#common misconception about Azula

[balanceoflightanddark]

"Azula overturned Zuko's banishment, not because he really cares about him, it's just in case Aang survived her lightningblast and she'd sadistically frame Zuko as a scapegoat and save her own ass from Ozai's wrath!"

So, a lightningblast is not an instant-kill move? If it still is, then this plan can only work if Azula had supernatural clairvoyance, precognition, ESP, and/or is a Jedi. Which I recall none of these things being revealed.

Zuko completely spilled the beans about Azula making the blast and that Aang survived. Two episodes later, at the boiling rock, oh look! Azula is perfectly fine!

Ah yes. The blackmail. People just loooove to frame Azula's whole "giving Zuko the credit for killing the Avatar" maneuver as some master plan that Tzeentch would be proud of in order to bring her brother to ruin. Thing is, she had no way of knowing that Aang would have any chance of survival.

Something that she herself brought up before:

See? She genuinely believed the Avatar was dead and that Zuko had nothing to worry about. The whole myth about bringing Zuko back just to use him for blackmail doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Even with the common misconception that Azula is power-hungry, why bring back and restore somebody's status when she could've just used the Dai Li back in the Earth Kingdom?

Bringing Zuko back honestly did more damage to her chances for the throne in the long run if that's what she was after...and to her as well.

Did Azula blackmail Zuko? Yes. But you also have to remember that she figured out that Zuko was withholding information from her. Here's a post by my dear friend @akiizayoi4869 which goes into detail, but the short gist of it was that both siblings are equally guilty of hurting each other with this mess. And trying to pin the blame squarely on Azula is an attempt to make Zuko look better than he actually was.

But to the second point. It is true that we didn't see what Ozai did when Zuko threw her under the bus (a rather dick move of him I might add since he didn't really gain anything from it). Thing is, I don't think Ozai would've hurt Azula if he still had some use for her. He'd probably scare the hell out of her and give her an ultimatum of killing Zuko or killing the Avatar to get back into his good graces. Since she failed in both, that could factor in his decision to abandon her during Sozin's Comet since she wasn't needed anymore.

Honestly, that potential scene is a huge missed opportunity. One, it actually gives Ozai more development and elaborates on the relationship between him and Azula. Two, it helps paint Azula in a more sympathetic light and clears up some of the ambiguity around her actions. And three, establish that between the two, Ozai is the more heinous one if he threatens to do the same thing to Azula that he did to Zuko. It certainly would give this line a bit more weight:

Thing is...Book 3 had a LOT of writing problems and shortchanging characters when it came to development. We didn't really get any time with anyone from the Royal Family not named Zuko outside of "The Beach" to humanize them too much. Some of the story decisions such as Azula's breakdown do feel a bit rushed. And we also missed out on storylines which could've developed her a bit more, like the arranged marriage subplot. So while her getting a scene like I mentioned would make a lot of sense in terms of character development, I'm not really surprised given what we've seen from Book 3.

[sokkastyles]

I'm really interested in knowing your opinion on the power dynamics between Azula and Zuko. Azula's abuse of Zuko seems far more subtle and insidious as compared to Ozai's overt abuse, so I'm really curious as to how exactly she abused him. I really appreciate that you have a nuanced grasp on the topic and I'd love to know your thoughts!

Hello!

I see that you already found this post where I talk a bit about power dynamics. In that post I address some common misconceptions, specifically about the idea that Azula can't abuse Zuko because he is older and a boy, but that's one of the things that actually marks the dynamic as abusive, because Zuko would normally have power over Azula given those things, but he doesn't. You would think he would think of himself as more powerful than Azula, but because of the way Ozai favored Azula and treated Zuko as a scapegoat, Zuko sees his younger sister as much more powerful and capable than himself. And because he's been conditioned to think this way about his sister, he's easily taken advantage of by her.

And yes, it is a lot more subtle than Ozai's abuse of Zuko, not just because it's not typically what we think of as abuse because of Azula's age and gender, but also because it's different than Ozai's overt violence towards his son. Although Azula and Zuko do fight, it's not Azula fighting Zuko or trying to capture him that makes her abusive. Not even when she announces her intention to kill him. That kind of stuff is typical for the genre, so it's not abuse.

Abuse is about power dynamics, and like I said, Azula takes advantage of the power she has over Zuko. The word "gaslighting" is thrown around a lot on this website, but that's what it is when Azula, for example, comes to Zuko deliberately lying to him about her intention to take him back home and that Ozai wants him back, mocks him for being skeptical and mistrustful at first (which he should be), until he finally agrees to trust her, then pulls the rug out from under him and mocks him for believing her. Not only is she playing on what she knows Zuko's deepest desires and insecurities are, she's deliberately playing on his doubt to make him question what's really going on, because it's easier for her to be in control if Zuko can't trust his own perception of what's going on.

Although Azula's abuse of Zuko is more subtle than Ozai burning his son's face, you can be sure that Azula learned how to pull her personal type of psychological manipulation from Ozai, too, because it's exactly what Ozai does to Zuko psychologically right before burning him, by forcing him into an agni kai that he can't possibly win, punishing him for simultaneously being "disrespectful" and for not fighting back. No wonder Zuko has a problem processing what his father did to him. Ozai deliberately messes with Zuko's perception of events to keep him under his control.

Ozai does this to Azula, too. Take, for example, when he makes her stay behind in the finale, letting her be crowned fire lord but in a way that feels like a punishment. She's his golden child, and thus better than everyone around her, but if she can't live up to that exacting standard, she has nothing to fall back on. She doesn't know why she feels empty after getting everything she seemingly wanted. She blames her mother for her unhappiness because it can't be that her father did this to her. That's what Ozai wants her to think, anyway.

We see Azula repeat these same patterns with Zuko. And although Zuko does not believe that Azula is good and justify her treatment of him the way he and Azula both do with Ozai, he does accept it because he's been conditioned to by Ozai. He occasionally tries to fight back, to argue with her, but he never wins those arguments, partly because he's been psychologically conditioned to believe he's inherently inferior to her, and partly because Azula having Ozai's favor gives her power over him. Azula knows she can say or do whatever she wants to Zuko and get away with it. In the flashbacks we see that even their mother's influence is not enough to stop her, and Azula knows that, too. We see Azula treat Zuko cruelly and then outright lie to Ursa about it on multiple occasions, we see her taunt him in front of both their parents because she knows she can get away with it, and when Ursa finally is no longer able to reach her children, Azula very explicitly taunts Zuko with the fact that Ursa is no longer there to protect him and stop her from doing whatever she wants to him. We see Zuko try to defend himself from Azula by telling himself she is lying, that she's just trying to scare him, etc., but when she asks him "who's going to stop me? Mom?" we see his face fall because he knows that he has no protection at all.

I see a lot of people dismiss this as normal sibling behavior, but you have to look at the context in which it takes place. Azula doesn't just say mean things to her brother, she says things that she knows Zuko can't counter against because she has Ozai's blessing - and in fact, his encouragement - to treat him cruelly, and Zuko was raised in an environment where he was told he deserved this treatment. And again, she repeatedly utilizes this power dynamic to make Zuko doubt his perceptions. Which is why I push so hard back against the idea that she was just trying to "protect" him in book three when she holds her lie to Ozai about him killing the Avatar over him and tells him he should be grateful about it, or that she's just trying to protect him by warning him to stay away from Iroh (who actually IS trying to protect him), or that the scene where she belittles him for daring to question the FN propaganda which they were taught growing up is a "nice sibling bonding moment." None of these are nice moments. They are moments of abuse and Azula is complicit in keeping Zuko in a situation that is abusive and keeps telling him he should be grateful to her for it, while constantly belittling him at the same time, which reinforces the idea that he should be grateful because he doesn't deserve or know better. But he does, and he's right. He's right to question the things she says. He's right not to trust her, and he's right to fight back, when he starts to gain the confidence and perspective as the series goes on to be able to do so, and he doesn't owe her for "defending" him to Ozai when she brought him to Ozai in the first place, knowing what their father did to him before. It's not help if you're the reason the situation exists in the first place, but that is a manipulation tactic utilized by abusers, and Azula learned very well from her father.

[ellakomskaikru]

Azula showing mercy

A common misconception about Azula that I have heard is that she is a merciless killer who has no regard for human life or that she is sadistic. That isn’t true. There were many instances where Azula could have killed a character if she wanted, but didn’t. There are also instances where she could have been cruel for no reason, and she wasn’t.

In Appa’s Lost Days, Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee encounter the Kyoshi Warriors and end up fighting them. It doesn’t show the entire fight but it is later discovered that Azula and her team won. We later see that Suki was put in the Boiling Rock prison and the rest of the Kyoshi Warriors were put in another prison. Of course, Azula putting them into prison wasn’t nice. But it was wartime, and the Kyoshi Warriors were allies of the avatar, and therefore Azula’s enemies. But instead of just killing them and therefore eliminating another threat, she put them in prison.

In The Crossroads of Destiny, Katara mistakingly alerted Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee of the presence of Zuko in the city. When Katara realized that they were not the Kyoshi Warriors, Ty Lee was too fast and chi blocked Katara, which made her fall to the ground and made her unable to move. Azula could have just killed Katara there. She could have still used her to lure Aang to Ba Sing Se, he didn’t need to know that she had been killed. Azula could have eliminated a very formidable opponent, but instead, she chose to throw Katara in prison with Zuko.

In The Boiling Rock, Azula shows up at the prison and encounters the warden of the prison, who was questioning a gaurd and accusing him of having been involved in an escape attempt with prisoners. Although the guard kept saying that it wasn’t him that was involved, the warden did not believe him and would have continued questioning him if Azula had not said that the guard wasn’t the one who did it. If Azula were sadistic, she wouldn’t have cared and would have found the situation amusing, but she didn’t.

Azula does not have a disregard for human life, nor is she sadistic. She does absolutely have a mean streak. But she only went for the kill when she had to. For example, when Aang was going to go into the avatar state in Ba Sing Se, in which he would practically be unbeatable, Azula decided to shoot him before he could. It was a calculated decision made to protect herself and the Fire Nation in the future. I’m not excusing her action, but I am saying that Azula usually aimed to incapacitate and imprison her opponent if she could and only went for the kill when she felt she really had to.

