#firelady ursa

[yourhighness6]

ATLA The Older Generations Textposts

[wilcze-kudly]

Avatar hottest woman tournament

Round 1.1

[vampirella-1990]

I love this song. What is your opinion?

[1v31182m5]

Dec 5: Unplanned

So basically uh they both received a letter from "eachother" for a date. But neither wrote that so there's a matchmaker who's obviously obvious who it is, I'm not even gonna name.

They somehow never mentioned it again so they both think it was the other side who planned it till this day

Bonus:

[starlight-bread-blog]

Some people say that Katara becoming Firelady would be an empowering role for her, that she could become an activist and a leader. I find this notion to be false. Firstly, even though I haven't read the comicses of A:TLA, from what I've seen from the show, the title of firelady is decorative at best. It literally just means "Fire Lord's wife". Ursa didn't have any political power, and we never heard of any other active fireladies, because they are not relevant at all. They aren't activists or leaders.

But still, Katara being a politically active firelady would require her to be associated with noblemen and councilman from the FN – the people who were calling the shots during the war, the people responsible for the genocide of the SWT. Additionally, the FN is racist. In The Headbend, we see FN propaganda up close. They've been through 100 years of indoctrination.

In The Painted Lady, the people of the village that Katara helped all turned on her when they found out she's a waterbender, only changing their minds when Sokka yelled at them.

Thus, Katara would be one of the most controversial and hated figures in the FN and maybe even in the entire world. Not to mention potential assassination attempts.

These are negative experiences she doesn't have to go through. So why would she? Why would this be her job? It isn't. Plain and simple. Zuko can and should already be fixing the damages caused to the SWT on his own. While it's true that Katara is the type of person to seek out injustices, and could want to face these horrible people, she can make a change in the community without it taking a toll on her mental health and safety. An indigenous girl suffering to fix the ethnic cleansing and damages of the past isn't empowering. Especially when it's supposed to be a happy ending. Zuko can do all these stuff, but leave it to Katara to take on the mental strain of associating with her oppressors and being public enemy 1#.

[fruittarts-with-rosepetals]

mai has very long hair reaching upto her waist and after she became firelady, she let her hair down and adopted the former princess ursa's hairstyle and zuko loves twisting the strands of her beautiful black hair in his fingers during meetings.

so after any meeting,you can find the firelady scolding her dorky husband who's just blushing and smiling from ear to ear as she tried to get his fingers out of her hair which by the way in stuck in her hair

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

What I dislike most about the Zutarian fandom is their INABILITY to admit that they just have a different preference than others. Almost every other ship does this. I never hear Mailee, Sokkla, Zukka, Jetko or any other popular non canon ship talk about how they were "robbed" and that they were owed legitimacy by Bryke. Only Zutara.

Instead, they have spent 20 YEARS talking about how their ship was the only correct choice in the show, and anyone else having a different opinion is misogynistic, stupid, and narrow-minded. And any critique they do have is simply about making Aang and Mai look toxic and abusive, while absolving Katara and Zuko of any depth or moral complexity.

And the hypocrisy of it all !!!

Katara travelling with Aang all over the world as they both work together as diplomats to solve complicated problems is robbing her of any political agency. But Firelady Katara helping Zuko rehabilitate a racist imperialist nation where the population thinks she's a peasant and water tribe savage is empowering.

Katara's role in the gang for 3 seasons was simply the overburdened mother who patiently disciplines her unruly children (Sokka, Aang, Toph) and always prioritises other's needs before her own. But with Zuko she would be brave and courageous; only he can help her realise what a powerful woman she is.

With Aang, Katara is forced to have Air Nomad babies to carry out his legacy as a broodmare. With Zuko, nobody would care about any firebending heirs.

Katara and Aang building Air Temple Island and raising their family there is an unfair burden that totally robs her of her culture and heritage. Katara living in an FN palace as part of a rigid hierarchical monarchy with imperialist in-laws Ozai , Azula, and Ursa is liberating.

