For those who are not aware, @seyaryminamoto is someone who has been in the Azula fandom a very long time and who has written many brilliant metas that have greatly influenced my understanding of Azula, Zuko, and other characters. Thus, I decided to put together a post with links to all of her metas that I could find:
Edits:
“Zuko Alone”:
Azula: Mom, can you make Zuko play with us? We need equal teams to play a game. Zuko: (emphatically) I am not cart wheeling. Azula: You won’t have to. Cart wheeling’s not a game, (under her breath) dumb dumb. Zuko: I don’t care. I don’t want to play with you. Azula: We are brother and sister. (her voice becoming sickly sweet) It’s important for us to spend time together. Don’t you think so, mom? Ursa: Yes darling, (to Zuko) I think it’s a good idea to play with your sister. Go on now, (she fluffs Zuko’s head a few times) just for a little while.
and
Ursa: I was just coming to get you. Uncle Iroh sent us a letter from the war front. (to Zuko) You’re soaking wet. Zuko: (with a gesture of frustration) Girls are crazy!
and
Zuko: (slightly panicked) Where’s mom? Azula: No one knows. Oh, and last night, Grandpa passed away. Zuko: Not funny, Azula. You’re sick. And I want my knife back, now.
Zuko’s selective memories about one of the worst weeks of his life probably do not paint an accurate picture of his relationship with Azula, and “Zuko Alone” definitely implies that their relationship was actually better than seemingly depicted.
Still, we get a sense that the Fire Siblings did not have the best relationship and that Zuko generally didn’t like spending time with his sister. There’s definitely a strong rivalry between the siblings as they compete for their parents’ favor.
Most importantly, it’s hard to imagine Zuko ever meaningful leaning on Azula for support, since he doesn’t have a good relationship with her, since Ursa is very available to him as a loving and supportive figure, and since Azula is very clearly not mature enough to know how to provide meaningful support.
However, flashforward to the timeframe of the series, and we find that Zuko leans on Azula for support more than just about anyone else(and Azula usually gives support in response), and this is despite Zuko demonizing Azula, feeling extreme jealousy toward her, and blaming her for how Ozai treats him.
But despite his enmity for her and his deep suspicion of her actions, he can’t help leaning on her for support and opening up his heart to her, suggesting that there was a point in the past where he often relied on Azula for support and received it from her.
For the reasons I laid out above, it can’t have been before Ursa’s exile. It must have happened afterward. But how?
One of the big things I think happened is that Azula started growing up very fast. She actually grew more pleasant, agreeable, and understanding as a person. Moreover, she started trying to fill the void left by Ursa in the family. And with Ursa gone and having largely secured Ozai’s favor, Azula had much less reason to be jealous of and competitive with Zuko.
Meanwhile, with Ursa gone and Iroh only slowly making his way home, Azula was the only potential person Zuko had to lean on for support. As she started responding better and better to him trying to solicit support from her, he began more encouraged to do so more. And even when Iroh came home, it would have taken time for Zuko to really warm up with and bond with him again(and he might have only really begun to do so after he got exiled).
Of course, Azula tried to hold all her troubles in rather than lean on her brother.
This isn’t to say that Azula and Zuko had a great relationship during this period. Zuko was still very jealous of Azula. Azula was still not the nicest person and still enjoyed making fun of her brother, and Ozai encouraged her to view Zuko negatively. And it’s possible that the Zuko-Azula relationship improved, only for it to gradually deteriorate after Iroh returned and Zuko gained another shoulder to cry on, along with Ozai turning up the pressure on Zuko and Azula.
Still, it seems pretty likely that their relationship was much better in this period than it was before this period or after it.
How did we get to where we did in canon, then? I think the trauma of getting burned and banished really increased many of Zuko’s worst character traits. In exile, he became more and more jealous of Azula for having what he had lost, and he began blaming her more and more for how Ozai had treated him. Iroh potentially deliberately or inadvertently encouraged this, especially since he never had a good relationship with Azula.
