samtamdan

[samtamdan]

Really wished Zuko and Azula shared a "She’s your mom too" moment in like Vi and Jinx.

[samtamdan]

Does anyone have any types for fight scenes?

I'm getting close to the Azula vs Ozai fight in my Avatar Azula AU and I've always thought my fight scenes are so boring to read, I want to make this actually interesting 😂

[samtamdan]

If Azula grew as person without going through anything as extremely heart wrenching as losing a son as Iroh did, would that prove that deep down Azula was always a better person than Iroh? A person who just needed her goodness to be nurtured.

This question is strange to me. "without going through anything as extremely heart wrenching as losing a son as Iroh did" hasn't she already? Several times? I'm so sorry, but losing one's mother, watching one's brother be mutilated, and being wrongfully institutionalized and abused is more than comparable to Iroh losing a son in the siege that he waged. I'll still answer it with two responses.

A) Whether or not trauma serves as a catalyst for change doesn't make someone less of a better person.

B) Morality is very hard to quantify. I'll say Azula would be the better person simply because she doesn't exhibit the misogyny that Iroh does, but given her background, I'm almost certain that she would if she were a boy. So, there's that.

[samtamdan]

Sokka: Azula and I have something we need to tell you, zuko...

Zuko, looking back and forth between his best friend and his sister: Sure

Azula, taking a deep breath: We eloped, and I'm pregnant....

Zuko: ....... who else knows....

Azula: Aang. But that's it...

Zuko: Sokka....

Sokka: Y-yes...

Zuko: I'm going to kill you, and you have a 5 second head start because we were friends

Sokka running out of zuko's office

Zuko: 1....5

Azula, walking behind zuko as he walked: You're not going to kill him. My baby still needs a father!

[samtamdan]

Azula is the family member Zuko cares the least about, by far [and no, it's not because she's mean to him and no, this is not a post about Zuko's morality or anything like that]

So the entire premise of Zuko's arc is he spends years and years trying to regain his father's love and appreciation, that he spent three years trying to capture the Avatar so that his father would like him again. We even see in a flashback that exiled Zuko misses his father badly.

And when Zuko decides to completely break off his relationship with his father, he decides that this merits a dramatic confrontation, since his relationship with Ozai is so important to him. Even after that, the second to last scene of the series is Zuko visiting Ozai.

Zuko often takes Iroh and his support for granted, but even in Books 1 and 2 there are plenty of moments which act to reaffirm how much Zuko values and appreciates his uncle. He goes out of his way to protect his uncle on a couple occasions. And in Book 3, after Zuko has screwed up his relationship with Iroh, one of Zuko's core motivations becomes fixing his relationship with his uncle and regaining Iroh's love, trust, and appreciation.

Ursa is someone who Zuko talks about far less, yet the series makes it very clear how much Zuko misses her, with "Zuko Alone" and "The Earth King" and "The Day of Black Sun: The Eclipse." And the second to last scene in the series is Zuko trying to find her.

That leaves Azula. Zuko never seems to miss Azula the least, even though he hasn't seen her for years when the series begins. In fact, when she unexpectedly shows up and greets him, instead of being happy to see her, he's angry and suspicious (to be fair to Zuko, she did turn out to have ulterior motives due to Ozai's orders, but if he really deeply missed her, he'd probably be at least a little happy to see her regardless. Mai and Ty Lee reacted with joy the first time they saw Azula again). And in Books 2 and 3, there is essentially nothing to suggest that Zuko misses the better relationship he had with Azula when they were younger.

For instance, in "The Beach," Zuko angsts over an old photograph of his family.

His eyes focus on Ozai

and he remembers a happy memory associated with Ozai:

and then Zuko's eyes focus on Ursa

and he remembers a happy memory associated with her

Yet Zuko never looks at younger Azula in that picture, nor does he think of her at all. The "Happy Family" that Zuko misses includes Ozai, Ursa, and even Iroh and Lu Ten (shown in a separate memory sequence at little earlier), but not little Azula.

Ultimately, what we see in the first half of Book 3 is that Zuko is willing to take advantage of Azula's kindness, when she shows it to him, but he never acknowledges it, thanks her for it, or reciprocates in the slightest.

In the end, in the DoBS Zuko leaves Azula behind without a regret or even a thought. Ozai gets a big confrontation; Azula gets nothing. And after that, we see that Zuko misses Mai, and still feels complex feelings for Ozai ("Fatherlord," anyone?), but there's nothing to suggest he misses Azula at all or feels a deep attachment to her. The penultimate scene of the show even features Zuko visiting Ozai, not Azula.

Some people might point out that Azula is a bad sister to Zuko. That's definitely true. She says and does plenty of awful things to him over the series.

Yet that doesn't explain things. Ozai is far, far worse to Zuko than Azula ever is, yet Zuko cares deeply about Ozai to the degree that Zuko's entire arc is about it. Merely talking about "look how mean Azula is" explains almost nothing. Is possible to explain why

This does bring me to my main point. The ATLA fandom tends to believe that Zuko cares about Azula a lot and that he places a lot of value in having a good relationship with her, tends to believe that Zuko is obsessed with Azula.

However, the reality is that Zuko by far cares about Azula the least of any member of his family and that he places almost no value on having a good relationship with her. She is never a priority for him and is at most only an obstacle. All of Zuko's other family members loam far higher in Zuko's priorities and headspace than Azula. And if he is obsessed with her, it's not in a loving way. Maybe "Azula the enemy" and "Azula my advisor and emotional caretaker" are significant to him, but "Azula my sister" never seems to be.

Again, this isn't a moral judgement, merely a fact.

[samtamdan]

*Isha sneezes* Jinx: Isha, are you sick? Here, let me wrap you in a blanket and hand-feed you some warm soup while singing you a lullaby! *Vi sneezes* Jinx: Shut the hell up.

[samtamdan]

our lesbian icon💘

[samtamdan]

Haha haven’t finished the game yet…hope nothing bad happens to them! 🤞😊😊😊

[samtamdan]

What's wrong with her pants?🥺

[samtamdan]

"what's wrong with my pants?"

"nothing babe come back to bed"

[samtamdan]

*through tears* HER LITTLE POG CHAMP

[samtamdan]

[samtamdan]

Day 31: The Last Drop

past and present

[samtamdan]

★ 【宇暮】 「 1 // 2 // 3 」 ☆ ✔ republished w/permission ⊳ ⊳ follow me on twitter // bsky

[samtamdan]

ARCANE | Various Illustrations | Anne-Laure To

[samtamdan]

Riot… when I catch you riot…

[samtamdan]