#and it would require understanding azula | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

theotterpenguin · 5 months

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thinking about how katara is the only person zuko tells about his mother, the only member of the gaang who zuko opens up to about his scar, the only person he let touch his scar, the person that zuko gained another scar for in order to protect. thinking about how all the terrible memories wound up in zuko's scars are also now intimately connected to katara's kindness. thinking about how katara is the first person zuko trusted, how she offered to heal his scar out of the goodness of her heart, how much he values that trust she placed in him and so he cares the most about rebuilding that connection with her - more than anyone else - after his betrayal. thinking about katara always being so in tune with zuko's feelings, how she understands the importance of zuko and iroh's relationship and is concerned about zuko during the eip, and how in return zuko chooses to open up to her when he's worried about his uncle forgiving him. thinking about how only katara has truly witnessed the complicated relationship between zuko and azula, how she's seen azula's manipulation of her brother but has also seen how zuko still cares for her and stands by him even when he's grieving the defeat of his sister. and how for all these reasons it only makes sense that zuko would want katara with him for the most difficult fight he's ever had to face, and it only makes sense that azula realizes killing katara will hurt zuko the most.

thinking about how zuko is so in tune with katara's feelings, how even when they were enemies the crystal catacombs he reaches out to her when he realizes she's upset, how he never invalidates her negative feelings towards him, but instead only asks what he can do for her. thinking about how zuko is the only person in the show that katara ever reveals the full story of her mother's death to, and how zuko is empathetic and kind and apologizes to her, despite not being responsible for it. thinking about how zuko is the one who recognizes that katara still has her own story to resolve, separate from aang's, and helps her overcome the most traumatic event of her life. thinking about how zuko understands the strength in katara and trusts her to make her own choices, never questioning katara's personal moral choice not to kill but also not to forgive. thinking about how zuko is the only person in the show that ever looks after katara's wellbeing while she's so busy caring for everyone else, how he asks katara to rest, how he realizes that katara needs to face her past to heal emotionally, how he takes katara to ember island for some alone time to process what has happened, how he is always shown helping out with house chores without being asked. how for once katara gets to be cared for instead of the caretaker. thinking about how zuko never makes his forgiveness a requirement of helping her, and yet, for all of these reasons, it only makes sense that katara chooses to forgive him. and it only makes sense that zuko is the person that katara ends up trusting the most deeply, the person she is willing to run into an agni kai arena for and risk her life because she cares for him and doesn't want him to get hurt.

just thinking about the way that katara and zuko share a relationship that is so unique from any other dynamics in the show, and how they share the most complicated, emotionally intimate connection in the gaang.

and it's no wonder that they always gravitate towards each other the most in the second half of book 3 - because they understand each other the most out of everyone else. they never leave each other's sides in tsr, go out of their way to be near each other in subsequent episodes, and are together in almost every scene in the finale.

#zutara #zuko x katara #katara #zuko #we love mature and healthy relationships #that work through conflict in healthy ways #this is kind of rambly but i just have a lot of feelings about them okay #my post #atla

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blorbo-gerrymandering · 1 month

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Round 2

Baseball has sponsorships, right? If not maybe Blaseball does.

Propaganda Under The Cut

Jaylen Hotdogfingers:

The greatest came-back-wrong character ever. She's the mayor of Seattle. She's was the best pitcher in the league. She was murdered by an umpire in an act of divine retribution for the fanbase's transgression. The fanbase exploited game mechanics to bring her back to life. Immediately she murdered 12 people. She died again and got revived a second time as part of a team of undead players that killed god. She's a really awful batter. She has, like, 16 songs written about her and they're all really good. I thought about her every single day for a period of six consecutive months. I love her.

I'll be real. I'm an outsider to the Blaseball fandom. I don't understand it. I think they've crowdfunded characters from fictionalized fucked-up Baseball stats and a dream. I love seeing what the fuck they're doing in their eldritch sandbox just so much.

Simon Laurent:

I love him so much! Yay! Yippie! he got what he deserved tho

have i submitted him yet? if yes here he is again. what did you do to my French man, now he has anxiety, and maybe 50 other things. i can fix him, but it would require a lot of time travel and a complete lack of trains. as i can't do that, he instead gets his very own tumblr poll submission. one vote for train man is one dollar towards the invention of the simon-specific time machine. (your other guys cant come unless they have the same name sorry) its for a good cause

imagine: youre in the trolley situation. well an oh-so-kind tumblr user decided to give everyone who submits this character a get-out-of-a-train-free ticket! use that ticket, and you're no longer responsible for the death of someone (or you are no longer fated to die)!

#poll #round 2 #blaseball #jaylen hotdogfingers #simon laurent #infinity train #simon infinity train

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moss-on-a-pebble · 9 months

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Could you please draw redeemed!Azula talking engineering, doing the math and physics required for the creation of something, with Sokka, and having a bunch of maps and notes spread on a table, and the rest of the Gaang just sitting in a corner, looking at them as if they're speaking a foreign language? Thanks!

I love this idea, Azula would definitely get into some kind of engineering stuff with Sokka.

If anyone’s interested in an art request: fandoms and rules

Caption:

Sokka and Azula: (Just a bunch of math and sciency stuff idk I just inserted a picture into the bubble lol)

Suki: ???

Katara: Does anyone understand what they’re saying?

Aang: Beats me.

Toph: All sounds like hocus pocus to me.

Zuko: You’ll get used to it…

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mah-o-daryaa · 5 months

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For a show that's progressive, one-of-a-kind, ground-breaking for its time, and relies on "Show, don't Tell" a lot throughout the series, it bugs me how ATLA (or, more specifically, Bryke) preferred to tell the audience that Aang is a master airbender without showing us why. I mean, Toph, Zuko, Azula, and Katara are all shown practicing and improving their mastery in bending (although Katara has become rather overpowered), so why can't Aang have the same treatment?

Yes, Aang may be a child prodigy, and he did get airbending tattoos from inventing the air scooter, but I personally think that inventing an airbending technique (which demonstrates impressive ability and skill) is a way to gain the arrows prematurely, but isn't a requirement. Nothing in the show ever suggests just how far he's mastered his native element, let alone the other three. In the beginning of Sozin's Comet, Part 1: The Phoenix King (3:18), Aang says he thinks he still needs to practice his firebending more (which in hindsight makes sense, as he's just started relearning it from the dragons five episodes ago), and Toph notes that his earthbending could use more work too. Right off the bat, Aang is two elements away from complete mastery of all four, but later on he's seen practicing waterbending with Katara, implying he hasn't mastered it either.

