#ozai's starting to understand his father's confusion

[stardust948]

Gothzai

20 years later bonus~

[rockpaperimpala]

So about Netflix's the Last Airbender....

I am literally so confused you guys. You made me think I would HATE this show. And I LOVED it. Me. Known perfectionist and hater.

Katara was lovely. Yes, she started as a more soft spoken character than her cartoon version, but she was still passionate and hopeful throughout, just visibly unsure of herself. I think people were thrown off by this actress' natural way of expressing herself, which is Different from animated katara for sure, but not bad. Then she spends the whole season growing in Confidence and Fire. I Adored her fight with Paku, it really did feel like a payout of the whole season's development, and the bending kicked ass!

The Bending Kicked ass!!! The martial arts was fun and fast and creative and exciting! It looked SO good. That alone would be enough reason for me to watch and enjoy any show.

Zuko's actor was fantastic. He really captured the rage and confusion of this 16 year old banished prince. And there were so many Added moments between him and Iroh wich to me enriched their relationship. Like YES! This is why I'm watching, to see more of them, to see things done a little differently.

Iroh facing the consequences of his actions at Ba Sing Se!! That's what I'm here for!

Zuko's relationship with the men on his ship! That's what I'm here for!

The Extra layers we get to Ozai manipulating his children!

Also no one is talking about Admiral Zhao, who I had SO much fun with. I feel like they slightly fleshed out his character in a really dramatic way, really developing the hubris and frankly insane grasping ambition of someone who would kill the moon. I completely enjoyed this wilder, less controlled version of him, who comes up through the season from basically nothing and no one!

I am OBSESSED with King BUMI and his anger and disillusionment with the world! Like this was SO real. Living a hundred years of futile war would do that!!!! It is one of my favorite changes to the whole series. This new layer of emotion and character depth is what I'm here for!

Sokka was SO funny. He literally had me laughing out loud so often. That actor GETs Sokka, and GETS the way his humor is delivered. And is also able to tap into the more vulnerable side of him. People said he was "obsessed" with leadership. WHAT? That is a young person trying desperately to do his best and to try and find his place in the world, to figure what he has to offer. I loved his pride at hearing the Mechanist say that he would make a good engineer, and the sweetness of the moment that Yue's father says that he can be a hero without being a warrior. Sokka does so much growth in this series, in understanding himself and life.

And his chemistry with Suki was adorable!! I even like him and Yue (who was a totally unexpected sweetheart, despite her terrible wig)!! Like he has that same ability that Sokka has in the original to Connect with people.

Aang was great! He WAS fun loving and sweet and funny. I don't know what you guys wanted. Cartoons are always bigger and more exaggerated than live action. People's eyes swell up an, birds fly around their heads, and there are funny sound effects. That larger than life quality is the strength of animation! You have to look for different strength in live action. Like the SUBTLETIES of the acting choices. This little actor brought so much kindness, innocence, and strength to Aang.

And I FELT his frustration at being asked to do this at 12, his fresh hope anytime it looked like someone more experienced would be able to help him and no one did, and that's why he didn't learn waterbending this season, because he kept waiting for an freaking ADULT to show him the way, to help him carry this immense burden, but every adult he meets asks him for help instead, asks him to carry it himself, and then the finale hits and he realizes that there won't be any adults helping, he does have figure this out himself, and he makes the hard choice, takes on responsibility more than his years and offers himself to the ocean spirit, and he might have been lost entirely if not for Katara!

And that counter running theme to the show pays off: that he doesn't have to do it alone. He may not have more experienced guidance, because the adults have let him down again and again, but his friends will be with him, and they will figure it out together!

This is there throughout the series! Katara tells him this about learning waterbending, when he says he still wants to wait. Bumi tells him this in the palace at Omashu, and Aang sees the faith he has in his friends repaid!

I like these changes! And the show still found time for silly fun adventures and character building moments.

The show was never going to be the animated original. That is already a Masterpiece, and it frankly did NOT need to be adapted at all. I did not WANT a live action adaptation. I was adamantly convinced I would hate it. But the changes that they netflix show gave are what I Iike most about it. If I want to see Zuko say "you rise with the moon, I rise with the sun," I will go watch the animated original, because that version is perfect. And now, if i want to see Zuko say "Lu ten would have been proud to have you as a father," and see iroh pull him into a tight hug, I can watch this live action version, which is very good too. I'm going to disagree with most of the people on here and say that the Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender, DOES capture the heart of what we liked about the original show. It's spirit, fun, excitement, and characters. And the changes made are the reason we should be watching.

[seetangus]

I love Azula!!! Could you do one where the Reader is part of her little gang and when they go to Omashu for Mai, Azula reacts to R taking care of Tom-Tom. Like she doesn’t understand that it’s heartwarming to see R being good with kids and she knows she’s not, but she still has a random thought in the back of her mind of a “what if this would be what it’s like if we have a family together.”So, she’ll watch as R makes him laugh and even sings him a little lullaby when he starts crying, and, for a second, her calculating and ruthless demeanor changes into a sweet look at the scene and at the thought of a domestic life with R.

Dreaming of Tomorrow - Azula x reader

[Masterlist]

Azula x gn reader, no warnings

1.065 words, this was very fun to write, enjoy! ^^

You arrived in Omashu. Azula, Ty Lee and you went there to find Mai, the last member of the squad Azula wanted to assemble to track down Iroh and Zuko.

You had never met Mai as you only knew Azula since a short time, but you knew she was the daughter of Omashu’s new Governour.

Having arrived in the palace, you were escorted to the private rooms of Mai’s family by guards. Once you were inside and the doors were closed, Azula didn’t wait for any formalities and quickly introduced everyone; you greeted Mai and her parents, the Governour Ukano and his wife Michi, who was holding Mai’s infant brother, Tom-Tom.

You immediately liked them; it was rare but all the more nice to see a happy family in such a high political position.

Michi sat Tom-Tom down in a chair and excused herself and her husband, she said they needed to prepare something.

After they had left, Azula shot a glare at Ty Lee, who immediately began talking to Mai and trying to convince her to join the gang. Azula had instructed Ty Lee that she should try first because Azula knew very well that her usual ways of convincing people might not work on someone like Mai and she expected Ty Lee to have better chances.

You sat down too, not knowing what else to do with Ty Lee talking to Mai and Azula observing them. You looked around the room and noticed Tom-Tom sitting on his chair. He seemed to have noticed you too and looked at you with interested, big eyes. You smiled and waved at him, making him laugh. He stood up and began walking towards you with small, clumsy steps.

When he reached you he lifted his arms up, pointing to you. You picked him up very gently and lifted him up to your lap. He seemed to be very happy and you played with each other for a bit, and somehow it was so nice even for you!

Azula watched Ty Lee and Mai impatiently. Why did this take so long? Couldn’t Ty Lee just say what she wanted to say and convince Mai to come with her? Did she always have to be so sickeningly sweet and first talk about unimportant things like Mai’s family, her health and what her life was like? Azula could not wrap her head around how other people actually enjoyed talking about that kind of stuff. To her, it was torture, but if ‘being nice’ really, like Ty Lee said, would make it more likely to get Mai to agree, she would endure the wait.

She looked around the room to distract herself and her eyes locked on you. Were you holding that infant brother of Mai? What was his name again, Dum-Dum? Tom-Tom? Something like that. Not that she would care about some insignificant baby.

She kept looking at you though. Tom-Tom seemed to be quite happy around you. She had never realised you were so good with kids. That was probably because she had never seen you around kids. Still, something was calming about watching you and Tom-Tom. It was almost heartwarming, and she felt as if she wished she was there with you and the baby…

But why would she want to? She was confused at her thoughts. She was Azula. She was a fighter and not interested in things like babies; all they did was cry and be not useful. Playing with babies was for those weak people who valued shallow ideas like a “loving family” over strength. Her father Ozai was the only one who knew how to handle a baby! That was of course why she was the only baby that had turned into a strong human. Her mother on the other hand… well, she made Zuko. And more or less all people were like that, raising their children to be weak.

That was what she thought. However, watching you care for Tom-Tom…

Her thoughts were interrupted as Tom-Tom, whom you had put on the floor again because he wanted to walk, stumbled and fell! He started crying and you rushed to him, picking him up and rocking him gently. You wiped his tears and started humming a lullaby you remembered from when your parents sang it to you.

After a while, Tom-Tom went silent, and soon after he was already as happy as sunshine again! Ty Lee and Mai had some time ago left the room to talk about something different, but Azula was still looking at Tom-Tom and you, somehow enchanted by what she was witnessing. Her heart felt lighter when watching you and Tom-Tom play.

She had always thought badly of typical families with (loving) weak parents and (happy) spoiled children, but you made it look like a dream… was this what having a family is like? Was this what having a family with you is like? Azula felt strange at the thought. Her heartbeat got a little bit faster. This scene she watched, you playing with Tom-Tom, was something she had never seen before and she suddenly felt like there was more to life than she had thought up until this point. And she felt that she wanted to experience it herself; the joy of parents and children! A different joy than the perfectionist and pressured one she had with her father; she wanted to feel real joy, even if it was this time as a parent and not as a child. But was that even possible for her?

You cared for Tom-Tom so well…you could surely be a good parent if you had children. But could she be one too? Azula looked away, her heart becoming heavy and slow again. She could not. Obviously she couldn’t. When she walked through the streets, peasant parents shielded their children from her. They were all afraid, even the children themselves. She could never be a good parent. maybe she should just stop thinking about it. All these thoughts were making her weak. She shouldn't have considered it in the first place.