Master Waterbender Katara marrying Avatar Aang, 2 genocide survivors that overthrew an imperialist regime together; is a babysitter incel fantasy. Only Katara marrying Zuko will help bring "balance to the world", and illustrate the themes of reconciliation, unity, forgiveness, and choosing your own destiny. Canonizing any other possible ship in ATLA is bad writing and means you're too stupid to understand the themes of the show.

Canonically, the 3 times Aang lashes out when he's stressed across 61 episodes shows what a horrible and abusive boyfriend he would be towards our ever-suffering Momtara. But because Zuko apologised once to Iroh and the Gang, he'll never be angry, prideful, aggressive and violent towards others again, because that's how trauma works.

Aang is entitled and possessive of Katara''s love. But Zuko always treated Mai with respect, he was never possessive or controlling (The Beach shows what a wonderful boyfriend he is) and is therefore a MUCH better partner than sex criminal Aang.

Katara is neglected and unloved in her marriage, forced to take care of her children alone because Aang only cares about his own legacy. But even though Zuko has overwhelming responsibilities as the Firelord, an obssessive one-track mind, and canonically shuts people out when he's upset or stressed; he would never neglect Katara.

When Katara voluntarily consoles or comforts Aang, it's a grave burden that she never wanted, emotional labour against her will. When Katara voluntarily consoles and comforts Zuko, it shows what a good, healthy, and supportive relationship they have.

When Aang sacrifices the Avatar State to save Katara because she was in danger, he's selfish and egoistic. When Zuko sacrifices his life to save Katara after goading Azula, he's romantic, heroic, and sexy.

Aang and Katara spend 61 episodes together, yet Aang idealises Katara and never saw any flaws. She was never petty, stubborn, self-righteous, passive aggressive, or angry around him. And even when she was, he's too stupid to understand that's part of her character. But Zuko and Katara spend 3 episodes together during a war, and yet only Zuko knows the Real Katara.

When Zuko doesn't kill Ozai during DOBS, he is noble and heroic. When Iroh doesn't want to fight and kill Ozai, he is wise and just.

When Aang saves his enemy Zuko's life THRICE because of his pacifist beliefs, why should anyone think that's special? When the same Aang doesn't want to kill Ozai, he's a selfish kid who doesn't understand responsibility.

And poor Mai. If I start writing about her as well this essay will be twice as long. But apparently she's a sociopathic abuser who should burn in hell for her crimes against Zuko.

It's just utterly insulting to my intelligence, that they go so far to justify their boring ass vanilla ship and exalt it as the One True Pairing in ATLA.

Obligatory not ALL Zutarians do this. Some are content to ship and let ship. But there is a sizeable part of the fandom that is so resentful and vindictive that they marinate in their own victimhood and genuinely seep out all the enjoyment of shipping.

I used to TRY and read canon Zutara fics because there are some genuinely well-written ones, but their bitterness against Aang and Mai ; and their desperate need to purify Zuko and Katara of any flaws just seeps into their work. Awkward turtleduck softboi Zuko and long-suffering neglected and disempowered Momtara deserve each other.

Canon Zuko and Canon Katara, who are CANONICALLY BEST FRIENDS WITH AANG and who would protect him with their lives, would be ashamed and appalled by this behaviour.

Facts. But I will say that some Zukka fans and the "Azula HAS to be a lesbian" crowd very much engage in the exact same behavior as unhinged zutarians.

[atla-confessions]

Tw/ slight cursing, talk of abuse

Ursa was not a bad mum, I have no idea why people think this. Yes she wasn't the best mum but having ozai as a husband and father to your children means problems are going to be unavoidable.

She saw her daughter start to act like her husband who abused her son and probably herself and didn't enable her.

Ursa did love azula, and I know everyone points out how she favours zuko but if one of your kids was constantly getting berated by your partner and the other is constantly getting praised it's kind of understandable why ursa paid more attention to zuko.

I think it's stupid to put all or most of the blame on ursa for how azula turned out when it was ozais fault azula turned out mentally unstable.

Ozai was extremely abusive, this is canon. And yes he did favour azula extremely but that was not with good intentions. He used her and manipulated her.

