#answers: azula

[rivalsunraveled]

" in my defense, i simply do not vibe with the law. " to azula

"Oh, well, in that case..." She rolls her eyes, a few blue sparks at her fingernails as she holds up a hand. "Unfortunately for you, it doesn't matter what you vibe with or don't."

[beeturtlle]

Maizula nation please where r u

[demaparbat-hp]

In your Spitfire AU between Azula gaslight gatekeep girlboss attitude and Lu Ten II big puppy eyes they’re unstoppable duo

Woe betide those who stand in their way to greatness (aka Zuzu).

[missaccuracy]

In "Zuko Alone," I noticed that Ursa never calls Azula affectionately, unlike Zuko, whom she calls "darling". At the same time, Ozai calls Azula "my dear," but never calls Zuko that. I think this is interesting and shows which parent is closer to which child. What do you think about that?

Indeed, I've always thought it to be DELIBERATE that we see Ursa using affectionate language with Zuko and Ozai with Azula, but not the other way around.

Ozai calls Azula "my dear", but whenever he addresses Zuko, he almost always calls him "prince Zuko". Ursa also takes a more official tone when addressing Azula, calling her "young lady".

We have no evidence of Ursa calling Azula endearingly on screen, but at the same time, I honestly don't think that she never did that with Azula.

What I personally think happened is that Ursa used to use affectionate language with Azula, when she was younger, just like Ozai used to do with Zuko, but with time, they both stopped, when Ozai started to see the sides of Zuko he didn't like and Ursa started to see the sides of Azula she didn't like.

I think this subtle characterization element in Zuko Alone shows which parent understands which child better. With Ozai, it's obvious that he started to resent Zuko, and with Ursa, I don't think she hated Azula, but she didn't understand her and started to instinctively keep distance from her, paying more attention to Zuko, which unfortunately, contributed to a horrible result for Azula in the end.

[firenaition]

[akiizayoi4869]

Asking this bc replies on your posts are restricted, but re the post about Ursa not including Azula as Ikem’s child as well as Zuko in her letters

When people marry into the FN royal family they’re no longer allowed contact with people from their previous life (something to do with the Camelia-Peony wars I think but idk). If Zuko was conceived on their wedding night or close after, there’s a chance Ursa could have already been pregnant with him, whereas that’s obv impossible for Azula.

So it’s not bad writing or Ursa hating on Azula unfairly as a baby, it’s literally just timeline stuff

Trust me anon, I know all of that😂 that wasn't my point. My point (and pretty much everyone else's who has also criticized this stupidity) is the fact that she wrote that letter in the first place. It was incredibly stupid and dangerous. If Ozai really wanted to, he could have killed Zuko, since Ursa basically admitted that Zuko is a bastard child, the son of a peasant. Even worse, Ellua or Ozai could have shown that letter to AZULON. So yeah, there was plenty of ways that shit show could have gone south. Secondly, if someone reads that with zero context of why Ursa wrote that letter, someone like, oh I don't know, Azula? She would conclude that her mother apparently didn't love her at all, and always thought that she was a monster from the moment she was born. That is my problem with all of this. It makes Ursa look unbelievably stupid, a terrible mother who decided it was a wonderful idea to use her son to piss off her abusive husband, all because Yang wanted pointless drama in regards to whether or not Zuko was actually Ozai's son, when anyone with a brain reading that would know that he is.

[marinette-buginette]

Do you have any unpopular Azula headcanon?

I don't know what counts as popular or unpopular headcanons but here we go:

Kids love Azula. For the life of her, she cannot understand why but they do.

In my mind, it is because she treats them as their own persons instead of babying them or sneering at their existence (now don't get it twisted there are for sure kids she finds annoying but she won't make it visibly known to them)

If a kid tells Azula facts about their favourite thing, she will listen with interest. She will ask serious follow up questions regardless of how silly the topic is (oh your plushies are having an argument... Ah I see, a diplomatic conundrum. Have we considered setting a negotiation room during the next tea party?). There is no dismissivness there. She doesn't mince her words, she doesn't talk to them with that smidge of adult superiorness. And they absolutely adore her for that.

[amillionmagpies]

Do you think that Azula's mother literally called her a monster / was afraid of her, or was that Azula's child-mind taking it that way? So curious!

