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#;; azula ;; musings
comradekatara · 2 months
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hi, fully optional atla meta question: hypothetically, how would the rest of the gaang react if they somehow found out how very damaged and mentally ill sokka is? (also please know that I am asking this because you have the very bestest sokka takes thank you)
im so sorry, but something about the phrasing of this ask is just really funny to me??? idk why but i can’t stop picturing them all in therapy a la that one sunny episode. “the gaang gets analyzed.” aang being like “i was frozen in an iceberg for an entire century.” “that’s not possible.” “well first of all through the avatar spirit all things are possible, so jot that down.” azula constantly spouting that she graduated top of her class at the royal fire academy for girls so there’s no way some two bit shrink will be able to get through to her. toph insisting that she is impenetrable vault while spitting peanut shells at her therapist with utmost hostility, five minutes later she’s sobbing about her mommy. zuko doesn’t even need five minutes, he starts sobbing about his mommy in under five seconds. katara willingly recounts the entire story of her life but it’s the most biased narrative you’ve ever heard. ty lee somehow gets her therapist to open up to her. mai just does a little comedy bit to amuse herself until their time is up, and then afterwards she’s like “hm…. maybe i should’ve actually brought up my pervading existential dissatisfaction and constant unending misery.” suki doesn’t realize what the purpose of a therapy session is and keeps treating it like a first date. sokka keeps insisting that he doesn’t need therapy because he’s too smart for it. his therapist is like “i am perfectly willing to acknowledge that you’re a genius but that’s also totally irrelevant to the project of cognitive behavioral therapy.” sokka basically just treats it like a game to be won and somehow manages to describe every single facet of his life truthfully while passing himself off as perfectly well-adjusted and happy. katara and zuko come out of their sessions like “wow i feel so refreshed, like so many of my emotional burdens have been lifted, and i can finally navigate my feelings in a healthier way. isn’t therapy great?” and sokka’s just like “maybe for you normies. while you’re working on developing healthier coping mechanisms or whatever, i’m playing psychological pai sho with a guy who thinks i’m so mentally stable i don’t even need therapy.” so basically he is a lost cause.
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the-badger-mole · 5 months
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On the Unredeemed
Unredeemed villains are important in fiction. I feel like that needs to be said. There is a trend in recent years (probably since Wicked became a hit) of people wanting to see monsters redeemed. I'm not against that (per-se... glowers in Maleficent), but also, I feel like we do lose something when we lean into the idea that the monster gets to make good.
Fiction can be really useful for teaching us about life. I remember seeing a quote some time ago on Pinterest or something that said something along the lines of "fairytales are important not because they tell us dragons are real, but because they tell us that dragons can be slayed". That has been on my mind a lot recently when I see discussions about characters like Azula and (more recently) Ozai. They are fictional characters with super magic fire powers, but they represent something real- they represent the cycle of abuse in families, and while I understand the impulse to absolve someone as young as Azula, I think it's also important to tell the story where she isn't redeemed.
One reason that most Azula redemption stories bother me is because of the responsibility they tend to place on Zuko as her older brother, despite the fact that she victimized him probably more than anyone in her life (that we get to see. I don't think her soldiers believed her death threat for no reason). There are plenty of stories about the victims of abuse needing to be the bigger person to keep their families together and being villainized when they don't (I think by now we all understand that Terri was not the villain of Soul Food). We need stories about knowing when it's okay to walk away, and that illustrate the idea that "the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb".
In a time when more people are talking openly about going low contact or completely cutting off family members- close family members- I personally think that seeing stories about coming out of the other side of it, of building a new family, healing from the past, and dealing with the residual guilt that comes with "turning your back on family" even when it's the right call, is helpful in the same way that those fairytales about slayable dragons are.