[hello-nichya-here]

Uh stupid question because I didn't pay attention... how did Ozai abuse Azula apart from abandoning her before burning the Earth Kingdom? If you want to, you could even make a list

Just like Ozai's abuse of Zuko started long before he ever gave that boy a scar, his abuse of Azula is quite clear in the show, and the only reasons people miss it are:

1 - He never physically abused her

2 - When showing what life at the palace is like, the narrative focuses almost exclusively on Zuko (who has a physical, undeniable evidence of abuse literally burned on his face, and who Azula often acted as an antagonist to in the story)

Let me get to the specifics so you understand.

Conditional "Love"

Let’s get the biggest misconception the fandom has about Ozai and Azula’s relationship out of the way: Ozai doesn’t care about Azula, and that is VERY CLEAR, even back in “Zuko Alone” when she was just eight years old. Ozai is a terrible father to Zuko, yes, but that doesn’t automatically means he was a good parent to Azula.

“But she is his favorite!” Yeah, she’s his favorite weapon. His favorite soldier. There isn’t a single scene in the entire series in which Ozai isn’t using Azula as some kind of prised possession that he can show off to people and is instead treating her like a kid he is proud of and LOVES, or having some normal father-daughter time with her, or having a meal with her, or showing her any amount of care, or demonstrating that he is aware of (or interested in knowing about) anything that is going on in her personal life. Not a single one. For fuck’s sake, even Iroh giving her that stupid doll was sweeter than anything did for her, and even Toph just saying “You’re pretty good, I admit that” during the invasion was more genuine than any affection Ozai showed her.

Azula is only his favorite because she is a prodigy. Ozai doesn’t give a shit who she is as a person, and if she were to ever lose her bending or fail to meet his expectations, he would immediately start despising her.

Fear, Mimicking And Scapegoats

When we look at many of Azula's words and actions, we can see that A LOT of it is obviously her immitating Ozai (90% of all the awful things she said in "Zuko Alone" were obviously things she heard from Ozai, and in Black Sun the show basically screamed SHE'S COPYING HER DAD when they added that transition from Ozai manipulating Zuko to Azula manipulating Sokka). That's something very important to take into consideration when discussing her character, but ESPECIALLY when looking into how she was abused.

It is VERY common for abuse victims to (conciously or not) try to copy their abuser and praise themso they'll be seen as being a loyal friend/relative/partner that is on their side, and not as a potential target. It is also very common for abusive parents to favor one kid over the other - and for “the golden child” to be terrified of ever becoming the scapegoat that is blamed for every misfortune and that can’t do anything right. Azula’s lines of “You can’t treat me like that, you can’t treat me like Zuko!” and “I deserve to be by your side!” come to mind.

That shows us that she is aware her father’s “love” for her is conditional, and that her being a prodigy who knows what to say to him is the ONLY reason why she is not treated like her brother.

Which brings us to two other major things that are over-looked: Being forced to witness abuse is a form of abuse, and psychologists have found that it is very common for the eldest child to be seen by their younger siblings as example of what to do AND what not to do. Ozai burned his son, his heir, in front a crowd - that included his 11-year-old daughter. That was him punishing Zuko, yes, but it was also him sending everyone, including Azula, a very clear message “Don’t EVER piss me off, no matter how important you think you might be, or else.” The novelizations of the show make that even clearer when it has Azula explicitly terrified of being disfigured when Ozai yells at her in the finale.

Impossible Standards

Let’s go back to that “I deserve to be by your side” line. By that point, Ozai had ONE “justification” to be a douch-bag to her: she lied to him about Zuko killing the Avatar. However, he wasn’t really acting any different in the episodes before he found out about that.

Let’s think about what he asked of her: Capture Zuko and Iroh. She captured Iroh, conquered Ba Sing Se, and brought him an extra heir that he believes is so powerful and strong that he killed the Avatar. She went above and beyond for her father, and it wasn’t enough. And even when you consider that Zuko “killed” Aang and Ozai put him at his right hand, the bastard still didn’t properly invite him to the meeting, and there’s no way he didn’t know this was going to fuck with Zuko’s mind. And Ursa killed his father and forged his will, allowing him to be Fire Lord, and also sparing him from having to kill one of his heirs, and was rewarded by being banished.

Nothing anyone does is ever enough for Ozai, nor will it ever be, and the show straight up rejects the idea that Azula is the exception to this. Zuko said that Ozai used to say that Azula was born lucky while he was lucky to be born, which yeah is a horrible thing to say to his son, but it's also him dismissing all of Azula's talent, effort and success as dumb luck, which is just heartbreaking considering how hard she works to please him. Her introduction episode has her chastising herself for having one hair out of place while practicing her firebending because almost isn't good enough. The mere fact that Azula tried to hide the possibility of Aang having survived, even after all of her acomplishments, shows that Ozai doesn't forgive mistakes and/or failures from anyone, not even his "favorite".

Emotional Isolation/Manipulation

Ozai is a manipulative bastard. He knows how to make his victims stand with him when they shouldn't and even blame themselves for the awful things he does to them. Once again, Azula is not the exception.

The earliest example we can see of that is in "Zuko Alone." The things Azula says about the potential/real deaths of her family members and the grief her other relatives are experiencing are disturbing... but not just because of how it affects the people she says those things to.

Ask yourself: Who put all of these ideas in her head? Who made her think of her own family as obstacles to be dealt with? Who told her, an 8-year-old, that her grandfather was going to die? Who made this child believe that not only is there nothing wrong with a father not caring that his child is death, but also that it is a sign of weakness to care about someone in her family to die and for the others to mourn them? It was obviously Ozai.

And what are other things that he taught her? Again "Almost isn't good enough" aka, "You're not worth a goddamn thing unless you're absoultely perfect" (something no human can be, and something completely unfair to demand of anyone, especially of a child). He is not being unreasonable, oh no, obviously his traumatized kid is the problem.

"Fear is the only reliable way" once again, a terrible thing to teach to anyone, let alone a child, and yet another instance of Ozai avoding responsibility for his own actions - he is not threatening to everyone, including his children, because he's an abusive asshole, oh no, it is simply normal to use fear to control others. This one also has the bonus of giving Azula a completely warped idea of how human relationships work, to the point that, in the end, she has no one but her father.

And that wasn't the only way Ozai isolated Azula. "Your brother Zuko is a failure" "She was born lucky, I was lucky to be born." The bastard made damn sure that his two kids, his two victims, would never try to find support in each other - Azula because she'd be afraid of being seeing as a failure for reaching out to/caring about her brother, and Zuko because he was taught to believe that his misery and disgrace, as a natural consequence, would result in his sister happiness and glory. It worked so well that even when Zuko realized that Ozai was abusing him, it didn't even occour to him that maybe Azula wasn't having that great of a life either. Again, the result is Azula having no one but Ozai.

And how does he deal with the responsibility of being the only person she has left? He excludes her from the biggest moment in the war so he can have all the glory to himself AND devastating her since she quite clearly just wanted to make him proud and, like she said, just be by his side. But then, suddenly, he lets her know that he is counting on her to defend their home, and that it's such an important task he can't trust anyone but her to handle it, and as a reward, she will be Fire Lord! This recontextualizes every single one of his actions as being done for her own good, and for her future...

Except he will be Phoenix King. The title of Fire Lord means nothing now, so Azula being given that crown is nothing but an empty gesture that was meant to manipulate her - just like Ozai treating Zuko somewhat nicely after he "killed the Avatar", then suddenly going back to being a dick and not inviting him to the meeting, and then having him at his right hand, and, finally, trying to kill him the second he noticed he was no longer willing to be a puppet. Ozai gives zero fucks about the emotional needs of either of his kids, and has the habit of giving them the affection and validation they so desperately want, only to then take it away for no reason.

Child Soldier

This one is a bit more tricky since having teenagers and even kids actively fighting in the war is far too normalized in the world of Avatar, but when you look at it, Ozai still stands out as the most obviously bad parent of the bunch.

On the day of the invasion, there are a bunch of kids the same age as Azula, and even younger, fighting. However, the heroes have limited numbers so the kids being involved is far more justified, and the second everything is going to hell, the adults all surrender so the kids will have a chance to live to fight another day. Meanwhile, Ozai has an entire army, plus the Dai Li agents, and has Azula acting as bait without her bending, while he is hidden away. If Ozai gave a shit about his kids, they'd both be hidden away with him because, sure, the guards and especially the Dai Li can protect them, but he clearly still deemed too dangerous for himself... and had his favorite essentially acting as his shield. Again, when you combine this with him trying to kill Zuko for standing up to him AND his complete lack of compassion for Iroh when Lu Ten died AND the fact that he conspired to murder his own father, the message is very clear: if it means he'll survive/be king, Ozai has no problem with either of his kids dying - be it by an enemy attack or by his own hands.

Conclusion

Azula deserved better and Ozai can go fuck himself.

[jasminedragonart]

Ok all this Azula talk has made me intrigued so let me rant away with my thoughts on this! I don’t know if you’ll publish this but heh, here I go anyways.

Azula most likely has feminine pieces of clothing for sure and I agree, they’re most likely few in between.

She does make herself seem older with makeup which honestly screams like a trauma effect on her rather than anything else if we’re going to delve into that mess. Azula being perceived as older than she is tends to be a very prevalent theme of her story and small details like this help support this common misconception about her age which is the point (still a mistake on the writers though).

The headpieces she wears as well just seem to be a Royal Family tradition thing. Though when she was younger in the flashbacks, her headpiece is most similar to Ursa’s but that changes quickly with her 14 year-old self. That screams a lot but it’s mostly just Azula moving up the ranks into the position of heir to the throne since she wears the same headpiece we see on Lu Ten’s portrait.

Even in the show, her more feminine clothing (Book 2) is different compared to someone like Ursa’s and Michi’s given that Azula seems to wear pants. In Book 3, she embraces a more masculine approach to clothing with the exception being the Beach episode (a setting where Azula is out of her comfort zone) and when she’s in casual robes when getting prepped up for the day or when she’s sleeping. Other than that, she’s wearing full on men’s clothing which is just really interesting given that she’s back in the FN where she’s most comfortable which implies Azula has a preference for masculine clothing…

I know you’ve probably gotten many messages similar to this but dissecting Azula’s character is just interesting especially when we’re on about topics like masculinity and femininity since Azula seems to exist somewhere in the middle or outside the binary line when it comes down to it. Azula was written in a very gender-queer way if you want to look at ATLA through a queer lens and that’s worth talking about.

