#Ozai deserved it

[ukrainian-groove-metal]

you ever think about how Zuko had 3 years to come to terms with the fact that his father never loved him and Azula had like. two hours. like Zuko had this whole dramatic character arc where he struggled to do right and Iroh was there to support him meanwhile Ozai was like yeah here’s a hollow title shithead. gonna go burn the Earth Kingdom without you lol. if i got done dirty by my dad as bad as Azula got done i’d start shooting lightning with my hair down too.

[vidduality]

SPOILERS for Episode 6 of the Avatar Live Action series

AKA why this episode makes me SO grateful for this adaptation (re: the Zuko flashbacks and the Agni Kai).

----

Wow.

I admit, I was really worried at the idea that Zuko might potentially fight back in the Agni Kai against his father in the live action. I expected to HATE it, and it's certainly a bold change, but it fits in SO WELL with why Zuko is the way that he is (and why he works so hard to push down his empathy whenever Aang tries to reason with him).

The Agni Kai - Zuko obviously did NOT want to fight his father. He still tried to apologize and beg for mercy, but in the end he was just too terrified of his father to disobey a direct order.

But when Ozai left him an opening to see what he'd do with it, Zuko couldn't bring himself to actually land a blow that might burn him. Making his lack of ruthlessness the weakness that Ozai ends up mutilating him for - even straight up telling Zuko that compassion is weakness and then demonstrating by holding his own child down and lighting him on fire - adds a layer of depth that only enhances the original scene (and in another stroke of genius, we see Ozai nearly in tears himself. He's convincing himself of this lesson as well as Zuko, which was likely passed down to him by his own father). Honestly, this to me is even more heartbreaking than Ozai burning him for refusing to stand and fight. Zuko did everything his father asked and he still failed, because his family has distorted what it means to be honorable and believes Zuko's capacity for mercy to be a shameful weakness unbecoming of an heir to the throne.

The 41st Division - And here come the waterworks. Assigning the very people Zuko was hurt so severely for trying to save to his ship as it's being cast out of the fire nation (presumably forever, with the Avatar not having been seen in 100 years) is SUCH a brilliant addition. His crew resents Zuko for being stuck on this impossible mission with this bratty, angry child. And Zuko is too ashamed of his "weakness" to explain why they were assigned to him.

I can totally see Zuko's hurt at their lack of respect making him even more angry (especially after everything he went through to save them from being sacrificed), and his seemingly irrational anger at them just continuing to make them resent him more in a neverending feedback loop of anger and disrespect that's been growing and festering for 3 years.

Which makes the scene at the end when Zuko's crew finally learns about how he saved their lives (as well as why he's obsessed with the avatar, why he's banished, what his scar means and why he's trying so very hard to rid himself of empathy, even if he can never quite manage it when it counts) so much more impactful. I SOBBED when the 41st Division stood at attention and showed him their utmost respect and loyalty, possibly for the first time since they've been on that ship. Zuko's soft "what's going on?" at finally being honored by his crew is just imprinted on my brain.

The seed of the idea that his compassion may NOT actually be what was shameful about his banishment afterall can finally begin to take root.

I just, damn, I love this episode so much.

[pizzaboat]

This whole Azula being born lucky and Zuko being lucky to be born... Azula would have to be "lucky". If she was "normal" like Zuko, she would be dead

At 13, Zuko was a child you couldn't justify duelling, a boy who needed protection and was deserving of compassion.

At 14, Azula is a soldier. A fire bending weapon who is none of the things that Zuko was, because she wears makeup, is sharp tongued, and fights in a ruthless way that's conducive to her environment

All the things she does in the show are insane. Her physical feats and the expectations set on her by Ozai. You're not just born that good. You train, and you train hard, and if you're talented, that training won't kill you, and you won't buckle under the pressure

She was literally a kid with no choice but to be better at war than all the adults around her. Ozai expected her to be his right-hand man or nothing at all

[kacievvbbbb]

Honestly Ozai’s treatment of zuko and Azula was probably less about who they were and more about him projecting what he wishes his father would have done for him with Iroh.

He is after all a second born child himself and he’s always just wanted his father to see that he was the better child.

Azula was never a person to Ozai not really she was just his self insert in the fanfiction he was writing himself. It’s why she stops mattering the moment he finds something bigger than being fire lord.

[dukeofdelirium]

ppl who fail to comprehend anything about Aang’s character literally sound like this whenever they speak on him

they’re always sayin shit that is borderline this dialogue lmao, like “oh he’s selfish” “oh he’s so weak” “I wish he would die” etc etc. like calm down Ozai Jr, I don’t think this show was meant for you!

