#actual child soldier azula

[hello-nichya-here]

https://www.tumblr.com/sokkastyles/726117959345586176/yall-really-need-to-stop-calling-azula-a-child thoughts??

OF COURSE this fucker is spewing out abuse apologism. I am not surprised in the slightest.

"Child soldiers are poor kids with nowhere else to go and end up in a military camp. Azula is a princess"

That is the most COMMON situation. It's not the only one. Azula is the princess of an imperialist nation that we adds indoctrination to EVERYTHING, and she clearly has military training, AND WAS IN ACTUAL BATTLES, ACTING AS A SOLDIER EVEN THOUGHT SHE'S A CHILD!

"She's more powerful than most of the adults anyway"

Zuko beat adults in fights. Does that mean Ozai literally disfiguring him was just business as usual and not a father physically abusing his son? Fuck off! This is literally the "Why would Azula LET herself be abused" as if abuse is ever something that people just "let" happen to themselves, instead of being a result of many factors that put them in bad situations.

"It would not apply to a fantasy character that can bend elements"

Again, does 13-year-old Zuko being disfigured by his father not count as abuse just because people in real life can't create fire out of nothing? Do the 100 years of war and genocide the Fire Nation has been responsible for no longer "count" because they used firebending? Do we have to ignore literally EVERYTHING ELSE about the situation that is mirroring a real-life thing and focus only on the only difference? And ONLY when it involves Azula?

Does NO ONE in this fandom understand that they can dislike Azula or prefer her as a villain without having to pretend she isn't a victim of neglect, abuse and literal indoctrination?

FUCK RIGHT OFF WITH ALL OF THIS ABUSE APOLOGISM!

#asks #azula deserved better #azula #literal child soldier azula #actual child soldier azula #actual human child azula #azula meta #abuse #abuse apologism #fandom fuckery #atla fandom problems #stupid fucking people #atla fandom fuckery

[procrastinatingwriting]

Legacy of fire

Zuko breaks. Simple as that. After a few easily avoided assassination atempts and being left alone in the castle by his friends - the war won't stop itself - he just. Breaks. Starts banishing staff from the castle, or imprisoning them for the smallest things, claiming they were with Ozai and wanted to kill him. Mai gives up trying to reason with him, they break up. She writes for the gaang to tell hem what's happening, and sends a search for Iroh.

Azula is being treated in her room, and hears nothing of anyone for a long time. She is still shaky after the breakdown, but doing better. In one night, Zuko invades her room and looks in shock to see her calmly laying on her bed. He babbles about her having to stop going into his room to taunt him. She hadn't been doing that. Azula frowns, and deduces what's happening. She teases him saying if she wanted the throne back she would just challenge him again, but she didn't. Zuko calms down, but is still restless. They bond over being left behind with the crown by who they love.

Things start to get better in the palace, the staff being able to hold their jobs for longer than a week before being sent away for 'attempted treason'. Azula is seen outside often now, either training or spending time with the firelord (aka convincing him that no, those gardeners are not going to use the scissors to try and assassinate him). They feed the turtleducks and talk about mom and dad, and how it wasn't fair. Azula talks about how Iroh leaving Zuko must feel the same as father leaving her in the day of the black sun, and Zuko has a meltdown after finally breaking through denial. Azula admits she accepted that Ozai never loved her after that day, and had the same reaction. They joke that at least he wouldn't be challenged to an agni kai in his own meltdown, and he apologizes.

Azula never allows Mai to tag allong in their bonding moments, but sometimes allows Ty Lee. Mai is livid, but won't admit. Ty Lee is just glad to have her friend back.

It's in the middle of a meeting when Zuko truly breaks down. He panics and attacks his advisors, screaming, breathing and kicking fire. Azula takes him down and when Ty Lee chi blocks him, Zuko goes limp. Azula is crowned as temporary fire lord and follows through with the plan to end the war since she doesn't really minds it anyways. She isn't following orders anymore. She does keeps some of their colonies though, and there comes the issue.

Aang couldn't stop what he was doing to go back at the fire nation because, quote, 'Zuko wasn't feeling well' as per Mai's words, but when the colony issue arrived, he changed his schedule and went to grab his friends to solve the problem. What a surprise when they see it's Azula giving orders, not Zuko. Ty Lee explains the situation and is supported by the Kyoshi warriors, but Aang demands to see Zuko. Katara is tense. Azula too. She denies them claiming her brother being too tired to be visited. Aang finds it fishy and keeps guard at night to try and contact Zuko by breaking in through his window (maybe Azula is holding him prisioner right?). Zuko is not only crazy and terrified, but also hallucinating apparently, and fights Aang until his eventual collapse, and Azula comes out of nowhere to help.

Azula: Can't get him to eat anything. Three of the last 6 attempts involved food, he hasn't had much since.

Aang:

Aang: pardon?

Azula: My brother is weak, avatar, would you leave us alone so he can keep at least a piece of his dignity?

Aang becomes number one member of the "let's give azula a chance" club. They all realize that it was deffinetly NOT a good choice to leave Zuko alone in the palace, and that Azula shouldn't be burdened with it either (and maybe, just MAYBE, they were a little too rough in the judgement of her). He calls Bumi and Azula agrees to let him help keep things in order until they decide what to do, but declines to have her position revoked.

I remember I had a vision with this but it was too long ago and I am currently working on another AU. I might come back for this one latter, though.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #zuko #azula #fire siblings #aang #katara #sokka #mai #ty lee #iroh #iroh critical #iroh salt #princess azula #actual child soldier azula #zuko is not an awkward turtleduck #but he is autistic #fight me #legacy of fire au #atla legacy of fire au #atla au idea #atla lof au #fire lord zuko #fire lord azula

[phoukanamedpookie]

Seriously, why is Azula held to a higher standard than adults?