Hope this helps or gives you more insight into this mess of a kid because she’s filled with complexity.

I think what we need to remember about Azula is that she's basically on a mission most of the time we see her. She's Zuko book 1. Meaning the armour she's wearing is because of a) her status, because she's a princess but she's also the next head of a military state meaning she dresses in military attire because it's expected of her. Also b) it's practical and she's expecting to encounter trouble while she's looking for her brother and the Avatar.

With this in mind, I think assuming she wears masculine clothes more than feminine is just a guess on our part. We do see her in relaxed feminine clothes, and while they might not be the same as Mai, Ty Lee and Ursa, we have to remember also that Azula is, again, a princess, and again, her own person with her own personal style.

I think it's very interesting that she dresses older as she is but also in armour. I think everything about her is interesting and I enjoy that people have different interpretations of her character.

[sokkagatekeeper]

As much as I love Zuko as a character, he's way too overrated in the fandom and fanon Zuko is weird to me, wasn't he supposed to be a jerk that tries to be a better person?

while i do try to stand as far from fanon as a concept as i can, i still believe it goes both ways. making zuko too much of an asshole is no better than making him too much of a baby, of which i have talked about before. there are plenty of misconceptions about zuko, so i’m just going to list a couple of fundamental things about his character that will hopefully get all of us in common ground.

zuko comes from a place of privilege despite his empathetic nature, he has a hard time understanding how the suffering of other people looks like from his personal point of view of his personal suffering. he is often insensitive and careless with other people and their suffering because of this. despite this, too, zuko feels for other people tremendously. he has been, to a much lesser degree, directly and visibly harmed by this same system (to! a! much! lesser! degree!!) as the people he himself has harmed because of his imperialism, and him being raised as the underdog, maimed and abused, experiencing ableism and homophobia (yes homophobia) are the reasons why he is able to let go of his imperialistic, nationalist mindset quicker than other kids might.

zuko cries. quite a lot! he does so mostly while angry, sometimes when he’s sad, but he does cry an awful lot. so, that’s something.

zuko is not naturally good or any other bullshit, but in a militaristic society that values what are considered traditionally masculine traits (assertiveness, leadership, cold-thinking and pragmatism, controlling, emotional suppressing) zuko is deeply, loudly feminine in a way that other people can blatantly see and judge him based on it. his arc involves breaking free of this pressure he has on his back to be “more of a man” than his personality allows him to. he overperforms a lot of his aggressiveness – the part of it that isn’t born out of his rage, that is – and he is certainly masculine in a fair amount of aspects, but many of his core traits are (in society and within the show) associated with femininity, such as emotional expressiveness, empathy and compassion, gentleness, kindness. as femininity is perceived as weak, zuko is therefore perceived as weak for displaying these traits from an early age and especially in contrast to azula, who displays many of the traits mentioned above. zuko doesn’t fit at all into the ideal of cold, detached version of masculinity that the fire nation preaches, which is what deteriorated his self-esteem and drove him to overperform his traditionally masculine traits out of desperation such as his commanding stance or getting really good at fighting people, or even as small as being stiff as hell when he wants to show vulnerability or show affection even towards his uncle. he did all of this in order to try and fit better into the mold of the man people told him he should be. but no matter how hard zuko worked to repress that core, fundamental part of him over the course of the series, whether these are qualities he born with, out of the love guidance and support he received from iroh & ursa, or a little bit of both, he is never able to stick to a cold, ruthless, detached mindset – he’s always intentionally and unintentionally working towards being better. these are not by any means indicative of zuko’s “inherent goodness”, but merely that he is gentle and kind because (again) he is a very emotional and empathetic person. that’s about it.

zuko is fundamentally the child prince of a racist imperialist and brainwaished country. he can be tone-deaf. he is very individualistic and determined to prove himself as a real man and he can be pretty myopic because of this. even though he’s kind, he hurt and hurts a lot of people.

zuko is generally more defensive than aggressive, with a few obvious exceptions such as chasing aang all over the world or burning down kyoshi island. his first reaction when he believes he’s being threatened, insulted, diminished, is to get angry. he can only react in a more calm manner if he’s in what he considers to be a safe space, such as with his uncle, and later on the gaang. he’s not going to be patient about being teased by azula or zhao, but he will sit down and learn to take a joke from katara during eip because he knows she’s not doing it to actually harm him or be cruel to him. at times, he sits down and takes iroh’s advice, or at the very least listens to it.

in conclusion, calling zuko soft is not incorrect. calling zuko a jerk is not incorrect. calling zuko only soft or only a jerk is throughoutly incorrect, as zuko is [gasp] a nuanced character. do with this what u will

[ultranos]

Isn't it weird that Suki in The Search calls Azula Zuko's prisoner and Mai calls Azula's asylum a prison in Smoke and Shadow? I thought that Azula was involuntarily psych warded due to her breakdown; does that mean that Azula was jailed for her crimes and that Zuko took mercy on her by placing her in a psych ward instead. Or that asylums in the ATLA world are considered prisoners? And is there any historical support for asylums being jails?

Mental health and it's understanding is all kinds of messed up in AtLA, to be honest. And that's kind of on how it's portrayed in the comics, with it's reinforcement of some very unfortunate and unsettling stereotypes and misconceptions.

I think the writers intended it to be interpreted as a mental institution, albeit not a modern one. But by having Suki and Mai say that, it does throw things into confusion for modern readers. Terminology, as it turns out, is important. And there's a bit of a connotative difference between "asylum" and "mental hospital" for us. One denotes a legitimate treatment facility while the other does not. This might or might not be true in practice, but in the minds of people today, that's kind of how it's seen. For one, there are "patients" at mental hospitals and "inmates" at asylums.

And yes, there is historical support for asylums being used as jails. It's a quite common tactic historically to label pesky political dissidents and troublesome opponents (particularly women) as "mentally ill" and have them involuntarily institutionalized to get rid of them. Actually jailing Azula would actually be giving her a foothold of legitimacy, identifying her as an actual political threat that he Zuko needs to keep as a political prisoner. But institutionalization calls her competence into question, casts doubt into any and all claims she makes. It’s a nasty and manipulative tactic to take out political rivals, and it’s one that’s been used before.

If anything, Suki and Mai saying that publicly lends credence to that particular conspiracy theory that's probably running around the Fire Nation. So that's...really kind of stupid of them to use that terminology, because it would tell Zuko's opposition "yep, Zuko totally is illegitimate and has imprisoned his legitimate rival to keep her out of the way of the throne, his foreign and domestic allies brag about it".

Maybe the writers intended us to understand that the asylum was not as good as today’s mental health facilities. Maybe they wanted to emphasize the involuntary nature of Azula’s admission to the facility. Or maybe the writer was just trying to make Suki and Mai out to be ablest assholes.

Bonus Disturbing: I learned the Fun Fact last week that childhood schizophrenia, you know the thing the comics keep trying to imply Azula has because they keep throwing bad mental health tropes at her? Up until the 1980s, that diagnosis tended to get slapped onto autistic people.

[phatphrog]

Zuko would be a Gryffindor and no, you can’t change my mind.

helloooo tumblr. I’m back from my lil hiatus- for now ;) but most importantly, I offer you this as I crawl out of my cave:

so, brief intro. This is based off of my original comments on Pinterest (pictured above), but hopefully written to be a bit more coherent. That comment section had some intense debates, but it was fun seeing everyone’s takes, so I thought I’d bring it over here. I saw lot of people on the Zuko=Slytherin side but, as you can see, I have some strong opinions to the contrary. You guys don’t know this about me but I was obsessed with Harry Potter for a longgg time. I may not be as actively into it now, but once a Potterhead always a Potterhead. That being said- this is all for fun! Reblog/comment your thoughts. What do you think the characters houses would be- let me know :)

Mm yes delicious literary parallels- the stories and characters of Zuko and Sirius Black mirror each other in a lot of ways. That shared angst? Family trauma? Yessir. (And bonus points for being considered heartthrobs haha) If we’re translating Zuko’s story to the HP universe, him having a similar situation to Sirius would make total sense from a literary standpoint. For those of you unfamiliar with the story, Sirius Black is from a long prestigious line of pure bloods. (All wizard ancestry). His family is well off and highly respected, in *certain* circles. Most notably though, they’re all Slytherins. It’s a huge part of their identity- they pride themselves heavily on carrying on the tradition of both being a Slytherin and more or less being part of the bad guys. No one really can choose otherwise. Sirius however, gets sorted into Gryffindor, and allies with people that stand for the complete opposite of what his family believes in. He ends up fighting against his own family in order to help defeat Voldemort. Sirius is literally burned off of the family tree tapestry- he’s an outcast, a disgrace to his own family. Sound familiar? Zuko being sorted into Gryffindor while his whole family had always been Slytherins (Azula would 100% be top off her class in Slytherin), having to grow from their bigotry, struggling with his identity and being shunned from his family, and eventually joining the good guys? Yeah, that adds up. Take out the Hogwarts houses and that’s basically his story already. 

Honor!!! Okay, this ones pretty short. Basically, Zuko’s actions mostly come from a place of wanting to do the right thing and honor. (Granted, what he did in Seasons 1-2 wasn’t the right thing, but he thought it was at the time). Just the idea of being obsessed with honor (again, the Fire Nations idea of honor is warped but let’s think of it as it’s neutral meaning here- think of chivalry, good reputation, respect, etc) of is more of a Gryffindor thing to me, and again, trying to do the right thing is very much a Gryffindor trait.

Determination aka one of the main Gryffindor traits. Bravery, determination, passion, all define a Gryffindor. Passion is pretty self explanatory, Zuko’s a passionate person, period. Bravery we’ll get to in the next bullet. You cannot tell me my man Zuko is not determined. Some argue that much of his actions were out of ambition, which I’ll get to later, but the way he goes about all of his tasks (capturing the avatar, joining the Gaang, getting Katara to forgive him) is very much Gryffindor. He simply does not give up. He keeps going forward, no matter what- no matter the difficulties, Zuko will keep going. He’s determined, always.