And if when ozai was ordered to kill zuko he was ordered to kill azula instead, I don't doubt that she would've done the same thing for her daughter. I'm pretty sure its canon that after she killed azulon she wanted to take both azula and zuko with her and leave but ozai didn't allow her to.

And with her actions after she left, with her erasing her memories of kids and everything, I find it understandable.

She was forced into a marriage with an abusive prick and her only sense of comfort or love in that situation were her kids, who she murdered for their safety yet was banished and was told to never return or ozai would hunt them down. Its understandable that she would want some relief of everything that comes with that. Her years of being the firelady were probably the worst years of her life and her only solace were her children who she thought she would never see again and if she went close to them they would be killed.

I'm not saying ursa was a perfect mum, I don't think anyone could be in that situation but I think it is stupid and just ignores canon to label her as a bad mother or abusive to azula when she is very clearly not. I'm not talking about what azula says (how she said her mother thought she was a monster or how she never loved her) as those were probably her interpretations of what happened and also because a lot of what happened occured kind of behind the scenes and I doubt ozai would not shit talk ursa in front of her kids, he was manipulative and I find it highly unlikely that ozai would not use azulas mother to further use her.

I kind of ranted so this might not make the most sense but I don't care

X

[attackfish]

Do you have any thoughts on what, if anything, would have changed if ursa had come from a noble family with a lot of political power instead of having no connections at court? Obviously ozai would still be awful and ozai, but would he still have been able to make ursa disappear? Would he have faced meaningfully more political backlash for that and for banishing zuko? I’m particularly curious about a scenario where ursa’s parents are alive for at least a significant chunk of zuko and azula’s lives (into zuko’s banishment maybe?), and have a decent amount of political clout. Ty in advance, I always love reading your thoughts (and you have the best ursa takes)!

I have, actually. The process of making metas and AUs for me necessitates the constant picking apart of the causal relationship of various parts of the Avatar universe, and creating countless counterfactuals. And since I have a couple of universes in which for one reason or another Ozai gets to marry the worthy daughter of a noble house, I've had to consider this very scenario, or at least one similar to it.

However, there are important differences between the scenarios I have written so far, and an AU in which Ursa herself is from a powerful noble family. In each of the AUs I have written so far in which Ozai marries a noble, he is already Firelord, he chooses his own bride, he has already been married to Ursa, so a pattern has been set, and Ursa's children exist and are the children of his first marriage.

So what would a scenario where Ozai's first marriage, as a prince, and at his father's direction, is to the noble Ursa, and his children are born of such a union, look like? How would it be different from his marrage, say, to Firelady Yuki?

I have argued in the past, and I continue to argue, that Ozai clearly is not capable of being in a non-abusive relationship with anyone he has power over, however, the depth of resentment he clearly feels towards Ursa has a lot to do with the circumstances of their marriage. Ozai is the substantially less favored son of the Firelord, and his father tells him in a thousand little ways that he will never be as good as Iroh, and in cannon, marrying Ozai to effectively a peasant woman, in order to engage in a breeding experiment, is part of this pattern, and must have been a real slap in the face. Canon Ursa would not have been a suitable wife for the Firelord, and Iroh would never have been given such a bride.

But Ursa the daugher of a powerful noble house, whose family was able to weather Sozin's reign, Roku's death, and any fall in prestige, would not be such an insult. She might also be a suitable bride for a Firelord, certainly for a Firelord's son or brother. The kind of bride, in other words that Ozai might expect to be given, and that he would see himself as entitled to. If Ozai doesn't actually respect her, or view her through the lens of her own humanity, he at least doesn't hate her quite so much at the start of their marriage.

Likewise, if Ursa has a powerful family behind her, it would be far harder for her to be kept in the shadows, away from the court and politics, and there would be every expectation that she would be a political player in her own right. Ursa would come to the marriage with expectations as to how her life as the wife of a prince would play out. He would know how to run a prince's household, she would expect to do it. And she would not be entirely dependent on the royal family for any status and power she would have, since she would have her own family's prestige.