Okay, I have a lot of thoughts about this, thank you for the ask!

I don't think Ursa ever called her a monster - I don't know much about her that wasn't in the original show (I haven't read the comics, which I've heard she shows up a lot more in), but my read on Ursa is that she loved her kids and was trying her best in an absolutely fucked situation. One of the things I've gathered by fandom osmosis is that Ursa did not want to be married to Ozai. She was hunted down for being a descendant of Avatar Roku, and married against her will to one of the worst people in the world. I really do think she tried her best for her kids, but I think she was doomed to fail them from the start.

My take is that, once it became clear that Azula was the prodigy - and thus, her father's favorite - Ursa decided that Azula didn't need her as much as Zuko did. She didn't have any understanding of how damaging being the 'golden child' in a golden-child/scapegoat dynamic can be, she just knew that it seemed like Ozai loved Azula and hated Zuko, so Zuko needed her protection. In some ways, she was right - Zuko absolutely did need her protection - but Azula needed it too.

Now, Azula is shown to be not only a firebending prodigy, but also a fucking genius. But she was also a child. So she knew that her father was cruel, and she knew the punishment for failure would be being treated like Zuko, which was the most terrifying thing in the world (in canon, that's the trigger for her truly starting to spiral). And she saw that Ursa was spending more time with Zuko, and trying to protect him from Ozai. So the conclusion she came to was, "Mom loves Zuko, but she doesn't love me. If I fail, Dad will treat me like he treats Zuko, but Mom won't protect me like she protects Zuko. So I need to be perfect, because there's no one who will protect me except myself." And 'perfect' meant not only skill, but cruelty.

I do think Ursa was scared of that cruelty. I think she didn't understand that by favoring Zuko (not in how much she loved him, but definitely in how she treated him), she had driven Azula even farther towards her father. All Ursa knew was that somehow, her sweet little girl (because yes, I think she probably was sweet as a child - most children are, at least when they're with people they like and trust) had been replaced by a tiny version of Ozai. And I think Ozai scared her more than anything in the world.

I also think Azula would have picked up on that - not only was she not stupid, she definitely had traumatic hypervigilance, particularly about what people thought of her (since that was the most important part of staying safe from Ozai), and she's shown to be a skilled manipulator in canon. She would have known Ursa was scared of her, and she translated that into "Mother thinks I'm a monster" because she was already starting to think of herself as a monster. In canon, the line immediately following "my own mother thought I was a monster" is "she was right, of course."

Azula was the golden child, but she had absolutely no support system (ask me about Iroh sometime, if you're prepared for a rant). Zuko was the scapegoat, but at least he had people who were there for him, who showed him love and did their best to protect him. Neither of them were safe in that family, but Zuko had other people who tried to keep him safe. Azula only had herself, and she did what was needed to survive. And I think that Ursa was terrified of that.

[sooz-again]

June x Azula (that is a rare pair right?)

I think this is an idea I've tossed around with @krastbannert before, so I'm going to just pull from that (because I half remember it).

Post canon, Azula goes missing. Maybe she has escaped (from prison, from being institutionalized, whatever), maybe she just dips out in the middle of the night(I'm a big fan of the second option, to be honest; I'm a big sucker for Azula becoming one of the people working with Zuko post war, making decisions for their country, offering advice, etc. She has such a logical mind and can make the necessary and sometimes difficult decisions, and can sniff out a problem from a mile away. If she and Zuko end up on good terms, Zuko would be a fool not to have her work alongside him.

Anway, Azula dips one night. Just flat out disappears, leaving only a note that says she has not been kidnapped, and not to look for her. So of course Zuko would look for her. Figuratively, at least; he can't exactly go after her alone, he's got a country to run. He sends guards to look for her, sends mercenaries, trackers, all come up with nothing. So he calls on June for help, offers her a ton of gold pieces for her to find Azula and bring her home.

She finds Azula, obviously. Not sure if it's some very rural area of the Fire Nation, or if Azula went off to the Earth Kingdom, but Azula isn't somewhere fancy or luxurious. Maybe staying at a run down inn, maybe she's staying with a farmer; either way, it's a far cry from the palace. And Azula isn't dressed as a royal either, but in clothes appropriate to blend in wherever she has gone.

