseful about that at all. Also I realized after reading up articles about abuse that Zuko in early Book 3 hit most of the signs when it comes to abusive partners which is why I find Azula being considered abusive, questionable because in this fandom, the term abusive doesn’t apply to Zuko but mostly on Mai instead…?)

However, it is NOT fine to call a child a monster or to call them abusive.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #azula #azula meta #azula deserved better

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