#Azula discourse

[idolomantises]

I just finished rewatching ATLA and I have to say…

Absolutely insane to me that people were insisting that Azula not getting a redemption was “misogynistic” and some kind of writing mistake. The girl told her dad to commit mass genocide.

[zukosdualdao]

what i hate about the insistence that it was wrong for zuko in particular not to say anything to azula saying how their mother liked zuko better and thought she was a monster is what the hell is he supposed to say to that?

ursa “liking zuko better” looked like ursa protecting zuko from azula targeting him as the family scapegoat. it’s a rationalization azula gives herself so she doesn’t have to contend with the fact that ursa had good reason to be concerned about her behavior and wanted to help her but couldn’t, due to ozai’s influence.

what exactly is zuko supposed to say to that? disparage his (believed to be dead) mother, who was just trying to look out for him and he loves? absorb the blame and act like the things azula has done and continues to do don’t hurt him?

also, once again, hypocrisy. the cruelest thing he says to her in this moment is that she finds herself to be so perfect, which is true. she literally calls him pathetic right before that. why should he be comforting her?

[xensilverquill]

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

you know what made zuko work as a sympathetic and redeemable antagonist? the fact that he actually faced a moral dilemma and didn't want to do half of the things he did. the fact that he sometimes did the right thing even when he was actively an antagonist.

i feel like spop writers tried to replicate this but forgot to make catra act redeemable. she was just having the time of her life torturing people and there's a mini-breakdown every now and then where she acts like everyone is against her, and we're supposed to feel sorry for her.

[antispopausandstuff]

Adora's Underwritten Psyche

.

list of unexplored, underdeveloped opportunities granted that the writers didn't take for their main ( keyword - main ) protagonist:

being the next poster child of the Horde, desiring Shadow Weaver and Hordak's approval.

Shadow Weaver putting not only the responsibility, but the life of another child ( a volatile one, at that ) in her hands when Adora herself was, at most, 10 years old.

her promotion of Force Captain, which would mean she would be responsible for more lives, while she herself is still a child.

being different from her peers for unknown reasons, and being antagonized for it from a young age ( by Catra ).

constantly having to cater to Catra's person, often including her mood swings and sadism, to either avoid conflict or to make Catra happier.

not only her entire world being turned upside down, but having to fight the only people she knew as family.

being so incredibly sheltered and manipulated that she doesn't even know what an aunt or a party is, showing she was completely unable to have even a modicum of an actual childhood.

not knowing her own culture, home planet, people, biological family, if they ever wanted her, and being given away.

Mara. Mara.

Catra's repeated, increasingly violent betrayals, her hypocrisies, manipulations, etc. after abandoning Adora, while claiming she was the one who was abandoned.

likely feeling even more responsible for Glimmer, Bow, and Angella's lives, a part of it out of immense guilt.

being repeatedly harassed // stalked and assaulted by Catra.

being repeatedly harassed // stalked by Shadow Weaver.

Entrapta's "death". and her betrayal.

being drugged, kidnapped, and essentially nearly "leashed" by Catra.

the Portal. Corrupted Catra. everything.

Angella's sacrifice. with her Atlas complex, there's no way Adora should've been as stable as she was after seeing someone, quite literally, for all she knew, die for her.

Glimmer blaming her. i get it, but it felt like the show quickly made it so that Adora was more upset about not being enough for her than the fact that, y'know, she was the only one blamed for someone's, let alone Angella's, death.

the Heart of Etheria.

Horde Prime's invasion. you cannot convince me she wouldn't feel at least somewhat responsible for that.

Horde Prime telling her, to her face, that Eternia was gone.

Catra being back in her life.

Chipped Catra. no, not for shipping angst reasons.

Catra antagonizing her again, for literally no reason.

Melog being the last of their kind, Adora being the last of hers. maybe not psyche-related, but it certainly should've affected her way more than it did ( which was p much not at all ).

Shadow Weaver. oh, wait, sorry, i forgot that only Catra has trauma related to Shadow Weaver /s.

the Failsafe.

Catra antagonizing her for the umpteenth time, for no reason.

Catra abandoning her, for no reason.

the Failsafe.

but she's just a dumb jock lesbian who's in love with Catra, right? that's alllll that matters. /s.

[prying-pandora666]

The argument that nonbenders exist therefor taking away bending doesn’t make any sense either.

People with mobility issues exist. Does that make it okay to break someone else’s legs or paralyze them?

People with cognitive impairments exist. Does that make it okay to give someone else brain damage?

Toph is blind. Would that make it okay to blind Sokka or Katara?

