#zuko has had time to really come to terms with his sexuality and his position as firelord | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nothing-more-than-hot-leaf-juice · 4 years

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thoughts on bi!zuko? it's one of my biggest hcs

IN THIS HOUSE, WE LOVE AND SUPPORT Bi!Zuko

headcanons:

I know that there’s comic stuff about Sozin being homophobic, but I am within my rights to ignore it. If people can move rocks with their mind and if dragons can exist, there can be normalized gay people damn it.

So it’s not really a big deal to question your sexuality or to be gay/bi, but within the Fire Nation upper class you don’t really talk about it. There’s a heteronormativity problem, but not aggressive homophobia.

When he’s younger, Zuko doesn’t really think about anyone like that. He’s got firebending training, sword training, and then he’s crowned prince all of a sudden, so he’s kind of got other stuff going on.

Mai has a crush on him when she’s 12 and he’s 13 and he starts to develop some puppy-crush feelings from her.

They do a cute pre-teen date where they play with knives outside the palace and climb on roofs (Maiko does parkour on their dates, I don’t make the rules)

Mai’s really the only person he’s had feelings for by this point (again, he’s 13 and he’s been pretty busy being a prince and all to think about that sort of thing)

Then the whole banishment thing happens and he really does not have time to start thinking about those things. Hunting the avatar is a full time gig. Angst baby Zuko does not have time to sit and wonder if he thinks boy are cute.

(aside from this one time when his ship docked at this port and there was a cute sales boy at the shop they got their supplies from who made 14 year old Zuko blush just a little too hard. He made the decision to put a pin in that for later)

Then Zuko’s on a ferry to Ba Sing Se and there’s this crime boy aggressively flirting with him. The avatar hunt is on hold. It’s later, so Zuko takes that mental pin out.

Zuko can have a little ferry make out sess with mouth wheat crime boy, as a treat (let this boy have some semi-normal teenage experiences damn it)

To Jet’s credit, he’s a good kisser. But Zuko notes that he tastes like grass.

And you know, that whole thing didn’t end well.

Not your usual experience to have the guy who was your bisexual awakening burst into your work and (rightly) accuse you and your uncle of being firebenders and then attack you with hook swords, but Zuko’s never had the best luck with anything.

Jet gets arrested and Zuko doesn’t see him again, but he can’t really ignore that whole ‘oh man I guess I am into guys’ thing anymore. And it’s not like he’s got other stuff to do in Ba Sing Se besides make tea and stave off Iroh’s shopaholic tendencies.

Immediately after the Jet incident, Zuko’s more on his guard about potential threats, but what do you know? That girl just thought you were cute you paranoid dumbass.

He goes on the date with Jin and it’s awkward as hell, but he does like it when she kisses him. Honestly, he’s not really sure what he’s supposed to feel. This newfound attraction to guys is still in the back of his brain and Zuko just never thought about it seriously before.

After the date he starts letting himself take more notice of guys and girls in the teashop now that he’s pretty sure people aren’t onto them about being firebenders.

And you know.... good looking customers are good looking customers. Guys and girls.

But you know, Zuko is the king of not knowing who the fuck he is, so it’s still confusing,

And then the avatar pops back up and Zuko’s got a different identity crisis to focus on. The boy has a morality coma to get to and questioning his sexuality is put on the back burner for a bit.

Post-morality coma, Zuko’s feeling way more comfortable. Not just in terms of letting himself be happy in Ba Sing Se serving tea with his uncle, but with his sexuality as well.

Zuko thinks about his experiences and maybe, just maybe, he could be a teenager who goes on normal teenager dates and has normal teenage relationships, maybe with guys or girls. He lets himself have that notion for a little while.

He considers telling Iroh, but not quite yet.

He doesn’t get the chance after everything happens in the catacombs.

Then it’s the case where he has a more general identity crisis to deal and just kind of pushes the realization that he’s bi to the back of his mind.