[mal3vol3nt]

the reason people get mad and upset over aang not killing ozai is because they can’t or are unwilling to understand what it really meant for him to be the last airbender

a lot of people don’t truly acknowledge what aang went through when they talk about him. it was a genocide. an ethnic cleansing. a GENOCIDE. and i think that’s because so many people are just incapable or unwilling to wrap their heads around how tragic and isolating and unchangeable something like that is.

i’ve seen countless people say they wish aang had found other airbenders hiding away somewhere. and while i totally get wanting that to happen for the happiness of the character (hell, even i have thought about how heart wrenching that utter relief would feel for him), i’ve also seen those takes associated with people saying they just find it hard to believe that none of the airbenders survived. that none of them were able to escape.

and that’s the thing that annoys me because genocide is a real fucking thing that has happened and IS currently happening in the world (just look at palestine, congo, sudan). it shouldn’t be so hard for people to suspend their belief into thinking it could happen in a fictional piece of media. this disbelief that a genocide can be real results in people being unable to fully sympathize with a character who is stated several times to be the definite, unchangeable sole survivor of his people’s genocide. and i’m not saying it’s wrong to want there to be airbenders who lived, but in canon it’s clear that none of them did. and the ones who did canonically escape were hunted and lured by the fire nation to their demise. and if we’re going to discuss characters and the intents behind their actions, aang’s character development is heavily, heavily heavily guided by his guilt and grief over his lost culture and people. but a lot of people still can’t wrap their heads around the canonical genocide he survived, meaning they can’t fully comprehend why aang would choose peace over a violent end. and considering atla is a western show with a largely western audience, its even more evident that this gap in people’s ability to understand and sympathize with aang is emphasized by their western intrigue toward violence. people don’t just misunderstand aang’s dilemma—they wanted him to kill ozai because seeing him do that would have been cool and interesting and satisfying.

but aang’s decision to spare ozai’s life was made due to his status as the last airbender. prior to meeting the lion turtle, i think it’s safe to say that he had resigned to what he had to do. that is to say, he was likely going to kill ozai despite the pain that was going to cause him. he was going to give up a part of himself, his humanity and the last remainings of his culture, to be the avatar the world needed. but he was then gifted the ability to energy bend, offering him, but not cementing, another option. aang still had the choice, and we saw in the fight that aang was so very close to killing ozai even with this new ability. but he couldn’t. because although killing ozai would have been a pretty justifiable thing to do, it would have fully finished off the air nomads. aang was the only living human who held onto their beliefs. if he were to push those values aside to end the war, the war would have ended the same way it started: with the death of the air nomads. and it may sound “cheesy” or overly dramatic or whatever to some people, but aang’s entire story arc has, arguably, been him trying to fit in a world that seemingly has no more room for the air nomads. not only is he 100 years in the future, but this future has none of his people around and war is everywhere. violence is basically required to survive. death is everywhere. greed has corrupted nations. everything the air nomads stood against made up this world, and aang, as the avatar, had no choice but to save it. for him to have given in to what everyone expected of him—violence—he would have ultimately eliminated air nomad values from the world. and the world would have not cared. aang’s victory would have been celebrated, but aang would have felt even more grief than before. he would have let himself and his people down. and balance would have never been achieved because the air nomads mattered. they were part of what kept the world going round. no matter how much the current world he was fighting for called for violence and death to achieve an end, the air nomads still had a voice through aang. they were still around because of aang. aang’s existence and dedication and love for his culture kept the genocide from being official.

and in my opinion, air nomadic values coming out victorious in a war that nearly wiped them clean (except for aang) is much more of a meaningful and satisfying ending than violence ending with violence.

and if you wanna call aang’s decision selfish, then fine. but i personally think it’s more selfish to expect a survivor of genocide to keep giving and giving and giving for a war that took his people from him until he has nothing left of himself to give. i think that is far more selfish. aang may be the avatar but he is also human. just as much human as his people were, and the leaders he was fighting against, and the millions of people he ended up saving, and just as deserving of having some sort of agency in the decisions he makes. call me crazy ig

[aquatint-101]

They tell you that you are a god, that thousands of years of unnamed power thrums beneath your veins. Yet your lungs rise and fall as they always have, and you feel just as human as ever-

(Maybe you never have been. Maybe your only reference point is you, and that is where your error is gravest. If you have been a god all along, what would you know of being human?)

