#Herbalist!Zuko
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
muffinlance · 8 months ago
Note
I s w e a r I remember you having a fic about Zuko's hair being super long and him joining the gang early?? But I can't find it on your AO3-
Was that someone else (and if so do you know who?) Or is there just somewhere else it would be?
You want the Herbalist!Zuko Au, which is in my prompts collection:
Note that you need to be logged in to read this fic. You might also be thinking of one of the fics inspired by these, which are mostly linked through the chapters in the end notes.
147 notes · View notes
blu3berrydraws · 2 years ago
Text
Tumblr media
--- Took this opportunity to sketch @chiptrillino's interpretation of @muffinlancelance's Herbalist!Zuko ! || Prompt: Flower, by @magical-girl-coral
983 notes · View notes
Text
Tumblr media
A little drawing I did of herbalist!zuko's lovely hair from @muffinlance 's au.
23 notes · View notes
chiptrillino · 2 years ago
Note
Not me having hair envy over all your herbalist!zukos
if it helps… think about how long it takes to wash it! to brush it! getting all the tangles out. think about how heavy it is!!!
uh oh, no can't relate… so much hair would be exhausting…
45 notes · View notes
aaronnaphiliou · 1 year ago
Text
New update to my Soldier of Healing series!
This took much longer than it should have, but here it is! The 3rd longest update to date!
4 notes · View notes
seyaryminamoto · 2 months ago
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media
My latest completed commission may have been a bit ambitious... because I went wild with it. But I certainly relished in doing so :') Combining my favorite ship with my favorite-ever Disney movie is, uh... a dangerous concoction :'D
The commissioner specifically requested for Azula as Mulan, Sokka as Shang, and Xin Long (my OC dragon from Gladiator) as Mushu. The rest of the cast was up to me to choose, and I pretty much went wild rewatching this movie and picking out some of my favorite moments to recreate them in my style, with these characters. I came up with a lot of correlating characters between both ATLA and 1998's Mulan, but I couldn't hope to draw EVERYTHING, unfortunately. Still, if you want my reasoning for the cast correlation... check out the Read More! Beyond that, feel free to reach out to me if you'd like to commission me, or if you want to join my Patreon!
The Herbalist as Mulan's grandmother might feel arbitrary but she honestly felt like the ATLA elderly lady with the most similar personality to Grandma Fa. Fickle, with a unique connection with a seemingly perfectly ordinary animal, old and sassy? Figured it fit! So for once, the Herbalist is Azula's grandma! xD strange notion, I know, Azulon/Herbalist is not a ship I ever thought I'd accidentally put out in the world but there have been wilder ships than that in this fandom...
Momo became Cri-Kee, I wasn't 100% sold on it but when I considered that Avatar features soooo many hybrid animals... I figured he could be a hybrid cricket-lemur. Weird, I know, but eh? Better than nothing xD
Aang as Chien-Po was a no-brainer. He's the only character I settled on instantly, never even considered anyone else for the role. Their personalities line up really well, and Chien-Po's tendency to be OP and resolve things that are outside of other people's reach sounded like he was prime Avatar material! So, while their dietary preferences are an obvious difference between them, I decided to go for it nonetheless considering all their other similarities!
Kino (another Gladiator OC) is Ling, and he actually did give me a ton of trouble to choose. I considered many characters for the role right up until I realized that Kino's personality actually lines up fairly well with Ling's, down to being a class clown type (who ABSOLUTELY would have cut gym class!) and breaking out in song about the hypothetical woman he'd like to fight for? Yeeeeah that's right up his alley xD but there's another reason why I picked Kino...
... And that is my likely unexpected choice for Yao:
ZUKO.
ZUKO IS YAO.
YES.
I'M NOT EVEN SORRY.
(For the uninitiated, Aang, Zuko and Kino are best friends in Gladiator, very often together, and they make a really good team, so that's the extra reason why Kino became the obvious choice for Ling aside from having really similar personalities, definitely closer personalities than, say, Jet, for instance.)
People have likened Zuko to Shang a LOT since ATLA aired. This is the main reason why I'm even making this huge note! I suspect it's primarily because of the aesthetic, let's be real here, and because he becomes Aang's teacher, but people have exaggerated Zuko's alleged similarities with Shang, or taken them out of proportion, in many ways. I actually remember an AMV ages ago with "Be a Man" and it was Zuko "training the Gaang"?? It... didn't feel right to me. Obviously, someone might rebuff with "well, how does Sokka make MORE sense than that, though?" And believe it or not, I have arguments for that... (when do I not...?)
