#zuko that his father loved him in spite of his cruelty

[spacecasehobbit]

If we take Azula in The Beach as an unreliable narrator - because we never actually see any evidence that Ursa played favorites with her kids or thought Azula was a monster - then it makes for a really nice parallel between her and Zuko, and how they respond to their parents.

Zuko spent three years trying to win his father's approval. He convinced himself that Ozai was a good man who deserved his love and loyalty, but he needed to realize that Ozai was the monster instead.

Azula, on the other hand, hasn't seen her mother in five years, and for three years she's been essentially isolated with Ozai. She's convinced herself that her mother thought she was a monster, that she never had her mother's love, when in reality it was her mother who did love her. Ozai's constant praise of her was just a way to control her, to validate and encourage her worst impulses, but it made her feel good so she assumed that her mother's scolding meant that Ursa didn't love her as much.

Zuko wanted to believe that his father loved him in spite of how cruel Ozai was to him, while Azula chose to believe that her mother didn't love her because Ursa didn't praise her the way that Ozai did.

And both of them were wrong.

[attackfish]

Well if you're asking for more I'd like to hear more about the au of Iroh being Zuko and Azulas father. (I'm mildly obsessed with this one).

Continued from: [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], [Link], and [Link].

1. As so often happens when a crisis finally passes, the grief, the fear, the enormity of it all finally hits Iroh. Once there is nothing left to do, once his children are safe, there is nothing more for him to latch onto. His nephew, who he loved like a son, is dead, and he is to blame. Whatever he told Ozai, he is to blame, for taking him to war. And he is to blame for so many other people's nieces and nephews, sons and daughters, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, dying in the army he led. And what for? He asks himself this constantly.

2. Ozai's betrayal, his spite and remorseless cruelty in threatening children, weighs heavy on him. Who left is there to trust? Who can be counted on with his childrens' lives? How could he have been so wrong about his own family? And too, in his heart of hearts, he mourns the loss of the brother he thought he had.

3. Iroh doesn't feel like he's falling apart. He feels as if the world around him is shredding and dissolving, turning into water and pouring away, leaving him alone in the dark. He drags himself through the motions of ruling, of sorting out the mess his brother, and to be honest, his father as well, made, but it doesn't seem real. It's a cold, dark, stone and statue version of life, where when he tries to grasp anything that matters, his hand only catches empty air.

4. Zuko gets back to the palace and can't sleep. He knows the room he was moved into was his father's old one, and that his sister is in their uncle's. He can barely sleep, convinced Ozai or his minions are about to pop out of the shadows to kidnap him, or worse, Azula, even though he knows Ozai is in prison, and it's impossible. His father's sad, vague smiles scare him worse than the nightmares, in some indescribable way, some way that he hides and shoves down when he goes to school in the mornings, and at night when he sits with his father and drinks tea with him.

5. Azula hits safety, the terror falls away, and she finds out there's nothing else. She's been hollowed out by it, and now that it's spilled away, she's empty. The emptyness dries out and crumples to pieces, and she can't put herself back together. It's perverse, that she shares this with her father, perverse that this becomes a point of bonding. They are together in how they can't hold it together. And it's Zuko, ten, eleven, twelve year old Zuko, trying to keep them both safe.

[jaredstrout]

Just Azula

(embarrassing how many months it took me to even finish this part of something that was meant to be a single post short story)

Azula opened the door to her chambers for the first time, since she left for her hunt of her idiot brother and later the Avatar.

The room was clean and tidy, just as it should be and the smell of lavender reached her nose, as she walked with large, angry steps over to the bathroom. The door to her own private bath was open and it was the source of the scent in the room.

Two servants jumped to their feet from the large bathtub in the middle of the room and then hurried to bow.

"Is the bath ready?" Azula just asked without any further acknowledgement of the servant´s.

The woman next to the princess quickly nodded. "Of course your highness...shall we..." she started, but Azula cut her off with a sharp motion of her arm.

"Out!" she flatly told them. That was a rather unusual order, as it was among their usualy duties, to take care of the princess´s hygiene and after a long journey, they had certainly expected to return to this duty.