Brave, brash, and a not so small sprinkle of self-sacrifice In their constant efforts to do the right thing, Gryffindors often act recklessly, simply crashing forward in earnestness to do the right thing, to save the day, etc. This is very much Zuko. I love him, but let’s be honest, he can be a bit dumb at times. He’s very brash and can get caught up in the moment. He tends to just run ahead, often acting without thinking, except maybe about his end goal. Not to mention, he’s incredibly brave. I could use countless examples, but the first ones that come to the mind are the Agni Kai with Azula, and leaving to join the Gaang during the eclipse. Zuko literally throws himself in front of lightning for someone. Without a second thought, he sacrifices his own life for someone else. Now if that isn’t reckless Gryffindor bravery in its purest form, I don’t know what is. Zuko leaves behind his throne, his family, girlfriend, honor, home, everything, with the very real possibility of never returning, to join the Gaang. He leaves it all behind, to do the right thing. That is most definitely not a Slytherin move. Maybe he could act as a double agent, giving information to the Gaang while retaining his throne, if he was Slytherin, but that blind all or nothing sacrifice for the greater good is simply out of character for a Slytherin. Not to say they’re evil by any means, but they’re cunning. Your average Slytherin just wants to ensure their well being, and is clever about doing so.

Ambition & Cunning (or not really) One of the most popular arguments for Zuko being a Slytherin is that his quest to capture Aang, was done out of ambition. I would argue that yes, he was ambitious in pursuit of the Avatar, but ultimately his actions were not fueled out of self interest, but for acceptance from his father. He wants to be welcomed back home, he wants love and acceptance. Secondly, Zuko really isn’t that cunning. See all of the above points for more evidence, but he’s simply not. He thunders ahead without a second thought. He doesn’t achieve his goals through meticulous planning, or manipulation and deceitful actions, he just goes for it. Let’s look at Azula, who I think we can all agree is a Slytherin through and through. Many of her most valued traits by Ozai, what makes her so formidable, and what Zuko tries again and again to be more like, are in turn her most Slytherin-esque traits. Azula is the definition of cunning and calculated. She plans every step. She analyzes her enemies weaknesses, their strengths. She’s incredibly powerful, but she doesn’t go full force all the time, she’s meticulous in when and how to use that power. Try as he might, Zuko can never be like her. It just isn’t in his nature. He’s not calculating or manipulative, he’s painfully brash, passionate, and straight forward. Take season 2 episode 8, “The Chase.” While Aang is fighting with Azula and Zuko, he gets to the second story of a building via airbending that doesn’t have a floor. In pursuit of him, Azula almost falls through, but quickly realizes and deftly jumps off to the side. Shortly after, Zuko runs through with a determined yell, but doesn’t notice and crashes straight down. This, is the perfect example of them as characters and their dynamic. Azula, always on guard and calculating, Zuko, full steam ahead, all passion and bravery, no hesitation.

Not everyone’s a hero! A common misconception is that Slytherins are the bad guys while Gryffindors are the good guys. I’ve seen this argument as evidence for Zuko being a Slytherin- he wasn’t a hero for most of the story, so he can’t possibly be a Gryffindor. First of all, Zuko has never truly been evil. He’s constantly had the conflicting ideas of good and evil, i.e- Roku and Sozin, within in him; it just takes a long and difficult journey to become a hero. And again, his actions were fueled not by selfish intent, but by a need for acceptance, and that’s all he knew. By merely going through that incredibly painful journey of growth, he ultimately proves his bravery even more, and his determination. He went through all that hardship, but kept going, kept fighting, and came out a good person in the end. I want to stress this point though- not all Gryffindors are these dashing heroes, especially not straight away. Look at Colin Creevey or Neville Longbottom- both Gryffindors, and both untraditional heroes. Sure, they were never ‘evil’, but they did start off unassuming, anxious, and awkward. Many, including themselves, doubted their status as Gryffindors, but by the end of the series through their growth and hard work, ended up proving themselves as the heroes they always had been, even if they didn’t know it. Heroism comes in many different forms and from many different places.

I could probably go on, but I’m sure you get the idea. Let me know what you think! I’m very much team Zuko=Gryffindor obviously, but I’m not sure about the other characters. I’d love to hear everyone’s ideas or takes on my argument :)

[evienyx]

This is kind of embarrassing to admit, but I read the first part of your story wrong and thought that Ozai died in the bath due to it over heating. After I read through the whole thing and corrected that misconception, I now wonder how different this fanfic would be if Ozai died in the bath. What major changes would be made other than lots of laughter? How would everyone react?

omg this is the best thing I’ve ever seen.

Okay, okay, here we go:

- - -

What had started as a normal day quickly delved into chaos when, in the early afternoon, a servant came running through the halls, announcing, “Someone call the Fire Sages! The Fire Lord is dead!”

There had been shock, and then everyone had kicked into high gear. It was war time, after all. They were always prepared for assassinations. They should have expected it more, honestly, what with the desperation the Earth Kingdom troops had been showing recently, and with Sozin’s Comet less than a year away.

Then, though, news had gotten out that Fire Lord Ozai had died in the bath, and not from assassins, but from the water being too hot.

The palace had lulled for a few moments when that news came out, before continuing.

Princess Azula was storming about, demanding that the Fire Sages get here faster, because she wanted to be crowned today, and the Fire Lord can only be crowned in the light of Agni.

As the Princess was rampaging, though, one servant woman, who must have been feeling particularly bold, came up to her and asked, “My princess, isn’t Prince Zuko the Crown Prince?”

All the servants in the nearby vicinity had frozen. Older ones recognized the woman, Keeli. She had always been close to the Prince Lu Ten before his tragic death. Silly woman must have convinced herself that she could speak to all royals as if they were close friends.

Princess Azula clearly was not at all entertained by Keeli’s words. She looked about ready to kill the woman before clenching her fists and saying, “Well, my brother isn’t here, now is he?” The Princess’s teeth gleamed, shiny and sharp.

Then, though, Keeli had changed the game completely when she said, “Oh, but he is, my Princess.”

Princess Azula had all but demanded that Keeli show what she meant. Some servants whispered to one another that it might be a trap for the Princess, but, then again, even if it was, the Princess would most likely be able to fight her way out without even breaking a sweat. Princess Azula clearly knew this, too, as she followed Keeli into a random door and disappeared for half of an hour. During that time, the Fire Sages arrived, and were told that the Princess would be back shortly, but to prepare for a coronation. They were told that the Fire Lord had unfortunately passed away in the bath.

No one had snorted at that.

No one.

After that half-hour was over, Princess Azula emerged with Keeli at her heels from that random door in that random corridor looking more serious and sober than anyone had ever seen her look in all of her thirteen years. She had turned to the nearest servant and demanded in an eerily calm voice that a wheelchair was needed. Then, she had disappeared back into the door, leaving Keeli there to wait for what the Princess had ordered.

Another twenty minutes later, and an emancipated Prince Zuko had emerged from the door, looking as if every breath and every movement caused pain. Princess Azula was at his side, her jaw locked into place and her eyes flaring. Blue flames danced on her fingertips, and everyone stayed wisely away.

Still, people whispered.

The Fire Sages had taken all of the revelations in stride, and Prince Zuko was crowned Fire Lord in the late afternoon sun. His father burned behind him, and he did not look back once. Instead, he stood and faced his nation, the common people crowding in with the nobles below, and smiled.

That night, at the coronation ball, Fire Lord Zuko declared that Crown Princess Azula was his official royal advisor. The Fire Lord and royal advisor had then proceeded to leave the ball and go to the party in the streets that had been hastily set-up (well, it was more like the Fire Lord had decided to go and the Crown Princess and Royal Advisor had accompanied him because 1. she was a better bodyguard than anyone else in the world and, 2., there was no way she was letting that Dum-Dum out of her sight ever again. They had picked up the Ladies Mai and Ty Lee on their way into the streets). 

Fire Lord Zuko started fast on ending the war, freeing war prisoners, sending letters and signing documents with his sister at his side. One day, they were inexplicably joined by a woman dressed in Water Tribe blue. No one argued with the woman, though, because she made Princess Azula eat (who, in turn, forced the Fire Lord to eat). 

Two weeks in, Princess Azula confronted Keeli, and the next day, the Fire Lord and his sister were reunited with their long-thought-dead cousin, Lu Ten (well, it was more like Fire Lord Zuko did his best in his injured state to hold his sister back and stop her from killing their cousin). 

Lu Ten was officially restored his full royal status, and his family was bestowed it as well. The next day, he was made the other royal advisor. Word was that he had been forced into it by the Fire Lord and the Princess because “You learned for your whole childhood how to be Fire Lord” and “Another person here needs to know what they’re doing to keep Zuzu from sinking the whole homeland.”

Another month later, word came that General Iroh had landed in the capital.

The reunion was tearful, and people were yelling and crying and laughing and there was a very large amount of blue fire going in every direction at one point, but eventually everyone calmed down enough for General Iroh to introduce his guests.

When the general had been in the Earth Kingdom, making his way back to the Fire Nation, he had encountered the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe and invited him along, as his informers in the White Lotus had whispered to him that the Fire Lord and Crown Princess were both very close with a Water Tribe woman who called herself ‘Kya,’ just like the late wife of the Chief. Chief Hakoda had agreed to join him, though he took a few extra men with him before sending the rest on their way home.

The general had also encountered (as in, been beat up by) a young earthbender who, when the war had ended, had promptly run away from home, been captured, invented metalbending to escape, and run away again only to charge right into Iroh and the Southern Water Tribe men he traveled with. She had proceeded to lock them all in earthen cages until Iroh pleasantly invited her to tea. The girl, Toph Beifong, had then joined them, insisting she wanted to get off the continent, and a metal ship now sounded like a great idea.

Princess Azula had promptly asked the Beifong heir just how she had beaten Iroh up, and Toph had happily relayed the details. They had then transferred quickly into a test of just how good Azula was at lying.

General Iroh had turned to his son and nephew and said, “We may have just unleashed an evil upon this world greater than Sozin himself.”

Fire Lord Zuko’s story had been shared to the new arrivals, then, and both Chief Hakoda and Toph Beifong had asked where they could find Ozai. Then, they had heard he was dead. Then, they had heard how he died. While Toph laughed so hard that she almost caused an earthquake, Chief Hakoda had grumbled as his wife wrapped her arms around him, “At least it was water that did him in.”

A week later, Zuko had turned to his sister late one night as she sat on his bed and said, “Lala, I think Chief Hakoda and Lady Kya are trying to adopt us.”

Azula had responded without looking up from the document she was scanning, “Agni, Zuzu, you are slow.”

One month later, the world awoke to the news that the Avatar had returned.

