seyaryminamoto

[seyaryminamoto]

Preview: Gladiator Chapter 386

By the time Azula wakes up, it's well into the afternoon: after heading downstairs, hoping for someone to watch over Hotaru briefly, she comes across Zuko. The siblings will have an earnest conversation about their impending Agni Kai, which they've both decided to see through to the end.

Once Sokka wakes up too, the three of them seek out Jeong Jeong to share their decision, although Azula has one request from the Head Sage that she intends to fulfill before any Fire Lord is crowned: holding funerary rites for those lost to the final battle, including her own father.

Read Gladiator HERE or HERE

For a snippet of the new chapter, support me on Patreon!

[seyaryminamoto]

Preview: Gladiator Chapter 385

After the conclusion of their thorough explanations, all seems to finally come back into place for Sokka and Azula... until the matter of Azula's impending Agni Kai with Zuko comes up once more: the Princess has a final surprising confession that takes Sokka aback.

The Gladiator will appease Azula as best he can, reassuring her once more, not only of his faith in her, but of his commitment to their relationship. With a clearer head, Azula finally makes a decision before returning to their daughter, as dawn breaks on the second day since the war's conclusion...

Read Gladiator HERE or HERE

For a snippet of the new chapter, support me on Patreon!

[seyaryminamoto]

Preview: Gladiator Chapter 384

Once their retelling reaches its darkest points, Sokka and Azula force themselves to admit the most painful and difficult truths pertaining their lowest moments. Just as doubts and insecurities plagued them before, all such thoughts seem to rear their heads anew...

But once their explanations reach their end, the final questions dangle before the Gladiator and the Princess: can they overcome everything they've confessed? Are they ready to face the future as a couple, this time without hiding their truth? Or has their relationship run its course, after too many mistakes that cannot be amended...?

Read Gladiator HERE or HERE

For a snippet of the new chapter, support me on Patreon!

[seyaryminamoto]

So wonderful!!! 🥺🥺🥺🥺 my beautiful nerds off to a competition, butting heads, becoming a power couple in the process...! It's everything I could've asked for and now in art form too!

Thank you sooooooooooo much! I am extremely spoiled this year, absolutely! 😂 thank you!! 💜💜💜💜💜

Mage Azula and Warrior Sokka

Happy birthday, @seyaryminamoto!! Thank you for being such a wonderful, kind, supportive friend <3 I hope you’re having an amazing birthday!

(Credit goes to the artist: atlaarts)

[seyaryminamoto]

Happy birthday!! I hope today is delightful and you have a great week~~

Thank you very much!! it's been wonderful so far 🤩 and may the rest of the week keep up with that trend! 💜

[seyaryminamoto]

This is absolutely one of my favorites out of your stories so far!! You really didn't have to go out of your way, but you did, and that means so much!! 😭 Thank you Akiiii!! 💜💜💜💜 you're wonderful, my friend!!!

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender (Cartoon 2005) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Azula/Sokka (Avatar) Characters: Sokka (Avatar), Azula (Avatar) Additional Tags: I think this has to be the most angst that I have ever written, actually scratch that no it isn’t, but it’s up there, I apologize in advance for making anyone who reads this cry, and for torturing Sokka, boy is really going through it in this one, Love how these angst ideas always come to me late at night, love how my brain works sometimes Summary:

Watching Azula’s memories unfold before him, all Sokka desperately wants to do is hug her.

[seyaryminamoto]

Happy birthday, Seyary. Hope you have a wonderful day ❤️🫂

Thank you so much! It's been really great so far!! 🤩

[seyaryminamoto]

Hey, happy birthday!

Hiiii, thank you so much!!! 🤩🤩🤩

[seyaryminamoto]

Happy Birthday Seyary! May you have a day full of joy 🩷

Thank you so much!!! I hope I will too!! 🤩

[seyaryminamoto]

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLY SURPRISE!! 🤩🤩🤩 Now this is something I absolutely wasn't expecting!! It's a birthday present for Sokka, and a birthday present for me?? I am mindblown! Two dorks in hot springs, lost in each other's eyes, up to naughty shenanigans... it's peeeerfection!