Not only is this what the commissioner specifically requested (and it obviously lines up with the ship we love!), but let's examine the actual reasons why Sokka as Shang adds up:
Sokka actually had to train a bunch of toddlers who weren't paying any attention to him. You know. Kind of how Shang had to train the unruly soldiers who weren't getting anything right. Sokka has a positive relationship with his dad (Zuko, ofc, does not). Shang also has a positive relationship with his dad! And not only this, but there's a military component to both relationships, specifically with Shang wanting to follow on his father's footsteps and aid him in the war... so much like someone else I know, who jumped at every opportunity to rejoin his father in the war, even wishing to join him as a child until Hakoda tasked him with protecting their Tribe instead (kinda like Shang is tasked with training soldiers rather than joining a battlefield).
And the final cherry-on-top that I'd loooove to hear Zuko fans try to argue against... is sexism :') didn't Sokka get characterized as a sexist guy for four episodes, which made people decide that this was his main character trait even if it went away that quickly? Um, yes, that happened. Shang literally sings the memorable song that's a crazy ode to masculinity, including the rather sexist line of "did they send me daughters when I asked for sons". Shang outright abandons Mulan once they discover that she was a woman all along (while, admittedly, choosing to abandon her rather than KILL HER, which as we saw from Chi-Fu, he was NOT supposed to spare her!)...
So, is this REALLY what Zuko fans, who willfully believe their boy is a feminist king (... why? beats me...) are trying to compare their unproblematic blorbo to? :'D Me? I have no problem linking Sokka with Shang due to Sokka's beginnings and due to the fact that both Shang and Sokka have similar growth when it comes to accepting femininity is as valid as masculinity, and as they both learn to respect women as fighters and potential heroes! (I simply do not believe Sokka's ENTIRE tenure in ATLA was about that, though, and that's what I continue to clash with the fandom over...) So... all this is why I've reasoned that Sokka is a VERY solid choice for Shang, in fact, better than Zuko could hope to be.
... but this isn't all.
Maybe some might accept my arguments for Sokka-Shang. And then, they might ask:
WHY ZUKO AS YAO, THO??
... And the truth is it took me long to see it, myself, but HOLY SHIT, DOES IT FIT!
What is the primary thing we remember about Yao in Mulan? This guy is constantly itching for a fight, to prove himself, surely riddled with insecurities that he exteriorizes through overcompensation of masculinity. He's funny as fuck, but he's taking himself 100% seriously as a manly man all the time, and he's always ready for violence. But there's one more thing...
He treats Mulan as his RIVAL.
And more often than not? SHE SCREWS HIM OVER. Intentionally or not.
What does that sound like? Why, yes, it sounds a LOT like Azula and Zuko's sibling relationship!
The fact that Yao is a temperamental dude who lashes out easily at things (oh, something he has in common with Zuko!), that he specifically resents Mulan (in this case, Azula, just as Zuko does!) and is either constantly looking to defeat her and prove his superiority over her (... wait, just as Zuko with Azula??), that he has a black eye perpetually across the movie, and it's his LEFT EYE (just as Zuko's scar is on his left eye! :'D), that he's friends with a pacifist he has basically nothing in common with, personality-wise (just like Zuko and Aang!), and that he pretty much has a REDEMPTION ARC in which he goes from a bitter, asshole rival to Mulan to treating her as a friend and ally, to the point where he was disappointed to leave her behind and THEN joined her at once when she says she has a plan? :') I have always been critical of Zuko's redemption arc, goes without saying. But if ANY of these characters redeemed himself in any significant way, it certainly seems to be Yao to me, and with people gushing NON-STOP about Zuko's redemption? Why, he ought to be the character who goes from bitter rival to loyal friend, right?
So. I'm not even sorry. Zuko is Yao. And I'd dare say that he should be flattered by the comparison, even, because Yao ends up being cool as FUCK!
