#azula can still change. bc azula is not evil

[edwardsissyhandsthtdanceslikeabb]

if azula needs redeeming, why wasnt she?

i read this analysis of Azuko? Zukla? idk but a critique of their sibling dynamic, particularly within the context of doomed siblings, and tho i don’t agree with it, it’s a testament to its writer that there’s innate value in carving out my thoughts from their own.

so a lot of my disagreement boils down to the fact that the way the analysis construed zuko & azula, from characterizing them as doomed siblings, to the way azula’s breakdown is framed, is a problem of taste and inferences, and how these interpretive elements can be incongruent with technical aspects like intent, convention, medium, or the functional mechanics of art overall.

firstly, i think its very important to highlight that while elite art is holistic and multifaceted, it is doubly focused and premeditated, and its constituents all occupy a purpose and position within it, as they are narrative elements first and foremost. which complicates things when creation and consumption are both such human, evocative processes, but i think looking at the rudimentary layers of a story are the north stars in subjective landscapes like this. and most salient of these, is the story’s anti-colonial roots, centering indigeneity explicitly, and the cultural, spiritual and earthly relationships therein, with the main conflict being restoring the dignity and autonomy of the subjugated, alongside the internal work and opposition that are necessitated in doing so. everything stems from that, and though there is complexity and nuance therein, and the story itself is immensely liberal in execution, it is also ultimately a good vs bad narrative, which it has every right to be, bc colonialism is bad, and colonialists are bad.

therefore, atla inherently adheres to convention, and has a preestablished idealistic framework. to illustrate this, it utilizes two central characters, both encapsulations of the dualistic nature of oppressor and the oppressed, and navigated thusly as foils to one another. zuko is thereby, the deuteragonist, and the depth or lack thereof, of his environment are equally conditioned by his position, as the confines of the kid’s tv medium, serialization as well as narrative structuring itself, craft him. kill your darlings and all that lol.

however, these positionalities, while abiding convention, are not binary, and while conclusive, they are not absolutist. zuko for example, is antithetical to a Madonna, stressed by him even having a redemption to realize, and azula too is done an injustice by any reduction to a whore / imperfect victim archetype. this compartmentalization, is luckily ill-fitting in accommodating their totality, and doesn’t incorporate the fact that consequence, in avatar, is not a condemnation of personhood, but a retaliation to action, and has mangled indiscriminately, with azula’s case actually, being the reclamation of principles and in-world intentionality.

to begin with, zuko, while most recognized for his redemption, is not functionally the redemptive character™, he’s an example of the sacrifice, sincerity and labor that are inherent to anti-colonial action facilitated by an absconding oppressor, of the inborn empathy and active resistance that are needed for a system to change, and how you don’t just get there through platitudes or amicability. those thematic niceties are ofc inherent to his story bc he’s fleshed out and the things that inspired him thusly are too, but that emotional and relational floweriness is a consequence of his actions, not their driving force (being embraced by imperial idolization, by his royal family, was not fulfilling), what drove him is a fundamental and intrinsic ideological disdain for the imperialist war machine — it was ultimately, an abstraction of self – by acting in service of others, which unlike letting imperialist standards (e.g. chauvinism and parasitism and “honor”) puppeteer him as an instrument of violence, is ironically, an act of true autonomy and discernment. deriving your value from mutualism and earning one’s stature, instead of asserting yourself on others and letting corrosive and paternalistic worldviews (and by extension the selfishness & self absorption i.e “honor” innate to that) rule your destiny.

azula, however, is meant to be an inversion of that, is meant to reflect what happens when you reject morality or connection, instead letting control and superiority entrap you. she is explicitly a cautionary tale, which also comes with its own oversights and inelegant implications, but she likewise, greatly exemplifies the internal decay and loneliness inherent to alienating yourself through cruelty and stratification. and is it not possible then that a girl who has valued herself by what she can inflict on others, would then have the very sanctity of existence warped at no longer being able to dominate, no longer deemed the ideal? is infection not a thing that savages, before it spreads? in this way, azula is poignant.

as the more intimate face of imperialism, she is humanized in her parasitism, but it is not used to soften her behavior, nor is it used to hand her redemption. it is not smth that she is owed for the very coincidence of her birth or blood, its earned, and she did not earn nor want it.

so when a character that suggested the utter evisceration of marginalized groups, and thereafter tried to murder a personification of colonial survivor’s guilt and endangered practices, is consequently left to mourn her superiority, just as her father before her, its smth we sympathize with within reasonable boundaries. when her brother, who she abused, doesn’t martyr himself to azula’s interiority, instead laboring towards his own destiny and happiness, rather than the genesis of azula’s redemption, that is not inconsistency, it’s peace. its making peace despite the fact that some would rather rot in the entrails of imperialism than afford its victims value, would rather hurt others, and in turn themselves, than embrace healing and progress

— (plus inflicting his values may not in fact heal, when healing is not inherently uniform, and growing is not innately moralistic).

now, there’s a whole nurture vs nature angle to this as well and these ontological arguments are often touchy, yes zuko had ursa and iroh. yes zuko was forced to challenge his preconceptions, but zuko wasn’t diametric to these things, and the supplementations he did receive were always compensatory. zuko was deemed genetically inferior by ozai and thusly ostracized, hence ursa’s gentle partiality, zuko was then mutilated and exiled, and naturally needed supervision, which was provided by an overseer who mirrored his disgrace. if denied these safeguards zuko would’ve been denied even palliative care, whereas azula was perceived as needing none when she was revered positionally and familialy.

yes being pit against zuko was toxic and destructive but its not at all equivocal to the outright abuse zuko suffered. ofc the threat of it was implicit but those who abet or orbit abusers are not inherently under threat, and i think azula is characterized similarly. it's not fear that colors her outburst against ozai, nor coerces her silence, its entitlement and a sanctifying of hierarchies: “i deserve to be by your side.” - it’s respect that earns her silence and it’s the promise of respect that goads her acquiescence, the prospect of accumulation. this is ofc not a healthy mindset to have bc azula hinges her value on perfection, performance and status, and it's evident how the pressure of that collapsed her, but it was a pressure she had embraced before. it was her adeptness that ozai latched onto, and before the inviolability of it was challenged, azula took advantage of her nature, she weaponized it, and it was that eagerness that ozai exploited.

as viewers we process this as the objectification it is, but its reality, is a systemic natured dehumanization, ingrained in any culture that seeks to mechanize its constituents (which is all societies actually. we are all complicit). ozai thinks he is honing her as did his father and his colonialist forefathers prior, and herein is not abuse in the conventional sense, but rather a tradition of commodification that extricates skill and hegemonizes personhood, it’s an existential death necessitated by imperialism. it’s the death of agency. azula embraced this necrotic philosophy until she was confronted with the consequences of her rot, and *that’s* what she got. consequences. of which she was spared throughout.

it was never personal.

sure we get glimpses of her humanity, her vulnerability, but they’re paltry and muddied too by an undercurrent of duplicitousness. azula flaunts zuko’s impending demise, yet later, includes him in her outings. azula relishes zuko’s mutilation, but also fetches him from the beach house. she falsely welcomes zuko back, then implores he join her sincerely. and azula shares her pain from ursa yet spurns softness still, from MaiKo’s juvenile fondness to ursa’s own guiding attempts. azula is ceaselessly cruel to zuko, then spontaneously benevolent to him once he has seemingly subsumed the apparatus of colonialism. and gives him credit for killing the avatar, yet shows a sly inclination of his revival. this isn’t to insinuate that azula is ontologically evil or that she’s an unnuanced, mono-faceted individual. and she was a child. yet zuko’s youth didn’t spare him from the grotesque terrors of death and alienation, and it didn’t temper her perpetual antagonism and bloodlust, she is demonstrably self-serving, and this is evidenced throughout.

this is not to shame her in her passivity, nor an expectation that she martyr herself or even commiserate with her brother. rather, her downfall is a reaping of autonomy, made subject to the tendency of one’s active leanings. in which the choice of her sibling abuse exacerbated her societal abuse, all festering, foremost, the abuse of her own soul.

so, relatedly, is it not possible that a character of her cunning, who emotionally degraded her own sibling while gleefully championing his attempted imprisonment, before graduating to attempted murder by preparing to electrocute him while he was enfeebled on the ship, then later tried to kill aang, tried to kill katara, gloated abt intending to kill zuko at the air temple, injured iroh while making her escape from the gaang + zuko. also endangered and coerced ty lee into joining her, imprisoned mai, nearly killed zuko as he tried to save katara (which was likely her intent, or at least meant to cripple zuko’s composure — dishonoring the agni kai) — need i go on. azula’s benevolence is conditional, and consistently transactional, and so is it not possible then that she gauged zuko’s swaying allegiances against her own armaments - when faced with iroh, a waterbending master, an earthbending master with groundbreaking abilities (>_-), and the literal avatar, after observing their – plus aang’s growth, and having been cornered before, then decided rather, that having another asset, puppet, contingency plan, in her pocket wouldn’t hurt.

maybe she was being benevolent, or maybe, azula, who too sat in liberated territory and was gifted a chance for growth and morality, rejected that chance over the value therein, tenderized for extraction, parasitizing instead. maybe azula too, was acting in the imperialist tradition of exploitation. maybe she holds the capacity for compassion and care — which we have gleaned regardless — but the tangentials and hypotheticals of the world are often not what is actualized, and they are not a thing that can be affected. empathy is an active pursuit, and it is mutualistic, provisional — and so there is not a ‘who’ of azula’s redemption, but a what, the ‘what’ that is to be influenced. the personalization of one’s own form, of an internal receptiveness to commiserate with. bc as is, azula is merely a husk of colonialism, and being a husk of colonialism is meant to be sad, its deliberately tragic, unflinchingly pitiable. disorienting. life shattering. that’s what you’re meant to feel, it is not an inadvertence of zuko’s arc, and it is not a coincidence of the narrative.

she is a trajectory within herself, and her fate is a whole within itself. just as zuko labors towards rectifying his nation bc he needs to, bc there is value in dismantling colonialism, not bc the imperialists are owed it, but bc everyone else is. zuko also watches, not with apathy or boredom as his sister implodes at this, but with pity, with grief, bc azula manipulated herself a bed of corpses, and it is not him who must choose not to lie in it. when healing is intentional, is active, and zuko has chosen to heal. when azula cannot be handheld and shielded from her war crimes and systemic violence bc she wasn’t hugged enough as a child. zuko too lost a core sense of support mournfully young, and moreover at many points in his development journey, but the inclination that told him to speak up in the war room is doubly the same inclination that told him to afford jin affection, or help the earth kingdom family, and save his crew member in the storm, despite this very vulnerability catalyzing his banishment.

