zuko-always-lies

[zuko-always-lies]

Dark Idea (warning)

I'll be honest, I kind of want more stories where Zuko condemns Azula to death/orders her execution/signs her death warrant. Not necessarily stories where she ends up dying in the end but stories where he orders her execution.

As for why he might do that:

She's a massive threat to him and his postwar regime as long as she lives, as she has an extremely strong claim on the throne, while his is kind of tenuous, to say the least. Some of his advisors might urge him to have her killed, for that reason. I could see Iroh "reluctantly" calling for Azula's death, for this reason. Ozai would probably say the same to Zuko, if Zuko asked for advice. And killing her could help symbolically shore up Zuko's authority. All of this is fairly normal for historical royal families.

There's also a personal angle to this. I don't think Zuko's first instinct is to execute her, but he does like the idea of having power and control over her and to some extent having her killed is the ultimate expression of power over her. And if, say, Zuko has agreed to "international trials of war criminals" and thinks that the international tribunal will end condemning her to death, he might prefer to do it himself instead. I'm sure he could come up with some justifications about why this is "better for everyone," but ultimately it'd be about control.

Thoughts?

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UM GUYS. I JUST NOTICED A CRAZY ISSUE W THE TUMBLR UPDATE.

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People always ignore this because the show kind of glosses over it but Zuko+Iroh preferred doing this to surrendering to the Northern Water Tribe after the Fire Nation invasion was defeated.

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Sokka: Look, I hate to be the wet blanket here, but since Katara is busy, I guess it's up to me. Katara shoots him a glare as Lily braids her hair.

LOL

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Iroh really screwed over Zuko

A few days later:

The only person Iroh has to blame for Zuko thinking Ozai cared about Zuko is Iroh himself.

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People always ignore this because the show kind of glosses over it but Zuko+Iroh preferred doing this to surrendering to the Northern Water Tribe after the Fire Nation invasion was defeated.

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That one Azula/Suki fanfic was way less upfront about its characters being extremely weirdly written.

"Azula was bored. It wasn’t as if she got a lot of guests. Sometimes Zuzu came around to give her children’s books teaching her that “lying was wrong” and “being mean felt bad.” Sometimes he sent mind doctors that she inevitably chewed through in a week or two. Sometimes Ty Lee or Mai showed up. "

A lot of people recommend Between Two Doors (an Azula/toph fanfic) to me or are surprised I haven't read beyond it's first chapter, but this opening paragraph is why I haven't. Zuko just sounds so bizarrely out of character to me here and I just couldn't imagine he'd ever do this.

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Something from "The Avatar State"

I have to say this is actually a weird scene. It's literally part of Azula's introductory scene, so it's supposed to establish long-lasting character trajectories. It helps establish she uses fear as a weapon, but the other part of the scene is actually quite. It could be read to suggest that Azula is arrogant and recklessly overconfident, and that this will cause her trouble in the future, much like how Zuko's recklessness and lack of foresight cause him endless trouble. Yet Azula literally never suffers ever from being arrogant and overconfident. In this episode, her overriding her captain brings no consequences (although funny enough as far as I can tell the ship does not in fact get into port before nightfall), and in later episodes Azula is generally depicted as correctly estimating the situation and her own abilities, instead of as being arrogant.

I think there's some "first episode weirdness" to how Azula was written here.

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Hello there, tis me again. If you don't mind, I would like to hear you thoughts on two things. 1) What are your thoughts on Zuko being an accessory to Aang's murder. It was shown that Azula was losing till Zuko joined the fight in the catacombs, so he contributed to Aang's murder. 2) Why didn't Zuko tell the gaang abt Sozin's comet sooner?