Part of this change might well be in how her relationship with Ikem would play out. If he were still a commoner, she probably would have known almost all her life that they would never be able to marry, and they would never be together. And Ozai would be less likely to know about him, or to view him as a threat, and so less likely to use him against Ursa. If he were instead noble, and of similar status to Ursa, it would probably be far too risky to attempt to assassinate him.

And a change in Ursa's status would have a profound change on a status of her children, since they would have powerful family on their mother's side, who gain more power, more prestige, through their existence as blood royals. The non-royal families of royal children have, in most monarchies, firmly and influencially championed the causes of their royal relatives. This would make it harder for Ozai to so dramatically favor one of his children over the other, at least as the second prince.

After he makes himself Firelord, however, all bets are off. If Ozai doesn't come to his marriage hating his wife, he is not actually capable of respecting her, and he would absolutely still view her as disposable, so he might still banish her to conceal any role she might have in Azulon's death, or of course, as a suitable noble wife for a Firelord, she might become Firelady. And depending just how strong the Firelord is compared to his nobles, and the show seems indicate very strong, Firelord Ozai might simply feel empowered to be the abusive sack of shit he always has been, and with the brakes off, he is free to favor his daughter over his son as much as he wishes to, and there is nothing Ursa or her family can really do about it. In other words, conversely, becoming Firelady might be a real drop in Ursa's power and prestige.

[hyacinths-in-a-storm]

More headcanons of fem!ozai?

I’m so sorry this took so long, I get really sick when I’m stressed, and finals season is kicking my ass, but thank you so much for the ask! I will jump at any chance to talk about my Fem!Ozai AU

-Fem!Ozai is just a bundle of rage and Mitski lyrics at this point

-When she was born, her mother died six hours later from infection, which only further angered Firelord Azulon, who was already disappointed that it was a girl

-Zaisan was named after her nonbender grandmother, Zeisan which directly went against the late Firelady Illah’s wishes, which was for her daughter to be named after her

-Zaisan grew up rather isolated, as the only other person around her age was her nephew Lu Ten

-In this AU Lu Ten and Zaisan have a decent relationship, because Zaisan doesn’t perceive Lu Ten as a threat to the throne, and there is no Zuko and Azula for Zaisan to kick around and for Lu Ten to resent her for it

-Ursa enters the picture when she moves to the capital and works in the castle to provide for Zuko and Azula

-Originally she works under Iroh’s wife Fuyuko(who in this AU kind of takes on Ursa’s role in canon, if Ursa didn’t give a shit about her children) but was switched to work as Zaisan’s handmaiden by Lu Ten who felt bad that she had deal with his mother

-Ursa originally became a friend of Lu Ten and by default became a friend of Zaisan

-Zaisan and Ursa got very close over the few months and might even have started dated

-Until Zaisan got to power hungry and decided to kill the firelord, instead of forcing Ursa to do it

-Ursa is was disturbed, not only for her life and but for her children’s safety, which only increased as Zaisan got more and more obsessive

-Six months into Firelord Zaisan’s reign Ursa disappeared seemingly into thin air, which only sent him further into a controlling spiral

-The main difference between Ozai and Zaisan is that Ozai is a self-centered prick, and Zaisan wishes she could be a self-centered prick but has to bite her tongue until she finally kills her father

[marsconer]

the very long draft of the atla prequel fic i’ll never write

- title idea: oh, brother were art thou ?

- focuses on : iroh and ozai’s dynamic from childhood to the day he marries ursa. includes extras and dives into the fire nation royal family dynamic but it’s mostly about those two.

- inspirations: cain and abel’s story, the ballad of songbirds and snakes.