-x-

They start to fear you for the accident of your birth. You try to tell them that you are the same as you have always been. You play all the same games, throw pies off the stony balcony ledge and watch them land and burst open like overripe fruit, gooey cream exploding into the air.

But they stop smiling at your jokes. They stop listening to the songs you've learned to play on your flute. They never say we're not friends anymore, because it's not true, not exactly. Friends are people that can be trusted and you, you are not a person.

There is only one man in the world who thinks otherwise.

-x-

They want to take him away from you. They want to tear you from your home and your family and what little you have left. You have been taught not to be covetous, but this angers you.

So you run, like the wind that has been trapped between the trees. You see the wide, open sky and decide to conquer it, just like your people have for generations. But it's not the storm that swallows you; the waves claims you before the clouds can.

You sink to the ocean's depths, and your grip on the reins starts to falter.

(You are not human, and this keeps you alive. Perhaps it is the elements. Perhaps it is the magic. Perhaps it is something far older than both. Your eyes glow beneath your closed eyelids, and your tattoos burn with impossible light. You are breathing still.)

-x-

They want to ask you how you did it, want you to reach inside the depths of your murky memory and proffer your secrets to them. But you have no answers to give her when she keeps questioning how you forced the turning tides to do your bidding.

The answer is simple. You didn't, the monster did.

See, there is a monster inside of you. Not a god, because gods are never this angry, never this vindictive. The monster wants to rage and destroy everything it sees painted in red, but you will not let it. The monster eats you up when you get scared or angry, and you are never strong enough to make it go away.

She is. She calls out to you and her voice somehow lulls the monster back to sleep. She cradles you in her arms and tells you that you can let go. You think her words are lost on you, because you are not the monster.

-x-

They want to pull the monster out from inside you, and you let them. The monster has laid waste to armies while all you have done is run, run, run. Your people are gone because of you, but the monster saved you. Perhaps it can save them too.

She tells you in plain terms that she does not like this, and you can see the fear in her eyes when she talks about rage and pain and you. You do not know how to respond. Perhaps if you cut enough pieces of yourself away, the monster can finally save you both.

It's okay, you want to say. I'm scared of it too.

All you give her is cold, cold silence.

-x-

They are gone, and you are all that is left of them. They are gone, and it is you, two animals, and a monster that stubbornly claws its way out of you when you are forced to confront this fact. The monster is everything your people would have hated, because it aches for blood and vengeance in a way you never can.

(They are your people, they have to be, and you cannot be this other, this god, that they just raised like a cuckoo in the nest.)

In the desert, as the heat scorches your bare skin, you look at your shaking hands. You do not deserve to be the last of your kind, because now when anyone thinks about your culture of peaceful monks, they will think about the monster inside you.

-x-

They are right to fear the monster, and you are right in wanting to control it. You seek out someone who promises to help you tame it. He wears the saffron of your people but smiles sadly when he says he is not one of them. He tells you about your guilt and your fear, your hope and your longing, and all the things you have to confront.

And it doesn't make sense. This isn't about you, this is about excising the monster inside you.

But as you gulp down the horrible banana onion juice he insists on feeding you, the truth hits you like a falling meteor. There is no monster, no other force inside you that magically appears when you get sad or angry.

There has only ever been you.

-x-

They are disappointed that you cannot summon the monster anymore, but you are just relieved. The anger keeps building inside you, like a roaring flame or a rising tide or a towering mountain or a howling wind. Its pitch and roll keeps you up at night, the names of all you have lost black marks against the inside of your skin.

You try to be as you have always been, but your smiles never reach your eyes, and the notes of your flute always sound out in minor key. They probably notice that something is wrong, but they don't say much except to push you towards your destiny.

Your temples are in ruins, and they think you weak for trying to hold on to them. They think you weak for forgiving, not knowing that the alternative, letting the monster have at them, would have been far worse. But it's okay now, the monster can't hurt anyone ever again. You can't hurt anyone ever again.

-x-

They tell you to kill him, and you want to say no. The voices of your friends, the voices in your head, the voice of the monster, they all scream at you to just end it. But a smaller voice, one that speaks from your heart, just whispers in quiet opposition.

The monster is you, has been this whole time, but you are not a monster. You are more than a living relic or a god given flesh. You are a person, the last of your kind, and they all live on in you, so for their sakes and yours, you say no.

"I'm not going to end it like this."

[sleepyzukka]

I’m gonna be real, I think the writers simply didn’t want to give Azula a good ending or a good relationship with any of her family due to misogyny and ableism. I mean how hard was it to make her and her brother get along for at least a few minutes? So many ATLA characters had potential to be really good and they fucked them over because of how normalized it is to hate women and pity and praise men for the exact same thing women are hated for.