1) So my first thought on this question is that what happened to Aang in the catacombs wasn't murder or attempted murder. It was awful, but under the circumstances, it was a legitimate act of war. Aang is an enemy of the Fire Nation(and someone on a quest to kill Azula and Zuko's father, although Aang doesn't seem to entirely understand that at this point in the story). Aang is also someone who is fighting to prevent the Fire Nation's conquest of Ba Sing Se and who is about to go into the "god" mode which let him kill thousands of Fire Nation soldiers during the Siege of the North, so using lethal force against him is perfectly reasonable. I can add that Katara had used at least one clearly lethal attack against Katara earlier in the fight:

So Azula nearly killing Aang is something which was awful but lawful and actually pretty reasonable, since it's normal to use lethal force in war.

That being said, Zuko 100% voluntarily aided Azula, so he bears moral responsibility for the near death of Aang, the capture of Iroh, and the conquest of Ba Sing Se. Azula wasn't necessarily doomed to lose without Zuko's support, since all she had to do to win was survive and delay Aang and Katara long enough for the Dai Li reinforcements to show up, and we see how good Azula can be under difficult circumstances and facing multiple opponents in "The Chase" and "The Day of Black Sun." Still, Zuko's help definitely improved Azula's odds immensely.

If we want to talk about Zuko attempting murder, Zuko hiring Combustion Man to kill Aang for no other reason than Zuko's selfish needs fits the bill much more than anything that happened in Ba Sing Se. Still, I'm not very comfortable calling that attempted murder.

2. The short answer is bad writing. Ozai's plans for Sozin's Comet, in addition to making no logical sense, were very clumsily retconned in, and they should have come up at many moments prior to "Sozin's Comet, Part 1." And honestly, the Gaang's plans about how to prosecute the war should have casually come up in conversation many times prior to the finale, so Zuko should not be surprised that Aang was planning to face the Firelord so soon. So I would definitely classify the strangness of what happened as much more a writing issue than a character issue.

That being said, from a watsonian perspective, we do get one important clue in "Sozin's Comet, Part 1," right after Ozai gives his evil speech:

Zuko: (Cut to the sideview of Zuko's scarred eye as he looks down) I wanted to speak out against this horrifying plan. (Cut to an area behind Zuko's head as it slowly zooms in on the back of his head. The generals are still applauding and Ozai basks in the excitement.) But I'm ashamed to say I didn't. (Cut back to present day Zuko) My whole life I struggled to gain my Father's love and acceptance. (Cut to show the whole Gaang looking at Zuko who is sitting on a rock) But once I had it, I realized I lost myself getting there. (Katara raises her hand to her forehead in despair) I forgotten who I was.

So the implication is that Zuko didn't tell Team Avatar about Ozai's plan because he was ashamed by his own failure to oppose it. The less charitable interpretation of this is that Zuko failed to tell the Gaang both because Zuko was ashamed and because Zuko's inaction would make him look bad to his new friends, especially since Zuko had opportunities to stop Ozai's plan(by killing Ozai on DoBS or by leading Aang to Ozai's bunker then) which Zuko failed to take since he was prioritizing his desire to gain emotional fulfillment through telling off his abusive father and through joining the Gaang and fulfilling his "destiny" over the collective good. To be fair to Zuko, he's a traumatized and abused 16 year old with bad decision making skills, but let's just say an Azula undergoing a redemption arc would handle this situation very differently.

But, again, it's mostly a writing issue

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Are more celebrities openly becoming grifters or were they always grifters? Are there more scams now or am I just recognizing scams easier? Is everything falling apart or is this just existence?

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"Azula was bored. It wasn’t as if she got a lot of guests. Sometimes Zuzu came around to give her children’s books teaching her that “lying was wrong” and “being mean felt bad.” Sometimes he sent mind doctors that she inevitably chewed through in a week or two. Sometimes Ty Lee or Mai showed up. "

A lot of people recommend Between Two Doors (an Azula/toph fanfic) to me or are surprised I haven't read beyond it's first chapter, but this opening paragraph is why I haven't. Zuko just sounds so bizarrely out of character to me here and I just couldn't imagine he'd ever do this.

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I was more thinking about the degree she accepts her fate and her execution as legitimate, as a legitimate exercise of the state and the Firelord's power. If she's going to not end up dying, either she has to save herself somehow or someone else (and there are plenty of possible candidates: Mai, Ty Lee, Aang, loyalists to the old regime, Toph, etc.) has to intervene and save her somehow.

