#Azula’s breakdown

[demaparbat-hp]

He's never happy

[lazyveran]

cupgirl/azula nation RISE

[bluespiritshonour]

Mai does figure into Zuko's redemption in a very subtle way by being neutral.

If she were actively prowar he wouldn't have felt comfortable voicing his turmoil in front of her and working it out loud. The fact that he still did it despite her being Azula’s bestfriend says he knows her views.

If she were antiwar... The effect would have been the same as what Iroh had on Zuko. Only he could change himself, no one else was gonna do it for him: hence it was important that he was separated from Iroh so he could forge his own path.

And without Mai being the only person he sought comfort from when his bad choices were catching up with him—he’d never really have processed it in a safe space.

I always like to think that in Ba Sing Se he was too much in survival mode—being given a chance to return home and then leaving it all behind was important because he needed to get down from survival mode and actually evaluate everything.

In The Beach he says that he should be happy that Ozai supposedly talks to him and thinks him a hero—except, his sour mood throughout the episode has to do with Ozai having gotten them out of the way. It wasn't that he had everything and realised it was hollow: it was more like he went back and realised what he was longing for didn't exist.

That explains him telling Sokka that his only regret was breaking up with Mai. He had to give up something to show that the right choice was the difficult choice and it sure wasn't Ozai’s love (which wasn't there. He comes to terms with the fact that it wasn't there). It was Mai’s.

[punkisntdeadandneitherami]

Trust is for fools

soooo ik its been like 389473497329847985 years since ive posted art but here you go!!!!!

this is def my most worked on bg but you still can barely see her mom there ;-;

long story short breakdown azula means everything to me

[unalivenote]

[linnorabeifong]

Just Thinking

With everything Lin’s been through I’m surprised she never had an Azula-esque mental breakdown.

This woman had an absent father, a neglectful mother, basically had to raise her sister because Toph wouldn’t then got her face sliced open by said sister. Her sister leaves after that and then her mom leaves about (guessing here) a year or so afterwords and just hangs out in a swamp. She joins the police to impress her mother and goes on to become the chief and her mom still doesn’t care.

Her job is immensely stressful, her friends are across the world ( Izumi is in the fire nation, Kya is traveling, Bumi is in the UF) and she gets left by Tenzin (who she’s probably known and been friends with since infancy) for a younger woman.

Presumably there would also be the pressure of the Beifong name and title and the maintenance of the estate after her grandparents die because I don’t see Toph handling that. Additionally all of her mentors either die or move away from the city (Aang dies, Sokka dies, Zuko is in the fire nation, Katara moves to the south) . Obviously we know from the show she handles her emotions poorly and bottles them up. We also know that she’s kind of socially-awkward at times like Azula.

Then we get into the issues of each season. RC already has organized crime that she has to fight to take down then the avatar lands on her door step and destroys public property and agitates the equalist situation. Then Lin looses her job which she has dedicated her entire life to. Outside of her job she doesn’t have a lot going for her. Then she sacrifices herself to save the family of the guy that cheated on her and looses her bending in the process. That must be soul crushing and no one shows up to save her or support her in her time of need.

Season two she has to deal with the attacks in RC and deal with her detective being falsely accused and then with the spirit vines overtaking her city.

Season Three she has to protect the avatar from a terrorist group and is forced to see her sister after thirty years. This experience is obviously super overwhelming for her and then she’s pressured into meeting all these new people (our girl is an introvert). Additionally the stress of her job is physically taking a toll on her as seen throughout the episode. She goes to get acupuncture which resurfaces all of her old painful memories and then when she has an outburst ( understandable she’s going through a lot) everyone is mad at her. ( I have so much more to say about this but I don’t want this post to be a novel) . The battle with the Red Lotus: she was nearly killed and she watched P’Li die. that had to be gory. Even if Lin has seen a lot of death that’s a VERY gruesome way to go.

Season four is obviously stressful for her but there’s particular instances that stick out here: Toph hiding who her dad was just to go and tell Bolin ( this must’ve been so immensely hurtful for Lin: think about it she didn’t even know her dad was from the fire nation until her mom casually told Bolin, that means Lin went fifty four years not even knowing her ethnicity ) . But also the way that after everything Toph’s done she’s just expected to forgive her ? And Lin is so incredibly self-sacrificing that she just swallows her own feelings and does.

Here are the things that really irk me the most

Circling back to season three: “Bitter loner who only cares about herself. No wonder Tenzin ended things with you years ago”

Wow, just wow this is so genuinely awful. But also untrue. Lin has made so many sacrifices, she’s put her life on the line multiple times for Korra and had her bending ripped away from her while protecting Korra.