Thank you so much for going out of your way for me like this!!! 🥺🥺🥺🥺 it means so much!! My birthday's been improved by a LOT with this beauty! I could stare at it forever! Thank you soooooooooooooooooo much!!! 💜💜💜

"This is a gift, remember? Your birthday's in two days, after all. The more gifts I can give you before then, the better" "Is that so?" Sokka asked, amused "What else do you have in mind?" "Oh, off the top of my head…" Azula said, nonchalantly… Her lips were on his before he could say another word. - Gladiator, Chapter 193

🎉Happy Birthday Queen, Icon, Legend @seyaryminamoto! Thank you for all your incredible work and dedication and we are very lucky to have you around! 🎉 

Art by @mysleepyblue (check out her work), commissioned by me

[seyaryminamoto]

Fic-to-Art #48: Azula and her nieces

Now, I apologize, I absolutely forgot I hadn't posted this out here :'D but here it is now! Last year's final piece for my Fic-to-Art collection!

While I can't guarantee there will ever be anything 1:1 with this scene in Gladiator, I mainly wanted to capture the vibes of their dynamic. I continue to think the funniest damn thing that can happen to Azula and Zuko is for their sibling to be their kids' hero, so here's a representation of that, with Zuko's little girls being completely taken with their aunt. I really wanted Mari to look like the happiest little girl ever (her aunt has blue fire, just like Princess Jing!!), and I really loved the hyped expression across her face. She's such a bundle of energy, makes me happy just to look at her. Zi, comparatively, is always much more chill and laid back, which will absolutely result in some crazy sibling dynamics once the two of them grow older. Utterly different personalities can be a great source of chaotic chemistry :'D

At any rate, hope you guys enjoy this glimpse of family time with Azula and her nieces! If you would like to be part of the creative process behind these pieces, a $1 Patreon pledge is enough to make you eligible for suggesting prompts and voting on them monthly, as well as reading Gladiator snippets 6 days before the new chapter is published!

[seyaryminamoto]

Preview: Gladiator Chapter 383

As the stories they share are poised to grow more difficult, Azula finally discloses the last bright moment of her own tale: Hotaru's birth. Confirming once more that Sokka connected spiritually with her during that crucial moment, the child's parents rejoice before their conversation takes another dark turn.

As she hears of the consequences of the battle of the North Pole, Azula's guilt worsens. But this time, Sokka is ready to talk her down from her self-deprecation and blame, offering leniency and compassion where Azula believes herself to be irredeemable...

Read Gladiator HERE or HERE

For a snippet of the new chapter, support me on Patreon!

[seyaryminamoto]

In an RPG world full of fighters, rogues, and mages, King Bumi announces a legendary tournament to crown the ultimate hero party. Teams must prove their mettle through three epic challenges, testing power, wisdom, and courage, with the allure of a mysterious prize for the victors. Will warrior Sokka’s noble party – featuring Katara, Aang, and Toph – take the win, or will sorcerer Azula’s fiery team – featuring Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee – emerge triumphant?

Written for Seyary-Minamoto for the Sokkla Gift Exchange 2024 <33

[seyaryminamoto]

Merry Christmas, gemsofformenos!! Your friends in the Sokkla community are grateful to have a friend like you <3 We hope 2025 is kind to you!

(Credit goes to the artist: avatar-rena)

[seyaryminamoto]

Preview: Gladiator Chapter 382

A shocked Azula struggles to grapple with the revelation that Sokka has found Ursa. Sokka endeavors to ease her acceptance of what occurred, but the Princess remains uncertain as to whether she wants to meet her mother or not.

As their stories continue, Sokka retells his initial battles in the Earth Kingdom, while Azula explains her temporarily calm days, followed by the storm of the worst war meeting she attended. Tensions simmer for the pair, as the darkest moments of their tales begin to unfold...

Read Gladiator HERE or HERE

For a snippet of the new chapter, support me on Patreon!

[seyaryminamoto]

Preview: Gladiator Chapter 381

Sokka and Azula make the journey to his old house, where all bad memories are kept at bay by the pleasant ones. Sokka approves of the changes in his home, but as exhausted as he feels upon sitting on the couch, the Gladiator and the Princess must fulfill what they set out to do.