Disabled people (of which I am one!) deserve dignity, respect, and reasonable accommodations. That doesn’t make intentionally disabling an able-bodied person okay in any way.

Bending is an integral part of a person: culturally, genetically, spiritually. To rip that away is devastating. Imagine if the Gaang had advocated to do that to Zuko, who was far more willing to burn down villages and harm civilians than Azula, who only ever attacks enemy combatants and never a single civilian.

Where did the idea that Azula is some wild animal that has to be put down like one come from? She is shown to be perfectly capable of rational discussion, moreso than Zuko at his worst who is prone to stubborn outbursts of violence and anger. She even shows her bitter rival compassion and gentility. Why in the world wouldn’t you at least ATTEMPT to do the same before tearing out a piece of her soul?

Is it a fear of mentally ill people? Because people who suffer psychotic breaks are still people. Such symptoms are most often temporary anyway and resolve with proper care and a safe environment.

Also Azula has willpower like HELL. I’d be concerned for Aang’s spirit getting corrupted.

I think that Azula's bending should have been taken away by Aang by the end of the show, and her title too. Because not only she will not be dangerous anymore as she was (especially for Zuko and his place as Fire Lord, since she can't be Fire Nation ruler anymore), but finally will have an opportunity to learn who she is if not a weapon and a princess, without pressure coming from being the bender and weaponized. Other nations would see this as fair punishment, but for her this is opportunity to start a new life, even if under supervision at first.

[ihavea-natural-curiosity]

“Zukos the best character!” “No, Katara is!!” “it’s literally sokka!” “azula is the best!!!”

SHUT UP.

Appa is the best. bam. all character discourse solved. go home.

[starlight-bread-blog]

It saddens me to think about how toxic the A:TLA fandom is specifically. A:TLA is a show with a big heart and a lot of love in it. It pains me to see how we all gathered around this sunshine of a show... only to treat each other like this.

At the end of the day, Ka or zk or even both, unhappy with the finale or happy with it, anti azula or pro azula, and whatever opinion you have, WHO CARES? It shouldn't matter. We are all here to celebrate something about this show that's just full of love but we don't treat each other with half the love put into the show and I hate that.

[gloomybadger4life]

Zutara fam, I'm curious. Ive seen zutara fics with Sokkla and it seems to be popular.

@ziezii @wingchunwaterbender

[balanceoflightanddark]

Here's a friendly reminder that Azula got as good as firebending as she did through hard work. Not luck nor eugenics. She was a prodigy and worked her ass off.

Putting aside the fact that I couldn't imagine Ozai allowing his weapon to get lazy, it's a canon fact that she pushes herself for perfection. You don't get that by being lucky. You get that by becoming the best. And it's pretty insulting to try and tear her down, thus rendering all her efforts null and void.

Maybe this is imposter syndrome talking, but Azula should never be seen as second-rate just because she never beat Katara. Nor should her victories be downplayed. She's the third-best firebender in the series, and she should be respected as such.

[zukosdualdao]

I don’t recall Azula ever sending an assassin to kill someone who saved her life multiple times.

funny how this is a response to a post that literally had nothing to do with that and was instead about the zuko and azula relationship. bringing something else up because you can't think of a good argument in response to it is pretty transparent.

also, that was wrong. i never said that wasn't wrong. the show also treats it like it was wrong. the difference is that zuko eventually realizes this, does everything he can to stop the hitman - including risking his own life - and then helps the gaang win the war.

meanwhile, azula never atones for things like literally killing aang (because he did literally die; katara bringing him back doesn't change that), trying to kill zuko after tricking him and trying to kill iroh as a distraction tactic, threatening/bullying her friends into joining her, etc.

[juniperhillpatient]

a very stupid post that came to my brain & demanded to be edited

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

the way the atla fandom treats azula reminds me so much of how the spop fandom treats catra. don’t get me wrong, i actually love azula, i think she was a very interesting and complex character. but that doesn’t take away from the fact that she was still dangerous and toxic, willing to manipulate and control and kill without remorse.

one huge example of azula being coddled by the fandom is when the comics came out, and she was restrained and put into a straitjacket. i saw many fans complaining about how this was ableist and demonizing trauma and mental illnesses.

which.. i mean i’m sure azula has her fair share of mental health issues after all that she went through. but she wasn’t restrained because she was mentally unstable, she was restrained because she was (at that point) the strongest firebender who could and would kill everyone in a heartbeat.

literally it feels like people sometimes forget that this was a fantasy world where people had magic powers. azula had to be restrained because she was a firebending prodigy who has killed once, and will kill again. yes, she was mentally unstable but she was also a threat to everyone.

and you can see, in this universe, how every criminal was restrained in some sort of way. in tlok, the red lotus were each contained in custom-made high security prisons because they were that big of a threat to everyone around them. ming-hua was disabled and she was not provided prosthetics in her prison, but this was because she used water as her prosthetics and was a waterbending prodigy with criminal intentions.

if azula was mentally unstable but not dangerous, the straitjacket would not be necessary. and i know that irl there’s a lot of history and ethical discourse surrounding the use of straitjackets but in azula’s case, i believe it was necessary. it wasn’t ableism or demonizing mental illnesses, it was simply a safety measure to assure that no one else got hurt by azula.

