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[bezixx]

Fandom: Ursa didn’t play favorites! Azula was just mad that Ursa actually told her “no”!

Meanwhile, her official character profile:

#atla #azula #ursa

[bezixx]

I think you'll love this Azula fancomic!

https://www.instagram.com/p/C4MMGr7NNJK/?igsh=emgxbzgzaG13bjFh

I already saw it before reading the ask, but thank you none the less.

And you are right, it really delivered feels. Vago brought in a much needed freshness in the fandom with their comics. I recommend for others to read it as well.

#avatar the last airbender #atla #azula #ursa #vago_xd #anon ask #avatar #atla fan comics

[bezixx]

From Zutara to Sokkla - Narrative Framing and Hypocrisy

Something that boggles me about the fandom is the complete double standard between Zuko and Sokka vs Katara and Azula.

A pretty noticeable example is how we frame the infamous “I’ll save you from the pirates” scene versus the Day of Black Sun.

The infamous pirates scene is often lauded (or condemned) as the birth of Zutara. Fans allege the tension between Zuko and Katara is palpable, and that their attraction is clear.

But let’s consider:

Katara isn’t a realized bender yet. She can’t defend herself. She’s surrounded by hardened adult criminals with weapons who have it out for her, and two firebenders (like the man who killed her mother!) who have been pursuing her doggedly, one of whom has shown he is quick to use violence even against civilians and the elderly.

Zuko dangles Katara’s necklace in front of her, the only item she has left of her mother, and threatens to take it away forever if she doesn’t sell out her friends.

If you want to read romance in this harrowing scene, feel free. It’s fiction and I’m not the morality police. Have fun!

What bothers me is the hypocrisy in how people frame this scene by comparison:

Consider this: Azula can’t bend. She’s unarmed. She’s pinned to the wall and has no means of escape. Her enemy is armed, is the architect of this invasion, has an army outside ready to follow him, and is currently flanked by an unstoppable earthbender and the friggin Avatar!

Azula is using herself as bait to protect her father (and ostensibly Zuko) knowing her life would be in terrible danger for minimum of 8 minutes. During which the enemy can do anything to her. The Fire Nation has done a lot of harm and there are surely many soldiers out there who would love to take their revenge on the Fire Nation’s pretty little princess who conquered the “impenetrable” capital of the Earth Kingdom.

The show goes out of its way to inform us that Azula is an expert at hiding her emotions. She can even fool Toph’s lie detector. Why?

Many people misinterpret this as a sign that Azula is an emotionless sociopath or whatever ableist pop-sci ideas they have about ASPD.

In reality, it’s the opposite. Azula being an expert at hiding her feelings is made clear so that we understand why she doesn’t look terrified, or vulnerable, or sad, or hurt until the finale when she finally cracks and her facade slips.

All she has at her disposal to protect herself is her wits (she had a knife and some Dai Li, but she has neither by this point). She smartly uses what she knows about Sokka to exploit his weakness and buy herself time. She’s so good at getting under his skin (which takes a sophisticated level of weaponized empathy) that even after he figures out what she’s doing, Sokka still can’t help himself.

This is all she can do to protect herself and her father. We as the audience know that Sokka and Toph aren’t going to kill or maim her, but Azula doesn’t!

So why in the world was this scene received as traumatic for Sokka?

Fans will claim that Azula’s mind games in this scene left Sokka with lasting trauma. That this is emotional abuse.

But who is the one pinned to the wall with no way to defend herself? Who is the one with weapons to threaten her with, and powerful allies who have it out for her?

If Sokka experienced any lasting trauma from this altercation, he sure never showed it! Sokka never seems to think much about Azula at all outside of wanting a rematch when it’s presented at the Boiling Rock. And even that is due to his feelings of inadequacy after the invasion. He even makes fun of Suki for being captured by Azula! Doubt he would do that if she had genuinely been tortured or if Sokka had been so traumatized by this scene.

Suki: Are you trying to get on my bad side?

