#azula deserves better

[lesviolyn]

i don't trust people who say "azula deserved it" like you can dislike a character and still have sympathy for them

[thefamilyjewels13]

spoiler for the azula comic

this broke my heart a little, and to know that Ursa doesn't give a shit about azula is even worse

[ilikepjo24]

A key point in Azula's potential redemption...

I have talked before about how I think that humiliating and torturing Azula in the name of redemption is ineffective, unfair, cruel, barbaric, inhumane, monsterous, ect...

I go into detail about why I think that in this post, check it out if you're interested.

It has come to my attention that people believe that Azula should be abused cause Zuko also got abused and the pain and humiliation changed him. In this post I will explain why that wouldn't work for Azula.

Mainly, it's because Zuko didn't just get abused. He got abused by Ozai. And that's a major detail, because it affects what Zuko thought of that abuse.

In Fire Nation, the Fire Lord is treated like some kind of god and everyone accepts it. People suffer due to bad economy (war and all) but it's okay because it's the Firelord's will send the Firelord knows best. Zuko being abused by said Firelord is what taught him that no, the Firelord isn't always good, he abuses his fucking kids, the Firelord can go fuck himself.

Zuko hated the fact that he was being abused and therefore to an extend hated Ozai for abusing him. That hatred is what made him able to view Ozai as an imperfect, non-godly being, that could be wrong in same cases and then helped Zuko realize that he was wrong about the war.

Zuko's hatred of Ozai's abuse is basically what triggered his redemption. That method worked for him. But it wouldn't work for Azula. And here's why.

Ozai is now out of the picture.

That's it. That's the reason why. That single detail is why the idea that Azula must suffer for redemption is logically impossible. Allow me to compare the situations:

Zuko was abused / Azula could be abused

Zuko hated his abuser / Azula will hate her abuser

Zuko wanted to destroy his abuser / Azula will want to destroy her abuser

Zuko's abuser was Ozai / Azula's abuser would be the Gaang and the peaceful society

Zuko hated Ozai / Azula will hate the Gaang and the newfound peace

Zuko helped ruin Ozai / Azula will try to ruin the whole world

Azula's redemption arc isn't happening during the war or by a character we know is bad. Especially if we say it's for the sake of redemption. Logically, the people that would want to see her redeemed would be Zuko, Mai, Ty Lee, Aang and potentially the rest of the Gaang.

So while Zuko's abuse made him hate a person that should have been hated, Azula's abused will make her hate people that shouldn't.

Zuko's abuse happened by Ozai and it made him Ozai.

If Azula gets abused, it will be by the good guys and it will make her hate the good guys.

Zuko's abuse was done by evil and made him turn towards good, which caused a redemption arc.

If Azula gets abused for the sake of a redemption arc by good, it'll make her hate both the idea of redemption and good in general.

You could argue that Zuko's abuse made him good but Azula's abuse would just make her more evil and that kind of defeats the purpose of doing it for the sake of redemption

Which is why humiliating/abusing- I'm sorry, "humbling" Azula wouldn't work for her the same way it did for Zuko, it'd have the opposite effect.

Thus proven.

And kudos to @hello-nichya-here for being one of the reasons I was inspired to write this post in the first place!

[nemesisazura]

[zuko-always-lies]

On all those "Azula needs to be humbled before any redemption is even considered" takes

Stop it. Get some help😊

[hellengomes]

Usually misenterpreted by the fandom, thinks of themselves to be an irredeemable demon/monster and attempts to behave as such, huge part of the fandom actually thinks that it's an undeniable fact that they are an irredeemable demon/monster (and that they should be punished / that they should be k*lled), fandom gives them some sort of mental illness to define their entire characters/personalities usually without thinking about all the trauma/pain/abuse they've been throught. They are literally just 14 years old which the fandom also tend to forget/ignore and continues to treat them as if they were adults who should have known better and that they should have behaved better, are quite the definition of "feels like i'm the worst so i always act like i'm the best", tend to mess with their own hair when upset/stressed/nervous(though this one might be a hc), are usually labelled as "always been a bad person" just for behaving acordingly to the situattion they are under, not very good at "comunicating accordingly", very good at analyzing/understanding other people but can't figure themselves out to save their lives, are actually very loyal, dedicated, caring and huge dorks deep down, have some major trust issues, have/had a "bubbly pink themed girl / friend" to give them the affection that they desperatedly need despite their usual cold/harsh attitude towards them, antagonizes themselves towards the ones they care about, the usually considered "questionable/wrong/bad/evil" thoughts/actions/behaviors that they have are understandable especially if you actually look by their point of view/put yourself on their shoes, they are doomed by the narrative and they deserve better.

