#i think he's just too merciful to abuse energybending and only uses it as a last resort on genuinely irredeemable folks

[did-we-imagine]

At least you're coherent and your argument makes sense for including the whole royal fam & the generals. But yeah, the show's message is about the capacity for growth and redemption, so that wouldn't quite do, or else Aang shoulda bodied Ozai, not simply debended him lol. (I'm not one of those Aang shoulda killed Ozai folks, but considering how much trouble he caused even as a jailbird, I do wish he dropped dead lol).

As for Azula, she is dangerous with or without her bending. IMO, she needs psych help both to protect her from herself and other folks from her. Sure, she's more dangerous with it, but she won't be any nicer without it. She'd probably get more unhinged and seek revenge.

Is she messed up? Very much. Is she a 14 yo child soldier indoctrinated by an imperialist genocidal warlord? Yes.

Zuko also sent combustion man after Aang. While I 200% won't defend any of them harming Aang, they're in war. People kill in wars. Aang killed those soldiers when he was controlled by Koizilla (they fucked up big time by trying to kill the moon, I ain't defending them, just trying to explain that unfortunately, wars include murder).

I don't think that Aang debending the whole royal fam would have ended the story on an ideal note from the FN citizens' POV. (Look, they're raised to think that the royal fam are agni in human form or some shit, so it's not like they're gonna go celebrate the defeat of the dictator fam & start a democracy lol).

Remember, these folks are going to be terrified considering how much emphasis they put on fire bending as a gift from Agni. There are going to be other people willing to take the mantle of the FN to fight back the "tyrannical" avatar in their eyes (they've been forcefed blatant lies like the air nomads having an army, etc. Imagine if it turns out that the avatar spiritually maims ppl, they're very much not going to trust him or accept peace).

I'm not defending the FN, but yeah, unfortunately, reaching peace means you have to reach a compromise with them for peace to actually be obtained. That would include judging people in an equitable manner and scaling the punishments accordingly. I don't think Azula, whom I truly thought was messed up for wanting to burn the EK, deserves to get the same punishment as Ozai who was the actual mastermind.

Should she get debended later on if she goes down Ozai's path as a grown-up adult? Yes. But now, she still deserves to get help all circumstances considered, without jeopardizing anyone else's safety though.

Azula stan's: how dare you to suggest that Azula's bending should be removed? You are just a Zuko fanatic who wants him to be the specialest boy!

At the same time Azula:

1) Suggests burning The Earth Kingdom.

2) Captures the last save bastion in Earth Kingdom, Ba Sing Se.

3) Leaves prisoners of war in a prison that mistreats them. (You all in a comments were suggesting me some quote by Katara from comic about removing bending is violent, so I've read them all).

4) KILLS (if not for magic water) last world's hope for salvation.

5) And in comic she steals children and seeds chaos to turn Zuko in a person like her and their father.

And this we don't take into consideration how she treats Ty Lee & Zuko.

I think, at this point, people wanting her to be locked away for life without her firebending is justified.

Who in the whole world should care if she were abused or not by her father?

People who were her victims? And her victims is the biggest city in the world, along with her ex-allies. It's only justified that they all want to be safe from her, while she is being locked away forever.

Azula is dangerous. Azula is evil. And removing her bending for all that she's done is a mercy as much as it were to Ozai. They both don't deserve anything better from people they harmed.

Ans, yes, if Aang had this ability during book one and did it to Zuko and Iroh hence that made it easier for his team to save the world, I wouldn't mind it at all. There should be no mercy for imperialists and royalties.

And, yes, people don't talk about other soldiers and generals because they are irrelevant to the plot and Zhao is already dead.