#Azula and Ty Lee

[loiseau-lyre]

My last fanart for Aurelia le's fanfic, Dominion.

I posted it earlier today but the more I looked at it, the more I saw its countless flaws. So I gave Azula a blanket. Legs, especially in that kind of posture, are too challenging to someone my level...

Citation:

And for the first time in a long time, Azula remembered a day in asylum when she was too weak to move, when even having made up her fevered mind to bend again, her body rejected the blandest foods they gave her. How long had it been since she stopped starving herself? She could ask Ty Lee, except … she had a feeling she probably already asked Ty Lee. More than once.

The acrobat knelt beside her where she lay on the white-padded floor of her cell, holding one of Azula's hands in her lap and rubbing it between both her hands. Azula had told Ty Lee how her hands always felt cold now. She settled on a more socially acceptable question. "What — time is it?"

Ty Lee startled so badly even watching her, that Azula guessed it had been a long time since she spoke. Even if she wasn't real (Azula couldn't be sure) Ty Lee was still better company than her mother, who stood sadly with hands folded in the corner to the right side of the door.

At least she didn't feel like Ty Lee was just waiting for her to die.

"Um, really late." Ty Lee squeezed Azula's bony hand, then rubbed a fist in her own eye. "Or maybe really early."

Azula looked closer, her brow furrowed. There were dark circles under Ty Lee's eyes, but the hallucinations never changed. Was —

Azula bit her cracked lip against the question she meant to ask, Are you real? She remembered the look on Zuko's face when she asked that, the one time he was real. If there was even the slightest chance Ty Lee was real — She didn't want to see that look again.

"You're still — here." Azula tried not to let it sound like a question.

Ty Lee put on a cheerful aspect, still holding her hand. "Silly, where else would I be?"

Azula just looked at her. Anywhere else. Like anyone else.

And Ty Lee's smile faded like she could hear Azula thinking it. "I love you, Azula," she ventured quietly, running a gentle hand up and down her wasted arm.

Dominion by Aurelia le, chapter 21

[ljf613]

2 for the fic ask game if you’re up for it 😊

2. what's a fic that took you to an emotional/dark/hard place?

Without a doubt, You Can Lead An Ostrich-Horse To Water. This is a fic that hit so, so close to home, and I had to dig really deep to get to it-- but at the same time, once I finally decided that I needed to write it, it was probably the easiest thing I'd ever written. The words just poured out of me.

Ask me about my fics!

[shrewisweird]

Big cousin Lu Ten helping the kids on a hard level

I like to think that he was a lot like his dad, spending time with them and showering 'em with affection.

[swedenis-h]

Ozai’s angels!

[madeleineengland]

This whole thread about Azula's fake confidence and terrifying vulnerability really opened my third eye

[nanamis-username]

here r all of my avatar girlies’ profile portraits - without the procreate taskbar 😋 feel free to use them as icons or wallpapers 🩷

[royxart]

Fire nation trio 🔥

[mayskalih]

on wednesdays we wear pink

[tragedykery]

I ❤️ self-loathing characters, characters who struggle with monstrosity (either fearing or embracing it), characters who are so lonely, who have a gaping hole in their chest, who bottle up & repress their feelings, who claw their way up & have ambitions, who fall down & lose everything, who search for identity & purpose yet can’t see themselves outside of what others want from or expect of them, who are hurt & hurt others, who long & grieve, who lie & pretend. characters who are messy & flawed & human

[soggystyrofoam]

worlds funniest polycule

[pichichustudios]

Every girls in Avatar the Last Airbender

[badappleparadise]

[junotter]

Part 1 of my modern avatar au, the fire nation

[jennywebbyart]

I’m 16 years late.

[narrativelysignificantturtleduck]

it is so wild to me when people act like the fire nation isn't sexist because azula's girl squad is badass when azula mai and ty lee are all such perfect representations of women living under sexism. azula is the only woman in ozai's war room, and she is a smarter strategist and a more powerful firebender than the high-ranking men we see (e.g. zhao). the implication is that she has to be the absolute best to get a seat at that table. mai is treated as a prop for her father's political ambition, raised to stay quiet and out of trouble in a way that reeks of women being expected to be compliant in service of men. she's bored and checked out and has trouble expressing her feelings because she's so used to not being allowed to express anything. ty lee grows up lost in the shuffle, desperate for attention, desperate to please and contort herself into a shape that people find appealing, and that manifests as making herself into a stereotypical girly-girl, making herself seem inoffensive and non-threatening by playing on sexist stereotypes.

azula's perfectionism, mai's detachment, and ty lee's girly persona are all ways in which women react to and adapt to living in a sexist society. they overachieve to try to break the barriers, they check out emotionally, they learn to play the role people expect. azula and her girl squad are powerful women certainly but they are absolutely women living under sexism