I don't really talk about this much nowadays, but Mulan was my favorite Disney movie growing up, it ABSOLUTELY had a formative influence on me as a little girl, and Mulan was my favorite female character for a looooong time. Thus, any excuse to rewatch this movie makes me happy as heck. With the wisdom of age I know, of course, that it's not perfect, it's not what China wants, it's not the most thoughtful depiction of Chinese culture or the most faithful adaptation of Mulan's poem (... but I'd also dare bring up that the 2009 Chinese adaptation ISN'T all that faithful either...), but it has a kind of magic in it, a solid storytelling flow, so many memorable moments one after the next, that I could hardly choose which scenes to depict... Disney has never again seen the storytelling heights it reached with Mulan in 1998. I don't even care if that's a controversial opinion in any way... this is their best animated feature for me, and nobody can change my mind.
So... depicting Azula, my beloved, in all these scenarios as this character I adored and idolized as a child, was so damn fulfilling for me. While some might think that, personality-wise, these two ladies don't have much in common, the fact that Mulan is sent to a matchmaker who basically tells her she looks good but is going to be the worst wife ever...? Our girl Azula, with all those insecurities about being unloveable and a monster, probably would relate big time to that.
Mulan is also an INTELLIGENT soldier rather than a brawny one, which is how she starts to make progress in the army, it's how she manages to overcome the huns with that avalanche... and Azula's primary difference with most other antagonists in ATLA is that she's smart as fuck. She is very strong, no doubt, but a LOT of that strength comes from her intelligence, from assessing situations in unique ways, from planning and strategizing. The way Mulan finds the most unexpected solutions that still pay off reminds me a lot of how Azula achieves unexpected feats through rather unorthodox means, capable of taking over a city with basically no bloodshed while her nation has spent 100 years trying and failing to do so through major army incursions and who knows how much senseless violence. Obviously, I'm not saying what Azula did is GOOD and it's kind of dumb that we always have to point that out... I'm merely comparing the magnitude of the feats, and the fact that they both come from ladies who use strategy and intelligence to achieve their goals rather than muscle and physical power.
And while anyone would rage at me for the comparison between Fa Zhou (her dad) and Ozai, the truth is the dynamic between them CAN be compared, if loosely: Mulan literally goes to war to keep her father safe. Azula goes to war under her father's orders. Hell, she makes herself BAIT in the Eclipse to make sure the Gaang won't get to her dad?? While it's very much possible to say that both characters have different personalities and attitudes in life... I'd also bring up that their contexts are evidently completely different. I wouldn't say for certain that Azula, had she been raised outside a Royal Family, would be EXACTLY like Mulan... but they might have more similar traits than one might expect. Ultimately, though... I love them both. And this opportunity to swap their places was pretty much a dream come true!
Alright, that was plenty of rambling xD ultimately, I had a blast doing this commission, as I'm sure is obvious by now. So! If anyone wants to commission me, feel free to check out my prices right here and hit me up if you're interested!
#sokkla#sokka#azula#mulan au#xin long#zuko#aang#kino#the herbalist#momo#if you squint he's there okay he is just too damn complicated as a hybrid cricket-lemur alright#Xin Long is scale-less because he was too small and it was gonna look weird so for once he was a little less tricky :'D#I wish I could've had MORE epic scenes really this movie is a goddamn GEM#goldmine of glorious moments#it's just wonderful#I usually get sick of things as I work too much with them...#... Sokkla and Mulan are clearly a glorious exception to that rule#I wish I could've put in scenes with other correlating characters#Combustion Man was gonna be Shan-Yu#Chi-Fu was gonna be Long Feng#I can't remember who I had in mind for the emperor anymore#wasn't Kuei because he had to be old but welp#and yes it's too bad it's too sad there are not enough female characters here for the rest of the ATLA female cast...#but while I BRIEFLY considered making Toph one of the trio (Yao ofc)#the naked scene convinced me of the opposite quickly#... Toph would not succeed at convincing anyone that she was born a man she would straight up not even try#she'd just beat everyone up and scare them into shutting up#and while I'd LOVE to see that... it absolutely takes out the stakes from Azula being discovered as a woman pretending to be a man :'D#how tf would you kick one girl out while keeping the other one in the army#when the other one should be bold enough to stand on a rock in her birthday suit showing herself off in front of everyone
119 notes · View notes
elfantasmadejanis · 7 months ago
Text
Firelord zuko's wildest fantasy is running away into the woods and becoming exactly like the herbalist from the blue spirit episode
27 notes · View notes
brionysea · 1 year ago
Text
me when sokka is the only thing holding team avatar together
19 notes · View notes
hella1975 · 2 years ago
Note
So so so so so normal about the Tams fire siblings like your inner child is something you are missing so bad you wish it'd hurt/you only remember that kid when you are cornered and desperate and tired and hurt, and it's like you're trying to be together in this you want to you are even, but how are you supposed to reconcile with that? Hoe can you despite all you did, all you've been through, you're still so fundamentally far away. Would it be better if you weren't?