Sokka begins his explanations, to a predictable enough result once he retells his near-death experience upon Azula's departure. Azula struggles to tell her story, reliving the mistakes she can't forgive herself for, as they share shocking revelations, one of which will catch Azula entirely unawares...

Read Gladiator HERE or HERE

For a snippet of the new chapter, support me on Patreon!

[seyaryminamoto]

Okay. I wasn't gonna respond to this, but considering it's in the only tag I visit on Tumblr and this was right up there at the top, it feels like pretending I didn't see it isn't a strat I should stick with :')

I hope I understand where you're coming from. I am perfectly willing to give you the benefit of the doubt in terms of NOT thinking this is some attempt to tell Sokkla fic writers or artists what to write or draw.

Nonetheless, while some of your reasoning is clear here, I think it would be fair to explain at least my point of view, and my position, pertaining as to why I portray Azula as I do.

This is bound to get long (as everything I do always does...).

First point: my tomboy credentials. For all my childhood, I was far more likely to relate to boys media, to enjoy stuff that was classically marketed to boys, to like action toys over dolls, and, of course, despise the color pink (ngl... I still am not a fan :'D). I resented family members who should have known I was NOT into feminine things and still proceeded to give me traditionally feminine clothes or toys (particularly makeup) for my birthday or Christmas that I straight-up never used because I didn't like them.

Now that I'm grown? I still wear no makeup. I still wear comfort over fashion (I in fact do not understand fashion, we are incompatible, I suck at designing clothes because I simply do not have a sense of fashion as refined as that of many other fanartists). Any friend groups I'm part of, predominantly comprised by guys? I'm not the girl they wanna date, I'm the average girl who's "one of the boys". To go even DEEPER into Seyary lore? I straight-up had a period during my teenage years where I questioned my gender identity without even knowing I was doing it. It took a ton of introspection, lots of thought pertaining gender roles and dismantling my concepts of traditional masculinity and femininity to realize that I was fine with my assigned gender and to accept that society's constraints and expectations did not codify who I was, or how I related to being a woman.

All this to say... if I were the kind of writer who exclusively writes what she knows, and nothing more, my version of Azula would probably align with what you've outlined here. Because that way, my version of Azula would just be a projection of myself. But I'd dare say... that would not be compatible with my idea of fiction, of character exploration and development. If every single character I write about is just me in a different universe, I'd never get to experience and explore what life could be like if I'm in someone else's shoes. And that's what fiction has always been for me, ever since I was an 8yo and the most exciting book in my life was White Fang. If a book could show me what life was like for an Alaskan wolf, a life I would NEVER experience personally, then it felt like the perfect means to produce empathy and improve my ability to relate to others, by experiencing thousands of lives that were not within my reach.

Writing Azula as a feminine character has made me a better writer. It has forced me to look at a character I relate to in many other regards, and appreciate the way she approaches her femininity, canonically. It has allowed me to understand that while some classic feminine things will never be my cup of tea, they don't have to be stuff I systematically reject, the way I used to back when I solely wrote tomboy main characters (which... is what I used to do right until I started writing about Azula). So that's one personal reason why this characterization of Azula is something I genuinely care about and cherish!

Second point: while you're not saying all available content is pointless because of Azula being feminine, I'd dare say that the best way to show us the virtues of a more masculine Azula would be to write her yourself. Maybe you already have, and I haven't seen it. But along with this, there are other things to consider: anything you post online will reach a massive audience that may not enjoy your ideas as much as you do. Much as you like the idea of masculine Azula, other people won't, and they might just drop by your favorite fics or the ones you write yourself to say the classic fanfiction reader line: "this is OOC". I've seen people rage at the characterization of Azula, when paired with women, because she's characterized excessively masculine and it only enforces stereotypes and heteronormativity, where two women cannot possibly be feminine and in love, since one pretty much needs to be "the man" of the relationship, a notion that a lot of people take issue with (rightfully so, imo).