But still, the thought of being with you…

She decided to just get out of the room and wait for you. But when she sent a last, longing glance at you and Tom-Tom, she saw you smiling at her, making her heart skip a beat:

“Azula, wanna come over and play with us?”

[mugentakeda]

i just loveeeee the idea that there was a big gap of understanding between lu ten and iroh the same way theres a big gap of understanding between zuko and iroh. mistakes that iroh didnt realize he made with his son he then also made with his nephew and still not realizing it. a whole world of things about lu ten that iroh didnt know about, and will never know about. im gonna talk about it though because i am insane so look away from my cringe

lu ten had gone to his father with problems before, and iroh cant help but wonder, now, if his son had ever been trying to imply deeper things in between sugarcoated words because there were things you just didnt say in the palace, and irohs head had been so far up his ass he hadnt seen it. despite it being waved practically right in his face by his son, desperate for sound advice from his father, whos brain was too waterlogged by thoughts of how he was going to pull off his next bloody conquest. like how zuko was always howling for help, hurt and confused like a cornered animal, hidden deep under his fits of rage, and irohs head was Still so far up his ass that he kept meeting zukos silent begging for straightforward guidance with convoluted proverbs. he can sit here and bury his face in his hands in shame over the sheer amount of times hed failed his nephew without realizing, and how much convincing it'll take to get his nephew to understand that yes, iroh did fail him so many times, and he couldve prevented so much suffering simply by holding himself to the same standards he held his nephew to. all those times during those three years before the avatar returned that he couldve done something. sit here and think about how sad it is that he has to even try hard to convince his nephew such a thing, how sad it is that he finally got zuko to stop seeing ozai as some all-wise god that can do no error as a father, just for zuko to start seeing iroh as some all-wise god that has done no error as an uncle. but he can at least go and do something about it. he can never do something about what he did to his son. the things he knows he did, the things he doesnt know he did, and everything in between. he will never find out what lu ten truly thought about him. he will never have that reconciliation, that silent scream of relief and violent shiver in the crook of his neck that zuko gave when iroh yanked him in close after their separation, with his lu ten. he just has to hear about his own son through word of mouth and somehow be content with that. and worst of all, its all his own and his god damned family's fault. no amount of healing and learning by trying to do right by zuko and the world he helped nearly ruin not much more than a half decade ago can act as a balm for the agony that brings him. he knows healing his guilty conscience isnt supposed to even be a reason for why he helped the avatar, but god- it's when the rationality leaves him and he realizes that this is something he cant seem to make himself be the bigger person in. he knows its his own fault, that there are hundreds- thousands, maybe- of earth kingdom sons he personally stole from earth kingdom fathers, and only gave up on his siege when the consequences of his war came into his own backyard, but he cant help it. doesnt want to help it. hes still angry and hateful anyway. his son should still be here. his son should still be here. his son should still be here. and if he tells zuko about how much he still hates himself as both an uncle and a father, zuko will definitely rush to reassure him, all the while he is chained to his desk and meetings day in and day out, fixing this uncles mistakes best he can, losing sleep and forgetting to eat. none of it will mean anything to zuko, if it means he can make his uncle feel better. and if that happens, iroh might actually vomit in front of his nephew.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

https://www.tumblr.com/royaltealovingkookiness/187489175766/i-think-the-anon-who-sent-the-zuko-lost-azula-in?source=share

Your thoughts?

(I'm only mentioning the ones I don't agree with)

"Oogling him when he's half-naked"

As a brazilian, this one was HILARIOUS to me. He just has his shirt off because it's summer and bending is a physical exercise and he's going to sweat. This isn't him dramatically taking his shirt off at The Beach and a ton of fangirls appearing to drool all over him. This isn't sexual.

She's literally watching him and AANG practice firebending. That's all. Why are we making it about attraction, and why are we assuming she could only possibly be looking at Zuko when Aang is there too? By that logic, Ozai and Aang were checking each other out during their fight in the finale, and so were Zhao and Zuko during their Agni Kai - after all, they're LOOKING at EACH OTHER when NEITHER OF THEM has a SHIRT on.

"Note Katara's body language"

Literally what about it? I legitimately don't understand this one. Touching her hair is somehow weird or flirty? It's just hair!

Is it because she's sitting next to Zuko? What, she's not allowed to be too close to a guy without it being suggestive/flirty in some way? Again, as a brazilian, I am VERY confused. Somebody help me out here.

"I don't think anyone could argue sibling vibes in a scene in which they are visibly disgusted at the thought of being mistaken for a couple"

What? Like, sure, I can see SOME siblings just laughing it off and correcting the person who made a mistake, but being grossed out is a 100% valid reaction.

As a girl that grew up being told "You saying you don't like this boy can ONLY mean that you secretly like him" and had to hear an unhinged woman call my 11-year-old self "her future daughter in law" just because I was friends with her son, I am BEGGING people to quit it with that bullshit. Being weirded out is not "admiting" there are feelings there. Stop it. Sometimes people are shy, sometimes they just genuinely don't like each other that way. Stop projecting.

(Also the only correct ways to do the mistaken for a couple thing is with the characters either just rolling with it "to avoid explaining" or to one of them to exaggerate on the awkwad denial and accidentally offend/upset the other, like it happened with Kataang in Cave Of Two Lovers)

"I don't remember any scene of Zuko or Katara fighting side by side with their sibling like they did with each other"

Also if we're talking side-by-side fighting stance that screams romantic symbolism, let's be fucking serious here. The dragons literally make a heart.

"You can only want to see embarrassing/cute baby pictures of your friend if you want to date them, and siblings totally don't use old childhood photos to annoying each other"

Are you fucking kidding me?

"Co-parenting"

Fuck off, they're children. Traumatized children. ALL of them. They've all done stupid shit, and they've all been exasperated by their friends' doing dumb shit. Found family doesn't mean we NEED one or more characters to play the "parent" role.

Katara actively resents the idea of being seen more as parent than as a friend, and Zuko JUST discovered the revolutionary concept of "Wait, a father burning his child's face is NOT normal????" Co-parenting my ass.

"Bed/bison sharing. Very unsibling like"

Katara literally shares the bed/Appa with Sokka during the entire Blue Spirit episode. And like this person pointed out themselves, the Gaang shares "a bed" and sleep next to each other all the time. Be thrilled that your OTP is having a moment that you could re-imagine as romantic, but let's not pretend any kind of intimacy MUST be sexual/romantic in nature.

"The scene of Katara comforting Zuko has parallels with his first scene with Mai at the start of the season"

This one was totally okay until the bullshit of "Mai's kiss and hug didn't help Zuko feel better at all and after this he shuts her out." During all of Nightmares And Daydreams we see him cuddling with her, Mai trying to cheer him up, and him even confessing his inner-turmoil about having to essentially put on an act to please Ozai.

She grew a lot as a character and Zuko didn't take her joke in that first episode to heart. He is doing the exact opposite of shutting her out, he actively turns to her for comfort.

"The physical distance between them shrunk"

Yes, and? Seriously, what about it? Is there a line missing here? Am I not seeing something? WHAT IS GOING ON?

"The lightning to the heart feels like a romantic scene"

I was gonna let it slide, like I was doing with all the others "This could work for a romantic relationship, but it's not inherently romantic", but that last line I just can't stand by. DRAMA IS NOT THE SAME AS ROMANCE.

"The simmilar scene for a canon ship doesn't have the same focus on the hands as this one does"

Hand-close ups are exclusive to married people, it is known *rolls eyes*

"It looks like they're about to kiss"

Bruh, what? Looking up at someone who is looking down at you is like leaning in for a kiss?

"Many of these scenes (not the ship-baiting ones obviously) could have been written, framed, animated in a purely platonic way, giving it more of a playful sibling vibe, but the creators deliberately chose overtly romantic or at least ambiguous tones"

[loopy777]

I wonder whart older Zuko is like with Izumi and Iroh II...

(yes this is a plea for more headcanons)

Zuko has a real problem with his daughter and grandson. They don't believe a word he says.

Well, okay, that's an exaggeration, and he'll admit it if you press him. They're actually very attentive and respectful, and are always looking for lessons in what he says, always asking him for advice. One time, just to test them, he tried the 'silver sandwich' speech again, or at least what he could remember of it, and they accepted it with eager nods. He had to persuade them not to have it written down in the Annuls of the Fire Lords.

What they don't believe is that he used to be an imperialist bully who took his anger out on the rest of the world. Oh, sure, they claim that they understand this, but as the discussion goes on they'll talk about how Zuko was raised in a different society where aggression was encouraged and imperialist racism was normal. With low, even voices to convey the seriousness of the matter, they'll talk about the abuse Zuko suffered from his father and what that does to a person, and how fortunate he was that he was able to find his way out from the negative emotions it buried him in. They'll even talk about the war and how children in the Fire Nation were prepared to be warriors and soldiers starting as toddlers.

Izumi, at least, needs these excuses in order not to really think that her father was A Bad Dude at one point. It's not that she's in denial or anything, or can't handle her father making mistakes. To her, Zuko is a doting father, a true and proper simp of a husband, the stiff awkward member of a heartwarming friendgroup, and a righteous leader who complains about corrupt politicians and inefficient meetings like any proper Hero King. Sure, he gets angry like any person, but she just does not have an imagination expansive enough to really picture him betraying Uncle Aang and Aunt Katara under Ba Sing Se. If she really tries, she imagines a confused, regretful look on his face. She just cannot properly meld Her Father with these facts that sound like an antagonist in a children's fantasy story.

With Iroh II, he just does not know his Grandfather well enough. He never saw Zuko in a truly angry moment. He has to picture some kind of noble, knightly figure with a furrowed brow from trying to work out the thorny, contradictory honor system of the old Fire Nation. If you told him that his grandfather once screamed, "I DON'T NEED ANY CALMING TEA!!" he would challenge you an arm-wrestling duel for spreading such filthy lies about a hero.