Meanwhile, Katara does seem to have lasting trauma over her repeated altercations with Zuko. She talks about how he chased them all around the world threatening them. She refuses to trust him after he betrays her and fears he will get Aang killed. Zuko did hire an assassin.

In what universe can we read Zuko and the pirates threatening a helpless Katara as “romantic” but the scene with Sokka and Toph threatening a helpless Azula as “traumatic for Sokka”?

Only a universe where we have already subconsciously decided we are on Zuko and Sokka’s side.

These scenes can only be read that way if we have already decided Zuko isn’t that bad regardless of how Katara feels about what he does to her, and that Azula is pure evil regardless of what anyone does to her.

It’s a world where both Azula and Katara’s feelings are ignored.

If you want to read the pirate scene as romantic? Have fun. Enjoy your fics. It’s all good.

But let’s not pretend Zuko is some pure woobie in this scene that just needs some Katara loving, while Azula is some fearless psychopathic monster that enjoys putting herself in danger as long as she gets to “abuse” Sokka.

There’s a reason these two scenes exist this way. Katara and Zuko are parallels just as Azula and Sokka are. Katara and Azula are foils just like Sokka and Zuko are.

Fandom can and should do better by Katara and Azula. They deserve just as much consideration and empathy for their suffering and unmet needs as their brothers do. Even if Azula was a villain - so was Zuko for most of the show!

And as a pretty consequence, I can say this: Zutara and Sokkla are equally viable.

Goodnight, shippers.

#atla #Zutara #Sokkla #zuko #katara #sokka #azula

[bezixx]

Never thought of it that way. The fact that she speaks it near her instead of actually explaining what is wrong already felt rather tactless, but this also further pushes the implication that she might have not been a good mother to Azula.

What is wrong with that child?

My problem with this line isn't that Ursa says it at all, or that she's concerned about Azula, but rather HOW she says it.

Notice, that Ursa doesn't even say " What is wrong with Azula, or THIS child", but " What is wrong with THAT child", instead.

I see this as an intentional hint left by the show's creators. It may be a small hint, but I think it's a hint nonetheless.

"The word 'this' is used to point to a singular person or object that is close to you. On the other hand, 'that' is used to point to a singular person or an object which is farther away from you."

It seems to me that calling your child "that child" is an expression of distance. It's almost as if Azula called her mother "that woman.

We have no evidence that Ursa didn't love Azula at all, but we also cannot say that Azula and Ursa had the same close relationship that Ursa had with Zuko.

#atla #azula #ursa

[bezixx]

I was in my avatar mood yesterday and decided to draw Azula (this isn't supposed to be realistic, I tried to recreate her original facial features as best as I could)

#atla #azula #realistic #agathah

[bezixx]

You could always try saying "Azula, Azula, Azula, Azula" a bunch of times. It would still be about Azula...

I thought about writing another post about Azula but honestly I can’t of anything anymore, since either I’ve posted my thoughts already or others have done so, and I just don’t see the benefit of repeating the same again.

#azula

[bezixx]

Agreed, though so can "Ursa loved Azula" and "Ursa did not show much of that love".

“Ursa loved Azula,” and “Azula did not feel loved by Ursa,” are two statements that can and should coexist.

#Azula #ursa #atla

[bezixx]

? Ok, but why? OP, were you trying to be funny without understanding the concept of humor or are you trying to tell us something else?

Either way this is not fine.

Azula always snacks, Azula always snacks, Azula always snacks...