It becomes very apparent very quickly that Azula wasn't kidnapped or being held hostage, and in talking to her (because once it's clear there's no danger or immediate threat of a fight or Azula being carted off, there's no reason not to start by simply talking with her), June learns that Azula left of her own volition. That she decided she didn't want that life anymore and wanted to try living any other way.

That's fine and good, but June isn't getting paid to tell the Fire Lord that his little sister doesn't want to come home. She's going to take Azula back to the palace and get her money, and the two Fire Nation royals can figure out their family issues themselves once she's gotten her big fat payday. Unfortunately, Azula doesn't quite feel the same way, and attempts to give June the slip.

It's one of the better chases June has been on, she'll give Azula that, as soon as Nyla paralyzes her, it's over, and they can make their way back to the Fire Nation palace. It's a several day trip, what with needing a ferry (or two or three) from island to island, and they don't have much to do but talk. Not that the talks start out conversational; there's at first threats from Azula, but that's to be expected. Then mild talk about meals and the discomfort of ropes at her wrists and ankles. And then, on the second day, there's comments on the weather, and demands to be untied. It's funny though, the way Azula asks (demands) to be allowed to walk or ride the shirshu on her own; when she says she isn't going to run, that knowing it would only result in being paralyzed again is enough to deter her, June is strangely inclined to believe her. Still, not one to take an unnecessary risk, she prods at that, asking Azula why that is.

Azula reveals that she'd been temporarily paralyzed once before, at the hands of a former friend, and never wants to experience that again. She can't imagine anything more terrible to experience than that.

It's possibly a lie. But Nyla will also get her faster than Azula can run, so June unbinds Azula's feet.

They continue traveling. Talks become more conversational; Azula asks about June's life as a tracker, actually appearing moderately interested in it. June doesn't dive too deep, doesn't get into anything personal, only that it's a job and it pays well, and she's good at what she does.

Azula seems to appreciate that, though.

Eventually, June asks why she left the palace, and the way that she had; suddenly and sneakily. Azula struggles to respond at first, and it doesn't seem like she's avoiding the question, but instead trying to find the right words, and her response ends up being surprisingly vulnerable.

She explains that, her whole life, she has lived to be of use to whoever was Fire Lord. She has always been the right hand man, so to speak, and she has the talents for it; she knows that she is good at what she does. She's always been good at being given a challenge and finding a solution for it. But there's not ever been a time to consider if this is what she wants.

She recalls an old friend, who had once disappeared in the middle of the night to run off and join a circus. June laughs and asks if that's what she really wants to do, join a circus? And Azula explains that no, not at all, but she's always envied the former friend for doing it at all. That she had the guts to run from her life and start completely new to figure out what it is she wanted. Azula wanted the chance to do the same.

Her answer sticks with June in an odd way.

-

Maybe, for the first time in June's life, June ends up unsure if she wants to fulfill a deal. Maybe she decides to continue on and turn Azula in and gets her coin. Maybe Azula runs away again and June has to go after her again, and they end up constantly seeing each other this way. Or maybe she decides not to bring Azula back to Zuko. Azula had seemed curious about her lifestyle, why not let her get a taste of it for a while?

There's a lot of fun possibility to play with here. I'm a fan of June/Azula.

[balanceoflightanddark]

Hey, I know that the recent comic has gotten everyone down and out of sorts about Azula’s and the treatment form the bigwigs towards both Azula and subset of fans, it was quite a disappointing in many aspects.

Have you ever played Skyrim? Well one of my favorite characters in that game is Paarthurnax. Who was at one point dragon that enforced his elder brother Alduin’s tyranny over the Nordic populace of Skyrim, and helped his brother shirk his duty in ushering in the end of the Kalpa. Until though various reasons (including divine intervention…) he changed his ways and joined the Nords in their just rebellion.

After the war was won he sought seclusion and a life of contemplation and isolation on the “throat of the world” (the tallest mountain in the game lore). Almost like he was a medieval Stylite. Though the fact he was a dragon with wings does kind of take away from that a bit…

So Paarthurnax was an actual remorseful Philsopher who lived life as a hermit of sorts. Basically becoming the Iroh like figure the ATLA fandom likes to pretend Iroh is.

But during the game Paarthurnax says an amazing quote that stuck with me "What is better: to be born good or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?".

