#the experiment allows for a lot of nuance for ursa

[tobiasdrake]

Azula was always an overachiever tying herself into knots trying to please her father & meet his impossible standards of perfection. That was always the implication of her situation, wasn't it? It wasn't shown outright because there were almost no scenes between Azula & Ozai. The live action just made it more explicit, which was apparently necessary because the fandom still seems to struggle with the idea Azula was even abused

The fandom does struggle with the idea Azula was abused. I agree with that. But the reason it struggles with it is because people have a hard time seeing favoritism as abusive to the favorite. Azula is the golden child. The apple of her father's eye. And people miss that this dynamic is as harmful to Azula as it is to Zuko.

Azula in the show was characterized as a prodigy - specifically, in the field of embodying Ozai's values and belief system, which is what he wants from his children. He doesn't care about them as people, but instead wants to mold them into reflections of himself - And he gets on well with Azula, because she goes out of her way to be that reflection.

Azula is a child seeking to emulate her father. Every toxic behavior she has is something she learned from watching Ozai. She domineers and controls the people she loves because that's how she learned to love from watching Ozai. She's pro-fascism and even pro-genocide because those are the values she learned from watching Ozai.

She is her father's dutiful daughter. A child clomping around in her father's shoes, committing atrocities to unify her family and earn those little dopamine hits of a thumbs-up from Daddy.

There's a lot of engaging subtleties to Azula's character, such as the way she gives Zuko the credit for killing Avatar so that her brother can come home, but also holds it over him because domineering and controlling people is how she's been taught to treat the people she cares about.

Or the way she opens up about feeling rejected and unloved by Ursa, but stops to snarkily self-deprecate in the middle. "My own mother thought I was a monster. She was right, of course, but it still hurt." This is a child who has so thoroughly emulated her father's fascistic belief system that she can't even allow herself to be vulnerable when expressing her vulnerabilities, and instead abuses herself as a defense mechanism.

Azula is the contrast to Zuko. Zuko demonstrates what fascistic parenting does to children who struggle to live up to their toxic values, while Azula demonstrates what it does to children who excel. But both of these kids are victims of abuse.

This is something the fandom has a hard time wrapping their heads around because it's something the cartoon had a hard time wrapping its head around. Because it contradicts what the cartoon wanted from Azula: A cool, charismatic and funny supervillain who does sinister things while delivering wicked lines. That was her principle role, and it's what much of the fandom wants from her.

The original cartoon was far from perfect, and one of its flaws is that it eagerly portrayed Zuko as a complex and nuanced figure but refused to treat Azula to the same level of care and sympathy. Zuko's trauma is thoroughly examined while Azula's is simply used as window dressing for villainy. In that regard, I don't disagree with the idea that she should be more fully explored in adaptation.

But this ain't it. Rewriting Azula to be victimized in the same way as Zuko isn't a more thorough exploration of her abuse. It overwrites her abuse with Zuko's abuse. Reimagining Azula as an abuse victim is, in and of itself, a failure to recognize that Azula was already an abuse victim.

Instead, what they accomplished with this change is taking her confidence away. Taking her pride away. Taking her exceptionalism away. And taking her own unique experiences with their mutually abusive father away.

They didn't make Azula's trauma more explicit. They erased it and replaced it with Zuko's.

[lightdancer1]

The Eugenics experiment was an unnecessarily 40K-ish retcon as far as the comics go but it does make a useful background for AUs:

It basically turns Azula and Zuko on paper into more or less copies of the Primarch concept, warriors literally engineered to be not merely fighters but generals from the cradle....and then like the 40K Primarchs this concept goes horribly right. In two different directions. Personally I find the concept as implemented in the comics done with far too 20th Century Western a lens for a world that would perhaps have variants of the concept, but not exactly that precise form of it.

The experiment forms a good part of the elements of 'Ursa is not defined by her relationship with her children even if people say she is' and this is the main reason for including the Ikem relationship in some form in every single AU. It gives her a life that she intended to live, sets up a contrast between mentally ill APD-suffering Ozai who in all AUs but one gets the worst kind of reinforcement and reacts accordingly....and deeply empathetic and wise Ikem who avoided the corruption of the Palace. And where Ozai stood in line on the day of creation for a second helping of asshattery Ikem stood in line for a second helping of common sense. He's far from flawless, but where he's written in the Palace his defects are more human and he's not quite dealing with the Palace-amplified versions of faults.

it also in every single universe, with the Sins-verse and the Fire Lord Ursa AUs the most explicit in doing so gets directly and mercilessly subverted. Both Zuko and Azula were intended to be weapons. *He* is by every possible standard a 'failure' in the eyes for which his existence was intended. Zuko has no real empathy for Azula but is rewarded for expression it where she was punished. Zuko has an actually healthy parental background with one parent, Azula canonically had no healthy relationship with any adult in her life (and in the heroic AUs having this and that emotional equilibrium is a vital part of the changes to get there).