Fire Lord Zuko had promptly invited the Avatar to the Fire Nation, with notes from the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe (along with his wife), the Grand Master of the White Lotus, the heir to the Beifong family (who had not, sadly, written the letter herself), and all three advisors to the Fire Lord, one of whom was the Crown Princess, one of whom was thought to be dead in a war now months gone, and one of whom was an old general who had switched sides. Iroh said they were covering all possible ground here.

One more month later, a beast that hadn’t been seen in a century touched down out of the sky and deposited the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, the son of the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe, the last waterbender in the South Pole, and a one-hundred-and-twelve-year-old Avatar in the entrance courtyard of the Fire Nation palace.

The two Water Tribe siblings had promptly screamed and slammed into their mother in full force, and had then been joined by their father. One full family unit once more.

They had then been introduced to the Fire Lord and his sister, the Crown Princess who was now known for her madness. There had been a beat of fear before Kya had hugged the Princess and Hakoda had placed a hand on the Fire Lord’s shoulder, and Sokka had suddenly grinned and blurted out, “I always wanted a brother,” only to be socked in the shoulder by his sister.

The Leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, Suki, had immediately hopped in line with the Crown Princess and her two friends, Mai and Ty Lee, and the Fire Lord had gotten a distant look in his eye as he muttered, “They’re multiplying.”

The Fire Lord and his advisors had done all the formal “Welcome to the Fire Nation” and all that with the Avatar before the kid had groaned, asked, “Can we just go nap in a garden or something?” and promptly been dragged (along with the Fire Lord) by Toph Beifong into a private courtyard, where nine of the most weirdly diverse children (a Fire Lord, a Princess, two Fire Nation nobles, an Avatar, a Kyoshi Warrior, a Beifong heir, a single waterbender, and master Water Tribe strategist) all soon collapsed onto the ground as turtleducks gathered around them and nipped at their toes.

Later that afternoon, when the new members of their growing group of oddly-connected people found out just how Fire Lord Ozai had died (and what he had done to Zuko), Sokka had promptly turned to Aang and asked, “As the Avatar, can you, like, declare something, uh, spiritually protected or something? Because I think that needs to happen to make sure that that bath house is never torn down ever.”

There had been laughter, but then the Crown Princess had turned to the Avatar, her eyes steely, as she asked. “Can you?”

No one quite knew if Aang could, but that didn’t stop anyone, and it was done within the hour.

“That bath house stopped the war,” Katara mentioned a few hours after.

“No,” Aang said, looking ahead at the Fire Lord and the Crown Princess walking next to one another, Azula supporting Zuko just a bit and staying at his speed as he continued to readjust to walking. “They did.”

[thethiefandtheairbender]

i'm going to shamelessly say that i've read all your metas and i was wondering what you thought about aang being able to unlock the avatar state in the end with his fight with ozai & if you think it's a cop out in the sense that lots of people make that an argument for why katara/aang shouldn't have ended up together bc the reason he had to give katara up in the crossroads of destiny in order to unlock his chakra was bc his feelings for her were unrequited? (1/2)

(2/2) do you think they made that the case in the crossroads of destiny to let katara have a new love interest (zuko) bc she didn't feel the same way for aang, and aang was supposed to really let go of katara in the end in order to unlock the avatar state, or do you think him unlocking it the way he did and not giving up katara was all intentional? (sorry this is so long & might not make sense)

i’m gonna work a bit backwards and address the arguably second part of your question first, and then talk about my main point because it’s something i’ve wanted to talk about regarding aang for a while now. 

so, first: in the way canon was constructed with its pacing and development, zuko being katara’s love interest is laughable. not only are seeds of maiko sown in early s2 but katara makes her interest in aang clear from the very first episode, in my opinion. like, in jet, katara falls for a heroic leader boy, and moments before that was insisting that aang was the leader of their own group. aang is her first friend her age and the first ever bender she ever meets. they can relate to one another’s loss of culture and the loss of a parent. if canon had been constructed differently, and every opportunity to reaffirm kataang (ie. tui and la are ocean and moon - the sky - like. come on) hadn’t been used, then maybe it could have gone differently. but toph was also supposed to be a boy and so was azula and katara’s name got changed, etc. basically: by the time canon shaped up to be what it was, ZK, if it was ever considered, was clearly off the table. 

it is also a common misconception that aang didn’t let katara go in “the crossroads of destiny” even though he did. that’s why he entered the avatar state in the first place and azula was able to kill him in it. he let her go. she did not halt that development. full stop. 

but as for aang, katara, and the avatar state in a deeper look... 

Let’s talk about Aang and the Avatar state. As we learn in 2x01, it is a defense mechanism, putting the Avatar at their most vulnerable and their most powerful. It is induced either by spiritual communion (with Roku, Kyoshi, or the ocean spirit) or by trauma until the Avatar can learn to control it and enter it at will.

The very first time we see Aang he is in the Avatar state, and by breaking him out of the iceberg, Katara frees him from it. Then, when he falls in the water near the end of the next episode, it is Katara crying his name that activates the Avatar state. This is reflected even in the episode titles. In 1x01 by bringing Aang out of it, Katara finds “The boy in the iceberg”; in 1x02 my causing Aang to go into it, “the Avatar returns.” 

Then, at the Southern Air Temple, the avatar state is initiated by immense trauma, grief, and pain. Not only are Aang’s people dead but his father figure is too. Katara, like I said, can relate to both sides of this loss, although arguably less, as more of her people (nonbenders that is) are alive. 

Katara is able to bring him out of it - “You still have a family! Sokka and I, we’re your family now!” - but that was already established, imo, with this exchange in the pilot: 

Aang: A hundred years! I can't believe it. Katara: I'm sorry, Aang. Maybe somehow there's a bright side to all this ... Aang: I did get to meet you.

Already, this girl means this much to him (and Katara more than returns it with her “Fine! Then I’m banished too!” we stan a ride or die best friendship) and Katara smiles. Aang has been through immense trauma and loss, but Katara is the bright side, the silver lining, to it all and he quickly knows it.

We see this time and time again. Thinking Katara was dead (and that, in Aang’s eyes, it was his fault) activates the same traumatic trigger response in 2x01. When he loses Appa, Aang by and large loses himself until it reaches a boiling point until Katara, the only one who’s confident he won’t hurt her (and she’s right), mourns with him and brings him out of it, because: “For the people who love you, watching you be in that much rage and pain is really scary.”

When Aang sees his grief out before him, the love his people had for him has been transformed into the love he has for Katara. Again, we’ve seen this earlier in the show. She’s become his best friend, his teacher, his family, and the girl he loves.

Aang: I thought I was trying to be strong. But really I was just running away from my feelings. Seeing this family together, so full of happiness and love, it's reminded me how I feel about Appa... and how I feel about you. [Katara sheds some tears. Aang and Katara embrace, Katara's eyes still watering.]

But love is a form of energy, and it swirls all around us. The Air Nomads' love for you has not left this world. It is still inside of your heart, and is reborn in the form of new love. [The smoke in front of Aang forms a face and shows the first thing he saw upon waking up from his iceberg: Katara. Back in the real world, Aang is starting to cry tears of joy.]

So Aang, understandably, is hesitant about “letting go” of his strongest earthly attachment. This is not the first time she’s impeded his growth as the Avatar, either. Aang refuses to firebend after he accidentally hurts her and he risks his waterbending training for her. Katara is also his biggest asset as the Avatar, giving him hope the same way he gave her, and helping him along his waterbending/earthbending journey as much as he helped her with waterbending and believing in her. 

I’d just like to take a moment and say that while Katara is Aang’s biggest source of comfort, she is not a crutch. He is very aware that she’s flawed. He’s independent and open with other people in his life. He comforts her as well, like after Jet’s death or when she needs a hug at the end of the season one finale. He takes responsibility for his own actions, to the extent that he shuts down in “The Serpent’s Pass” treating his emotions as collateral damage. But when he comes out of it, he acknowledges his own faults and treats Katara with respect, love, and gratitude. 

However, Aang does decide to let her go in order to access the Avatar State in “The Guru”.... at first. There’s little doubt in my mind that, although incredibly difficult, he would have gone through with opening the final chakra if it hadn’t been shown that Katara was in danger. Learning how to master the Avatar state was important to him. We know from Aang’s own fears regarding the Avatar state (“It was scary. I was scary” and “I hurt all of those people”) that not only is the Avatar state often activated through pain/fear/grief/trauma but that being in the state itself is a source of trauma for him. He is scared about losing control of himself. He is scared of hurting people. 

So seeing Katara seemingly in danger and/or hurt is understandably enough to make him choose her - for the time being. Then, when Aang sees her directly in danger in front of his eyes in the crystal catacombs, he realizes that in order for them to win this, he has to let her go. So he does and enters the Avatar State.

This is important for a number of reasons: 1) Aang has let her go and ascended, which means that 2) he’s done the emotional and spiritual work to get there, ergo 3) Aang is in many ways a fully realized Avatar by the end of season two. If Azula hadn’t shot him in the back with lightning, he would have been able to go in and out of the Avatar state at will all throughout season three and have full command of himself while he was there. But because she does, that pathway is physically blocked.

So Aang having it physically unblocked also makes sense; he’d already conquered it spiritually and emotionally in so many ways. He’d already done the work. However, Aang being forced into the Avatar State in Sozin’s Comet provides a dual purpose. Like I said before, over half of Aang’s experiences in the Avatar state were due to trauma. Previously, Katara was the one who could pull him out of those trauma induced states.

This time, however, when Aang is forced through fear of his own survival and the world’s into a trauma induced Avatar state, he pulls himself out of it. 

This time, for the first time, when Aang is pushed into the Avatar by his breaking point, he is able to overcome it on his own because he has mastered himself. That’s why him being forced into the Avatar state is important in the finale, that’s why him still having control over himself is crucial. He is more than his trauma and pain as the last airbender. He is more than just the Avatar, following through on a violent destiny that he did not choose. He is able to overcome the manifestation of his trauma, in both its trigger and its consequence. He let go of his attachment to Katara a season ago, but he refused to fully lose himself after sacrificing so many other pieces, and as a result, proves his spirit is unbendable. 

So then, when he enters the Avatar State for the last time in the show, it is the first time he willingly enters and willingly leaves it. And he uses the same element that he first bent in it: water, this time to heal. Just like he has.

