#and flashbacks Ursa

[gerbfukc]

Modern!Azula is an aunt and gets whisked away to ATLA

Prompt/ excerpt thingy: Any child might think this situation as 'beyond cool' or some equally inane feeling. People able to control the elements, Frankenstein-esque creatures deemed to be normal, and an adventure of a lifetime.

However, Azula doesn't have time for this. She's got work on Monday, and she still has to help Izumi with her art project. But it is difficult to tell time in such an odd world, even odder with all these faces that are uncanny in their similarities to people she knows in her own life. And this Fire Lord…

She pokes her finger at the one child with blue tattoos (or perhaps it's body paint, she's not certain). "Listen, you little impertinent miscreants. I'll help you with your pathetic mission so long as you return me to my world immediately after. Do we have an agreement?"

Or, Auntie Azula has to babysit some absurdly powerful teenagers, help a younger version of herself, and return home to her niece as soon as possible. Oh, and save the world, not that that's the priority of course.

(Extra notes: in this au, some big spirit lets loose on the world now that there's less chaos to be caught up in; because of Reasons, modern!Azula accidentally ends up in this universe; it's been nearly a year after the war; ATLA!Azula escaped within two weeks of her confinement; this older Azula is like 26-years-old and can't bend, but she's highly trained in martial arts of all kinds and weaponry; can easily murder a person; it's never explicitly said, but older Azula dealt in shady stuff because it's a family heritage thing.

In her universe, Ursa got killed in front of Azula and Zuko when they were 6 and 8 respectively, so there's no Kiyi in that universe; ATLA!Zuko is shocked and somewhat devastated to hear this; in this au, Ursa came forth two months after the war ended to see what happened to her children; she doesn't lose her memories here as she bargains differently to the Mother of Faces; Ursa is distraught to hear that she could've seen Azula had she came forth sooner.

Modern!Azula of course feels oddly about seeing a different version of her mother whose age is as far from herself as her younger self's age is (Ursa is about 38-years-old here).

Everyone typically mistakes Izumi for Azula's child until she corrects them and states that Izumi is her niece; Zuko literally faints hearing this; Azula never reveals who Zuko gets with because his wondering and panicking amuses her; meanwhile, some potential suitors of Zuko blanched at this revelation and try badgering her; she then reminds them that Kiyi didn't exist in her world, and thus, maybe none of them would get with Zuko in this world)

[stardust948]

Gothzai

20 years later bonus~

[meiloorunn]

we lost another hot star wars mom today…. rest in peace ursa wren i’ll always remember you

[poopiefart420]

In a modern au, Ozai is definitely the type of divorced dad to play old rock songs or Eminem when he would pick up his kids (if he remembered lol) , and Azula and Zuko get flashbacks everytime they hear it in public

[mugentakeda]

runaway fire fam au oc list because they somehow just keep happening on their own??? madame yu die and anchali arent there yet but they will be soon. jiro will probably show up later as well

[kigozula]

"I… I won't. I'll be good. I promise," Azula said, her voice small. Ozai, behind her, watched his daughter with amusement.

- Gladiator Chapter 346

The trip was much like those they often set out on, and Azula and Zuko fought throughout it as recklessly as they typically did. The nights, of course, were the better moments, as Zuko and Azula fell asleep, allowing Ozai and Ursa to bask in peace and quiet, watching the stars together on deck. It was a placid, easygoing time, and nothing seemed to get in the way of their tranquility…

Ozai reached down, clasping Azula's hand gently. The girl jolted after him, cheeks flushing with excitement as she tried to keep up with the long strides of the two taller men. Once they stood at a fair distance from the others, near the very bridge and pond Azula had fallen in, long ago, Ozai finally decided to speak his mind.

........

"I can…" Azula said, nervously. Piandao crooked an eyebrow.

"Then you would not ridicule your brother, should you best him in combat? You would not be upset, if he ridiculed you for it either?"

"Why can't I do it if he can…?" Azula mumbled. Piandao actually smiled.

