2 year old Zuko: Mama?
Ursa: Hmm?
Zuko: Where’s Azula?
Ursa: She’s sleeping.
Zuko: In her bed?
Ursa: Yes.
[ Zuko gets a giant grin on his face. ]
Ursa: No, Zuko-
[ Zuko takes off running. ]
Ursa: Zuko, no!
Zuko, who’s already poking Azula through the bars of her crib: She woke up!
Ursa: I can see that.
Interesting is that Zuko is kneeling here as if he’s submitting himself to Ozai, meanwhile, Azula bends the knee which represents her swearing loyalty to her father.
thinking about what zuko means to azula and weeping. he's a traitor but he's your brother. he held you when you were born. he's banished for being too weak to hurt your father and you learn to hate his goodness. he is somewhere in the world carrying your eyes. he misses your absent mother more than he loves you but that is the price you pay for being the one who stayed. he never grants you this same kindness. you are faster and deadlier and better but it doesn't change the fact that your brave big brother used to tell you stories of dragons every time it stormed because you were so afraid of the thunder. he is the only one who understands what it means to bear the brunt of your bloody inheritance. he crumbled under the weight of it, but you stayed. you always stay. he is half of you. you hate being betrayed.
you don't love him. he's your big brother. who could you possibly love more?
Fire hazard siblings Zuko and Azula getting along and Zuko has One Brain Cell and Azula has Two but they have to work together to overthrow their father because neither of them wants the other one to die.
KEY POINT: Neither of them have talked about it and neither is willing to admit either of them wants to overthrow their father so they just keep strategically "messing up" and being weirdly cool with the other one also fucking up constantly. Outsider POVs don't know what to think lmfao
Story time: only ever drew Azula once before and she looked 18-19 in it because I really did think she was older than Zuko. I tried to draw her with a fuller face so she'd look like a kid. Idk if I succeeded. Headcanon is that Azula and Zuko both have the same nose and bushy eyebrows; Azula plucks hers. They both also have a widow's peak (canon) because Ozai has one and it's a dominant characteristic. It's not like they had a chance.
Inspiration. Azula would actually be the one to do something like that, it'd be more IC for her. But this scene was there in canon and Zuko, that fucker, didn't shut the door behind him so I ran with it.
Guileless son, I'll shape your belief
And you'll always know that your father's a thief
And you won't understand the cause of your grief
But you'll always follow the voices beneath
I had a thought that, if they could use the firebending to boost they jumps, so why not give a big boost to each other.
It's olso was inspired by the same fic by @fireflaked (hi, again), but also by every fic where Zuko & Azula basically work together/have a better relationship)
It's also my first action animation... I don't like it, but I tried