We don't even see Aang practicing his airbending by himself post-iceberg, preferring to show off to random girls (like in Kyoshi Island). He just learns the elements, but doesn't really learn the philosophies behind each element. In this regard, he makes Kuruk and Roku look venerated in contrast. (To be fair to Aang, he had a specific deadline to master the four elements before Sozin's Comet that no other Avatar besides Wan had to deal with, but couldn't he try to make an effort to learn from the other nations?) Additionally, compared to Tenzin and Zaheer, Aang doesn't stand a chance against either of them (even though Tenzin is his son, but since Tenzin wasn't the Avatar, he could focus on upholding the Air Nomad culture and legacy). Even Jinora could go toe-to-toe with him at similar ages. He isn't really that impressive in any of the elements, to be honest; we've seen what a master of any specific element can do in both ATLA and LOK, as well as in the novels.

The main thing people often get wrong is that mastery isn't a final goal; it's a specific mindset. As in Pai Sho, what separates true masters from everyone else is that true masters always look for improvement in their strategy or skills. That's why Aang isn't a real master of the four elements: He always takes the easy way out, never trying to better himself or improve what he can already do.

I think this quote from Zaheer perfectly sums up what I've been saying: When you base your expectations on what you see, you blind yourself to the possibilities of a new reality. Even though it stems from his anarchist beliefs, it is genuinely one of the more insightful pieces of wisdom in the franchise because it promotes progress, a constant theme in life. Toph was able to invent metalbending because she wanted to "see" a reality where she could be recognized for her own talent in spite of her blindness; Zuko could learn firebending from the dragons because he could see a reality where he would regain his honor and fight alongside the Avatar, and so on. By contrast, Aang only takes things from surface-level, not putting any effort into understanding the true meaning of being the Avatar.

Speaking of Pai Sho, guess which Avatar constantly improved his/her abilities? Kuruk. Unlike Aang, Kuruk readily asked his companions, Jianzhu, Hei-Ran, and Kelsang, to continue teaching him, ever after he mastered the four elements that he was required to do, saying they would all benefit from the experience (the "true master" quote I mentioned above was actually said by him). Not only that, it was even inverted; sometimes they taught Kuruk, other times he taught them (which technically makes him the first known Avatar to teach bending to others). He was right, as during their lifetimes, they were the most powerful benders of their respective elements in the world!

Kuruk also had an intuitive connection to each of the four bending philosophies, which to this day remains unrivaled by any other Avatar, and was also one of the first people to suggest the idea that the four elements are connected (homeboy's literally a younger Water Tribe Avatar version of proto-Iroh, I'm honestly not going to be surprised if Iroh actually learned his belief from Kuruk during the former's visits to the Spirit World over tea and Pai Sho matches). If you ask me, Mone, learning the cultures and philosophies of the four nations is way more important than mastering the four elements, because the Avatar isn't just the bridge between the four nations; he/she is also the symbol of a unified world, and the franchise is saying that only one Avatar even bothered to do that? In my opinion, if we go by this rule, that easily cements Kuruk as the greatest Avatar in history!

Aang, on the other hand, never does this. Instead, he puts the Air Nomads on a high pedestal (which in turn causes him to place Katara on a high pedestal), and doesn't respect or learn from other nations' philosophies. He openly disrespects SWT culture and actively makes sure Tenzin doesn't have any exposure to the culture that Tenzin still belongs too, and worse, he pushes his own culture on other people's throats (remember the time he forced a homeless couple to "give up on hope because it's a big waste of time"? Or the time he forced Katara to not murder Yon Rha?) and values his own nation and values above the rest of the world (like the time he refused to kill Firelord Ozai because "all life is sacred", even though he has actually killed before, but if he doesn't kill Ozai, the latter's going to burn the entire Earth Kingdom to the ground!). That doesn't sound like something the Avatar is allowed to do, but Aang gets away with it anyway because ... hero?

There's actually another Avatar who focused on his/her own nation above the rest of the world. Avatar Szeto, Yangchen's predecessor, became a government official in his homeland, the Fire Nation. Under his tenure, the Fire Nation transformed from a fragmented, disaster-stricken state to the centralized, technologically-advanced nation we know of today. Unfortunately, this led him to neglect the other nations and, shortly after his death, the four nations were caught in a political event known as the Platinum Affair, which Yangchen had to deal with, eventually kick-starting the cycle of the current Avatar fixing their past lives' mistakes, while leaving problems for their future selves to fix. This problem might have even led to the growing ambition of Firelords Zoryu and Sozin as dictators, with the latter starting the Hundred Years War.

Aang not only valued his own nation's values above the others, he also forced said values on his non-Air Nomad companions; signed anti-miscegenation laws and tried to forcefully deport Fire Nationals from the colonies to return the land to the Earth Kingdom, even though they had already blended in with Earth Kingdom citizens, didn't wan to be separated from their families, and Zuko perceived the citizens of mixed heritage as his own subjects; refused to let his family practice SWT culture, even though his children could benefit from being members of both cultures, not just one or the other, and set an example for mixed-race families around the world; refused to teach Kya and Bumi Air Nomad culture because he thought they weren't airbenders and therefore "not real Air Nomads", even though they were just as Air Nomad as Tenzin was, if not more; and forced Tenzin to uphold the legacy of an entire nation on his shoulders. The fact that this was all written by complete accident is the cherry on top, representing just how badly Bryke screwed up.

... On a completely unrelated note, The Other Side of Paradise by Glass Animals (which is also one of my favorite songs) is definitely a Kuruk song. The last third of the song in particular sums up his tragic journey as the Avatar so well, and I always think of him while listening to it.

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velvet-vox · 8 days

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V and Doll; trauma, mental disorder, and low empathy.

Very recently on my notifications I received a reblog by @aroaceweirdos101 to a response I've made to a post talking about how Doll went through so much more pain than V, and it made me realise that the response in question was actually, like, really good.

I had genuinely forgotten and underestimated how good of an analysis of both V, Doll, mental health and societal stigma it really was.

Now, of course, I disagree with the sentiment that Doll suffered more than V and fully believe that out of the two V endured way more pain and trauma than Doll; yet, although the responses in the comments checked out with what I previously said, they felt... meaner?

Like, the answers went to the opposite extreme of the original comment and tried to downplay Doll's trauma in comparison to V's, almost implying that Doll was a b##ch (which she was) for snapping as hard as she did when V still managed to retain a sense of restraint; and I disagreed with that, so in response I wrote this:

*Look, I believe both Doll and V are interesting characters, and although I feel more sympathetic towards Doll, I definitely believe V went through so much more pain than Doll and had way more reasons to snap and be the way she is now, but I just really hate people who use that as an excuse to label Doll has the more evil of the two or "she was always just a psycho, she just needed an excuse to snap"; it's especially disheartening when people straight up interpret her as unreademable or pure evil, when V and N's body count is 10 times higher than Doll's.

Also, I'm sorry but I really can't stomach the possibility of Liam redeeming the genocidal war machine and not the broken orphan created by said psycho, it literally would be the fictional pinnacle of "since these are the protagonists, they can get away with as much as they want and are always in the right"; I'm fine with the way Doll died because it was done by Cyn and there wasn't any moral lesson to be gained from our protagonists about it, but if it was done by N, Uzi, or worst of all V again, it should have played out like "we have reasons to do the things we do, and you have yours, unfortunately we're on opposite sides and you are hurting us so we must kill you now".