[sokkastyles]

Hi,

Hope you are doing well. Thank you for the response on the previous query regarding TSR.

I have seen Azula stans talking about Azula 'deserving' a redemption arc, as well. I was wondering, what does 'deserving' mean in this case? Why should Azula 'deserve' a redemption arc? Is it because of her tragic backstory or her breakdown at the end of book 3?

This is something I have seen in a few other fandoms as well, that some characters deserve a redemption arc as well, but the problem is that these characters do not feel sorry for their actions. Azula also feels the same, so I am not sure why she 'deserved' a redemption arc.

I would like your thoughts on this.

The very idea that redemption is "deserved" is an oxymoron itself. A lot of people who say this about Azula focus on her age, and what they mean is that she deserved to have an opportunity for redemption, which I agree with in principal. But you're right, she was never sorry nor understands the need for change, so the idea that she just didn't have the opportunity is a false premise.

Also, on the age discourse, some people don't seem to understand that Azula isn't a real child, but a fictional character who exists as part of the larger story the writers are telling. Her story is somewhat about her age and the tragedy of someone so young being manipulated and abused and then turning around and doing the same to someone else. But her age is also informed by the fact that she is a character in a children's show. If we're going to say it's wrong to have kid villains, then it also has to be wrong to have kid heroes. Isn't it unfair to place the burden of being the Avatar on Aang's shoulders? Doesn't he deserve to be a kid? I think we would all say the answer is yes, but we also recognize that there is a story being told here. To say that that story is morally wrong for existing under some guise of "protecting children" is weird because these stories exist FOR children. And yes, that means some of those stories involve children experiencing pain, because children (real, not fictional ones) deserve to see their struggles validated and reflected onscreen, in a way that is ultimately harmless because Azula and Aang are not real children. Would these people want to take those stories away from real children in defense of fictional ones, just so that they can feel better as adults consuming children's media? Because really, that's what all this "think of the children" nonsense is about. Adults trying to shield themselves from having to view the world from a children's perspective that doesn't always portray adults (or children) in the most flattering light.

[azulas-daddy-kink]

All the Tyzula shippers and lesbian Azula "truthers" coping and seething over the Ruon Jian panel from the comic leaks gives me so much serotonin.

[longing-for-rain]

This is unacceptable behavior

So this morning, I found this blog who has apparently taken it upon themselves to “call out” anyone they suspect of using AI in either fan art or fanfics. No proof needed; just send them an anon ask and they’ll start throwing people under the bus.

This person is harassing artists, writers, and anyone who questions them. They’re even demanding that artists upload videos of themselves drawing by hand to “prove” they’re real.

Reading their blog gets even more disturbing. Apparently “suspicious activity” for artists can be something as simple as experimenting with a different style, having trouble drawing hands, improving too quickly, uploading too quickly, or even using digital watercolor. So essentially, artists deserve harassment for being too good, not good enough, or if they don’t use 100% traditional techniques. Do you really think that’s helping artists? All you’re doing is intimidating people away from their hobbies and encouraging toxicity. Cut it out.

For context, yesterday @azula-brain messaged me in my DMs to accuse me of AI usage. I explained that a) I don’t consider my images “AI art” in the sense of “push a button and it makes a picture” because I only use it as a filter over my existing work, b) that I’ve posted detailed explanations of my artistic process before and that still didn’t stop people from harassing me over anon. She also accused me of charging people for art, which I very clear state in my pinned post that I do not accept commissions.

I’m committing a crime by not using fully traditional art, and by having a tip jar (keep in mind, many blogs simply use the built in tumblr feature which is easily understood to be for tipping bloggers they like, not art commission payments). I told her I suggest she simply block and move on if she was unhappy, but apparently that wasn’t good enough, so she called me out by name instead along with the above noted misinformation after I refused to bow to her threats over DMs.

But anyways, I’m done caving to threats, and so should the rest of you. Nothing you do will ever appease the mob, and I’m sick of these literal children making blogs like this thinking they’re saving the world, when literally they’re just stirring up drama and harassing random artists who were doing nothing wrong.