Azula is a success....up to a point. The goal was, at least as I write with a wee bit of 40K backdated into it a literal Primarch-like concept. Two super-generals who would wage war with fire and sword (literally) and scourge the Earth for Fire Lord Lu Ten. Azula defies her own indoctrination with restraint where she could easily steamroll anyone short of the Avatar or her equals as Benders (of which there are several. Older Benders have advantages over younger ones primarily in experience and time devoted to exploring the nature of their abilities. Ozai is not superior to either of his children or his wife in raw power, but the man compensates by sheer driving focus on drilling his power and prowess to a point that it's easy to neglect that as a Bender he's a mediocrity with middling power.

One of the main cores in Ozai's specific brand of abuse to his children is that this tunnel vision boosted by his APD *did* work for him. It made him one of the most powerful Benders in the world and it made him one of the most powerful men in the world in political and temporal power. He expects far too much of children and when they cannot meet this because even Azula, as powerful as she is from a very young age is a *child* and tends to overexert and push herself to her limits, he reacts violently to this. Which accelerates astronomically when he becomes Fire Lord and gains absolute power to do so at his discretion.

The irony is that in this sense Ozai did his one major act of rebellion against his father and quietly signaled he knew the entire premise that blighted his life was bullshit. By sheer monomania he outpaced people far more 'naturally' gifted than he was. Firebending is always associated with willpower as a spiritual pattern, so one thing Ozai gets entirely right for the wrong reasons is *willpower literally fuels it* and the man has Victor von Doom tier willpower. If there were lantern rings in the Avatar-verse Ozai would be a Green Lantern, albeit in the Thaal Sinestro vein.

It's a small element of humanizing him and even in spite of his APD and inability to get emotions at any real level, the Ozai I write fundamentally fucks up everyone around him because what he did worked for himself in the short term and he very woefully misread this as 'if it worked for me it'll work for everyone.'

These angles get worked into the treatment of the eugenics program in every single AU. One of the main means of humanizing Ozai without making him any less a genocidal son of a bitch is that for all his other flaws he knows the eugenics program is fucked up and really is marginally less evil to his children even with everything else he does than his father. And that marginal gap is that Ozai really does think of Azula and Zuko as human beings with pronouns and names and Azulon doesn't really bother at any consistent level with Azula *or* Zuko.

[commandercoriandersalamander]

deservingporcupine said:                                                                                                                            Nooooooo what’s your favorite book?                             

OH BOY IS IT TIME TO TALK ABOUT ARCHIVIST WASP AGAIN YES IT IS

(you’ve unleashed a demon here my friend)

Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace is probably one of my top five favorite books ever, maybe even top three (and the top three isn’t ranked it’s just Really Good Books). It is constantly slept on. No one has read it. No one has even heard of it! Even though every element is fantastic and likens to a very popular series (in a “oh, you liked that bit? try this book!” way not in a derivative way). It is my life’s work to get people to read this book.

 I should put in a Read More because I am going to talk A LOT about it. But- if you like The Abhorsen Trilogy, His Dark Materials, the Hunger Games, Never Let Me Go, Station Eleven, Graceling, any mythology ever, ghosts, supersoldiers, post-apocalypse religion, or the struggle of to what extent you can define yourself versus others define you and the trauma of being both a monster and a savior, you’ll love this book.

-the premise. it’s post-apocalyptic fantasy which is a niche I absolutely love. basically, the world ended generations ago, and no one really knows why or how. but humanity lives in little isolated town-states around the edge of this giant irradiated wasteland. and since the end of the world, ghosts exist.

-after the collapse (and I’m going to talk a lot about the collapse BUT it’s worth noting that the story of the end of the world isn’t a major-major part, like the book is concerned both with looking back and looking forwards, but the story is much more intimate and focused on Wasp and her world rather than The World At Large) this new constellation-based religion popped up. it’s completely unique and AMAZING and integrates so well into the world that you forget you’re still learning about it.

-Wasp was raised by the Catchkeep (what we call Ursa Major) priest. he’s this skeevy old man who raises young girls and every year they fight to the death for the honor of being the Archivist. Wasp is the current Archivist! which is absolutely terrible for her, but the only way out is to die, and the only way to survive is to kill the upstarts.

-the Archivist’s job is to protect the town from ghosts. ghosts can get really angry and mean! and then, to record the ghosts, and watch them and categorize them, in hopes that one of them will reveal how the world ended

-(lemme talk about ghosts for a hot sec. ghosts in this world are basically repeating memories- they’re not really “people”. when you die, your ghost might return, to constantly play out its last moments, but you aren’t aware of the world, you’re not really sentient. ghosts who died violently can become violent, hence the Archivist’s banishing rituals. there has never been a ghost that can talk, so no one has been able to ask the ghosts how the world ended. the theme of repetition, identity, and relation to the world that is inherent in the concept of ghosts is SUPER CENTRAL to the plot and woven so well in.)