#report and block #azula #not funny

[bezixx]

i don’t go into it explicitly in my essay so i may as well cite my armamentarium of examples here. please note that some of these examples will be pretty uncharitable towards zuko, but i figure that zuko’s actions receive enough (overly) charitable interpretations that he can stand to be criticized harshly from time to time.

when he said to aang “nice try avatar, but these little girls won’t save you,” he was being overtly infantilizing and dismissive to extremely capable girls his age in a way that emphasized their gender to diminish their capabilities. this is quite overtly misogynistic.

the way he treats katara in “the waterbending scroll” is pretty fucked up. i know that a lot of people find the way he seductively circles katara after tying her to a tree, threatening, and bribing her to be hot and even romantic, but in this scene, he is explicitly imitating ozai (we see him employ this same tactic of circling ominously with zuko in “the awakening”) to scare katara into submission. this is not only sexist in the sense that he is attempting sensuality to threaten a young girl (only a few years younger than him, but still, not great), but also just creepy and horrifying and bad in general.

“well aren’t you a big girl now?” is what he says to katara once she can finally hold her own against him in a fight. katara is only a few years younger than him, but he treats her like an incapable child, and uses that patronizing infantilisation to taunt her like he did with the kyoshi warriors. (and in fact, he continues to do so in book 3, but more on that later.)

zuko shouts “girls are crazy!” after azula manipulates him into falling into the fountain. i think this example is pretty negligible all things considered, seeing as a couple of girls did just deviously orchestrate a plot to humiliate him for kicks, but it’s at least equivalent to sokka saying “leave it to a girl to screw things up” to katara in terms of making unfair generalizations about an entire gender in the quest to insult your annoying little sister. but pretty much every sibling says something like this as a kid, so it’s pretty innocuous to me in the scheme of things.

on his date with jin, zuko remarks “you have quite an appetite for a girl.” this is obviously sexist, but it also makes me sad for what it reflects about the eating habits of every single woman he grew up around (compounded by the fact that they’re nobility and thus must adhere to strict gender roles as informed by class). i wonder if seeing jin eat was the first time he ever saw a girl actually enjoy her food.

zuko’s treatment of mai throughout all of book 3 is highly misogynistic. he expects her to coddle, comfort, and support him unconditionally while he never once considers her feelings, desires, or thoughts. i don’t even think zuko knows that mai is a human being (with a rich inner world of her own). at the beach, he behaves in a way that is controlling, jealous, volatile, and borderline abusive. he insults her, calling her dull and unfeeling; he polices the people she talks to; he feels entitled to her unconditional affection even when he treats her terribly. even when he gives her the conch shell, he asks “what? don’t girls like stuff like this?” which is incredibly patronizing and presumptuous. he demands that she act as his perfect mommygirlfriend, takes out all his frustrations and inner turmoil on her, is entirely thoughtless and inconsiderate when it comes to considering her feelings beyond giving her the most shallow, superficial gifts (and for a prince, giving someone cheap desserts and/or beach trash is not exactly a grand romantic gesture), and can’t even bring himself to break up with her face to face. mai does an incredible job of supporting zuko as best she can despite being incredibly unhappy herself and frustrated by his behavior, and somehow she is still framed by the fandom as being a bad girlfriend to zuko, when in fact the reverse is true.

zuko is also incredibly patronizing, dismissive, and downright cruel to ty lee. he basically calls her shallow, stupid, oblivious, and myopic, when of course this only betrays his own obtuse inability to read others, as ty lee is quite possibly the most perceptive, intuitive, socially clever, skilled, and brilliant character in the show. like many other characters in the show, including azula, zuko falls for ty lee’s bubbly ditz persona, and assumes that her hyperfeminine affect signifies her shallowness and stupidity. this undervaluing of femininity is of course not unique to zuko, and even the most feminist women are prone to make assumptions about people who present themselves in the way ty lee does (even katara says that ty lee doesn’t seem like a threat), which is of course also why ty lee deliberately presents herself in this way. she knows that she will be underestimated, which is all the more imperative to achieving her primary goal: survival. however, just because ty lee encourages this perfection of her doesn’t mean that zuko is let off the hook for falling for it, or for being cruel to her.