azula had friends and she had adoration and she had paternalistic validation, but contentment is unattainable when accumulation is your driving force. and the only thing left to cannibalize is yourself. with this, azula’s downfall was not only inevitable, it was natural, foretold even. and just as iroh doesn’t adhere to whatever deficits were sewn unwittingly into ozai, nor is it demanded — it also isn’t azula’s fallibilities that now damn her. azula isn’t the “bad sibling”, devoid of nuance, she’s the bad person™. despite it all.

katara has ptsd and toph is blind, sokka is a non-bender and zuko was deemed handicapped then maimed thereafter, instability is not azula’s punishment, its an externalization of her decay, and its meant to be unrelenting and all-encompassing, because abstraction and objectification are totalitarian afflictions. likewise, her condemnation is not a consequence of gender marginalization, tho the undertones of spoilt brat tropes and somehow unconventional, inevitably crazed women sully our palates. we taste bias even where it perishes, even as the fire nation is seemingly meritocratic, and unabashed, imperfect girls are idealized story-wide. from toph to azula herself, who may be conflated for a sanist archetype, yet challenges gender roles and infantilization in her prowess and militancy, as she’s sterile and calculating and impassive, where zuko is feeble and undermined, aimless, emotional. she is far beyond any trope, contrivance or embellishment, and doesn’t flourish or encumber zuko’s arc, as he equally isn’t made to for her’s.

azula is a force beyond zuko, until she can no longer deny him, and azula haunts zuko until she doesn’t, until her own crossroads loom, her contrived dualism of failure or victor, aggressor and victim. and she is forced then to reckon with loss. azula’s end is not a reductionism at hands other than her own, her fall is not zuko’s win, nor does the show frame it gloriously, there is no joy in her misery, no minimization of her tragedy, from the score to the tone, in her chilling, animalistic pules, azula languishes in her self-destruction, and it is one entirely independent of zuko. with this, we are shown azula’s nuance, the unthinking allyship she inspired, yet the coercion and dereliction it veiled. the camaraderie and kindness she offered, to warn zuko against visiting iroh, to credit him unduly, yet the threat it masked, to stay unadulterated, to stay unctuous. the vilification she detested, and yet the love she scorned for its fragility and irrepressibility. ursa doesn’t confirm azula’s worst fears, ironically, sadistically, any love she may have held haunts her, is nearly derisory. impossible.

and while no debate exists that ursa neglected azula, or that she failed her duty to nurture and cater her parenting to azula’s needs and interiority, the factors that complicated that, such as ozai’s own domineering hold, alienated mother and child from any means of cultivating real love, and thusly the influences azula did ingest were brutality, unchallenged in nature, entirely singular. it’s a self-flagellation, a ritualistic and sustained self alienation, amputating any vulnerability, all perceived pluralities.

so azula, despite not consistently having her perspective expressed, still encompasses the products of colonial rearing, and its destructiveness isn’t meant to be contested, sugarcoated, not with others and not with the self. fascism has denied us azula the person, and that may be a consequence of format, but it isn’t a consequence of the narrative. nor realism. we are meant to acknowledge azula’s complexities in the intentionality of their artful crafting, while not undermining that architects of oppression still bleed. one can see themselves in azula’s struggles, in the humanity of her endeavors, while not decontextualizing the tenets of her positionality, while not undermining that every character that claimed their redemption, did so by choosing another, by loving.

and azula’s journey to love, to embracing her own humanity, is a journey solely her own. this isn’t to say that she doesn’t deserve support or guidance or love or care, but that’s not the point. that wasn’t the intent of her character, and that wasn’t the thematic priority of the show. it's an extrapolation. bc some ppl suck and that’s ok. and there are ppl you cannot help and that is ok. and sometimes the ppl you love will suffer, and that has to be ok. bc sometimes you choose yourself, sometimes you choose what you can, and that is ok. it is okay to grow, and it is ok to move on. that’s the point. it is ok to spit out the poison. forgive any tactlessness therein, but it’s a tough pill, and its meant to have an aftertaste.

however, it's not cynicism that one is meant to internalize, and it's not intended to inspire fatalism either, although the symbology of azula’s toxicity is excised, the human struggles she encapsulated remain, the intimacy of our empathy persists, and it will color the fire nation’s vices and pitfalls. bc when one can’t just will away indoctrination, as we saw with both azula and zuko, and even still with paku or toph’s parents, as hierarchies are intersectional and multifaceted, and in the trials of decolonization there will thusly be azulas’, but there will also be zukos’, and pakus’, and sokkas’. all with their very intimate, equally human complexes to confront, unravel and rectify. just as there sit your perspectives, as there too exist my own influences.

and while zuko may merely be a beneficiary of the prevailing zeitgeist (tho imperialism explicitly requires non-consent lol), where azula once functioned, and he may be no more ontologically owed redemption than azula, or deserving love over her, when in the forever-war of subjugation, it isn’t abt ontology or criteria, nor logicisms or hypotheticals, its abt action. so zuko tries. and that resistance, that anti-colonial praxis, is a good start, it’s the most meaningful start. zuko isn’t king, or redeemed, bc he’s genetically “good”, its bc he tries. that’s the point. not how efficient he is or how proficiently he embodies apparatus.

reparation. that’s. the point. the triumph of resistance juxtaposing the tragedy of complacency. bc nothing is immutable, and so nothing is too far gone.

.

.

Besides… it’s only a kid’s show heh.

[azulaaaaaaah]

atla/tlok characters that i think did *it* (but i just can’t prove it)

this is the most unserious post i’ve ever made. (AND I WANT TO PREFACE BY SAYING BY *IT* I MEAN KISSING)

Sozin and Roku

and history will say that they were just great friends…

this is the only one where ill legitimately die on this hill

like i’m 90% sure roku just showed Aang their friendship in the flashbacks to prevent awkwardly explaining to a 12 year old monk that he was romantically and/or physically involved with the person who committed a g*nocide against his people

LIKE CMON WHY IN THE WORLD WAS SOZIN SO PRESSED IN THE BACKGROUND OF ROKU’S WEDDING ??? AND FOR NO REASON?? WHY WAS THEIR FRIENDSHIP SO INTENSE?

sozin i feel loved roku (to an obsessive level) and roku literally dgaf. king shit

Wan and Raava

genuinely what the fuck was going on between these two. like i don’t even have any words

canonically at the very least it was a domestic partnership

S2 korra doesn’t make sense at the best of times. imagine trying to explain the intensity of this pair’s devotion to each other, to someone who hasn’t seen the show- all the while knowing raava is a disembodied spirit practically older than time

she’s the embodiment of everything good and light in the universe and he’s just wan. (and he’s wanough <3)

‘do you think we’re soulmates in every life?’

‘bet’

‘wait that’s not what i-‘

Cabbage Merchant and his cabbages (or at least a cabbage)

yeah i’m not touching this one with a 10 foot pole

Every member of the red lotus squad

ah yes it’s my favourite evil polycule

amidst plans to kidnap children and topple monarchies what else is there to do except… kiss.

let’s be real there’s something so inherently romantic about being apart of an elite, vaguely murderous anarchist squad

they all share one exact bed. it’s canon

(p’li somehow big spoons all of them)

The S2 Nomads

these dudes are the textbook definition of anti-monogamy

like they’re obsessed with love so i fully believe that they think ‘it should be spread amongst others’ or some shit

oh to be a travelling communist nomad in a band, wandering the wilds with my wife, and our several partners

they’re somehow the opposite of the red lotus and yet the same. they all share a single bed/sleep area

The dangerous ladies (but all separately)

i don’t ship any of these particularly and yet can still admit that it’s canon

ty-lee and azula have kissed bc azula probably made up a dumb excuse like ‘oh i don’t want my first kiss with a guy to be… erm… bad’

mai and ty-lee have kissed because they both probably have genuine, vaguely deep rooted romantic feelings for each other

mai and azula have kissed to purely spite zuko (and yknow what ty-lee too)

HOWEVER A KEY ASPECT TO THIS DYNAMIC: azula is completely unaware about the ty-lee and mai thing. it’s uh… better off that way.

Hakoda and Bato

i ship this about 50% but like… it’s got to have happened once right? considering all that down time they spent together on a boat away from the repercussions of water tribe society…

also considering they were leaders i doubt the other warriors were in a position to ever call them out on it

like cmoooooooon what’s a little kiss between the homies every now and again?

hakoda is where sokka gets his rizz/flagrant bisexuality from and i can’t change that guys

[sharlmbracta]

i can't help but think that the two firelords in aang's fever dream would've been ozai's previous, early-staged designs, from the concept of the "firelord" to the concept of "ozai"

1.

this guy literally has fire shaped eyebrows and a fire nation insignia (or what it used to be?) stuck on his forehead. his blatant (stereotypical?) theme from his appearance is powerhungry(small eyes, bulky form), greedy-arrogant(eating grapes as a symbol?), brute-forced(war-themed clothing). I think this could be the very first design of him when creating the first idea of the "ultimate hero" and the "ultimate villain". The marks of the "first" can also be seen from the clothing design (the scarf? napkin? thingy around his chest) and simple color choices (simple red with simple yellow).

also you can see that he was agreed to have a very long and thin beard from the beginning which would feed on the "wisdom" "intelligence" and "strength" propaganda

2.

again, simple red and simple yellow.

clothing looks rather flashy, which means this look of him was also made at early stages of development and the atla fashion in general hasn't yet been stabilized. (: the flair in his wrists and the thing that goes across his shoulders to his chest. makes no sense. the top half looks like a flashy sleeping robe while the bottom half looks like... an outdoor activity metal skirt?)

he looks older than the previous one. does he? he looks more manipulative though. i think this is where his "slick tongue" personality was established bc a narrow eyes, narrow eyebrows character design kinda points to a stereotypical "rat person". i think. again long beard. that points to his high status or whatever.

this design looks like it was given to an earthbending trainer who haggled on money rather than actual teaching, who was assigned by toph's parents to be her earthbending teacher

3.

this is the very first time his face is actually shown. in seasons 1 and 2, his face was intentionally hidden, probably a tactic to bubble up the audience as "what could a monster like him look like 😱".