The human (worker drone) mind is extremely fragile, and some people, due to a probably inherited and undiagnosed mental illness or a particular personality type, are more at risk of snapping then other people, yet instead of being understanding towards those who are born with more issues than others (especially women, look up Azula or Ashley Graves) we tend to isolate, demonize and then kill them because they were incapable of fitting into the larger societal standard of acceptable social behaviour, even when said society never did anything to help them meet its unreachable standards because it required too much work from society's side to give you the special attention you needed in order to make you work and fit in.

V was a quiet kid because she was shy, Doll was a quiet kid because she was introverted. Those are two very different types of people and one of them (Doll) was inherently more at risk of developing mental health issues than the other due to their personality type and how it's stigmatized.*

Here's also the original post made by an anonymous user on @md-confessions

Also, here's the link to another post still talking about V and Doll. I made two comments in response, but neither of them is particularly well thought out and since you can't correct them I left them as they were.

Now, back to the highlighted part:

I want to use this response as a springboard to talk about the main differences between Doll and V when it comes to their different handling of their decaying mental health and why it's unfair to say that one of them was worse than the other based on their actions and attitude towards the problem.

(Also, all of the Murder Drones characters are extremely complex, and the fact that the show doesn't have filler makes it harder to get a good grip on one's particular mindset, so if it seems like I'm talking more about Doll than I am about V, it is because V is the most complicated character in the cast and I'm not as confident to talk about her as I am with Doll; it took one entire year to finally understand Doll as well as I do now, so V is a touchy subject for me that's why I might not do her justice).

First of all, it has to be said: Doll is a sociopath, V isn't, despite appearing like one. And that's ok.

When I say that I feel more sympathy towards Doll than I do for V, this is what I mean: I don't sympathise with Doll heartlessness more than I do with V jackassery; rather I understand and relate with Doll's low empathy since I also have low empathy as well, and it is quite common for people like us to be misunderstood for uncaring individuals.

It's the same reason why I and many others tend to like villains and sympathise with them more than we do with the heroes (Lord Shen from Kung Fu Panda 2 is the perfect example for this); it's quite common for villains to be written as individuals with low empathy, as an highly empathetic individual tends to be harder for the audience to buy as an antagonist, since you need to justify why someone this caring is committing all this heinous and terrible stuff, but if that person is already unemphatetic by nature, than it's just a matter of establishing their goals and motivations. These people also tend to be ostracized by their environment and go through a gruesome and violent death because it's socially acceptable to let these despicable individuals find comeuppance through death since they lack the traits that make a person traditionally good.

So, when people use the "So what? She's got dead parents. Many others do, including Uzi, who's also infected with the Absolute Solver, yet they have not become cannibalistic serial killers obsessed with revenge" as a slight against Doll it's not entirely fair because from what we've gathered in the show the other worker drones don't suffer from sadistic impulses and sociopathy like Doll does, even if they (Rebecca) are pretty uncaring. (Side note, Uzi also suffers from sadism/sadistic impulses, but not from sociopathy, hence the main difference between the two).

V, on the other hand, despite what her introduction and psycho girl persona might trick you into believing, was never a sociopath nor did she struggle with low empathy, she was, instead, a pretty timid maid who suffered through unspeakable physical and psychological trauma that led her to adopt this fake identity to cope for the atrocities that she was now committing for the company (Absolute Solver) and the safety of N; V cared about N in a pretty normal person kind of way: she kept N at arms length and hid the truth from him so that he wouldn't get hurt, all while detaching herself from the actions she was now committing, not saying Doll wouldn't or didn't commit any of these actions, but V did them in a way that better aligns with someone who doesn't suffer from sociopathic disorder.

Speaking of N, since he has been mentioned, I'll say that while Uzi suffers from sadism but not low empathy (she has shown to be pretty empathetic many times), N doesn't suffer from sadism but from low empathy; as better explained by a section of this post made by @melissa-titanium :

N x Doll

Don't believe me? Then maybe you should rewatch the series again because N's unemphateticness is his own can of worms to delve into.

But back to Doll, it's time to dissolve (😏) one of the oldest misconceptions surrounding her character:

Doll reached out for help. A lot. She just didn't have any luck with it.

Call me crazy, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that the fandom wide spread belief that Doll rejected all the help that was handed to her to be a massive lie, and in fact, Doll actually tried to reach out way more than you thought, arguably, even more than Uzi:

The impact that Yeva's education has had on Doll's life can only be noticed in this way: Yeva extended her hand to Nori and she accepted it, thus, it is fair to assume that Yeva taught Doll to be pretty open to others and to give a hand to someone in need (the show was rewritten after the pilot, so ignore the incongruences with Doll's initial characterization), and in fact, after enduring the trauma of watching her parents die, she opened up to Lizzie for help and support, unfortunately, Lizzie wasn't exactly the right person to talk about these things (no offence to her, all of Uzi's classmates suck for one reason or another, including Uzi herself, I guess that's what happens when you are stuck inside a bunker your whole life), after all, Doll was still killing and cannibalising her classmates.

Then, before she went back to gain her revenge, she tried to get Uzi on her side, which wasn't an attempt to open up, but she was still willing to connect, even if for the wrong reasons. Finally, once she discovers that Uzi also has the Absolute Solver, she promises to help her out, and at this point, Doll wishes to talk it out with Uzi, but because she is surrounded by the Disassembly Drones (V), she can't.

And now, for the most interesting discussion, there's this brief and frankly weird moment in episode 5 where Doll compliments Khan for raising Uzi, and while Khan laughs it off immediately, since he is a dumbass, this could have been a perfect opportunity for him to reach out to Doll and reason with her, since she's clearly putting aside whatever her objective actually is to talk to him, but he doesn't catch on, and this leads Doll to immediately closing herself off again and returning to the mission, and like, maybe we all kind of underestimated how much significance this moment carried, but consider this:

Doll, at this point in time, has been living out in the cold for what... a month? Six months? A YEAR? If we exclude J and Cyn from the equation, this is probably the only social interaction she ever had since The Promening, yet, because of Khan's lack of touch, she immediately reminds herself of the massive disconnection between her and the other workers (eh ehm sociopath) and thus storms off rapidly; this moment is actually quite painful when you look at it from this perspective, yet it's also, the only interpretation that makes sense? Otherwise how do you explain the existence of this moment when Murder Drones is a show infamous for his high plotting and lack of filler? They had to go out of their way to animate this, so why did they play it off in this way?

Tessa is a meanie

Penultimately, and again, I want to bring up a post by @capnsaltsquid since that's where I got the inspiration to write this paragraph off, Doll opened up to J and Tessa to get the answers she was seeking, yet not only Tessa shot her in the face for s###s and giggles, but then proceeded to fraternise with her parents murderers, and at this point, she closes herself off enough to realise that she might have to unintentionally kill Uzi and leave everyone in the dust if she wants to get anything at all.