while i don’t fault zuko for this as much as i do his treatment of mai, katara, or ty lee, his lack of generosity towards azula is a problem. obviously there are extenuating factors informing why he views azula as a rival. their fractured relationship is a tragic product of ozai’s abuse, and neither zuko nor azula is entirely at fault for how they view and treat the other. but zuko never makes any attempt to understand his sister or why she behaves the way she does, and never shows her the affection or concern azula shows him (in rare but nonetheless important moments), even after she has clearly undergone a nervous breakdown before their final agni kai. i know that zuko would view azula with hostility and suspicion no matter what, and a lot of it is of course deserved, but i cannot help but wonder whether his misogyny serves to reinforce his assumption of her that she is a manipulative, hysterical, dishonest harpy whose sole purpose in life is to make him miserable. lol

zuko constantly dismisses suki throughout “the boiling rock.” when sokka first points her out, zuko frowns at the notion that sokka is suddenly going to give a girl the attention he has, up until this point, been the only one receiving. of course suki does monopolize sokka’s attention, suddenly making zuko the third wheel where he was formerly a partner, but it’s hardly suki’s fault for being sokka’s girlfriend. he only barely apologizes for burning down suki’s village (which is probably the worst thing he ever did in the entire show, btw), and basically ignores her existence throughout the rest of the episode. in “the southern raiders” he refuses to read the room and barges into sokka’s tent despite sokka and suki clearly having a romantic evening planned. suki is perfectly nice and friendly to zuko despite having absolutely no reason to forgive the guy who burned down her village, but zuko is nonetheless dismissive of her as if she isn’t even there. which is rude, but also, kind of funny, so take this one with a grain of salt because it honestly makes me laugh??

ultimately, the way zuko treats katara, not only in book 1, but up until they become friends at the end of “the southern raiders,” is genuinely egregious. despite having that incredibly meaningful moment in the catacombs together, zuko doesn’t register it as significant in the way katara does, and cannot comprehend why katara would feel particularly, personally betrayed by him compared to the rest of the group. at the beginning of the episode, zuko pushes suki out of the way from falling rocks (dismissively) and then jumps directly onto katara and rolls her away from the rocks (patronizingly) as if she is some kind of baby whose legs don’t work. when katara is rightfully pissed off that a guy she hates has pressed himself directly on top of her and won’t get off, he scoffs and says “I’ll take that as a thank you” as if she is simply a truculent, ungrateful child. he later completely invalidates katara’s feelings, following her after she leaves the group, and yells at her for her audacity (because she is still not best friends with the guy who betrayed her trust and facilitated the near murder of her best friend), and barely seems to understand the source of her rage, assuming that she is displacing her anger towards her mother’s killer onto him instead of simply acknowledging the ways in which he has tangibly harmed her. he interrupts sokka during one of the only truly happy moments in his entire miserable life to ask him to rehash the most tragic, horrific day in his whole horrifically tragic life, and in this moment he reveals that he somehow does not even know katara’s name. until sokka refers to katara by name, zuko only refers to her as “your sister” (and at no point refers to her by name throughout the show until later in this scene), dismissing katara while simultaneously begging for her approval, which he admits he doesn’t even know why he craves, as if he doesn’t even respect her as a person but simply wants her approval because her totally valid anger towards him is just a pesky irritant he wants removed. he then imposes his own desire for revenge onto katara, not even realizing that his passionate fury is a product of his own personal feelings being displaced onto katara’s parallel situation (both their mothers were killed in their place as a sacrifice), and simply assumes that katara would benefit from going on a dangerous revenge quest with him. it is only once zuko realizes the sheer extent of katara’s power and empathizes intimately with her complex feelings of rage, grief, and guilt regarding her own mother that zuko comes to respect katara deeply, and from then on out their friendship is one of mutual respect, understanding, and a deep, prevailing love. but until the antepenultimate episode of the entire show (assuming that the four parter finale counts as just one episode), zuko constantly infantilizes, patronizes, dismisses, belittles, ignores, and trivializes katara.