Point here is to say... you have your reasons to want this. Other people have their reasons not to do it: mine were exposed above. While I can tell your intent was to bring up the possibility and compel people to try something different, I have to say in my personal case, my portrayal of Azula isn't the way it is out of instinct or impulse: I have given it thought, I have put in plenty of effort to characterize her as I do. Not everyone's cup of tea? That's fine by me. There's plenty of fics out there, and I'm sure something will eventually work for people who can't stand what I do. But my personal characterization choices have been given plenty of thought, and I'd like to think this is the case for most writers, whether they adhere to your interests or not. If you give this version of Azula all that thought and decide on portraying her that way, all the power to you. That doesn't mean our "empowering feminine Azula" is any lesser. All interpretations and headcanons are valid.

Third point: I am not entirely sure why this is a subject exclusively and personally expressed towards Sokkla and Sokkla alone. I saw someone else bring up something along these lines recently, also specifically leveled at Sokkla, and I don't have a clue if that post is what inspired you to make this one... but I struggle to believe that Sokkla is the only ship that portrays Azula with evident femininity. I doubt Jetzula makes her look any manlier. I've never seen anything Azulaang where it looks like Azula is more masculine than in Sokkla. And this is just talking about straight ships: most lesbian ships I've seen for Azula actively avoid portraying Azula as more masculine than she canonically was. They've had discussions and arguments about it too, as far as I know. Why is the Sokkla community the only one that needs to address the "masculine Azula" concept? Characterization is not locked down to shipping preferences. I'd dare say you'll find a lot of differing characterizations between different fic writers within Sokkla alone, more so all fic writers who work predominantly with Azula. It's hard to believe we're all doing the same thing. Ultimately, targeting this expressly towards Sokkla doesn't make a ton of sense to me since I don't think we, in particular, are portraying Azula in any way that breaks belief that much more than what other ships do (say, if our feminine Azula felt more like the most obvious feminine character in ATLA, Ty Lee? I'd get it. But... I've never felt like that's what we're doing. So I don't think I understand why Sokkla in particular needs to change this).

Now, then... perhaps the part that's most important:

Fourth point: the specific statements you wrote in your post.

"Would she clash with her mother if she returned?" Nothing about this statement requires for Azula to be more masculine. Azula's relationship with Ursa is canonically contentious regardless of how feminine or masculine she is. I think their problems were not about how Azula carried herself in that sense, and they were juicy enough on a storytelling level that adding this extra flavor to it might just reduce a complex dynamic between these two characters to "I can't stand that you're so manly when you should be a traditional girl like me", which takes away from the very fucked up fact that canonically, Azula lines up PERFECTLY with what Ursa and the Fire Nation should have wanted out of a princess, and even then, her mother never showed her the love and affection Azula was led to expect based on her culture and society.

"Would someone like Iroh or Zuko show sexist tendencies?" This one in particular bugs me, because even if I expect it was not your intent, it very much sounds like only if Azula were more masculine would she fight against sexism. As someone who very much wrote her embracing her femininity while being down to fight anyone who looks down on her for being a woman, I think I can attest that fighting sexism is not a masculine trait. Beyond that? Zuko and Iroh absolutely show sexist tendencies in the show already. Iroh did, Azula was disgusted by it (doll scene?). His preference for Zuko absolutely can be read as having sexist undertones, his dismissiveness of Azula for being a dangerous and active element in the war, rather than a wallflower who sits pretty in the Palace doing nothing, also can be read as sexism, especially considering how adamant he is about Zuko taking her down.

As for Zuko, he mocks Katara for being a "big girl", he dismissively acts like Mai should like seashells because "girls like this kind of stuff" and gets angry when she doesn't (even though he has a scene in the previous season where he dismissed seashells as trash, meaning he should be HAPPY to have something in common with Mai but instead he's angry because she's not conforming to his idea of what a girl should be like :'D), he tells Aang that "little girls won't save him" in the Kyoshi Warriors: in short, Zuko canonically is sexist enough that Azula, canonically, would be such a wrench in his worldview, feminine as she is, that he'd likely resent her plenty already for branching out of the traditional femininity he expects she should abide by and won't. Which... is why he'd want to "put her in her place." It all ties up rather neatly.