but ironically, he's a very normal looking guy. in fact, the most normal looking guy the designers could ever make intentionally. No part of him that could make anyone go "yep this is the face of the villain." this design of him is meant to convey that looks are often the most deceiving to your judgement. this ALSO shows when the gaang finds his baby picture in his beach house on ember island and mistake him for baby zuko.

it represents that everyone can go crazy with propaganda and an insane amount of power. like aang said, how everyone is capable of "great evil" and "great good".

taking katara's quote on the baby picture, "but he looks so sweet and innocent": his "innocent" look acts like a mask he puts on, as well as the mask of neutral expression, on top of the mask of his slick tongue.

the only thing that changes from here on is the frame of his face for anatomy i guess

below is also an impacting scene in my viewpoint:

how his face contorts from this

to this

in less than a second at azula's proposition of "burning it all to the ground". shows him that he's able to mask everything as he want it to, especially about stuff like neutral-face and power-face as that is NOT his ego-high power-tripping face:

THIS is his ego-high power-tripping face

and this is him putting back on his slick face right after a moment of being unable to mask his shock-rage and consequently rage-stripping himself

"now the universe delivers you to me like an 💅act 💅 of 💅 providence 💅" yep the providence that single-handedly blew your fucking ship up

also i forgot that the scene right after defeating ozai existed, i forgot how much of a drama queen he is:

"i'm STILL ALIVE"

and "i AM the phOEnix KING"

ok girlie fellow girlie

one more thing: he sounds genuinely proud of zuko when he commends him for "slaying" the avatar. and he reprimands aang for being "weak even with all the power in the world". looks like he really does think everything around power and ONLY power. hmm, i wonder who taught him that, hmm? tragic.

[peony-pearl]

The Avatar and the Fire Lord

hokay folks strap in because I have a bunch of thoughts in my mincemeat brain and I hope I can make sense of them letzgo

So The Avatar and the Fire Lord. It’s an episode! I don’t have too much of an issue with it but lately the final speech with Iroh definitely brings up questions. Don’t get me wrong, the symbolism in the speech with Zuko about his duality is great - but under the layers its a little wonky.

At this point, it hasn’t been an issue with Zuko about ‘good or evil’; like it kind of is, but it’s not what’s on Zuko’s mind. It’s not whether he sees himself as good or evil - he was just a boy that wanted to go home (and, you know, the son of the dude in charge of a whole generations-long war), and now he’s unhappy. He’s certain the Avatar is still alive and the stress is killing him. Also, his life itself just isn’t what he thought it would be. He’s plagued with guilt over Iroh’s fate but still has such issues with his anger that he lashes out, even at Iroh himself.

Iroh, the man with potentially more blood on his hands than his little brother, our big bad villain Ozai, is telling Zuko about his two great grandfathers. One good, one evil - The Avatar and the Fire Lord.

But this isn’t the first time Iroh has used ‘good’ to speak of the Avatar (at least I’m pretty sure this is what he was going for bc he was trying to get Zuko to change sides)

Iroh is telling Zuko about the good and evil inside of him. Zuko, who has been so wrought with turmoil, that it must be an issue of ‘good’ vs ‘evil’ - only for Zuko it’s a lot more than that. It’s an issue of a boy plagued with so much self-doubt, so much fear and anger and pain.

So then, what of Azula?

It’s no secret that if Iroh attempted to send a letter to Azula about being Avatar Roku’s great granddaughter, she’d either laugh it off - or see things the other way around.

Fire Lord Sozin, in her eyes and (possibly) the Fire Nation is THE hero of the story. Avatar Roku was in the way of their greatness - and the current Avatar is (supposed to be) dead, to which Azula saw to herself with her own lightning. The Avatar is potentially the evil in their narrative.

Azula would then most likely tell Ozai that Uncle has found a way to send letters outside of the prison, trying to sway members of the royal family, and things would get hairy for Iroh and whoever was sending the letters.

Good vs. Evil.

Iroh, part of the ‘evil’ side, is the one who is trying to get Zuko to side with the Avatar to bring balance back to the world. Iroh, who once called himself a changed man and champions self reflection and peace, calls his heritage ‘evil’; and yet Zuko, with his ‘good’ lineage is the only one who can restore balance in the Fire Nation.

Let’s take a step back and forward at the same time.

Iroh, who was once the crown prince, who besieged Ba Sing Se for 600 days, who was a decorated general, and thus had so many battles under his belt; so much destruction, so much pain and chaos; he denies the crown.

Iroh, who decides to shake his entire ideology to liberate the city he once attacked. Who tells someone they are wise to choose love over power. Who encourages new beginnings and spirituality.

Iroh has had these two ideologies himself. Good and evil. If Iroh’s entire lineage is more evil than Zuko’s, who has ‘good’ lineage because of the Avatar, what does it say for a man who deserted his ‘evil’ grandfather’s goals of corrupting the world? Or does Iroh himself deny the crown because he has caused such horror, and he does not deserve it? He has reveled in bloodshed once before - does the world need to see that man on the throne?

Or, maybe it speaks for a man who no longer needed validation in the same way two children do. It was still a feat to break the chain, the mould, of something at his age that was ingrained in him the same way as his niece and nephew and son, but Zuko and Azula are still incredibly young.

And yet, they (the writers) also didn’t think that maybe this would be a prime moment to speak about Azula’s potential at being ‘good’ after Zuko actively chose to join her and denied his own first shot at ‘goodness’. Was Iroh the same age as Azula when he proved his path to being a great general? Was he already wearing armor at 14, and can thus look at Azula and see his own faults? And that of her father’s?

Is this the evil in him? To dismiss his niece who’s never had a chance because he’s seen this before? 

Or does he consider the evil in him to be the man that led his son to an early grave? Or both?

That Iroh is so aware of the dysfunction of the family that he once perpetuated... and continues to do so because he is one man, already broken and shamed and hated by all but Zuko. Iroh is mortal. Iroh is flawed. But so is everyone else, mortal, flawed, without all of the answers.

Regardless of Zuko’s answer, we eventually see Iroh bust out of the prison and join the White Lotus.

Iroh has made his own decisions.

In the context of the White Lotus, surely these are ‘good’, as he is joined by men of other nations; nations he and his family have helped to destroy.

Would they join an ‘evil’ man?

[stanlunter]

She-Ra AU, where Catra has a personality, similar to Azula from Avatar... What would Catra's relationship with Adora be like (both before + after Adora's betrayal)?... Would Catra's redemption happen earlier? 😺

This question actually made me think, thanks!

Well, tbh It's hard to say what it would look like

To Catra be similar so Azula, her relationship with Shadow Weaver and Adora should be completely different which would already change a lot

For ot to happen, Catra suppose to be the one who works hard to be stornger than Adora. And I can see her becoming stornger, but when Adora turns out to be She-ra, Catra would prolly start to hate her for being "special"

Also I think Adora just wouldn't be friends with Catra if she was like Azula. Basically their while friendship was based on Adora protecting Catra bc of her hero complex. But here Catra doesn't even need a protection. It's others need to be protected from her, lol. So I think their relationship would be more as rivals, than friends and every time they fight Catra would rather want to show Adora that she's stornger and that Adora is a failure that "decided to escape, bc she knew she's too weak". Adora would prolly treat Catra the same way Zuko treated Azula (think she's just bad and getting annoyed by her), but Adora would prolly also see that Catra is a victim of this competion and would actually feel sorry for Catra that she has to always prove she's better and etc. Unlike Zuko, Imo Adora would feel empathy towards Catra)

Hordak would be more like Ozai for Catra and SW would rather be Like Ursa (she would def be afraid of Catra this way). While Hordak Imo would start trusting Catra more

Also the Horde would 100% defeat the rebelion, just bc Azula is super smart

About redemption tho... It's hard. I would say, the main difference here is that Azula-Catra would NEVER go as far as Catra did with the portal. And all the things she has done wouldn't be done bc she hates everyone and Adora, but rather for the Horde and to prove Hordak she's a better Force captain. So Azula just wouldn't be as evil in this way.

So, since Catra wouldn't even open the portal, her redemption arc would be easier, bc she didn't "cross the line" here. I think Catra should have seen that Adora is happy without proving anyone that she worths it. She doesn't need to be the strongest and the smartest to be loved. And based on it, Catra would slowly realize that she's not gonna be happy by proving Hordak she's strong every day. Catra would also see the damage she and the Horde have done and she def wouldn't like it and it would be the root of her redemption.

The first act would be a mercy to someone. Doesn't matter to who, but most likely to a citizen, mb even a child. And if Adora seen it, she would realize that there is still good Inside of her and she's not all that bad. She would mb even try to talk to her, bur at first Catra would reject it.

During her whole arc she would probably think about it a lot: the damage they do to the citizens and that she's doesn't need to prove herself to Hordak to be happy and loved.

So, after some strong moment of getting disappointed in Hordak (it could be basically anything) and realizing that he doesn't care about her and just uses her as a weapon, it would be a final straw and she will betrays him and somehow help the heroes

I don't think she has to join the good guys tho. Help him yes, but it would be better for her to just leave and go away somewhere else. But ofc, before it she should get along with Adora and admit that she's good and that she deserves good things that has happened to her

But then leave and find her own way and her own people who would care about her...

But that's another story!

Again, thank you for this question, it was actually interesting, I liked thinking about it. Actually, this au is just so good that I would even want to read or see something with this!

[orcelito]

Oh yeah, some more thoughts about LOK

So I'm currently 2 episodes into season 3. It's wild as hell that they made the whole Ten Thousand Years Spirit Battle a... season 2 thing?? Like sure OK it directly leads into the current situations, but you'd think something that Big And Epic would be like. The Final thing??? Anyways, I didn't care for the designs of the spirits, they were boring and unintimidating. The evil spirit breaking free and he's just a fucking slip of black and red paper?? Am I supposed to be scared of this???? Then the fucking titan fight in the harbor... gaudy as hell. It was unexciting and tacky. I liked learning about the ancient history of the avatar, but I didn't care for the ending of the season. It was just kind of boring.