I’ve seen better dynamics between Zuko and Azula in FANFICTION than in the actual show or comics.

It’s like, you can give them moments of actually being siblings and STILL give them a complicated relationship and have Zuko feel inferior to Azula.

They grew up together, they had the same parents, they were both neglected by one of their parents, in Azula’s case BOTH of her parents.

And personally I feel like Ursa was kind of failing as a mother for Zuko as well but I won’t get TOO into that. She loved him, yes, but that doesn’t mean she truly did any good for him other than preventing him from being killed to be honest. If she genuinely cared for her kids she would have made sure they’d stick together and be there for each other. She would’ve taught him how to actually survive in the fire nation palace.

Ursa could have done so much for Azula as well. Ozai wasn’t present in their lives. In Zuko’s flashbacks, and even in the comic, we see that he is practically nowhere to be found half the time. Who was stopping her from watching Azula train? From complimenting her and giving her praise? From sitting with her by the turtleduck pond? She could have done literally anything with Azula and she chose not to.

Yes, Ursa was a victim but that doesn’t excuse the fact she failed as a mother.

But that’s just my opinion do NOT attack me about this I really don’t care.

[coralpaperthoughts]

i think some people (me, I'm talking about me) forget that Azula is only 14 years old.

she's FOURTEEN and she was a master at firebending, conquered Ba Sing Se and was nearly crowned Fire Lord ?? among many other things that I can't remember off the top of my head, but she was only 14???

me, at 14? I didn't even know what a swear word was

and then after the war's over?? what happens to her idek but if it's some bs like she got thrown in jail or smth imma be pissed coz she deserves better, like yeah she did all that shit, but Ozai was literally her father and Ursa was her mother - I think that justifies all her actions ngl

she wasn't even of legal age yet, surely that means they can offer her help or smth, instead of punish her???

[petricorah]

just some casual early morning fishing and some not-so-casual evening pining after your best friend

mini explanation of how this would take place if it were a prequel to the dangers of not confessing comic

After ozai’s defeat, they finally take a break and go on the fishing trip they lied about. And it’s amazing, and fun, and Zuko’s heart is aching throughout every second of it. Because he’s drowning under the weight of his impending duties as firelord. He has Responsibilities. But all he wants to do is be with Sokka and have the time relaxing with the people he cares about, actions that he was deprived of during his youth. And Sokka’s about to be halfway across the world, back at his home, where he belongs. And it would be selfish to ask Sokka to stay. And even more selfish to tell him how he feels when he knows soon the trip will be over, and it will never work between them, and Sokka probably doesn’t even feel the same way. So he stays silent. 

And misses his chance.

[the--firevenus]

God forbid when aang has emotions and act like his age, like seriously I can't with people. Like I'm sorry, a lot of you assume people that defend aang thought he's perfect that could never do anything wrong, like no bitch I love him DESPITE his flaw, because guess what?? When he act childish, and or do anything wrong in the show, his ACTION HAS CONSEQUENCES. and ya know what else?? DESPITE EVERYTHING HE'S STILL A VERY COMPASSIONATE CHARACTER WITH HEARTS AND LOVE SO BIG FOR THE WORLD THAT DONE NOTHING BUT GAVE HIM SO MUCH PAIN AND SUFFERING.

You people keep nick picking every single thing he had done as if it's the crime against humanity, it's not him who commit genocide and colonialism in the show now isn't!? I'm sick and tired many of y'all act like he's one dimensional as well. HE HAS DEPTH, WE LITERALLY WATCH THE SAME SHOW!?

Come on man, it's almost two decades of this same thing, I'm so tired, leave my boy alone for fuck sake oh my god

[kideaternomnom]

It’s funny how Azula antis might call Azula “irredeemable” or say “Aang should’ve taken her bending away” as if Zuko or anyone else couldn’t have been the same way or worse if they were in they were in the situation she was in. They also completely miss the whole episode with Roku that shows anyone, ANYONE can be good or bad. Fire Nation or not. If Iroh, a grown man- or Zuko, a 16 year old boy can turn good and realize what they did was wrong then a 14 year old misguided girl can. I mean, don’t get me wrong- she’s done many bad things and is an objectively worse person than Zuko. I’m not denying that, however I’m just saying- she did have some humanizing moments too, it’s confirmed she does love Zuko along with Ty Lee and Mai, oh- and has basically been receiving fake “love” by her god forsaken father. I can see why her perception of life and love may be fucked.