I'm not saying any of this to discourage Azula redemption stories. In fact I would love to see more. Stories that have Azula confronting what she did to the people she should have loved most, and have her considering what to do with the knowledge going forward, instead of just using her past abuse and mental health to gloss over the real harm she did. I want to see her grappling to accept the fact that no one- not her brother, not Iroh, not her friends- owes her forgiveness, and then dealing with all the complex emotions that come with just one of them actually forgiving her. But also, I want to see stories where Zuko gets to let go of his father and sister and go on to be supported in that decision. Because to him, they were dragons, and they were slain.
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myherobirdbros · 5 months
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Straying from my usual posts to say man the narrative fucked Azula over. When I was a kid I really liked her. Like I distinctly remember whenever we had flashback scene and saw her and Zuko with their chubby cheeks and baby selves I was sure it was a way to foreshadow some kind of redemption for both of them. Where Iroh saves Zuko and then Zuko saves Azula. It felt like (at least to me) that's where the story was heading. But then around season 3, I think I started to realize that wasn't going to happen. Because no matter how compelling that story could be and how young Azula was, the narrative really really wanted me to believe she was some kind of irredeemable moster. Which made no sense because we had the beach episode and those little flashbacks of her and Zuko running around the fields, laughing together and Zuko saying his family used to be happy once. Like, did the show writers want to take the easy way out? Did they want Zuko to also defeat a biiiig bad (Azula in this case) so they refused to give her a lifeline? Because I felt blindsided. Apparently Iron the colonizer and Zuko deserve redemption but not Azula. She was just crazy. Like I watched the first airing of avatar as a kid and looking back it's frustrating knowing how little the writers cared about Azula's humanity when it was so easy as a kid to see how sad and angry and scared she was.
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huodao · 1 month
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I STILL FORGET WE'RE NOT EVEN FRIENDS // MAI & AZULA.
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lagt-duck · 1 year
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To me it's so interesting how Avatar (tla) manages his villains
Zuko by all accounts looks at first like a classic kid show villain
Always shouting, not extremely threatening and with scars to make him look more evil
And then the show does a 180 and is like "yeah but getting that scar wouldn't have been painful viewer?" And the viewer who has no real reason to hate Zuko beside him being a normal villain is like "oh shit"
Iroh is that classic side kick of the villain, to make him look funnier to the kids
But then the show kinda hits you with a bat when you realize that this guy loves the other like a son and like aaaahhh despite all the shit he did in life (let's not forget he was complacent in the war) he is such a good force that a lot of people FORGET THAT
Azula.... Azula is fucking terryfing and that's perfect! She in more ways then one follows Zuko steps of the evil guy, just a little less cartoony but still pretty basic, like she is ruthless and doesn't stop
Then the show is like "i mean yeah but she is also a very fragile teenager with the worst father in the world as only parent" and that is so so fucking painful? Like the final Agni Kai to me NEVER really felt like a triumphant Victory but more like... A sad relief? Like it's finally over and they can all heal now
Ozai... Ozai fucking sucks and that's amazing
Because.
A story needs a villain that the viewer needs to root against
Ozai is pretty one dimensional, but he thrives as a villain because EVERYONE ELSE in his (current alive) family is so well written!
It doesn't matter why Ozai is such a megalomaniac abusive piece of shit
Because the only thing we need to hate him it's provided and justified since episode 1
But. I think as a kid it really surprised me how... "Refined" he looked.
He isn't burly or his face is in a permanent scowl
He is by all standards a pretty boy. (Which is funny to think about)
But then he smiles and you realize that oh. This bitch is the creepiest bastard we have seen so far
(i personally think Zhao was a prototype, they share *a lot* of characteristics)
Anyway i just though it was neat.