"Your highness..." the servant carefully tried to keep the protocol, only to find herself at the focus of Azula´s angry glare.

"I have taken the Impenetrable City...do you think I can´t handle a washcloth?" she asked, dangerously calm.

The servant shrunk in her frame and shivered under the cold eyes of the princess.

"Of course not your highness...forgive me" she begged with shivering voice. Azula just stood there, crossed her arms and started to look more and more impatient, till the servants finally got the clue and made their way out, their faces down to avoid to anger the obviously already bad-tempered princess.

As she heard the door to her room close Azula let out a sigh and slowly walked back into the main room. Her harsh demeanor melted away with every step and she reached up to the topknot of her hair and removed the golden crown, to let her raven black hair fall over her shoulders, as she threw the massive piece of gold on the bed and stared at the stylized flame.

So much had changed, since she left. And yet everything was as usual. Zuko had returned home, thanks to her help and advocacy, but he already had tried to throw her into the flames.

The little chat they had at the palace pond was just a few minutes back and Azula felt...tired. Zuko hid something from her, something important and maybe big enough to shake the foundations of the Fire Nation´s victory.

The Avatar might be alive. Azula was not sad about the idea, that she still had not killed anyone. The moment, when her lightning struck the boy´s heart had been...cold. The realy impact had hit Azula a few moments later, when the water peasant had caught the lifeless boy in her arms and for a brief moment, she and Azula had looked straight into each other´s eyes.

The triumph over defeating the most powerful being in the world in the moment before it unleashed its power was replaced with the sour feeling of having killed a little boy.

The horror in the water bender´s eyes had ensured, that Azula felt whatever she was able to.

It had been a strange moment of revelation, as she faced her long lost conscience. And since that moment Azula wondered what the water bender had seen in her. Probably what Azula wanted people to see in her, especially with that smirk she had perfected over the years, so even father only saw the perfect daughter. Cold, calculating with a bit cruelty behind the determined logic.

It was the first time as far as Azula could remember, that she wanted someone to see past that mask. It was a weird feeling, especially as she wanted an enemy to do so.

She knew she´d get over it eventually, what was a relief and still kind of sad.

And now she might have to deal with a totally different problem, well Zuko had.

Despite her bitterness about her brother´s betrayal, she did grow a smile for a moment.

Of course Zuzu had no idea of the letter, Azula had written just the day after they had taken over Ba Sing Se. Oh he´d be mad once he learned that father thought of him as the great Avatar slayer. But what did he expect? He was quite right about father´s...desinterest in his son and nothing less than the death of the Avatar could get him home in one piece, whether he was ready to see that or not.

With a sigh Azula slid out of her clothes, to get into the hot water. She closed her eyes as the warmth engulfed her like a loving embrace. Zuko was an idiot, always had been, always would be. She wondered if he already knew and a spiteful smile grew on the princess´s features, as she let herself sink completely underwater.

The water enticed her body to relax, while her mind started to get over Zuzu´s petty little attempt to get rid of her. He had failed before he even tried and she´d remain ahead of him, if the effort to keep him in place was the price she had to pay to have her dumb brother back at home, so be it.

And she was already looking forward to rub it in how he had set his own foot in the flames he had prepared for her.

But as she broke through the surface, her long hair forming a dark curtain around her shoulders, she still felt uneasy. Actually...she was concerned.

Despite her efforts to convince herself that Zuzu was still the same...she knew he wasn´t. Sure he was still a miserable liar, his attempt to fool her proofed that. And Azula was quite aware, that her hopes to mend the old childhood rivalry with her gift to him had been foolish enough to remind her that he was indeed her brother, as she fell for the same weakness as he did. Yet it seemed the hostility towards her had even grown, beyond what she had seen when she tried to arrest him, where he had tried to kill her.

That memory send a painful, cold tenstion through Azula and the princess gritted her teeth. She was very ashamed of how much that still stung after more than 2 months...she had really expected to be better prepared for this. If father ever found out...well he wouldn´t...nobody would.

Nobody but Azula.

With a hiss the princess climbed out of the bath and let the water drip off her body for a brief moment. Instead of taking a soft towel, laid ready by the servants, she took a breath and focused on her Chi. Heat radiated from her body, as she stepped out of the tub and water evaporated slowly from her skin.

