#azula deserved better

[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.

[xensilverquill]

[pizzaboat]

How bad is it that at 8 years old, Azula lost her mother, and at the same time 14 year old Azula is convinced her mother thought she was a monster

How much scolding and clashing was there between a parent and child, for an 8 year old to get that much of an impression and that it stuck with them that much into their mid teens?

Also, have you seen 8 year olds? Why would you ever turn your back on one? How the hell could you not assume the 8 year old with fire powers isn't going to burn things just because "fire is cool" or "I'm upset"

It's basically an extension of a benders body, so of course this angry kid, with no real gage for how she could hurt others is going to burn things, or pinch Zuko with fire when he tells on her

She was 8!

[zellaroonie]

Azula only stands for the lgbt

-ish. her brother is kinda homo n she doesn’t rlly like him so

[leantailean]

мелкий зуко тупая помидорка я не могу

[balanceoflightanddark]

Acknowledgement of Pain

I think one of the things that I feel Azula in the Spirit Temple gets right is acknowledging one of what I believe to be one of the pillars of her character.

That is, acknowledging what she went through, the pain she endured, was legitimate.

What do I mean by this? Remember that scene where Azula confesses that she feels like she's a monster at the fire pit during "The Beach"?

The way she brushes off her concerns about what she's doing is wrong? She has problems admitting to what is eating at her and opening her up to others. This is reinforced since...well Zuko isn't exactly the most sympathetic to Azula and her relationship with Mai and Ty Lee is strained. So it's not like she can admit to them either. Growing up under Ozai's influence probably wouldn't help since having concerns or internal struggles would probably be seen as "weak" in his eyes.

And weakness...well we all saw what happened to Zuko.

Privately though, we see another side to her:

Azula: Don't pretend to act proud. I know what you really think of me. You think I'm a monster. ... Azula: Well what choice do I have? Fear is the only reliable way. Even you fear me.

Her strained relationship with Ursa and her belief that she's a monster does eat at her. It's not something she can just brush off so easily. Particularly when she doesn't have anybody to admit it to. Sure, she tries to make excuses like how fear is the only thing she knows how to get people to like her, but that's normal. Again, this is something that's instilled in her for years and it's not something she's good at handling by herself.

On some level, she DOES know she's hurting...but she can't admit it to herself since that would be a betrayal of everything Ozai built her up to be. And since Ozai was the only one who validated stuff like her talent with firebending and being more than just a troubled child, how could she tear that down without tearing herself down?

What I think Azula needs though...what she's craving...is for somebody to validate that yes, she was hurt. That her family and loved ones did hurt her. Yes, it might be misdirected since she lumps the Fire Warriors in there, but it's still valid since she probably wouldn't have a grasp on her feelings. I think what Azula wants is for her pain to be acknowledged and for somebody to say, "that's not right". In the environment she got, she never got the chance. And the spirit didn't help since it just labeled her a monster for rejecting its "redemption".

Hell, even her slaying of the Zuko image demanding she apologize to them doesn't acknowledge that she was hurt too and that neither party can entirely blame the other. It's all take and no give according to the spirit, which rightfully isn't treated as valid by Azula or the narrative. Otherwise, I think she would've faced more repercussions for defying it.

What Azula needs is for her pain to be acknowledged. Not brushed aside or downplayed. I mean to actually be acknowledged and treated with the amount of gravity it deserves.

[ly0nstea]

When Zuko isn't able to have a normal conversation on a date in season 2 it's "cute" and he's "such an awkward turtleduck awh oh my god."

When Azula has the exact problem verbatim in The Beach she's "a psychopath" and "a monster"

What, because azula made reference to the military and ruling the world she's a psychopath? What was she meant to do? Huh? You expect Azula to be able to compare their relationship to literally anything else? It isn't like she has a good basis to go off with her own parents.

It's a disgusting double standard

[glitzy-dynamite]

It was shocking when I found out that some people actually hate Azula. Like.. what. How is it even possible

[songazula]

i don't trust people who prefer atla ending to tlok ending...

[the-genius-az]

I was thinking about Azula and her family, and one thought broke my heart.

Azula: I love my family, it's just that they don't love me.

I think that's enough for today...

[nartml]

Azula deserved better, pass it on

[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?

[iil-nonbinary-baby-bitch]

God I LOVE Azulaang for many reasons but one of the best ones has got to be that it confirms that Aang has a type and it’s “My Friend’s Sister”

[being-somewhere-else]

Azula (with dragon)- ATLA fanart

[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

[high-on-cactus-juice]

honestly I’m kinda annoyed by people who view Azula as some irredeemable psychopathic monster cause that’s such a misunderstanding of her character and everything she represents.

don’t get me wrong my girl is crazy in the series, but she’s also just a 14 year old girl who was raised as a weapon her whole life by a goddamn EVIL DICTATOR. while her other parent was emotionally unavailable due to her own mental issues at the time (I’m not saying that Ursa was a bad parent, I’m saying that Ursa was fucking traumatised by being forcibly married to a tyrant, and she ended up seeing a reflection of her husband in young Azula). when one of your parents is a tyrannical power hungry ruler and your other parent is emotionally unavailable because they associate you with their trauma, of course that’s gonna fuck you up???

Zuko represents everything Azula could have been. the two siblings are placed as fundamental opposites because Zuko is the one who achieved his redemption while Azula descended further into madness. however we do ignore the fact that a big part of the reason Zuko chooses redemption is because of the actions of other people, because of the support he had from Ursa and Iroh and later the gaang members. and if Azula had been given the same circumstances from the start she could have been redeemed too, just like Zuko.

but she wasn’t given any outside perspectives of the world outside of her fathers brainwashing ideology. so of course she listened to the one parent that she was left with because that’s what she thought love was. she was a child who was raised by only being exposed to her father’s propaganda, in other words literally cult brainwashing.

people don’t understand that Azula is a tragic character and not a psychopathic one, because she COULD HAVE been a redeemed character, she had all the POTENTIAL to be redeemable, and the only reason why she wasn’t redeemed towards the end was because she actively CHOSE not to be redeemed. because how can she go against all she has ever known?

notice how when Iroh talks about Azula he says she is “crazy and needs to go down” because that’s the truth and that’s what needs to happen in that moment, BUT he doesn’t at any point say that Azula is irredeemable, because he knows that if she was given the same chances as Zuko she could have been redeemed.

also people throw around the word psychopath a little too easily. Azula does care about others to some extent, she has emotions and complex feelings that she doesn’t know how to express due to her fucked up upbringing, and unstable mental health. hating Azula has low key become a gateway into stigmatising people with mental health disorders and I don’t like that. if you’re gonna dislike Azula think of a better reason than “oh she’s psychopathic and heartless boohoo”