I genuinely wanna know.

#azula #azula meta #actual human child azula #literal child soldier azula

[idolomantises]

One thing about ATLA I really do appreciate compared to other, more recent cartoons that try to tackle the concept of genocide and war is that the show spends a lot of time focusing on the communities that are the most victimized by it. The war is never a backdrop for these characters or played off as a joke, its a constant presence.

I remember my biggest frustration when watching SPOP was Adora very rarely actually engages with the people she's supposed to protect. at times the war feels more like an inconvenience to her than a genuine threat, because the victims of war are never given focus, just the soldiers and the royals.

it doesnt really surprise me that a lot of ATLA fans have a hard time grasping discussions around characters like iroh, zuko and azula because the show goes out of its way to show the impact of their actions. I've criticized azula fans for refusing to understand why she never got a redemption, but i notice a lot of zuko fans act like he was only doing terrible things to appease his father and not also because he genuinely believed the fire nation were in the right and has literally burned villages (hell zuko says it OUTRIGHT and fans still blame everything he does on his dad).

I don't know. its interesting. its like people really arent well equipped to handle the topic of war when it isnt used as a metaphor for child trauma and mental illness.

#txt #SU also had this issue but it was a bit less egregious compared to spop since it was ongoing for the latter show

[aangarchy]

Netflix atla live action review ep 4-6

So, they completely ruined Bumi. Spoiler warning.

The more episodes pass by the more confused i get with the choices that were made. I wrote down commentary for the episodes and the thing that i wrote down the most was "why does this happen?". The writing is incredibly confusing and messy, feels too rushed in some spaces and too slow in others. There's just... so much going on and so little at the same time. They brought in elements that in the OG don't get introduced until later in s1, s2, the comics, or even the legend of Korra. The reason these things get introduced so early here is not clear at all, because they don't serve any purpose other than to be an obstacle to Aang, Sokka and Katara on their way to the North.

Mai and Ty Lee are.. there. They get introduced earlier but they don't serve any purpose at the moment other than stand around, watch Azula train, ask questions so that Azula can give us the answers the viewer needs. My guess is they only got introduced for the audience who watched the OG to go "oh we know them!". We get the secret tunnel story earlier too, but it has absolutely nothing to do with love. Somehow "love is brightest in the dark" now correlates to the badgermoles being able to sense a human's emotion. It's a waste of a storyline, doesn't teach us anything about love, gives us Omashu lore which is useless bc neither Sokka nor Katara actually use love to escape the tunnels. Also Oma and Shu are lesbians now, but you only know that bc they changed Shu's pronouns. Wow, so progressive! We have lesbians in the story now! Boy do i feel represented as a sapphic!

We get Koh early on as well, but his entire gig got changed. Now suddenly he doesn't steal faces but he "feeds", and hunts using the fog of lost souls (which is tlok lore mind you) as a tool to trap humans. We introduce the mother of faces (comic book lore!), or rather pendant of her that Koh owns. There's no reason for her to exist in this story though other than to be an easter egg to everyone who read the search (Not even the majority of the fandom!) and to offer a solution to this problem we've created, which is Koh capturing our friends in order to eat them and us not being able to convince him into letting them go. There's no feeling of dread in the Koh scenes at all because the whole problem of not showing emotion is just not a thing now. No suspense, no fear, just a weird cgi clown face worm. The worm doesn't even menacingly circle around Aang to invoke a feeling of being surrounded, it just sits there. I also just don't understand why Koh is here already bc now who is going to give us information about Tui and La?

This decision also creates a problem that Hei Bai's story just isn't about Hei Bai anymore. We get fed a few lines from a talking fox about how the forest spirit got hurt, but there's really no solution? Aang buries a pinecone in front of the statue and tells him not to give up hope but he didn't even really need to do that, because Hei Bai wasn't the one kidnapping villagers! It was Koh. Why did we appease Hei Bai if Koh was the real villain? Hei Bai/Koh's story leads us to Roku, but Roku is completely useless. All he does is undermine Kyoshi's advice to Aang, tell Aang about the mother of faces pendant so he can appease Koh, and then we leave. I knew in advance Roku wasn't going to warn Aang about the comet here bc Albert Kim already told us working with a deadline like that with child actors is just impossible. But with Roku suddenly not being Aang's main Avatar guide he just gets nothing to do. There's no suspense in this part of the story either, bc the time limit of the winter solstice isn't a thing here at all. Aang also ends up flying over Fire Nation borders without issue, and gets led right into the sanctuary without the puzzle of figuring out how to open the door, and without the problem of Zhao's soldiers waiting for him when he comes out. It creates this issue of there not being any excitement, at least for me. I genuinely am getting a bit bored with the show, which was never an issue with the OG for me. There's a reason all of this extra material didn't get introduced until later on. There's too many characters and they all get too little time to really do anything useful, they're not fleshed out, the stories aren't thought through and it ends up getting very confusing and boring. I'm genuinely curious for the perspective of people who have never watched the OG cartoon, bc i wonder if they're even able to follow along without prior knowledge of this universe.

Bumi is just... not Bumi. They completely changed his character to be this bitter old senile man that resents Aang for abandoning the world. This doesn't make any sense because in this version of the story Bumi shouldn't know that Aang is the Avatar at all, because Aang was told right before he disappeared! So why does Bumi immediately know that Aang is the Avatar, and why does Aang immediately recognize him? Also the original point of Bumi's tests is to get Aang to approach fights and puzzles from a different angle, so he can learn versatility as the Avatar. But here the tests are just happening because Bumi is mad at Aang for leaving and wants to get back at him for being gone so long. He says some lines about Aang having to learn to make hard choices and you can't rely on your friends, but Aang ends up proving him wrong in the end! What is even the point of Bumi's part in the story now, except for him just being another obstacle on the way to the North Pole?