Meanwhile, Ozai probably disparaged Zuko a lot in front of Azula, and maintaining a relationship with him might have seemed dangerous enough that Azula repressed a lot of her love for Zuko. Obviously the issues between Zuko and Azula never went away but were only tempered by them having a stronger aspect of care in their relationship for a while. And Ozai and Iroh might have managed to effectively discourage either Fire Sibling from writing to the other, even if they wanted to.
Azula might have even painted Zuko as more and more immature in her memories to make herself feel safer in the environment of the court.
The above is only a theory, but I think it’s very possible that the Zuko-Azula relationship might have actually improved to a degree after Ursa left.
fucked up that the home desktop computer went from something only niche hobbyist nerds or people with jobs that require them have to something every single household has and back to something only for niche hobbyist nerds or people with jobs that require them in the span of like 30 years
fucked up that the home desktop computer went from something only niche hobbyist nerds or people with jobs that require them have to something every single household has and back to something only for niche hobbyist nerds or people with jobs that require them in the span of like 30 years
you people are NOT reblogging this
One of the fascinating things about the ATLA fandom is that people are utterly uninterested in analyzing how Ursa's parenting really screwed up Zuko, even though it's pretty clear. I don't mean to attack Ursa here, because I think she had good intentions, but, although her parenting was far better than Ozai's, it contributed to Zuko's many poor decisions.
I've given a broader coverage to values Ursa extols to her children elsewhere. The general point you should take away from that is that Ursa was critical in instilling imperialist values in her children and in teaching them to respect/obey the Firelord.
However, that's not the point I will belabor here. I want to turn to something else. Let's take a look closely at the scene where Zuko tries to perform Azula's firebending routine in front of his grandfather and his father but falls flat on his face:
Ozai frowns at this news. Zuko starts off well, doing the same circular motions as Azula earlier. He manages to produce a small fire blast, which does not impress Fire Lord Azulon. When he tries to create another one, he falls. He gets back up, panting heavily, and tries again, only to fall harder. Ursa gets up worriedly and approaches Zuko to comfort him. Young Zuko: I failed. Ursa: No. I loved watching you. That's who you are, Zuko. Someone who keeps fighting even though it's hard.
The lesson that Zuko learns from Ursa here is that his gift is stubborn persistence and that he should never stop trying to meet the toxic expectations of the Fire Nation royal court and of his father(she also might have inadvertently encouraged the Zuko-Azula sibling rivalry).
How do we know this is what Zuko took away from this? These scenes are paired together at the end of "Zuko Alone," as Zuko struggles to defeat Gow:
In the flashback, Zuko is sleeping in his room at night when a hand gently touches his shoulder. He awakens drowsily to see his mother dressed in a cloak.
Young Zuko: … Mom? Ursa: Zuko, please, my love, listen to me. Everything I've done, I've done to protect you. She pulls the barely conscious Zuko into a hug. Ursa: Remember this, Zuko. No matter how things may seem to change, never forget who you are.
and this scene:
Gow: Who ... who are you? Zuko:My name is Zuko. Son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai. Prince of the Fire Nation, and heir to the throne. Old man: Liar! I heard of you! You're not a prince, you're an outcast! His own father burned and disowned him!
Zuko took Ursa's advice to never give up and never forget who he was to heart, and as a result even though he's been burned, banished, and declared a traitor, even though he objectively has no real chance of getting his status and Ozai's favor back at this point, Zuko is still trying to do that and refuses to let go of his long-lost position in the Fire Nation as crown prince. The smart thing to do would be to give up and move on, but Zuko refuses to do that.
We can also turn to what Zuko says to Aang in "The Siege of the North, II":
Zuko: I finally have you, but I can't get you home because of this blizzard. [Stands up and looks outside the cave.] There's always something. Not that you would understand. You're like my sister. Everything always came easy to her. She's a firebending prodigy, and everyone adores her. My father says she was born lucky. He says I was lucky to be born. I don't need luck, though. I don't want it. I've always had to struggle and fight and that's made me strong. It's made me who I am.