(Some similarities between Homura Akemi and Princess Azula, as in how they are as characters, how part of the fandom views/treats them etc...)

[azureflamesideblog]

Here is the thing. I actually like the SET UP of Azula's role in The Search.

If they had done it well I'd even call the three comics some of my favorite! Cause there is some other, smaller things I actually liked in it. Again, if they hadn't screwed up with Azula so badly. Because yea, they totally trashed the set up they had.

The thing is, AZULA BEGUN TO ACTUALLY VENT AND TALK ABOUT HER FEELINGS WITH THE EVERYONE ON APPA. Like she ACTUALLY was talking about all of them seemingly instantly labling her as an enemy felt and how she feels on some level her mother is out to get her. Obviously not being in touch with reality there, but she is TALKING about it and not in a threating way that would shut any conversation down. Maybe a bit agressively but still, not truely threatening.

If everyone weren't so OOC, if they didn't have something insane happen every time she did this...the group with her might have even been able to work with her. Help her. Zuko spesifically.

This is why I want to have some hope for Azula In The Spirit Temple. It seems like Azula is gonna be forced to sit with these feelings and these ideas, mull over how she feels about them and what she wants. And how much those thoughts match reality. I just really hope they don't let the chance be missed again to actually move her character somewhere with that.

I don't care how small the move is, I don't chare how little it makes a difference within the comic itself. Just the littlest change after refelecting on the the things it seems she will be and I will be overjoyed.

[marianadecarlos]

Azula my baby

part 15 of drawing avatar screenshots

"What's more wrong; that I too wish to be great or my mother wished she'd had a son?" Brutus - the Buttress

[lesviolyn]

how i used to view azula's character vs how i do it now (part 1)

then: she was smiling at zuko getting burned. she was born evil

now: this was iroh's biased pov. in her happy dream she had about her family, zuko appeared without the scar

then: she deserved it. she's evil

now: when mai said "i love zuko more than i fear you" she went insane cause this is how ursa viewed her

then: even after all that, she still attacked zuko. she can't be redeemed

now: zuko visited her after 1 year cause he needed her help finding ursa. he treated her awful post-war

then: she was crying cause she lost the fight. she deserved to be locked up

now: she wasn't crying cause she lost the fight. she was crying cause she lost everyone she loved. she saw zuko getting comfort while she was screaming in pain. i wish someone hugged her.

then: she's angry that she can't burn ba sing se to the ground anymore

now: after losing ursa, zuko, mai and ty lee, she thought maybe she still had someone on her side. her father. but then she realized that ozai never loved her

then: they should've locked her up

now: she literally just got out of the institution after 1 year. she was having hallucinations. yet they couldn't even understand what was going on with her. aang was the only one being nice to her

[ukrainian-groove-metal]

you ever think about how Zuko had 3 years to come to terms with the fact that his father never loved him and Azula had like. two hours. like Zuko had this whole dramatic character arc where he struggled to do right and Iroh was there to support him meanwhile Ozai was like yeah here’s a hollow title shithead. gonna go burn the Earth Kingdom without you lol. if i got done dirty by my dad as bad as Azula got done i’d start shooting lightning with my hair down too.

[ilikepjo24]

How has no one addressed Zuko's unacceptable behavior at this page of The Search?

So, basically, Azula was getting a bit paranoid and accused the Gaang of working with her mother to take her down. That's not an illogical assumption for Azula to make considering that Ursa "showed up" after years of missing and Azula immediately loses in an extremely important fight. That, plus the fact that Azula has severe trust issues and is mentally ill would clearly lead to the assumption that Ursa worked together with the Gaang (at least from Azula's pov)

Now, what does Zuko do when it becomes ridiculously obvious that his sister, who's mentally ill, is having a bit of a slip up? He puts his fist besides her face and starts fire bending (you can see the smoke!)

He sees his sister going through a hard time and actively threatens to burn her face if she doesn't shut up and ignore her own issues!