"That's what you understood from that?" he asked. "Not quite the answer I was hoping for…"

"I… I won't. I'll be good. I promise," Azula said, her voice small. Ozai, behind her, watched his daughter with amusement.

[technarchussy]

new zod run in 2024 but it may not be in real time with the current comics….. what are you playing at, jim lee

[akiizayoi4869]

..... And my hopes have been dashed🥲

Really hoping that this scene is of Azula standing up to a bully and not her being a bully. Her facial expression indicates that it might be the former, since she looks angry, but only time will tell. It'd be a great comparison though if it's the former, since it seems like Kiyi also stands up to a bully in this comic:

Showing that Azula and Kiyi share some good qualities would be nice to see, and a breath of fresh air from this franchise constantly painting Azula in a bad light all the time.

[beifong-brainrot]

I think my main 'issue' with Azula's portrayal in the Ashes of the Academy isn't that it's completely implausible that she was your stereotypical cruel, mean girl, but rather the fact that it's the most straightforward, uninovative thing you can do with her character.

And honestly the plushie burning was just comically over the top. Though she also did Wilhelm Tell her friend with fire in the flashbacks in the og show so who knows.

Which isn't a bad thing, perse. I find it absolutely plausible that Azula was an absolute monster in middle school. Azula was an innocent child that was manupulated by Ozai from a young age. But children are also notoriously assholes, especially if that behaviour was encouraged, which it was in Azula's case.

But I can understand why some people aren't totally jazzed about it. We sympathise with Azula, and many of us see ourselves in her. I see a lot of my child self in her, too. And I, of course, primarily see her as a victim of Ozai and the Fire Nation's ideals. She's very young, and was groomed through her childhood to be Ozai's weapon, which severely damaged her psyche. She's not pure evil, obviously not.

And I think that's why seeing her portrayed as an asshole rubs people the wrong way, especially in flashbacks, because it feels like villainsing a very young, very vulnerable victim.

But I think the older I get, the more ok I am with Azula being mean, cruel, etc. It doesn't erase her status as a victim and doesn't make her any less tragic to me.

I don't care whether Azula was an innocent, sweet kid that suddenly flipped the switch and became daddy's little weapon, or whether she was an absolute nightmare of a child that burned toys and bullied other children. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, tbh, but on either extreme, she is still a victim of an environment that hurt her and groomed her to hurt others and she deserves sympathy for it.

Hell, when I attended a shitty, pretentious, all girl's middle school, I met girls very similar to how Azula was at the time. The comic stresses multiple times that the Academy is an incredibly volatile place that encourages student infighting and rivalry.

And that's some serious rethoric, that of course would do some serious damage to a kid's worldview. And, of course, Azula, who fits into the system well, is rewarded for participating in it, while also seeing others who don't punished, will inernalise this.

While I don't think Ursa "lost" Azula when she entered the Academy, it certainly reinforced the seeds Ozai seemed to have been planting within Azula from when she started firebending. If we want to get technical about it, Ursa "lost" Azula whenever she decided or was forced to let Ozai influence Azula.

This is aggresively on the nose though. It feels vaguely ooc but not Excessively so. Let's chalk it up to emotional vulnerability due to what's happening to her.

And while nothing would make me happier than to see Azula get a redemption arc, I'm also not as set on it as I was a few years ago. I want healing for Azula, and I don't think she's too fargone for one. I don't think the creators do either. While she's still being presented as an antagonist and an overall mean person, especially in the recent comic, I think it's not veered into "irredeemable" territory quite yet.

The hard truth is that Azula truly having a redemption would require her to admit that she was wrong, certain fundamental truths of her life were wrong and she was, and likely still is, a very bad person. A victim, and a person deserving of help, and care, but still bad. Those two aren't mutually exclusive. Which is incredibly difficult for most people, but with the indoctrination Azula would be subjected to as a child, she would have even more resistance to it.

Like, while we do meme on Zuko getting physically sick after doing 1 good thing, it's a very good representation of how difficult it can be to change when you've had certain morals and ideals so rigorously ingrained into you from such a young age.