She focused on nothing else, but the fire and her body as he slowly walked out. When she reached the door to her bedroom, Azula was mostly dry already and she greeted the room with a smirk. It always helped to remind herself of her strengths.

But the cold feeling in her belly resisted the heat of her bending. Even now she felt uneasy and her smirk faded away with the heat of her fire. A grim expression on her face, Azula walked over to the closet and took her usual robe for the night out and out it on, tied the sash and glared at the mirror at the table.

Her image glared back at her as she moved closer to grab the brush. After a few minutes of brushing her raven hair, she tied it to a simple pony tail and got off again.

Well, after all the time she should probably see if an old friend was around. For the first time today a real smile grew on Azula´s face as she walked through the room, to push open a hidden door at the far end of her bedroom. Cold air tickled her face as she stepped into the old shoes she had put in there, just for occasions like that, when she didn´t want to carry the dirt from the hidden pathways into her room. After all cleaning up was a servant´s job, but she had no intention to ever let the servants, or anyone else, know about her little trips.

One hand lit a flame and revealed the dark, dusty tunnel, that lead downwards beneath the palace gardens. With soft steps the princess slid through the hidden path, that she knew so well she could walk it with her eyes closed.

After a few minutes she had to walk upwards again, as the tunnel she had chosen lead her towards the rear wall of the palace. Another push opened a hidden door at the outer wall, covered by a large hedge, that was probably only there, to hide the door and give any members of the royal family time to assess the situation outside, without revealing themself.

And so Azula peeked out into the fading lights of a warm Fire Nation evening. The street behind the palace was mostly abandoned, but she waited for a few more moments anyway, till she whistled.

"Ikuzo...come over here!" she softly called her friend. Silence answered her, only a few sounds from the people living around the palace reached her ear. Did he forgt about her? She had been away for months after all...would he care for her at all now? Did he feel abandoned? Azula´s heart got heavy as she bit her lips and waited...she called again for Ikuzo...nothing.

Just as disappointment and a dark feeling of sadness threatened to boil over she heard the sound of something moving through the hedge. Azula froze, then she beamed a bright smile. "Ikuzo!" she exlaimed...then something rubbed against her knee and green eyes stared up to her, as the old, scarred street cat greeted the princess with a purr.

[cha-lii]

As a girl who grew up only with brothers and other boys on my street, can I just say Avatar: the Last Airbender helped me - actually, genuinely helped me - find my confidence and a fucking voice. Like, the majority of my childhood was spent being put down or teased by my brothers, being told that I couldn't join in games, or if I did I was only there to be saved like some damsel in distress, or being told that I was not allowed or able to do certain things because I was a girl, blah blah blah. Imagine being a young girl treated like that by boys, then watching a show like Avatar.

First, characters like Katara - who has her own brother treating her similarly in Book 1 - and Suki, who taught me so much about being confident and strong, about finding my own skills and strengths, and not letting myself be put down or told no by the boys and men in my life. Katara was told she couldn't fight simply because she was a girl, and outright refused to accept that limitation being forced upon her. Suki was treated as less skilled than she was because she was a girl, and outright proved that she was just as strong as she said she was. But then, at the same time, they showed that you can be and do all of this without losing your femininity, or becoming unattractive to boys, like girls are made to believe will happen if they come across as too smart or too strong or too independent. Hell, it was Suki's strength that made Sokka fall in love with her, if you ask me.

Then there's Toph. Now, I've always been a bit short, a bit stocky. I've never really been into fashion or make-up or anything like that. They've just never really appealed to me. And in every other show I remember watching as a child, every female character was into that, even just a little bit. Except Toph. Toph was short. Stocky. Tough (pun intended). Sarcastic. Smart. Strong. Independent. She absolutely amazed me. She was so confident in her abilities, in who she is, and she was never afraid to stand up to people who tried to tell her 'no'. And then, on top of that, the show let her be sensitive, let her have moments of vulnerability, which told me that no matter how strong or confident you are, you're still allowed to cry, and be afraid, and be open and honest with your friends, and you won't be any weaker or lesser for it.