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prodogg · 1 year
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My thoughts about the whole Zuko & Azula plot in „the awakening“:
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So, Azula took Zuko with her back to the fire nation where they received a heroes welcome, then Zuko anxiously waited to meet his father, then Azula comes and questions him about the possibility of Aang surviving, Zuko hesitated to answer and rather badly lied in her face upon which Azula gets suspicious, she then meets her dad and tells him Zuko killed Aang, to use him as fall guy should anything really be a problem with Aang‘s death. Now you see Zuko lied to Azula because of the water and also because he doesn’t trust Azula for good reasons, when looking back at beginning of the Book 2 and the whole „father wants you back“ chaos, where Azula lied to Zuko. I think this also shows the tragic aspect of their sibling relationship, they where so far from each other that they couldn’t even trust each other. Now there are some gaps left by the show which had to be filled by myself e.g when Azula met with her dad or if she reported to him back in Ba Sing Se. I saw some takes that required Azula to be some 4d chess mind reader that could look into the future and also takes away her confidence in her own abilities, like lightning bending, which is imo ridiculous. Anyways these were my thoughts about the whole Zuko and Azula tension in „the awakening“. Btw Zuko not closing the door is like one of the most annoying sibling moments to happen.
Also if you bad mouth one of the siblings I hope your sleeves touch the water and get wet when washing your hands. These two will also come after you:
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*cough* Anyways here a sweet moment of the fire hazards together:
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a-cloud-for-dreams · 24 days
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#if you know me you already KNOW the characters that came to mind ahdkfhgfw <- I am curious 🤔🤭
IMAO I LOVE THIS QUESTION TY FOR ASKING
When I reblogged that post I was thinking of so many characters so I didn't really bother tagging all of them, but the five that immediately came to mind were Princess Azula, Amala Basu, Emily Prentiss, Love Quinn, and one of my OCs (Mirage). I love genuinely messed up characters I think they're fascinating case studies related to human nature and what happens when people are pushed to the extreme.
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zeus-favorite-child · 11 months
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i just realized an irony of situation for Azula. Day of Black Sun was supposed to be her weakest time (since she don't have her bending) yet she slay so hard that episode. Then comes Sozin Comet, a time where she's supposed to be in her peak (as a firebender) but she's in her lowest that time because of betrayals and harsh truth that her father was just using her as a war machine.
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myfatmuses · 1 month
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"As your doctor I need to remind you that excessive drinking as well as snacking is bad for your health. I'm recommending you on a diet
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"I should have burned your village to the ground when I had the chance."
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"And I should have drowned you but here we are I suggest celery and broccoli.”
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phoebester · 9 months
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I’m interested in expounding the characters of Ozai, Azula and Ursa. I love reading a good story so if it’s not (well) written down for me, my maladaptive daydreaming comes into practice.
For Ursa, I believe she tried to be a devoted mother but the way her story was told left a lot of plot holes. Why did Ozai let her live? Was changing her identity and face part of the bargain? Would a mother dare *gasp leave her children for another life? (I know I wont) Did she have relations before Ozai? Did she ever love Ozai? Because at one point Zuko said that they were once happy. Or maybe he thought they were.
My approach to these characters is not black and white. For example, Ozai’s not evil for evil’s sake. Game of Thrones has taught me that there is a story within a story so for me, Ozai though inherently evil, has to have a back story why he is the way he is. I believe Ozai has narcissistic personality disorder. He feels sad and angry more for selfish reasons, sort of paralleling Joaquin Phoenix’ character in Gladiator as Commodus. He was angry, he cried for his father’s love while killing him. These kinds of characters and people irl do feel hurt, anger, and resentment but these feelings are more often misplaced. Often their hollow empty lives coming from a corrupted soul beyond redemption. And that’s the story I want to see. How they come about why they do what they do.
So in my head canons of the minor atla characters including Mai, these characters have layers upon layers of their journey and how it moves forward or how it ends in the atla universe.
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goldrushzukka · 9 months
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Whats is it abt azuki that makes you go insane?
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[ID: a post from tumblr user cigarettefaggot. it reads: fuck healthy female friendship i want toxic lesbian sex on every tv in the nation. end ID]
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okay the thing I wanted to talk about for Touya:
So over on the discord server we’ve been watching s5 of mha cause some of my friends hadn’t seen it yet, and I REALLY wanna watch s6 with them, and last night we finally finished.
