#ozai

[azulaaaaaaah]

the reason why izumi is an only child

pov: the jasmine dragon, ba-sing-se, like 15 years post atla

izumi, aged 5, cutely sipping at a cup of tea: papa, why don’t i have any siblings? i’d love a little baby brother or sister! it’d be fun!!!!

iroh and zuko:

[waterfire1848]

AU - Another Azula and Zuko raised in the WT AU but with a bit of a twist of it. The WT and EK (knowing they can’t kill Azulon) decide to kidnap two of his three heirs and steal a baby Azula and toddler Zuko. Hakoda is the only one in the group with children the same age so he becomes the designated father and takes them in.

[balanceoflightanddark]

The fire nation's defeat was technically Azula's fault.

Zuko and Iroh were branded traitors and failures. Azula was given specific instructions to capture them, dead or alive. Azula had them both red-handed in Ba Sing Se. Instead of doing what she was told, she asks for Zuko's help and she clears his name in return.

Now, it could be argued that without Zuko's help, she would've been pummeled into submission by Aang and Azula. Well, then after his usefulness was used up, she had a chance to pull yet another fast one and apprehend him without having to lie to Ozai.

Zuko acted suspiciously. He made Azula doubt that Aang really died and she began to think that Zuko may have had something to do with his survival. Instead of searching for proof of Aang's survival and informing her suspicions to Ozai, she puts unnecessary risk on herself and sets up a gambit that was ultimately pointless in more ways than one.

If Azula did what she was supposed to do, Zuko and Iroh would be dead or put in prison which leads to Zuko never finding out about the plans with the comet, Aang never finds a firebending sifu, the FN gains victory unopposed, and Azula can reign as Fire Lord.

In short, by choosing to lend Zuko a hand more than once, she indirectly did Team Avatar a huge favor.

Boom: Butterfly Effect.

The FN's MVP was also Team Avatar's MVP. I do enjoy the irony.

I wonder though, what would the Gaang's, Azula's Zuko's, Iroh's, Ozai's, and all of FN's reactions when realizing this epiphany?

It would break Azula.

...no seriously. It would break her.

While I think it would be a bit of a stretch to say that the defeat of the Fire Nation was her fault (cause there's no way in hell she could've seen bringing Zuko home would end up with his betrayal of Ozai), I do think she was hurting already with Zuko betraying her. If she was torn up about Mai and Ty Lee turning on her, I have no doubt she'd feel the same about Zuko regardless of what her relationship with him is right now. Add on to the fact that this is a girl that is hoisted with way too much responsibility than she is able to handle (being driven to become perfect at any cost), a revelation like this would destroy her.

And the fallout wouldn't be pretty. At all. It would probably rival her breakdown at Sozin's Comet, if not be worse. Hell, I think Zuko and Iroh would be a bit concerned for her. Zuko did seem somewhat regretful at her state after the Last Agni Kai and Iroh (while not Azula's biggest fan) probably wouldn't be that callous to brush her off.

Ozai would hate her though. Hate hate HATE her though. He puts on so much pressure for her to be perfect. What do you think the abusive piece of shit is going to do when he puts two and two together. Might even disown her on the spot, which will cause her to spiral even more. And she'd probably lose a lot of support in the Fire Nation for indirectly letting an unpopular successor on the throne, which would cause her to spiral even further.

...kind of why I don't really want to put the blame on the Fire Nation's defeat on her since the poor kid doesn't need that on top of her failures already. Besides, I think the defeat of the Fire Nation can better be laid on Ozai's feet. I mean, he was the one who banished Zuko and mistreated both him and Azula. If we want to go indirect, he set up a domino effect. And directly, he wasn't able to consolidate the Fire Nation's gains at the end of the war which led to a huge rebellion movement. And he certainly didn't seem to want to get involved with fighting Aang during the Day of the Black Sun which could've stacked the odds further against him when the firebending was turned back on. Mind you, this was before Zuko showed up. Like he was sipping tea while Azula was holding the Gaang off.

That being said, I could see him pass the buck off on Azula for the Fire Nation's defeat. Which would lead into the scenario I just outlined above.

[izunias-meme-hole]

[mrteaspill]

Man even ozai is shocked💀

[shipping-all-ships]

Azulon never clocked that Lu Ten was gay but Ozai and Iroh knew the day Ikem showed up (again) to try and get Ursa back and Lu Ten, in all his blunt child glory, asked Ursa why she chose Uncle Ozai over THAT

[entrapta-battle-angel]

"Oh but Ursa couldn't do anything for Azula bc Ozai never let her get close to Azula"

What is this then? Ozai didn't forbide Ursa from anything. Ursa simply preferred to praise Zuko instead.