“zuko has no frame of reference for sexism” his uncle literally sexually harassed (and possibly even assaulted depending on how you define it) a female employee on the job (june in “bato of the water tribe,” if you’re wondering). yes zuko is rightfully appalled by that, but mostly because his uncle is displaying desire for a far younger, hotter woman, and zuko finds all displays of iroh’s desire disgusting. to say he’s in no way familiar with patriarchal logic and the mistreatment of women in society is just plain absurd, when not only do we see him mistreat women, but we also witness him witness other men mistreat women—in particular, a man whom he admires and strives to emulate in all aspects of his life.

and finally, while this point is fairly obvious, the question “how is zuko sexist?” is just patently ridiculous for the simple fact that he was raised in an extremely patriarchal society and internalized rigid roles and hierarchies of class, race, and gender. so like, even if we didn’t have manifold examples of him behaving misogynistically in various ways across the show, he’d nonetheless be sexist because of course he is. like, real talk, what do you guys think sexism even is if not being informed by patriarchy and its assumptions? answer quickly

#atla #Zuko

[bezixx]

Remember when Zuko was smarter than Azula?

Yeah, me neither. The whole point of Zuko's character is that he does things without thinking them through, something even Iroh scolds him for. He takes the risks without assessing them first.

He is not dumb and he definitely has areas where he shines. He has shown to be a good tracker with how he always caught up to Aang or how he managed to lay several traps, and he was a good fighter by most standards ( including broadswords ). But most often his critical thinking throughout the show is overridden by his desire, the focus on a singular thing which is what his arc is about.

Regardless, even when he shines, he lacks the level of creativity, the ability to come up with plans on the fly and being able to use the knowledge that is available, handling more complex things, all of which Azula shows time and time again, often on grander scale. He was not meant to be smarter and more powerful than Azula and does not have to be for him to be a good character. Some people are just built different.

#atla #azula #zuko #avatar the last airbender #avatar #atla azula #atla zuko #fire siblings #fire nation kids #avatar azula #avatar zuko

[bezixx]

How about being forced into circumstances where you can scarcely afford to not lie? And still being able to say truth where it counts.

This is your passive aggressive reminder that being able to lie really well doesn't, under no circumstances, have to always be related to psychopathy. Sometimes you just have really strict, abusive parents that want you to be a prodigy instead of a child and therefore if you want to get away with doing normal child stuff, you have to be able to come up with a believable lie in a matter of seconds and deliver it flawlessly, to cover up the fact that you were child-ing instead of prodigy-ing.

#azula #atla

[bezixx]

Exactly. We can acknowledge Iroh did screw up and was not a saint who did nothing wrong, but still love him. There was a reason for him to get redeemed. Besides, great characters are flawed, otherwise they become boring - do not do this disservice to Iroh or Zuko, especially when helping Azula would benefit both of their arcs.

Let’s be Honest About Iroh

Okay but for real.

I adore Iroh. When I was a troubled, angry teen who had been abused and had left home as soon as I finished high school, even when it led to homelessness, Iroh meant everything to me.

He was the only adult who never failed me. Who gave me kind advice and words of wisdom to soothe the raging storm of pain and betrayal in my heart.

Only Iroh and the works of Tolkien have ever given me that level of comfort and will to keep moving forward even when I messed up. To always strive to be better, even if you were misguided or lashed out the day before. Even if you’ve been wronged or hurt and lost it all.

But for real, fandom, let’s be for real.

The problem comes when fans claim Iroh never killed anyone. Or never hurt anyone. Or tried to be a “humane” general fighting a genocidal war of aggression . Or that the Siege of Ba Sing Se wasn’t a horrific 600 day campaign which caused “chaos and violence” within the walls of the biggest civilian city in their world. It makes it seem like fandom would rather deify Iroh due to their positive feelings towards him rather than confront the reality that sometimes your mentor is someone else’s monster.