Bringing up Tenzin was a low blow and so immature of Su.

Lin is so forgiving and no one appreciates her or acknowledges the tremendous amount of pain they put her in.

Also Lin has massive scars on her face. She has to see those every day. That has to take a toll on her self esteem. Not only that they look painful and deep. For all we know she could have sensitivity or be completely numb in that area.

This pisses me off the most: Toph could feel everything through the vines apparently so that means she knew when Lin lost her bending but she didn’t show up for her. Realizing this broke my heart for Lin.

In conclusion Lin has been through a lot. She is traumatized. Yeah she’s grumpy and she has outbursts and she cries in the Zafou episodes but none of this feels like a proportional response to everything she’s been through . I don’t think she as a character can heal until she really processes things and lets it all out but all we see is her continuing to work and heap more pressure on herself. That isn’t sustainable and eventually will create consequences much worse than what we’ve already seen.

I see parallels between her and Azula ( I won’t get into it) and with the strained relationship Lin has with Toph I could see her having an Azula-moment.

Thanks for listening to my disorganized thoughts .

[the-genius-az]

Tuberculosis Au.

Everything fell apart after Mai and Ty Lee's betrayal, Azula never thought that would happen, they had spent more time together, they had shared a "kiss", why did they betray her? Has no sense.

After that, Azula began to neglect herself even more, she had no one to take care of her, her throat began to bother her, she didn't eat, her fire diminished due to her sick lungs, and everything went to shit when her father left.

Azula was so sad that she couldn't move, her curse was killing her, but she felt like it was the sadness that was really taking over her.

[phoukanamedpookie]

Unpopular opinion: Azula's breakdown is not special.

Azula's breakdown is not her "true" nature or "real" personality. It's a trauma response to multiple pressures that would have made anyone struggle with their mental health.

To reduce Azula's entire character to the worst moment of her life, or to treat her breakdown as strictly symbol of her personal dysfunction does her character and her implied and explicit trauma a disservice.

[peony-pearl]

yeah I’ll say it again: there was no reason for Azula to be put in an asylum for a year and still be going through it that bad all for a breakdown that took, what, less than a month? If we take Zuko’s betrayal, then Mai and Ty Lee swapping sides(? we never really see them “turning good” they just prevent Azula from hurting Zuko and the Gaang but that’s a different discussion) and then her father’s denial of her joining him to the Earth Kingdom (then feeling like she’s being treated like Zuko - thus she’s suddenly lesser in his eyes) followed by Zuko defeating her (which, in her mind, is a whole new failure and she probably feels like she failed her Nation)... yeah that’s stuff that, if given proper therapy, she could have just stayed in a hospital, and within a year, possibly even be living back in the palace with a whole new outlook on life. The writers make it sound like Zuko just wanted her out of his hair which is not how you want to write your hero whose arc is based around growth and wanting acceptance and is forgiven by a family elder after he hurts him. Yes he’s a new Fire Lord and he’s got a lot on his plate, but to just handwave his sister away after he knows the pain of being denied by his family is... bleh (also you all know how much I hate Iroh's canonical endgame)

And I know that there were talks of a fourth season in which she got her healing arc (which would have been really great to see); but it’s such a mess that the comics just kind of decided ‘nahh let the teenager who’s been locked up for a year keep her antagonist role, that’s fresh right?’ Not the girl who was put on a pedestal until suddenly everything she did was wrong (which... yeah, she WAS doing wrong; but she’s been raised to believe everything she was doing was for a greater good for HER nation and the world. She believes she’s a hero because she’s doing what she was raised to do, and to them she IS a hero. She has daddy’s ‘love’ so long as she’s perfect and amazing - and then suddenly all of that gets absolutely obliterated right in front of her one at a time as she realizes everything she’s been doing to maintain her power is also driving people away. Being 'the good kid' until suddenly you aren'twill unravel you.). Zuko knows how that feels, to feel like everything he did was wrong. He knows how it feels to have to break away from realizing he’s been hurting people; to learn from that and how he needs to change his ways.

And not only that but the way they write Azula as a villain in The Search is just AWFUL like it’s boring af. They recycle the same beats over and over and no one gets the bright idea to stop the cycle it’s AWFUL everyone in that comic is a raging idiot.

idk I could keep going in circles and we already know the comics are awful but there’s my extra 2 cents on the matter. They took a character that was already entertaining and fascinating and denied her a really great potential arc to make her one of the best allies the Gaang could have (and Zuko could have some FAMILY) but nope. Let's retread the show but instead let's make it bad.