AND ALL THE GAANG DOES IS BITCH THAT THEIR SOURCE OF ENTRAINMENT IS ZUKO ABUSING HIS SISTER INSTEAD OF FOOLING AROUND WITH TOPH!!

LIKE, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!

[gettingovershame]

I know that Azula fans tend to get shit for saying that Zuko is a horrible brother because he didn't make any attempts to save Azula as she was falling at the Western Air Temple. We often get told that it's because they were enemies and she was trying to kill him and his friends, so of course he wouldn't try and save her. I would probably agree if this one little scene from book 1 did not exist.

Zuko goes out of his way to save Zhao. The same person who nearly succeeded in killing him. Compare that to this scene here:

He makes no attempt to try and save her. Sure, she just attacked them. But that's still his sister. You would think that, if he cares about her like the writers claimed he did, he would have tried to get Aang to turn Appa around so that they could catch her, and then have him sigh with relief when she manages to save herself. That would have shown that he cared for her, not...this. And to make it worse, this is supposed to be redeemed Zuko. The Zuko in book 1 was nowhere close to being redeemed, and yet he tried to save Zhao anyway. This is just bad writing.

[zuko-always-lies]

[azureflamesideblog]

Okay. So, some thoughts about the Azula comic preview pages, bullet list style because it makes it easy.

So the fire warriors Azula has got DOES have some real connection and bond between them that Azula herself isn't a part of. That is interesting. Mostly because it is implied Azula freed them all. It isn't not fitting Azula is useing them but, interesting to note. And begs the question if or not this may change. If so, how much if it really means anything.

Ty Lee with the attacking! Ohh that will be juicy. I love so much seeing her confident, and unafraid of Azula.

SO my first throught about this is Azula imagines Zuko with NO SCAR. In her perfect, dream scene Zuko is never burnt! And he is impressed by her.

Ursa and Ozai seem to at least have a warm relationship here too. VERY interesting.

It looks like Sozin and Azulon are both present in her dream. I wonder what that will come to mean. Them being there seems to spesific to not mean something, or just to be there with no expanding on it.

The boy complimenting her is interesting and also sweet, and I wonder if we will learn more about him and whatever relationship he and Azula had in the past. What I like most about this is Azula feels very much 16-17 years old here as she SHOULD.

Combineing and considering all that everyone says it seems like the just of it is Azula wants recgonition and praise for her effort in things. At least, imo.

Noting that it is Mai and Ty Lee who crash Azulas ideal dream. Them being the ones to cut in and remind her none of this is real makes sense on a lot of levels. They are what counts as her closest friends so presumably they know her well. They are the sorce of a lot of betrayal in Azulas mind (meaning, agasint her). The pair of them being the ones to come in and say 'yea this isn't real and you know it. How can it be when you are so aweful' makes sense.

I want SO badly to hear more about what Ursa has to say. Iroh as well.

Whoever is coming in after she wakes up seems VERY scared. Makes me curious what it actually means that the dream didn't do what they were supposed to, and what the goal of them are in the first place. Is Azula's respoinse to them truely enough to be so concerning this woman is kicking her out?

That is all I got now. It's late, I am sleepy. Don't be shocked if I come through and edit this to make it more readable, or if I add more periodically. For tonight though I had to put these thoughts out there! So excited to see what this comic is gonna be.

[awesome-normal-heroes]

Katara has every right to be angry at Zuko...

... he may not have been the one that tried to destroy Aang, but he joined that person's side...

... and the spirit water that Katara used to heal Aang...

... could've been used on Zuko and he might've joined Azula anyway...

... meaning that Aang most likely would've died that night, if she made that choice...

... and she probably thought about that a LOT while Aang was in his coma...

... it's no wonder it took her the longest to forgive Zuko.

[hjonko]

dunno if anyones done this meme with azula yet, so here you go :)

also i feel like its overlooked that a literal freshmen in high school (US standard at least) was used as a weapon and was seen as more of a villain-

THAN LITERAL EATHBENDING H**LER- (kuvira) WHO GOT FUCKING REDEMPTION, BUT NOT AZULA????

WTF IS THIS SHIT????

edit*

(MY ANGER COMES FROM THE COMICS YA’LL OH MY GLOB IM NOT JUST TALKIN’ BOUT THE SHOW 😭😭)