And Zuko, arguably, had much less incentive to be faithful to the Fire Nation and Ozai than Azula.

I don't think Ashes of the Academy was awful in the way it portrayed Azula. It certainly wasn't the best, and it was, let's be honest, rather lazy and uncreative. But it wasn't some huge blow to her character.

I'll also leave some links to my other metas concerning Azula:

How Azula became isolated from Ursa and opened up to Ozai's grooming

Why Zuko and Kuvira got redemptions and why Azula didn't? Hint: it has nothing to do with morality

[stardust948]

I wish we had more information about the Water Family so I can be mentally ill about them also.

[dynadratina]

I get that the Academy wasn't a good influence on Azula, and it only magnified the harmful tendencies she had already acquired from elsewhere, but those factors in Azula's development have been acknowledged time and again. Meanwhile, Ursa still hasn't done anything with her realization in the Search that she didn't love Azula enough.

That's what I want to see more of. Flashbacks in Ursa's POV, Ursa processing memories of times when she had tried to reach out to Azula and realizing that it hadn't been enough, or hadn't been in the way Azula had needed. Or even memories of times when she and Azula had gotten along relatively well before things went sour.

Because we already know a dozen answers to: "How could Azula's environment/other influential figures have been changed so that she had a healthy childhood?" but we don't know Ursa's answer to "What could I have done, but didn't?"

Also, even in her Academy age, Azula wasn't a lost cause. Azula in the Spirit Temple implies that she still very much wanted Ursa in her life, to the point of feeling abandoned by her when she left, and so would likely have been receptive to Ursa's counter-teachings of unconditional love and protection.

Transcript: "You abandoned me. You weren't there to protect me from Dad, so I became what he wanted--his deadly firebending weapon. I didn't have a choice. (Azula in the Spirit Temple)

[pechuyu]

:0 you make lots of good points, we don’t see a lot of Ozai interacting with his kids but him fueling Azula’s worries about her mom would make a lot of sense.

In general, I think we need to see more of Azula’s childhood and her interactions with Ursa. Cuz pretty much most the scenes of her berating Azula were from Zuko’s pov and read as more dismissive to me. It was usually just telling her to not say that or not to do that. The one time we see her initiate a deeper talk with Azula we don’t even get to see what is said. Like the turtle duck scene was just with Zuko and we see her berate Zuko but also ask why he did that and explained what was wrong. There could have been a lot of talks like that with Azula but we just aren’t shown.

The laughing at nationalistic jokes, that’s more to do with the ideology of the fire nation being one of cruelty and violence. She smiles as her children laugh at Iroh talking about burning a city to the ground but berates Azula for being violent when it’s against family, it’s pretty easy for a kid to make a jump from violence is good when done to the enemy, to this family member is in the way so that makes them an enemy. Even if there was no abuse at home, Azula would still remain a violent person.

It also makes sense with Ursa having a young child, she can’t just drop everything to chase Azula. It would be nice to see in future comics her putting some kind of effort in trying to reach Azula, like her being in communication with Ty Lee and staying up to date on her search.

You're 100% wrong about Ursa.

Ursa never thought Azula was a monster, and she never treated her that way. That's why Azula's hallucination of her- coming from her OWN subconscious- is telling her that Ursa loved her. The conversation literally goes: "You think I'm a monster" "No, Azula. I love you." Part of the reason Azula has this breakdown is that she's realizing that Ozai didn't value her and that Ursa- the one she spent years resenting- did.

Ursa never even treated Azula like a monster. From what we saw, she cared enough to try to correct Azula's behavior. So your assessment that she didn't do anything was wrong. Nor did she favor Zuko because she had no issues scolding Zuko when he threw bread at the turtle duck (she also doesn't harp on the fact that he got that behavior from Azula). She also made Zuko play with Azula when she asked. Why would she do that if she thought Azula was a monster?