LITERALLY like to some extent zuko and azula are still those children that are so fundamentally pitted against each other like even through all this new love and fondness and allegiance they are still being opposed by their father's hatred and what it did to them and despite all the hardship and danger that made them tough and formidable they're still just kids
#like azula's spiel about how she knows her and zuko make good allies now bc of how competent they are on top of their symbolism#but she's literally fourteen. like what. canon azula is so personified by her cutting efficiency as a weapon of war#and tams azula is so desperate to mimic that bc she remembers that made her feel useful#and she feels so useless so often now bc there are things zuko doesnt let her into and some things she has no choice but to let him handle#like a lot of tams is zuko stepping up as the eldest bc there's no other alternative and he's happy to do it but azula hates that he has to#so she wants to be useful again and end their suffering like she's coming from a SELFLESS POV SHE JUST WANTS A HAPPY GENTLE LIFE FOR THEM#THE CLOSEST TO HAPPINESS SHE FELT WAS FUJISHI WHERE SHE WAS A HERBALIST AND WOKE UP SLOWLY AND DRANK TEA!!!#but then we have zuko and his child self is a terrified weak thing and his life is so so out of his control#that he grasps the things he can control with both hands and azula taking that from him#when he has sacrificed EVERYTHING to give her this life? her turning around and saying it's not enough? she wants to fight?#it's a betrayal and he can't believe she'd ask this of him and she has no idea why it's such a big deal#bc things like sitting with the gaang for lunch ARENT A BIG DEAL like objectively it's trivial#but zuko has so little control and has so much pressure on himself to be in charge and keep them safe#that not just losing the small amount of control he does have but losing it to AZULA his sister who's supposed to love him#is so so painful#like they're both trying to help each other but the way they're doing it is hurting the other and im screaming into my hands#ask#tams asks
11 notes · View notes
demaparbat-hp · 1 year ago
Text
Tumblr media
Another Zuko from the same page ❄️
Tumblr media
Little Zuzu for an incoming project 🔥
8K notes · View notes
rifari2037 · 5 months ago
Text
12. What are your steambaby headcanons?
Fire Lord Zuko and First Lady Katara's steambabies :
Princess Kya (14), the leader - a fire bender, an heir of the Fire Nation. She has golden eyes and light brown skin. She is just, brave, determine, and sometimes mischievous.
Headcanons :
Zuko teaches Kya fire bending in every martial-style bending. She isn't surprised her father teaches her water-styles more than other styles.
Zuko teaches Kya how to redirect lightning in honour to her beloved grand-uncle Iroh.
Azula (after her redemption arc) is very close to Kya because her niece has talents and badass like her.
Azula teaches Kya how to direct lightning and she learns it quickly. 'I doubt you're your father's daughter, it took him years to do that," is Azula's way to compliment her.
Just like her father, Kya secretly learns fire bender from the source. One day, Zuko and Katara accidentally sees Kya doing the dragon dance with his dragon, Druk, and amazed by that.
Prince Kazan (12), the protector - a non-bender, the youngest master dual swords. He has golden eyes and light brown skin. He is strong, smart, tactical, and eager to learn any weapons. Kazan (火山) means volcano in Japanese.
Headcanons :
Kazan has very similar face and gesture to young Zuko, except his skin is darker.
Kazan feels insecure when found out that his two sisters are benders and he's not. Katara is the one who notices his anxiety first and asks Zuko to cheer him up.
Zuko encourage him that he doesn't need to be a fire or water bender to be a great leader. Zuko also shows Kazan his dual swords skill, tells him that weapon skills are very useful at any time.