I noticed something.
I and probably a ton of other people have talked about how Touya probably related to the High End Nomu he sent after Endeavor and very much sent that one on purpose. HOWEVER, I don’t see a lot of analysis about the Line Guy he also sent his way.
Here’s what I think: I think the Nomu battle was foreshadowing his battle vs Shouto, which was focused on who was the strongest and who could last out between the two of them, and I think the Line Guy is foreshadowing his “battle” with Endeavor.
I put battle in quotations because, like with the Line Guy, I don’t think it’s gonna be much of a fight.
The Line Guy is almost a 1-1 projection of Touya. One of the first thing he says to Endeavor is that he’s so happy he remembers him. The first thing he does when he gets out of prison is search for Endeavor, even before he eats. He’s obsessed with Endeavor. He’s obsessed with dying. He doesn’t want anyone else to kill him but Endeavor. He will hurt other people to get Endeavor to hurt him. He uses one of his sons to get to him.
For most of that battle, Endeavor is frozen on the ground. And per the last chapter:
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he’s pretty much in the same position.
How that battle ends isn’t because of Endeavor, it’s because of the kids. They beat the Line Guy because Endeavor is just too frozen up to act. While I don’t think he’s gonna freeze up this time, I do think he’s going to refuse to fight Touya. And like the Line Guy, it’s gonna make him furious. He needs Endeavor to kill him. It won’t fit his narrative otherwise. Often when kids are in situations like Touya was, they start to believe that any attention is better than no attention, even negative painful punishments. In Touya’s mind, killing Endeavor, and therefore getting Endeavor to kill him in the process, is the ultimate acknowledgement.
But Endeavor’s not that violent guy anymore.
I personally have not seen enough from Endeavor yet to like him like some of y’all do, but it would be untrue to say that he is the same man that we started the series with. We’ve been with that man for many arcs now...but Touya hasn’t. The only father he knows is violent, ruthless, cold. He will hurt his family for the betterment of his Hero status without a second thought. He admired those traits in his father because his kid brain understood that as the source of his power. Just like the Line Guy.
And I think it’s gonna end in the same way, with Touya feeling rejected by a man who no longer exists. What’ll “save him” isn’t Endeavor, it isn’t him doing a round-a-bout himself. It’ll be the weight of his grief breaking him. He will never get what he wants now and that’ll be too much to bare. He’ll crack. That battle genius we’ve been seeing, him being always two steps ahead, all of that will start to slip away as his mental health reaches his breaking point, until he makes the one mistake that leaves him broken and sobbing in Shouto’s ice.
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Cause that’s what happens with the Line Guy
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coreofgold · 11 months
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@softsliders19 for Azula
Is that. . .Azula ? No it can't be can it ? Lu Ten remembers her being younger but. . .she does look similar. If she's here. . .could it mean the other members of his family are ? Would be nice to have them at least around. Lu Ten jogged up to the woman. "Excuse me ? Is your name Azula ?" Hopefully it is.
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awanderingmuse-fandom · 11 months
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Book 1: Intertwined Destinies
Chapter 1
Fandom: Avatar the Last Air Bender
Summary: Music night washes over Iroh. The crew’s attention  on each other means no one notices  their allegedly ill prince slipping over the side of the Wani and onto the dock. 
Zuko, as The Blue Spirit, is leaving to meet another White Lotus Bud agent to exchange information on the Earth Armies for similar details on Fire Nation troops. 
The White Lotus Buds are more successful than Iroh expected. Sometimes he thinks the war would end in days if they left the operatives in charge. 
The White Lotus Buds were inspired by Zuko himself. It wasn't difficult to connect The Blue Spirit’s earlier escapades with Zuko. Not once one realized there were connections to make.