Zuko and Mai get together and Zuko remembers how much he liked her when they were younger. And with everything else stressing him out, she’s there to help him feel like less of a stranger in his own home.

(Mai’s also Zuko’s best friend, regardless of any romance)

At Ember Island he does have jealousy issues, but later when Mai asks him why he was so fixated on that guy at the party Zuko starts describing exactly why those guys were attractive and how he logically would have been at least a little jealous “I mean come on Mai did you see that one guy’s biceps? I’m only partially blind”

Mai listens to this and just goes “do you want to ... tell me something?”

Zuko has a “oh yeah I’m pretty sure I’m bi, forgot to mention it, had other stuff going on” moment

Mai, who was taught to be proper and that her options were to go into politics or marry some man above her station, is now considering that both? Both is an option? Maybe?

Cut to Zuko when he joins the gaang. His bisexuality is just kind of something he doesn’t think is a big deal and doesn’t mention it.

On the air balloon to the Boiling Rock, Zuko asks Sokka about Yue and they end up talking about relationships.

Zuko mentions that he had this brief thing with a guy in Ba Sing Se but it didn’t really end well

Sokka: “wait did you say guy? I thought you had a girlfriend?”

the SWT is generally pretty accepting, but Sokka spent most of his life living in a village without many boys his age and didn’t really consider that as a possibility.

(Sokka then considers how much he thought about the Boulder after watching the Earth Rumble VI match and thinks ‘yeah there’s probably something there’)

Sokka asks Zuko more about bisexuality. Most of Zuko’s answers are along the lines of “Sokka go to sleep I don’t know who the Boulder is and I don’t care about his badger-mole tattoo”

Suki, Zuko, and Sokka form the unofficial ‘cool and bi club’

Zuko doesn’t officially come out to Iroh, but Iroh catches him looking at Sokka one day a while after he and Mai broke up (deciding they were better as friends) and makes a comment about how Zuko needs to take time for himself.

“Lord Zuko, you should not spend your teenage years with nothing but work. Go out, find a nice young lady to take out.” “Uncle...” “..or young man”

And yeah, a few years after the war ends and a while after he and Mai end their relationship, Zuko’s not really in the position to deny that he thinks that Sokka is inhumanely attractive and funny and kind

But yeah

bi!Zuko ftw

#also love gay!zuko #either headcanon is great!#zuko #atla #sokka #jet #mai #zukka #maiko #jetko #avatar the last airbender #hot leaf content

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thinkingisadangerouspastime · 4 years

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Zukaang!

001 | ZUKAANG

when I started shipping it if I did: i shipped kataang from day 1 and zukaang really just followed so easily from that since it's so clear how important aang is to zuko and how much aang cares about zuko in return. it's about them being narrative foils!! the connection they've had since the beginning of the series!! (also i've been a follower of @thethiefandtheairbender for a while and all their good zukaang content really just cemented it for me)

my thoughts: i LOVE how much their relationship is rooted in canon! i adore both platonic and romantic zukaang (i picture them getting together romantically after aang is in his late teens usually) so it's the perfect win-win situation. aang was the first person outside of iroh to extend kindness to zuko (multiple times, for that matter) within atla and it's so clear how that kindness has impacted zuko even just by the end of book one. and ahhhh their matching scars!! given by azula and healed by katara!! the parallels between zukaang run deeper than largely any other relationship in the show, and for good reason - zukaang being foils is key to the story, imo, and people who don't understand that are really missing out lmao. and hello!! they build republic city together and that makes me all 🥰 inside. and oml the comparison of sozin/roku (with sozin betraying the avatar and destroying the air nomads) to zuko/aang (with zuko becoming one of aang's closest friends and i firmly believe helping him restore the air temples), e.g. repairing the damage of one's ancestors and healing the cycle of hatred and war!! goddamn!! it's too much for me. basically zukaang is for the cool kids so why y'all still shipping zuko with the water tribe sibs that he probably didn't know the name of for the longest time while he was obsessed with aang 😂