Ursa never treated her that way. Even in the comic panel you brought up, she asks "When did I lose her?" Implying that when Azula was a kid she didn't realize anything was so severe that Azula couldn't be helped

I didn’t mean to imply that Ursa actually thought she was a monster, it’s more so the way Ursa acted made Azula feel like she did(even if she didn’t intend to). I think she saw Azula going down a dark path and being turned into a weapon but had no idea how to help her.

Also not trying to make Ursa out to be a horrible person. I think her having these flaws makes her a more interesting character. Like you can love your kid and still let them down, especially in her situation where her options were limited.

I do think the show gives us a lot of evidence for her bonding easier with Zuko while struggling to connect with Azula. So while it is mostly due to circumstances out of her control she still owes it to her kids to make them feel loved and should acknowledge the ways she may have let Azula down growing up. She even mentions this in The Search when she apologizes for not loving her enough.

(Plus there is the scene of her laughing at Iroh’s letter about seiging Ba Sing Se, which suggests she also held nationalistic views of some kind. The same ones that made Azula who she is. Which adds an interesting angle to her character.

Overall, my biggest gripe was more so trying to imagine how Azula would react to that conversation and how it would confirm all her biggest insecurities and how she keeps talking about losing her but she’s still alive and out there needing help. Again we see with Iroh, who stayed by Zuko’s side and would defend him even when he was a villain, talking about how he is good at heart(even when zuko wasn’t around). Azula doesn’t have someone like that.

[maxiemumdamage]

To me Azula is a tragic character specifically because while she was failed by everyone around her, it also would’ve been unreasonable to expect any of them to save her. Among those who wanted to help her, practically no one had the understanding or power to change her. They couldn’t get Azula to stop being cruel, in large part because they couldn’t change the circumstances that nurtured her worst traits.

Except Ozai obviously. Fuck him. He’s why Azula is like that to begin with. But the power and sway he has over her also made it borderline impossible for anyone else to make her change.

(MUCH more to say about this here:)

People tend to blame Ursa for Azula’s behavior first and foremost. And…yes, Ursa was pretty clearly closer with Zuko than Azula. But of course she was! Ursa’s son was constantly abused and degraded by his father — as per the comics, Ozai outright told Ursa he would do this for all of Zuko’s life in order to hurt his wife. Zuko needed Ursa’s support to have any sense of self-esteem and frankly, for his own safety.

Zuko needed his mother just to be safe and not be alone, while Azula needed her mother for moral education. Even if you don’t think Ursa’s priorities were the right ones…choosing her daughter over her son might not have been enough to change Azula anyway. It would’ve been devastating for Zuko without necessarily improving Azula in any meaningful way, because Ursa didn’t actually have the authority to meaningfully oppose her husband.

By the time it would’ve been evident that Azula had a super skewed moral compass as a result of being around Ozai so much…she still would’ve been like, eight years old max, for one thing. Little kids say and do a lot of fucked up shit, because they don’t understand morals or the world by and by large. For another, once it was obvious she was parroting horrible stuff from her father, Azula also would’ve had no respect for her mother. So what could Ursa do, by the time she realized she needed to do something?

We see in flashbacks that Ursa tried, even when her child didn’t respect her and she couldn’t enforce meaningful consequences for the bad behavior Ozai rewarded. Ursa scolded Azula for saying cruel things. She made Zuko spend time with his sister, rewarding Azula for any moments of kindness or cooperation (even when Azula was just faking it to get an opportunity to bully Zuko and Mai). She tried.

As for Ursa leaving…uh, if she hadn’t, Zuko would have died. He absolutely, 100% would have died if his mother hadn’t cut a deal with Ozai to put him on the throne in exchange for disappearing. She made Azulon and his ultimatum go away because that was necessary to protect Zuko.

Ursa did fail to morally guide her daughter. But to do otherwise would’ve been to neglect her son, then to sign Zuko’s death warrant. I’m not gonna pretend she didn’t choose one kid over the other — I just also think choosing to support the kid whom she knew her husband was mistreating wasn’t necessarily the wrong call.

