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hello-nichya-here · 2 years

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Understanding Azula

what do you think drove Azula to come up with the idea of burning the earth kingdom (or the whole world exept fire nation I think?..) to the ground? why wasn’t subduing the world enough for her? like I try my best to understand her here and the best thing I can think of is that ‘if the world doesn’t acknowledge us, The Fire Nation, the greatest civilization in history and accept our greatness, then there’s no point in keeping you filth on this earth we share as you’re only drowning everyone in your misery.

Ugh, that was cringe and probably not the reason behind this. But there’s no way she proposed to do such vast change just to please her dad for the millionth, that’s just not all there is to her character. All I know is that The Fire Nation’s toxic propaganda on which she was brough up really fucked up Azula’s mind and perception of the world and since she’s trying to be perfect and to better everything, she took that 'sharing our greatness with the world’ thing to a whole new level to which Ozai, of course, agreed. She obviously thought hard about what she was taught in school, by the enviroment and by her father and so that’s how she came to such idea. But I’d like to hear your thoughts on this too. Thank you for your time

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Let’s take a look at how firebenders behave in the show and see if you notice a pattern that I like to call “The Fire Nation/Firebending Problem”

On the very first episode, Zuko threatens to burn what is left of Katara and Sokka’s village if Aang refuses to surrender. We also find out that every air-nomad except for Aang has been killed by the Fire Nation.

01x03 introduces the audience to the concept of Agni Kais - firebending duels that traditionally end with the winner burning the loser. We also learn that is completely acceptable for a 16-year-old to be involved in these duels, even if his opponent is a fully grown adult. 01x03 confirms that even 13-year-olds are allowed to fight in these duels, including against grown ass adults, even if said adult is their parent, and said parent will not be punished in any way for using fire to disfigure their own child who merely spoke out of turn to defend the soldiers of it’s own nation.

01x04 has Zuko burning Suki’s village while he’s looking for the Avatar. If Aang

01x06 shows us that the Fire Nation has burned down an entire forest - one that was protected by a spirit, meaning any kind of sacred ground likely doesn’t mean shit to them.

01x16 introduces us to Jeong-Jeong, a firebender who used to be in the Fire Nation’s army, but left after a traumatic event in which he lost control and it led to someone getting hurt or killed. He warns Aang, who has nothing to do with the Fire Nation’s current culture of war and destruction, that fire consumes everything. Aang then gets impatient during training, loses control, burns Katara’s hands, and then vows to never firebend again. He then manages to make Zhao lose control and accidentally destroy his own boats during a fight.

The first season’s finale has Zhao trying to kill both the moon and the ocean spirits - even though said spirits are obviously very powerful and pissing them off is not the brightest of ideas when you live in a fucking archipelago! When the news of this incident reaches the Fire Nation, Iroh is considered a traitor for fighting alongside “the enemy”, even though it was obviously a necessary, temporary alliance that likely prevented the Fire Nation from being ruined for good. There is never any indication that anyone in the palace or in the country thought Zhao was insane or stupid for what was basically a suicidal move not just for himself, but for the entire nation. This episode also has Zuko’s dumbest move ever: capturing Aang despite having nowhere to go, and fighting a waterbender in the snow, at night, during the full moon.

On her introduction scene during the first episode of season 2, Azula decides to basically ignore a completely reasonable warning to not go against the tides - which is a reckless, dangerous, and stupid move for a character that will prove to usually be very careful, smart, logical and a perfectionist to an unhealthy degree. The fact that she is on a super important mission that her father (and ruler) personally chose her to lead completely clouds her judgement.

02x07 has Iroh jokingly saying he will burn Ba Sing Se to the ground once he conquers it, yet the possibility of it actually happening is very real considering, well *gestures broadly at the entire show*. We also see Azula putting an apple on Mai’s head and setting it on fire, which could have hurt her as a prank (that Ty Lee thinks is hilarious), and she says very disturbing things about how her grandpa will die soon and how her uncle is weak for falling apart after his son died - she quite clearly heard those things from her father, and believes them to be completely normal. Finally, we have Ozai asking his father to make him the heir that Iroh lost his son, and Azulon decides that the only fair punishment is to force Ozai to kill Zuko, aka his own son.