Zuko has tried to convince Izumi and Iroh that he could have become like Ozai, had it not been for some fortunate interventions in his life, and they nod appropriately, but he can see it's not landing. It's all theory to them, some philosophical stuff about the dichotomy of man. They don't get it. But, he supposes, they don't really need to. Izumi is a master of politics and has a firm grasp of how hazy morality can be sometimes, as well as a good sense of the delicate balance required of the Fire Nation given its power and legacy. If she can't quite believe he was as bad as he was, that's fine. And, he ha to admit, it makes him feel pretty good, that he really has gotten better.

Iroh II, though, is more of a problem. Or, at least, Zuko thinks he is, intellectually. On the practical side, Iroh II has done so well in his life that Zuko isn't sure his grandon needs to understand this stuff. Zuko is a bit worried about how well Iroh II will do as Fire Lord, but he admits that maybe he doesn't really understand his grandson, either.

Especially that part where Iroh II is such a fan of coffee. Zuko is no tea fanatic, and still believes it's basically hot leaf juice, but he thinks that's far more appetizing than hot bean-dirt stew.

[wholesomefluffdaddy]

Azula has made no progress since she was sent back to the asylum. Ty Lee believes she can help her, with proper disciple. Tyzula.

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘ ⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

CH32: The Light Chakra

"Why?" Azula asked as she walked beside him.

"Why do you think, Ursa?" Azulon said, staring straight ahead, his face set in a scowl of disgust. "For demanding to take his brother's birthright just after he had just lost his son, my grandson, my only grandson…" He said as his eyes softened with sorrow.

"Lu Ten wasn't your only grandson-" Azula said, confused.

"He was! He is!" Azulon said glaring at Azula.

"What abou-?"

"Ozai," Azulon said, drawing himself up, "my greatest failure of an offspring, somehow managed to have an even more worthless son." Azula stared at him. It took her a moment to recover.

"Zuko isn't worthless." She began at once. "Sure, he can be useless at times but-" She reasoned.

"And now the royal line will come to an end." Azulon continued solemnly as if he hadn't heard. "If Ozai can't understand the anguish his brother is going through then I shall make him experience it first hand."

"Why?!" Azula demanded. "How does that make any sense? How would killing your other grandson fix things?"

"Of course you wouldn't understand, Ursa. He's your disappointment of a child. The blame lies on you and Ozai both." He said, looking at her contemptuously. "Who would have thought the joining of the two bloodlines would have created something so weak?"

"It didn't!" Azula argued.

"Do better on your next child." Azulon said, looking away. "And preferably not another useless girl like the last one." He said dismissively. Azula stopped in her tracks and Azulon kept walking. A moment later a bolt of lightning shot past his ear and shattered a boulder ahead of them. Azulon suddenly looked around. "Ozai!" He shouted as his fists were engulfed in flames. "Ozai!" Azula advanced as electricity crackled around her.

"Ozai's not here. I am." Azula said as a snarl curled her lip. She shot another bolt of lightning near him. Azulon narrowed his eyes.

"What trickery is this?" He hissed.

"It's no trick." Azula said as she let her own blue flames fill her open palms. Azulon looked her up and down as the revelation slowly struck him.

"So…" He said as they began circling each other. "You are Azula. All grown up after all these years." He punched his first forward and a blast of flames shot towards her. Azula easily leapt out of the way and sent a kick of flame at him in return. Azulon swatted her fire away as if it were nothing more than an annoying fly. "Then that must mean I'm-"

"Dead." Azula finished for him coldly before sending a wheel of blue flames towards him.

"So Ozai finally had the spine to do something himself…" He said gritting his teeth as he knocked her flame away again before countering with a volley of short fire blasts.

"Not Ozai!" Azula said, cutting through them. She hated the idea of her mother receiving credit but could not allow her father to receive it either. "A nonbender killed you. A weak nonbender killed the supposedly great Fire Lord Azulon. You died from drinking poisoned tea." She swept her leg, sending a wave of fire towards his feet. Azulon's eyes widened furiously as he dodged. "My father would have killed Zuko for you!"

"Then perhaps I should have had him kill all of his wretched children!" Azulon shouted before breathing a great tongue of flame. Azula propelled herself out of the way with flames from her fists and feet. She started to encircle him with a wall of blue fire. He kicked a hole through it with a blast of orange fire, only to have the blue flames resolidify around it immediately. Azulon shielded his face as Azula began to constrict the walls of fire around him. He widened his stance and stomped his feet down while extending both arms. The orange flames died as soon as they met the blue.

"To think I was named after someone so weak!" Azula roared as she flew down at him with a flaming kick. A hand caught her foot and threw her to the ground with surprising ease. Azula gasped as the air was knocked out of her lungs. She hurried to recover and turned back to face Azulon but he had disappeared. A new man stood before her. He looked young, like he was in the prime of his youth.

"So you're my great granddaughter?" Sozin said smoothly, looking mildly impressed. Azula let the fire in her hands die.

"Firelord Sozin." She said in shock. She quickly kneeled before him and lowered her head. Sozin laughed as he strode forward and held out his hand. Azula took it and got to her feet.

"You remind me of my sister." He said, looking at her curiously. "She wasn't a firebender, of course, but she certainly had the same inner fire. Walk with me." He said, turning around and motioning for her to follow.

"Where did Azulon go?" She asked as she fell in step behind him.

"It doesn't matter." Sozin said, waving a hand. "Tell me about the current glory of our nation."

"Uh…" Azula blinked. Was this all an illusion?

"Well?" Sozin asked, glancing back at her. "I see the bloodline is still strong." He said, flashing a grin. Azula shook her head to attempt to clear it.

"Yes it-" She was temporarily distracted as she noticed their change in direction. "Why are we heading down?"

"We don't need to climb this mountain." He laughed. Azula felt a twinge of unease in her gut. She didn't know why but she felt like she was going backwards. She needed to climb this mountain. She needed whatever was at the top.

"But-"

"So after removing the Air Nomads were we successful in removing the Water Tribes too?" Sozin asked.

"What?" Azula said, her brow furrowing at the implication. "You mean eliminating the waterbenders?"

"No." Sozin said with a cruel smile. "I mean permanently removing all those filthy backwater peasants." Azula slowed down.

"You wanted to wipe out their whole race?" She asked in disbelief.

"Then the Earth Kingdom filth next, obviously." He laughed as he stopped walking.

"Why?" Azula said, taking a step back. "It was one thing to kill all the air nomads, we could have just imprisoned them. But… but to completely kill-"

"The Fire Nation is the rightful nation to rule this world." Sozin said, watching a small flame dance in his palm. "We deserve to rule the world." He said, turning his head to glance back at her.

"Yes but-" Azula stopped herself.

"The Fire Nation is the best nation in the world, don't you agree?" He pushed, raising his eyebrows.

"It is but-"

"So, it should be the only nation in the world." Sozin smirked and closed his fist, extinguishing the flame in his hand. Azula felt sick but she wasn't sure why.

"The Fire Nation can still be great without resorting to such acts of needless violence." She argued.

"Can it though?" Sozin countered as he turned around.

"We can occupy the other nations without committing genocide."

"You seem clever." Sozin said, walking back to her. "You are my great grandchild after all, so let's think about this logically." He said, holding his arms open wide. "If someone disagrees with me and I kill them, can they still disagree with me?"

"They could also be imprisoned." Azula replied.

"Ah, and therein lies your mistake." He said, patting her on the shoulder. "If I imprison a man, could he not escape? Could others not help him escape?"

"If you kill someone, make them a martyr, then others-"

"What if I kill them too? What if I kill all of them or at the very least so many that no one would dare to disagree with me?" He said, gripping her shoulder. "Fear is the only thing that keeps people safe and in line."

"That wouldn't make the Fire Nation great…" Azula said, pulling away. "That would make us monsters."

"Who would call us monsters?" Sozin said, raising an eyebrow. "The Air Nomads certainly can't. The victors write history."

"It was wrong to kill the air nomads." Azula said, as her growing sense of unease deepened.

"Why? They can't oppose us. There's no one left to seek revenge." Sozin said, tapping his forehead. "Only the strong deserve to inherit the earth. It's the natural order of things." Sozin reasoned. He caught Azula's eye. "A world ruled by the strong can only get stronger."

"You wouldn't have just stopped at killing the other nations." Azula said as the horrible realization dawned on her.

"That's true." Sozin said, pleased that she had caught on so quick. "We would have to root out and eliminate any other weaknesses in our own nation. That way we could ensure a glorious and prosperous future." He shook his head. "I loved my sister. I really did." He said. "But if others were allowed to continue making the choices she did. Well, we need to ensure a rising birth rate."

Azula stood frozen to the spot. This was another illusion she had to overcome; That the Fire Nation was great, had always been great. That every choice it made was the right one, justified. The level of shame and pain that washed over her as her chakra struggled to break loose was unbearable but it wasn't over yet. She closed her eyes. She knew that when she opened them she'd face the final illusion holding her back.

"I've done nothing wrong." She heard her own voice echo back at her.

"Stop." She begged weakly as she opened her eyes to see herself standing before her.

"So what do we know about this Father Glowworm?" Katara asked as she and Aang sat pouring over scrolls. Aang pulled his head out of his hands and pulled a scroll aside.

"We know Yangchen neglected to arbitrate a deal between him and the humans polluting his tunnels. Kuruk fought him repeatedly because he started opening up tunnels between our world and the spirit world in retaliation. Kyoshi supposedly defeated him when she fought the false avatar." He said and felt a detached sense of disapproval. He pushed the feeling away.