And even if it was…choosing differently might not have done anything. Because Ursa could only offer affection, while Ozai wielded both the carrot and a stick. Azula would’ve likely still fawned to the more powerful abuser, still learned harmful behavior, and still internalized that her cruelty was not just necessary but acceptable. Rewarded, even.

There’s Iroh to mention as well. He admittedly had a lot more influence and ability to stand up to Ozai than Ursa did, but in fairness…that wasn’t his kid. He had his own son to worry about, and then he was grieving, and then…he chose Zuko too.

For the same reason as Ursa, I don’t quite blame him for it — Zuko needed help much more immediately. When Zuko was banished, Iroh did the right thing by going with. But I do think those in-between years in the palace were a time Iroh (still mourning, but still) had the chance to influence Azula a little. But…

…I��ve seen a post theorizing that Iroh dislikes his niece because she reminds him of who he used to be, and…I think that’s very likely. They’re the golden children of their fathers, the firebending prodigies, the conquerors of Ba Sing Se.

I also think it’s because he and Azula are so alike that he has no idea how to help her.

Iroh didn’t have a moral revelation about the Fire Nation’s conquest, not until it cost him his son’s life. His realization about war being wrong, subsequently becoming more worldly and gaining respect for other cultures, it happened only when the Fire Nation’s system stopped working for him personally. So he wouldn’t know how to make Azula see that system as wrong, to make her change for the better as he did. He can’t recreate his own reasons for changing.

Also, quite frankly — Iroh barely to not at all managed to turn Zuko off the Fire Nation’s propaganda. Zuko always had morals, sure, but he did not have any semblance of the idea that “war (of conquest) is wrong” or even “wow my father is abusive and terrible to me personally” after three years of travel with Iroh. Being an Earth Kingdom refugee and meeting the Gaang was when Zuko really changed. And I think Zuko (who got his face burned off at 13) would probably be a much easier egg to crack on the redemption front than Azula (for whom the cruel and abusive system has always worked, she’s fine with it as long as she’s the one on top).

I also am briefly going off topic here to say…I like the idea of Azula redemption. I agree that she is sometimes condemned too strongly, to harshly, given that she is just a teenage girl. But her youth doesn’t take away from her cruelty. She is someone who knowingly does wrong, because she sees it as a way to protect herself. A meaningful redemption arc for her has to acknowledge that, not just sweep it under the rug by claiming she always loved her victims.

Because yes, Azula’s loved ones who are of a similar age to her but have less power are in fact her victims. They love her, she loves them, but she does hurt them all the same. That also has to be acknowledged in the quest to redeem her.

Zuko and Mai and Ty Lee all flatly have no power over Azula — she has power over them, in fact, thanks to her status as Ozai’s favored child and just as a princess, respectively. Ursa and Iroh were adults who at least wouldn’t be hurt by trying to help Azula, but for her brother and friends? Changing her could be dangerous.

Zuko is nominally safer as the Crown Prince, but…he’s awful at politics and their infinitely more powerful Dad blatantly favors Azula. He can’t stand up to her. And the one time were shown that Ursa, trying to correct Azula’s cruelty, made her son play nice, feels cruel to Zuko. He gets hurt and humiliated for no reason but for his sister’s sake entertainment and (failed) moral education. It’s not his job to redeem his sister.

And then there’s Mai and Ty Lee, who may be nobles, but still can’t do anything to Princess Azula. In fact, even before Mai or Ty Lee have done anything, Azula is threatening their family and bodily safety, respectively, as a loyalty test. They cannot challenge Azula in any meaningful way without endangering their lives and safety. It’s not fair to expect them to fix her.

Who does that leave that Azula is even close to? The Gaang literally know nothing of her but “Zuko’s sister who keeps trying to kill us.” None of the Fire Nation Generals or Nobles will want her to change. Azulon rewarded her bad behavior almost as hard as Ozai. Lo and Li, maybe, but for all they’re the wise old ladies Azula takes advice from, Azula doesn’t actually interact with them very often.