[really-sleep-deprived-nerd]

Soulmates are a wonderful thing. Although it is a common misconception, they are not the universe's way of guiding you to your other half through your soulmark, mainly because you are not a half, you by yourself are a complete and perfect being, but also because its very common to have more than one and talking about "Your other half" is frankly stupid when you have, say, 4 different platonic soulmates. No, soulmates are just those people that make your soul feel at peace because it has found an equal, a soul that truly understands yours on every single level, they are those people that just simply and effortlessly get you. They are kindred spirits and, if you are lucky, lifelong companions. But the most important thing about soulmates is that they are made. They are made through the bonds you make with other people, through every one of your actions. As your experiences and your life shapes you, they shape your soulmates too. Thats why soulmarks are the way they are, thats why on your forearm there are an infinite amount of letters just floating around and waiting for you to grow before finally spelling the names of the people that will forever be a part of you as you are part of them. The names start blurry, practically unreadable, and through your actions they may either gain color and clarity over time or simply fade against the sea of letters again. Before he was bsnished, Zuko had Mai and Ty Lee, but after the Avatar returned, slowly more names start to form on his arm, blurry at first but getting clearer with every good choice he makes. After he frees Appa, he can barely make out the initials of these new soulmates the universe had granted him. The first one, right under Ty Lee's soft pink, in a vibrant yellow, is what appears to be an A. Under that, there is an S, the clearest of them all, in a gentle blue. If he squints really hard he thinks he can make out the shape of an O next to it, but it might be just his imagination. Under the S there is a blue smudge, the color of the raging ocean during a storm, he thinks it might be either a B or a K, but he isnt sure. Under that, there is a T in a bright green. He doesnt know who they are. He has a theory, a terrifying theory that torments him late at night when he cant sleep, a theory that cant be true because if it were, then his soulmates all hated him and it was his own fault. He thinks the universe its not cruel enough to do that to him, even if it had never been kind to him before, so he tries to not think about it. When Azula makes her offer on Ba Sing Se, he can feel his names flickering, shifting and blinking in an out of existence. But he misses his home, he misses Mai and Ty Lee, thoughts of his father fill him both with fear and dread and an strange type of longing, so he thinks he misses him too. He just really, really wants to go home. He decides to help Azula and ignores the colorful letters glaring at him from his arm. He fucks up. Badly. The avatar apparently dies and Uncle gets arrested. Oddly enough, the letters dont dissapear that day. Their colors grow muted and the letters grow even blurrier, the only one he can clearly read are the T and the S. He learns about Roku. Even if its muted, he now can clearly make out the name "Aang". Then the day of the black sun comes and Sokka, Katara and Toph join the avatar's name on his arm.

[balanceoflightanddark]

Slaves to Perfection

One of the things I have a bit of a habit of doing is comparing similar characters or themes across various pieces of media and see what one says about the other. How seeing things from a different perspective can put the other into focus and all that.

With this in mind, let's talk about Azula for a moment. A common misconception about her is that she is assumed to have a lot more agency in her actions than most. That being the Crown Princess and the "favorite" of Ozai, she naturally has more say in what she does. And as such, she has a lot to answer for.

Now while I can't exactly argue that Azula has done bad things in the past of her own volition (looks at the burning net incident for example), I don't believe she has a great deal of autonomy as some people might assume. And there happens to be a character that demonstrates what I'm talking about perfectly.

Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness is the second in what is commonly referred to as the Orre duology (which includes the earlier released Pokemon Colosseum). While essentially being a Pokemon game in both spirit and in mechanics, it's also noted for being among some of the darker installments in the franchise. The culmination of this is the introduction of "Shadow Pokemon" (later reintroduced via Pokemon GO!).

Shadow Pokemon are...unique. They're Pokemon who've had their hearts artificially shut, turning them into what is described in-universe as "fighting machines." All their personality is suppressed and replaced with violence and aggression to make a better weapon. Think of them as volatile bundles of rage.

And the apex of this is Shadow Lugia, a.k.a XD-001. Shadow Lugia is one of the main driving forces of the game, directly responsible for abducting a cruise ship and capturing a ton of Pokemon for the criminal group Cipher to corrupt. He was designed to be the ultimate Shadow Pokemon. Terrifyingly powerful, he's the biggest threat the Orre region faces outside of Cipher's Grandmaster himself. To make matters worse, he's said to be so corrupted, he's resistant to any attempts of purification. Not to mention unlike other Shadow Pokemon, who you need to read their aura and behavior to identify them as such, Lugia underwent radical body changes when he was conditioned into XD-001:

The interesting tidbit I found was...Azula and Shadow Lugia have a lot of parallels with one another.

Both of them for example are essentially the attack dogs of the main antagonist: Azula for Ozai, Shadow Lugia for Greevil. Both of them do a lot of the heavy lifting for their respective masters: Azula is the one who took down Ba Sing Se and organized the defense during the Day of the Black Sun, while XD-001 was responsible for procuring the Pokemon necessary for Cipher's plans. And both of them are associated a lot with perfection and high expectations: Azula's drive for perfection and the crushing expectations from her father is one of the pillars of her breakdown, while Lugia spent most of the game getting "fine-tuned" by Lovrina for not managing to lug the S.S. Libra all the way across the region. Not to mention both are heavily associated with fear and are fought in the final battle.

But...here's where things get a little messy. See, despite how terrifyingly powerful and menacing Shadow Lugia is...he's just a slave.

Lugia never chose to be turned into what he is. He was conditioned to solely be Greevil's "most loyal servant" with no free will of his own. Hell, that scene where he captures the S.S. Libra? He gets a signal first before acting, almost like a machine turning. Even his codename XD-001 is less of a name and more something that you'd name a weapon. Despite being deemed by Greevil to be the leader of his army of Shadow Pokemon, he essentially has no will of his own and has to go along with it. And he's treated as such by the narrative, where snagging him from Greevil's clutches is a big part of the game.

Azula is very much in the same boat when you apply that logic. Cruel as she is, Azula didn't have a whole lot of room to be her own person, even being named after her grandfather rather than having her own name. Ozai carefully conditioned her into being his weapon, before throwing her to the wolves by abandoning her in a worthless position. There wasn't any room for kindness, otherwise, that small portion of love shown would've been reduced to cinders along with her face. With no real alternative world viewpoint, Azula had about as much free will as you might expect any other weapon.

Azula was a monster and weapon first in Ozai's eyes, not a person. And under his influence, she had no real chance to change herself for the better in the show proper.

Which begs the question: when one is conditioned to be a monster, has no real alternative where all the others result in you either being maimed, punished, or "fine-tuned"...how much free will does one really have?

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Okay so tumblr did something super weird with the formatting and I couldn’t fix it; for some reason it had the page cut under the ask itself (as if the ask itself had the page cut in it) so I literally couldn’t edit it out and re-format it right. So I just took a screencap of the ask and I’ll respond via a standard textpost.

Gonna give a little warning because I’m gonna be talking about child abuse a bit.

Glad to hear it, anon. :) I try to keep an open mind with these discussions.

Tbh, I kinda get uncomfortable with some of the stuff I've seen in her tag regarding Zuko especially. I've seen a handful of people kind of dismissing him as being whiny or sensitive, and I just don't really vibe with that. I don't have anything against any of the people I've seen posting it, but I just don't vibe with.

I'm also gonna take the opportunity to try to break some of the misconceptions about the Azula fandom by saying that I don't feel afraid or intimidated to kinda go against a good portion of the fandom in a sense. And that's because, fellow Azula fans have never really outcast me or tried to fight me for saying that I think that Azula's a bit of an abuser. The Azula fandom imo, isn't full of bullies and hateful people; everyone I have talked to has been very open to a nice discussion. I think that it just depends how you approach them with your arguments.

All of that said, Imma get back on topic here; It’s a little tough to talk about Azula's flaws sometimes because I feel like (though, thankfully this hasn’t happened on tumblr to me yet) that some people take pointing out flaws in your faves as bashing them or posting hate.

But honestly this is really cool to hear because back when I first opened up this blog I used to do that thing where I’d justify everything that my faves did, which was a bit of a problem because my faves are all antagonists! xD So there has been a lot of progress made.

I think that there are three main reasons that people have a hard time admitting that she’s an abuser too.

I think that the biggest one is that a lot of Azula fans lately have been massively on the defensive. There has been quite a bit of hate in her tag, there have been things said by the writers (taken the wrong way or not), there have been a lot of generalizations, and so on. And all of it kind of puts fans on the defensive. I see so many posts about how Azula is irredeemable and just the worst, most evil character in the show and so people kind of swing hardcore the other way (Azula did nothing wrong) to make up for all of the demonizing she gets. One extreme usually leads to another. Seeing Azula get so much shit, like being called a killer and a sadist, provokes the Azula is a cinnamon roll reaction. Basically when a fandom gets put on blast for being 'the crazy' or 'mean' side of the fandom, I feel like it creates a cycle where that part of the fandom starts to actually act meaner because they feel backed into a corner. The more they are called 'delusional' for seeing good in Azula the more radically they will start to defend that belief until the shades of grey start disappearing, if that makes sense.

But this is just a theory of course.

The second reason I think that people tend to dismiss the things she does do wrong is that there's this association with criticism and hate. And this goes beyond the Avatar fandom. In general I feel like people find it hard to say bad things about their favorite characters because they feel like they're bashing their character and/or they don't want people to think that they are being negative. Plus it's just kinda hard to say bad things about something you like/love. Speaking as someone who used to do this; I always felt really weird about or like I was being negative when admitting that things I like have flaws. I'm not exactly sure why I used to feel like this because it wasn't an, 'I seem myself in this character, so insulting them is like insulting me' thing because I usually have almost nothing in common with my faves. Idk, it's just always been way easier for me to find things I like in a character I hate than it is for me to find things I don't like in a character that I do. On a personal level, it might just be because I'd rather focus on liking things that I like than hating things that I hate?

I guess that I think that it's just easy to forget that 'I don't like xyz aspect of Azula' is not the same as 'I don't like Azula at all'. I think that it's possible to love a character but not love everything about them, just like real people; you can love your mom to death but there will always be those things about her that drive you nuts.

And really, imo, I think that fans who are able to see flaws with their faves are the ones who understand them the best. I'm definitely not saying that the people who don't see/acknowledge their fave's flaws don't understand their fave. But I think that they are missing out on very crucial aspects of their favorite character. If you like a character you should like them for what they are in canon, not what you want them to be or what they could be.

