samtamdan

[samtamdan]

Azula: Discipline is an incredibly important part of a child’s development. When I was a kid, if I did anything childlike — yell, run around, just generally have a zest for life — I would be put on time out, and I would have to reckon with the fact that I had committed a failure of character. And that is how I became the well-adjusted woman that stands before you today.

Zuko:

Katara:

Sokka:

Aang:

Toph:

Suki:

Mai:

Ty Lee:

Azula: What?

[samtamdan]

I never thought about things in quite these terms before, but it is quite interesting Azula never (and I mean never) tries to pit Mai and Ty Lee against each other, given who her biggest role model and influence is. Zuko tries it once, but Azula never does.

[samtamdan]

Let's imagine that the Fire Nation wins the war and Azula became Firelord

If Azula let Mai and Ty Lee out of prison after a few years and wanted to be friends with them again, she would have to do a lot to make up things up to them and convince them that they should give her a chance. An absolute ton. Even though they committed treason and "deserved" to be imprisoned, it would take a ton of work on her part to get them to the point where they might consider it, since she'd just taken years away from their lives by imprisoning them.

Just something to consider, especially for those who imagine the heroes imprisoning Azula for years after the war.

[samtamdan]

Maizulee au with an amnesiac Azula

Prompt/excerpt thingy: Ty Lee didn't undestand. It was a chance to finally be free, so why couldn't Mai see that? Nevermind that Azula lost her memories because of them, nevermind that she was terribly sick (and so cold, why did she-), they didn't owe her.

And yet…

Where two weary girls travel with an amnesiac princess.

(Extra notes: they get separated from their entourage because of an ambush; Azula saves her friends from the brunt of attacks, but gets hit in the head as they retreat; they soon end up lost in a forest.

This can take place during canon, but I think it could be equally fun for this au to happen post-canon.)

[samtamdan]

DAY 24

Guess who had a shit week <3<3 nothing even happened I just felt bad lmao

[samtamdan]

The idea that Mai and Ty Lee weren't Azula's genuine close friends and willing allies makes the show actively worse btw because it removes all threat Azula would pose and defeats any character arc that any of them had.

Literally any time Azula would have done anything that actually threatened Zuko as an antagonist, Mai and Ty Lee would have back-stabbed her and stopped her from doing it

If you don't think Mai and Ty Lee wouldn't have helped Azula capture Zuko and Iroh in 2x01, you don't get any of the 4 of them.

[samtamdan]

Fire family = awkward nerds

Water family = cool nerds

Sokkla = awkwardly cool nerds

Zutarta = Cool in an awkward way nerds

Urzai = Where the awkward starts

Hakaya = Where the cool starts

The world makes sense

(I got the ship names wrong, but it's fine. I don't ship zuko × katara, but it felt like it needed to be included)

[samtamdan]

I know Azula might be bullshitting here, but it would be kind of funny if she wasn't and Iroh actually made a lot of BS promises that he made no effort to keep.

[samtamdan]

Apparently Faith Erin Hicks has claimed on social media that the "Azula fans" line was just meant to be a joke and wasn't intended as a dig at Azula fans.

For me personally, I think authors should try to stay away from social media and shouldn't be looking at twitter, bluesky, tumblr, reddit, etc. takes right after something comes out. It's a good way to poison yourself and start distorting your stories. Of course, the Avatar Comics have been plenty distorted already, ever since the beginning, but that's another story.

This is also a reminder to everyone to not harass her, or anyone else involved with producing the comics.

[samtamdan]

It's the same image

[samtamdan]

[ID: A digital drawing of Katara and Azula from Avatar the Last Airbender. They're both dressed casually with their hair down. Katara is holding Azula's face and kissing her on the cheek, Azula is blushing and her hand is hovering near Katara's waist but not touching her. End description.]

A kofi doodle request from @pegasuswriter!

[samtamdan]

Marina! Marina!

[samtamdan]

The Dai Li subplot in Ashes of the Academy doesn't make sense. However...

We have this group of elite earthbending warriors, deeply versed in espionage, who betrayed the Earth Kingdom due to their loyalty to Azula, stayed in the Fire Nation Capital because of Azula, helped defend the Capital against an invasion force (which included Earth Kingdom troops) together with Azula, were banished by Azula during Sozin's comment, and haven't seen Azula for a few years at this point (she was with the Kemurikage, there wasn't peep about the Dai Li in any other comics).

So what you're telling me is that the Dai Li were so impressed by Azula/had such deep instated loyalty to her that after years of not even interacting with her, they are fighting to put her on the throne of a nation that isn't even their own (Fire Nation imperialist propaganda doesn't work here as an excuse)? They are getting very close to cult level deity worshipping.

Damn, Azula really is that girl huh

[samtamdan]

Solo bocetos, eran ideas para la semana tyzula.

[samtamdan]

To be fair to Hicks

It's like a 75 page comic. Telling complex stories is hard.

She's probably not allowed to make any real changes to the status quo

She has to keep some sort of consistently with the previous comics and those have made an absolute mess of Azula

Those previous comics also broke up Maiko for no good reason

Those previous comics already made a mess of Azula and Mai's relationship

She's probably not allowed to depict Mai too negatively

She's probably mandated to include at least one fight scene in the comic

That doesn't mean that I like the final product, or that she didn't also make a lot of storytelling decisions I find strange, but it helps understand how we got there. Hicks has flaws but she's been pretty consistently the best storyteller involved with official ATLA stuff since the end of the cartoon.

*I haven't read F. C. Yee's stuff, so I don't know how it compares.

[samtamdan]

Just thinking about how Zuko hired an assassin to kill the person who had saved Zuko's life, twice, just because Aang being dead was convenient to Zuko. I don't mean to hate on Zuko here, but if Azula had done it, people would talk endlessly about how it "proved" that she was a psychopath.

[samtamdan]

Mai mai mai mai mai mai