All of this brings me back to my main point. Ozai might have been the one who burned and banished Zuko, who abused him and declared him a traitor, who demanded that Zuko capture the Avatar, but Ursa is the one who taught Zuko the persistence that made him chase after legends for three years, that made him take reckless risk after reckless risk, that made him continue chasing the Avatar even after Ozai was having him hunted as a traitor across the Earth Kingdom.
The biggest problem in Zuko's life is that he refuses to let go of his dream of regaining Ozai's favor, that he refuses to accept that Ozai doesn't love and move on and find something better to center his life around, and from what we see Ursa played a huge role in this, because she taught Zuko to never give up trying fulfilling the expectations of Ozai and the court, no matter how many times he failed. Ursa wasn't intending ill, but her parenting had a huge negative effect on Zuko's life.
Unpopular Opinion: The fact that ATLA’s narrative ends with Iroh handing Zuko an impossibly difficult task which Zuko is by no means prepared for and then basically abandoning Zuko to likely die just so Iroh can wallow in hedonism and live his own best life automatically disqualifies Iroh from being a good uncle, because no truly good uncle would ever do that to a traumatized 16 year old.
@bigboat123 Good point! I’ve seen it pointed out before that both Ozai and Iroh place insanely unrealistic expectations on Zuko, Iroh is just nicer about it.
Iroh: Zuko, you’re a good person-ignoring all the proof that says you’re just as messed up as the rest of us. You lead the fire nation and I’ll run the tea shop
Iroh: because I know I would be a terrible fire lord. Power would totally corrupt me! But not you! Not the traumatised 16 year old left alone with no family at all in the fire nation capital. You’ll be a great potential political puppet-I mean face of hope
I went with the eugenics option. It's bad enough that Aang or Mai get demonized in order to make this ship work. That alone is pretty infuriating.
But when you write Zutara in a way that promotes a real-world ideology that promotes ableism and social darwinism, I have to put my foot down. Putting aside the fact that it doesn't even work in real life, eugenics goes hand in hand with the "Great Man" theory. That some people are born to lead and are thus destined for greatness.
AKA the exact same argument Ozai and the Fire Nation used to justify their brutal conquest of world domination.
In other words, Katara having kids with Zuko to "breed out" bad genetics means she's proving Ozai (the genocidal, warmongering, abusive POS of a father) right.
actual criticisms of academia:
criticisms of academia that get made:
Sozin’s Comet, Part II:
Zuko: (Cut to an area behind Iroh looking at a thinking Zuko) And then… then would you come and take your rightful place on the throne? Iroh: (Cut to a frontal shot of Iroh) No. Someone (He turns his head towards his nephew) new must take the throne. An idealist with a pure heart and (Camera slowly zooms in on Zuko) unquestionable honour. It has to be you, (Zuko appears surprised) Prince Zuko. Zuko: (looking to the side in disbelief) Unquestionable honour? But I’ve made (raises his shoulders) so many mistakes. Iroh: (off screen) Yes, you have. (Cut to an area behind Zuko’s head looking at Iroh addressing him) You struggled, you suffered but you have always followed your own path, you (Cut to a close up of Zuko) restored your own honour. And only you (the Fire Prince looks down in thought) can restore the honour of the Fire Nation. Zuko: I’ll try, Uncle.
You know, I’ve commented a lot about the flaws in Zuko’s arc, about how he’s deeply flawed and has a lot of growth to go through, about how his moral development is woefully incomplete, about how he’s completely unprepared to be Firelord, but, to be fair to Zuko, at some level he knows all of that. He’s practically begging Iroh to take the throne instead of him because Zuko knows he’s a deeply flawed and unprepared person. But if there is one thing Zuko is good at, it’s trying to fulfill the insane and unrealistic expectations of father figures, so he doesn’t call Iroh out on his BS and agrees to do the best to fulfill Iroh’s desires.
One of the big factors which will influence how badly Zuko screws up as Firelord(because he will screw up, no doubt about it) is to what degree he takes Iroh’s declaration that Zuko is perfect(and the entitlement which naturally comes with it) to heart.