Zuko himself who teaches Kazan dual swords techniques until he mastered it at young age. This is in my head how Zuko teaches Kazan :
After Kazan mastering dual swords, he start learns other weapons, especially water tribe weapons from Hakoda and Sokka. Dual swords still his main weapon and he still practising it.
Kazan often reminds Zuko of his childhood, sometimes it brings back to his past trauma. Zuko feels afraid that he will act like his father to his children, especially his non-bender son. Katara always reminds Zuko that he is not the same as his father at all. He is always a good father to them.
Princess Izumi (8), the healer - a water bender, a young peacemaker. She has ocean eyes and pale skin. She is calm and quiet, has a kind heart and motherly.
Headcanons :
Izumi is very close to her mother, Katara. She's almost always by her side.
Izumi has motherly nature combination of her two grandmothers, Ursa and Kya. She's quiet but wise and very intelligent.
Izumi often being a peacemaker when her sister and brother quarrel, most often because Kya playing prank on Kazan.
Katara teaches Izumi how to fight and heal, but Izumi is more interested in healing. She has excellent talents in healing.
Izumi not only a healer, she also has talent as a herbalist like Ursa. She learn herbalist almost herself. She can make poison, but prefers to use her abilities to make cure.
Years later when she turn 18, she become a good fighter and best at healing. She secretly learn blood-bending and use it to heal (only Kya and Kazan know about it).
Nb :
I thought about swapping Kya and Izumi just like in canon-TLOK, but I stick with my first HC in result, because I always imagined badass firebender Kya and calm intelligent water-bender Izumi.
I only wrote down good things about steambabies, I still haven't thought about their weaknesses.
These are my original headcanons. Every Zutara shipper allowed to use it into fanarts, fanfics, or add another headcanons, but please let me know and credit me ❤️💙
106 notes · View notes
muffinlance · 1 year ago
Text
Differing Opinions by Aaronna
Season 2 Episode 11 - The Desert Rewrite
Sokka is not used to doing this without Spirit, thankfully these seven can fill that hole in nicely.
Herbalist!Zuko AU
Read on AO3
69 notes · View notes
zukosdualdao · 6 months ago
Text
a soft place to land
zutara month, day 16: injury recovery, @zutaramonth
summary: in the aftermath of an assasination attempt on katara, she finds herself safe in his bed, zuko looking after her from the bedside.
warnings: assasination/murder attempt, complicated thoughts about punitive judgment and executions, etc, excessive use of adverbs, lmao.
other notes: title taken from "a dream is a soft place to land" from waitress.
Katara’s eyes flicker open. She immediately sets to prop herself up on her elbows, struggling not to groan with fatigue and discomfort as she does. 
The sheets underneath her are gold and silken, the room around her faintly familiar.
She’s in the Fire Nation. She’d been here as an Ambassador for the latest treaty revision. A servant… a man dressed as a servant, anyway, he’d served her tea in the private chambers kept for her here, and her throat had begun to swell, panic building as it did, chest burning as the door slammed ominously shut behind him. She remembers lifting her hand shakily, trying to guide her blood to keep the toxins from working through it, but she couldn’t tear it out of her without extracting her own blood, it was no use, she couldn’t think—her head met the floor, brow slick with sweat, she was going to die…
As she looks around in the darkness, it occurs to her exactly where she is now.
“Zuko?”
He’d come looking for her just in time.
The last thing she remembers before her awakening is the taste of something herbal and sickly sweet, being overcome with sick and the aftermath of bile, Zuko’s gentle hand cradling the back of her head, and then succumbing to the darkness.
“I’m right here,” he says quietly in the dark, and when she turns just slightly to her right, she can see shadows cast over his house face. He’s sitting in a chair by her bedside, folding in on himself and wringing his hands until he casts his worried gaze up to meet her eyes. “It’s okay. You’re really okay.” He sounds almost disbelieving. “How do you feel?”
It’s quite the inverse of the last time she was here when he was the one prone on the bed, marked by lightning, and she waited up all night for him to wake again, too wired to sleep, needing to keep a weathered eye on his wound.
“Not amazing,” she manages a bout of shaky laughter. “But I’m alive, so that’s something. How did you know what to… ?”
Zuko was alone when he arrived and fed to her what must have been the antidote, though she thinks she remembers the patter of other footsteps arriving after the fact, possibly a sea of medics.