That maybe the jolly, kooky, tea-loving Uncle who always forgave and gently guided Zuko, and never ever gave up on him, may have arrived at that kindness and wisdom precisely because he has seen the end of the path Zuko was walking on. Iroh in his prime was worse than Azula could ever dream of being. When he said “she’s crazy and she needs to go down”, he was speaking from experience because he knows all too well what propaganda does to a person, and that you can’t talk them out of it. They must experience the downfall and realization for themselves.

He never said “don’t help her after she falls”. On the contrary, in the comics he wishes for Azula to heal.

Iroh is not perfect. No one is perfect. And if you keep judging people by their proximity to perfection, you will always be disappointed even in people who do good. And you will also condemn people who need help and have the potential to change into good people.

There are monsters out there but none of them are born that way. They are created through a combination of experiences and their own choices along the way.

But an important message of ATLA is that while we MUST fight those that seek to do others harm, even with our very lives, we must also reach our a hand to help those that have already fallen. If they reject it, that is their choice and they can bear the consequences.

But it is still our responsibility to reach out.

Too much of the fandom seems steeped in essentialism. That everyone is only as good as the worst thing they’ve ever done.

Which is why they feel the need to pretend Iroh was always a good person who never really wanted to participate in this genocidal war.

But this isn’t the case. And the sooner we can admit that to ourselves, the sooner we can begin to understand what drives people to such actions.

And how to help those that have been groomed and exploited for such purposes. Just like Zuko.

Even if we find them unpalatable or mentally unwell. Just like Azula.

#atla #Iroh #zuko #azula

[bezixx]

I understand to a degree where you are coming from with this. I have to disagree with you however, for the most part.

While I can give the benefit of a doubt and agree that the comics for some reason took the favoritism thing further... even too far, because in all honesty, they made a lot of weird choices and went OOC, it does not change the fact it, the favoritism, was still there in the show. I can also agree to a degree with the last paragraph.

The thing with Azula's impressions, though? Let me explain a few things:

I noticed a pattern where Azula's impressions and reactions are cherry picked. Why is that one impression is false and another suddenly true? How do you know which one of them you can actually follow and think they were true? And remember Zuko saying "Azula always lies", even though in the scene she said the truth? Then she has been mostly honest with Zuko through the show, except for the scene at the beginning of B2.

Speaking of which, impressions are not exactly reliable ( as seen with "Azula always lies", especially when Zuko was ready to believe her anyway ). This can also be applied to Zuko's flashbacks as well, which are from Zuko's PoV and so it will be his impressions or memories. Have you also ever considered how Azula might have remembered things, how it would look like from her PoV?

Azula in the mirror scene is during a mental breakdown. As you have already surmised, Azula is trying to convince herself that she is a monster. Brain is powerful and in those moments it can easily turn into self-deprecation. Her hallucination of Ursa might as well be just that: a form a self-deprecation, an affirmation that she herself is the culprit, who is at fault for everything, especially during her mental state. That can easily make her impressions even less reliable, especially when taking into consideration that she could be, as you said, re-evaluating her life, not necessarily because she thinks Ursa loved her.

Her behavior as a kid was specifically to provoke a reaction from her mother, because of said favoritism. It is likely for at least one of those two reasons ( they are not mutually exclusive ):

Those things were that Ozai taught her and she likely thought it could impress her mother as well, so she did it in the best way possible.

She saw that this is the only way to get any sort of a reaction most of the time, because Ursa was often too busy affirming Zuko that she could not afford to do so for Azula. So she tried to incite any reactions, even if negative ones.

This, to me, sounds like a direct result of favoritism. Both Ozai's towards Azula and Ursa's towards Zuko. Otherwise she would not feel the need to do things that would get backlash if she knew she could rely on Ursa giving her and Zuko equal or close to equal care and attention.

Not only that, we never see Ursa trying to properly teach her and explain why she should not do certain things. Instead she just instantly jumps to scold her and she just leaves it at that. Contrast this to how she reacts to Zuko doing something negative ( though, you can see how well that turned out later ). Azula acting like a 'bully' is precisely because nobody properly explained to her why some things are wrong to do. So she just did what she knew best. Speaking of 'bully' she acts like a typical sibling rather than a bully towards Zuko and he is usually the one that wants to fight, but alright I suppose? You can see she is trying to play with him and teases him sometimes, while Ursa just spends most of the time with him.