Season 2 is looking more interesting though, if for nothing more than the antagonists they're introducing. No idea who they are yet, but they're cool af when they fight, and that waterbender who has no arms & uses water as an extension of herself instead??? That was cool as FUCK. I hate that she's an antagonist bc I'd love to see so much more of that. Everyone keeps talking about how bad these people are, but idk man they're really cool and I'm enjoying watching them, so maybe we can just hear them out for a moment maybe 🥺

Kind of sad that LOK is doing such separate narratives per season. Like from what I know, they weren't sure if they were gonna be renewed between seasons (aka why season 1 was the clusterfuck that it was) so I don't truly blame the creators. They were being jerked around by Nickelodeon a lot. But I still miss the cohesiveness of atla. Each season kinda had its own main antagonists, Zhao being traded off for Azula in season 2, but the big baddie was Always gonna be the firelord. And the entire narrative about Zuko spanning all three seasons, like. I miss that!!!! That kind of well thought out character development, where every season he's growing and changing and developing into the person we see in the end. It's one of my favorite things about alta!!!

In the end, LOK just feels so... idk, lackluster in comparison to atla. I'm still primarily enjoying it, since it's got some good characters & the humor has been entertaining. Just. As a whole... it definitely isn't as good as atla.

Oh well. Different shows & all. I'm still gonna see this one to the end.

[ssreeder]

I will admit... Seeing your stark defense of Jet has mellowed me out. I still want him to be knocked down his high horse, and i saw the spoilers that the fuck may or may notndie and the arm thing, but... Fair enough, the shit head does have a conscience. Miniscule and close to non existent, but it is there

Honestly i wouldn't mind the asshole to stay if he has a breakdown or two about being the salt of the earth or whatever the saying goes. Like i want to see him like ara yknow? Borderline driven crazy from guilt, and then pulled back from the abyss. I'm fine with that as revenge for snitching and being the sooe responsible for announcing zuko is alive to like half the earth kingdom officials

Anyways guess who is about to SCREAM bc my boy Zuko does not deserve all of this. I'm at the part Ho Lon cleaned zuko up and yknow what? That's another one i want thrown off his high horse. "Ooh the earth kingdom aren't evil, ooh we wouldn't do that" bitch you're in a war and ppl are shit, shut up, quon is fucking evil. And How? I'm terrified about what that one might do

Chang. Lyn. My amazing people that better survive or I'm hunting authors for sport (with all my love of course bc i do adore your writing), and TALKING ABOUT HUNTING. AZULA. AZULA IS HERE. I SWEAR TO ALL THAT'S SACRED. Of all the things to stick to canon with, if zuko goes to the fire nation with azula and all that shit I'm burning something. Like a building. You'll be responsible for that (again, just for clarity's sake, I'm joking). I can not. I repeat. Can NOT deal with something like that. I refuse to. I think my heart would refuse to. I'd go into cardiac arrest if that happened. Can you oive with that? No you can't, so you won't be evil and cruel. Right?

Iroh... Oh, when he sees zuko. Like i know, i just KNOW at some point iroh will see zuko's scars and Know and god that will be amazing. Will jet see zuko's scars? Bc i think that's the thing that would push him over the edge, to see the pain, maybe learn that sokka himself added to the collection... Ok i don't think that's even a conversation sokka would have with jet i can admit i just want to see the pain and shock of ppl if they knew this boy that's so fiercely loyal to zuko is one of the people that scarred him, and then see sokka's reaction to that reminded bc that's GOOD right there. Prime hurt material without breaking zuko again

-Fragile heart anon, lmao

I'm sorry this got so long, I'm just trying to gather most of my thoughts so i don't keep spamming you with asks, i know it can get overwhelming. I hope you're having a great time and once again thank you so so much for writing this amazing (painful) story

yeahhhh…. Jet eaten alive by guilt is very unlikely. Jet slowly having a shift in the way he sees the world and learning about the gray of war and how it affects both sides…. Perhaps? Idk he’s a tough nut to crack. (& trust me I CRACKED him)

Omg I’m so excited you’re scared about General How because LET ME TELL YOU - He is fucking splendid. Damn good man, 10/10 would recommend:) haha.

Dudeeeeee if Zuko goes with azula to the FN THAT WOULD BE SO FUCKING FUNNY HAHAHAHA… that is some shit right there haha… that wouldn’t happen…. Right? No…. Right?…

(I think you’re giving Jet too much credit because idk if he would care about zukos scars unfortunately my baby hates the fire nation and it’s not the same effect as seeing the ones on Sokka…. Damn it Jet be nicer or don’t I just enjoy his problematic personality so much)

I love your asks FHA & im sad your caught up because that means I won’t get anymore unless…. UNLESS???? jk idk where I’m going with that I’m tired.

[evilkitten3]

i love good sibling-evil sibling roleswap fics bc they can be extremely interesting but almost all of them end in reconciliation and happiness and whatnot, and while that's fine, it always seems to have the "evil" sibling coming back to the good guys' side after the good guys, y'know, talk to them, and very often doesn't seem to notice that the reason that didn't happen to the canon evil sibling is bc they didn't do that. it's the same in thor-loki swap fics as it is in zuko-azula swap fics (although the dynamics are somewhat different since the parental favoritism in atla is given to the "evil" sibling)

i keep thinking, if azulon had ordered ozai to kill azula instead, would she even bother to tell anyone? she certainly wouldn't tell zuko. if she told ursa, would she even believe her? would ursa take the same risk in killing azulon for her daughter's sake? bc i'm not sure that she would.

or, if azula somehow got banished (the circumstances would have to be different; there is no way azula would be that reckless in a meeting she wasn't supposed to be in, even if she managed to talk someone (definitely not iroh) into letting her in), would her mission be the same? would someone go with her, or would she be by herself? and if zuko never went looking for the avatar, how would that change him?

atla au fics very often have zuko end up on the good guys' side regardless of circumstance, and i feel like, intentionally or not, it's bc there's a belief that there's some sort of inherent quality he has that would make him have the opinions we in the real world would consider to be the morally right one, which i feel is sorta unfair to zuko as a character.

zuko's redemption arc is often portrayed as "he saw the effects of the war on the rest of the world and realized it was wrong", which is somewhat baffling to me bc every instance of zuko seeing the impact of the war occurs before the finale of book 2, meaning that seeing the damage the war had done wasn't enough to stop him from wanting to go home. zuko's redemption arc was deeply personal– it wasn't about other people. i don't think that's even really a bad thing, frankly - he's sixteen, and people are complicated. from the get-go, zuko's character arc has been self-centered, and i don't mean that in a bad way, it's not at all a bad thing. he wanted to capture aang so he could go home. he betrayed ozai bc he realized that ozai treated him horribly and he would never be able to be himself there. when he confronts ozai, he acknowledges that the war is and always has been wrong, but the thing is: he knew that already. he'd known that for a while by then. the knowledge that the war was wrong wasn't enough.

and to be clear, i think that's a good thing! i think that's good writing, that it makes zuko more complex and interesting. zuko knows right and wrong; even when he's an antagonist, he intervenes in situations where the fire nation soldiers are doing something he views as dishonorable. he's willing to stand up for what's right on a small scale, but it takes him a really long time to decide that what he should actually be doing is confronting the much bigger problem, and that's something he only becomes able to do once he realizes how bad the war and the fire nation have been for him.

zuko's redemption works bc it's an active decision he made (several active decisions, technically) that depended on him staying true to himself and abandoning conforming to the people who had power over him. a redemption arc for azula can't work like that bc they're not at all the same. for starters, while azula is also selfish, her character goals for most of the series aren't. they're still bad, bc she's an antagonist, but where zuko was acting to restore his own honor, azula's initial goals are to serve her nation (which is an evil nation, but that's not the point).

i think fics where zuko tries to get azula redeemed are quite interesting, but they often miss a key factor: one of the areas where azula and zuko are very similar is that they both absolutely despise feeling weak in any way. when iroh tries pressuring zuko into doing something he doesn't want to do, he tends to lash out– zuko doesn't like being controlled, and iroh eventually realized that zuko was going to have to come to the not-evil side on his own bc dragging him there forcibly just made him want to rebel. at the end of book 2, zuko chooses azula over iroh bc azula realized that it had to be zuko's choice, made for himself. iroh tried to push zuko to redemption before he was ready, but azula gave him a choice. ironically, iroh verbally acknowledges that zuko needs to choose, but he still opts to try and force his hand. both azula and iroh are being manipulative here, but the difference is that azula frames her argument as a choice zuko is not obligated to make, and iroh doesn't. zuko chooses to return, just as he later chooses to leave again.

forcing azula to try and gain "redemption" won't work for the same reason it didn't work for zuko. it would have the same effect– she would just lash out, only unlike zuko, as demonstrated here, azula is significantly more dangerous (and, depending on your interpretation of her breakdown, significantly less stable).

the reason a lot of attempts at azula redemption fall flat to me is that a) azula is often the only character who seems to need redemption, while mai and ty lee seem to have been declared good guys by the powers-that-be offscreen despite having never shown anything but full support for the war and being just as involved in the fall of ba sing se as azula, b) her redemption often being framed as something necessary not for any specific thing that she did but instead for simply being in the first place– pre-14yo azula didn't need redemption; her only crime was being kind of a dick to her brother (note that all of the pre-series being a dick to zuko occurred when azula was 11 or younger, bc zuko was gone for three years), and c) iroh is almost always in his little tea shop in ba sing se and everyone's completely fine with that.

i've rambled much more than i meant to so i'll finish up with one final thing i haven't been able to stop thinking about: it's been a while since i watched the show, so i may be misremembering, but i'm fairly certain azula never even implied wanting to be the fire lord until ozai told her he was passing the title to her.

Azula has already done this. Azula can breathe fire from her mouth like everyone else in her family. I know it’s not a big deal, but it always makes me laugh how people are so quick to remember Zuko’s fire vortex but forget that Azula has enough abilities to name her best fire bender just on paper via the same comics.

[sexybeee]

Azula Deserved Better

After doing research watching the show nine times,I came up with a list of reasons of how Azula was mentally/psychologically abused by Ozai/suffered from Ozai’s cruelty. 

1.  Growing up, Ozai conditioned Azula to believe that she needed to be the very definition of perfection to receive any form of love from him. She followed Ozai's orders word for word. It's unsurprising that the damaged little girl inside gets overshadowed by the self-absorbed, power-hungry personal Azula wears.

2. Technically, Ursa was still present for Azula's and Zuko's young-childhood era. However, Ozai's blatant favoritism compelled Ursa to show more affection toward her son. Flashbacks of her childhood show Azula being neglected by her mother, making her immensely jealous of the special mother-son bond Zuko had. The lack of a maternal figure in her life planted the seeds of psychological issues in the her. Azula harbored deep-rooted pain and resentment towards her mother and brother. And, her (later) evil behavior stemmed from these beginnings. And, Ozai never really loved Azula, he just saw her as a powerful soldier. As a weapon. 