- characters included: iroh, ozai, azulon, the firelady ilah, ursa, iroh’s wife, ozai’s mistress. ( they will be named )

- characterizations :

iroh — sometimes we forget that iroh was the general. the warrior. the brother most familiar with blood and violent. iroh’s characterization should not shy away from that but also keep a core of goodness and questioning. he’s the one who should have a more reflexive internal monologue. it should be a growing difference between what he believes is right and what he actually does to the point where it breaks. the breaking point will not be part of the fic but it should be seeds planted yk? inspirations : regulus black, jaime lannister / faceclaim ideas : remy hii

ozai — the make or break character and the easiest to screw up ( i think ), too evil and the heart of the story is gone and iroh just looks stupid for loving his evil brother, not evil enough and it’s not ozai. his arc is not a corruption arc but the story of a man realizing he can get away with any atrocious act he decides to commit, his internal monologue lacks the reflexive nature of iroh’s, ozai never pounders on the right and wrong of an act only on how that could benefit him. as the brother who stayed home, ozai’s battle is mostly weeding out plots and schemes, of court drama and seizing power. inspirations: coriolanus snow, tom riddle, fc ideas: sebastian amoruso ( i know he played jet stfu ), dylan wang

firelord azulon — an absent father, i don’t care how his reign was, he is the definition of trying to rule with only force and falling ( being disliked by both high rankings and the people ), hard power ! he’s more of representation of a fire nation that looks down on weakness ( non-benders, women, children ) inspiration: tywin lannister

firelady ilah — a cruel mother who loves power but can possess none because she’s a woman so she tries to teach her sons her form of strength, manipulations, secrets, blackmail, iroh had more aptitude but he was azulon’s general so she had to make do with ozai ( who refuses to learn but will eventually ), she’s the bitterness of a fascist woman in a fascist man’s world. she’s frustrated in all ways possible and that bitterness turns to wickedness. inspirations: alicent hightower if she was like her haters think she is, morgana, walburga black. fc ideas: michelle yeoh

lady ursa — poor lady ursa, i haven’t read to comics and i don’t buy they are cannon so here’s my characterization of the pookiest of pookies. lady ursa was the daughter of important people, think courtiers, who never really wanted a child, ursa was also raised in palace along with many other high borns. she was also younger than ozai and a talented herbalist. she wanted to marry him and do her duty, he was good looking and a prince and she was barely sixteen. and she wanted out of her parent’s grasp. probably one of the most unlucky people in the story. at first ignored and humiliated before their marriage and after abused and controlled. inspirations: katherine howard / fc claim ideas : ashley liao, lola tung

aliya ( ozai’s mistress ) — this is a very self indulgent character bc i like parallels and the hope that some air nomads survived in secret and had children. aliya is this concept with the addition that she’s a performer on ember island who would really like a bridge to her ancestor’s culture and past but also probably is acutely aware of how she’s not the airbender she should be. she’s a dancer, she’s an acrobat, she’s artist, she’s vain and attached to material desires and smarter than she looks but also still just a girl trying to keep herself alive and her secrets secret. ( yes, ozai lowkey kinda kills her or at least thinks he and erased her and her family from history. snowbaird coded but also worse ) inspirations: lucy gray baird, satine / fc claim ideas : simone ashley

saori ( iroh’s wife ) — very minor character but all that can be said is that she’s no easy woman. she’s demanding of him after they are arranged together because she believes and sees that he can be better. she also grew up in the palace as a courtier and is known for being incredibly opinionated and sharp on her wit. inspirations: beatrice ( much ado about nothing ) / fc claim : jamie chung

[discordiansamba]

Five headcanons for Red Lotus Ursa? (if you want to)

Firelady joins an anarchist assassination cult? She already killed one world leader, why not all the rest?

Maybe it's silly concept but I just think it's fun to imagine an evil Ursa. I have some ideas for how it would go down but I'm curious to hear your take

I'm not really familiar enough with the Red Lotus to answer this with any confidence! It's not also not quite my kind of AU either, if I'm being perfectly honest, sorry.

[akiizayoi4869]

Headcanon, Ursa drugged her Sil (Iroh's wife) with blood thinners while in labor so she and the child died in child birth, one less heir of Iroh's to inherit, and that she arranged for Lu-ten's covert operations to be leaked to EK which enabled them to launch an ambush killing him. As for her MIL, well, the Firelady has a bunch of obligation and duties as well as control over the palace, with her dead, those duties, obligations and responsibilities along with the perks and power goes to the next highest ranking female in the royal family, aka Ursa. with her MIL and SIL dead, Ursa becomes the highest ranking woman in the FN with control over the running of the palace and its staff.