But unfortunately, that is not the case, she dies of a lonely, meaningless, gruesome death, and at this point, she still tries and finally succeeds in reaching out to Uzi, and yet, like all of her previous tries, this is unsuccessful, as Uzi has other things in mind right now.

To wrap things up nicely, both V and Doll went through severe amounts of trauma and handled said trauma in a similar yet also different way, since they are different individuals who process emotions and love differently, thus the actions they took made sense for the person they were and should only be judged in the context of their writing and characterization.

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burst-of-iridescent · 6 months

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Hi! I love all your posts regarding atla and deep diving into Zuko and Katara's relationship-those analysis's are *chief's kiss* perfect

Anywho, I hope you don't mind me asking, but I'm guessing you heard about Bryke wanting to expand the atla universe, and will be creating a new movies, one of which, with the Gaang as adults, but as far as I know won't have any of the returning head writers like Aaron Ehasz..

so my question is: do you think there is any hope for these movies? Because to me I feel like it might just be a fully animated comic (we all know how those turned out) & just be 2 hrs of Katara and Aang saying "Sweetie" back an forth. Yes I'm still saltly

frankly? no.

and that's not even me saying it as a salty zutara shipper who doesn't want to see kat.aang as an established relationship. i doubt how good these movies are going to be because bry.ke have little-to-no understanding of their characters, especially katara and zuko, and at least since atla, haven't shown the self-awareness to hire a writer's team that can compensate for their shortcomings. i've said it before and i'll say it again: they have great, creative ideas and an excellent eye for stunning visuals and an immersive world. but when it comes to the nuances of characterization and story-building, they cannot do it on their own. lok proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt.

but more than bry.ke, these movies are also emblematic of a larger problem that i see in multiple franchises: the subordination of creative, meaningful storytelling in service to shameless nostalgia cash-grabbing. ask yourself, do we really need a story about the adult gaang? most of the main plot threads that they could've expanded on from atla have already been (mostly badly) answered in the comics: what happened to ursa, azula's potential redemption, decolonisation, industrialisation vs tradition, the founding of a new air nomad legacy, zuko's struggles as fire lord. any new story would either have to retcon previously established "canon" or put a new spin on old themes. the latter of which i severely doubt bry.ke's capability to pull off, particularly if any level of nuance is required.

atla is slowly but surely heading in the direction of star wars/harry potter/the mcu in producing new material just for the sake of making money instead of truly adding something impactful to the canon. the fact that absolutely no new atla material since the show itself has ever managed to live up to the original is proof that the franchise has no idea what it's doing.

and before someone comes at me to say that it's impossible to ever live up to the original - just take a look at the hunger games revival happening right now. the ballad of songbirds and snakes has been received so well because it isn't just a shameless cash-grab. it's a valuable contribution to the series that expands on the universe and themes of the original trilogy, giving more depth and nuance to the original books instead of detracting from them. because collins adds to the canon only when she has something meaningful to say, and for a franchise that she could have milked to absolute filth, that restraint reflects not only her integrity as a creator, but the value she places on the stories that she tells - which in turn makes her readers value and respect them as well.

and that's a lesson that i think every single storyteller should take to heart. if you want to be respected as a writer, you have to respect your characters and your stories first. because if you, the creator, don't... why should anyone else?

#anti bryke #anti atla comics #anti atla movie #anti kataang #not to include my hunger games brainrot even here but #i think it's the perfect example of a storyteller who respects their craft and the difference that makes #compared to bry.ke and everything they've put out since atla

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withgirl-sq · 1 month

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What would their families think of eachother so rina and ursa about katara's family and the other way around with katara's family. And what would happrn if they would meet eachother do you think.

Srry is 2 asks is to much

No need to apologies! Always love getting asks 🥰

I think that Katara's family may be a little judgemental of Ursa depending on what point they meet her at? Like if it's years into Azula and Katara's relationship and they'd only just found Ursa in Hira's (We're ignoring the face swap and memory wipes, this is not canon in my mind lol). I think that they would struggle to understand how she could leave Azula and Zuko with Ozai

Eventually, after a lot of tension, I think they would start to understand and would get along well though. This would probably require Ursa explaining everything to Azula though, I can see Katara's family being on Azula's side all the way through any potential conflict!

On Ursa and Rina's side, I think they would think very highly of Katara's family and everything they did in the war. RIna would probably have been taught a lot about the other nations by Roku (maybe even got to visit them when she was younger?) which she would have passed onto Ursa. This would mean that they know exactly how to be respectful towards them and would have plenty of questions about the Southern Water Tribe to keep the conversation going!

#azutara #azulara #kazula #rina #ursa #kanna #hakoda #sokka #katara #azula #avatar the last airbender

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sokkastyles · 9 months

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I saw this post and some reblogs of it, and I wanted to know what you thought.

This is the post.

And these are the reblogs.

This reminds me of people who try to argue that enemies to lovers is abuse by ignoring the difference between opponents fighting on a battlefield in a fantasy setting and someone hitting on their spouse. The latter involves a power dynamic that is not present in the former. The difference between Zuko fighting Azula to end the war (and Aang fighting Ozai to end the war), and Ozai manipulating Zuko inro a fight he could not win for the purpose of terrorizing, publicly humiliating, and mutilating him should be obvious. Zuko's age is emphasized because Ozai is his father and because Ozai used that relationship and the power he had because of it against his son. He deliberately let his son believe he would be fighting someone else, and used Zuko's loyalty to him against him while his son was surrendering. It's not just Zuko's age that is important here, although his age informs the other things about it.

Azula was a child at fourteen during her agni kai with Zuko, but so was Zuko at sixteen, just two years older, and age has never given Zuko power over Azula anyway. Zuko also faces Azula openly in battle and even agrees to the terms she sets to even the playing field. She also is the antagonist in rhe situation

If there's a parallel to be made, it's that Azula becomes the same crying child on the ground after she is defeated, but only after she realizes she can't win, not out of love or loyalty to a family member. This was a fight she wanted and was eager for, and literally says was "meant to be."

Comparing that to Zuko's father deliberately harming a child under his power who has already surrendered shows a gross lack of understanding of the context. OP says they aren't belittling the awfulness of what Ozai did, but they absolutely %100 are and their argument is so ugly and tone deaf I don'/ even know what to say.

I've also talked about the ridiculousness of the argument that Iroh must have imagined Azula in the flashback because it just makes no sense as an argument, narratively. If Iroh were biased against Azula, that would have to be shown or revisited somehow. Otherwise there is no reason to question that it didn't happen exactly the way we are shown.

Also, the claims that Azula would not look like that at 11 seem shaky to me and also rest on claims about how adolescent girls look at that age that are just not true. Girls, especially, certainly can and do change a lot in the tween years, often moreso than boys, who tend to have their growthspurts a little later.