There's a lot of instances where I feel like the bond between characters gets completely lost. We barely spend any time with the side characters like the mechanist, Teo, Jet and the freedom fighters, and the people in the spirit village. It makes some scenes feel very out of place. These storylines all happen at once, and they don't get their individual moments to shine. We have no room to feel betrayed by Jet or Sai, because we barely got to know them to begin with. Jet and Sai only spend time with One member of the gaang each, but when their betrayals come to light the rest of the group acts devastated, as if it was their dear friend. Sokka also gets really mad about the Jet thing, but he only met Jet once when he smuggled them into Omashu, and Jet didn't even tell Sokka his name. He said it afterwards when Katara met him again. It makes absolutely no sense why Sokka is yelling at Katara for trusting Jet only bc she finds him attractive, when Sokka wasn't even there during all of that!

The sense of family between the gaang that we get from the original also just doesn't happen here. Especially because these characters so far have spent more time apart than together. Aang constantly gets separated from Sokka and Katara, leaving no room for them to bond. We get Katara and Sokka bonding, but they shouldn't need those types of scenes because they're already siblings (which isn't very clear in the show either btw!). I ended up forgetting that Sokka and Katara were trapped by Koh, bc we spend so much time away from them (a whole episode, which is now an hour!).

I have little to no criticism for the Blue Spirit story. Want to guess why that is? Bc they left it pretty much untouched. We even get a little bit of an extra scene, with Zuko and Aang talking while Zuko recovers after getting hurt during the escape. I liked this choice, especially bc it highlights how conflicted Zuko is.

This is where we get Zuko's backstory. I have one question here: why did they make Ozai more sensible and less ruthless? Was that a Daniel Dae Kim decision? Bc it feels like a Daniel Dae Kim thing to do. They're very on the nose with the way Ozai is abusing Zuko and Azula, but then they turn around and make this man visit Zuko after he burned him and praise Zuko about finding the Avatar. I understand that they did this to show how Ozai uses Zuko's accomplishments in order to push Azula, but even if it were to do that: the original Ozai would NEVER. The problem here as well is that they don't let the viewers draw any conclusions themselves anymore. They're holding the viewer's hand through the whole thing, leaving no room for nuance or doubt.

I just finished episode 7 and 8 and I have Things To Say. None of which are good. Writing it down is challenging so it might take a day or two.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #avatar #netflix atla #atla netflix #natla #netflix #atla live action #atla live action spoilers

[phoenix-king-ozai]

Short Review of NATLA!

The main cast cooked! All the characters were very good. However, Zhao, Aang, Sokka, Katara killed it in the finale! Iroh, Ozai, Zuko, and Azula were amazing! I'm actually proud Azula stood up to Ozai and Ozai was proud of Azula as well. That was another test. A dragon is not a slave. Not even to the Fire Lord. Azula has to prove and stand up for herself. Along with having the power to back it up as well! I’m just extremely glad that the showrunners know the character’s motivations and personal heritage of Sozin’s imperialistic legacy caused Ozai and Azula’s ideology. Due to the Fire Nation's imperialism through conquest and colonization. Which is inspired by real-life influences from Imperial Japan and the Mongol Empire.

I glad that despite Zuko fighting back in the Agni Kai in Episode 6: Mask of NATLA. That the showrunners stayed true to the characters: Ozai and Zuko along with the themes of the Agni Kai. I’m also glad that they didn't make Ozai have a favored child. Ozai wants Zuko and Azula to both prove themselves. Ozai doesn't favor Zuko or Azula. It is about which child will succeed Sozin, Azulon, and his legacy as future Fire Lord. In fact, Ozai doesn't want Zuko or Azula to think that they are the “favorite” child. He wants Azula and Zuko to improve through competition. Because of “steel sharpen steel” mentality. Ozai has the mentality of an imperialist warlord. I think Ozai, Zuko, Iroh and Azula’s characterization were well done and faithful! General Iroh being confronted by an Earth Kingdom soldier that lost his brother over the Seige of Ba Sing Se and tied to his grief of Lu Ten’s death was amazing. I was also very happy with how they dealt with Koh and Gyatso. The Mother of Faces reference was pretty cool and Gyatso and Aang bonding and reconciliation with the air nomad genocide not being Aang's fault or burden was very important change to the plot from the original series. Another amazing change was Zuko’s crew being 41st division and that Zuko’s sacrifice saved their lives! OUR PRINCE HAS RETURNED! 🔥💯

Personally, the series is 10/10 for me. However, realistically given some minor flaws and shortcomings regarding the exposition dialogue and inexperience of the young actors and actresses coming into these roles along with some questionable changing decisions. 8.5-9.5 out of 10 is a fair rating.

Phenomenal adaptation with a lot of love, passion, respect and care for the soul of the source material!🔥⚡️💯

#atla #gaang #aang #katara #sokka #suki #iroh #ozai #zuko #azula #zhao #avatar the last airbender #fire nation royal family #fire family #avatar #natla #natla spoilers #natla review

[stealthetrees]

I don’t think anyone has fully considered the potential of a feral zuko au.

Like, Ozai tries to kill him when he’s 10, but zuko escapes with a scar, Ozai claims he was killed by an assassin and Azula gets a redemption arc early.