3. Mai openly declares in "The Boiling Rock" that she "loves Zuko more than she fear Azula." This reveals that truly no one in Azula's life cares about her, not her friends, not her family, possibly not even herself. As stated in #2, Ozai just saw Azula as a powerful weapon. 

4. The whole fact that in the last episode, Ozai was like “Sike-ur not coming”. LIKE THE ONLY REASON THAT OZAI WAS THAT CLOSE TO WINNING WAS BC OF AZULA. SHE CONQUERED BA SING SE. SHE CAME UP WITH THE PLAN. BUT THEN HE JUST DISCARDS HER. AND HE GIVES HER A POWERLESS POSITION, JUST TO MAKE HER THINK SHE’S HAPPY. That manipulation can mess someone up. 

5. She was raised with Fire Nation propaganda. Y’know how she and Zuko see Ozai talking to Azulon? There’s a hc that Azula would sneak in there to watch war meetings. That shit messes up people... 

Ofc, one could go on and on ab how AZULA WASN’T PERFECT AND SHE POTENTIALLY SUFFERED AS MUCH AS ZUKO, BUT MY FINGERS HURT FROM TYPING. 

Also, sorry about all of the caps, I forget to take off the CapsLock and them I’m too lazy to change it. Anyways, thanks for reading my TedTalk.

[aziraphalesbookkeeper]

⭐️

Sorry I didn't get to this last night! Boy one thing I want to rant about is my atla tangled au. I'm doing an atla au oneshot for Varigo week, but i accidentally wrote the whole plot of the show in my head lol oops (Under the cut since it's so long!)

Varian and Eugene are cousins from the Southern Water Tribe. Varian is a nonbender who steals shit out of the wrecks of old Fire Nation ships to build his machines. He relies on his inventions and chemical bombs to "do his bending." Eugene is a waterbender who really hates where he lives (he wants SUN and TROPICAL BEACHES and BABES) but he can't leave because something something village responsibility. But that all changes when they meet the avatar.

Raps is the avatar, obviously. Pascal is a giant dragon/chameleon that can camouflage himself so no one can see them when they fly around.

Cass is Zuko. She wants to live up to her mother Gothel's expectations and earn her love by capturing the Avatar. She can shoot lightning a la Azula bc her mom is so damn powerful.

Hugo is a criminal running an underground earthbending fighting ring for one of Don's many Ba Sing Se hustles. the Raps crew thinks it might be a good idea to try and bribe a criminal to teach her how to earthbend since technically the state has labeled them as criminals too. Cue Varigo meet-cute where Varian realizes Hugo is rigging all the fights with his earthbending so the house takes home most of the betting money. Varian threatens to tell everyone about it unless Hugo teaches "his sister" earthbending.

When Hugo realizes Raps is the avatar, he immediately says no. He does petty hustles, he doesn't do WAR CRIMES. Don encourages/forces him to travel with them anyway because think of the money the Fire Lord would give us if we turned over the Avatar!!

The journey goes on like the show. I imagine The Crossroad of Destiny is when Hugo does his "betrayal" and leads Cass straight to Raps. Varian gets taken by Fire Nation soldiers since Cass knows he can build weapons and forces him to build war machines. The gang is split up, Raps is so injured she's basically dead, Varian is kidnapped, Eugene isn't sure what to do, and Hugo is in Turmoil since he's horribly in love with that little water tribe shit and this is all his fault.

Hugo finds Eugene and Raps hiding out in the southern air temple. He's like hey ik you hate me but lets do a jailbreak a la the Boiling Rock to get Varian back. At this point Cass has also had her doubts about Gothel since mother doesn't really care about her or give her any love now that she's found/killed the Avatar. Maybe Rapunzel had been right all along and Cass can make her own destiny.

Varigo + New Dream are reunited. Cass shows up like "✌️ Hi everyone, Cassie here." Rapunzel encourages everyone to trust her despite how they think she might still be evil. Cass and Raps discover a new friendship as they both learn how to firebend (or it can be gay if you want too Raps has two hands).

THEN THEY ALL TEAM UP AND DEFEAT FIRE LORD ZHAN TIRI THANK YOU GOODNIGHT

[lyllicoris]

SPOILERS // avatar the last airbender (atla)

a small analysis/rant of c!dream (+ a little c!techno) basing from atla

—

you know, ive rewatched all of atla for the reason of studying villains and redemption arcs (also bc i rlly love the show).

at first, i thought i would see more of c!dream in zuko, but when it got to the end, i became conflicted whether he would be taking the zuko or azula route.

zuko had uncle iroh believing in him with genuine love and support. he had the courage to regain his own honor and choose to change for the better all because he had someone to guide him. he also had his mother when they were younger before she vanished. he was accepted and forgiven by the others bc he swallowed his pride as he faced his own mistakes and failures.

but azula had no one. everyone attached to her was out of fear and she controlled them bc she hasn't learned how else to keep ppl. ty lee and mei weren't genuinely friends with her. they followed her out of fear (hence "my love for zuko overcame my fear for you" - mei). azula was still deeply hurt by their betrayal. she was also abused by her own father and raised to be this perfect killing machine, a tool for him to use. when everything was going perfect for her, all of that mental toll of having to be perfect and powerful caught up with her, breaking her down ultimately.

both of them had their own baggage loaded, filled with abuse, hate, and rage. in the end the ultimate fault is on the parents, namely ozai.

i wanna clarify that dsmp is no where near atla. there's no proper "main character" in dsmp where everyone is supposed to be "neutral", unlike atla, which is obviously aang. theres MANY many differences subjectively and objectively speaking, but paralleling the character from dsmp with characters who are solidly written (more professionally), it's good to see.

c!dream was seemingly all like azula for a whole second: closest friends (dream team) turning on him bc he's horrible, terrorizing the whole smp for total control, the clear pure evil maniac who was finally locked away before they could complete their final goal, and of course: very mentally unstable.

if there's anything dsmp and atla had in common, it's that the bad guys always got some issues behind them, just like every human.

thing is, c!dream could have a chance for a zuko path. there's.. c!techno, who could be the "uncle iroh" we need.

i mean seriously.. feared retired warrior that took down a nation, a LOOOT of previous war crimes, has rlly bad ass fighting skills, has a secret organisation that is transcends the governments' hold, changed his ways, and has a great sense of humor that can be rlly uplifting in a therpy kind of way??? hello??

c!techno is giving c!dream hope like uncle iroh gave zuko.. well. that's all depends on what the hell the dsmp writers has in mind.

will c!dream just go batshit insane, or can he.. redeem himself?

[vortexbeyondthestars]

decided to post some of my ideas for a ninjago/atla au besties. tell me whatcha think

under read more cus its kinda long lmao

some background first…

here, the first spinjitzu master is smth that doesn’t actually exist in avatar bc i couldn’t for the life of me figure out what to make him so now he’s like… he’s basically the child of all the original benders: the badgermoles, the sky bison, the dragons, and the moon spirit combined. he was born of their powers, and he was the first avatar, kinda like this au’s version of raava i guess?? so this au’s version of vaatu is the overlord, and like in ninjago, they have this never-ending rivalry. and the overlord is an avatar, too, but more of a dark one. it only cares about corruption and evil.

the first bending master, as he’s called in this au, manages to banish the overlord into the spirit realm, but he knew that one day, it would return. so he creates a land called ninjago and fills it with people of all kinds, each corner of the world having one type of bending. he gave the humans bending, but only one type for each person.

he didn’t want a repeat of the overlord.

so then he has two sons: wu and garmadon. he hemmed and hawed over what elements to give to them, but eventually he chose. wu gets airbending, the element of life and serene and calm. garmadon gets firebending, rough and harsh and the element of destruction. his fire is violet and incredibly hot.

everything goes fine, and the first bending master manages to keep balance of the world as its avatar. except the overlord does indeed return.

garmadon gets corrupted by its spirit and is bitten by the great devourer. he becomes obsessed with power and wanted to be the avatar more than anything in life. he believes that his father was holding his powers back because he didn’t trust him. and he believes that his father was going to hand over his power to wu after he died. and he couldn’t have that.

wu notices his downward spiral and suggests that he take a trip to visit the mortals. maybe that would help him realize that there is reason for their father being the only avatar in the world.

so garmadon goes down into the mortal plane. and meets fire lord chen and his second in command clouse.

fire lord chen is quite interested in an old legend of what is called the serpentine: ancient tribes of snake people said to have been born from the hatred and despair of the overlord, led by the toughest and the greatest, the great devourer. chen wants to bring these serpentine back, and at first garmadon agrees to help him, if only to get revenge on his father.

but he snaps out of it, because he realizes that its the great devourer’s fault in the first place that he’s like this. he betrays chen and clouse and warns wu of their plan, but without telling him whose plan it is. together, the brothers manage to gather together an alliance of the greatest bending masters in the world. garmadon wants their father to help, but wu gives some unfortunate news.

the first bending master is near his deathbed. he is very, very ill, and he is thousands of years old at this point. he wants rest.

so, naturally, garmadon is conflicted about this. he’s ecstatic bc he thinks that he can gain the powers of the avatar once his father passes, but also he’s sad, because, well, thats still his dad after all.

but anyway, the bending alliance manages to defeat the serpentine and seal them away in the spirit realm, like the first bending master had done to the overlord. this… turns out to be a bad idea.

fire lord chen and clouse both manage to shift the blame away from them, and since garmy was the only one who knew they caused the plan, he lets it happen. because he still is a bit evil.

something happens that gives him hope, though: he meets misako, who might be the love of his life. (also in this au that weird love triangle shit don’t happen) they get married, and for a while, garmadon seems perfectly sane. but.

the first bending master dies.

lloyd is born almost right after.

no one makes the connection, though, thankfully, but it is enough for garmadon to lose whatever sanity he had left. he completely goes insane.

he races back to their family monastery believing that he can and will gain the powers of the avatar, somehow, but he doesn’t. and that is too much for him to take. all of this… all of this… waiting… for nothing?

garmadon stares at himself in the mirror. he looks down at his hand, at the bite mark blemishing his skin, and grabs a ceremonial knife. he laughs to himself and places his hand on the mirror, slowly raising his knife towards it… he thinks he can stop all this pain in one easy swoop.

garmadon, sneering at himself: maybe… maybe this will fix it… if i just cut off the damn thing…

first bending master, in the mirror: i would not recommend it, son.