[impossiblycolorfulpanda]

[zuko-always-lies]

Please put your rationale in the tags!

[withgirl-sq]

Do you have any more azutara headcannons? Do you plan on writing more azutara in the future?

Hey!

So here is a couple that come to mind (sorry if I've said them before, I'm losing track lol):

I really believed that part of lightning bending includes preventing the lightening from scarring your skin, which Azula was always really good at. During Sozin's Comet, she wasn't in the right frame of mind for this so she ends up with extensive scarring over her arms. Katara is the first person to find out about this because she refused to show them to anyone else.

I think that Azula would be reluctant to get married because she can only model it on her parents marriage so she just associates it with duty rather than love. Hearing Hakoda tell stories about Kya changes her mind and is what sets her on her plans to propose to Katara.

To answer your second question, I think it will really depend on how I feel after finishing the Avatar Azula AU. I've literally been writing it for years so I don't think I can see myself writing something as elaborate again but I will definitely look to finish all of the prompts in my inbox (Sorry to anyone waiting for a prompt, I'm a lot slower in writing than I would like!)

[deprivedmusicaljunkie]

so my friend had the most insane take today

edit: to anyone who wants to further pick my beautiful companion’s brain, please refer to i still worship the flame by @sketchbonked on ao3, a zukka retelling of atla if zuko joined team avatar from the very beginning.

[longing-for-rain]

Sometimes I think about exactly how powerful Zuko’s story as an abuse victim is and I just have to stop and tear up for a minute.

Just let it sink in that at 13 years old, Zuko’s father mutilated him in front of an audience and told him he was worthless and unwelcome until he completed an impossible mission. Nobody stepped in to help him. Most onlookers thought he deserved it, and even Iroh was too afraid of Ozai to challenge him in Zuko’s defense.

Zuko went on for years believing Ozai was right, and didn’t recognize what happened to him as abuse. He thought his banishment and suffering were his own fault because something was wrong with him, and that it was his duty to change to become worthy again.

Then this scene? Absolutely incredible.

Zuko’s whole journey leads up to this confrontation, where he not only recognizes that he holds no responsibility for the abuse inflicted on him; he confronts his abuser and tells him he was wrong to treat him that way, that he doesn’t owe his abuser anything.

And not only that, Zuko also tells Ozai that he sees how he’s hurting the rest of the world the same way he hurt him, and vows to stop him. That’s literally so powerful, especially watching this as someone who once felt as broken and alone as Zuko once did. His story is everything to me.

[seawitchkaraoke]

Ozai is so pathetic, like that “take his bending away haha he’s harmless now” trick would never have worked on Zuko, if you took his bending away he’d just grab his swords and come at you twice as hard, Azula doesn’t have swords or anything but she’s pretty good at hand to hand and amazing at talking her way out of problems, Iroh bust himself out of prison with no bending at all, meanwhile Ozai? Gets his bending taken away and then just collapses, doesn’t even try anymore, then just sits in prison and tries to get into Zuko’s head some more, he could have trained up and tried to break out too! But no! Bet he can’t break steel bars with his bare hands. Bet he can’t kick a steel lever in two. Bet he can’t even do a flip.

Also we never really see him do any really impressive firebending apart from when he has magic comet power, I guesss he shoots some lightning at Zuko, but that’s it and Azula is still better at the lightning thing. Azula has blue flames. Zuko can do firebreakdancing and bend with his swords. Does Ozai, who is not 14 years old, have blue flames? No he doesn’t.

He didn’t even do his coup himself, Ursa had to kill Azulon for him! Could have just challenged Iroh to an Agni Kai for the throne but he didn’t bc he knew he’d lose.

And then he only ruled for like 6 years! He lost a war that had been going on for 100 years bc of a bunch of kids.

Loserlord indeed

[late-draft]

Actually, the second drawing dealt me emotional damage now that I look at it

[kingtchalla92]

When Zuko speaks out of turn

[firenaition]

god i love fallible characters, but specifically zuko in the catacombs. choosing his sister over his uncle just to get to sleep in his childhood bed again. earning katara's kindness and empathy and stripping it all away in minutes because he ached for the familiar. fighting on the wrong side of history just to see his father smile with pride. knowing he could have done the right thing, but what is being good when you could be terrible but loved.