Meanwhile zuko is off completely changing the corse of history by, in no particular order:

-Making Hama realize that not all fire benders are bad cause the child she just told about how she was in prison immediately his to instigate a jail break

-is emotionally adopted by hakoda along with most of the crew

-finds wan shi tong’s library

-befriends/is adopted by June the bounty hunter

-discovers a herd of flying bison

-joins a traveling acting troupe for a while cause he’s a theater nerd

-visits omashu and is forcibly befriended by bumi, who decides that zuko is now his grandson and no one can stop him

-discovers the white lotus, decides that they don’t do shit, and starts a hobby of breaking into their safe houses and wrecking them until they get off their asses and help with the war

-meets toph when some fire nation soldiers chase him to gaoling and she stops them, and her parents see her, but zuko does this little speech about how proud they must be of their daughter and how much they must trust and respect her since she’s such a powerful earth bender, and basically guilt trips them into letting toph continue to fight and practice bending

-gets a dragon tattoo 

-wanders into the swamp at some point

-drinks a bit more than he probably should, but he can hold it shockingly well

-figures out lightning bending in the middle of a thunderstorm 

-goes to ba sing se, gets arrested by the Dai li, breaks out, and starts a one man war with them, which basically is just zuko par core-ing around the city till he finds some Dai li, then rather beats the shit out of them, or just kill them. 

-He does it all with out fire bending though, just his swords. 

-After like a week the Dai li are basically gone, and the earth king finds out about the war, and makes zuko a part of the army, some fancy title and a medal or something, zuko is officially recognized as the dragon of the east, and proceeds to duck off to the North Pole to try and convince them to help in the war

-they don’t want to, but he befriends yue and they talk about politics and zuko helps her get out of the arranged marriage 

-zuko called Paku a sexist bitch and is surprised yet delighted to inform him that blood bending was invented by a woman

-invents lightning redirection

-the north joins the war thanks to yue 

-zuko meets the mechanist at the northern air temple at some point

-meets and joins the freedom fighters, makes out with jet, uses fire bending to save jets like, then jet tries to kill him

-the other kids understand that zuko is still good even though he’s a fire bender, but zuko leaves, even though every single kid adopted zuko as their older brother

-becomes known as the greatest swords man to ever live

-it’s actually true, and when piandao, who has Ali adopted zuko, hears that he is very proud and brags about it to everyone he meets

-basically zuko gets adopted by almost every adult he meets

-gets really good at cooking, hunting, reading maps, finding water, pick pocketing, stowing away on beats, sewing, and pretty much every other skill you would need to live on your own. 

-hears that Zhao has captured the avatar and casually breaks Aang out of prison

-refuses to be his firebending teacher and leaves

-stops at a village to tell them that the volcano next to them is about to explode, and he knows this cause he grew up in the fire nation which has a lot of volcanos

-they don’t believe him cause the fortune teller never said anything about it, zuko gets pissed and starts yelling at them

-this is the exact moment Aang Katara and sokka show up

-zuko thinks Aang is following him and tries to leave, but sokka recognizes him as the dragon of the east from a wanted poster

-they basically follow zuko around trying to convince him to help them, and he is this close to just beating them up when Katara mentions they are going to the northern water tribe to learn bending

-zuko agrees to go with them just so he can see Katara kick paku’s ass 

-obviously zuko and sokka get together at some point

-when the gaang finds joung joung zuko makes fun of him cause zuko was there when he broke up with piandao cause he was afraid of being found out (cause being gay was illegal) and piandao kicked his ass even though he’s a non bender

Meanwhile Azula thinks she could have prevented zukos death somehow, maybe helped him with his fire bending or hadn’t bullied him so much or something. 

Ozai kind of focused on her more and started to look down on her a lot more cause he couldn’t compare her to zuko. He put a lot more pressure on her and it drove her away from him, she started seeking his approval less and less, instead growing closer to her mom and uncle. Her mom was constantly worried she would screw up and Azula would die too, but she was Ali scared of making her think she was trying to replace zuko. But by being rather open with Azula about that it never really became an issue. 

Azula took up sword fighting and trained with piandao and she got a lot of character growth from that, cause she wasn’t naturally good at it and really had to work hard. Piandao was not someone she could bully or manipulate, so she had to struggle with earning someone’s approval. 

Piandao told her at some point that sword fighting was not something that came naturally to anyone, and you had to work hard your whole life to be really good. He also said zuko was the fastest learner and best student he had ever taught. Piandao believed that zuko could have easily surpassed piandao himself within a few years.

Azula gets to go to the war meeting that zuko got banished at in the show, she also says the plan is wrong, but in a much more eloquent way that doesn’t dishonor the fire lord but does dishonor the general. She fights an Agni Kai against the general and wins.

The plan is done anyway, (zuko finds that message and is able to warn both the earth kingdom troops and the squad of fire nation soldiers that where going to die, it starts the rumor that the dragon of the east is actually prince zuko and it spreads, some solders start to rebel against their commanders in the name of the prince) Azula finds out about it much later and raises all kinds of hell over it, calling Ozai an “honorless coward who betrays his people, unworthy of the throne” to his face in front of a bunch of people.

Azula gets banished for it, Iroh comes with her and she’s now basically zuko from the show, but tasked with finding and capturing the dragon of the east to prove her loyalty instead of the avatar. At this point she does not know that it’s zuko.

She finds zuko didn’t recognize him and fights him, but he’s better than her, and then she sees the knife that Iroh have zuko just before he “died” and puts two and two together and comes up with seven. She thinks the dragon of the east is the assassin that killed her brother.  It kind of makes sense, if the assassination was his first act of rebellion, cause a string of jail breaks followed. 

I’m not really sure where the story could go after that but there’s a lot of potential for an invasion, since zuko knows so many people. Imagine them all showing up to help and they’re all like “oh hey zuko” and the gaang turns to zuko and ask how he knows them and he’s just like “that’s my mom/dad” and it just makes them more confused.