Azula is a tragic character because, while she was a child who should have been redeemed and had better, it makes perfect sense she didn’t. No one could change her. No one could offer a sweeter carrot or bigger stick than Ozai. And by the time he was out of the picture, the story was over.

[boomerangguy]

Flameo Hottake

After browsing some insightful analyses (A, B, C) on Ashes of the Academy, I’m starting to wonder if the ATLA writers — from Bryke to Hicks — are incapable of executing a transformative character arc (i.e. turning a Good Guy into a Bad Guy or a Bad Guy into a Good Guy with minimal reliance on off-screen explanations).

Sure, Zuko got a “redemption” when he switched sides at the end of the series…but in terms of behavior/traits, he acts the same way in Book 3 as he does in Book 1 — just fighting as a Good Guy. He’s still short-tempered, rude, and resorts to violence as a matter of impulse. If you watch Sozin’s Comet and then restart the series with The Boy in the Iceberg, you won’t say, “Wow! Zuko sure came a long way! He’s completely unrecognizable!” Because other than the ponytail, he’s very much recognizable. Same guy, really.

Anyway, back to Ashes of the Academy. Ursa’s dialogue at the start of the comic frames the (ostensible) conflict: the Academy changed Azula for the worse, and it could very well do the same to Kiyi. Except…we aren’t shown any of that. There is no flashback corruption arc for young Azula, and Kiyi doesn’t start to slide in that direction either. Apparently, Azula is a Bad Guy — always has been. And Kiyi is a Good Guy — always will be. It’s like they’ve been…flattened.

That’s a problem which other franchises might be able to tolerate better, but given Avatar’s thematic emphasis on the ability of anyone to change, the writers seem awfully determined to cram every major character into either a Good Guy Bucket or a Bad Guy Bucket then ignore established canon and previous characterization to justify why they always belonged in that bucket.

The handling of Mai’s past, especially her friendship with Azula, may be the best example of this. In ATLA Book 2, Mai is an antagonistic villain. She’s not nice. She does not have noble motives. She is clearly a Bad Guy, albeit a cool one. So writing her in AotA as if she was truly a Good Guy all along, just pretending to be friends with Azula to please her father — an explanation which makes no sense in broader narrative context or given that Azula is an insightful ‘people person’ who would’ve sniffed that out sooner or later — is utterly incoherent. (Oh, and Mai was never into the Fire Nation imperialism thing either, making her about one in a million lmao.) She belongs in the Good Guy Bucket now…so she was always a Good Guy? She never aligned herself with the Bad Guys because she, too, was once a Bad Guy? That seems to be how they’re operating.

The same is true for Azula, just inversed. How did the Academy make her worse? ‘Worse’ implies that she was better before she attended, so are we shown that moral regression anywhere in the comic? Or was she always an irrationally cruel psychopath, a la The Bad Seed? At this point, we’ve seen too much of her humanity and vulnerability for them to sell us on that — even as recently as the Spirit Temple comic — but AotA pushes her in The Bad Seed direction again, contradicting itself (Ursa’s dialogue) and, more egregiously, Azula’s characterization in the original series. I’m starting to hear Oprah’s voice in my head: “You get a retcon! And you get a retcon! And you get a retcon!”

Who’s next? Well…I think we can guess…

As the ATLA story creeps and bounds (first in the comics, soon with the Adult Gaang Movie) towards the LOK timeline, they’re going to have to confront a bigger problem: How did Zuko, the teenage usurper of his father/sister’s widely popular regime, manage to completely reorient the ideologically imperialistic Fire Nation? That’s kind of a big deal. It’s the major overall conflict throughout many of the comics, and he’s (understandably) not seeming to make much progress. But just from a writing perspective, if they can’t show a couple of small children being twisted by a bad school system, how could they possibly pull off the moral redemption of an entire nation?

All this to say…

…prepare yourself for the whole Fire Nation to get retconned into the Good Guy Bucket. They were always good people! They didn’t want imperialism! They weren’t warlike! It was all Ozai and Sozin! Azulon? Who’s Azulon?