Iroh does not know when the sneaking began, though he has his suspicions. Ten year old princes don’t go missing for days on end easily. And there's the  ambiguity surrounding  Azulon’s death and Ursa’s sudden flight. When it started doesn’t truly matter when Zuko will not speak of it.
Shaking off his wandering curiosity, Iroh lets himself be drawn into the singing of an old sea shanty. It helps keep an old man awake, which he will need if he wants to be alert for his nephew’s return later that night.
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Violence, Strong Language, References to Child Abuse, Aftermath of Genocide, War
Characters: Zuko, Katara, Blue Spirit, Painted Lady,Sokka, Aang, Toph, Suki, Iroh, Kanna, Bumi, Ty Lee, Azula, Jet, Paku, Haru, Tyro, The Boulder, Smeller Bee, Jeong Jeong, Teo, Yue, Yugoda, The Wani Crew, Hei Bai, Arnook, Lieutenant Jee, Other Cast, Original Characters, Zhao
Pairings: Zutara, Taang, maybe Tyzula, maybe Sukka
Other Tags:  Cannon Divergent, Cannon Re-Write, Zuko Joins the Gaang Early, Zuko is in the White Lotus, Nearly everyone is in the White Lotus,  There’s like 80 Percent More Lotus Members in this, You get to be a Lotus Member and You get to be a Lotus Member, Spirit Shenanigans, Identity Shenanigans, Spies, Ninjas, Secret Organization actually effecting change for once, Mentions of Jet/Katara, Kanna loves her grandkids, Ozai’s Terrible Parenting, Azula Redemption, You can take the General out of the war…, Zuko is an Awkward Turtle Duck, Protective Katara, Toph Beifong is a Menace, Sokka is the real MVP, Aang is Trying y’all, Jet being an Asshole, Aged-Up Characters, Enemies to Lovers, Love Square - Kinda, No Beta We Die Like Jet, Multiple POV
Chapter Preview
Sokka stomps his feet against the  iron deck of the abandoned Fire Nation ship beneath him and pulls the arctic fox-bear skin lower over his face. Until recently he’d thought the mask-hood combo Gran Gran had insisted he keep was ridiculous. He might technically be a White Lotus Bud, but much like being a man of the tribe, it was in name only. Despite his eighteen years he’d never even been ice dodging. 
Then he’d received word from Gran Gran that he’d be meeting with another operative, The Blue Spirit himself. To say that Sokka was excited was to put it mildly. The Blue Spirit was a legend in their organization. The top operative the White Lotus had to offer. And Sokka was going to meet him tonight! Though his excitement had waned in the last  three hours and several degrees.
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ilvaites · 1 year
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i was surprisingly productive this weekend so here's a list of semi - active blogs where u can expect me to parkour for now if im not on the multi:
lu zhiruo ( @zhi8te​ )     :      chinese musician oc
vincenzo cassano ( @consigleire )     :     mafia lawyer clown
zoya nazyalenskaya ( @vedmya )     :     blue coded dragon witch girlie
inej ghafa ( @unwraith )     :     knife wife with moral conflict
nina zenik ( @corpseralki )     :     sad dead powers witch
juliette cai ( @dorogava )     :     knife wife #2 gang heiress
evie d’entença ( @vanitys )     :     fake asf blueberry princess
yu azula ( need to set up her carrd first lol )     :     spawn of satan
katara siku ( also need to set up stuff first )     :     tired water girl
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cat-appreciator · 8 months
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I’m thinking about Azula ATLA. Man, what a great character. It’s a pity you can’t really do the “I’m unhinged and electrocuting people and having a great time!” thing in most settings, where they have things like child psychologists and the rule of law instead of the rule of one family of incredibly psychologically fucked up people. You can’t really put Azula into BnHA, for example, unless you a) tone her Azula-ness down a lot or b) make her a villain, and in any case c) Todoroki really doesn’t need another fucked up murderous sibling (c.i: you know she’d be a Todoroki).
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