#I'm Azula

[the-genius-az]

Do you think Ursa really loved Azula?

Yes, I think Ursa loved Azula.

But it's actually complicated, because of all the shit and Ozai, blah, blah, blah.

I firmly believe that parents are not prepared for a prodigy or different child, no matter how much they informed or prepared.

Azula is a different girl from the others, she is a genius prodigy (Maybe neurodivergent or just her upbringing makes her different??) and Ursa really isn't ready for something like that.

Maybe that's why he was negligent or just didn't care that much about raising her, maybe he thought Azula could handle it on her own because of how independent she is?

And maybe Azula thought Ursa didn't love her and never cared, because of all of her mother's actions towards her.

Azula simply noticed all those signs and took refuge in a monster, thinking maybe she could get some love and attention. And of course, she was horribly wrong in choosing Ozai, but can we judge her? No.

[demaparbat-hp]

He's never happy

[late-draft]

This is continuation of this thread with great ideas that inspired the art: Post

Zuko hasn't (yet??) blocked Azula, not even temporarily

Iroh's photo is blurry because OF COURSE

Zhao keeps editing his stuff

I debated placing "Ozai: Seen" but it turns out he probably wouldn't even be looking at this social media

Please help me name this lame Fire Nation social media for boomers

Zuko's "On a quest" status is pure copium

Next part

[crowlion]

Hand practice with the gfs

Inspired by @thyinum's lovely Avatar's hands series

[ofswordsandpens]

I fear that "fire bending didn't come easy to zuko" and "zuko isn't a prodigy" (both true) has somehow snowballed into "zuko is a bad or at best average fire bender".... which simply isn't true, especially by the end of book 3

[where-our-stories-start]

[unemployedstonerlizard]

Heres Mai! I'm very proud of this, I was practicing detailing and structure of the clothes. Her, Ty Lee, and Azula are very square circle and triangle coded.

Also, I'm a Maiko shipper till I die, but her and Ty Lee are also a cute pair 🩷

Once again, inspired by @soncee. Their probably really annoyed about me talking about them, but really their art is very beautiful! Please please please check them out 🩷 also inspired by the character sheets from @chiptrillino-art, also amazing 🩷

[memopmiff]

Post healing au where Ursa and Azula get along now

Azula would randomly cling to Ursa for like five seconds every now and again to make up for lost time

(she then goes back to being nonchalant because her? showing affection? to her mother? impossible.)

Also does anyone know any good Ursa-Azula fic recs??

[jn3m0]

[roboticchibitan]

Once again thinking about the ATLA post series (not in continuity with the comics) fanfic I'll never write that follows Azula going to work in Iroh's tea shop in Ba Sing Se and her ensuing struggle with psychosis and realizing she was in the wrong and is just as much the victim of an abusive parent as Zuko was.

In this story Iroh tries to help her and at first she HATES it. She hates his kindness, she hates the sadness on his face when he sees her struggling, she hates all of it. At one point she snaps at Iroh to stop pitying her and he says, "Don't you know the difference between compassion and pity?" And she snaps back that they're the same thing and he replies, "You're wrong, Azula. Pity is simply feeling sad for someone's circumstances. Compassion is the desire for their circumstances to get better." And it hits her like a ton of bricks that this man, unlike her father, wants what's best for her. He's only ever treated her with kindness and she's disrespected him and called him weak for it and it's the most actual love she's ever received from a father figure in her fifteen years of life. And she wants nothing more than to cry in his arms but she can't yet because she doesn't know how to show weakness in front of anyone because of what her father did to her.

I see a post floating around sometimes where someone said that as a child, Azula is the scariest character, but as an adult, she's the saddest and I agree. She was 15. She deserves a redemption arc.

[uiuishii]

So I'm thinking about the debate "Agatha did it on purpose" vs "Agatha can't control herself" debate.

If you think about it, Agatha is cursed with a power of absorbing all form of magic until the death of the host. When she was young she probably killed someone because of that and her mother discovered the body. Meanwhile she took interest in the darkhold, maybe to control or to fix things. She probably killed her own son without even realizing it. I mean it does make sense that Nicolas told her to stop when she killed Alice. That is why she was so shocked, realizing she did it again. It was never about her staying with her mother to be punished, but about her curse being exposed to the coven in the most horrible way. Her true punishment is her lack of control. She brings death everywhere she goes.