So Azula was a bully as a kid, whoopty fuckin doo. That doesn’t change that she fought and bled for her nation, was prepared to sacrifice her own life at multiple points in the story (such as during the eclipse for example or at the Air Temple) for its betterment (or at least was she was taught would be the Fire Nations betterment). In a similar vein to how Iroh did. Only much more successfully and bloodlessly.

Because while I reject the silly fandom notion that she was born wholly and utterly evil, she was raised in the Fire Nation’s imperial system. And has to overcome that taught imperialistic beliefs through “great effort” (which I think is happening to do in your story).

So anyway, this was my long winded way of saying, thank you for writing an awesome story (though ongoing) and we can all (or at least I am) consider to be the actual canon and ending for Azula!

Thanks for the response. I AM working on Chapter 24. It's just I had a lot of work this week and I've got a project for school. Finals are coming up, and I want to focus on that a bit. I'll still try to fit in as much work as I can.

Anyways, the comic. Yeesh. Do I even need to say anything about what a mess that was? I'm just shocked that they made almost every Fire Nation character, sans Azula, unlikable at this point. Which is incredible. We have two victims of abuse (Ursa and Zuko), an old regretful general (Iroh), two girls mistreated by the system (Mai and Ty Lee), and a toddler (Kiyi). You'd have to go out of your way to make those characters insufferable, yet somehow they found a way. On accident. By their creators. That's got to be near impossible odds, isn't it? Somebody do the math for me. I need to know.

It would almost be awe-inspiring if it weren't so rage-inducing. And they didn't go out of their way to insult Azula's fans. And they didn't pretend these guys were the pinnacle of morality or something.

Which is part of the reason I love Paarthurnax so much. There's a good reason why he's my favorite character in Skyrim, and he's a fan favorite overall. Simply put, he basically is what people would imagine Iroh to be. He formerly supported his brother Alduin in subjugating mortals before turning against him. When we meet him in-game, he's become enlightened and offers to guide the Dragonborn in the way of the Voice.

Here's what makes him compelling: Paarthurnax knows damn well what he did was wrong. He knows that people won't forgive him like the Blades if they find out who he is and admits he'd do the same if he were in their shoes. Hell, he's correct in saying that trusting a dragon like him is a big gamble. But that's what makes him compelling. Rather than giving into his instinct to dominate and his background of oppressing others, Paarthurnax sought to meditate and work on addressing his issues. He used to look down on mortals, so he befriends mortals and aids them in their time of need. He used the Voice to dominate the "weak", so he teaches others the Voice and establishes the Greybeards on how the Voice should be used. He aided Alduin, and so he willingly aided the heroes the first time around, aids the Dragonborn in their quest to stop his brother, and fights Alduin himself when they cross paths.

Paarthurnax knows he can do evil, so he makes damn sure that the chances of that happening are slim. "What is better: to be born good or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?". There is a reason that quote is so poignant. He's saying that anybody can overcome their dark side if they work on it, and it's more rewarding to actually tackle their problems instead of ignoring them.

It's what an Azula redemption arc should be about. She should acknowledge her dark side and that she's a bad person, but resolve to try and fix it. She's already halfway there. She's questioning herself in the mirror scene. Even in the comics, it's shown she is willing to change her behavior and bury her grudges if given the opportunity. The problem is that she doesn't see herself as worth salvaging, and nobody is willing to argue against her. That's the ultimate tragedy and something that could work for almost all the Fire Nation characters. How do you be good when you've done so much wrong? Zuko's struggled with it. Iroh's struggled with it. So why not Azula and all the rest?

That's what I hope to accomplish with my story. She's not there yet and she's going to be making some mistakes in the coming chapters. But I'm hoping to get her there. Thank you so much for the ask and I hope to get back to working on the fic as soon as I can.

[rivalsunraveled]

❝ azula, you bring this upon yourself. ❞ / iroh @ azula

Her lip curls in anger, glaring up at her uncle. The anger burns in her eyes hotly before she draws in a breath and, on the exhale, her expression grows cold, unaffected.

"Oh, sure..." she hums, looking at her fingernails casually. "It would have been a much smarter move for me to run my mouth at father and get myself banished, right?"

Is it her fault that her father was the only one who favored her over Zuko? Hardly.

"I guess if I'd been as needy as my brother, you would have fawned over me instead, so maybe I did bring it on myself."