garmadon, face falling: why are you here?

first bending master: i came to speak with you. and to try and help you.

garmadon, snarling: don’t pretend like you care about me! i know what you really think. you think i’m a monster.

first bending master: i think you’re conflicted. the part of you that wants to be the avatar so badly you are willing to kill for it… that part of you clashes with the real you. the one that wants everyone you care about to be safe. your brother, your friends, your wife… your son.

garmadon: *laughs and turns around* why should i care about them, father? they don’t care about me! not my brother, not my wife, not my so-called friends, and certainly not you! the only one who does care about me is my son, and thats only because he doesn’t know any better. he’ll leave one day too.

first bending master, solemnly: you are wrong. i do care about you. i always did. i love you, garmadon. i do.

garmadon shakes, his hand gripping the knife tighter. his mouths trembles, and eventually turns into a scowl. he whirls around to face the mirror and slams his knife into it, shattering it into pieces.

he gets worse from there on. he begins to attack people left and right, villages and cities, even going so far as to consider breaking the serpentine free. he doesn’t get that far, though, because his brother interrupts him.

wu is very concerned, bc, well, garmy was a bit weird but never straight up insane like he is now. so he heads over to his family’s old monastery. there, he finds garmadon, seething and stewing. garmadon doesn’t take his arrival well.

garmadon: ugh! for once, can’t you just leave me alone?!

wu: no, i cannot. this isn’t you, brother! you must snap out of it!

garmadon: this is me! this has been me for my entire life, wu! i can’t change it now, and i can’t even be the avatar. what’s the point?

wu: the point is that father trusted us to take care of ninjago once he passed on. we have a duty.

garmadon: father was a fool, and father was selfish! i am remaking the world in my own image, an image that won’t let anyone have the kind of power that he did, except for those who are worthy!

wu: that’s crazy! you can’t just pick and choose who gets to be the most powerful bender in the world!

garmadon: isn’t that what father did, though, when he died? who is the new avatar, wu?! tell me!!

wu: i don’t know. and neither will you, if you keep this up.

garmadon: *laughs* are you threatening me?

wu: i am.

garmadon: fine. you want to take control of ninjago over me? fine. fine. fine. i challenge you to an agni kai! the battle that was always meant to be.

wu: very well.

garmadon: for the record… i’m sorry it had to end this way, brother.

wu, sadly: no. you aren’t.

cue final agni kai type fight, light vs darkness. fire vs air. obviously, wu wins, and manages to chain garmadon up so he can’t attack anymore. garmadon then has a complete psychotic breakdown like azula, complete with the spitting fire and sobbing hysterically while wu watches sadly.

wu banishes garmadon to the spirit realm, because he doesn’t think there’s anything else he can do.

ninjago is saved.

or so he thinks.

see, chen and clouse are still around. as are the serpentine, biding their time in the spirit realm. they meet garmy and decide that they should work together. garmadon, so torn up by hatred and despair, agrees to help them, if he gets to destroy his brother.

meanwhile, everything is going good.

lloyd is the avatar, obviously, but he’s only like. thirteen when he finds out. he’s an airbender avatar and lived with koko (bc its my au and i get to pick the mom i use) in one of the air temples (idk which one tho). he’s raised believing that he’s just a random kid who happens to serve the avatar, kinda like kyoshi.

that avatar he believes he serves is none other than morro, the adopted son of airbender sage wu. morro is four years older than lloyd, and he was just revealed to be the airbending avatar. morro, of course, is thrilled. but he also gets an incredibly big ego over it, believing that he is better than other people bc he is the avatar. the reason he was thought to be the avatar was because he appeared to waterbend at one point, but it is later revealed to have been simple airbending that pushed the water.

but morro doesn’t realize or know this until its too late. and when he does… its a shitshow.

basically, lloyd and morro are sent to meet with fire lord chen and his daughter skylor, along with wu, koko, and some of the other air sages. skylor is a chi blocker, an incredibly talented one who has mastered all of the different bending fighting styles even tho she herself is a nonbender.

ok so clouse is obviously there. he recognizes lloyd via koko and is fucking pissed. he’s like my ex-boyfriend rival’s son is here?? what the hell?? so he keeps a close on eye on lloyd bc he doesn’t like him. morro, meanwhile, is treated like a king at the palace bc chen wants to get into the avatar’s good graces.

and uh. well, as it turns out, morro isn’t the avatar…

they’re attacked by the serpentine, bitter at the bending masters for having locked them underground. morro is excellent at fighting, but lloyd has more adrenaline.

and lloyd firebends.

cue shock and horror and anger from all sides.

wu is the most horrified of all. the son of his brother… the man he banished… is the avatar?

so yeah thats the background AT LEAST. i dont really know what happens after that but lloyd runs away or something. i will write more i promise!!!

[reinerispretty]

rotations. (zuko x f!reader) pt 14

hi everyone!! i hope you’re doing super well :) thank you so much for reading rotations and for sending me so many kind words!! you all mean the world to me and i rlly mean that bc i am a very emotional person hehe

pt 1

pt 13

pt 15

There were enough rooms in the house for everyone to have their own and, out of habit, (Y/N) picked the room that had once been hers whenever she stayed with the royal family. It was eerie how little it had changed. It was like it had been frozen in time since she had been eleven. Half-finished letters to her friends on the mainland remained on the desk, their scrolls crinkled at the edges with age. An old painting of her and Zuko hung at her bedside. She took it down immediately and shoved it into a desk drawer. 

“This place is amazing!” Sokka yelled as he ran up the steps of the beach house. After being attacked by Azula and being forced to flee the Western Air Temple, at Zuko’s suggestion, the group decided to fly to Ember Island to hide in plain site among the Fire Nation. On their way there, Zuko and Katara had gone on a separate mission to track down the man that killed her mother. While (Y/N) understood the necessity of Katara finding closure, she disapproved of her doing it with Zuko. She especially disapproved of how friendly the two seemed when they returned. Katara had always been her confidant in disliking Zuko and it seemed he had won her over, too. 

(Y/N) stopped at the end of the stone path, looking up at the ornate designs carved into the wood that symbolized to who this house belonged. The last time she had been here was years ago, but it felt like it was a lifetime away. So much had changed since then. 

Katara nudged her shoulder with her own. “Everything okay?” She asked, a small smile etching into her features. (Y/N) pursed her lips. Katara was the first person that she had ever told the full story of her past. She remembered choking on her words a lot because she was unable to find the happiness in her once good memories. Now that they were back on Ember Island, it was like everything was flooding back to her at once. 

“Yeah,” she said with a nod, but it was just a second too late to convince Katara that she was being honest. “Being back here just weirds me out.” 

Everyone had once again changed back into their Fire Nation clothes and while (Y/N) was comfortable, she felt completely exposed. Like anyone could recognize her at any moment. She had to keep reminding herself that it had been years since these people had seen her. 

There were enough rooms in the house for everyone to have their own and, out of habit, (Y/N) picked the room that had once been hers whenever she stayed with the royal family. It was eerie how little it had changed. It was like it had been frozen in time since she had been eleven. Half-finished letters to her friends on the mainland remained on the desk, their scrolls crinkled at the edges with age. An old painting of her and Zuko hung at her bedside. She took it down immediately and shoved it into a desk drawer. 

She dropped her bag and began taking the sheets off the bed so she could wash them. A flash outside of her door caught her eye and she leaned back to see what it was. In the room across the hall, Zuko was hanging clothes in his wardrobe. She tensed. How could she have forgotten that their rooms had been across from one another? It would be doubly difficult to avoid him now. 

She tried to talk to Zuko as little as possible if it could be avoided. It made her upset, seeing that all of her friends were gradually becoming more friendly with him. She had been happy before he had entered their group and she would be happy again once he went away. All she had to do was wait it out. 

Quickly, she gathered her bedsheets into a bundle and darted out of her door, down the hall, and down the stairs, where Katara had already set up buckets of water and soap to wash their clothes. She silently sat down beside her friend and began scrubbing. 

“You’re gonna rub a hole into those if you keep scrubbing so hard.” She looked up to see Katara raising an eyebrow at her. 

“These haven’t been used in years, I just want them to be clean.” In reality, she wanted to scrub those sheets free of the long, sleepless nights she had spent thinking about her future with Zuko. 

“I’m surprised that Zuko wanted to come back here,” Katara said in an effort to start a conversation with him. “The last time he was here, he was with Azula and those two girls.” 

“Mai and Ty Lee.” 

“You knew them?” (Y/N) nodded. 

“I went to school with them. They were all a grade below me. Ty Lee ran away and joined the circus and Mai had the biggest crush on Zuko.” She frowned and Katara must have noticed it, because her friend giggled. “What?” 

“Are you jealous?” 

“Why would I be jealous? Zuko can date anyone he wants. I don’t care.” Katara hummed knowingly and (Y/N) splashed her with soapy water. It irritated her that friends were always trying to act like they knew something she didn’t. 

After they had finished doing laundry and eating lunch, the entire group wanted to sit on the back steps of the house to enjoy the nice weather. Despite being in the Fire Nation, Ember Island was beautiful and its weather was almost always temperate. Everyone besides Aang and Zuko sat while the two boys practiced their firebending. Aang was getting better with each passing day, but (Y/N) noticed he was still holding back. With firebending, you have to give it your all, or else your flames would be weak. She told him this as he ran back to the steps for a water break. 

“I want to be able to be in control of my fire,” he said. He glanced over at Katara, who looked away. She knew he still blamed himself for accidentally burning her. 

“You can be in control and still put your whole being behind it. Firebenders attack with their whole self, because we have fire inside of us. You have it too, you just need to let it out.” 

“(Y/N) knows what she’s talking about,” Zuko said. “She was one of the best prodigies back in the Fire Nation.” 

“Don’t do that,” she snapped at him. Zuko looked at her, surprised. “Don’t just bring up the past like we’re reminiscing on good times.” She stood so she was eye level with the former prince. “And you’re crazy if you think you can get back on my good side just by complimenting me.” 

“(Y/N)-”

“No! You’ll let me speak. For years I tried to reason why you would just drop me like I was nothing to you. Like we didn’t spend ever summer for years on this island, together, and that I didn’t spend almost every waking moment of every day at your side. You left me in the Fire Nation and even after our fights, even after you captured me to take me back to the Fire Nation as a war criminal, I still believed that there was some good in you. You sure fooled me! You had been fooling me for years and I just never realized it. And then, after everything I said to you in your uncle’s tea shop, you betrayed me. You ran home to the people who had been nothing but evil to you from the moment we met and left me in a prison to rot!” 