Which actually does fit with what we are shown of their character designs. Let's look at the sceeenshots.

Here is Azula at 8(ish), her child design remaining pretty consistently the same on the show:

And here she is at 11 in Iroh's flashback:

Btw I feel it necessary to mention that the picture with the child design is from Zuko's flashback, so if we're going by the argument that Iroh is imagining Azula looking more mature because he's biased, and we're also arguing that Zuko is biased against Azula, how come that bias doesn't seem to show in his flashback, huh? You would think that Zuko would picture Azula looking even more mature, since she was closer to his own age and more of a peer (whom the power dynamic was skewed in favor of). But, again, there's no reason to think that these flashbacks are biased. They are not framed as imperfect memories and the show never gives us a reason to question that they didn't happen exactly as they are shown. And trying to read them that way is actively misreading what we're shown.

If you're going to assume bias where none is shown, what is stopping you from questioning literally everything the narrative establishes? But if you do that, you're breaking the contract of the narrative. Fictional stories require that unspoken contract, that necessary buy in, otherwise there is no story. There has to be some baseline established, otherwise it's just the show presenting things and the audience going "nuh-uh!" A bias has to be established to give the audience a reason to question the narrative contract. That's why in stories with unreliable narrators or stories that play with or otherwise deconstruct the narrative contract, there are techniques used to establish that we're supposed to question things. None of those are present here.

There is an obvious difference between Azula's design in the second flashback compared to the first. She looks more like the Azula we see in the present timeline in the show.

But does she look the same?

Here's Azula at fourteen. Yes, if you compare it to the picture from Iroh's flashback, they look closer to each other than Azula's child design, but they do not, in fact, look the same. In Iroh's flashback she's wearing the makeup she is almost never seen without in the present timeline, and that's the biggest difference. But that's not unusual for a child entering their tween years to be experimenting with make up. Azula at 11 is wearing makeup, but her lipstick appears to be lighter, more girlish shade. She might be wearing eyeliner, which would explain why her eyes look narrower than her child design, but that also is just the natural progression of depicting a character's age in animation. Notice that Azula in the present timeline has even smaller eyes, darker lipstick, and a more defined face shape than in Zuiko's agni kai, where she still has a somewhat rounded baby face.

I've also argued before that it makes sense for the character for Azula to wear makeup. 11-14 is young to wear makeup but not uncommon, and for Azula, it makes sense that a character obsessed with appearance of perfection would wear it. It also makes sense for Zuko's agni kai to be the time when this transition happens in Azula, after her mother leaves and her father gains complete control over his children's lives, and Azula realizes even more that she needs to maintain that mask of perfection. I've also talked before about how Azula at fourteen seems very familiar with war meeting whereas Zuko at thirteen had to argue his way into one. This is unusual, it is a sign that something is not right, but we already know this. We know how Ozai is treating his kids. We know how he puts pressure on Azula to be his golden child, we know that he actively sabotages Zuko so he can fulfill his role as the scapegoat. Something is absolutely rotten in Denmark, but it's not narrative bias. Pay attention to the story actually being told.

I also want to compare Azula's character designs in the show to Zuko's as a child and an older teen. Let's look at Zuko's design from "Zuko Alone," where he is roughly 10ish when Azula is 8ish.

One of the reblogs made the argument that Zuko looks the same when he's ten vs when he's thirteen. Let's take a look.

Pretty similar, although I would argue there are differences. He's a little taller, his face is less round and babyish in the second picture. (He's also got a cute little forelock, hi!)

But yeah, he still has his "child" design for the most part. He hasn't yet bridged the gap to his present timeline appearance.

However, in season three we get a flashback to Zuko at the same age, thirteen, but shortly after his banishment, and he looks like this:

Here, his character design is similar to his familiar character design from the beginning of book one. It's a pretty stark change, but just like with Azula at the agni kai, this character design is meant to tell us something about the character and the changes he has gone through. Azula may go through those changes earlier because girls do tend to have their growth spurts earlier than boys, but if you actually look at the timeline, both Zuko and Azula changed at roughly the same time, surrounding the singular event of Zuko's banishment. But like with Azula, we could also go back even before that. An interesting detail is that Zuko after Ursa's banishment (as seen in "The Storm,") is wearing the more militaristic uniform that is part of his book one design, the high collar and armored shoulder pads as opposed to the looser clothing he wears in childhood (which is actually similar to what redeemed Zuko wears). This, like Azula's makeup, is reflective of the loss of vulnerability, of innocence, the need for armor, for protection. It makes them look more mature but also highlights how they're not, and are traumatized children desperately trying to protect themselves.

Btw, anyone who thinks makeup can't change your appearance that much clearly doesn't know very much about makeup.

Also, stop calling child heroes in fantasy shows child soldiers, I am begging you. It's not just the age difference between Ozai and Zuko that makes what he did abuse, there's also a purposeful abuse of a power dynamic that is absent from your standard child-hero of an adventure series fighting the evil adults. Even taking into account Aang's trauma over being the chosen one or Jet and his group of orphans, it's not the same thing as real children being forced to be child soldiers, and will never be. These children, as action heroes in a fantasy series meant for children, have more power and agency than even most adults in the real world will ever have, and even as interested as ATLA is in exploring trauma, it will never be able to address the real trauma and horror of child soldiers, and wasn't meant to.

#zuko #azula #ozai #iroh #abuse cw #the discourse

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king-bumis-armpit · 1 day

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Hey... If Mai were a bender, do you think she would be great at lightning bending? Would like to hear your thoughts 🖤

Yessss!! I’ve thought about this before. Thank you so much for the ask <3

I think that Mai would be a great lightning-bender. To quote the Avatar wiki page for lightning generation: “The technique is extremely precise and deadly and is referred to by some as the ‘cold blooded fire’.” Cold blooded fire?! Precise and deadly?! I’m sorry, if that’s not Mai-coded then I don’t know what is.

Let’s break it down in perhaps an obnoxious amount of detail:

Precision. Mai canonically is a knife-thrower with the ability to pin a target’s clothing without drawing blood. She even strikes moving targets. I would argue that Azula, Mai, Ty Lee are a team built on precision. That’s why Azula chose them after all. Ty Lee hits very specific pressure points, Mai hits very specific targets, and Azula executes the most precise and complex firebending moves. It naturally follows that if Mai were a firebender, she would also employ precision based attacks rather than shooting fire willy-nilly like Zhao, for example.

Distance. One notable difference between Mai and Ty Lee’s preferred fighting styles is range. For chi blocking, you have to be engaging in hand to hand combat, or you have to find a way to get close enough to make contact with your target. Mai demonstrates proficiency in close quarters combat, but knife throwing is more effective from a distance. Similarly, the wiki also points out that lightning-bending is shown with varying degrees of build up. Ideally, the lightning wielder has enough time to go through the movements and can strike at their opponent from a safe distance. Since this is Mai’s canonical inclination, I can only assume firebender Mai is the same.