What makes me happy about them: how much they love and care about each other, whether you prefer to see it as strictly platonic or watch it grow into something more romantic 🤧, the mutual trust and respect (especially as zuko matures post-series), iroh himself talking about how important aang is to zuko, the picture of them holding hands for the republic city thing, how aang no doubt makes zuko laugh and smile more than anyone else, how aang probably enjoys getting zuko flustered - okay literally everything about them. they're so in love and i freaking love their love

What makes me sad about them: this is sad in a bittersweet way lol but zuko feeling responsible for what his ancestors did to aang's people and aang not wanting zuko to carry that burden because he doesn't and could never blame him. so much possibility for that good hurt/comfort! also i feel like it would take a while for zuko to grasp the importance of aang's culture to him and would probably accidentally make some callous remarks especially after they first got together (i haven't forgotten that "air temple preschool" bs, zuzu) and i imagine aang would be really hurt and it's something they'd have to talk about and work through together (so again yes kinda sad but it's really about the chance for growth™ haha!)

things done in fanfic that annoys me: i haven't seen it much but i don't like fics that suggest aang would drop katara for zuko. katara would still be very important to aang and he to her even if they weren't together. (again tho i don't think i've seen this more than once or twice)

things I look for in fanfic: aang explaining his culture to zuko, them working on restoration of the air temples together, aang being so bright and positive and zuko just there like "oh my god he's so cute. fuck", zuko's feelings for aang hitting him like a sledgehammer (bonus points if it's him seeing aang after like a year and aang is suddenly almost his height 😂), zuko taking aang to fire nation festivals, tender first kisses that result in them both becoming flustered, blushing messes

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: kataang and maiko for sure! i do think zukka is pretty cute, too, tho (even if it is oversaturating the fandom rn lmfao)

My happily ever after for them: my ULTIMATE happily ever after is zutaraang with aang in the middle (and platonic zutara) but oh man the ot4 of maixzukoxaangxkatara is soooo good, too, and i can't believe im only just getting into it now. but in terms of zukaang specifically - thanks to zuko's help aang is able to restore all the air temples before he dies, both of them being great dads to their kids (zuko probably spoiling them rotten and aang like "babe. babe they don't need another [insert random trinket here]" 😂), zuko working with aang to dismantle fire nation propaganda and to properly educate his people on the air nomads, aang travelling a lot and it being a rare but amazing occurrence when zuko is able to go with him, and literally just them being in love forever tbh. thanks for coming to my tedtalk

who is the big spoon/little spoon: they switch it up but zuko is usually the big spoon and aang the little spoon bc it allows their scars to line up almost perfectly

what is their favorite non-sexual activity: aang totally makes zuko dance with him all the time. zuko pretends to be all begrudging but he secretly loves it.

#amy answers #intezaarlily1 #THANK YOU FOR SENDING THIS I HAD SO MUCH FUN #zukaang #aang #zuko #aanglove #atla #avatar the last airbender #amy writes #kinda? got some headcanons here lol

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jyndor · 3 years

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(Imperialism etc anon) Ok I get where you're coming from! Thank you for being understanding. While Zutara is obviously not inherently racist or anything there are zutara interpretations that *are* racist (example: fire lady katara which I can get into) and it does need to be acknowledged that Zuko's status as fire nation royalty does create a power imbalance between him and Katara. Now, this is a conversation that has a lot of nuance to it but it seems like the people harassing you are (1/2)

(2/2) just repeating some genuine critique they saw without understanding what it means just to say that they're right, harassing people in the process. I did not have that context when sending that first ask and I apologize, since anons harassing you and others are clearly doing it out of bad faith. I just didn't like the leveraging of concepts that really matter in real life (colonialism, etc), ykwim? But I get what you were trying to do.