I see a lot of potential for growth in Azula. I see potential for a redemption arc and I do love what her character can be. But I also love her character as is. Currently in canon, she's manipulative and goal driven to the point where she has a disregard for people. Currently she's an antagonist and I love her for that. Because antagonist, unredeemed Azula is the character I liked in the beginning. I don't condone her being manipulative and I don't like that as a personality trait. But I do love it as far as, she is a fantastically written antagonist. And those cold, manipulative, abusive traits add to her complexity when juxtaposed against her own abuse, insecurities, and need to be loved.

And that's kind of what I mean when I say that, if you like Azula, you should like her despite the flaws.  If that makes sense. I feel like people who say that she isn't an abuser (at least to some degree) kind of have a misunderstanding of her character. I think that one of the points of her character is to show that some abused kids don't come out okay. It's a tragic reality.

But with Azula I think that there's still room for her to change and start to break that cycle. I feel like she'd have a much harder time doing it than Zuko, because she has been subjected to his mental abuse in close range for much longer than he has. And I think that it would be something she'd struggle with her whole life, but I see good in her.

That said, I think that the third reason people have trouble seeing her as an abuse is because it is just really hard to see abuse victims become the abuser. I've mentioned before, but I come from a family where the chain ended with one of my parents. Said parent has told me many times how hard it was to fight that kind of upbringing. That's the real tragedy of abuse, it just goes on and on until you're mentally strong enough to fight yourself and break that chain. And the sad thing is, that some people just can't seem to do that. And I think that when discussing Azula, this comes into play a bit; it's just hard to look at even a fictional abuse victim and knowledge that they've become the abuser because it is all that they have known.

It's just a really hard topic and  that's why it's so easy for discourse like this to get heated; a lot of people have an Azula in their lives or relate to her in some way.

Thanks for the ask, sorry it took so long to reply! I wanted to make it thoughtful and word everything the best that I can.

As always, everyone is welcomed to chime in and give their own opinions.

EDIT: There are a few things that I don’t think I was clear enough on with the initial post lol. First and foremost, I’m definitely not saying that these three reasons are the only reasons people don’t talk about Azula’s flaws. @wingsfreedom​ made a good point about differing ways of interpreting scenes. That’s another biggy. 

The other thing I want to clarify is that I don’t think that Azula is a full on abuser. I think that she displays tendencies and does some abusive things. But I also don’t put her on the same level as Ozai. I feel like she’s a bit more merciful than him. Like Ozai is pretty much too far gone; he’s an abuser and his mind is set there. Azula, I think still has the capacity to break the chain. She’s not a lost cause. I also feel like she can be reasoned with more than Ozai. Ozai is all about power; Azula is motivated more by desperation (be it for her father’s love, to keep the last bit of control she has, and to keep her friends). It still leads to that harmful behavior, but I don’t think that she’s a lost cause like Ozai. Like, she has some abusive tendencies now, but I can also see her being able to break the chain under the right conditions.  If that makes sense. 

[ellakomskaikru]

Azula was not power hungry

A common misconception about Azula is that she was power hungry. But she wasn’t. Everything she did, she did for her father and for the Fire Nation. When she conquered Ba Sing Se, she said, “The Fire Nation has conquered Ba Sing Se” not “I have conquered Ba Sing Se.” She categorized it as a group effort. She definitely thought that she’d make a better Fire Lord than Zuko, but she didn’t actually want to be Fire Lord. If she did, she wouldn’t have brought Zuko home as a hero instead of as a prisoner. Azula seemed perfectly okay with Zuko being the new heir to the throne. All Azula desperately wanted was her father’s approval and affection, and she also was terrified of ending up like Zuko (the disfavored child of Ozai).

She also did what she genuinely thought was best for the Fire Nation. Azula did like to be in control in most situations but she wasn’t after a greater power, like being Fire Lord. She only wanted the throne at the very end because it was all she had left. She no longer had her father, friends, mother, or even Zuko. Azula was terribly unhappy when Ozai gave her the Fire Lord title instead of allowing her to come with him to destroy the Earth Kingdom. As messed up as it is, destroying the Earth Kingdom was Azula’s idea of father-daughter bonding time. At her core, what Azula craved the most was real unconditional love, not power.

[jaxsteamblog]

Clueless

Click here to read the full fic on AO3

After leaving the shop, Katara went home to change and talk to her father. Apparently, Thuy’s debut was going to be a very large ordeal. As she was born in the swamp, she symbolized a partnership between the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe. Historically, such a relationship had been impossible as many of the closest Earth Kingdom city-states feared any growing power among the ice bound tribes.

The idea of inviting the Avatar’s descendants came out of the Fire Nation. The only times when they got together were for various Avatar related holidays, and those visits were strained during the war. The records only went as far back as Yangchen and Kuruk never had children, but there were hundreds of years between Kyoshi’s daughter Koko and family trees blurred quickly. But with this strong connection between Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe, the Fire Nation was keen on reestablishing these familial bonds.

Bonds Katara had no idea about. It’s not like she was related to the Avatar.

Sitting on her couch, Katara pulled up the mini series on the Avatars on Webflicks. Starting the episode on Avatar Roku, she fast forwarded to the end.

His only living descendants were Zuko and Azula.

That surprised Katara but, as Tenzin narrated the episode, she found that their connection to Avatar Roku was through their mother. She was an only child, born of the only child Roku had. And she had disappeared halfway through the war.

Flipping to the next episode, Katara watched a bit about Avatar Aang. Tenzin, with more emotion in his voice as he spoke about his late father than the previous Avatars, explained how Roku’s death is what allowed for the conflict between the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom to begin.

Roku, having been close to Fire Lord Sozin all of his life, had defused a lot. While attempting to stop a volcanic eruption, both the Avatar and the Fire Lord perished. Aang was raised during a time of turmoil as Fire Lord Azulon sought to fill his father’s throne, but was isolated in part due to being an Air Nomad.

The back and forth between the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom went on for the Avatar’s lifetime. It was only because of his intervention that it didn’t escalate.

Ultimately, Avatar Aang had a family. His eldest son Bumi left the monastic order and founded the secular Urban Dust, his daughter Yangzom became the youngest spiritual sage of her time, and his youngest son Tenzin became a revered historian. All of them Airbenders, they scattered across the world and, in a moment of unintentional hilarity, not even Tenzin could figure out who had children and where. His older siblings having passed on, only his children were the official descendants of Avatar Aang.

Katara chuckled as she saw a shot of Rohan in their Airbender robes and with a shaved head. They looked happy standing with their family. Her smile fading, Katara clicked back an episode to see the shot of Zuko with his. He didn’t look nearly as happy. Or really, he didn’t look happy at all.

With a sigh, Katara switched off her TV and got up. She would probably have to sit and watch the whole series, if for nothing else than to give her even the slightest bit of knowledge about the current global climate. It might help to know more about Thuy as well, if they were going to be working together when Katara became queen.

Katara shuddered and headed for the door.

Rohan met her in a park and Katara looked around as she got there. It was still early in the evening and, with the summer solstice behind them, the sunset made the world rosy. Rohan sat on a low cement wall, overlooking an outdoor amphitheater with their glider folded up next to them.

“So, do any air deliveries today?” Katara asked, eyeing the glider. Rohan laughed and rubbed the back of their head.

“Nah. Unfortunately, I was on time for everything today.” They replied.

“You know, I’m curious, why is it that the Avatar’s grandchild is a delivery person?” Katara questioned.

“Well, since an Avatar is born every generation, it’d get pretty expensive to keep their kids living in the lap of luxury.” Rohan said and Katara shrugged. “And grandpa certainly blew through any niceties when he had three times as many kids as the last three Avatars combined.”

“And then your dad having four!” Katara added as she sat down next to them. “The audacity!”

Rohan chuckled and they both looked down the overgrown slope. Children jumped from one spot of exposed rock to another and shrieked with delight. It was a gentle scene as the day was ending and the air was finally cooling.

“It’s nice having a big family. It’ll be nicer once Jinora has her kid.” Rohan tilted their head and looked over at Katara. “Do you and Sokka get along?”

“Yeah. Why do you ask?” Katara leaned back, putting her hands on the warmed stone.

“You look sad.” Rohan said bluntly. Katara felt the blush and she turned her face.

“It’s just Sokka and I. And our dad.” She added hurriedly.

“I think we were lucky, all of the Air Nomads. Our temples are so hard to reach, we were really protected.” Rohan said. “Except for Uncle Bumi, but Pop said that he got to play Sky Pirates and fight the Fire Nation, which the monks wouldn’t’ve let him do.”

“It’s funny how there will always be pirates. Waterbenders were the pirate kings but got wiped out during the war.” Katara said and then sighed. “A lot of Waterbenders got wiped out in the war.”

“But you’re still here.” Rohan said, putting their hand on hers. “And the Avatar has been found with a whole stash of lost Waterbenders!”

Katara laughed and sat up, sliding her hand from under Rohan’s. “You’re right.”

Standing up, she held onto the strap of her purse with both hands. “Ready to go?”

“Yup!” Rohan said, jumping up. They took their glider up and spun it, stamping it down on the ground as they stood to their full height.

“How do you feel about pizza?” They asked.

The pizza place they ended up in was small, but lively. Rohan left Katara and their glider at an outdoor table, and she watched them through the large plate glass window. People were pressed shoulder to shoulder as they stood eating the largest slices of pizza Katara had ever seen. Rohan was quickly enveloped as they got closer to the counter and Katara pulled her phone out of her purse. Opening her Clicktalk app, she snapped a picture with the hanging restaurant sign behind her. Typing in a caption, Katara glanced up to see if she could spot Rohan. They were tall, but had somehow been completely swallowed by the crowd.

As she posted her picture, she saw two arms rise up over the bobbing heads and smiled at the sight of the blue arrows. Holding up two plates, the arms pushed through the crowd till Rohan freed themself, heading for the door.

Setting down the plates, Katara watched as they then reached into their pants pockets, pulling out two soda bottles with a flourish.

“Now watch this.” They said as they sat down. Using their airbending, Rohan flicked the bottle caps off and sent them spinning. They caught them in the air and made the caps dance around each other before letting them drop.