The way how it took me five minutes to figure out that SIL and MIL means "sister in law" and "mother in law"🤣. Anyway I absolutely love this. THIS is the kind of story about Ursa that I'd love to read. There's so many possibilities when it comes to writing about her character.

[mesapies]

If she was doing all this and being a positive change in the world before even becoming friends with zuko, why does she need to become firelady to make a change in the fire nation?

Some would respect and/or fear her but most would probably look down on her. Most gave been taught to look down on other nations and another nation leading theirs would probably cause an uproar of angry ppl and cause katara to mistreated by many within her time of ruling. Plus fireladies never rlly have any power. Ursa couldn't do shit. We don't even know who zuko married/had izumi with. Fireladies have no political stand point. "But izumi" was firelord not firelady

And also Her being firelady would not be this progressive thing. Like an indigenous woman settling down and ruling a nation that is still coming out of imperialism and slaughtered her ppl? Yeah no I'd much rather she her work on helping her own ppl evolve from the 100yrs of pain that the fire nation caused.

Speaking my truth

Ambassador of the swt, chief, master, water tribe advisor, etc katara>>>>firelady "lady of the moon", ambassador of the fire nation, firelord advisor katara

It's always katara marrying into the fire nation but never zuko marrying into the swt. where's a chief katara w/ her advisor zuko??

This also applies to zukka.

[procrastinatingwriting]

The firelily burns. - Ursa and Ozai's story rewrite.

Ursa was literally Azula when she was a kid and grew up in a noble family, prestigious for being Roku's descendants. She was chosen as a playmate for young Ozai by his mother - one of Azulon's concubines - while Ozai was literally Zuko. He was angry, naive, a little stupid but yearning to get his father's approval. Ursa, being doted on by Azulon for being a history genius and proeficient in acting and dancing, got that attention. Ozai disliked her intensely, mostly out of jealousy while Ursa was heads over him and claimed she'd take him as her husband.

Ozai: Why don't you just try to seduce my brother? He's getting the throne anyways, you should like him best. *mumbles* Like everyone.

Ursa: I'm not interested in the throne.

Ozai: ???

Ursa: *pins him down on the ground and smirks* I want real power. The one that comes from having something to protect.

Ozai: Wouldn't I be the one protecting?

Ursa: One would think so, but... *pokes at his forehead and stands up* You're just a dum-dum.

He eventually accepts her feelings and tries to return them, though not very good at it. His mother was a concubine who only had eyes for Azulon and never spared him more than a glance, and his father was always too busy fawning over every little thing Iroh did.

Ozai was also not always a prodigy firebender. He was always angry and unfocused, and prioritized strength over carefulness. Ursa wasn't a bender, but she always nagged at him for being such a dum-dum. Per her insistance, he learned a dance that was passed down in her family by tradition, and learned that it was some form of rudimentar katas that he could use. He didn't know, but it had to do with the dancing dragon method, using the movements as a fuel instead of feelings. As long as he was focused, his fire was unbeatable.

After their first dance, seeing his fire more potent than ever before, he kissed her for the first time.

Ursa: You will be my husband [she says for the millionth time, as she had always said it through their childhood. He had always responded in a negative way before.]

Ozai: No. [Ursa smirks playfully]

Ozai: You will be my wife.

Ursa: *holds a surprised face for a second before chuckling* that's the same thing, dum-dum!

Ozai: *grunts* shut up *kisses her again*

They became an official couple in the same day, and would always perform together. He wold often bend for both him and Ursa, making it look like she was the one bending. He thought she looked wonderful covered in red and gold, and contemplated her pretty head adorned by the Fire Lady's crown.

He would give it to her one day.

Should I continue?

[sup-honey]

This is Zuko's first sword fighting lesson, change my mind!

Aka tiny "let me be good at something Azula isn't" Zuzu making his Mom proud and driving Master Piandao crazy.