#avatar the last airbender #atla fanfic #atla #zuko atla #atla zuko #sokka avatar #sokka atla #zuko x sokka #the gaang #zukka fanfic #atla au #zuko and azula #Azula #feral zuko au #zuko gets adopted #piandao #white lotus #iroh #uncle iroh #azula redemption

[pandorem]

Probably an extremely unpopular opinion but I think it’s fine and good that Azula didn’t have a redemption arc in the original Avatar cartoon and it’s not because she didn’t “deserve” one. The way Azula’s narrative unfolds in the original cartoon is perfect and exactly what it sets out to be, which is in part a TRAGEDY. and not only that but a tragedy that took a lot of us by surprise at the time. What Azula’s arc does is show us a cruel, sadistic antagonist character that many people loved to hate, and at the end brutally and devastatingly reminded us that this was a fourteen year old child twisted and warped by her household and militaristic imperialist society and her father’s influence in particular until it all came to a head and pushed her into a total mental breakdown.

None of these things “excuse” her actions (and I hate hate HATE that any attempt to see character’s actions as psychologically grounded and consistent with a character having an actual interior life and not being a cackling 80s cartoon villain, or being an indication of larger societal problems and not an evil born in a vacuum is often seen as making excuses and apologism), but they remind us that 1) we don’t punish child soldiers for being child soldiers and Azula IS A CHILD, and 2) humans who are born into and fall into extreme and damaging ideologies and even perpetuate those ideologies don’t just spring out of nowhere and when they are children it is a goddamned tragedy when they can’t be saved from it.

and I side-eye the concept of “deserving” redemption a lot but also in recent years I’ve questioned a lot what we even mean by redemption arcs and whether I think it’s a useful framework given how broad it is, BUT. for me at least, chopping away the Christian trappings of redemption arcs needing punishment to reach deliverance etc the bare minimum core of what redemption currently means to me is an understanding of the moral wrongs you have done in the past and a conviction to go forward not continuing to perpetuate those wrongs, and to strive for reparative Justice when possible. None of those things are things I think Azula would be capable of during the arc of season three. And that’s ok, because her arc was also an important one to show.

That doesn’t mean I don’t think she could be capable of redemption in her future (I haven’t read the comics and am a bit wary of doing so, I’ve heard a lot of mixed opinions), but ultimately I think rather than redemption, what Azula “deserves” is rehabilitation. Redemption is an interior process, though of course people outside can help, but it’s something you strive for yourself and thus I don’t think can be “deserved” (redemption is not forgiveness!!!!). Rehabilitation is something that you can work with more as a group, and in the case of child soldiers, you can extend to others more easily. Child soldiers do not need redemption, they need rehabilitation.

#azula #avatar the last airbender #atla #atla azula #meta #avatar meta #Azula’s arc was a tragedy and that’s fine

[ao3feed-zukka]

Damsel in Distress

Read now on Ao3 at https://ift.tt/5B79IwC by WintersOpalClouds Only once in your life can you call upon the aid of your soulmate in a time of crisis where the spirits will teleport them to you until they deem the danger you're in has passed. A helpful boon but one that can come at a great cost if utilized wrongly. Most parents will teach their children to use this call with extreme caution. To make sure it's a situation where your soulmate can actually help and not one where you have doomed them to extreme harm or to an early death. Sokka knew all the tragic cautionary tales told to children to express this, he knew his soulmate wasn't some spirit, just another human like him. The last thing he wanted was to put their life at risk in a situation far beyond them, to sentence them to die by his side. But none of these known facts even registered in his panic when at the age of 10 the Fire Nation attacks his village and in desperation to save himself and his mother, he seeks out any help he can get, summoning his soulmate before the soldier's flames descend upon them. Maybe he should count himself lucky that his soulmate was one who had the ability to stop the fire from consuming them all.  Words: 19587, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender (Cartoon 2005) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Categories: Multi Characters: Zuko (Avatar), Sokka (Avatar), Azula (Avatar), Katara (Avatar), Hakoda (Avatar), Kya (Avatar), Iroh (Avatar), Yue (Avatar) Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Minor or Background Relationship(s) Additional Tags: No Underage Sex, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Canonical Child Abuse, Partially Blind Zuko (Avatar), Partially Deaf Zuko (Avatar), Long hair Zuko, Because I'm weak for that, Zuko realizes his dad is an abusive shithead early, Eventual Azula Redemption, she's gotta go through her villain era first though, everyone is 3 years older during main story, Occasional Explicit Content, Kya lives, this has consequences, Yue lives, explicit sexual content will be Zukka only, Bottom Zuko, Alternate Universe - Soulmate, mother said protect soulmate at any cost, and Zuko takes that to a whole other level because he's Zuko, Zuko being utterly devoted to a stranger and his people, better than him being overly loyal to an asshole dad, BAMF firebender Zuko, Protective Zuko, Sokka thinks his soulmate is the prettiest and makes it everyone's business, Sokka doing his best with a self-sacrificing idiot for a soulmate, Choose treachery it's more fun, Iroh and Zuko being partners in crime, Blue Spirit Zuko (Avatar), White Lotus Zuko Read it on Ao3 at https://ift.tt/5B79IwC

#IFTTT #zukka #sokka #zuko #avatar: the last airbender #atla #ao3 feed

[akiizayoi4869]

Azula is no worse than zuko, she's just more competent at being an effective soldier; she's dangerous because of her ruthlessness and cunning. Zuko's dangerous because of his recklessness and fury. Precision strike Vs collateral damage

Azula is geared towards warfare. She's only a threat to enemy combatants, but is so good at her job that the fire nation actually seizes terrority in conquest. She's an agent of imperialism. Zuko? He'll terrorize civilians, burn down villages, and destroy everything in his path just to achieve his personal gain. He'll even fight his own nation just to have the avatar for himself. In the first episode alone, Zuko rams his ship into the water tribe and nearly kills a child

Yep, exactly. They really aren't that different when you stop and think about it.