hey anon I’m finally getting to you after 84 years XD

so first off, I want to be careful about how I approach this because I understand that as a white person (even if my ancestors experienced imperialism) in the US I absolutely benefit from imperialism and don’t want to like, idk, whitesplain XD so if anyone gets annoyed with any way I say anything, just lmk and I’ll rework it. and I also do understand that these are real world issues that are far more consequential than messaging in media (although I do think it’s very important that we challenge messages in media because of media’s influence on our thinking and politics).

but before I talk about zuko and his relationship to fire nation imperialism, and then later fire lady katara and why it isn’t INHERENTLY racist but definitely can be, I want to talk about the atla fandom and how we got here. like, why I assume that most anons who come at zutara shippers are asshats acting in bad faith. if you already know fandom history, skip this section.

1. atla and the fandom has always been kind of shitty and racist

so IDK if everyone is familiar with the history of the ship war in atla fandom, but it’s regarded as one of the nastiest ship wars in fandom history which I agree lol. atla’s creators were some of the first to interact with the fandom the way they did - back then it wasn’t all that common for creators to get into twitter feuds with fans and boundaries were respected more than they are now imo. but for better or worse, and it is a mixed bag, bryke interacted with fandom a lot. certainly at cons but also on social media.

but honestly things really got extra mean in fan spaces when bryke made a “joke” atla season 4 slideshow out of fan art (some of which was really sexual in nature and totally inappropriate) that mocked fans’ creations, but especially zutara fanart and zutara itself. it was pretty tasteless especially considering how most zutara fans were teen girls, and featured some art of sokka saying that if you think zuko and katara would be good together, you’re doomed to have failed relationships. that’s where the whole “dark and mysterious” bs came from, which does describe some zutara fic but not even most of it lol. I actually do respect bryke a lot despite my criticism of them, but I don’t think I’ll ever get over that shit. like even if you hate zutara, even if it’s a joke, we were kids. and they were adults, and the whole thing was nasty.

however, the ship war was chaotic and messy, but it does feel worse now. maybe it’s because back then the fandom was MOSTLY teens and kids, and I don’t think that’s true now. we were all trying to prove our ship was best with like, content from the show and theories and all that, and now it’s like... whose ship is ~problematic lol it’s a show by white us americans appropriating from various cultures impacted negatively by us/british imperialism that they then profited off of, of course it’s racist. that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about that, and in fact many poc have been saying this shit for years - that atla is racist and colorist at many times (guru pathik anyone?) and no one really listened.

if fans are complaining only about zutara, then I’m automatically writing them off as being insincere or ignorant. and since most of these people are anonymous, I have no idea if they are having substantive discourse about colorism in avatar or cultural appropriation (even if it is mostly appreciative). if you are on anon, I have no context about what you actually think except for what you give me. and that definitely is how I view anons in general but especially within the atla fandom because for all 13-ish years I’ve been in it, it’s been messy. that’s why zutara fans have isolated ourselves from the rest of fandom, because the rest of fandom has been really nasty to us. like did we give back some nastiness? absolutely.

but I would hazard a guess that most anti-zutara shippers don’t know about the conversations we have had in this community to make it safer for people of color, conversations that centered poc and woc especially. hey, that’s okay - not to compare zutara to r*ylo because eurgh but like, idk what discourse the r*ylos have about their community. no idea, I don’t go looking for it. and I don’t go to the tags and harass r*ylos - even though they harass the fuck out of everyone else.

2. so zuko and his privilege

undoubtedly zuko as fire lord is in a fairly privileged position LMFAO. but during the show zuko is very clearly exiled - he holds very little political power in the fire nation EXCEPT for during the first season when he is in command of a ship that ozai gave him on a punishment quest lol like yeah he does terrible things and he of all people would not excuse his actions even if he was a traumatized kid, that’s the point of his arc - that he got some exposure to the rest of the world and worked to be better. and the only reason he was exiled at all was because he cares about people - he didn’t question fire nation supremacy at 13, but he sure did question the morality of his people being lead to slaughter.