At this, Zuko leans back in his chair a little, rubbing an embarrassed hand at the back of his head. “Oh—my mother learned about plants and things from her mother.” Zuko’s mouth tilts into a frown. “I think she was an herbalist? I’m not sure.” He shakes his head. “I didn’t know what they’d used but—we keep something stocked here. It’s not a cure-all, but…” Shrugging again, he sighs. “Thank Agni it worked.”
“Forget Agni,” she murmurs. “Thank you.” Something that might have been panic if not for her weariness swells in her chest suddenly. “The man… ?”
Even through the darkness and the haze she still finds her mind in, she catches the way his pupils dilate, the way his posture stiffens. She’s seen him angry like this before. Protective-angry. She imagines his fingers are probably curling hard against the edge of his chair as he grips it, but looking down to check seems difficult and unnecessary. “Hired assassin.”
“Oh.” It’s sort of strange to think she’s an important enough figure that someone would try to assassinate her, that her death wouldn’t be a simple murder but rather to make some political statement or another. “That’s new. For me, anyway.”
Zuko’s had a few attempts on his own life in the past year, as she recalls. Most of them she read about through letters after the fact—she was here for the last one, though, and thank the spirits for that. Stab wounds are simple enough to heal with her bending—if they don’t bleed out first, which can happen more quickly than one might expect. Needless to say, Katara’s glad she was around.
Zuko says the next like an oath. “The assassin is being dealt with.” With a confusing mix of shame, fear, and relief, she wonders how. Zuko’s not the type to execute, certainly not without trial, which is how things would have been done in the Fire Nation in days past. Mostly, she’s relieved for that, but still, she finds herself wondering whether she’ll regret being such a ready proponent of the right to trial and imprisonment over execution in the weeks to come. There is a swallow of fear in her throat, but it might wisp away once this isn’t all so fresh. 
But perhaps that’s something to think on later.
 “So are his benefactors,” Zuko spits out the word like it’s full of poison itself. “I’ve written to your father and Sokka and to Aang,” he adds. Katara’s stomach clenches unpleasantly in a way she suspects only has a little to do with the day’s events. Zuko doesn’t know she and Aang haven’t spoken in months, that they’re no longer together. “Spirits, Katara, I’m so sorry.”
Katara frowns as she leans back against the pillows. “What for? You didn’t poison me.”
“It was done on my watch, in my palace, because some group of fucking noblemen I’ve been trying to appease are—I keep trying and failing to make things better, and instead…”
“Zuko,” she glares at him in the hopes that it will quiet his self-recrimination. It does, quite efficiently, and she smiles. “Not everything gets to be your fault. Will you just accept my thanks for saving me instead?”
At this, she yawns, and she watches as his expression softens in the dim light of his bedroom.
Zuko rolls his eyes then, but there’s a faint smile playing on his lips, too, and she’s glad to feel the mood lighten again, though she can feel weariness starting to take her once more.
“That’s what you and I do,” he allows quietly after a moment, his (pretty, she thinks hazily, so pretty) amber eyes shining with the truth of what he’s saying. “We save each other. Get some more rest, Katara.” 
Still a little awake, but with her eyes closed, she asks drowsily, not even sure she manages the words, “Will you be here when I wake up?”
Zuko’s answer is quiet but certain. “Of course I will.”
Katara hums as she falls back into the allure of sleep, safe with the knowledge Zuko is watching over her. 
86 notes · View notes
erinoma9 · 11 days ago
Text
Problems with "The Search" Comic
Retconning Ursa's backstory
Some old lore about Ursa, before the comic came out.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Admittedly, this page conflates "royalty" with "nobility," which extends to Mai and Onji's page.
Contrast these excerpts to the Search. (SPOILERS AHEAD! And Long!)
"Born to Fire Nation royalty [nobility] and - raised as such."
Search! Ursa: Her family went into hiding after Roku's death. She grew up as a commoner in Hira'a - a small, remote 'backwater village' located on the far edge of the Fire Nation. Her father, Jinzuk worked as the town's magistrate, and her mother, Rina was a master herbalist. Her mother is the daughter of Avatar Roku and has his headpiece in her possession.
"She was the perfect match for Prince Ozai and soon became his wife"
Search! Ursa: Azulon and Ozai track down Avatar Roku's (supposedly remaining) descendants and possibly monitor them for months. They (forcibly) propose a union between Ursa and Ozai for eugenics purposes.