-Wasp’s job is really sucky, because she’s incredibly valued by the people of Sweetwater, but she’s also feared and hated. she is kept apart from them, and is basically only ever allowed to interact with the Catchkeep Priest, but she survives on the offerings the people leave outside her door being they are grateful to her for keeping the ghosts away and also terrified of her for being so close to them. this theme- valued monster, monster created and maintained by a society, is central to the book, and I know you’re like “okay, yeah, that’s a theme of a lot of books do, whatever” but the nuance and depth here is incredible.

-Wasp, naturally, wants to escape the Catchkeep Priest, but again, irradiated wasteland, everyone is afraid of her, she has nowhere to go. Wasp is very explicitly a trauma and abuse victim/survivor, and she has guts and bravery without overlooking that or pretending that one cancels out the other.

-Wasp’s entire life is turned upside down when she finds a ghost that can TALK. like, recognize its surroundings, recognize her, and talk to her. like I said, that’s NEVER HAPPENED. completely unprecedented.

-the ghost (who doesn’t have a name) explains that in his old life, he was a soldier. and that he had a comrade, Kit Foster, who died as well, and that he’s trying to find her ghost, so that they can survive the underworld together. he wants Wasp’s help. in return, he will get her away from the Catchkeep Priest.

-lemme talk about the ghost because he is a completely tragic figure in such a compelling way. ghosts get weaker and weaker the longer they’re dead, and he’s been dead a long time. he doesn’t remember most of his life. he doesn’t remember his own name. he remembers that he is a monster, in a way that directly parallels Wasp, because they’re both created soldiers people are afraid of but also need, but while Wasp has the chance to go forwards and grow, he’s dead, he can’t. ghosts are incredibly stagnant.

-he wants to find Kit because he’s forgetting who he is. he hopes that if he finds her, they can remind each other of who they are. when the underworld decays them, they can pull back and remember each other. remember the theme I said about defining yourself versus others defining you, and how it plays into the idea of an important monster? yeah here it is again!

-let me say really explicitly though: I know what you’re thinking. Wasp and the ghost are going to hook up. Mild spoiler but worth knowing: THEY DO NOT. yeah you heard me. Kit and the ghost aren’t romantic either. this is a book about trusting other people enough to know and define you when you can’t and IT DOESN”T HAVE ROMANCE. platonic, important, deep and trusting relationships, boyos! I care so much about this.

-so the trip through the underworld. the underworld is such an amazing setting here. the closest thing I’ve read is His Dark Materials underworld, full of ghosts and emptiness. it’s an expanse of old flotsam of memories and it’s always trying to destroy you. Wasp and the ghost have to wade through this place, trying to figure out what does and doesn’t belong to them.

-Wasp, as the Archivist and wielding a special ghost sword, is able to enter the memories of the ghost. specifically, the memories that he has forgotten. doing this is killing her, but she’s already in the underworld, so... the book switches between Wasp and the ghost’s journey through Hades and flashbacks to the ghost’s childhood with Kit Foster, as medical experiments and supersoldiers in a world-ending war. you start to realize that the ghost thinks he betrayed Kit, but can’t remember how.

-look, it’s just incredibly. the themes are woven into everything, the parallels between Wasp and the ghost are superb, the symbolism is constant without being heavy-handed. you’re reading a really engaging story, not an essay about identity with some story trappings, it doesn’t get preachy, it’s just really well done. Wasp and the ghosts are both realistic, flawed, hurting characters trying to imagine some kind of ending for themselves. this book sneaks up on you with how painful (in the good book way!) it is to read. and then the ending! I’m not gonna say anything! I won’t! But the ending!

-the sequel (which is the book I lost, RIP) does the Really Great Sequel Thing where it continues the themes and struggles without invalidating the progress the characters made in the last book. it also confirms what was hinted at in the first book, which is that Wasp is a woman of color, and so that’s neat. she’s also a realistic example of someone with PTSD and chronic pain. plus: still no romance, still incredibly important and complete platonic relationships. and you learn more about other towns and the gods!

-I will say, on first reading, the writing style took me a sec to adjust to. Wasp’s POV (it’s third person, but completely centered on her viewpoint) has the blind spots and anger that you’d expect from first person, and it can be weird to adjust. it’s also very jerkily written, which sounds like an insult, but it’s not, it absolutely works with Wasp’s voice and the setting, but it takes a few chapters to click with your brain.

-have I dressed up like the Archivist for Halloween? oh you fuckin bet I have.