"Kuruk's accounts say that the spirit got smaller each time he fought him." Katara said, tapping a scroll. "It didn't say anything about him dividing."

"Yeah, that's new." Aang said, rubbing his temples. "But then again so is a human and spirit fusing together."

"So Kyoshi didn't really kill him when she defeated the false avatar?"

"You can't kill a spirit." Aang nodded. "Yes, I know his name is Yun!" He snapped suddenly. Katara raised an eyebrow. "It's the name of the false avatar-" He tried to explain. He continued to feel Kyoshi's disapproval. He slammed his fist on the table. Katara reached across it to place her hand over his. "I'm sorry." He said looking up at her tiredly.

"It's okay." She said, looking at him sympathetically.

"It's not." Aang said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "My past lives couldn't deal with this and now I have to." Now he suddenly felt even greater disapproval coming from multiple past lives. He sighed. He couldn't stay angry at them. Not when he felt their regret too.

"Then we'll just have to come up with our own plan." Katara said bracingly. "We can learn from their successes and mistakes." Aang laced his fingers with Katara's and smiled weakly as he nodded. His eyes wandered over to Ty Lee. She looked unnaturally pale as she slept. Her face kept contorting as if she were trapped in an unending nightmare. Aang blinked slowly.

"I think I know where we can start." He said, looking back at Katara.

"Oh?" She said a little surprised.

"Yangchen just had a memory that made me think of something." Aang said, standing up. "We need to go to the North Pole."

"Agna Qel'a?" Katara said, frowning. Then her eyes widened. Aang nodded as she looked at him for confirmation. "I'll pack our things." She said getting to her feet.

[hello-nichya-here]

Zucest - Age Regression

Notanon asked: So, given that:

1) you already had them playing house,

2) Azula is the spoiled brat, but also the more emotionally and psychologically vulnerable,

3) I have a guilty pleasure for loving and doting Zuzu taking care of scared, broken and vulnerable Lala:

I now have this post Agni-Kai headcanon, where Azula remains catatonic for a couple of days after her defeat and then suffers a psychological age regression: She curls up in a ball crying and saying in a small voice she is scared and she wants mommy and daddy and Zuzu. At first neither Zuko nor the doctors can understand what's going on, until one of the doctors has the proverbial lightbulb go off in his head and asks her how old she is. Azula timidly lifts a fully open hand, indicating she thinks she's five years old. Zuko realizes that this is before she even knew she could firebend, and consequently before Ozai started ruining her.

To add to the misery, the doctors confirm that no, it's not an act to manipulate Zuko and yes, she really thinks she's five, but she's super scared because, while she does remember some fragments and distorted parts of the last nine years, she thinks they were just a bad dream, but Zuko himself (with the scar and being more than twice the age he should be in her mind) is physical proof that her bad dream was real and it's making her even more confused and scared.

In other words, now Zuko has a real head-scratcher to deal with. How does he go about it? Take it away!

***

Oh. My. God. I love this. I love everything about this. Warning: it got kinky in the end because I'm me.

At first, Zuko is only gonna hold Azula close, rub her back and tell her in a soothing voice that everything is okay now, and that no one is going to hurt them. That the doctors just want to help her get better and that she'll understand everything once she does. That he is making sure mom will be back soon, safe and sound. Azula then asks about dad, to which Zuko awkwardly says that Ozai is... recovering too, and if things work out she'll be allowed to see him.

Obviously he doesn't really WANT to let Azula see their father, especially not in this condition, but she wouldn't have calmed down otherwise and it's not like Ozai will ever even want to recover, so that reunion is never gonna happen.

Azula relaxes a bit, but it quickly becomes clear that, for her to feel truly safe (or safer) she'll need to be in the palace, so Zuko just has the doctors take of her at home instead of at the hospital. His intention was for her bedroom to be her hospital room, but she refuses to sleep alone, so Zuko lets her spend the night with him, assuming that after a few days or weeks she'll feel safe enough by herself.

But she doesn't. And when they finally find Ursa and she's offering to let Azula stay with her, Azula refuses. She remembers almost anything, but it's clear that some of part of her still resents Ursa and doesn't feel comfortable getting any help from her, even if it's clear she likes the attention. Without much of a choice, Zuko resigns himself to being her guardian, trying to take care of her every need.

At first, he struggles to properly manage his time, since he has a ton of new responsibilities as Fire Lord, but eventually he gets a handle on it, especially whenever one of his friends shows up to give him a helping hand. And since Azula insists on following him around pretty much everywhere, reading or drawing on his office as he takes care of his political role, one day, without thinking, she ends up offering a great solution for a matter Zuko had been discussing with one of his advisors.

She seems to confused as to what exactly came over her, and it scares her a bit, but Zuko just picks her up and spins her around, kissing her cheeks and praising her, overjoyed that some of her old self seems to be resurfacing after so many months. His mother is a bit worried, since Azula's old self wasn't exactly easy to handle, but he doesn't even care. They've gotten so close that he is sure that once she fully recovers she won't go back to hating him, at least not fully, and that they'll find a way to be on good terms.

Their routine continues as normal, much to the doctors' disappointment, as they were all hoping Azula would start having more instinctive moments like that and start acting her again, but Zuko doesn't mind it one bit. He makes sure she's always getting enough food, sleep, therapy sessions, everything. He reads her a story every night and helps her bathe and dress up every morning. Whenever there's a thunderstorm, he lets her cling to him for comfort, no matter where they are or what he was doing. He even spoils her a bit, giving her anything she wants - sweets, books, toys, pretty clothes, etc. 

And as difficult as it is, he tries to be honest when Azula asks things like "Why isn't Lu Ten around?" or "Did dad give you that scar?" He can tell that, if he lies to her about happened, she'll stop trusting him, and even though the answers upset her, he always manages to soothe her. 

When he and Mai break up for the final time, amicably, Azula offers to be his new girlfriend so he won't be sad. Zuko chuckles and tells her that siblings don't date. He doesn't think much of her offer, assuming it's just a classic case of a child (well, "child" in this case) not understanding the difference between familial and romantic love. He is sure it's fully innocent.

He has no idea that what made Azula suggest that were strange thoughts she's been having, in which she pictures him kissing her and asking to marry her. They feel familiar, but not as vivid as events like their Agni Kai (which Azula doesn't yet have the courage to ask about), so she's unsure if they are memories of real events or of some daydream of hers.

Once it's been almost a full year since her breakdown, Azula instinctively creates a small, orange flame in the fire place during a rainy night, and Zuko is about to celebrate - until he notices Azula is clearly about to panic. That simple action led to dozens of unpleasant memories flooding her head - harsh firebending instructors, demanding teachers at the Fire Nation's royal academy for girls, Ozai's overwhelming expectations of her, and, of course, some battles she's been in. Zuko promises her that none of it will ever happen again, but this time Azula doesn't calm down until he's singing her an old song that Ozai used to sing for them, back when he was still putting in the slightest effort into being a good father. She falls asleep, but is still shaken the next morning. 

After that incident, her behavior becomes a bit inconsistent. When she isn't thinking much, she acts like she's around 10 years old, so still very much a child, but not as dependent on Zuko as before. But whenever she catches herself acting like that, she deliberately tries to act like she's 5, out of fear that Zuko will distance himself from her if he believes she doesn't need him as much. The doctors notice and tell him to try and stablish some boundaries.

But he can't. Each time she puts on that facade of helpless little princess that desperately needs her older brother (who is basically her father at this point) to take care of all her needs, he immediately folds. He does still try to encourage her to practice her bending again, and eventually she accepts, finding it quite enjoyable since for once there's no expectation for her to be perfect. It eventually gives her the confidence to not act like she's that much younger (though she still slips every now and then) and by the time of her 16th birthday, she's pretty much behaving as she did when she was 12 - once again, younger than her actual age, but making progress.

This, however, comes with the awkward consequence of Azula remembering some of her more... inappropriate thoughts towards her brother. She finds herself struggling not to stare when he's firebending without a shirt, or wearing clothes that make him look really good. Every night, when they go to sleep, she can't help but fantasize about kissing and touching him. As her treatment progresses, her fantasy self becomes more and more bold.

By her 17th birthday, the doctors consider her fully recovered - even if she insists on the facade that she's "too scared" to sleep alone. They once again remind Zuko to set some boundaries, and then leave the palace for good.

That night, Azula cannot help herself and kisses Zuko when he pulls her into his arms for a hug. He is shocked at what she's done and horrified at how his body reacted. He had fantasies about sleeping with her pretty much from the moment they were reunited after three long years, but her breakdown and the vulnerable position she had been in for so long after it had kept his lust dormant, and Zuko had naively assumed that his "unnatural" desire was dead.

He keeps trying to resist, telling her that this is wrong, and insisting that it would be taking advantage of her, even as she swears to him that she already wanted this long before he had to basically become her parent - but, of course, he eventually gives in and makes love to her. The morning after, he tells that it will never happen again.

It happens again that very night. And the night after that, and the night after that, and the night after that, until Zuko eventually stops kidding himself and just accepts that he's a freak. It was all the permission Azula needed to practically demand that he acts like her "daddy" again each time they have sex - and even when they're not. Zuko HATES how much it turns him on, as he feels it is tainting the genuinely innocent moments they had shared during her recovery, but Azula enjoys it so much that he cannot be bothered to keep judging himself for it.

He touches her each time he "helps" her bathe and get dressed. On some nights, he reads or sings to her before bed, and on others they just make love until they fall sleep. He'll "punish" her with spankings each time she misbehaves or does something wrong when firebending. He makes her indulge in every perverse fantasy he can think of in exchange for giving her gifts. 

