#yeah i’m definitely messing up this cw arc but consider: i don’t care

[creacherkeeper]

if anyone would have bothered caring for or parenting azula she would've turned on ozai Quick. the series would've been ten episodes long.

oh now that’s actually a really interesting thought experiment 

i don’t agree and here’s why 

(cw abuse, cw child abuse) 

zuko had ursa’s love. he grew up being cared for, learning compassion, and having a positive role model. iroh obviously cared for him a great deal, as he decided to go with zuko on this very rough journey with little of the comforts he was used to, for an indeterminate amount of time, so even if you think iroh changed a lot before the show started, he was some sort of positive model in zuko’s life from childhood. and in the three years before the show, zuko had iroh to care for him and try to help him and lead him down the right path 

zuko is still the season 1 antagonist, despite these things

zuko doesn’t change until his circumstances drastically change. he needs so much distance from his father, he needs to see the rest of the world’s perspective with clear eyes, he becomes a refugee, he connects with people, he learns honest work, and this changes him. and yet, even despite all that, even despite iroh’s care and teachings added into all those experiences, zuko betrays iroh to help azula and get back to his father 

this is the thing about abuse. it messes with your head. i’ve heard some psychologists say their definition of an abusive situation is the inability to recognize patterns, and in my experience that’s been very accurate. it’s almost impossible to see how bad something is when you’re in it, even if you have other positive forces in your life. the very corrupt and twisted thing about abuse is that, in a very perverse way, it’s addictive. it lies to you and tells you that not only is this negative behavior justified, but that you need it and would be worse if it wasn’t in your life. losing an abusive relationship, whether it’s on your terms or not, is incredibly terrifying. it’s a very awful situation to be in, and it’s why a lot of people develop ptsd so far afterwards, because their brain really doesn’t see abuse as “bad” until they’re far away and can get perspective 

we know azula has been abused her whole life, just for the simple fact that she was raised by ozai. but azula is in the very particular situation of “raised by a violent abusive narcissist who considered her the good one”. azula was in a very bad situation and it affected her behavior in major ways. she also, as we saw, was more safe from the obvious repercussions than zuko was. was that safety an illusion? absolutely. ozai would have turned on her in a heartbeat had she stepped out of line. but she believed she was safe, and she believed, in whatever warped and twisted way, that she was loved 

and i don’t think that can be discounted. like i said, abuse is addictive. not in any sort of “good” way, but in the very basic definition of addictive as in “your brain has a dependency on this and you will suffer negative consequences if it goes away”. like many addictions, it’s hurting you more in the long run. that’s something both azula and zuko had to learn. they wanted that relationship, terrible as it was, more than anything. but it was poisonous to their behavior and mental health 

so i dont necessarily agree that, if someone had shown kindness and care and nurturing to azula, she would’ve behaved much different. being in an abusive situation where youre favored and praised and “valued” is like. the ultimate noxious high. don’t get me wrong, it also feels very gross and awful. but your brain really does block those feelings out and makes you feel like you could actually die without it. can you imagine being in that situation as a young girl? i’m sure some of you reading this can. i was. and we know azula, up until the point when ozai leaves on the day of the comet, really thought she was in a good position. it was an incredibly fragile and complicated mental state. but she really did believe her situation was the best one she could be in. for how bad it was, for how bad she witnessed it being for zuko, she really honestly couldn’t see it. she’s incredibly smart and perceptive, and she couldn’t see it 

so yeah. to your original point, i really dont think that would have done much. azula needed love and care, absolutely. but i dont think that would have been enough. she needed love and care to show her how a relationship is supposed to be, she needed positive role models to model her own behavior, she needed space from ozai where she wasn’t under his thumb and following his orders to please him, she needed to get an outside perspective on the war and the behavior of the fire nation and therefore ozai (her main ‘interaction’ with non fire nation people is the dai lee ... which ... they sort of immediately cave and follow her), and she needed to see ozai’s “love” was false and conditional. you know who DOES get all those things? ZUKO! and guess what zuko got! A REDEMPTION ARC! you know how many of those things azula got? OH THAT’S RIGHT NONE OF THEM. AND YOU KNOW WHAT AZULA DIDN’T GET? A “REDEMPTION” ARC 

this is what i’m salty about in the show, and why my perspective on azula has changed so much over the years as i’ve gained knowledge and experience. i totally understand that they didn’t know how many seasons they were getting. but the fact is that azula is only halfway through her arc when the show ends, and she doesn’t get any sort of closure. this paints her in such a bad light compared to the rest of the characters. and THAT’S why i subject yall to 742 azula metas a day 

tl;dr: someone showing compassion and care to azula wouldn’t have been enough to “save” her or have her turn on ozai because unfortunately that’s just not how abuse works. she would have needed a lot of things - all the things zuko got - in order for her behavior to be different 

this has been my ted talk thank you for coming