Mai was one of my favourite characters, and I could never figure out why. But now I realise it's, again, because she was so different to the kinds of female characters I would usually see. Mai was blunt, sarcastic, deadpan. She was deadly, powerful, skilled. But she was also beautiful, and she was kind and gentle and open and happy when she was with Zuko. She loved Zuko, and Zuko loved her, and the fact that she was unconventional didn't affect that in any way. I'm a bit of a loner, and I'm quiet, and I don't especially enjoy socialising, so seeing Mai, a character who was much the same as me in those aspects, still have such beautiful, happy relationships - Zuko and Ty Lee - was such a comfort.

Which brings me to Ty Lee. She is the complete opposite of Mai. She's loud, cheerful, colourful, active. The positivity that she radiated always inspired me, encouraged me to try to find good in the bad. She was pretty much the definition of 'girly' - an expression which made my blood boil as a child - but she was still one of the most badass characters in the show, constantly immobilising even the most powerful characters. But the one thing about Ty Lee that always stuck with me was her loyalty. The scene when Ty Lee stops Azula from hurting Mai - again, immobilising arguably one of the most powerful characters in the show - even though she knew that doing so could even cost her her life, has always been one of my favourite scenes in the whole series. Here are two girls who are completely different to each other in every conceivable way, who prove that these differences shouldn't and don't matter - if you love someone, you stick with them, no matter what. If you want to be friends with someone in spite of your differences, you can be.

Even Azula taught me so much. She came across as a villain for the majority of the show, and she is definitely one of the best villains I've seen in anything, ever. But there were moments that showed how sensitive, and how afraid Azula could be. When she spoke about her mother on Ember Island, it was with longing and sadness. When she was reprimanded by her father in The Phoenix King, she looked terrified. When she drove Mai and Ty Lee away and they betrayed her, she lost her mind from loneliness and fear and hurt. And her defeat in the finale - I've genuinely never seen a defeat like it in anything else. She didn't remain cocky or confident that this wasn't the end, she didn't go quietly and angrily, she didn't swear revenge. She admitted defeat in tears, because she was terrified and ashamed, because she had let her father down, because she was just a child. There are many things that I find inexcusable. But Azula's character taught me that not all bullies are inherently cruel or malicious. Sometimes, they're a victim of cruelty or fear or pressure, and they feel the need to lash out in response or as a defence, and maybe a little bit of kindness can go a long way in helping them - if Ursa had been that wee bit kinder to Azula, maybe Azula wouldn't have been so driven to please Ozai, maybe she wouldn't have become so obsessed with power, maybe she could have gone down a similar path of redemption as Zuko.

Honestly, the women in Avatar taught me so much, so many genuinely valuable life-lessons that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. But not just the women - the show also completely obliterated toxic masculinity.

Aang was powerful as shit, but never once shied away from being kind or sensitive or honest - all the things that boys are taught are too 'girly', Aang embraced as vital parts of who he is. Sokka was a sexist ass at first, but learned that he was wrong to treat women as weaker than men, and changed how he thought and acted towards them, becoming stronger and kinder and smarter in the process. Zuko tried so hard to be strong, and to keep getting stronger, but he understood that Azula - his younger sister - was stronger than him, and in time he learned to accept it, even asking Katara - another girl who is younger than him - to help him take her down, acknowledging both Azula's and Katara's strengths. Then there was the fact that he had such an open, loving, sincere relationship with his mother, and never once tried to pretend otherwise. Then there's fucking Iroh. Iroh is just. We should all aspire to be like Iroh. He wasn't afraid to be kind and sensitive, to be humble, to sing to children and share tea and advice and joy with strangers. I honestly attribute just about every good quality I have to Uncle Iroh and his life lessons.

Avatar as a show taught me so much about equality between genders, about diversity, about discovering yourself, about finding your confidence and strength, about friendship and loyalty and love...

Basically, just fucking watch this show.

[beckytailweaver]

Avatar: The Last Airbender (fic stuff)

Since I’m trying to work on something (ANYTHING!) and I seem to be in an Avatar mood of late, I’ll throw this up here.