He feels like the sickest man alive and he's never been happier, and Azula has never felt so adored in her entire life.

[gaywithflowers]

I'm making a new post for this because I'm too anxious to add onto someone else's post, especially if I'm disagreeing with them-

(Also I'm mostly writing this because I wanted to make sense of my own thoughts, I'm not really in the mood to argue.)

But I saw someone say Zuko's ending as Fire Lord was confusing because he got what he wanted from the beginning, as in, he always wanted to become Fire Lord and then that is exactly what he became.

Sorry for stepping in like this, but-

Zuko didn't get what he wanted from the beginning.

At the start, "wanting his throne" was just a part of what he truly really wanted: the approval of Ozai, his love, to carry on the legacy of Ozai and Azulon and Sozin, to become better than Azula, to do and be what he was expected to.

He doesn't get any of that, at all.

He becomes Fire Lord but before that he has to let go of his desperate desire "to be great" (in the Fire Nation standard) and become a complete, irredeemable, utter failure in the eyes of the people he wanted to impress: he lets go of Ozai's approval, he understands Ozai will never love him, he renounces the legacy of the war, and he solidifies his position as Azula's inferior (in the eyes of the fire nation ideals ofc). He also upturns his old concept of what he was expected to be: an obedient prince following the status quo, carrying on the will of his rulers and ancestors VS a prince who loves his nation so much he decides to formally betray it.

He is shaken, at the end, when he is told by Iroh he will get the throne because it doesn't fit with his worldview anymore, and because he is ashamed. He becomes the Fire Lord but there is a complete resignification of what that entails and why that is important. Right now being the Fire Lord is not the natural progression of being Ozai's son, now he is signing up to shoulder the responsibility of changing the world.

His journey also shows us that he was right: the correct thing to do is speak out against injustice and cruelty. He was punished for it, they tried to suppress his drive to do better by his people, and he has to go a long way until he can shake off the severe attempt to make him shut up and conform. In his journey he also learns he can't do right by his people while still allowing them to oppress others, that he can't dehumanize anyone not just his fellow people.

...so yeah. I really don't think he got what he wanted in the end. If he had, he would have been shrouded in the glory of destroying the fire nation's enemies, he would have been a worthy son of his forefathers' cruelty-...and he did get that for a while, didn't he? And didn't he get the whole "be careful what you wish for" experience? If his arc had ended there and he hadn't gone away to train Aang, then we could say he was handed exactly what he always wanted to have and that there was no change.

But no. His father hates him. He let go of a 100 year old legacy. He disrupted the "glorious" expansion of a "glorious" nation. To many, he is a disappointment and embarrassment because he did the unthinkable: he retreated, he sent the armies home.

He surrendered against all Fire Nation beliefs of honor because he finally understood he can't gain honor by hurting others.

He let go of the definition of honor that was corrupting him.

That is change.

There is nothing wrong, anyway, in a character getting exactly what they wanted if along the way the motivations and significance of the goal change.

(Being truly honorable can be super humiliating tbh

He let go of his cultural view of status and that h u r t s

I'm Latin American born and raised, I have experience with this one- and it still has me on a chokehold. He is a fictional character and yet I look at him and I'm like wow that thing right there? Takes balls. I still can't let go of the expectations that are suffocating me even though I know they hurt me more than help me.)

[the-badger-mole]

Avatar: the Final Conflict Chapter 6

“Mai...” Zuko stood and pulled her into an embrace and let her cry on his shoulder for a moment until she pulled away.

“We have to talk about this,” she said, wiping the tears from her face. “There has to be another way.”

“Please,” Zuko pleaded, suddenly exhausted. “I just had this argument with Katara. I can’t-“

“You had this…what do you mean you had this argument with that…that-“

“Mai, I can’t do this with you now.” Zuko sat down on the couch and buried his face in his hands.  “For the last time, there is nothing going on with me and Katara.”

Mai stood fuming. Looking up once or twice, Zuko could see her struggling to check her emotions. Her face flushed bright red, and then went suddenly pale. She sat down stiffly on the couch next to Zuko after a while.

“I don’t want you to go,” she said at last. Zuko snorted.

“That seems to be the general consensus,” he muttered, folding his arms. Then he turned back to Mai suddenly. “Come with us!”

“Excuse me?” Mai asked incredulously.

“Look, we’re going to need all the help we can get.  You’re amazing with knives, and you’re not terrible at tracking. There’s plenty of room in Appa’s saddle. You could –“

“No.”  Zuko almost didn’t hear Mai’s quiet reply. He looked at her in confusion.

“Mai,” he started to say. Mai cut him off.

“I don’t want to go.” Mai stared sullenly at the floor, rebelliously ignoring the tears still falling from her eyes.  Zuko turned away from her and nodded.

“I understand,” he said after a moment.

“No you  don’t!” Mai snapped angrily. “You don’t understand at all! I don’t want to go.  And I…I can’t believe you do.”

“Do you think I want this?” Zuko demanded. He was angry now, too. “Do you really think I want any of this? I’m going because I have to. Ozai is my responsibility, and he’s dangerous.” Zuko stood up and ran his hair agitatedly through his hair.

“He’s your father, Zuko,” Mai insisted. “Doesn’t that mean anything?” Zuko looked back at Mai and shook his head.

“No.”  

Read the rest of the chapter here

[myths-of-fantasy]

“Alright, one more time – when in the Earth Kingdom, we are…”

“The Song family.”

“And we are…”

“Merchants.”

“That sell-”

“-Bread, maps and trinkets.”

“Good, good.”

Ezani looked over her collection of children, all of them speaking in firm but quiet voices as they watched her with serious eyes. They had been preparing for this day for a while now. It had been about four months since Iroh had sailed off with Zuko on the doomed-to-failure search for the Avatar. The hidden waterbender had been training her kids – hers because honestly fuck Ozai – to handle the world outside of the Fire Nation. Her heart still clenched at the infrequently letters coming from Zuko, the boy’s pain and palpable confusion coming through clearly as he reported failure after failure in his search even as he tried to hide it.

The Azula, Mei and Ty-Lee would curl up among themselves while Ezani read the latest letter for them, doing her best to keep the raw sadness she felt for the boy out of her voice. Inevitably, they would ask for the letter to read it themselves and she would hand it over for them to inspect, Azula sadly tracing her fingers across the characters shaped by her brother’s hands.

On the other side, Ezani would unravel the secret letters delivered to her by Iroh; reporting on what the current climate was like. While Zuko hadn’t the luxury of being preemptively desensitized, unwound from the prejudices of the Fire Nation, Ezani had been carefully planting seeds of doubt in all of the most important places in the minds of the girls. She kept encouraging them to ask questions, to look deeper into every order, not to take things said at face value and she could see that it was starting to sink in. Even the act of asking for the letter, choosing to read it themselves rather than count on her to tell them the exact contents of the letter was a sign of their changing demeanor.

Though what happened to Zuko was vile and sickening, the final act to seal Ozai’s image in the eyes of his children not as their father but as their master, the shock of his actions had ruptured their entire worlds. No matter what Ezani had tried to teach Azula before, Ozai had been her father and much of the Fire Nation saw him as the fair if strict father.

The needless cruelty towards his own son for the mere crime of caring about their soldiers had been a blow to their world-views leaving them more vulnerable to Ezani’s teachings.

She hated to think about it like that but she’d been raised with the war in mind, raised to understand the vulnerabilities that could open themselves in a person’s armor and how to both exploit them and protect her own.

Ezani had been prepared to pack up her girls and ditch the island only a couple days after Iroh had left but looking at the girls now, she reluctantly admitted that staying for a bit longer had been for the best. They were stronger through their training, the adults in their lives entrusting them with more and more complex foot-work which would serve them well on the outside.

“We’re in the Earth Kingdom.” she said sharply, making them all straighten up. “What are your names?”

“Lily,” Azula said immediately, putting on her best ‘innocent child’ expression. Ezani smiled warmly – she had been wary about using the girl’s pet-name as an alias but she’d been careful to never express the name in public. ‘Fire-Lily’ was usually reserved for private moments within her little shop, so hopefully it would fly easily enough under the radar.

“Aster,” Ty Lee declared, straightening up.

“Song Sage,” Mei reported.

“Well-done – let’s work on your breads again.”

The girls rushed the stand, pulling out their premade dough while Ezani watched with a critical eye. Their cover would be simple – a small family of merchants that traveled semi-regularly selling the various trinkets they found on their journeys alongside their very good breads. For those who looked upon their band with confusion, she would profess to having taken over her own father’s business. Others who would look at her dark skin and brown eyes with suspicion next to her triad of paler skinned girls, would be told that she’d once had a partner (but carefully not a husband, she possessed none of the dressings for a widow to pass that story) whom perished defending them when the girls were young.

She tried to keep the other details close to reality to prevent the girls from slipping up – Mei was her eldest daughter and Azula her youngest. Given that Azula and Ty Lee looked nothing alike, she’d declared that she was just a little girl when they escaped the attack and so, Ezani took her with them. The waterbender had initially wanted to pass them off as twins but they didn’t look similar enough to be convincing. She’d say she had a son once but he’d been killed alongside his father, defending their family while the girls escaped.

Not a very detailed story no but it had enough information to keep the average citizen from looking into them too deeply. Bandits were a known problem throughout the world.

“How much longer do we have to wait?” Azula’s words snapped her out of her thoughts. Her little girl looked so grown up now, 13 years old but with the serious eyes and flecked with faint scars. It certainly lent to their story but her heart still crumbled looking at the singed marked on her daughter’s skin, where she’d dodge a knife a little too slowly; hadn’t blocked a fire covered fist quite quickly enough. Mei was the eldest and yet, Azula’s body was a hidden mosaic of suffering. “I can’t take it much longer. Being in the castle with him.”