This was the most she had spoken to Zuko since he had joined their group. The fire that raged in her eyes was apparent, and Katara was close enough to see the flames dancing on her fingertips. 

“And then you want to come here and act like everything is fine? You want to befriend my friends, the people that cared for me when you didn’t, and bring up the good times we had and just completely forget that for the past three years you treated me like I was nothing! Every fight we had, I held myself back because no matter how hard I tried to, I couldn’t hurt you!” 

She shot a fire ball at him that missed by a few inches. Zuko stepped back as (Y/N) walked down to the beach. “You want to be here so badly? Prove it! Fight me!” 

“(Y/N),” Zuko began. 

“I challenge you to an Agni Kai!” The words came out of her mouth before she could stop them. She and her friends realized the weight of what she had said quickly. Zuko set his jaw, his fists balled at his sides. 

She regretted what she had said as soon as it came out of her mouth. She was just so angry and as she looked at Zuko, it was hard to not get angrier. Angry for leaving her behind in the Fire Nation, angry for betraying her in Ba Sing Se, and angry for being able to fit himself back into her life so easily. 

(Y/N) made the first attack, which Zuko dodged. She shot flames at his head, body, and feet and their friends watched in astonishment as they jumped, flipped, and kicked their way around each other. 

“It’s like they’re dancing,” Suki said. Aang narrowed his eyes. 

“He’s on the defense,” he said. 

“What?” Toph asked. 

“Zuko isn’t fighting her back.” 

Their friends could feel the flames get hotter as her anger toward Zuko eventually took control. She was getting sloppy with her movements and instead chose to shoot fire at Zuko every chance she got. Katara stood to diffuse the situation, but Sokka grabbed her arm. 

“They have to do this,” he said. 

(Y/N) was ruthless. She knew she didn’t want to hurt Zuko, but she couldn’t stop herself. Years of anger were reaching their boiling point in this battle. 

“I don’t want to hurt you!” Zuko shouted at her. 

“You already did!” She shouted back, jumping into the air and smacking her fists to the sand, sending a wave of fire at him. The flames had spread around them, encircling them in a ring of fire. Her fists were lit with fire blasts. “Fight me back!” She screamed, shooting balls of fire at him. He had been dodging her attacks and slashing through her flames. Not once had he shot fire at her. “Do something!” 

“I won’t!” Zuko shouted over the roar of the flames. “I don’t want this!” 

(Y/N) could feel the tears streaming down her face. If he fought her, she would have a reason to retaliate. She would have an answer for hurting him, just like he hurt her. Zuko’s amber eyes stared in to her own.

“I won’t fight you.” 

She was twelve again, watching with tear-filled eyes as Zuko knelt to the ground in front of his father, begging him for mercy. She remembered the fear in his voice and the way he screamed when his father burned him right after he had said the very same words he was saying to her. “I won’t fight you!” 

The flames died down instantly. (Y/N) brought her hands to her mouth and slowly fell to her knees, her body shaking with sobs. Her tears hit the hot sand around her. 

She felt strong arms wrap around her and pull her body close to theirs. Zuko rested his chin atop of her head and rubbed her back, his own tears sliding down his cheeks. She pulled away to look up at him. Her eyes were red, her cheeks puffy from her tears, and her bottom lip quivered as she held in a sob, but Zuko still felt his heart skip a beat. 

“I’m sorry,” she cried. “I didn’t mean--I didn’t want--” 

“I know,” was all Zuko said. She wrapped her arms around his middle and hugged him tightly, tucking her face into his neck like she had when they were kids. They sat like that for what felt like hours, until one by one, they felt their friends wrap their arms around them. 

---

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[sporksaber]

Ok, I love the role swap concept with zuko and azula, but I feel like they switch their abilities and personalities a bit too and I think itd be more fun without that. Where Azula is an antisocial and unstable genius who wants to gain power and zuko still struggles with being the less powerful and extremely empathetic sibling. So here's how I'd do it.

(Note, this is just for fun. I'm not saying anyone else's version is bad. But I've though about this so much and need it out of my head before I go off cuz make a whole comic and I do not have the time, i need to work.)

First off, Azula wouldn't call out in concern for the men like how zuko did. In my version she's allowed into the meeting because of the aptitude for strategy shes shown. She speaks up because it's an inefficient plan that uses up too many resources when there are other options. This enrages her father and leads to the agni kai. Azula is terrified and feels betrayed but has no idea how to handle any of it. She fights back during the agni kai, but in her panic she sets off a bolt of lightning. Ozai finishes the match and severely burns on her lower back. Azula is banished for her use of lightning on the fire lord (bc ozai fears she will no longer be easy to manipulate and might plot his death) and is forced to leave the next morning.

Some things to note: azula is eleven at this point. I changed the placement of the scar bc I think zuko's is very symbolic in a way that doesnt suit azula. Zuko's scar being over his eye and close to the light chakra shows the way his view of the fire nation and honour obscures his vision and how he is unaware of the truth of the world under fire nation rule. I set azula's over her spine because that chakra is based on survival and blocked by fear. It also represents trust which will fit into her arc with the gaang. Finally, she doesnt have Iroh to guide her. One of the things that bothered me was Iroh writing her off as evil despite her being a mentally unstable child. She did have to be defeated, but the way he talked about it was too dismissive. (Personally I think he was projecting his views of his brother and his perceived failures with him onto her.) Azula isnt sent to capture the avatar so she isnt given soldiers. She's completely alone without an advisor to look to or keep her calm.

Azula is given a manned ship with a disgraced soldier and an attendant when she leaves. The way I see it the soldiers zuko had were probably more irohs than his. The soldier is relieved to not be executed but hates being demoted to playing babysitter to a child at sea. The attendant views it as a punishment and hates Azula for it. Eventually the attendant will betray her and be killed for it. Azula never trusted the soldier and he eventually leaves to start a family in an earth kingdom colony. Azula doesnt miss him, he was no longer useful. The loneliness does get to her though.

Azula is obsessed with getting the underhand, so she had been successfully building connections and planting spies where needed.

(Zuko has been acting as a respectable crowned prince. He holds a zealous loyalty to his nation and father. He still faulters as Iroh tries to steer him from tyranny, but his sights are set on his father's approval and that alone. Afterall, if his prodigy could be discarded who's to say what would happen to him if he failed?)

This brings us to the start of the series. Like Zuko Azula witnesses the trap on the old fire nation battle ship go off. She investigates and finds that an air bending avatar is living at the south pole village. She decides she wants to speak with him.

Azula didn't believe the avatar existed before this point. Hiding didnt add up to her knowledge of the morality of airbenders, so she assumed the air nation avatar from the start of the war would be dead. She would know if one had appeared in the water tribe, as the south had all its benders killed and the north was compacted so close together it would be impossible to hide. Earth would be harder, but they were most likely to fight back and out act. And if in ba sing se they'd be used as a weapon or gotten rid of to preserve the peace of the city. Once the culcle progressed to the fire nation it would either be used to take over the other nations or enf the cycle for good. After all, there hasn't been an air bender for a hundred years even if the rumors of some acolytes surviving were truthful.

Azula kidnaps aang with far more ease than she should of been able to. Once he stops struggling she calmly offers him tea and promises to release him once their discussion is finished. He takes the tea and drinks it without question and besides a wary glare shows no more hostility. She thought him a fool, the tea could have easily been poisoned and promised are nothing but words. His naivete makes her job easier though.

She finds out that he was suspended frozen in the avatar state the last 100 years. And so, Azula informs him of the war and the fire nations crimes, advising him to master the elements if he wants to prevent all his new friends and the avatar cycle from certain destruction. Aang is conflicted, he never asked for any of this. Azula just gives a bitter smile. "The hands of fate were never designed to take requests, they move without regard to any life dependent on it. Dont waste your breath when there is nothing you can do."

Azula wants to see Ozai fail. If helping the avatar is what it takes then so be it. When his friends appear to save him she let's them leave without a fight. Theyll be useful in the future.

As the gaang's travels kick off she sets out to find out if the rumours about the acolytes are true. In this she finds a traveling circus. The youngest daughter and an old friend of hers was eager to escape and found Azula's life exciting. She didn't hesitate after being invited along, insisting that traveling would be easy for her and that she'd pull her own weight.

She encounters the gaang a few times as time goes by. The relationship is reluctant on the water tribe siblings part, they dont trust her and hold a decent amount of fear towards her. Her cold and calculating demeanor was unsettling, but the unhinged way she fought was terrifying. Her form was perfect and her attacks were precise, but the bigger the fight the more lost she became as she laughed and shrieked and occasionally snapped at someone who didnt seem to be there. The only worse reaction was when she zeroed in on one opponent, picking them apart both mentally and physically as she drove them to the ground. )

Things that'll happen as I move through an episode list:

Azula doesn't have her ship attacked do she diesnt run into zhao while doing repairs, instead going straight to ty lee.

Azula learns that the gaang is on kyoshi island and heads ther after them. She has been keeping track of the avatar as they move. Ty lee gets along well with the kyoshi warriors while azula buts heads with them. They dont want her there and azula hates it when people get in the way. Zhao appears to try to capture aang and Azula dips at the same time as the gaang. She tells ty lee she can stay but she insists on sticking with azula. This puts her on edge.

Ty lee gets captured by earth benders, when she escapes on her own she cements her usefulness to Azula.

They run into zhao trying to capture the avatar and azula tells him she'll capture him first. They both attack aang during the solstice, though azula's attacks are all purposefully set to miss and trip up zhao as much as possible. Aang is the best way to prove her father wrong and she's not going to lose that.

They rob the pirates that try to capture the avatar. Azula needs the resources and it gives her leverage over the gaang.

After almost killing ty lee for scaring her by popping up behind her Azula tells her why she was banished. (In more of a "my own mother thought I was a monster" way than an opening up about trauma way.)

Azula learns that zhao has captured aang and frees him. She then sets to reworking her information network as not all of them are scared enough of her to not fail her. She remedies it quickly.

Azula learns that zhao is plotting her assassination and decides it's the perfect moment to fake her death.

Azula enters the north pole to defeat zhao and gain any information she can. Ty lee rades a library during the confrontation. Zhao is surprised and infuriated to see her alive, Azula smiles as she sends him to his death knowing that she is not only helping the avatar but also that he gave her a perfect way to hide from the fire nation. (When news of his sisters death reaches hum, Zuko doesnt know what to think. She was always cruel to him, but she was still his little sister.)