but after zuko and iroh defect from the fire nation and stop hunting aang, he has next to no power, in any kind of way. like the guy is a political refugee. and yes, he goes back to the fire nation for like five minutes before realizing that he hates everything about fire nation hegemony and that he wants to end his father’s reign of terror, like that isn’t exactly someone who is going to be well esteemed by the powerful elites when he returns and takes the throne.

and I disregard the comics because they suck lol but zuko does have power as the fire lord, but he limits his power. like compared to ozai, phoenix asshole? azula? for the rest of the world, zuko is kind of an ideal leader for a former colonizing/imperialistic nation to have - someone who worked to end that tyranny, who is anti-imperialist, who believes in justice and equality, who wants to make things right for the peoples who his family oppressed.

I do think it is important to talk about power dynamics and imbalances in relationships - for instance, one could argue that mai is at a significant disadvantage in her relationship with zuko. sure she is from a powerful family but not as powerful as zuko’s. sokka? hah forget it. he’s just as disadvantaged as katara is politically speaking. toph? well, she’s definitely not as powerful politically as zuko - her family tried to silence her for years because of her disability. and oh, she’s disabled so it might be ableist for zuko to strike up a relationship with her when they’re both adults. forgetting of course that toph and sokka and katara and suki and mai are not going to be shy about their wants and needs, that these relationships are not likely to be coercive by nature of the show they’re in and the characters they involve. this is not bill clinton with monica creepiness. like, you’d have to write the relationship that way.

the only person who arguably has more political power than zuko is aang. I guess zuko can’t ever be in a relationship with anyone other than aang. and zuko’s family massacred aang’s people so I guess we can’t ship zukaang. now I know you’re not saying that, context matters. power dynamics are important. but you can’t take away the agency of characters - katara, who is essentially a princess, has agency and can choose who she wants to be with. strictly speaking, aang is more powerful than anyone in terms of political power - he’s the avatar - and of course the dynamic is different by nature of aang not being from a line of oppressors, but there still is a power imbalance in their relationship. and I don’t know how many k/ataang shippers have discourse~ on that. not that I really feel like they NEED to, um idk what they talk about lol I’m not in those circles.

3. fire lady katara is in the eye of the beholder

so fire lady katara is not inherently bad or racist, it’s essentially like saying michelle obama shouldn’t have been first lady of the us (now I get that like the obamas being in power didn’t mean black people are not marginalized lol). you can have conversations about whether or not individual versions of fire lady katara are fucked up, and I’m superrrr open to that because I’ve seen it be kinda shitty before. i’m just gonna leave this link to @shewhotellsstories and her post on this.

but often times katara as fire lady is very dominant in global/fire nation/water tribe politics, she’s a game changer ambassador (that is probably the most popular headcanon I see), she holds on to her culture (and many fans have designed her being in her wt colors, zuko is respectful af to her, she and zuko spend extended periods in the swt, etc. like... it just depends on the way it’s written.

also leaving this response by @avatarnerdkiller to the idea of katara being a prize figurehead.

anyway, thanks for your patience anon and I am curious to see if you see this or even feel like responding after all this time XD

#atla #petty fandom drama #zutara fandom #zutara #fire lady katara #discourse sigh #racism #fandom racism #asks #anonymous

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science-fiction-is-real · 7 years

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“The Search”, it’s problems, and how to fix it. PART 2, OZAI

Some of us really liked “The Search,” which tell the story of Zuko’s mom and her fate. Other’s of us.... didn’t.

My writer’s instinct tells me to fix any story I don’t like. So here it is.

In my last analytical post, I talked about Ursa, and how she’s a total badass in the show, but is completely mishandled in the comics. I also talked about some changes I would make if I were handed the reigns to rewrite “the search.”

Villains are SUPER important to stories so I have a lot to say about this here in part two.

While “The Search” is Ursa’s story, stories are driven by conflict, and so the villain is often just as important as the main character. When it came to Ozai, Gene and Bryke had an amazing opportunity to create something interesting, dynamic, and intimidating, and boy did they drop the ball.