She spat the last word venomously – Azula hadn’t referred to the Firelord as her father since the day he exiled Zuko. Not that the self-centered man had even noticed, she wouldn’t be surprised if the bastard assumed she was just showing him the proper respect befitting his station.

I wish I could kill him, Ezani thought to herself bitterly. A life-time of grooming and yet, when faced with her task all she could see overwhelming failure waiting for her. She knew intellectually the Firelord was surrounded by high-ranking military officials, that attempting a rush on the palace would be paramount to suicide and yet…. It still felt like she was failing her parents, failing Zuko by letting that bastard continue drawing breath. Some day.

“Soon,” she answers Azula, careful to hide any signs of her inner torment. “I have an idea of where to go, food and maps. I’ve already packed all of the most important aspects of the stall and destroyed anything else that could tip-off the guards.”

She sighed a little, “The hardest part is managing to parse out a ship willing to smuggle the Firelord’s precious daughter out of the Nation without sending word back to the palace.”

Azula growled at being called the Firelord’s daughter but said nothing about it – though she no longer viewed the cruel man as a father, Firelord Ozai was still certain of her loyalty to him, still seemed to think her his loyal puppet.

“Maybe I can help,” Ty Lee offered, rocking back and forth on her feet. The young girl was constantly in motion – it seemed the restless energy she usually expended in the circus had become just another part of her.

“I don’t want you to risk getting hurt,” Ezani told her gently, suppressing the fear of what could happen if they were discovered. She herself was already just barely avoiding execution for what was – at the very least – treason, kidnapping and given her communications with Iroh, espionage.

“Oh little poppy, I don’t mean it that way,” she cooed when Ty Lee wilted a bit. “I know you want to help but I want you girls to be as innocent in this as possible. If I am caught, I want you to three to stay together and look out for each other.”

“You won’t get caught though,” Azula declared.

“It’s always a risk,” said the ever realistic Mei in a softer voice. “Those nobles are always poking around her shop. And they’re mean when they don’t get what they want.”

Ezani wordlessly placed her hand on Mei’s shoulder, squeezing lightly in an attempt at comfort. The eldest’s emotions were always a bit muted, more contained and tightly sewn together compared to Azula and Ty Lee’s. Ezani had wondered for a while if that was by nature or if it was taught to her – regardless, she recognized the comment as the quiet girl’s way of expressing her concerns.

“I won’t lie to you all – you’re old enough to understand the truth. And the truth is that what I’m planning is dangerous – that just living here had been a major gamble. This world isn’t as kind as I would like it to be and as long as Ozai is Firelord, there is always the risk that I will be taken from you.”

Azula clenched her fists as Ty Lee shuffled closer to her, eyes tearing up with frightened sadness.

“I will do my best to stay with you,” Ezani told them seriously. “But if it comes down to a choice of me or you, I will always choose you. And I hope I can count on you three to choose yourselves too.”

She doesn’t think they would, not by the steel in their eyes and the stiffness to their bodies but she’d at least told them the truth. There was no point in attempting to shelter them from this fact – not when she would be labeled the Fire Nation’s number one enemy if her plan were to succeed.

For now, she let them knead their dough while she formulated a reply to Iroh – only a few more months at the most.

Then they would be free.

| | |

“Thank you,” Ezani said quietly.

The merchant nodded, accepting the small pouch of money that she’d carefully collected. A healthy amount of coin of both Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom currency to further entice the man to keep quiet. Thank the spirits, it seemed that the Fire Lord had disgruntled quite a few merchants with his stricter trading policies and the higher taxes he imposed upon them. The merchant was a frequenter of the less popular docks, electing to travel by foot through the lands to increase the chances of encountering a potential customer – it works perfectly in her favor. The unpopulated docks meant that there would be fewer people who would recognize Azula, the guards would be in the looser part of the Firelord’s palm rather than tightly grasped in his grips and it would allow them to vanish on the roads between the major cities.

She turned and motioned for the girls to follow, creeping from the shadows slowly.

She blinked a little, readjusting once more to the slightly jarring sight of her girls dressed as ordinary citizens, each clutching a small bag in their hands. It would’ve been smarter if she’d told them no, denied them the opportunity to take the small items that would surely reveal their flight but she didn’t have the heart to. She was already taking them away from all that they knew, into a hostile world where they would live on the run presumably for the rest of their lives, dogged by the Firelord and his loyal soldiers.

So she helped Ty Lee onto the boat first, saying nothing about the small beaded necklace that shimmered in the bag, about the decorative knife that Mei held as she crossed onto the boat or the teddy bear – the only gift from Ursa to her daughter – clutched in Azula’s arms.

Ezani was holding her breath the entire time.

She’d sent word to Iroh that they were finally leaving, that she’d send him a second message when they reached shore again – her tern-falcon alongside Ducky were packed safely onto the ship near the merchant’s goods, carefully out of sight of an immediate glance near the merchant’s own iguana-parrot. She watched the shore of the Fire Nation fade into the distance as her girls were ushered beneath the deck to change from their Fire Nation commoner robes to something more suitable for the average traveling merchant.

She waited with her heart in her throat as they sailed further and further out to sea, her pulse thumping loudly in her ears.

In the end, she needn’t have worried – they passed the check-point easily, the guards tired and uncaring of what they saw as an ordinary merchant passing by with subpar material. It was late at night and the Firelord was convinced his Azula was still his darling puppet – he’d stopped looking in on her room when she didn’t leave with Zuko. Her little girl had masked her hurt and upset masterfully within the palace, disguising her grief as a newfound blood-lust in training that made the Firelord cackle with pleasure.

It would only be the next morning, when her Fire Lily didn’t answer his summons and the servants found her room empty, her sheets untouched that he would realize what had happened. He would storm the little stand she’d called her own only to find an empty shell with no evidence of where they’d gone. She’d reluctantly given away her lips to one of the noble-women who continued to press her, push her and ensured her silence, kept her from alerting the guards that she was leaving so they couldn’t stop her swift-night’s packing.

She releases a gentle sigh, her muscles relaxing as she looked upon the open sea stretching before her; the water silver from the bright moon’s light and she’d never felt more at home than she did now. Ezani always felt the safest on the sea – ironic considering it was where she’d been most in danger with the Fire Nation’s fleet patrolling the waters.

“Nothing to do but wait now,” she said aloud, as she settled onto her spot on the ship. She unwrapped a bit of blueberry bread she’d produced with Azula’s help.

She ate, watching the moonlight and imagined the Firelord’s enraged roar with a smirk upon her lips.

---

@ultimatebottom69

Being sporadic as hell but this time, I'm remembering to include you in this lmao

[zukosdualdao]

something i also think is shown in pretty direct contrast between zuko’s relationship with katara vs. his relationship with his family is that he never really has to question/fret over her motives or reasons for anger, or whether she’s good with him or just pretending, in the way he does with his family. (this does veer away from the azula discussion a bit, though she’s definitely part of the dynamic as ozai’s enforcer.)

a lot of the psychological abuse apsect of ozai’s treatement of him is implied, but it’s definitely there. in the storm flashback, zuko seems genuinely thrown and surprised at his father’s reaction to his speaking up. also, as others have probably put into words better than i can—he gets punished for two very contradictory ‘crimes’—defiance (even though zuko definitely doesn’t see it that way) and weakness (for not fighting a grown adult man who is also the head of state and also his father.) though this was obviously a very intense extreme of what it might have looked like, i don’t think it’s a stretch to say ozai probably shifted the goalposts a lot. the whole b plot of the avatar state is about zuko struggling to accurately determine whether azula, as an agent of their father, is being genuine in acting like all’s good between them and her insistence he come home, and iroh warily (and correctly) insisting she may not be. relatedly, in the “am-i-invited-to-this-war-meeting-or-not-so-much” plot of nightmares and daydreams, it’s clear that zuko is confused because ozai wants him to be confused, because a zuko who is confused is easier to manipulate. (azula reinforces this by insisting there’s not anything to be confused about, which is gaslighting.)

contrast with katara, who, even before she’s forgiven zuko and is at her angriest with him, never makes zuko guess about the fact that she’s angry at him or why. even her threat at the end of the western air temple, while obviously not exactly a fluffy or heartwarming scene (that comes later), is meant to show zuko exactly where he stands with her. when he confronts katara in the southern raiders and expresses confusion/frustration about why she can’t find it in her to trust him when everyone else has started to, she makes it clear—it’s not really about trust, so much, as it is about the fact that she feels hurt and betrayed by what happened in ba sing se, and she can’t see past that when he hasn’t acknowledged that he hurt her, specifically, in a way that was different to how he hurt the others.

even at her angriest, katara, unlike his family, doesn’t want zuko confused because she has no desire to manipulate him. she wants him to understand why she’s angry and hurt and work toward fixing it—as is made evident by her saying she’s “ready” to forgive zuko at the end of tsr. and, also unlike his family, when zuko shows a genuine desire to atone and works to mend things between them, katara sees that, appreciates it, and meets him there full-force.

I will never understand the logic of Tyzula shippers who call Zutara toxic

[peony-pearl]

OOOOOOH I always LOVE reading your tags & if you ever decide to expand on your "what if" scenarios let me know, I'm certainly intrigued!

AHHH thank you!! ok so I might just add what I have thought out here but like

It absolutely makes sense that Zuko would be unhappy in the Fire Nation; it's poetic for his manic desire to return home. But like imagine if, probably after The Beach, he ends up warming up (hehe) to everything.