These are fics, potential fics, and mostly-concrete ideas that have existed in the back of my closet for a very long time, since the good old days of watching ATLA when it was shiny and new and cool. Most of them are also so old that LOK didn’t exist yet or was in its infancy.

Note: These are mostly gen fic. If pairings come up they are not the central goal of the piece; they will be mainly canon as it existed at the time the fic was outlined. Treat them like the scenery (no ship war drama allowed in my workroom, that’s what stopped me participating in the fandom years ago).

I’d kinda like to put some feelers out and see what folks think would be most interesting to work on.

Read on:

The End of the Circle Post-canon continuation, my oldest ATLA fic, conceived and outlined before comics or LOK existed. Does some headcanon worldbuilding based on what was available at the time of the original series. Dragons and spirits and legends coming to life, oh my!

Status: outlined, some scenes written, firm endpoint, world built.

Summary: Roku warned Aang that he could not die in the Avatar State, or the cycle would end. Azula’s lightning killed Aang in the Avatar State. To their good fortune, Katara’s spirit water was able to bring Aang back to life, but there are Consequences—for the Avatar and for the world.

Wild Fire Canon AU/semi-rewrite. Also born before LOK was a thing so Druk doesn’t exist. It borrows some concepts from the idea of Toph and her badgermole family. It breaks some TLA canon around the edges but it’s all in good fun.

Status: outlined, many scenes, ending fully plotted.

Summary: The young Fire Prince was burned and disowned by the Fire Lord, cast away and abandoned on the hostile shores of the Earth Kingdom before his kindly uncle could aid him. Disfigured, angry, and lost, young Zuko finds solace in the wilderness when he is taken in by a most unusual protector: A dragon.

Phoenix Legacy Not-a-time-travel “time travel” fic. It was born after seeing Season 1 of Avatar LOK and...kinda liking it but not? (I mostly lost interest in LOK after S1.) And wanting to add some more classic feel to the season. No information from subsequent seasons was used to outline it (thus there is no Druk) but recently I have gone back and “fixed” Zuko’s daughter (giving her the correct name and appearance), and added her nameless daughter (Iroh II’s sister) for lulz. Basically a rewrite of LOK Season 1 with a TLA character along for the ride to shake everything up, because at the time I was disappointed that there was only Katara and no other Gaang members out there kicking the new Avatar into shape.

Status: outlined, a few scenes written, ending plotted; not to be a rehash.

Summary: A phoenix cannot die by fire—it can only be reborn. When Ozai claimed the title of Phoenix King, he had no idea what sort of spirit he might be invoking. When he lost his ancestor’s war and his crown, the spirit’s blessings were unknowingly conferred upon his heir: The hapless Fire Lord Zuko, determined to bring his nation to peace. Seventy years later, there’s a tragic explosion in a tea shop in Republic City, and exiled traitor Fire Prince Zuko wakes up to an unfamiliar world full of unfamiliar faces. The last thing he remembers is an Agni Kai under a Comet, catching lightning to protect a friend.

The Prince’s Prisoner Another ficling born before the comics or LOK were really a big deal and/or I didn’t know about them. Basically during TLA S1, rather than fleeing Prince Zuko’s clutches, Aang decides to remain his prisoner. The original reasoning for this was a kind of modified Peggy Sue: Aang effed up his final battle with Ozai for reasons, his soul is sorta sent back in time to do-over from his iceberg wakeup. The problem is that this is not a perfect process and he doesn’t actually remember everything, only some very important faces, feelings, and concepts. The idea of Zuko as a dear friend/teacher/trusted person is one of these things. Thus, in defiance of all visible logic, Aang trusts S1!Zuko with his life and keeps his promise to go with him. In spite of his Water Tribe friends continuously trying to rescue him, Zhao continuously trying to capture him, and Zuko himself continuously trying to avoid being befriended by his ticket home. (”I’m your prisoner, not anyone else’s.”)  Intended to be a funny and heartwarming friendship/journey story taking a different angle at the series.