Zuko is often a complete jerk to Iroh, while Iroh generally behaves in extremely questionable ways toward Zuko, like telling banished Zuko that Ozai still loved him in order to give him "hope." Their entire relationship is a massive dumpsterfire which only looks good because the other relationships in the royal family are even worse.
Maybe the reason Azula is often a jerk to Zuko isn't just because Ozai trying to divide the Fire Siblings. Maybe it's also because Zuko is often a jerk to her and never does anything kind for her.
Cuz that justifies telling him his father is going to kill him
anti zuko stans have suffered some specific ass trauma that resulted in them becoming media illiterate
Uh....his father was going to kill him??
Saying it in a taunting way bitch pls
She was literally seven years old bitch pls
WHAT SEVEN YEAR OLD JOKES ABOUT DEATH YALL ARE SO UNSERIOUS
Literally any seven year old who doesn't really understand what death really means? Or doesn't fully understand the implications and consequences? A human child?
Perhaps someone who grows up in a culture where violence is normalized, lives are cheap, and death is an everyday occurrence? Far from being isolated from death, the Fire Nation has been waging war against the entire world for almost a century at that point. Their culture is seeped in death and the glorification of it. Notices of death would be going out every day to families for sons and fathers killed and would be as common as junk mail today.
What seven year old can joke about death? A seven year old who grows up in a place where death isn't horrifying.
Please reblog for more votes!
Edit: and if you vote for one sibling, be prepared to give a concrete list of "kind acts they performed for the other sibling."
the fun thing is that by documenting myself more, I'm two inches away from slapping a conduct disorder diagnosis on james and sirius that would precede an actual antisocial personnality disorder diagnosis at least for james
although there comes the question of accountability when a mental disorder is involved, and the matter of not stigmatizing people with those disorders either
but there's a reason voldemort is still the bad guy even though he could fit those diagnoses as well
can someone give me their thoughts on how we are supposed to judge someone if there's a literal mental disorder that encompasses a personnality, like, the personnality itself is prone to serious criminality and literally has "lack of empathy" as one of its symptoms, but it's to be considered a mental disorder needing professional management/treatment, because the person themself has lots more difficulty to manage it healthily on their own
it's weird that the people who most obviously meet the criteria for conduct disorder and antisocial personality disorder (for instance) through severely problematic behaviors, are arguably those most affected by those disorders and thus theoretically less accountable
how can i solve that dilemna. not saying they should get a softer juridical treatment by excusing it through a disorder. but how does that fare in moral terms.
and do you think snape may have borderline personality disorder
@likeabxrdinflight has relevant training, education, and experience for situations like this.
i'm curious about the answer, i'll be waiting if she wants to educate me on this subject
although beware if she wants to discuss snape, i'm not taking any "he's obsessed and irredeemably evil" rant. i'm mostly curious about how to consider antisocial personnality and conduct disorders.
Well, it's up to her if she wants to give an opinion. As far as I'm aware, she's not in the Harry Potter fandom but maybe I'm wrong.
Please reblog for more votes!
Depressing to see that only 26.3% of people applied any degree of critical thought to the show.
I have talked a lot about Zuko and Azula lately because “The Beach” episode gives a lot of context for their relationship, but it would be a crime to omit the most funny detail (implication) coming from this episode: the presence of Lo and Li.
Those two older women were introduced into the series as Azula’s teachers (that definitely fueled her unhealthy sense of perfectionism) and some sort of advisors before the princess recruited Ty Lee and Mai on the hunt for Zuko, Iroh and later, the Avatar. The story alone gives little about Lo and Li, but considering their relationship and influences on the princess, we can assume they had, if not outright trust, then at least Ozai’s approval to keep an eye on his “precious”, prodigy daughter. As they were the only adults connected to Fire Lord and at whose house the Royal Siblings and their friends stayed in "The Beach" episode, I thought of them as not really nannies, but more like chaperones.