#asks #anon #atla #azula #zuko #aki answers things

[punkeropercyjackson]

Mai deserves so so much better from the fandom. She barely did anything wrong, especially compared to Zuko. "She's mean!" No, she's sarcastic. You just only see her with a girl she fears and a peppy bubblegum girl. Also it's implied to be a front because of her fear and probable hate of Azula. Also, while it doesn't excuse the fact she supported the FN in her actions, she never did ideologically, only going along with Azula because she was afraid

1.REALNESS,WE BARELY SEE ANY OF HER TF ARE MAI ANTIS ON💀😭AND THEN THEY BASH THE ACTUAL VILLANESS AND THE GIRLYPOP?????LUVS......THAT DON'T MAKE NO CENTS,GO TO THE BANK

2.Also.Even if she was.HELLO???????THAT'S A 15 YEAR OLD GIRL LIKE........She wouldn't have been a fascist,she would've been a child soldier aka grooming victim bffr!!!!!!

#punknicodiangelo #mai atla #pro mai #zuko atla #pro maiko #azula #ty lee #pro mailee #pro ty luko #atla geekery #trans mai #autistic mai #team azula #anti zutara #💌 #askies

[hello-nichya-here]

Genuine question. Why do lot of people say that Azula was abused in the asylum? (don't know if this was asked already)

Because she was.

She got no visits from any relatives or friends, naturally making her already fragile emotional state even worse since she was surrounded by strangers - strangers who "canonically" (because the comics aren't canon) regularly beat her and restrained her when she wasn't doing anything.

After leaving her to rot, Zuko realizes that she could be useful, and then takes her on a mission, completely ignoring that she is a traumatized child soldier AND without bothering to ask about her hallucinations - which also means no one who worked in the asylum gave him ANY explanations or updates about her mental state AND that neither him nor Iroh ever bothered to ask.

As a bonus, the motherfucker has people bring his throne to the asylum for his first interaction with her in at least a year to add salt to the wound AND he would later nearly throw her off a cliff after realizing that, surprise surprise, being abused for at least an entire year didn't do shit to help her recover, and instead messed her up even more.

Even Yang, one of the dumbass "writers" responsible for that bullshit, said that we would "see what a fire nation asylum does to a person", and somehow the morons didn't realize "Wait, making our heroes canonically responsible for someone's abuse AND acting like they did the right thing kind of makes them all look terrible."

What Azula went through is abuse and worse than anything she put any of the heroes through in the actual canon of the story. Period.

#asks #azula deserved better #azula meta #atla comics #fuck the comics #the comics suck #ableism #abuse mention #discussion of abuse #discussion of trauma #actual human child azula #actual child soldier azula #literal abuse victim azula #literal child soldier azula

[thetraumaking]

The Accursed Crown

Child soldier program within the Fire Nation. Princess Ursa will be having the first grandchild of fire lord Azulon, and as a gift, he sends his son, prince Ozai, to find an appropriate bodyguard for the mother of the nation.

After prince Zuko was born, princess Ursa became pregnant once more.

When she gave birth to her second. Not only did she suffer from a burn from the newborn, she didn't feel the motherly love she felt for her firstborn to her second. She couldn't hold her or even look at her. But she's not a cruel woman, so she found a wet nurse and let the other woman raise her. Well, that was the plan until for a whole day straight the baby girl wouldn't and couldn't stop crying. Even Ozai heard it and came to yell at Ursa for failing as a mother.

When the child had finally shutten up, Ozai turned to see the young guard gently holding the baby.

From that day onward, you, who was nothing but a child soldier, became the guard, the nursemaid, and mentor for the new princess.

NOT for the feint of Hearts!!!

Other Chapters here

Chapter 5: Parallel

You don’t know from where, but the earliest memory you have before being “saved” was a tune. Maybe it was the one your mother used to sing to you, but the word to the lullaby has been long been forgotten. The only thing remaining from those innocent days were empty tunes and whispers of the wind.

As you hum the same tune that now haunted your dreams, the child in your arms is taken by sleep. Her tiny tuft of black hair is still damp from the bath you’ve given her. You tried to leave her in her crib as you leaned to place her down, but the moment your hands left her tiny body, those big golden eyes of hers were open. Staring at you as if asking where you were going. Her lips pouty as her eyes followed you around.

The action made you wonder if she can actually tell you apart from the others.

Since she wasn’t crying, you sat down on your knees and gave her your hand. She grabbed onto your fingers as you wiggled them around. Babbling as if telling you a story while looking between you and your digits.

She tugged on your hand, bringing it to her chest as she stared at you.

You couldn’t fight the smile that formed.

The supple flesh that was now under your palm. The warmth that radiated from under your touch made you want to admire the peace that dwelled within you. Your heart tranquil after so much.

A quiet night with a single torch laminating the room.

You wished for this moment to last forever.

It has been a little over a month since you started your new job. Taking care of the youngest member of the royal family was not as hard as you expected it to be.

While you only had observed Princess Ursa attend to her son, you had no prior experience in child-rearing.

Especially when you, yourself are still considered a child. Albeit a deadly one with years worth of experience in combat.

Taking care of Princess Azula wasn’t hard. She’s far calmer compared to her older brother, who had a tendency to scream when he wanted something.

She was mature in a sense. Rarely cried and only did so whenever something was terribly wrong, be it illness, in need of changing, or a stranger. Though for the latter, she didn’t cry, it was more of a physical reaction, she would lean away as far as possible with her little legs kicked up.