Status: tentatively outlined with very few scenes skeleton’d out, season 1 definite, endpoint undecided but can continue throughout the series. The premise mechanic is a bit flimsy; it’s less concrete since it’s supposed to be fluff, angst, and friendship.

dragon!Zuko AU fic Everybody has to write one of these, it’s like a law. Here’s mine: Ozai’s cruelty during the Agni Kai with his young son invoked the wrath of Agni, bringing down a magic from a time before memory and no one knows if it’s a blessing or a curse. When Zuko’s face burned, the fire didn’t stop there, and when the flames went out a young dragon was left on the floor of the arena. Uncle Iroh came to his rescue before the rest of Court could gather their wits, and then had to get him on a boat and out of the Fire Nation before Ozai could decide whether to make him into a pet or a trophy. Part 1: Rather than going on a mission to hunt the Avatar, Zuko and Iroh are on a road trip to keep Zuko alive and secret from the world (Ozai wants to usurp his brother’s title of Dragon). Iroh and his crew end up raising this stubborn angsty dragon prince; since he can’t turn back into a human he has to come to terms with being a dragon most of the time (which can’t talk), and he can often be Very Dramatic about it. Part 2: Years later, there’s rumors of the Avatar’s return and Zuko (who has sort of learned to take a human shape again) sees an opportunity to spare his own life and go home by offering his father a bigger prize than a dragon’s head...

Status: very general outline, some scenes conceived and a general plot/endpoint. Part 1 is in the 3 years pre-canon, Part 2 is during canon, including the grumpy dragon hiding out in Ba Sing Se.

Years Gone/Avatar kids AU S1/pre-canon rewrite. Some whim of fate cracks open Aang’s iceberg three years early (a storm, a passing boat, pure chance?) and he tumbles out into the world in the same year that Prince Zuko was banished. Despite befriending some Water Tribe children who would love to go adventuring with him, he’s got to get home to the Southern Air Temple and that’s where he runs into young, angry, raw-wounded Prince Zuko on his first visit. The tiny chase ensues up and down the entire temple. Aang will of course be friendly but escape. And this begins a probably-ill-advised adventure with a lot of kids who are entirely too young to be camping across the world on a bison (but it’s exciting!), chased by another kid entirely too young to be leading a manhunt. The Comet is three years away so there’s plenty of time for adults to tear their hair out over this. Zuko is a tiny ball of determination, rage, and tears. Aang feels bad for him and tries to make with the befriending even as he’s dodging the fire tantrums. Occasionally during adventures Zuko just gets scooped along for the ride in Appa’s saddle, no one’s sure how these weird truces get called, but Iroh sips tea and directs the crew on a new heading and they’ll pick up their prince at the bison’s next stopover most likely after the kid pendulums back the other way and remembers he’s trying to nab the Avatar again. So Zuko spends 50% of the time yelling and chasing the Avatar and 50% of the time sitting in Appa’s saddle learning tentative smiles and being offered berries and seal jerky, all the way from the South Pole to the North. (It’s slightly terrifying to realize that Aang and Zuko are currently the oldest kids in the party and are actually in charge of this terribly irresponsible expedition.)

Status: general outline, a couple of scenes written, particular S1 plot points, no endpoint yet. Possible bonus content: Toph and/or Suki come along for the ride because why not.

The Blacksmith of Ba Sing Se This is a very old Lu Ten Lives! story. Lu Ten always knew Uncle Ozai envied him, but secure in his position he didn’t really care about it until he took an arrow in the back during the final battle of the Siege of Ba Sing Se. With unknown assassins among his own ranks and no safe place to retreat in the melee, the wounded prince decides to fake his own death by hiding in the rubble, and then swapping clothes with a slain Earth Kingdom soldier half crushed in the ruin. At first, it’s only to get to safety until he can get to the bottom of this. But Lu Ten is picked up by the EK medic teams after the surprising withdrawal of the Fire Nation troops, and ends up spirited away into the heart of Ba Sing Se—where he discovers that it’s hard to escape. He also discovers a whole new world, and a whole new perspective, and, keeping out of the authorities’ notice, eventually manages to make a life for himself as Chang the Blacksmith, a humble craftsman with a wife and kids. This...is much nicer than war, death, and Court politics. Years later: refugee Zuko walking home from his job at Pao Family Tea Shop runs across a little boy crying over his broken toy in the dusty street...