“That is a cool trick.” Katara said with a laugh. Looking down at the pizza, she pulled a plate over to her side of the table. The slices were as big as her face and the pepperoni slices were twice the size she had seen on other pizza.

“I thought Airbenders were vegetarians.” Katara remarked, picking up her slice and folding it in half.

“Common misconception. Avatar Aang was a vegetarian but he was an outlier and should not be counted.” Rohan replied before shoving pizza into their mouth.

“So do you and like, the other Avatar descendants hang out?” Katara asked before taking a bite.

“You mean with Zuko and Azula?” Rohan questioned with their mouth still mostly full. They paused to swallow. “Sometimes, but it’s usually just at formal functions. Apparently my uncle Bumi saved Iroh’s butt a bunch during the early part of the war and so the current Fire Lord doesn’t really like us.”

“Then you know Iroh?”

“Sure! I get tea there all the time and hangout. Pop says Iroh’s the little brother he never had.”

“Well, you should know Zuko at least.”

Rohan took a moment to eat before responding, looking off into the street.

“Zuko is Zuko.” They said softly, then turned and smiled. “Actually, my sister Jinora was better friends with him. And Meelo is absolutely obsessed with Azula.”

“I can’t imagine anyone being obsessed with Azula.” Katara said dryly and Rohan laughed.

“The very reason you can’t is exactly the reason why he is.” They said and shook their head. “Anything he wasn’t supposed to do or was considered dangerous was always the first thing at the top of his to-do list.”

Katara and Rohan laughed, and Katara picked up her bottle of cherry cola. She liked this, liked getting pizza and being out. Everything was more open and sticky; the sweetness of the soda spilling into the rest of the evening and making her feel happy. It was somehow more expansive than being at the beach.

Everything had been picked out and packed up before she had even gotten to the beach house. Now, in retrospect, she knew that someone had come in to make their meals and take care of everything for the royals. Here, she had her choice of toppings and soda, and she sat outside listening to people pass by.

What would Zuko have picked if he had gone off the tracks for once?

“So, do you happen to know anything about the new Avatar?” Katara asked.

“Only that Pop can’t wait to train her. He was so happy he almost cried.” Rohan replied.

“I guess that makes sense, that she would train with Aang’s family.” Katara said and drank more of her soda. “I wonder if she’ll train with Zuko.”

“Maybe, it’d certainly be good for them if she did.” Rohan said idly. “Think she’ll do any training in the North Pole?”

“I don’t see why.” Katara shrugged. “She’s already a Waterbender.”

“Yeah, but like, for her spiritual training.”

“I thought that was an Airbender thing.” She said, picking up her pizza.

“Don’t you guys live with two actual spirits?”

The flash of black that glowed swept over her mind and Katara choked on her mouthful of pizza. Rohan reached out, alarmed, but Katara held up a hand and grabbed her soda. Take a drink, she felt the lump painfully move down her throat and she could breathe.

“Okay, well yeah.” She said and Rohan sat back, chuckling in relief.

Pushing her plate away, Katara leaned back in her seat. “I think I’m done.”

“Sure. Would you like to go on a walk?” Rohan asked. Katara smiled and nodded.

“That would be nice.” She said.

As Rohan took their plates and walked over to the trash, Katara pulled out her phone. A few people had viewed her Click but she had a message from-

“Zuko?” She murmured. Opening the reply, all it said was

I love that place! Try it with white sauce!

Frowning, Katara put her phone away.

“Shall we?” Rohan asked.

Katara stood and they started down the street. Rohan used their glider as a walking stick and people kept out of their way. Eyeing them out of the corner of her eye, Katara smirked.

“Are you doing that on purpose?” She asked. Rohan smiled slyly.

“Whatever are you talking about?” They shot back.

“Why did you ask me out?” Katara questioned suddenly. That seemed to surprise them and they thought for a moment.

“Every once in a while, my family gets on my back about dating. I’m aromantic and they don’t get it, so I take someone out from time to time to get them to stop asking questions.” They answered honestly.

“So you don’t, like me?” Katara asked.

“Do you like me?”

“Well.” Katara fidgeted and Rohan laughed.

“We literally just met today. It’s not about liking someone, it’s about getting to know them.” They said. Looking at Katara’s pained expression, they shook their head.

“From what I understand, people click and then they go out and the whole thing is riddled with hormonal traps.” Rohan gestured with a hand and Katara watched them. “But honestly, romance is just like any other relationship to me. You have to know the person right?”

“Sure, but…” Katara started and Rohan held out their hand. Unsure, Katara still took it.

“Your heart is pounding isn’t it?” They asked. Katara’s face burned and she yanked her hand back.

“S-shut up!” She stammered and Rohan laughed.

“It just happens, and I’m not even the one you want right?”

“Not the one…?”

“Oh come on, I saw how Zuko was looking at you.” Rohan said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Katara sputtered and Rohan continued to laugh.

“It means that maybe I also asked you out because the last time I saw Zuko, his sister was being really mean and he didn’t do anything.”

“That still doesn’t make any sense.” Katara said in a huff.

“You are totally clueless.” Rohan said, wiping their eyes. “Let’s just have a good night, and I promise you it’ll make things more fun for you.”

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[wingsfreedom]

Small analysis about Fire fam

Ursa and Azula’s relationship is complex issue.

In regards of Azula, I think Ursa’s disapproval had two results:

The first, she actually did love her daughter and did teach her right from wrong through all the scolding, despite she didn’t do it in the best way.

The second, because of the scolding and badmouthing, Azula KNOWS which of her actions are wrong and chooses to do the wrong thing either way because that was the only way to get both her mother’s attention and her father’s approval.

Ursa went a long better with Zuko because he was more receptive to her personality and teachings than Azula was. (though, Ursa's teachings are still always there in the back of Azula's mind as that come to light in the mirror scene.)

But for me, the worst part in this story is that Ursa sometimes unconsciously encouraging Azula’s behaviour. Ursa, despite complaining a lot about Azula’s odd behaviours, often causes and/or reinforce them, (e. g such as in the 'rose' scene in The Search), she comes to loathe them and punish Azula for them without understanding the core of her actions; that was getting attention from her mother who was focusing on Zuko (most of the time, her favorite).

Taking Azula's behaviour in the 'rose' scene in consideration, this is propbaly equal to her behaviour when throwing rocks at the turtleducks as well while Ursa's around with her and Zuko. It's her way to rebel against Ursa and everything she stands for, for focusing on her brother on her expanses and/or wanting her attention.

EDIT: "Azula throwing rocks on the turtleducks" was a misconception, what she really was throwing is bread, and she wasn't throwing it on the turtleducks but in the water. Zuko's bread hit the turtleduck by accident likely to foreshadowing Ursa's sacrifice. So Azula was NOT cruel to animals to get back to her mother, she was trying to feed them because this was something she saw mother do.

For most Ursa's intercations with her children:

When she wanted her children to play together and get along, (which was great -and contradict for Ozai- but), Ursa only shown speaking to Zuko, calling him "darling" and encouraging him to play, then said "go for a little while", means 'go and comes back to me again when you're finished,' which implies he was always under her wing by her side most of her time, without addressing that Azula appearntly was behaving better than Zuko at that point. Where Azula is asking her mom for something that WOULD yield approval from her, which is why Azula is doing it.

This "evidence" also does not convince anyone that Ursa ever made any efforts to correct Azula's bad behavior in a positive and proactive way. She never teaches Azula not to behave destructively in any such proactive ways. We've seen her scolds, seen her glares, seen her asking what's wrong with her. If her relationship with Zuko was remotely similar, she'd be caught talking just as poorly about her beloved son, but she isn't.

Second, when they perform Firebending, Ursa only addressed Zuko's performance and encouraged him without spare a word for Azula whom performance was better, because she got her Father's praise, she doesn't need her, but Zuko does. Which suggest that the parents' reaction toward the children's Firebending achievements includes their school achievements as well. Azula has her Father's praise, Zuko gets his father's disdain, Ursa has to be always by Zuko's side to make up for Ozai's disdain, neglecting her daughter in the progress. (which, I think, made Azula open for terrible influence watching this mother-son bonding, for all we know Ozai wasn't a loving parent even though she was his favorite)

It's common behavior for mothers in abusive household to protect the abused child from their abusive father by giving them her love and support, and that child--in her eyes--was mainly Zuko, BUT this is also where Ursa's grave mistake lies as well. For her giving more attention and affection to Zuko than she does to his sister.

While I don't like to use the comics as evidence for bad writing, this aspect of Ursa's favoritism still stand.

Ursa’s inability to empathize with Azula, to understand her wishes and desires or even emotions, and Azula’s reluctance to mend their relationship, only drives them further apart. And I believe Ozai may play a good hand in this too.

He match up with Azula's competitive, perfectionist nature 'I must be the best at anything I do (the world values winners. I'm what I do to earn my place)' with his 'only the strong survives in this world' influence, which eventually shaped up her cruelty (toward herself and everyone) and (especially) spiteful reaction against her brother, and believed the hard life Zuko endures is a well-deserved punishment for being a weak and a failure while still motives by feelings of jealousy, abandonment and insufficiency that her mother left. Which of course doesn't make her any less of abusive sibling but this is only to analyze her mindset not justify it.

But the siblings' damaged relationship, I believe, is largely both parents' fault first of all, with Ursa's good-bad influence and Ozai's all-terrible influence.

From Avatar wiki:

[The 'rose' scene in The Search mention]

That's it, Azula got no "darlings", got no encouragements, got no smiles. Just confronting Ursa's love for Zuko daily, with bad attempts to gain her mother attention.

TL;DR Regardless of how Ursa feels about her daughter: Azula has zero solid evidence that her mother loves her.

Now from how I see it, due to unhealthy relationship with both parents, Azula finds it hard to trust the people around her. So she started to use power and fear tactics to basically force Mai and Ty Lee to become her friends as this drive come to shine obviously at the Boiling Rock famous betrayal intercation (though Azula may does that on subconscious level).

Which, of course, doesn't make her any less of abusive freind (I don't think she was abusive to Zuko their relationship was mutually toxic) because at the end of the day these were the choices she made, but this is what make her well-written character to me: understandable in drive, bad in choices.

PS: Anything's possible, Azula's complex character as it is but make her the sole culprit for 'not feeling loved' (that is a main drive in her actions) just so Ursa can appear flawless, ("she never hurt her daughter in any way", "she's not responsible for anything wrong happened in the family"...est) Just no.