02x09 has Zuko failing to generate lightning due to his own emotional turmoil, and so being taught to redirect it instead. He is outraged that his uncle won’t shoot lightning at him, goes up on a mountain during a storm and screaming at the universe to see if he can get hit. He does not understand how INSANE that is.

02x17 has Zuko being reckless once again and trying to steal Appa to lure Aang to him, even though he will have no way of hiding a giant flying bison. Iroh talks him out of it and finally questioning if his destiny really is what he thought it was, and the very next episode shows us that this was enough to make him physically ill.

The season 2 finale has Azula saying that likes the Dai Li because, and I quote, “They have a killer-instinct that is so firebending”

03x02 shows us that Fire Nation school books don’t teach what actually happened to the Air-Nomads (a genocide against pacifist groups that happened through ambush) and instead make it look more a “fair” conflict in which their nation was victorious. We also see that they are erasing parts of their own culture, like traditional dances. The next episode shows us a Fire Nation city (that was protected by a spirit) was destroyed, this time through the polution instead of by fire.

03x05 shows us our favorite problematic teens turning a beach game into a war (with an explosion and all) and destroying somebody’s house because they couldn’t deal with their own issues.

03x06 finally explains how the war started: Fire Lord Sozin wanted to “share” his nation’s glory with the rest of the world, and started invading cities and killing people when they didn’t accept to be ruled by him, murdering his best friend, and eventually commiting a genocide in an attempt to kill the new Avatar. We also find out that Zuko, the goddamn prince, doesn’t know that he and his sister are descendents of Avatar Roku, and there’s nothing to indicate that Azula has even the slightest clue about it either.

03x09 has a war meeting happening, but we don’t find out until the finale that the Fire Nation is having trouble controling the Earth Kingdom. Zuko says the Earth Kingdom won’t stop fighting as long as they have hope, and so Azula says they should take their hope and what’s LEFT of their land and burn it to ground (obviously a fuck ton of damage was done during a century of war) and Ozai says he will rule EVERYTHING once a new WORLD rises from the ASHES.

03x12 has Zuko accidentally burning Toph’s feet, and his vow to be more careful so he won’t unintenitonally hurt someone is what convinces Aang to let him be his firebending teacher.

03x13 shows us that Zuko can no longer firebend because his power was driven by anger and he no longer wants to rely on it, the Fire Nation killed all the dragons (except two that Iroh had to lie about to protect), and when Aang and Zuko meet the masters, it is very clear that if they fail their task they will be burned alive by the dragons, because while fire doesn’t have to be just death and it destruction, those things are still a key part of that element.

03x15 shows us the warden of the boiling rock choosing an incredibly painful death over being seen as a failure. We also see Azula lose control of her temper and impulsively get on a fight for the first time after her friends “betray” her - she will only get more and more impulsive as her sanity/emotional stability deteoriates.

In the finale Iroh essentially tells Zuko he has to kill his own sister (while refusing to kill Ozai because it’d make him look bad) and that Aang would have to kill Ozai - the episode ends with both still alive and defeated through other means. Ozai, who declared himself the Phoenix King (as in, the one that rises from the ashes), tries and fails to burn all of the Earth Kingdom, and quite clearly would have rathered die than to lose power.

What Azula said on that war meeting was terrible. It was also perfectly understandable considering the fatal flaw of every firebender (including good guy, funny uncle, Holier-Than-Thou Iroh), what was expected of her by her father, what was expected of a Fire Nation princess AND warrior, and a natural consequence being raised in a nation that is focusing on winning every single time, through whatever means necessary, no matter the coast or how counter-productive the methods can be, and that then lies to hide it’s own fuck ups.

Azula isn’t “the odd one out”, she’s the norm and a literal child soldier repeating the insanity she was groomed to believe was normal. This plan was basically an announced tragedy from the moment that Sozin decided to start the war.

(Plus, there’s the added possible reason that she went for the most aggressive “solution” imaginable and that Ozai or one of his man would likely already be considering to cover up for the fact that her dumbass of a brother just praised the enemy in front of everyone)

#submission #azula meta #actual child soldier azula #actual human child azula #azula deserved better #fire nation fuckery #fire nation royal family

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