Status: nebulous outline with a few particular sketched scenes. Takes place mostly in Ba Sing Se, outcome indeterminate. It could be mixed with the Lineages concept from below.

Lineages / not Ozai’s kid AU Not really a concrete plot so much as a campy idea from long before the Avatar comics blundered through Ursa’s backstory. There was a phase in the fandom (I think the Search comics drew off of that) where it was popular to imagine almost anyone else than Ozai as Zuko’s Secret Real Dad (the boy deserves a better father) and Iroh was often selected as primary candidate. (I know, Iroh is already the real dad and stepped into Ozai’s cold empty shoes like a pro.) Me, deciding that I had to be different, decided to offer up Lu Ten on that altar. Justifications: Iroh and Ozai looked to have a pretty extreme age difference and there was no solid age for Lu Ten at the time of his death, but his picture looks mature enough. Deals with family secrets and the political issues of muddying the lines of inheritance in the middle of a war. Also takes a crack at Ursa having a clever hand with Azulon’s last will and testament on Ozai’s behalf, with provisos.

Status: nothing really more than a vague concept without enough plot to stand on its own. Without a viable framework, it could work better/well folded into The Blacksmith story, above.

I’m open to opinions and/or asks about these. Trying to get a spark going! (I need to be working in a fandom, ANY fandom at this point! ^_^;; )

[wingsfreedom]

Small analysis about Fire fam

Ursa and Azula’s relationship is complex issue.

In regards of Azula, I think Ursa’s disapproval had two results:

The first, she actually did love her daughter and did teach her right from wrong through all the scolding, despite she didn’t do it in the best way.

The second, because of the scolding and badmouthing, Azula KNOWS which of her actions are wrong and chooses to do the wrong thing either way because that was the only way to get both her mother’s attention and her father’s approval.

Ursa went a long better with Zuko because he was more receptive to her personality and teachings than Azula was. (though, Ursa's teachings are still always there in the back of Azula's mind as that come to light in the mirror scene.)

But for me, the worst part in this story is that Ursa sometimes unconsciously encouraging Azula’s behaviour. Ursa, despite complaining a lot about Azula’s odd behaviours, often causes and/or reinforce them, (e. g such as in the 'rose' scene in The Search), she comes to loathe them and punish Azula for them without understanding the core of her actions; that was getting attention from her mother who was focusing on Zuko (most of the time, her favorite).

Taking Azula's behaviour in the 'rose' scene in consideration, this is propbaly equal to her behaviour when throwing rocks at the turtleducks as well while Ursa's around with her and Zuko. It's her way to rebel against Ursa and everything she stands for, for focusing on her brother on her expanses and/or wanting her attention.

EDIT: "Azula throwing rocks on the turtleducks" was a misconception, what she really was throwing is bread, and she wasn't throwing it on the turtleducks but in the water. Zuko's bread hit the turtleduck by accident likely to foreshadowing Ursa's sacrifice. So Azula was NOT cruel to animals to get back to her mother, she was trying to feed them because this was something she saw mother do.

For most Ursa's intercations with her children:

When she wanted her children to play together and get along, (which was great -and contradict for Ozai- but), Ursa only shown speaking to Zuko, calling him "darling" and encouraging him to play, then said "go for a little while", means 'go and comes back to me again when you're finished,' which implies he was always under her wing by her side most of her time, without addressing that Azula appearntly was behaving better than Zuko at that point. Where Azula is asking her mom for something that WOULD yield approval from her, which is why Azula is doing it.

This "evidence" also does not convince anyone that Ursa ever made any efforts to correct Azula's bad behavior in a positive and proactive way. She never teaches Azula not to behave destructively in any such proactive ways. We've seen her scolds, seen her glares, seen her asking what's wrong with her. If her relationship with Zuko was remotely similar, she'd be caught talking just as poorly about her beloved son, but she isn't.