Thus, it explains why Death is in love with her. They met countless time, Agatha trying to resist her curse, eventually accepting her fate and power. Death knows her struggle, her power and her pain. Agatha, the witch everbody hates, and Death, the ultimate source of fear, sorrow, hatred. Rejected by everyone but themselves.

Agatha embraces the villain everybody saw in her. She accepted this role. Because it is easier and nobody believes her anyway. She can be good. But it will never be enough. So she decided to stop.

When nobody loves you, the only thing left is power. Power to feel alive and complete while you are in fact attracted by Death herself, wanting to let go.

In the end, no one will mourn Agatha except Death.

[the-phoenix-heart]

I'm on episode three of the live action avatar the last airbender, and while I'm not a fan of all the changes they have made with her character, I love that Azula's cover story when she infiltrates the rebels is "I lost my mother and brother in the siege of ba sing se." What an unhinged way for her to reword her real circumstances. I can just see her coming up with this story and learning, telling it to herself over and over again so it can be it's most convincing. "My family was perfect before the seige of ba sing se. Then my cousin died and my uncle was never the same. My mother disappeared one day and never returned. My brother was burned and died (to me)." Love the idea she uses this as an opportunity to roleplay her trauma and allow herself some grief.

[demaparbat-hp]

Existential Nihilism Squad™

[late-draft]

"Can the Fire Nation be redeemed?" "Dude, they were about to 'win' the war using Sozin's comet, I don't think they can be redeemed the next day!"

The situation is like that the story could easily continue with many (and I mean many. Half of the nation even) FN characters still being the villains.

Their new Fire Lord took the throne via a dubious Agni Kai duel against Azula who hadn't yet been officially crowned, and their previous Fire Lord Ozai was taken down by the Avatar, who (supposedly) most of the Fire Nation does not recognize as a legitimate authority figure due to a century of propaganda that elevated the Fire Lord and FN's own "greatness".

The Fire Nation was winning and suddenly overnight, they are informed that not only do they have a new Fire Lord, they're also immediately halting all war efforts, have surrendered, are retreating their army back to homeland and are about to start paying reparations. At least half of the country would be outraged. They were profiting from the war! And they're not about to give up because a branded traitor, scarred boy king ordered it.

The peasants are mostly glad the war stopped, the industry is confused and worried about profits, and the military is furious. Zuko and Iroh would probably have a very difficult time establishing control over it, as many splinter factions would pull it apart and plunge the Fire Nation into civil war in a desperate attempt to quickly resume the old course, especially when the information about Ozai being still alive and Azula still having her firebending spreads.

There could easily be another season where these problems are tackled, and villains still aggressively bend fire and spread destruction.

[rei-is-hiding]

@azulaweek day 3: princess azula

i have no fashion sense so this outfit was a real challenge D: i used the typical fire nation symbols for the accessories: national symbol shaped earrings and crown, the firebending masters ran & shaw inspired dragon hair pin, the usual red & gold colored clothes, and there are a few blue colored pieces to represent azula's blue flames too ~

[ofswordsandpens]

I rewatched Zuko and Azula's Agni Kai recently and it's left me wondering – when Zuko begins to goad Azula into striking him with lightning, was he making the decision to kill her?

Because had Azula shot lightning directly at him like he planned and not at Katara, the most forthright implication to me is that he was intending to strike Azula with her own lightning. And Azula, for all her mastery, would not have been able to counter that.

On the other hand, maybe he wasn't planning to kill her at all and was simply planning to redirect it elsewhere (similar to what he did with Ozai). But given the tone of tragedy throughout the Agni Kai, the fact that they both acknowledge that this fight will be "the end" to them, I don't think it's inaccurate to read Zuko's actions as him preparing to kill Azula, even though an Agni Kai doesn't have to end with death (and in canon it didn't). Also, why goad her into striking him with lightning if he wasn't planning on doing something intentional with it? If anything, it adds another layer to the tragedy to me, because I don't believe Zuko wants to kill her. And it stands in such contrast to the way that Azula desperately wants to kill him.

I also think that there would have even been something sadly poetic in that sort of demise for Azula should the Agni Kai had gone this direction: Azula, struck down by her preferred sub-skill. Azula, struck down by the very bolt of lightning that she intended to kill her brother with. Azula, struck down by her own power.