Zuko and Azula faced Avatar and survived, Mai and Ty Lee proved to be capable of beating down full grown men one on one (or more precisely, one vs many). So fine, ok, Ozai may trust his kids to be able to defend themselves - if the thought about their safety even occurred to him at all. But Zuko and Azula are, and I can’t stress it enough, teenagers sent on vacation and teenagers may do stupid stuff for fun just to taste the little freedom granted them. So it makes sense to me that Lo and Li should supervise the Royal Siblings, because vacation or not, they are still prince and princess, the precious heirs to the throne. And like, Zuko is with his girlfriend (official fiancee?) and you can never be sure what teenagers in love and with buzzing hormones will do, right? Same with Azula, who as we learn through the episode, will happily grab the occasion to flirt with a handsome, popular boy and the innocent kiss turned out quickly into her passionate rant: “Together, you and I will be the strongest couple in the entire world! We will dominate the Earth!”.
Azula’s mind really jumped from casual fun (no harm done if Ozai won’t learn about it) to the conclusion that boy she knew for what? a few hours at best will be her boyfriend and part of the future (military?) plans and understandable Chen freaked out and ran away. The taste of freedom affected even Azula, our so emotionally composed, clever girl, because again, a teenager, adolescent curiosity, lack of supervision and buzzing hormones are a dangerous mix.
(I suspect Zuko getting Mai pregnant would be less scandalous than if Azula - the princess - ended with a bastard child at the age of 14/15. If Ozai would even allow the kid to be born.)
And what Lo and Li were doing the whole episode? Either giving some cryptic speech about how Ember Island is a magical place or encourage kids.
“Time to hit the beach!“ they said
while never bothering going with kids there
(or did Lo and Li have fun on their own ignoring the bunch of their temporary wards?).
And when Azula, Zuko and Ty Lee talked about Chen and why Azula didn’t betray their Royal Family status (and presumably of going to the night party)? Again, the two old women did nothing besides giving some more cryptic advice and saying “to the party!”.
Like, they were totally okay that Fire Royal Siblings (in range of age from 14 to 16) planned to stay at house of unknown boy(s) for the whole night. Again, Zuko is 16, at best almost 17, but Azula is 14 (at best 15) and I don’t think this is an appropriate age to let a girl - especially the princess you are responsible for - go to a party with presumably much older boys.
(Unless this is why Azula demanded Zuko, her older brother, to be invited alongside her? Not like he checked out if she is alright before he was kicked out for the fight with Mai over some guy but I guess, with a sister like Azula it is easy to assume she doesn’t need babysitting, because Azula could and would kick Chen or anyone else’s ass if they pissed her off).
My point is, Lo and Li could give the girls and Zuko some serious talk or at least ask to be careful or anything the supposed chaperons should say (or like, outright demand from Zuko to keep an eye on his younger sister and the noble girls as the oldest and you know, the guy). Because Azula is first and foremost a princess, the same as Zuko is the prince and like, the Royal Family does not need any teenage drama and scandal (and from the previous episode we know Azula and Zuko are now the public figures at the capital).
I’m not sure if perceiving Lo and Li as some sort chaperons to the “banished for a weekend” Royal Siblings was author’s intention or not, but there is something incredible funny how those old women introduced as strict teachers criticizing Azula for not perfect hairstyle while she is working on her lighting technique - a skill absolutely amazing to have at the age of 14 - won’t even bother to keep an eye on the same girl and just let the whole bunch of emotionally stunted and traumatized teenagers freely roam on the “magical” beach and go to night party to total strangers. It is pretty hilarious if not a bit sad. Because wow, Ozai did not give much fuck about any of his kids one way or another.
Aaand this is what I get when rewatching ATLA as an adult lol.
I know this is animations for kids/teenagers, but what if Chen didn’t freak out? Would Azula be curious enough to experience something more than just a kiss? And well, we assume Chen and Ruon-Jian are in age close to Zuko & Azula (as if they were adults they would be enrolled into army, I think?) But there is still a room for them being older than Zuko who himself is two years older than Azula. Also, them inviting Ty Lee & Mai specifically for how they look without bothering to ask for their name and the way a group of boys cornered Ty Lee to the point she needed to chi-blocking all of them kinda gives me the feeling the party was an occasion for them to pick up girl for night or something along the way. Dunno if I read the scene/intention right but it gives that vibe I guess…?