Second, when they perform Firebending, Ursa only addressed Zuko's performance and encouraged him without spare a word for Azula whom performance was better, because she got her Father's praise, she doesn't need her, but Zuko does. Which suggest that the parents' reaction toward the children's Firebending achievements includes their school achievements as well. Azula has her Father's praise, Zuko gets his father's disdain, Ursa has to be always by Zuko's side to make up for Ozai's disdain, neglecting her daughter in the progress. (which, I think, made Azula open for terrible influence watching this mother-son bonding, for all we know Ozai wasn't a loving parent even though she was his favorite)

It's common behavior for mothers in abusive household to protect the abused child from their abusive father by giving them her love and support, and that child--in her eyes--was mainly Zuko, BUT this is also where Ursa's grave mistake lies as well. For her giving more attention and affection to Zuko than she does to his sister.

While I don't like to use the comics as evidence for bad writing, this aspect of Ursa's favoritism still stand.

Ursa’s inability to empathize with Azula, to understand her wishes and desires or even emotions, and Azula’s reluctance to mend their relationship, only drives them further apart. And I believe Ozai may play a good hand in this too.

He match up with Azula's competitive, perfectionist nature 'I must be the best at anything I do (the world values winners. I'm what I do to earn my place)' with his 'only the strong survives in this world' influence, which eventually shaped up her cruelty (toward herself and everyone) and (especially) spiteful reaction against her brother, and believed the hard life Zuko endures is a well-deserved punishment for being a weak and a failure while still motives by feelings of jealousy, abandonment and insufficiency that her mother left. Which of course doesn't make her any less of abusive sibling but this is only to analyze her mindset not justify it.

But the siblings' damaged relationship, I believe, is largely both parents' fault first of all, with Ursa's good-bad influence and Ozai's all-terrible influence.

From Avatar wiki:

[The 'rose' scene in The Search mention]

That's it, Azula got no "darlings", got no encouragements, got no smiles. Just confronting Ursa's love for Zuko daily, with bad attempts to gain her mother attention.

TL;DR Regardless of how Ursa feels about her daughter: Azula has zero solid evidence that her mother loves her.

Now from how I see it, due to unhealthy relationship with both parents, Azula finds it hard to trust the people around her. So she started to use power and fear tactics to basically force Mai and Ty Lee to become her friends as this drive come to shine obviously at the Boiling Rock famous betrayal intercation (though Azula may does that on subconscious level).

Which, of course, doesn't make her any less of abusive freind (I don't think she was abusive to Zuko their relationship was mutually toxic) because at the end of the day these were the choices she made, but this is what make her well-written character to me: understandable in drive, bad in choices.

PS: Anything's possible, Azula's complex character as it is but make her the sole culprit for 'not feeling loved' (that is a main drive in her actions) just so Ursa can appear flawless, ("she never hurt her daughter in any way", "she's not responsible for anything wrong happened in the family"...est) Just no.

[avayarising]

#zuko#azula#fire sibling headcanons#i just find it really hard to buy that ursa genuinely played favorites with her kids#when we see no real evidence of that in the show#which doesn't mean Azula is invalid for feeling otherwise#given the environment she was raised in#just that those feelings might be based less in the reality of ursa's actions#and more in her father's manipulation#and her own youth when her mother disappeared#which i think makes for a nice fire sibling parallel#both siblings chose to believe what they thought would make them feel better about their own and their parents' actions#zuko that his father loved him in spite of his cruelty#and azula that her mother didn't love her because ursa didn't praise her the way ozai did –@spacecasehobbit

If we take Azula in The Beach as an unreliable narrator - because we never actually see any evidence that Ursa played favorites with her kids or thought Azula was a monster - then it makes for a really nice parallel between her and Zuko, and how they respond to their parents.

Zuko spent three years trying to win his father's approval. He convinced himself that Ozai was a good man who deserved his love and loyalty, but he needed to realize that Ozai was the monster instead.

Azula, on the other hand, hasn't seen her mother in five years, and for three years she's been essentially isolated with Ozai. She's convinced herself that her mother thought she was a monster, that she never had her mother's love, when in reality it was her mother who did love her. Ozai's constant praise of her was just a way to control her, to validate and encourage her worst impulses, but it made her feel good so she assumed that her mother's scolding meant that Ursa didn't love her as much.

Zuko wanted to believe that his father loved him in spite of how cruel Ozai was to him, while Azula chose to believe that her mother didn't love her because Ursa didn't praise her the way that Ozai did.

And both of them were wrong.