It starts with Azula talking about how she believed Ursa thought she was a monster, and that she was right - everything goes silent until Zuko says 'well maybe she was wrong'; then putting a strain on his memory of Ursa because now Azua and Ozai were all he had left. Azula is surprised, and Zuko sees how this affects her, and... things just start slowly thawing out between them.

They return to the Palace, Iroh sends the letter about 'Zuko's great-grandfather', and it goes as normal. Zuko is only feeling stressed from Iroh's 'meddling' when he's trying to give Zuko the peace of mind he thought his nephew needed, since due to his previous visits, he was so unhappy. However, after this episode, we don't see Iroh again until the finale; so imagine that Zuko finally takes Azula's advice to heart and... stops seeing him.

His relationship with Mai flourishes; Ozai even seeks him out more often for some 'father/son' time (and when Zuko finds out Azula concocted the outing, he's actually happy). He finally has a family.

But then when he goes to the War Room and he's told to talk about the Earth Kingdom... it all comes back to him. All of the faces and fellow refugees he'd once dismissed; he hears his father and sister and the soldiers laugh about the misfortune they'll eventually endure of their homes being burned to the ground, and something wells inside of Zuko. He's confused... and suddenly he's angry again. Especially when he's told that he will have nothing to do on Day of Black Sun. Ozai tells him that, as his heir, he needs to stay safe and out of danger; so he will remain in his chambers until further notice.

Later as Azula goes to see him after they get out of their armor and she tries to insist he join her in sneaking some of Li and Lo's tarts, he's back to being crabby and short with her. Azula asks him what his problem is, and all he can think about is Iroh telling him about Avatar Roku being his great-grandfather alongside Sozin. How Zuko's disdain for the idea for Sozin's Comet is fueling him to understand what his Uncle was telling him. Zuko really does have the capability to choose his own path... but at what cost? Zuko has continuously lost things that have mattered to him.

He looks at Azula, the closest they've ever been. If he left... he'd destroy everything they'd created. This was the first time they'd ever had a bond. He couldn't just throw that away. But if he took her to the Avatar... if she didn't destroy them first, then his friends would do just that to her.

Maybe he could just... look away. The Earth Kingdom wasn't his home anyway... but in a way it was. The name 'Lee' still resonated in his mind. He would hear the name in the streets and would jump. Azula would tease him and ask 'who's Lee? Was that your boyfriend in Ba Sing Se?'. A part of that Kingdom still resonated inside of his mind and his heart. They had taken him in when Azula was willing to hunt him and Iroh down (granted... the Earth Kingdom had no idea he was prince of the Fire Nation so... yeah maybe he DIDN'T owe them that much? he definitely used that to try and look away from the subject).

Either way, he tells Azula he's tired and he's going to bed early. Azula shrugs and knocks him on the head and is like 'fine, go clear your brain.' and he hates that he's missing out on spending more time with her; but... everything is suddenly turning on it's head, like it always does. He panics, sitting in his room and hyperventilating as he can't see a way out.

He's going to continue to fail someone he loves. But hasn't he done so already? To so many people. He's just a failure; but maybe he can change it; or maybe there's no point; can a failure still be loved?

So many thoughts run through his mind.

Until he has to realize... this isn't about him.

He thinks about Song and her burns. He thinks about when he used his Firebending to make Jin happy.

He thinks about Jet. What had happened to him when Azula took down the city?

If Zuko was going to be a prince, even a Fire Lord, he had to look beyond himself.

But he was thinking about Earth Kingdom subjects. But even so... hadn't he once been one of their own?

The Avatar is one of all elements. Zuko could be a ruler mindful of his fellow elements as well.

His family was going to destroy the Earth Kingdom. They'd already reduced the Air Nomads and the Water tribes to ashes. He'd laughed about their misery once. His Uncle had once led these efforts.

'You alone can cleanse the sins of our family.'

Agni, he'd already been so alone for so long. Why alone, uncle?

He thought about Azula again. He thought about telling her what he'd learned about Roku.

But every time he thought about telling her, about how she would feel about his growing idea to leave... he felt that distance again. He was falling from his sister's side.

He thought about Ursa. No, his sister wasn't a monster. But... she was so firmly attached to their father's teachings that, the moment she were to notice Zuko's waning involvement with the war, it was going to be over.

Zuko looks at his hands.

He was going to hurt them all.

Azula, Mai, Ozai...

He remembered Iroh's face when his own heart had been broken by his nephew.

Zuko's gut twists. It seems all he's good for is hurting people.

But maybe he can get to Azula before it's too late. Maybe he can work to eventually telling her about Roku; he can reveal who 'Lee' is... or was. Or is? He doesn't know anymore. His head hurts. All he knows is the horrible truth that he'll let his loved ones down.

It's going to be so hard.

But ultimately, he hears his mother alongside Iroh.

'That's who you are. Someone who keeps fighting even though it's hard.'

He knows his mind is made up. He sighs. There are still a few days until the Eclipse. Until then... all he can do is his best; maybe he can manage to get Azula to join him... until she finds out his true motive to join the Avatar and she fries him.

But he tries to keep a positive outlook (as positive as Zuko can maintain) ... after all, he'll need one for when he tries to convince Team Avatar to let him join.

[bezixx]

Perspective - and how it affects Azula

Some of the recent posts and discussions made me ponder and inspired a certain thought or idea that has not been mentioned much in the past.

It is well known that fans find Zuko more sympathetic, since many things were shown from his lens, how he felt, the flashbacks, his confusion, etc.

But what if Azula received the same treatment and was shown to struggle for her parents' attention and love, feeling alienated by most of her family and being bad with socializing ( more so than from The Beach ) to the point she communicates the way Ozai taught her and gets confused with peoples' reactions? Then she sees her brother getting burnt and cheers not knowing it actually hurts him ( because cheers for her father ), then deep down starts feeling bad. Then years later she has to hunt her brother, the same one who she played with as a kid ( they actually had fun together many times ).

Or better yet, take away Zuko's side and let her have those sympathetic moments, but still leave the story more or less the same for both of them. Who do you think people would want to emerge victorious throughout most of the story? Because they would certainly have something to think about. And no, comics do not count, as they do not put as much impact as the ATLA show did and they suffer from much smaller recognition. Not to mention that the story shown in the comics was subpar by itself, at best.

I shall take an example of other series - Code Geass. The main protagonist - Lelouch vi Britannia - is a villain ( to a much bigger extent than Azula, she is like a baby in comparison ), but since the story is shown from his side, we know the ( tragic ) reasons for things he does, so we root for him. Better yet, he is one of the most beloved anime characters.

Maybe that is what we need for people to understand Azula better.

[zuko-always-lies]

So, question, because I see people saying it often that Iroh has the right to feel animosity towards Azula because she made fun of/derided Lu Ten's death (or something like that), but does she actually do that in that scene? Or does she express disdain for Iroh's reaction, which considering the culture could easily be interpreted as Iroh being the one to make light of it? (Pretty sure there's at least one instance in _Romance of the Three Kingdoms_ where one character absolutely annihilates an opposing force because his brother/father/friend dies, if we want a real-world example of the mentality. Or, like, all of _The Hagakure_.)

Does Azula call Lu Ten a coward for dying? Or does she say that Iroh is for not "getting justice" or revenge for his son's death? For not finishing the task and abandoning the cause Lu Ten died for?

Because one of these means Iroh's dislike could be justified (nevermind the fact that he wasn't present for this conversation, so if he knew about it, he would have only heard about it from Zuko). But the other is an angry/disappointed/disgusted child calling an adult out.

Good question! I think I should start by talking about what Zuko and Azula actually say about Iroh.

"The Western Air Temple"(featuring 13 year old Zuko!):

Iroh: (Iroh looks on, concerned) Prince Zuko, it's only been a week since your banishment. (Cut to a far back view shot of the 2) You should take some time to heal and rest. Zuko: (turns around and raises his voice) What else would I expect to hear from the laziest man in the Fire Nation? (Cut to a close up of Iroh's slightly appalled face as he looks down and sighs) The only way (Cut back to a frontal shot of uncle and nephew) to regain my honor is to find the Avatar. So I will.

"The Headband":

Zuko: (standing at the bars) You brought this on yourself, you know. We could have returned together. You could have been a hero! (Iroh turns a shade further away from Zuko.) You have no right to judge me Uncle. I did what I had to do in Ba Sing Se, and you're a fool for not joining me. (Iroh is silent.) You're not gonna say anything? (Enraged, he kicks a stool and bends a blast of fire at the wall.) Argh! You're a crazy old man! You're crazy, and if you weren't in jail, you'd be sleeping in a gutter!

Zuko says some pretty negative things about Iroh, right to Iroh's face!

Now, what negative things does 14 year old Azula say about Iroh? Surprisingly little, even though she clearly doesn't like him. She implicitly calls him a traitor a couple times(during times when he is, in fact, a traitor by all reasonable definitions), but never really explicitly does so. Beyond that, there's very little. This is the only thing I can think of:

Azula: So...I hear you've been to visit your Uncle Fatso in the prison tower. Zuko: (standing, incensed) That guard told you.

Which is actually way less harsh than what Zuko says about Iroh! If anything, Azula's behavior in the present suggests that she only rarely criticized, much less mocked Iroh's behavior to his face when she was younger.