Did I forget to mention she’s only 14 and has been misguided her whole life?

[earfgoddesss]

i did this and YOU can also do your own.

[pizzaboat]

I swear the only reason child/teen characters like Azula get so demonised is because people see kids as beings that are meant to be wholy good.

Any kid that fails to be perfect, acts out, or is anyway morally complex compared to an adult, they are then no longer a child and dehumanised in people's eyes. The only other word for them is "monster" because people can't understand why the image of a child in their head isn't lining up with what they're seeing, and they make hateful speciulations because of it.

And Azula (no suprise) is a "bad kid." She's violent, angry on the inside, occasionally cruel, and takes her insecurities out on other people.

She doesn't act like how people expect a child would react to seeing their brother be burned by their father, and people ignore the context of why she might react the way she did, or just don't consider that Azula might have only been smiling in Irohs POV

Kids aren't "good". They're emotional. They react to emotion, they sometimes feel empathy, and how they choose to use that empathy ultimately decides how society judges their morality.

Azula had no one bothering to teach her right from wrong, outside of Ursa, who'd just yell at Azula and send her to her room. Ursa didnt know what to do with her and didnt care if Azula heard her audibly wondering what was "wrong with that child".

Ozai punished Zuko for the same traits that people claim Azula is evil for not displaying. Why on earth would Azula hesitate before trying to kill and or, best her enemies? Why would she show honest emotions? Why would she defy her father? Why would she make the switch over to good with no incentive to?

She's a 14 year old kid who's watched Zuko be burned and be discarded by her father when he was 13 for publicly "disrespecting him." Even if you don't think Azula cares about Zuko, that doesn't mean she isn't getting the same message that the rest of the public onlookers are getting. Ozai doesn't tolerate insubordination

She's been alone with Ozia for 3 years. Raised by him her whole life. No one else has ever given a damn about her, and she's more sheltered from the real world than regular kids in the firenation

Azula is the only one looking out for Azula, and if she has to parrot what her father says and does, and doing that keeps her safe from Ozia and the rest of the world, why would she stop? Why would she act like a regular good kid? Why would she even know how to?

[nerdypeanuthoagiebanana]

So I was thinking about how ATLA inverted the favored sibling trope -if u can call it a trope-. Like usually in fiction, it's the older sibling that is the favorite and the younger one is kind of the underdog. And then I realized that they didn't only invert it they also subtly executed the classic version of it. It's never said explicitly but in the one scene, where we see Ozai and Azulon interact with each other, it is abundantly clear that Azulon favors Iroh - his older son- and completely dismisses Ozai. Ozai is the one lacking, Ozai can't do anything right in his father's eyes.

And now we go one generation further, Ozai is now an admittedly terrible father to two children. Zuko and Azula, and who does he favor?!

THE YOUNGER ONE

AZULA

Of course he does, Ozai heavily projects on both of his kids. He goes the extreme other way and puts the same abusive pattern on his own children, just reversed.

- Iroh himself btw never has the opportunity to develop that pattern, first of all because he only had one child, and second of all because he was the one who got the at least somewhat "healthier" dynamic with his father and probably his mother, if we go with the theory that Ilah died in childbirth.-

Because he sees the exceptional prodigy of Azula as himself, the second child, who in his narcissism is the better option. Who he can form to be the perfect successor of his legacy.

And in that way of thinking he treats Zuko, his older child with the same neglect and dismissal as he was treated as a child. He himself does not realise it, but he creates in that way in Zuko a kind of distorted mirror image of himself.

With one difference. Zuko has his mother and his uncle to teach him compassion. Not only that but Zuko himself is someone who as a person has a strict honor code he follows. (See 41st division).

Zuko is with that in mind, not just a reflection of Ozai but also a WEAK reflection from his perspective.

Which puts us back to the reason of, why he burned the face.

So in conclusion did ATLA not only invert a trope, it also used it to develop a unhealthy family dynamic and create a realistic picture of the cycle of generational trauma.

[punkeropercyjackson]

Azula was not spoiled.Ozai did not favor her because he loved her but because she made the perfect child soldier.It's canon that he never gave her genuine affection,only praise for living up to his expectations and just because her abuse wasn't physical like Zuko's dosen't mean she didn't have it 'as bad him as him'.It's also canon she's as scared of him as he was because she knew the second she slipped up he'd hurt her too and he's the reason she was isolated from her peers except the two he raised her to deem 'worthy' in Ty Lee and Mai.Call Ozai's treatment of Azula what it was,because he might not have done that to her but the term is not exclusively sexual:Child grooming