Emotional regulation. When Zuko attempts lightning-bending, he fails at his attempt because his emotions get in the way. Again, according to the Wiki, “If one attempts to conjure lightning without the required emotional discipline, it can instead result in a huge explosion of fire.” Mai is the epitome of one who can keep their emotions in check. She– perhaps more than anyone– has the focus required to split the positive and negative energies to create the bolt.

Truthfully, I don’t think fire is Mai’s primary element. In the episode “The Firebending Masters,” we learn that fire is actually life energy. I don’t think that young firebender Mai would be able to understand this or feel it intuitively the way a firebending Ty Lee might. For this reason, I think she would struggle at first, and be considered weak. I think she would still choose to learn knife-throwing, and this choice would lead her down the path of discovering lightning bending. One day, while she’s practicing, she tries to hone in on her firebending chi while throwing her knives, to see if she can figure out some sort of combination attack. She’s really just playing around, but she manages to split the positive and negative energy. When she lets go of her knife, a bolt of lightning arcs through the air and strikes her target in the exact same spot. That was the first time Mai truly felt her chi.

After that day, she would hone her skill in secret. Assuming the Hundred Year War is still happening, Mai wouldn’t dare tell Azula. Despite her aloof exterior, Mai does not want to kill anyone, and she fears what the princess would want her to do. I think she would use lightning only in her greatest hour of need. Perhaps at the Boiling Rock she and Azula fire lightning simultaneously, causing an explosion. Everyone is astonished, still thinking Mai was a weak bender…

And that’s all I got. That was probably a way more detailed headcanon than you were looking for. I lowkey wanna write an AU like this now, but we’ll see where the inspiration strikes (hehe).

Thank you again for the ask! I hope you have a lovely day :)

#avatar the last airbender #atla #mai #atla mai #mai headcanons #lightning bending #firebending #azula #ty lee #zuko #Woah

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the-badger-mole · 1 year

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What are your thoughts on Azula redemption. Like if it was done properly and she got all the help she needed. Because honestly it's hard to find good Azula redemption takes without them being stans or something

I've talked about this before (here for instance), but I don't really think Azula needs the kind of redemption people seem to want for her. I think a transformative arc would fit her better. Like, yeah, she changes, but she's not necessarily redeemed through it. First of all, I don't think she'd ever be completely sorry about what she did, and I think that's a baseline requirement for a redemption arc.

Second, in my opinion, too many of these "redemption" arcs for Azula focus on her reconciling with everyone, and I just don't think that's realistic. I see her reconciling with Zuko and maybe Iroh, but beyond that, I don't see Ty Lee coming back (I actually like to think that she found her happiness far, far away from Caldera and the messiness of court). I could see Azula not wanting Mai back. Zuko's friends don't owe Azula anything either, so it bothers me a bit when I see stories that start with Azula being best friends with everyone with no explanation or acknowledgement of how odd it is. Especially when the stories are within a year or two after the war ends. The problem here is focusing so much on the trauma Azula went through, there's no focus on the trauma she caused. And she caused a lot.

Like, A LOT.

She contributed to Zuko's years long abuse, she controls Ty Lee through intimidation and forces her into service, she pimps Mai out to get Zuko in line (although, it seemed like Mai was into it, so this might be iffy?). Then there's everything she did to the Gaang. All of this before you dig into what she was like before she joined the hunt for Aang. This is my own personal theory, and not one I necessarily expect to see in fics, but I'm 100% sure Azula did a lot of damage even before she left the Fire Nation. Intentionally or not (and tbh, it probably wasn't intentional), it's pretty heavily implied in the show that Azula has a body count off screen, and those bodies were friendly fire (i.e. Azula has killed and injured people from the Fire Nation). Beyond that, Azula seemed to enjoy what she did. I know she was victim of abuse, but she was also an abuser. Just like a bully being abused at home doesn't automatically absolve them of being a bully, Azula has a lot to answer for. None of the people she harmed are required to welcome her in with open arms.

How I would approach a transformative arc for Azula would be to tell the story over a span of years- well into her adulthood, and probably into middle age. The only one from the original show she would have a firm relationship with is Zuko, and mostly because he insists on seeing her every so often. Katara, who is obviously married to him, would tolerate Azula for Zuko's sake, but things would be cold between them, and Katara would understandably want to keep her children at a distance. Iroh would forgive her, but wouldn't be super inclined to force a connection between him and his niece. He would support Zuko's efforts, though. Azula wouldn't live in Caldera. If she doesn't end up imprisoned after the war, I think she would end up semi-exiled to one of the outer islands of the Fire Nation. There she would build a new life for herself, and rediscover her humanity. She might come to regret more of her actions, but I think ultimately she'd end up absolving herself and not really care about making amends to anyone outside of Zuko (and maybe Iroh. Maybe).

Personally, I'm not super interested in punishing Azula, but I want there to be heavy consequences for her actions. I want the validity of people not wanting her in their lives to be acknowledged. I want to see how she navigates her life post war after losing everyone and everything. I want to see her carving out a place for herself that doesn't have much, if anything, to do with her life in Caldera. If she can make amends to one or two people from her past, that's fine, but it needs to take into consideration that she hurt them, and not just be them accepting her back because she "wasn't herself", because she was herself when she hurt them. I want Azula's redemption arc to be messy and imperfect and incomplete.

Well, either that, or I want to see her go full power trip and try to take power from her brother in an epic and tragic final battle between the siblings, because who doesn't like Shakespearean drama with elemental magic, amirite?

#atla #azula #azula's redemption arc #no one owes azula anything #and i think her next #THE YEAR OF CONTENT!!!!

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julietwiskey1 · 1 year

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Have you ever thought of a Brave AU with Ursa and Azula?

I haven't. Or at least not until you sent this ask, which prompted me to watch Brave for the first time. It definitely would work well for an Azula and Ursa AU with some significant changes.

Assuming that you want it to be kept mostly Canon compliant and after the war when Ursa and Azula have found there place in the Fire Nation again it could be interesting. Though it could also work for a no war AU and stay more true to the original story.

For those who don't know in Brave Princess Merida is being set up for an arranged marriage by her Mother Queen Elinor. In all Merida and Elinor clash quite a bit over the Mother training her daughter to be the perfect lady and princess. A lot of demands and Merida is not that type of girl. She is tomboyish, would rather shoot arrows from a horse then command a room. Not wanting to go through with a wedding Merida is given spell by a witch to change her mother and therefore stop the wedding. But also changes her mother to a bear and the pair have to work together to change her back. Ultimately requiring them to repair their mother daughter bond. Just the type of thing that I love in my stories about Ursa and Azula.

So emotionally and story wise I would love to see Azula and Ursa experience something likes this. And come on, Ursa is just asking to be turned into a bear with her name. Ursa I think works quite well in the slot of Elinor, she wants the best for her daughter but making Azula the perfect princess is important. It also allows them to have tender moments like Merida and Elinor did.