So here is Ozai in terms of “The Search,” what his problems are, and how I would fix them.

Villains, as the main source of conflict, are the power house of any story, and so they need to be done well. Watching Avatar and Legend of Korra, Bryke prove themselves to be kings when it comes to their villains. Every single one of the bastards struck a balance between being terrifying and being believably human. (Except for Unalaq. Fuck you Unalaq) Ozai was not necessarily a complex character in the show. This was because he was supposed to be more of a symbol of evil than a character in his own right. But Even Ozai's humanity is shoved down our throats toward the end. He sure was cute in that baby picture.

But Ozai can’t be the same thing in the comics than he was in the show. In “The Search” we see him in a more intimate setting, as Ursa’s husband and Zuko and Azula’s father. He doesn’t get to be a mere symbolic evil anymore. Now he has to be a walking breathing human being with an interesting personality. Can he make the switch?

Spoiler alert, he doesn’t make the switch very well.

I don’t think Bryke and Gene recognized how cool an opportunity they had when dealing with person Ozai as opposed to just symbolic Ozai.

Think about some of the best villains in fiction/literature: Satan was once Lucifer, Darth was once Anakin, Frankenstein and Monster both were never predestined for their villainous rivalry. These characters are interesting and timeless because they are PEOPLE first and villains second. They became evil not because it was fun but because of decisions they actively made, based on complex emotions, beliefs, and desires.

Presenting villains as humans doesn’t take away their scariness. The opposite is true. Seeing humanity in villains disturbs us because it reminds us 1) anyone is capable of evil, and 2) people we hate are human beings too. Also. When villains have complex thoughts, feelings, and emotions, this gives them strong motivations, and shows us they are actually DRIVEN to commit evil deeds.

The writers could have done this with Ozai. But they took that opportunity presented to them by “The Search” and they flushed it down the toilet.

Ozai in the comics certainly LOOKS like a human character. He does human-ish things, like working out, eating dinner with his family, sharing sexual tension with his wife. But the writers forget something pretty basic about humans when they delt with Ozai. Humans have behaviors that are driven by thoughts, desires, and emotions. Ozai has behaviors, and those behaviors, uhm... sort of.. kind of... add to the plot, But the thoughts, desires, and emotions behind them are self contradictory, poorly explained, or just missing all together.

Ozai’s actions are so confusing I had to go back to read the comic again just to figure out what the writers were trying to do with him. I am thoroughly convinced the writers hadn’t the slightest clue what was going on in that evil little noggin, nor did they give the slightest fuck. They spent maybe five minutes on the dude and his dialogue. The result is neither interesting nor intimidating.

In order to be as unsympathetic as possible, Comics Ozai basically follows the behavior pattern of “handle every situation as badly as I possibly can" regardless if it fits any type of concrete motivation. In fact Ozai isn’t really allowed to have any thoughts, feelings, or motivations at all. He is not allowed to show any emotion that doesn’t fall between grumpy and hateful. No other emotions allowed! Otherwise he might run the risk of being relatable, and God forbid a villain show any of that humanity the show worked so hard to convince us villains have. As a result, his behavior has no consistency. If this were a Criminal Minds episode, they would profile Ozai as being multiple UnSubs who are not actually working together.

They can’t get the guy pinned down. At first they play him off as a jealous and possessive husband. Of course, Ozai doesn’t show any of the emotions that tend to go along with jealousy and possessiveness. He shows no sexual or romantic attraction to Ursa. He suffers no fear of abandonment. Those are no-no emotions for Ozai. But he’s jealous anyway. He reads her mail, he forbids her to contact or talk about her family, he puts a hit out on her old boyfriend. But then, after spending several pages being jealous and possessive, Ozai suddenly decides to ask Ursa for a quick and amicable divorce right after the plot to kill Azulon is established. Jealous possessive types usually panic at the thought of separation with their partner, but Ozai actually seems to take glee in the thought of Ursa leaving. Which is it Ozai? Do you want to control and possess the woman or do you hate her and want her gone? Make up your fucking mind.