Now let's turn to the meat of your question, "Zuko Alone." There are two scenes in that episode where Azula criticizes Iroh. The first comes before Lu Ten's death:

Ursa: "And for Azula, a new friend. She wears the latest fashion for Earth Kingdom girls." (As Ursa speaks, Azula picks up a doll wearing Earth Kingdom green. The Princess makes a face of disgust.) Azula: If Uncle doesn't make it back from war, then dad would be next in line to be Fire Lord, wouldn't he? (In the background, Zuko runs around practicing with his new dagger.) Ursa: (disappointed) Azula, we don't speak that way. It would be awful if Uncle Iroh didn't return. And besides, Fire Lord Azulon is a picture of health. Zuko: How would you like it if cousin Lu Ten wanted dad to die? Azula: I still think our dad would make a much better Fire Lord than (looking at the doll with disdain) his royal tea loving kookiness. (She holds out the doll and makes its head burst into flame. The screen flashes white and the flashback ends.

There are several things which seem to be driving Azula's actions here. The first is a reaction to the massive favoritism Iroh just showed toward Zuko. The second is a belief, no doubt inspired by Ozai's poisonous statements about his brother, that Ozai, who Azula idolizes, would make a better Firelord than Iroh. Finally, Azula is a confused child who is asking inappropriate questions because she's too young to understand proper boundaries. Nothing she says here is actually that serious, and I would expect a responsible adult(i.e. not Ursa) to either shrug it off, or to carefully reason with Azula in order to explain why what she is saying is problematic.

Now we turn to the other main scene, the one right after Lu Ten's death, and the one you probably actually wanted me to talk about:

Azula: (getting up and walking over to him) By the way, Uncle's coming home. Zuko: Does that mean we won the war? Azula: No. It mean's Uncle's a quitter and a loser. Zuko: What are you talking about? Uncle's not a quitter. Azula: Oh yes, he is. He found out his son died and he just fell apart. (leaning against a nearby pillar) A real general would stay and burn Ba Sing Se to the ground, not lose the battle and come home crying. Zuko: (angry) How do you know what he should do? (looking down, sadly) He's probably just sad his only kid is gone... forever.

You might note that, again, Azula doesn't say anything negative about Lu Ten. You've already noted that Iroh is thousands of miles away at the moment, so having him be "justified" in his hatred of Azula by a conversation he didn't hear doesn't make sense.

Azula is also very angry in this scene, quite possibly the angriest we ever see her at any point. That does suggest that she's taking what's happened, either Lu Ten's death or the abandonment of the siege, very personally. I don't know enough to comment specifically on this, but you are right in that there might be cultural background which specifically proscribes the achievement of vengeance as being of particular importance, and Azula is thus outraged that Iroh failed to fulfill his duty to his son.

But that not at the core of Azula's critique here. What Azula is attacking Iroh for is that he responded to a personal loss by abandoning his duty in the heat of battle, and she is 100% right on this, not only by the standards of Fire Nation cultural but also by the standards of modern western culture. Fun fact: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, and Robert E. Lee(screw the latter two, but that's another story) all suffered the loss of children they dearly loved in the middle of the American Civil War, yet none of them abandoned their duty. Archibald Roosevelt(another problematic figure) had two brothers die in WWII, yet he continued fighting on the front line. John W. Geary literally had his son die in his arms in the middle of battle, yet he continued commanding his unit well enough to prevail. Hell, we can even turn to Joseph Stalin here, to some extent.

Again, the core of what Azula says here is absolutely correct. Iroh is a "quitter" because he responded to Lu Ten's death by falling apart and abandoning the siege when it seemed on the brink of success, rather than continue the operation until victory. I don't think we need to go further than that to establish that Azula is entirely justified calling Iroh out here. And again, she doesn't criticize or mock Lu Ten at all, instead only attacking Iroh's reaction to Lu Ten's death.

[thecagedsong]

Zuko doesn't need any more redemption. He has redeemed himself and atoned and on the path of the destiny he has chosen for himself.

(not going into the comics) But I don't disagree that there is a meaningful story in Zuko helping Azula heal and grow. Because throughout the abuse, throughout his hopeless quest, Zuko comes to recognize that what he really wanted was his family's love.

At the end of it all, Zuko is the only one that could hope to understand the abuse Azula went through too. She was never allowed to fail. She had to be perfect in everything, and everyone knew it (just a hair out of place) (nevermind being 14 and perfecting lightning bending). Even when doing everything her father could have ever asked of her and more, (conquering Ba Sing Sei and facing the avatar without only her wits and a knife during the eclipse), Ozai leaves her behind. He doesn't love her and never has. Neither has Azula's mother, according to Azula.

But Zuko has feared her, hated her, and loved her all at once.

Zuko has turned his back on the abuse, he has left it behind and grown. But characters and people don't stop growing, there's just a point where the story teller says this story of this growth is done.

Zuko doesn't need to seek out Azula, she needs to find her own growth and atonement and it won't start with Zuko. It will probably start with an abused little girl.

(just like Zuko's started out with a burned Song and an over-eager little kid way over his head trying to stop some bullies)

But it will end with Zuko. Just as Zuko had to help Katara because he had hurt her personally, Azula's redemption arc will involve doing whatever it takes to try and make it up to Zuko.

And let Zuko be frustrated and confused and suspicious that this is another of her plots. Weary of her, respectful of her strength, scared that letting her try will bring harm to his people and those he cares about.

But let him also find a memory on ember island where they had fun as children. Let him remember her tears of failure during the last Agni Kai. And let him remember himself, staying up all night, to tell Katara he can help.

Have Zuko make her work for it, prove it beyond even Azula's ability to act. (I'm talking go to the spirit world with Iroh and apologize to the moon and ocean for the fire nations' previous harm level of proof).

But let him trust in love again. Let him be the one to believe Azula after she proves herself, when no one else does. And let him be right. Let love between siblings destroy another bastion of Ozai's hate, and let the fire nation heal under siblings that would not slay each other at last.

He doesn't have to forgive Azula, not after their history. But what a story it would be if he did forgive her, (what another parallel to Katara) because Azula had earned it.

Just saw the craziest take. Zuko's redemption arc will be incomplete til he helps his sister heal and he let's go of the sibling rivalry Ozai created. What? Am I missing something? He needs to help his abuser heal?

It's not just the idea that he needs to help his abuser heal that is bad. This idea fails on its very premise. Not to mention that Zuko learning that he did not have to play nice with abusive people or listen to them was a big part of his redemption arc. Which includes Azula because there was that whole thing where he almost joined the gaang in Ba Sing Se until Azula convinced him to join with her, and the climax of his arc was rejecting and atoning for that choice and then defeating Azula in battle in combination with Katara, in a perfect reversal of his choosing Azula over Katara at the end of book 2. Saying NO to Azula was a large part of Zuko's redemption arc.

But the main reason why this take is wrong is that Zuko ALREADY let go of the "sibling rivalry." Which wasn't a sibling rivalry to begin with, because Zuko was never a rival to Azula, he was her Ozai-approved punching bag. Him standing up to her and defeating her was rejecting what Ozai created, which was not a sibling rivalry but a golden child/scapegoat dynamic where Zuko was the scapegoat. Zuko refusing to BE the scapegoat any longer IS letting it go.

Zuko let it go when he told Ozai that Azula lied to him about the Avatar's death. He let it go when he told Ozai that he didn't care about his approval anymore, and therefore has no reason to seek it either from Azula or by fighting her. He doesn't fear being Ozai's scapegoat anymore and he's not cowed by Azula's threats. He chooses to walk away.

And like, I know I keep saying this but I can't stress it enough. What Zuko does in walking away is the thing that abusers fear the most. Believing that you are responsible for "healing" an abusive person is what a lot of abusive people want, because it's another way for them to control the relationship and the narrative. Walking away from an abusive relationship is always a valid choice, and sometimes it's a necessary choice. And sometimes that's what letting go looks like.

And that's sad, but it was never Zuko who couldn't let it go. It's also not Zuko who continues to hold on to it, who challenges his sibling to an agni kai and says it was "always meant to be" even after the other person has chosen to walk away. Zuko left, remember? Azula was the one who came after him in "The Southern Raiders" with the intent to kill him because she couldn't let him walk away and live. Azula is the one who won't back down from a fight and says it was "the showdown that was always meant to be." Zuko came back to face her because he wanted to save the world. Azula is the one who holds onto a personal grudge. Azula is the one who cheats when she realizes she can't win. Azula is the one who almost kills her brother and laughs while he is dying. (Do NOT talk to me about Zuko's expression while she is tied to a grate when Azula had THAT expression after she had struck her brother with lightning.)

Azula is the one who, in the comics, continues to hold onto her hatred, continues to justify Ozai's abusiveness, and rejects Zuko's attempts to reach out to her every single time. Azula is the one who used Zuko's offer of dignity to weasel herself into a position where she could keep their mother's letter from him and force Zuko to take her along and put them all in danger. If anything, I'd say that Zuko's mistake in that comic was believing that she would be helpful to him in the first place and that she wouldn't try to take advantage of him. But the fact that he does continue to try to be kind to her shows how much he has risen above what his family tried to do to him. But he also has every right to be angry at her and distance himself from her completely. Just because he's still hurting doesn't mean he hasn't healed. And Zuko's abusers aren't the ones who get to be the measure of whether he has healed. Especially when they keep trying to hurt him.

I find it interesting that Azula is the one who keeps holding onto the idea that she is Ozai's golden child, and yet I've never, ever, ever seen it suggested that Azula should let it go, even when Zuko has risen above it and Ozai has rejected her. Even while Azula's reluctance to let go of this destructive mindset continues to hurt her as well as those around her. That's what Azula's mother tried to tell her in the mirror at the end of ATLA, that's what Zuko tried to tell her at the end of the "Search," and why she wept when he did. It's also why Ursa offered Azula an apology even when she didn't remember her, because she could see that Azula was holding onto this thing so tenaciously. Azula's mind has been telling her this whole time that she needs to let it go, but she can't. And that's a tragedy, but it's not one that Zuko is responsible for or had any hand in making.