The real issue with making this AU work is slotting Azula into the role of Merida. While they both are forced to be the perfect princess they react to the role in opposite ways. Merida chafes at the demands and requirements, outwardly rebels and seems to do a rather poor job. Azula excels at being the prefect princes and makes it look easy while enjoying it, but is also a rather submissive character to her father and mother. Azula also represents duty above own desires, the aspect of her character that makes me love character. And one that makes this AU difficult.

For Azula an arranged marriage isn't unexpected, but rather her duty to her nation. Such notions as a marriage of love probably wasn't a thing she grew up expecting or desiring. It just was never going to happen. And quite frankly I am the wrong person to talk to about "true love" and other such babble.

So I think changing the conditions Azula finds herself contacting a witch would change. Its most likely something that comes up in a moment of weakness and seeks her out, knows what she wants even if Azula would never indicate it. And in that weakness Azula takes the witch up on the offer and Ursa is turned into a bear. And the inciting incident is a lot more subtle then an arranged marriage, these character would be better served by it coming about by a ton of just inconveniences that build up unresolved.

The story would also change what needs to be fixed between Ursa and Azula. Most importantly its communication more than anything else. Why Azula used a spell wouldn't be anything she outright admits or says, at least not for awhile. It also requires Ursa to pause and push Azula to talk and to really listen to what Azula wants and the hints that she drops. For Ursa it would be putting together the clues to know and understand why her daughter is unhappy.

#wiskey answers #anon #azula and ursa #azula #ursa #they lack good communication skills #what they have to solve is how to be open with each other #a thing that wasn't much of an issue in brave #merida was pretty open with her discontent #Azula would not be so obvious #and would probably feel worse that she feels those ways #brave au

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zuko-always-lies · 1 year

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Azula and “Abusing Others”

To be clear, I don’t think “abuse” is the correct prism to look through to understand any of Azula’s poor or toxic behavior toward others. However, this is a post to evaluate how reasonable I find the common claim that “Azula abused x person” and to rank such claim by how much evidence there is that I think could be potentially interpreted to support such a claim.

1. Ursa: Let’s just say that it’s been claimed before that eight year old Azula somehow abused fully adult Ursa. Let’s just say that such claims are complete bunk.

2. Iroh: I have not seen this personally, but I’m sure someone has claimed that Azula abused Iroh. Again, complete bunk.

3. Zuko: Let us just say that I have never seen an argument which managed to explain why Azula’s treatment of Zuko was “abusive” which wouldn’t also logically imply that Zuko’s treatment of Azula was also “abusive.”

4. Suki: the entire “evidence” that Azula abused her is based off one remark that Azula, notorious liar, made when she was desperate to distract Team Avatar. Nothing we find out about Suki after that particularly supports that interpretation.

5. Mai: now we are getting into slightly more reasonable territory. The argument that Azula was abusive toward Mai (in the manner which anti’s imagine abuse was based on essentially three points: Azula playing fast and loose with Tom-Tom in Return to Omashu, Mai’s line about fear in Boiling Rock, and Azula’s line about fear in the finale. However, this undestanding of Azula’s relationship with Mai is contradicted by quite a few other points.

First, Mai doesn’t see to fear Azula at all during the series, and in fact seems to enjoy watching Azula terrify other people.

Second, Mai feels comfortable defying Azula several times, including yelling at her to her face, yet suffers no consequences for this(until she publically commits high treason in front of dozens of witnesses, at least). Almost no one else in the Fire Nation would be able to get away with behavior like this.

Third, Mai seems to have little love for Tom-Tom, in any case.

Fourth, Mai’s issues were written as centered around her parents, which made it clear why she might lean on her friendship with Azula.

Fifth, common interpretations of the Boiling Rock scene are deeply flawed, as they refuse to acknowledge that Mai’s actions would be extremely unlikely to change even if Azula wasn’t present.

6. Ty Lee: I think the most reasonable person to argue that Azula abused is Ty Lee. This is based off her awful treatment of her at the circus, the fact that Ty Lee does seem to at least moderately fear her, and Azula’s one line in the finale. This is a much stronger body of evidence than any other case, and fully refuting it would require discussion of Azula’s place and role in the Fire Nation and Fire Nation imperial ideology. However, I think there is also evidence that calls into question the common presentation of “Azula’s abuse of Ty Lee.”

First, Azula was content to allow Ty Lee to live at the circus, far away from her, for years. She did not abuse her power as royalty to force Ty Lee to return home, despite disapproving of Ty Lee “wasting her life” at the circus. Azula only showed up to recruit Ty Lee because she needed her for the mission, not because she was desperate to “force Ty Lee to be with her.”

Second, in “The Beach” Ty Lee seemed to be absolutely shocked (and later confused) when Azula was casually cruel to her. It does not seem to have been an experience that she was all that used to. And of course, her bursting out in tears caused Azula to instantly apologize.

Third, we also Ty Lee lash out angrily at Azula toward the end of this episode(”Laugh all you want”), and Azula doesn’t negatively react, although this is minor compared to Mai’s outburst at Azula.

Fourth, Boiling Rock is not nearly as clear cut in interpretation as it’s often made out to be.

Fifth, Azula’s line in the finale literally came when she was delusional.

Sixth, Ty Lee genuinely seems to enjoy running around the world conquering stuff with Azula and Mai. At the very least, this calls into question the simple narratives put forward by antis.

Some of this counterevidence is rather tangential, of course, and again I think it’s more reasonable to argue “Azula abused Ty Lee” than it is to argue “Azula abused [any other character].”

#Azula #Mai #Ty Lee #Zuko #Ursa #fuck imperialism

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zukkaart · 1 year

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Okay LISTEN

I don’t jump on the divorced Zukka bandwagon- not because it’s stupid or invalid but because it makes sense and I hate it because I want them to be domestic and happy until they’re grey and old okay???????

That being said

“Bleach” from 5sos5 gave me a thought-

So we know that cutting your hair is generally seen as a formal act of losing a part of yourself or your nation. Seen very clearly here- Iroh and Zuko cut their hair off when they realize they no longer have a home to return to.

A little more indirectly when zuko shaves everything except his top knot after being banished as a sign of his exile and dishonor but still tied to the fire nation.

And even a little MORE indirectly when we see Azula cut her own hair- not out of solemn realization or dishonor but because she is LITERALLY losing pieces of herself to her madness

All this to say

(Sorry I went on a bit of a tangent there)

And IF Sokka and Zuko DID break up or get a divorce it would be seen as improper for the fire lord to cut his hair over something so “trivial”

After all Ozai didn’t alter his when Ursa left

SO I think Zuko would probably try everything possible to alter his hair without actually cutting it. I.e. braiding, hiding under hoods, etc.

I think he would even go as far as to bleach his hair- especially if they really did get divorced because even though there was no love lost- their lifestyles of being leaders of separate nations just couldn’t cope. He’d start a little at first- just a few strands on the underneath where no one could see done by himself late at night.