Just as confusing is how he treats Zuko. Abuse by a parent toward a child is always confusing and tragic. But real dick parents either have no motivation at all for their abuse (other then whatever behavior the victim did to trigger it), or they believe their abuse to be a natural part of parenting. Ozai actually gives us a more creative reason for his cruelty. He does it to punish Ursa for her lie about Zuko’s parentage. We’re supposed to interpret this as Ozai being a sadistic prick. But if Ozai were really just a sadistic prick, he wouldn’t wait for Ursa to give him an excuse to pick on Zuko. And if Ursa really was the cause of his abuse, the abuse would stop after Ursa left. Also why does Ozai take so much glee in Azulon’s order to kill Zuko? YOU’RE BEING PUNISHED OZAI! Azulon is telling you to kill Zuko as a PUNISHMENT. Either its a punishment or it was something you were going to do all along. It can’t be both. What the hell is going on?

Ozai’s confused motivation means that he isn’t really that intimidating throughout the story. He’s actually kind of something to laugh at. A lot of the supposedly scary and evil things he does also fall flat under closer inspection. When he’s jealous about Ursa’s former boyfriend he doesn’t go after him herself, but instead hires a hit man, who fails. He tells Ursa not to contact her home town, but he seems to care little about the letters she writes her boyfriend, even though he has been intercepting them for years (until the lie about Zuko’s parentage). He’s supposed to be seen as conniving and ambitions, but he indicates no interest or plans to seize political power until his wife dictates letter by letter how he can do it. We don’t even get to see him fight, except against some training dummies. For such a supposedly dastardly villain he isn’t very ballsy or active in the narrative. Some of you may disagree with me on that, but I thought he could have done more.

One reason this one-dimensional Ozai bothers me so much is because of how The Search makes a half-hearted effort to have a discussion on abuse and abusive family dynamics. Ozai is an abuser, but real life abusers aren't dangerous because they happen to be evil for evil's sake, they are dangerous because their cruelty is mixed in with the more human, positive aspects of family life as well. Abusers use affection and charm to gain control just as much as they use cruelty. Some times abusers and victims actually have strong, loving feelings for each other, which only further entangles their victims in the cycle. If “The Search” wants to have a conversation on such a real and pressing topic, it isn't very responsible of them to portray the issue in such a one dimensional and unrealistic way.

Long story short, Bryke had an opportunity to flesh out their best villains they had, and they blew it. Villains are the source of conflict, and thus driving engines of a story. Villains are extremely important and need to be done with care. Bryke blew it. It makes me want to scream into a pillow.

SO.... HOW DO WE FIX THIS....?

A good version of the Search could go in one of two different directions.

One) They could stick with the story mostly as it is, where Ozai is evil from the beginning and is the unchallenged antagonist throughout the story. This is more time efficient.

Two) They could really take advantage of the chance to show Ozai as a human being, and give us some backstory on him and the origins of his evil nature. They could show him as Anakin turning into Darth if you will.

But either of these routes will have some things in common that will need to be fixed.

The Current Search shows an Ozai half-heartedly attempting “schemes” and “plots,” but never in a way that truely convinces us he’s a truely effective antagonist. The first thing Search 2.0 should do is to show Ozai taking a much more active, if not violent role in the story events. Ozai’s main character trait it seems is his ambition. So lets let him be ambitious. Lets let him grab the royal court by its balls and man handle it to his liking. Also, its a damn shame we had an action-centered comic where Ozai (one of the best fire benders in the ATLA universe) was the main bad guy, and we didn’t get to see him in a single fight. Let’s put him in a fight. Most importantly, in order to convince the reader that Ozai should truely frighten them, his actions need to have very clear and explicit motivations, AND must be successful at least a large part of the time--with consequences to those around him.