In a nutshell, her relation to Avatar Roku is enough to qualify her as the perfect match.
Tumblr media
"There was a time when it probably wasn't such a bad marriage. I think they probably started okay. Certainly better than it ended up."
Search! Ursa: She didn't want to marry Ozai, she wanted to marry her one true love, Ikem but she didn't get much of a say. And come the wedding, Ozai drops a massive bombshell on her.
In short, it starts out as a bad marriage, to put it mildly.
Tumblr media
Someone on TV tropes (Fridge Horror section. Be Warned!) posited that "started out okay" can mean anything. And that "okay" doesn't mean happy or willing.
To that I say, it's a massive stretch to claim this scene is equivalent to "started out okay." Okay is not another word for utterly miserable! Words similar to okay can range from alright, pleasant, acceptable or tolerable. So, "started out okay" and the conveniently ignored "better than it ended up" doesn't apply to the Search.
"She is a very sweet woman and a wonderful mother, but she is also very protective -- especially of her favorite child Zuko" ... "Ursa spent most of her time raising her children to be good Fire Nation citizens and the ideal royal family."
Search! Ursa: The comics intentionally or unintentionally avoid portraying Ursa as an imperialist but don't contradict that she taught Zuko and Azula Fire Nation Propaganda offscreen.
She didn't seem to care about being the "ideal royal" herself, privately at least.
For instance, she writes that infamous letter falsely citing Ikem as Zuko's father to spite Ozai among other reasons. Most damningly, she sees her life in the palace as "a life that [she] did not choose for herself," leading to the infamous memory wipe. Both examples have attracted critics, hence the "infamous" connotation, and arguably butcher her 'protective mother' characterisation.
Zuko Alone Ursa: Zuko. That's what moms are like. If you mess with their babies, humph, they're gonna bite you back! [Later on] Ursa: Zuko, please, my love, listen to me. Everything I've done, I've done to protect you. Remember this, Zuko. No matter how things may seem to change, never forget who you are. DoBS pt 2Ozai: My father, Fire Lord Azulon, had commanded me to do the unthinkable to you, my own son, and I was going to do it. Your mother found out and swore she would protect you at any cost. She knew I wanted the throne and she proposed a plan, a plan in which I would become Fire Lord and your life would be spared. [Later] Your mother did vicious, treasonous things that night. She knew the consequences and accepted them. For her treason, she was banished. "She (Ursa) kind of saved Zuko's life by doing something not very nice to Fire Lord Azulon" ~ Mike "Ursa mysteriously disappeared on the same night as Fire Lord Azulon's death. Some say that she was somehow involved in Fire Lord Azulon's death -- and that she did it to protect Zuko. But the truth is not known."
Search! Ursa: Despite these quotes stressing her role in Azulon's death and clearly implying that she murdered him, that role is given to Ozai. Instead, Search! Ursa merely makes the plan and a deadly poison, all because the writers didn't want her hands dirty.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Is it just me or is this scene so rushed? What happened to the "swore she would protect you at any cost" line?
Why does she assume she'll get to take her children, even though they are his heirs?
And then there's Ozai's response: he calls them, his collateral and has no problem referring to them as your children. He even threatens their lives, along with Ursa's, if she doesn’t keep her word.
Aside from how stupid it is for him to say that, it begs the question of why he didn't kill Ursa afterwards? He just lets her walk free when she's a loose end to him. Plot hole much!
So, Ursa's mum taught her how to make that poison - okay, in the vein of "what kind of mother forgets her children", what kind of mother teaches her daughter how to make an extremely deadly poison? Literally, no one talks about that!
38 notes · View notes
chiptrillino · 2 years ago
Note
You can really see Ursa and Azula in Book III herbalist!zuko. There's no doubt they're related.
Yeah… who could have guessed that he is their son???
thank you! I try to make familiar relationships shine through past me did great!
31 notes · View notes
aaronnaphiliou · 1 year ago
Text
Avatar the Last Airbender Whumptober 2023 Day 25
No. 25: “You’re not delivering a perfect body to the grave.”
Storm | Buried Alive | “They’re not breathing!”
It sounded like thunder, but it wasn't storming
1 note · View note