The crown prince of the fire nation is sent to capture the avatar. Azula follows him as he begins his search. (Zuko begins to think he's going insane as he keeps catching glimpses of his recently deceased sister out of the corner of his eye.)

Ty lee keeps running into a girl she slowly befriends. She's gloomy and sarcastic and ty lee thinks Azula would like her. (Zuko's fiance Mai tells him that she thinks his sister is still alive.)

As Azula notices ty lee become more and more distracted as she absorbed herself into the cultures that surround them she decides it's best for them to split up. Ty lee diesnt agree, but Azula leaves anyway. She has work to do.

While traveling alone Azula cant escape the thoughts of her mother. Of her fathers betrayal. Of the life she lost because the idiot elders had no grip on proper strategy that even a child could create. She meets a boy that reminds her far too much of zuko with a mother far to similar to theirs. When she sends the bandits controlling the town running she knows it's more than just controlling a territory that compelled her. But at the same time she doubts not following through on the whim would have bothered her.

Ty lee meets toph and chat for a bit. Ty lee tells her about azula and how she left. When toph tells her she should forget her she insists that azula didnt really ditch her and that they're still friends. They talk about their friends and childhood.

Ty lee finds Azula and immidiently jumps at her, which she does not enjoy. Ty lee insists that she still wants to travel with her and Axula sighs as she let's her tag along to the next location, ba sing se.

Azula slips through guards and protocols as she tries to gain any information she can to help her once they reach the city. Ty lee befriends a guy named jet and his group, the freedom fighters. When he tries to get more than friendship she turns him down and it becomes much more awkward.

Ty lee becomes a street performer and chames everyone she meets as Azula researches the dai lee and how they keep control. After lashing out in frustration ty lee drags her out to enjoy the city's night life.

Azula learns of the presence of the avatar and location of appa. She frees him and sets to work taking control of the dai lee. She let's herself be briefly captured but her plan shifts when katara is thrown in with her. Katara is pissed just being around her and azula plays up a cool kind of annoyance. Katara briefly catches sight of the burns on Azula's back and offers to heal her, only for Azula to freak out and yell at her to stay away, backing against a far wall in a fighting stance. They are saved by the rest if the gaang and ty lee shortly after.

Azula goes back to try and salvage her plan only to be caught off guard by the appearance of her brother and his offer to return to the fire nation. Not willing to lose all possible advantages, she agrees. They battle the gaang, and when they are almost captured azula sends a bolt of lightning at aang, causing them to retreat. Katara can heal him more easily than she can maneuver them out of an execution.

Azula returns to the fire nation with her brother, mai and ty lee, starting the beginning of a large power play between her and her father. They are sent to lo and li beach house. The relationship between the siblings is tense, zuko has always been the child born with nothing who gained everything when his blessed at birth sister lost it all. Azula has always been cruel, but he cant help but let his heart catch on the moments when she's not. ("My own mother thought I was a monster, My father thought i was too difficult to keep around" "Don't let their words blind you, you need to be more careful, zuzu." "I learned the hard way to never turn your back to anyone, and the scars will always be there as a reminder if I need it." )

Azula runs into iroh, who is very disapproving of her presence. He warns her to stay away from zuko and to watch herself while at the palace. Later, zuko comes to her asking about their great grandfather. Upon being pressed he admits that he was sent a mysterious letter. He thought she was going to burn it when he handed it to her but instead the heat from the fire revealed a hidden ink. "Honestly brother, did you ever pay attention at all during lessons?" They find a autobiographical scroll of their great grandfathers life and the secret that their other great grandfather was roku. Azula scoffed at the idea of bloodlines deciding fate and quickly left. But Zuko remained conflicted.

During the day of the black sun Azula confronts Ozai. As iroh and Zuko fight the avatar. She learns that her mother left for zuko's sake and that she was never going to be fire lord. Azula tells him she'll be somthing even better and leaves the palace.

Azula and ty lee follow the gaang to the western air temple. Katara immidprntly attacks but is quickly rendered unable to bend by ty lee. Azula tells them that the only way for them to of gotten out was for Aang to be incapacitated, and she knew katara could heal him. Aang decides they can stay but have to stay distanced from everyone else.

Azula tries to teach aang fire bending but is slowly growing sick while aang is barely able to produce a puff of smoke. Unable to sleep and constantly on edge, it soon affects her bending, sending her spiraling as she loses control on the only consistent power she's ever had. Her and aang journey to find the true source of fire bending to try to help their conditions.

Still sick, Azula is itching to do anything away from the temple. Finding sokka trying to reach the boiling rock to find his father, she decides to go with him as she knows the prison well. Sokka declines but she goes anyway. They dont find his father, but they do find suki. Azula formulates a plan but they postpone when sokka's father arrives.

Azula comes up with a new plan, now reluctant to include sokka. He tells her to trust him but she insists she has no reason to. Her sickness has been getting worse and he tells her she needs to trust him, making her angry. Only when he catches her while they're escaping dies she finally begin to accept trusting him, if only slightly.

(While they're away ty lee tries to convince

Azula goes with Katara to find the man who killed her mother. Azula has no concept of why katara is so upset, which causes her to get angry. But azula tracks the man anyway.

Ember island players- azulas character has the scar across her chest. She's absolutely insane and "not entirely inaccurate, but I'd never come up with such a dumb plan." Shes also heavily implied to be more than close to ty lee, which azula has no reaction to even as the others freak out.

I havent decided the ending, zuko will probably turn to the gaang's side. I'll add more later and maybe write or illustrate a bit.

[peony-pearl]

YES at Mai and Ty Lee needing to unlearn!! I was going to include that but my brain has been a big jumble but YES!!! They grew up alongside all of this too! My only reservation was Ty Lee having been traveling in the circus but she obviously has no qualms about what she does alongside Azula so she hasn't unlearned anything in the circus.

And anytime Mai disobeyed Azula is was bc she just wasn't interested in doing a specific task, but she was all for fighting the Gaang and anyone who got in their way.

I've noticed how hard they're doubling down on Azula just being evil (but 'no one is born evil' right?? Unless you have the right amount of Sozin blood pfft)

it's really boring and stale by now. And like if they want to keep her in an antagonist role, fine! But like show her learning and unlearning and what that does to someone as intelligent as her. Show how she stops being so closed off bc that's what's keeping her in her 'monster' mindset (imo); how she uses it to cope with her losses and how Zuko and the Gaang continue to distrust her; but it HURTS because she starts trying to change but they won't give her any chances; and the pain is almost too much to bear so she still finds herself in old habits, hurting people and causing destruction, but after a while she just... doesn't want to do that anymore.

Show Azula, like Zuko, having to completely reshape her entire identity away from Ozai (and let Iroh be there bc I need it).

And yes, let the girls find her and they all have another Beach-style moment where instead of exploring who they are, they explore how far they've come, and their new dreams! Azula is hesitant to share anything though bc it's safer to remain in the past. But the girls can see she's making progress and they stick with her, almost in a reversal of her recruiting them, they're like 'well it seems Princess Azula needs our help. Ho hum, good thing she has us, right Mai?'

Because otherwise the lessons they tried to impart on 'no one is born evil' mean nothing no matter how poignant they tried to make it bc they're not even paying attention to it.

I really wish that when it came to Mai and Ty Lee that their 'turning good' wasn't just 'betray Azula and help Zuko = good guys now' like I get it but idk I feel like it's one of those decisions where the layers behind the characters and decisions don't mesh.

[seawitchkaraoke]

Your idea of who a character is is always going to be influenced by who you want or need them to be. You rarely get all of a character's motivations and reasons for doing things presented on a silver platter, unless they're the pov character (and even then you don't get everything). There's always things there for you to fill in and well, especially in the case of morally grey characters the things you fill in can be very charitable towards the character or they can be always assuming the worst possible option.

If a character gets a good redemption arc, usually enough of their reasons are explored and they properly apologize and are shown to regret their actions and genuinely change and that usually gets most of the fandom around to also seeing them in a charitable light.

When a redemption arc is pulled off badly or there isn't even one but the character is in some other way grey or can be argued to have good excuses.... That's when you split a fandom.

Snape, Kylo Ren and Azula are all examples of this. Idk about Kylo, I didn't see the last movie but neither Snape nor Azula get redemption arcs. Snape bc he dies before he could get a proper one, what passes for a redemption arc here is more a haha he was good the whole time, he loved lily anyway he's dead now so he's not gonna apologize to anyone and you're not gonna get an explanation for why he bullied kids, Azula bc the show ended before they could give her one, her main defense is that she's 14 when she does all that fucked uo shit and has the worlds worst dad for a father.

Now if you resonate with these characters (bc azula was 14 and abused and alone and snape was an abused bullied poor kid who only ever had one friend he lost bc of his own mistakes and kylo woke up to see hos own uncle stand over him with a lightsaber) you're gonna want to fill in those holes with good things - snape actually just bullied kids to keep his cover or dumbledore made him or harry is an unreliable narrator and it wasn't that bad fir example.

You're also gonna write or read fic that gives them the redemption arc they didn't get - azula gets to bond with zzko and learns how to be a person and interact with people without setting them on fire, snape apologizes about all the stuff and maybe actually makes a friend apart from lily for once and learns to be a person without constantly getting torn between two masters.

But if you don't resonate with them? If snape reminds you of thst horrible teacher you had who bullied you relentlessly or azula of your terrible toxic abusive sister or kylo of your creepy stalker ex boyfriend.... Well then seeing people like those characters, actively come up with reasons why their behaviour wasn't so bad or they didn't mean it or writing about other characters forgiving them... It's gonna feel like a blow. Like they're excusing your abusers. And you're gonna be angry which is fair.

But at the same time if you identify with these characters for whatever reason hearing people condemn them and say they don't deserve redemption is also gonna hurt! If you've made mistakes and redemption arcs give you hope bc it means maybe you can grow from your mistakes and be forgiven too, then hearing that "they're evil and unredeemable!" hurts.

The important thing is that no one is really wrong here. The version of the character you have in your head is probably evil and unforgivable. But the version the other person is thinking of, maybe has the same name and technically the same canon background but they're still completely different.

So I guess the main takeaway is don't harass people over which fictional characters they love or hate. Don't go into each other's spaces to yell about hiw great/horrible this character is. We all need different things from fiction and that's okay as long as we respect each other