#i think ozai was built up to really well but i think that suspense came at the cost of fleshing out his character

[evilkitten3]

so... yes and no? see it's an awful thing to do to children in any circumstance, but given the nature of the show... literally every single adult is doing that. the whole world runs on it. i think of this as the "kids' show exception"– the world operates in a way that would irl be horrific bc the main characters have to be kids bc the show is geared towards kids. kids want to see kids being awesome. hence, every episode of atla isn't facing the conflict of "responsible authority figre tries to stop aang from doing the Right Thing bc that's a literal twelve-year-old holy shit".

i haven't read the novelization (my view of atla canon is mostly based off the show, but i occasionally take bits of non-show stuff to supplement characters who didn't get much screentime), but i would say the precedent is that when zuko spoke out of turn, he got a face full of fire, and azula already feels like she's being treated like zuko bc ozai isn't bringing her with him, so of course she would make that connection.

the thing is, i don't think the main intent behind the burning was ozai just feeling like maiming his son (it was still absolutely physical abuse), but rather psychological. ozai wants to put zuko in his place; to teach him "respect" (kinda why a lot of irl parents smack their kids, only worse bc ozai can throw fireballs). don't get me wrong, it's very possible that ozai did beat his kids, the agni kai by itself is more than enough potential for routine physical abuse, but that's just not how i see it.

to be clear, i'm not trying to say that ozai didn't hit his kids bc he secretly loved them or knew it was wrong or whatever, it just makes more sense to me if he didn't.

was fucking around on google images and i ended up stumbling on a reddit post from three yrs ago with a picture of iroh grabbing azula during a fight scene...

this is the only time i can think of when azula seems completely terrified.

he grabs her and she's scared shitless

but he just redirects her lightning and she's just bewildered.

i wonder what she was thinking there