As for Iroh, remember that while Ursa was still around, he also did not care much about Azula and seemed to often hold her in negative light later.

So yeah, both Ursa and Iroh could have done better, especially Ursa should have tried at the very least.

I don't understand why people make excuses for Ursa. It is true that she got into a bad situation with a bad husband. That doesn't excuse her. She is still a bad mother to both Azula and Zuko. Her actions in the comic led Ozai to deliberately start treating Zuko worse. Ursa decided to hide behind the baby just to see if the pet tyrant was reading her mail. She just took advantage of the child for her own gain. Just like Ozai. Ursa's favouritism was bad for Zuko and distanced him from his sister. Ursa's indifference led Azula to Ozai

They make excuses for Ursa because she was in an abusive/arranged marriage, and they think that she had zero agency or control over anything. Which isn't entirely true. Because if that was the case? Her relationship with Zuko wouldn't have been what it was. She could still make choices in how she raised her children. And sadly a lot of her choices weren't great. Like you and plenty of other people have said, anon, her favoritism towards Zuko screwed up Azula. It also didn't do any favors for Zuko either. You aren't supposed to favor one kid over the other one, I don't care how "difficult" you think the other child is. And it's crazy because we see how favoritism is like a curse in this family. We are told by the narrative that playing favorites with your children is a bad thing (unless you favor Zuko apparently, then it's all fine and dandy🙄) and that you shouldn't do it. But you see what I just said in the parenthesis? That's where the problem is. We're shown/told that the favoritism is wrong.....unless the favoritism is towards Zuko. Both Ursa and Iroh, two adults that were considered "good" in comparison to Ozai, favored Zuko over Azula. And this is shown not as a bad thing, but as somethings that's fine and accepted because he is the "good" child, and that he acted in the perfect way an abuse victim is supposed to act in society's eyes, while Azula wasn't. Therefore she wasn't deserving of anyone's love like Zuko. Which is an extremely fucked up thing to do to a child who had no control in anything. I mean seriously, the fact that Ursa had Azula thinking this?

100% shows that she was a bad parent, plain and simple. Like I'm sorry but if the impression that I gave my child is that I feared them and thought that they were a monster, I'm not patting myself on the back and accepting the mother of the year award. Being in an abusive marriage does not absolve you from doing shitty things to other people, and I'm so tired of this fandom acting like it does. What I find to be so ironic about this though, is that these are the same people who, when we point out that Azula is a victim of abuse and that's why she is the way that she is in the show, they'll say "so what, that still doesn't excuse her. She could have changed but she chose not to." Say this to them about Zuko and Ursa though, and suddenly they start singing a different tune. Funny how that works.

#azula #ursa #zuko #ozai #iroh

[bezixx]

Especially when they keep wondering "why that of all things?" and "how does that even fit?", because it is something taken way out of context.

Calling your older sibling a nickname that they don't like and find to be embarrassing? Also a mood🤣

#atla #azula #zuko

[bezixx]

Not only that, this notion was clearly not unfounded in reality.

It really did happen.

The thing that many people unfortunately miss about Ursa's parenting is that the very fact that Azula thinks her mother liked Zuko more than her is not a sign of a good parenting.

#atla #azula #ursa critical

[bezixx]

Guess you could say... that she literally mopped the floor with him.

So was I like. The only one to laugh at this part.

I've seen waaay too many people on Reddit say that they actually started crying at this scene (or almost started to) and well. Maybe I'm built differently or something cause I laugh every time I watch this scene. Katara was so valid for doing this.

#zuko #katara #puns

[bezixx]

Mfw already being an only child:

But I guess having very close cousins does count.

This was such a mood

#atla #azula