My point here is that Azula would not contend with sexism against those two in any more significant ways than she already does: there's enough sexism canonically, coming from those two, that a feminine Azula already has to deal with, whether directly or not. There's no reason why they would suddenly become MORE sexist if she's written to be more masculine, they're bad enough as it is already.

"Would her own struggles with misogyny lead to a deeper understanding of Katara?" I'd rather not repeat myself by saying Azula doesn't need to be masculine for this to happen, hence, I'll focus on the flip side of this statement: Katara, if anything, is the one who would get a ton more growth and development if this happened because, as much of a poster child of feminism as she is portrayed? The only sexism she ever contended with was the very blunt and direct Water Tribe sexism. And the shallow way in which it gets resolved (Sokka gets over it because a single girl beats him up, Pakku trains Katara after realizing she's the granddaughter of the girl he had feelings for, and then isn't shown taking ANY other female students in the same class as Katara and Aang anyway) doesn't suggest that Katara gave that much thought to sexism besides whenever it affected her personally. She never acknowledges Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom sexism. In fact? Her readiness to support Zuko when he asks her to "help him put Azula in her place" even tells you that Katara isn't paying attention to the sexist undertones in anything that isn't directly affecting her. While yes, Azula and Katara absolutely could build a rapport and a respectful relationship based on fighting sexism and dealing with this crap, this actively requires for Katara to expand her understanding of sexism and actually realize that it doesn't always turn up in the easy-to-detect format she's been dealing with thus far. So the sexism Azula would face would not look like what Katara has faced: we very much saw what Fire Nation sexism looks like already, and we saw Katara being utterly uncritical of it even when it was right in front of her. This is a bigger deal for Katara than it would be for Azula, masculine or feminine.

"Sokka's arc of unpacking his sexism would be further showcased here. With a partner that eschews gender norms." Considering how poorly handled and quickly resolved Sokka's sexism was by canon? I don't even think this is necessary or even something that the story, as was told, requires to be explored much more. I mean, it COULD be, but namely if you're not working within the constraints of making post-canon or parallel-canon stories. He never displayed any manner of disapproval of Toph's more masculine tendencies, which should go against his idea of gender norms if his sexism had been any deeper than a matter of pride or a means for pissing off his sister. So you'd have to write a version of his story where Sokka's sexism comes from a deeper, more complex place, so that a single encounter with a warrior girl isn't enough for him to just change his mind permanently, to the point where he never picks on his sister over sexist reasons again. You absolutely could argue that swapping Azula and Suki as "the one who made him stop the sexism" is doable (I know I did it!), but again, it's not something beyond his grasp with a feminine Azula, and considering how utterly unbothered he is by Toph's tomboyish, far more classically masculine behavior, it doesn't feel like Sokka is particularly adverse to girls who showcase any kind of affinity towards masculinity (... conversely, he and Aang are by far the male characters with the most "feminine" traits, and he doesn't exhibit any kind of embarrassment or shame over that either, meaning, he's nowhere near as dreadful when it comes to gender norms as many sexist assholes are nowadays.)

"There is also the whole unpacking of fire nation customs and what Azula would follow and what she would break away from." In this specific subject? There's a lot of stuff Azula needs to change her mind about in the context of a redeemed or on-her-way-to-redemption, as she usually is in Sokkla stories. The FN sexism that canon refuses to acknowledge can be acknowledged in fics, but you'd definitely risk what I think a lot of people thought I was risking when I started my big fic: Azula's agenda to defeat misogyny should not be the crux of her development, not in place of actually understanding the many regards in which the Fire Nation is fucking up and needs to change that go far beyond the subject of sexism. I personally used sexism as the first thing that triggered Azula's dissatisfaction with her nation... it was only a starting point, though. While it's not a subject that should be set aside or ignored in the long run, the Fire Nation's militaristic, invasive, violent culture requires for so much inspection, reflection, deconstruction and reeducation that I feel like, if done right, the sexist elements would fade in importance as Azula comes to understand all the levels of wrong her nation is/was incurring in.

Fifth point... yeeeeeeeeeeeeah, I told you this would get long...