The only thing that's worth complaining about is feeding time. The young princess is a good and easy child. She drinks all her milk and thanks you with a happy babble.

The feeding itself wasn’t the problem.

No.

The part where it warrants a complaint is how you acquire said milk.

The wet nurse stuck around for the first few days before Prince Ozai fired her. He reasoned that he did not see a reason as to why they must waste funds on something unnecessary when the mother of his child is alive and well, and still producing milk.

Seeing as you were in charge of the princess’s well-being, it was your job to make sure the child was well-fed. The wetnurse was out of the question, so the only one you could turn to, with a heavy heart, was the mother.

Similar to how the child wouldn’t take to the hired help, the mother was against being in the same room as the newborn. No matter how much you begged she wouldn’t back down. She was fully adamant about not letting the baby, her baby, latch on to her.

The child protested as you handed her off to the maid. You needed to go get her milk. *‘I’m sorry, but even if it’s you who asks of me this, I am not strong enough to hold that child.’* She once said. Her hand held your chin up as you were bowing to her. There was no remorse in her eyes.

As you walk down the hall to her Highness’s room, you can't help but think back to that previous exchange. Like the color of her eyes, you remember her being warm. But as she talked about her own child, Azula, she looked as if she was referring to an obstacle in her path.

Annoyance.

That’s the emotion that you saw. Either at you or your constant groveling or her child, you weren’t quite sure. The time you regularly spent with her has been cut in half. The majority of your time is now spent by the child’s side.

Cleaning her, changing her, feeding her, and tending to her whenever she cries or needs attention. The only time you go to Princess Ursa is when you need her milk to feed Azula.

And that trip is by far the most unfavoured part of your new daily routine. Which will stick with you till the child is old enough to digest solids.

You made it to her room.

Swallowing dry, you prepared yourself before knocking.

*If you care for her so, why don’t you extract the milk yourself?*

Her words taunted you. Ringing in your head as you walked in.

The way she said those words was wrong. The way she looked at you expectedly was wrong. The way she arched her back and the way she tilted her head were all wrong.

You nodded in acknowledgment as she greeted you.

Ursa was seated on the edge of her bed, in her luscious silk robe, her hair still wet from her bath. Her greeting came with a smile. She lifted her arm, her fingers loose, expecting, as she reached towards you.

A phantom hand squeezed at your heart. Your breath hitching, as you drew in closer to her.

With an open palm and a closed heart, you held her hand. Her fingers wrapped around your wrist as she pulled you in, guiding you toward your knees with unwavering eyes.

She looks down on you… as you began your grueling task of preparing the young princess’s meal.

She tugged on your hand, bringing it to her chest as she stared at you.

You couldn’t fight the grimace that formed.

The supple flesh that was now under your palm. The warmth that radiated from under your touch made you want to tear at it, to scream and shout. To run away and never look back from the gruesome scene you would be leaving behind.

A quiet night with a single torch illuminating the room.

You begged for this moment to go by faster.

#fanfic #atla #atla azula #avatar the last airbender #azula x reader #fire lord azula #fire lord ozai #prince zuko #princess ursa

[phoukanamedpookie]

Is there any adult in Azula's life who didn't directly contribute to her trauma? 👀👀👀

#azula #trauma #actual human child azula #literal child soldier azula #anti ozai #iroh critical #ursa critical #even lo and li contribute to her trauma

[zuko-always-lies]

What does Ty Lee actually want (Ty Lee meta)?

ATLA establishes that Ty Lee ran away to the circus because she felt neglected, forgotten, and devalued in her family and wanted more attention and to be distinct. She found her time at the circus so enjoyable that Azula had to force her to leave.

Yet after that, she adapts easily to life with Azula and Mai. She not only performs her duty but often even anticipates what Azula wants and does it without Azula having to order it. Although she evidentially has some fear of Azula, she also seems to really enjoy what the Dangerous Ladies are doing. A lot of people claim that Ty Lee is merely putting on an act for Azula's benefit, but Ty Lee behaves the same playful way when Azula isn't present. Already, I think we can assume that even if Ty Lee could go back to the circus, she might choose not to. After all, she is doing something very distinctive and unique now and is getting lots of attention from a very high-ranking person (i.e. Azula).

Also in this period we see Ty Lee show some manipulative behavior toward Azula by showering her with compliments. A lot of people assume this was a way for Ty Lee to "pretend" to be utterly submissive to Azula and utterly non-threatening. However, although I think Ty Lee's behavior showed her acquiesce to the social hierarchy between Azula and her, I don't think this is what Ty Lee's actions are primarily about. Instead, I think Ty Lee was trying hard to get Azula to show her more attention. Moreover, her comments were in part genuine, as Ty Lee legitimately admired Azula a lot.

Then the Fire teens return home. At this point, Ty Lee should be able to get all the attention in the world, since she helped conquer Ba Sing Se and is also clearly one of Azula's favorites. I think Ty Lee was likely staying in the palace, and not with her family at this point. It's also not clear to what degree Azula is implicitly or explicitly preventing Ty Lee from leaving at this point. The war seems nearly won, Azula's mission is complete, and we don't even see Azula use Ty Lee during the Day of Black Sun. But it's very much not clear to what degree Ty Lee even wants to leave. She's back together with her friends and Zuko, has really made a name for herself, and is probably living separately from her family. However, we hardly see or hear anything about her in this period other than the beach trip, so it's hard to judge what she wanted.

Then DoBS and Boiling Rock goes down. At the end of the series, Ty Lee is free to do whatever she wants. What does she do? Does she go back to the circus? Does she stick around to help Mai?