[erisenyo]

what's your opinion on kiyi?

I think Kiyi is an amazing bomb to throw into the relationship Zuko and Azula have witu Ursa. I'm significantly less interested in the "Zuko is a doting older brother" genre of fic (or worse, 'Zuko trial runs being a dad') than I am in how knowledge of Kiyi's existence and life blows up both Zuko and Azula’s assumptions about their mother and forces them to grapple with the reality of Ursa as she is instead of their childhood memories of her.

Obviously part of this depends on how you take the origins of Kiyi's existence. I havent read the comics, I dont necessarily think of them as canon. But the idea that Ursa committed this huge act to save her son, fled her home and left her kids behind in an abusive environment, gave up her identity and memories because she couldn't deal with the guilt of it, and just started over? THAT'S some amazing material to work with when it comes to forcing Zuko and Azula to grapple with the realities of the trade offs Ursa had to make (or felt she did) and how it impacted them.

Zuko has a very idealized memory of his mother, as one does, and that Ursa is very, very human (not a villain. Human). And Azula conceives of Ursa as something much more monstrous, and again. How does that play out in the light of her adult/more grown up understanding of Ursa, without Ozai in her ear to inform her perspective?

Which is all to say...I find Kiyi interesting for the weight she exerts on the Zuko-Ursa-Azula relationship. Less so because of herself, unfortunately.

But man does her existence blow up all those assumptions her half siblings have in a really delightful way lol

[demaparbat-hp]

I always LOVE seeing how different artists style the gaang, especially Zuko, azula, katara and sokka.

It’s so interesting to see, for example, if an artist styles Azula and zuko more like ursa, or more like Ozai. Or Azula more like ursa, and Zuko more so ozai. And vice versa. Idk its just always so interesting to me, and annoying coz it throws my own art into chaos lmao

I love love love LOVE how you draw each of these characters though, it rlly fits. And it’s given way to me seeing more of ursa in zuko and azulas features which is soooooo fun (and tragic) to play and draw around with

Ah, thank you so much! I'm obsessed with features and how they play into character design, especially when drawing family members. Your ask made me so happy!

Figuring out how siblings look, which features they get from each parent, it's frustrating sometimes. But it's also really fun. I'd love to think that Zuko and Azula look more like their mother than they realize, so here's a little sneak peek into a post I'll be making in...about twenty minutes? Yes?

Hope you like it!

[missaccuracy]

What are your thoughts about an AU where Azula is Iroh's daughter? I've seen this idea in the fandom and I'm just curious.

Oh, I'm a bit torn about this. On the one hand, it can be interesting because it has a lot of potential for drama and especially because I find it ironic that the person Iroh clearly disliked turned out to be his daughter. And they really do have a lot in common, whether they like it or not. They both had a strong military spirit and ambition.

I think it also depends on whether Ozai knows about it or not. I think it would be more interesting if he found out somehow. It would absolutely crush him to know that his prodigy daughter is actually his brother's. Ozai already has an inferiority complex about his brother, and this knowledge would make him even angrier.

I wonder how that would change his relationship with Azula. I think he'd be disappointed that she's not his daughter, but at the same time he'd use her to hurt his brother, and would always rub it in in Iroh's face that he missed out on raising Azula, and she'd always be more loyal to him.

The thing that bothers me about this, though, is that I really like the idea that Ursa and Ozai had a good relationship at the beginning of their marriage (which is implied in the canon), so I'm not very fond of the idea that Ursa cheated on Ozai with Iroh. And frankly, I don't like it when it's used to push for Azula's redemption; if anything, I think it'd make Azula even more of a villian, as she'd try even harder to prove herself to Ozai, to convince herself that she's worthy to be by his side, even if she's not his biological daughter.

Overall, while I'd prefer canon, but it's still a very interesting idea for an AU that has a right to be explored.

[akiizayoi4869]

Not the saddest but a very tragic Mai-Azula scenario would be if Azula died before Mai got to tell her that she forgives her.

I just imagine Azula being in a hospital in a coma and Mai reusing to leave her side because she's waiting for her to wake up and tell her what she needs to hear.

Noooo, anon why😭

[marinette-buginette]

Sokka: I think we are having some marriage issues

Azula: But we are not married

Sokka: Yes, that is the main one