[akiizayoi4869]

Was going through the ATLA art book a little while ago, and came across some pages towards the end of some sketches that Bryan and some other artists did back when COVID first hit in order to raise funds for an organization. The sketches are really good.

.... And then I came across this sketch of Azula.

Of course, it's a sketch of her during her breakdown. Because that's all she'll ever be to the writers. Every other character got cool designs. With Azula they said "let's draw her during her breakdown. That's peak Azula right there."

[maybecordelia]

me and her have the same mental breakdowns

[lazyveran]

oh and while im thinking abt them. i do think mai is a lot more like azula than anyone generally points out

[hyacinths-in-a-storm]

When Azula was young enough to still have her childhood she was a Mama's girl and you take that headcannon from my cold, dead hands.

[dremiruu]

babygirl doodles

[fallingskiesandrisingseas]

I rewatched the last Agni Kai between Azula and Zuko yesterday and then read the discourse and there are a few things that I feel need to be said here.

First of all, Azula wins that fight 100% if she's mentally balanced. Yes, Zuko has incorporated other styles into his bending, yes, he's more surefooted now, yes, he's outclassing her the entire fight and isn't even out of breath while his sister is panting. Even with all that, Azula is able to use fire in a much more instinctive way. She has shown feats unmatched by other firebenders when not under the comet, like flying with fire. She also has insane command over lightning, outdrawing Zuko and even Iroh. And her fire is blue, burning a hotter temperature then regular fire. A prodigy indeed.

Second, it is interesting that Azula cheats because she can't beat Zuko with lightning. We are told that lightning is a powerful firebending form only the royal family knows, and Azula does it better ( and earlier ) than most. But doesn't it require inner peace? What if, in that exact moment, lightning would no longer come to her, her talent failing her? What if that was the end? Would have made a for powerful breakdown of Azula as well. But she conjures lightning.

And I was wondering what the lightning was even for, conceptually. It shows us that Zuko now has full mastery of the hardest technique, and Azula knows -she knows, goddamn- that he can redirect. So why use it? And then it hit me. She uses it because a) she's been outclassed in every other fire bending attack, burning through her stamina while Zuko hasn't even moved, and b) she sees it as her best ability, something Zuko cannot emulate. She wants to hurt him.

Here we see Azula's tactical brilliance and cruelty. She decides in a split second to aim her lighting at Katara, a waterbender with no way of defending herself against this deadly force. This forces Zuko to make the sacrifice play, taking one of the pieces off the board. I don't believe she truly thinks that Zuko will make it, by the way. She expects him to let her die, which will make him angry, unhinged. More of a match. And even if he doesn't, she wins by taking Zuko out. Azula's strategy of divide and conquer indeed.

But this all comes from Zuko's provocation. This provocation is a mistake.

Because what is Zuko going to do when he redirects it? Kill her with it? Aang chose to spare Ozai, and in a world where Zuko keeps his cool and doesn't provoke it like that, she'll still use it, and he'll have no choice but to kill her. There could be no other outcome in an Agni Kai, not since Sozin. If Zuko wants to win, he will have to kill her. There is no way he can subdue her with fire, and she won't quit, we know that.

The provocation is not only a tactical error on Zuko's part, but it gives the writers a way out of having one of the siblings murder the other. . It is a fight that only has losers, a fight Zuko knows needs to happen but doesn't want to have. Azula also seems to care for her brother in some way still, telling Katara that she'd much rather "have him looked after by the family physician."

The fandom also moves past the fact that Katara is able to beat the strongest firebender of their generation with wits and sewer water. You know how insane that is? Sure, Azula isn't all there, but she is still an incredibly skilled opponent. And Katara outsmarts her. One of the best minds in the fire nation beaten by a water bender.

Which brings me to my next, and most important point. Azula can breathe fire. She is no more helpless in the ice than Zuko or Iroh is, both of whom have shown to be capable of escaping from ice. And yet she lets Katara chain her to the floor without a fight.

She shouldn't go down that easily. Not if she is all there. And I think this beautifully illustrates what happens in this fight, just as much as the crying after: Azula, the prodigy, the favourite child, the heir to the throne, cannot conceive being beaten.

She's been told she was special since the day she was born, she has witnessed the scarring of her brother, she has been emotionally abused by her family. She's all alone, in the end, no friends, no allies, and she's beaten when her bending is at her most powerful ( SHOULD BE at her most powerful, more accurately ). Beaten by a puny waterbender from the Southern Watertribe.

Now we understand why she doesn't act, merely moving her eyes as Katara chains her. At the most important moment, she fails, and suddenly none of the abuse she endured, the friends she has lost, the people she has used, is worth it.

No wonder she is crying.