Included in this, I want to see Ozai do a much more convincing job playing the abuser. I want to see him charm and manipulate as well as throw his weight around. I want to see him actually make the audience feel trapped and claustrophobic as they relate to the family trapped under his thumb. You may say that is too dark, but must I remind you Show Ozai burned a kid’s face off in the very first season. We have wiggle room when it comes to darkness.

Ozai needs emotional range. Every character but him is allowed to show range. Villains need as much range as the protagonists, including moments of emotional vulnerability and non-threatening emotions. Emotional vulnerability doesn’t make villains less scary. It actually does the opposite. Villains are scary when we know their evil deeds have a strong motivation behind them. And that strong motivation can only come when characters have emotions that drive their actions. Frankenstein’s monster is a good example of a villain who demonstrates strong, if not over dramatic emotional range. It’s not the monsters anger or grumpiness that makes him scary, it’s his loneliness, sense of loss, and longing to be loved that do, because we know that THOSE are the emotions that will drive him to fuck a bitch up.

You may also worry that showing an emotionally vulnerable, and dare I say relatable, Ozai would make the reader feel morrally confused. Good. Good stories ARE morally confusing. Tell me you weren’t morally confused when you saw Darth Vader as a ten year old child, or when someone told you FRANKENSTEIN and not the monster might be the bad guy, or when someone told you the devil himself used to work for God, OR WHEN BRYKE SHOWED YOU OZAI’S BABY PICTURE RIGHT BEFORE AANG WAS SUPPOSED TO KILL HIM. We were morally confused when those things happened, but it made us smarter and wiser because it challenged our perceptions. If we take the second story option this will be an absolute necessity.

What kind of emotions might those be? Well, it depends on what type of story line we would decide to go with for Search 2.0. There are some things to work with here. Ozai is shown having a toxic relationship with his own father. I could imagine a story line where he attempts to take the pain and hurt from that rejection, and channel it into rising above his station, into unbridled ambition that drives him to destroy his own family while securing his own power. It is a well established fact that Ozai is ambitious. We could explore how Ozai feels when asked by his father to kill his own son, in the sense that Ozai takes it as a punishment--torn between protecting his own bloodline vs his compulsive need to please his father. We could explore what sort of feelings, if any, he has toward Ursa, which is especially important considering this is Ursa’s story.

If we want to stick as much to canon as possible, let’s recall that Show Ozai reads as a classic narcissist, by the technical definition of the word. His treatment of Zuko and Azula follows typical patterns of Narcissistic abusers, and he also does shit like usurp the throne from his grieving brother and crown himself Phoenix King. Of course, being a Narcissist does NOT exclude him from being emotionally complex and even in some ways relatable. Narcisist don’t experience empathy or true love, but they do experience pretty much every other emotion on the table.

Some more plot specific things.. I would get rid of the jealous husband angle. It seems a little Cliche to me. I think Ozai would be much too concerned with cementing his own power in the court to worry about who Ursa is writing letters too.

Lets PLEASE get rid of the plot point where Ozai decides to abuse Zuko because he’s trying to get back at Ursa. It doesn’t make any sense to me. We can explore why he hates his son if we want. I have my own theories. Maybe Azulon hates Zuko, and because Ozai wants to suck up to his dad, he hates Zuko too. Or maybe Ozai blames Zuko for Azulon’s death and Ursa’s leaving. Afteral if it hadn’t been to protect Zuko’s life, Ursa would not have killed Azulon and left. Or maybe Zuko takes after Ozai in many different ways, and Ozai hates himself, and therefore hates Zuko. Or maybe he’s just a big fat dick who needs a punching bag and learned abusive behavior patterns from his own dad.

Sorry that was so long, pepes, you are treasures for hearing me out.

Please comment if you have any thoughts

#ozai #ursa #zuko #azula #meta #atla #atla comics #avatar #avatar comics #the search #avatar last airbender #no typo checking we post the first draft like men

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