Seriously, though, it’s coming — unless they manage to get some competent writers who know how to effectively move a character from A to B.

[missaccuracy]

thoughts abt the recent atla comic ashes of the academy?

I'm gonna give quick thoughts based on the first impression, overall it was pretty mid for me. There was staff that I liked, but at the same time I think it's getting some valid critisizm.

On the positive side, I'm glad we got some more screen time for Mai, it's her solo comic, after all. I've seen an opinion that she was ooc for liking to be around kids and for all of the erasing of her imperialistic backstory (but that's not only Mai's problem, I'll get to that later). And while I'd agree that it's unusual to see her being warm around kids, I wouldn't say it's nessessary ooc, Mai was emotionally repressed her whole life, but when she got the chance, she showed her softer side and at the same time she has such a calm and intelligent aura to her and I liked her very much.

As for Azula, I'd completely lost my hope that they'd do anything interesting with her by the middle of the comic. I don't have a problem with her being a spoiled little brat, but I still hoped we'd get some interesting beats with kid Azula. As it is, we didn't get much interesting content on the dangerous ladies and anything particularly new about Azula, which is just boring.

I also wanted something differrent for Kiyi. She's almost pointless for the overall plot and I wanted for her to have a more meaningful role in the story. Instead, she's just kinda there and doesn't do anything important which is a shame to me.

Zuko doesn't have much screen time in this comic, but he's pretty much in character to me as well. What I thought was strange is Ursa and mainly how she wonders what went wrong with Azula instead of, you know, worrying about more important things, like Azula's current whereabouts? She's Azula's mother, why doesn't she bring up the subject of trying to find Azula?

And of course:

We shouldn't forget that Ursa had an off-screen anti-imperialist redemption to the point of her being sarcastic about the Fire Nation's traditions now.

This is a genuinely annoying problem that many other people have already pointed out. The narrative doesn't address characters who had an imperialistic past, like Ursa and Mai, for the sake of making them kinda "always good". It's pretty lame to sweep that under the rug and I see why so many fans are complaining about this. The main theme about the academy bringing out the worst in the students was also kinda perplexing. I think the comic tried to show that it enabled Azula's worst tendencies, but it really didn't show Azula's regression for the worse. It's not that Azula needed to be an angel at the beginning, no one argues that Azula wasn't prone to violence herself, but it still would've been better if Azula got from level 1 to level 2 in mischief and manipulation.

I'll have to add that Ty Lee's brief appearance was nice, she's her usual optimistic self. But I got sad when she didn't appear in the flashbacks, I hoped to see the whole trio together as kids.

Additionally, some panels that I liked:

I can feel Mai's awkwardness about the first time of being a teacher.

And this:

I laughed at this one. Azula's reaction to the knives flying straight towards her is genuinely funny. I like how in the comics Azula is completely unfased whenever some sharp objects are coming her way. She doesn't even remotely panic and just slightly moves her head to the side. Simply badass.

[theoneandonlylobster]

Azula in the Spirit Temple proves Azula is ready for a "redemption arc"

Was just rereading Azula in the Spirit Temple again last night, you know, as one does, and I was struck by the function Mai and Ty Lee serve throughout the narrative. Over and over, they serve to remind her that what she's seeing isn't real, even if what she's seeing is really nice and enjoyable. (There's definitely at least a hint at both Ty Zula and Maizula but I think at this point Repressed Lesbian Azula isn't so much subtext or text as a giant neon sign across everything Azula has ever done.)

However, as the comic progresses, both Ty Lee and Mai get harsher and harsher about delivering their reality check-ins. Azula of course is someone who at this point in time is going to be a seasoned pro at not taking reality at face value, anyway, though the spirit says something to the effect of, "Why not get lost in a dream if it's pleasant?" multiple times to her (a pretty good indicator early on to the reader that this is not a spirit to be trusted, particularly around Azula, and whatever reason it got called to her, it was not ultimately to offer redemption). Anyway, the turning point for when Mai and Ty Lee's check-ins go from mean to downright hostile occurs in the following two panels.