Little by little he realizes “cleansing” little pieces of him makes him feel the slightest bit better because the man in the mirror is starting to look less and less like the man who Sokka loved, who loved Sokka…

Obviously he couldn’t bleach all of his hair but imagine Sokka comes to the Fire Nation as his Ambassador and Chief status requires to find Zuko with one stark strip of white cutting through the right side of his hair, he looks closer and finds the smaller- subtler ones in the under layers, some obviously more well done than the others, some faded with time.

Imagine Zuko finally turning to lock eyes with him- but before he can get a word out to explain Sokka reaches up and brushes the light strip that leads into his topknot.

“What’s this?” He asks, dangerously closer than most Ambassadors should be to their hosts.

“An experiment” Zuko says quickly, unsure why he chose those words in particular, but Sokka is a scientist right? He’ll understand.

“Oh,” The playful smile drops from the darker boys features, although Zuko is unsure why.

“Does it bother you?” The words came out more defensively than Zuko meant. Why should he care now anyway?

“Not at all it’s just…” nothing. Everything.

All the words Sokka left unsaid somehow came down to this one white strip of hair, as white as Yues. The truth was that he had hoped Zuko would tell him that he had no idea where it came from, letting Sokka come to the logical conclusion that it was in fact Yue who had blessed him, and he could take it as a sign that he and Zuko were meant to be together. That they could make it work this time if they really tried. Spirits knew that stuff right?

It doesn’t matter now. The hair was fake. For whatever reason Zuko had done it on purpose. It unsettled Sokka in a way he didn’t expect.

“Sorry” He snapped out of his own thoughts. “It just looks so different from the pictures I have, it looks good though.” Sokka offered a timid smile.

Zuko stiffened imperceptibly at that but still responded in kind. “Thank you, I should go. I have others to greet before dinner.” His voice did not waiver but his mind raced. He still has pictures of me? Of us? And he looks at them? Zuko hadn’t been able to do that for months.

“Of course” And when Sokka turned to leave Zuko noticed something. A thin strip of leather braided in to the underside of Sokkas wolf tail, dyed such a deep shade of red that it almost blended in to his hair, but Zuko noticed, because Zuko always noticed.

It was the same strip of leather that Zuko had used to tie his topknot with on his first visit to the South Pole. Deeper in color than his usual choice because he didn’t want to stick out too much, but Sokka had protested anyway, gently pulling it out of his hair and replacing it with one of brilliant blue, a color as deep as the ocean but somehow still as alluring as a familiar set of eyes. At the time, he would have gladly drowned in both.

That was 15 years ago now, when Zuko hadn’t even been brave enough to hold his hand.

Sokka had kept it. All this time. And now he was even wearing it - subtle as it may be. And Sokka was just the same, just the same, same blue eyes, same genuine smile, same gentle brush of fingers against his hair, the exact same Sokka. His Sokka.

Zukos hair was back to its natural color by morning.

#zuko #adult zukka #zuko x sokka #zukka au #zukka nation #zukka incorrect quotes #avatar the last airbender #sokka #sokka avatar the last airbender #Zukka fanfic #divorced zukka #zukka headcanons #Zukka my beloveds #idk what I’m doing #5sos #5sos5 #5sos5 bleach

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avrelia · 2 years

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Hey! Do you believe Mai genuinely feared Azula?

The short answer is “yes”.

But, apparently, there is Mai vs Fear discourse is happening so here is a long answer. Mai’s relationship with Azula is complicated. It is friendship, sure, except none of those kids know what healthy relationship look like, whether it’s friendship or romance. It is friendship, but it’s rules and parameters are defined by Azula, and the cost of disobeying and moving out of line is unpleasant to pay. So Mai, in my opinion, is constantly calculating the cost – what would it cost her to say no? To do her own thing? We see in “Zuko Alone” flashback her being threatened with burn and then embarrassed because Azula noticed Mai kind of liked her brother. Even if there was no danger for her life, I doubt it was a pleasant experience. And we are not meant to take it as an isolated incident, either, more like a common occurrence.

When we see Mai in Omashu, she is bored. So bored, that an attack on her and her family from the Omashu resistance is a welcome distraction. But, really, try to imagine yourself in her place – she cannot go anywhere, talk to anyone, everyone here are either troops and servants or locals that hate them and try to kill them. The only person she can stand is Tom Tom, and only for a little while. (believe me, it is a totally normal reaction on a toddler in a family, and it doesn’t say anything about love or its lack, or the future relationships).

Tom Tom exchange has been discussed to death and back, so I’ll just remind that any sane person choosing between displeased Azula and unknown boy would choose to leave a baby with an unknown boy.

Does Mai fear Azula here? In my opinion, definitely. Fear is just not an only thing Mai feels when she meets Azula in Omashu. It is a chance to escape an unbearable living situation, it is a chance to run wild and do something, not to obey her parents. Sure she has to obey her princess, but that is inescapable in any case. And When her parents demand of her to stay proper and be happy, Azula’s demands are more dangerous, but also thrilling. And Mai would rather preemptively agree on whatever Azula asks and look cool while doing that than to be ordered to do the same. People are complicated like that. And nobody really asks Mai what is it she really wants to do, not even she herself.

Mai is not particularly nice or enlightened, and doesn’t see a reason to question the war propaganda she grew up with, and in book 2 we don’t see much of a conflict between what Azula requires and what Mai is willing to do, so she follows along easily. In contrast to Azula, though, Mai doesn’t care about victory or reaching any of Azula’s goals, the journey and fighting seemingly enough for her. She is not willing to get dirty during the drill debacle and refuses to jump in the sludge. Many see it as a proof that Mai is not afraid of Azula – but Azula is not present at that moment, and the cost of disobedience is considered negligible. On the other hand, after their successful takeover of Ba Sing Se, Mai is assigned a distinguished duty of cleaning bear poop. Is it the highest honor or a price she had to pay for not wanting to get dirty earlier?

No wonder Mai is ready to give up Bosco the bear as soon as she can.

After that we don’t really see Mai disobeying Azula until the end. And at the Boiling Rock the cost of doing nothing is too high. However, even there, it was not Azula who ordered to drop the gondola into the boiling water, but the Warden, Mai’s own uncle. Everyone understood that it was in accordance with Azula’s wishes, and saving runaways on gondola is against her, maybe not expressed but implied will. Which is why, when Azula questions Mai, it is about them, not about the warden.

And Azula knows that Mai understands the rules of their relationship, she always did. And Mai answers with precisely formulated words. They pretended that fear was not an underlying current of their friendship, but they both knew it was not the case. Azula believed it was the best way to keep people doing what she wanted, and Mai was used to calculating the cost of disobedience. So now Mai decided that she was willing to pay that cost, no matter what it is going to be.

thanks for the question!

#atla #my posts #my asks #atla mai #azula

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