The truth is that Azula exhibits very few "masculine" traits while exhibiting many feminine ones throughout ATLA's canon. And I put masculine in quotation marks because... what exactly is so masculine about her? She's ambitious. She's ruthless in combat. She's a great military strategist. She's arrogant. She's a leader. She set a doll on fire as a child. Lots of girls I know who are perfectly content with their gender identity as women have told me they beheaded their Barbie dolls as kids. Me? I didn't do it, actually, wild as that may be considering I 1000% would label myself as a tomboy who liked action toys far more than Barbies. Which makes me think that even the burning of the doll isn't a specifically masculine trait... much like the others aren't. Ambition is not exclusively male. Ruthlessness isn't, either. Military competence isn't (in fact, I'd dare say this show proposes it's female, since the only Fire Nation leader who gets anything done is the fourteen-year-old girl :'D). Leadership isn't. Arrogance also isn't. There are other female characters in fiction who embody some or even all of these traits. There are women in real life who do, too. None of it sounds straight-forwardly masculine to me. You'd have to adhere to extremely restrictive traditional feminine and masculine values to read any of this as exclusively masculine and nothing more.

And just so, you have Azula seemingly perfectly comfortable wearing a very feminine swimsuit, as well as a very feminine party outfit afterwards. She's shown wearing make-up most times she's onscreen. She goes to the spa for hair combing, to have her nails filed, her feet scrubbed. When told she's the prettiest and most perfect girl in the world, she says that Ty Lee is right about all those things, and she says she loves being a Princess who gets worshipped by people...? I'm just saying... I don't see remotely as much rejection and distaste towards traditional femininity in this character, IN CANON, as I do in one like Toph, who, even as a tomboy, would wear dresses on occasion and allowed Katara to put her through a spa day that, while in the end she enjoyed, clearly isn't something Toph is anywhere near as interested in as Katara is.

None of this means your interpretation is baseless or not allowed: what I'm saying is Sokkla fans are not interpreting Azula as they do out of nowhere. The show's characterization supports this interpretation fairly well. If you want to explore a more masculine version of Azula, that's fine, if you want stories where that's how she's characterized, good luck finding them and better luck yet writing them yourself... but this portrayal is not coming out of nowhere. It's not fickle, it's not a matter of projection or forcing of traditional feminine values where they don't fit: you actively would need to construct a masculine Azula from the ground up. I'd honestly think setting up a masculine version of her would require far more thought and work and careful writing than a feminine one, because you'd need to be very thoughtful about how she's portrayed or risk making her feel like a whole other character (as always, I fall back on Toph. I feel like the contrast between Azula and Toph is the perfect example that shows the difference between being a driven, violence-ready feminine-leaning girl and a driven violence-ready masculine-leaning girl).

So. Yeah. If you got through all that, great. Sorry for taking up that much of your time, and I hope this helps you see my side (at least mine, no idea if other Sokkla shippers feel as I do). I'm not saying your idea has no merit... I'm just saying our work across the past decades has plenty of merit of its own.

As a last thing... if you didn't want this kind of discussion (I don't know that you did), do keep in mind that tagging posts with ship names this way very much invites discussion. I wouldn't have said anything if I hadn't come across the post in the Sokkla tag as I did. You're welcome to continue headcanoning whatever you'd like, but while some people who see your posts may resonate with your ideas, others won't, and if you're not interested in dealing with the second group, probably consider the effect your post will have if you drop it in a fandom tag before posting it.

Sokkla fics almost always have Azula being a feminine woman. Most times in an empowering way.

But consider:

A more masculine Azula. She rejects some traditional aspects of the fire nation culture and gender norms.

Would she clash with her mother if she returned?

Would someone like Iroh or Zuko show sexist tendencies?

Would her own struggles with misogyny lead to a deeper understanding of Katara?

She could wear her hair short and if she marries into the SWT could wear a wolf tail.

Sokka's arc of unpacking his sexism would be further showcased here. With a partner that eschews gender norms.

There is also the whole unpacking of fire nation customs and what Azula would follow and what she would break away from.

@latetree123 @chaosmagetwin @wingchunwaterbender @zuko-always-lies