This is after Azula and Ty Lee are talking about "the old days" which, according to the Ty Lee Subconscious mouthpiece were stressful and anxiety inducing (like, literally S2 of the show) to which Azula verbally counters that they all "loved it" although she does note that then Mai had to go and "ruin it" for a "stupid boy" (emphasis hers, she doubles down on this and says, "stupid Zuzu" as well). How super duper straight of you to say, Azula. We're all buying it. Then Subconscious Mouthpiece Ty Lee says, "Maybe you should get help?" and that specifically is what sets Azula to attacking her.

So of course it's not the phrasing here that's harsh or over the top but the suggestion itself. It's notable that Azula's mind puts it in Ty Lee's mouth and not Mai’s (we'll get to that in a bit). But Azula has at this point been running from help and instead fomenting domestic terrorism for years for her own twisted and convoluted reasons and not because most of the comics are shit. And she's a noted liar. Of course, she's not the liar the show builds her up to be, or the liar she herself brags about being. We don't actually see Azula lie all that often in the show and when we do, there's usually a pretty decent explanation (like she's overthrowing an enemy city).

It's important to note that Zuko is being ridiculous in his flashback in Zuko Alone - that's my favorite episode but eight years olds developmentally cannot control when they lie or often even distinguish that they've done so (ten year olds can usually distinguish when they're lying better, but not by much). Zuko at ten and 16 gets a pass because he knows nothing about child development and I'm sure his little mantra didn't spontaneously generate; I suspect Iroh or Ursa handed it to him at some point. But we as viewers know better and cannot take, "Azula always lies," as any kind of proof of anything beyond the abusive nature of both of their childhoods. And given that the nature of these "lies" at the time probably mostly consisted of either ways to avoid punishment, or things she legitimately didn't even do but nobody believed, I think eight year old Azula gets a pass at the time. I had a childhood that was in many ways similar to Azula's. It creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the people around you decide you're lying all the time, you're like, "OK, bet."

But that really gets to why Ty Lee's words are so harsh in these panels. Because when you grow up like that, as Azula has, the person you end up lying to the most is yourself. And she's still not ready to face that even by the end of the comic. She's aware she needs help, but it's too scary to reach out for it when in reality nobody is there for her and she's all alone, by her own doing (another thing the comic drives home).

In fact, Azula's subconscious chooses to drive that fact home through Mai. And Subconscious Mai is a lot less nice in her phrasing than Subconscious Ty Lee. I don't think that's an accident. Irl, Azula probably looked to Mai as a gauge for when she was going too far. "Oh, Mai wouldn't go in the slurry... well, okay, fair. I can see by looking at Ty Lee that that was pretty disgusting... And she got stuck in it by that Water peasant anyway, so it was pointless too." "I hated that stupid bear too." Etc etc. Essentially, she could trust Mai to call her on her bs. Which is what Mai did at the Boiling Rock, and Azula's subconscious knows it (but who's our princess best at lying to? Say it with me! Herself!).

And there's nobody she hates more than herself, either. (Actually, given Mai and Ty Lee's roles in this comic I think it's pretty clear that at least on a subconscious level, Azula really wants to make amends with them, which hurts, because... they don't.) The whole thing made me really just want to give her a hug. She needs one. I've been there.

I'm curious to see if she'll make an appearance in Ashes of the Academy. I actually think, given what was presented in Azula in the Spirit Temple, that she wants to change and grow into a better, more healthy person. Obviously that's going to look very different from Zuko's arc. Villain to antihero is not the same arc as antihero to hero. I think she's ready now to start walking that path, though, if she is approached by the right person. (Ty Lee or Mai.) Mai seems to be the more likely of the two to be willing just in terms of how their relationship has always been, how she currently feels about Azula, and given that she's prominent in the upcoming comic. Fingers crossed for some good material!