No, she joins up with the Kyoshi Warriors, a hierarchical group of child soldiers. It seems like perhaps she's a little nostalgic for her time with Mai and Azula, running around conquering things in the Earth Kingdom.

Perhaps I'm wrong. Maybe the Kyoshi Warriors were just a fast way out of the Fire Nation for Ty Lee, and she abandoned them pretty rapidly after that. Still, it is interesting, especially considering the Kyoshi Warriors wear matching makeup which obscures their features, while Ty Lee said that she doesn't like being part of a matched set.

It's very clear what Azula wants. It's very clear what Mai wants. But it's far less clear what Ty Lee really wants, probably even to herself.

#Ty Lee #Ty Lee meta #Azula #Mai #Dangerous Ladies

[asocial-inkblot]

Things I Hope/d to See in the New ATLA Live Action Show

A source material-accurate Azula (duh) and Aang (the show's namesake!) with something extra added to both. See #7 and #8 for more on that.

Tweaked war-related plans that come across like they could reasonably be implemented in real life and which may be based on/allude to actual battle proposals from throughout history. I know little about these sorts of things but others have pointed out before that one of Sokka's plans, for example, may not have actually made much sense. And Ozai's plan near the end? Yeeaaahhhhh... I mean, I kinda get it in hindsight. But still. Let's have him come up with something better than that.

Appearances and clothing that call back to the ethnic groups and cultures that the show takes inspiration from (things are looking great on this front so far), but also

Eye colors like the ones from the original cartoon. This may seem petty but I find that it's actually important to use the right hues for each character and not just make everyone's eyes brown or black or gray (looks to me like that's exactly what they did). The reason being that, although I personally tend to dislike when non-white characters are given what I now call "white qualifiers" (meaning traits often used to make them still appeal to whiteness, such as light hair, light eyes, bone-straight hair, round eyes, etc.), in the context of the show, the eye colors are actually by and large ethnic characteristics and differentiators themselves. As I've noted before in a previous post from a while back: Ocean blue eyes = Water Tribes, brown and gray = usually Air Nomad or Earth Kingdom, amber or light tan = Fire Nation, with few exceptions for all of them.

Enough similarities for it to feel like ATLA but with enough differences that it's actually its own story. Again, duh, but we all know how often adaptations tend to get this part wrong.

An age rating that won't be used as just another excuse to shoehorn in as much violence, gore and sexual content as possible but instead to allow for the full illustration of the impact that war can have on a people and their society/traditions. We saw, imo, only little hints of this throughout the cartoon (when Aang found Monk Gyatso's remains is one extremely devastating example), but not near enough. I know the reason why, of course. However, things like that only helped sell the show short by not allowing it to fully flesh out into a world with true, viewable consequences.

An Azula who, from day one, is unquestionably made out to be exactly what she is: A child soldier who is also a victim of the war in a similar way to how the Gaang is. I want to see her allowed to show worry, even fear, either during or after a situation. Not because I don't love how kickass she is, but because at her age, level of trauma and amount of risk to her life everyday, she has all the reason to be more stressed from the get-go. Not to mention her family issues. I want Azula to clearly have anxiety or depression, something many of us can relate to. I also want that scene of her mental breakdown to STAY in some capacity, but be seen in-universe and hopefully—eventually—irl, too, as what it really was: A teenage girl pushed to her limits until she had no where left to step. Real, living people have had anxiety/panic attacks and meltdowns before and that didn't make them evil or any less worthy of sympathy. It only makes it that much more obvious how real Azula herself is, and how much she needed and deserved understanding.

I want an Aang who's allowed to cry, not once, not twice but over and over again as the weight of the burden of what it means to be a child avatar during a world war—and one who was out-of-commission for a century—start to take their toll on his mind, body and eventually spirit. After he reaches his breaking point, I want him to learn to forgive himself and even forgive others, and come back from it, stronger than ever.

A Toph who's tough but maybe a little less...umm... She should be/feel affected by the war too, okay? And have some level of guilt, fear or self-awareness at all times. So she should be like her original self, but deeper.

More Ursa pleeeaaaaaaassse. We know next to nothing about this woman and what we do know, still involves a lot of inferring. I need to know just what her beliefs were about the war and her family/relatives. I need to know if she...if she often feared for her or her children's lives!

A little less romance and a little more danger, planning and large platonic relationship growth as well as character growth.

Zuko actually learning something from his travels; early on, every time he meets someone/some new people, and on a regular basis. I also kinda want to see him have consequences for his actions. Not just that one time, where he was only a clueless 13 year old boy anyway. Doesn't have to be huge or bloody, but he needs to lose something every time he gains at the expense of another. The ATLA world (if not within the cartoon then definitely within the live action show) should have a real, tangible concept of Karma present, if it doesn't already. That would make so. much. sense.

If possible, a little more fleshing out of characters like Jet and the Freedom Fighters, Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors, Hama, Mai, Ty Lee, etc. And can we not demonize or shrug off victims anymore?

A still sexy Hakoda, Ozai and June. (I'm so sorry, don't hate me...)

An ending that won't make me break out in hives plez.

(That's it for now. I may come back here to add more.)

#ATLA #ATLA live action #Azula #Aang #Ozai #Ursa #Toph #Zuko #Jet #Hama #Mai #Ty Lee #Suki #Sokka #Katara #atla live action show #Avatar Netflix #Netflix Avatar #Netflix ATLA #Water Tribe #Earth Kingdom #Fire Nation #Air Nomads #Water TribeS #Avatar the Last Airbender #Avatar: The Last Airbender #Avatar the Legend of Aang #Avatar: The Legend of Aang #hopes and/or predictions #atla-recluse's tags