#azula is not a thronesexual

[justanotherthrowaway1950]

The only thing I'll add is that Azula's solo comic heavily implies that the reason why she has not killed (Fire Lord) Zuko, Mai, Ty Lee, or Ursa, let alone engage in fully throated terrorism or start an (actual) uprising, despite having multiple opportunities to do so and probably needing to do so to retake the throne, is because she still cares for them.

Moreover, Azula's solo comic all but says that her problem isn't her ambition and lust for power, but her indoctrination and abuse, along with her cruelty, desire for revenge, and unwillingness to deal with the pain that would result from having to consciously admit she hurt the people she loved the most, making it impossible for her to have what she truly wants: loving friends and family that are with her because they want to be and would never betray her.

So the Azula went insane because of her ambition and lust for power” take has no support in canon whatsoever.

“Azula went insane because of her ambition and lust for power” is an extremely misogynistic take, especially since it’s completely inaccurate: Zuko lusted after the throne for nearly the entire series, while Azula hardly ever expressed any interest in it, and the main cause of Azula’s breakdown is that everyone she cared about left, abandoned, or betrayed her, mostly for reasons that were beyond her control.

[justanotherthrowaway1950]

Real talk, if Azula was half as throne hungry as fandom makes her out to be, ATLA would have been a really short show.

Not to mention, Smoke and Shadow would have been a short and super violent story of Azula using her new allies and abilities, along with the element of surprise, to slaughter Zuko, Ozai, and all of their allies before taking the throne for herself.

Here's some food for thought. A lot of the fandom claims that Azula always wanted the throne. Yet what people fail to see is that in order for this to happen, this child with obvious ABANDONMENT ISSUES would want everyone other than her mother dead. Because she's, you know, the last in line for the throne. And yet she was loyal to her father and she loved him. She loved her brother. If she truly wanted the throne that badly, do you really think she would care about them that much?

[justanotherthrowaway1950]

Yeah, for someone whose experience as refugee made him disdain the opulence associated with Royal Life after he got un-banished, it weird that he decided to bring a throne to flex on his throughly defeated and mentally unsound sister. Especially when he wants to rebuild their family on (supposedly) healthier grounds.

Though to be fair, considering he refers to Ursa as his mother only and only got spurred to visit Azula after being reminded that the horrible state of his nuclear family badly reflected on him and the message is is trying to send to his subjects, it appears that comics!Zuko has reverted back to being a thronesexual who wants to put Azula in her place since it will validate him. Especially when you take into account him constantly saying that the throne is his destiny when he was born fourth-in-line and his family essentially had to fall apart for him to get it.

There has been (for good reason) so much emphasis on demonstrating that Azula is more willing to show compassion to Zuko than vice-versa that unfortunately there’s been little character analysis of why this is the case.

[akiizayoi4869]

Yup, exactly. The show and that horrible comic would have been a heck of a lot shorter.

Here's some food for thought. A lot of the fandom claims that Azula always wanted the throne. Yet what people fail to see is that in order for this to happen, this child with obvious ABANDONMENT ISSUES would want everyone other than her mother dead. Because she's, you know, the last in line for the throne. And yet she was loyal to her father and she loved him. She loved her brother. If she truly wanted the throne that badly, do you really think she would care about them that much?