#if y’all wanna ask for more character essays uhh feel free

[prettylittlebrownskingyal]

ari how does one provoke u into writing an essay about disaster boy zuko,,, im tryna see sumn 👀

here 👀 we 👀 go 👀 some incoherent but love filled thoughts about Edge Lor— i mean Fire Lord Zuko ((also lots of Azula analysis because she crept up on me this time, eye did not see that coming.))

cuz like, in all of the history of all of the media in all of the galaxies, ATLA has successfully carried out a redemption arc that is not only entertaining to watch but also morally and humanity driven.

but let’s talk about sibling relationships because i am insufferable about sibling relationships 😔👉🏽👈🏽

Zuko isn’t perfect. which— hah, i know— is obvious. but he goes through a journey that allows him to free himself from the conditioning of his formative environment.

cuz honestly (without touching the whole war criminal/fascism bit) he IS a direct product of the family and propaganda run society he grew up in. and with all the Fire Nation kids, he’s been through it.

to extrapolate on this though, i have to mention Azula (and don’t say it, i already know)

there are a lot of analytical takes on Aang and Zuko being each other’s mirrors— and ATLA has definitely written the story that way.

but Azula and Zuko? they’re two sides of the same coin.

their circumstances are identical. their privileges. their opportunities. all basically the same.

its essentially in their differences that they become to wholly different entities.

Zuko is a social pariah.

Azula is a tragic villain.

now me? personally? i blame BOTH Ursa and Ozai for screwing up these kids. and we’re shown that the favoritism expressed by either parent does affect the kid that has to stand by and watch the other.

Zuko is the eldest but Ozai treats him as an inferior in favor of Azula. and its clear that Azula watched Ursa coddle Zuko and reacted in the ways that she knew how. her whole game in the assertion of dominance is to please her father and do his bidding.

she doesn’t have to desire power because she has it at her disposal. she’s a tyrant like her father and often displays machiavellian traits. she’s intelligent. quick. almost unstoppable.

she’s 14 and kicking her brother’s ass physically, mentally and emotionally.

(also hats off to the writers because this is never framed in a sexist way)

Zuko—despite being her big brother— doesn’t ever really have to/get to interact with her like a normal sibling would. take Sokka and Katara for example here.

(also, i can imagine that Zuko watched them love each other so unconditionally and questioned how that was even possible.)

partially, with the way Azula views Iroh, we know that she gains this perception of torturing her older brother from Ozai. (can you tell i’d beat Ozai’s ass up Fire Lord dick face or not i’m throwing hands and he can come C A T C H)

my point here is that Azula is what Zuko could have been. but he isn’t. and this is both a result of concious effort and influence— and yes. i’m talking about Uncle Iroh in all his royal tea loving kookiness.

Zuko has the comfort of having someone look past his cultivated exterior after he loses his mother. (and Ursa’s exit is what really tips the scales for Azula to go on into her tragic villain journey)

and even though his father has undermined him all his life, he holds on to the desire to make him proud. its why he betrays what could have been a new, better life for him at the end of book 2. getting everything he thought he wanted made him realize that he really didn’t want any of it in the first place and that no matter what he did, his father would always be like that™️. this is also good writing!! redemption and changes in behavior especially for a protagonist doesn’t have to be linear. fluctuations make sense, especially as these kids were raised and conditioned in a certain way. like even after he’s cut off at the beginning of book two and he’s out in the world seeing how harsh life is for common folk, he starts to see just how evil his family truly is. that doesn’t deter him from returning to the familiarity of what he’d previously been fighting for.

another thing is, Azula clocked her father’s behavior earlier on. part of why she only really unravels after her friends betray her is that they were all she really had to depend on. Ursa wasn’t there for her. her father never really cared and only needed her around for her talents and she didn’t have Iroh the way Zuko did. she was alone.

what makes this worse is that there are moments when you can tell Zuko and Azula could have potentially been great siblings. its more in the little things here and there— the one that stands out most to me rn is when Zuko bursts into Azula’s room to question her (somewhere in book three) wakes her up and after they talk, he walks away and leaves her door wide open. not to give away the tricks of the trade, but that is an elder sibling power move. oh and outside of playing it up for information or with a mission in mind, they’re both horrible at social interaction ESPECIALLY with people around their ages. this sorta parallels with the way Sokka and Katara are for the most part, personable and easily get along with their peers.

i also just wanna mention that as the chapters progress, we notice a change in both of their appearances. Zuko cutting his hair was quite symbolic of him beginning to cut ties with his past but prior to that, we recognize his previously uncomfortable looking hairstyle as akin to the way Azula doesn’t have a hair out of place when she’s first introduced. As her mental state deteriorates and she gets more attached to the idea of killing Zuko, her appearance and ergo, her hair starts reflecting her inner turmoil. and while this happens, we witness Zuko growing into his appearance to the point where he’s more comfortable with himself— his scar doesn’t bother him as much and he grows out his hair.

adding on to this here train wreck, Zuko doesn’t have any friends until he joins the Gaang. he’s experienced being around Azula’s friends in childhood, but with the way his sister weaponizes manipulation, its safe to say that up until that point, he had no real exposure to friendship. not in a way he could recognize, at least. because we know Mai cares for him and in The Beach episode, we see that Ty Lee does too in the way she insists that she knows him well.

and i’ll be willing to bet that he had no idea siblings could love each other the way Sokka and Katara do. if Lu Ten had survived, he’d have an older brother to rely on. perhaps this would have extended to Azula and the damage that these kids sustained would be much less. ((but that’s a case we shouldn’t crack open cuz i’ll never shut up.))

tl;dr: Zuko and Azula are parallels of each other and also Sokka and Katara, atla is superior media and Ozai is steaming pile of crap.

#does this make sense idk i’m sorry but here you go #if y’all wanna ask for more character essays uhh feel free #this is also a Sokka loving blog amen #ar&atla #livia art #zuko #ATLA #azula #sokka #katara #lu ten #iroh #am i ashamed? hell yh am i embarrased? hell yh #love u liv 💖❤️ #crawling back into my hole now