Dark Idea (warning)

I'll be honest, I kind of want more stories where Zuko condemns Azula to death/orders her execution/signs her death warrant. Not necessarily stories where she ends up dying in the end but stories where he orders her execution.

As for why he might do that:

She's a massive threat to him and his postwar regime as long as she lives, as she has an extremely strong claim on the throne, while his is kind of tenuous, to say the least. Some of his advisors might urge him to have her killed, for that reason. I could see Iroh "reluctantly" calling for Azula's death, for this reason. Ozai would probably say the same to Zuko, if Zuko asked for advice. And killing her could help symbolically shore up Zuko's authority. All of this is fairly normal for historical royal families.

There's also a personal angle to this. I don't think Zuko's first instinct is to execute her, but he does like the idea of having power and control over her and to some extent having her killed is the ultimate expression of power over her. And if, say, Zuko has agreed to "international trials of war criminals" and thinks that the international tribunal will end condemning her to death, he might prefer to do it himself instead. I'm sure he could come up with some justifications about why this is "better for everyone," but ultimately it'd be about control.

Thoughts?

[zuko-always-lies]

Just to be clear I don't really write fanfiction--my contribution to the fandom is takes and ideas and AUs and so and anyone is free to use them for whatever purpose they choose.

Anyways, yes you could lean heavily on dark! Ursa and her favoritism toward Zuko and have her support the execution or even push for it herself, but my dark! Ursa's tend to lean heavily on her being really imperialist and I do think she'd at least point out that killing Azula means Zuko wouldn't have a heir anymore.

I also think Ursa would be a bit of a stabilizing presence and reduce the sort of decision-making pushing Zuko toward killing Azula.

Dark Idea (warning)

I'll be honest, I kind of want more stories where Zuko condemns Azula to death/orders her execution/signs her death warrant. Not necessarily stories where she ends up dying in the end but stories where he orders her execution.

As for why he might do that:

She's a massive threat to him and his postwar regime as long as she lives, as she has an extremely strong claim on the throne, while his is kind of tenuous, to say the least. Some of his advisors might urge him to have her killed, for that reason. I could see Iroh "reluctantly" calling for Azula's death, for this reason. Ozai would probably say the same to Zuko, if Zuko asked for advice. And killing her could help symbolically shore up Zuko's authority. All of this is fairly normal for historical royal families.

There's also a personal angle to this. I don't think Zuko's first instinct is to execute her, but he does like the idea of having power and control over her and to some extent having her killed is the ultimate expression of power over her. And if, say, Zuko has agreed to "international trials of war criminals" and thinks that the international tribunal will end condemning her to death, he might prefer to do it himself instead. I'm sure he could come up with some justifications about why this is "better for everyone," but ultimately it'd be about control.

Thoughts?

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Just want to reiterate that anyone (and I mean anyone) is free to steal or draw inspiration from my takes, ideas, AU ideas, etc. and write fanfiction or other material based on them. I don't really write fanfiction myself.

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Happy US self sanction day

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Now that's something that could be interesting... I always thought this AU only makes sense if Ursa is out of the way somehow.

Dark Idea (warning)

I'll be honest, I kind of want more stories where Zuko condemns Azula to death/orders her execution/signs her death warrant. Not necessarily stories where she ends up dying in the end but stories where he orders her execution.

As for why he might do that:

She's a massive threat to him and his postwar regime as long as she lives, as she has an extremely strong claim on the throne, while his is kind of tenuous, to say the least. Some of his advisors might urge him to have her killed, for that reason. I could see Iroh "reluctantly" calling for Azula's death, for this reason. Ozai would probably say the same to Zuko, if Zuko asked for advice. And killing her could help symbolically shore up Zuko's authority. All of this is fairly normal for historical royal families.

There's also a personal angle to this. I don't think Zuko's first instinct is to execute her, but he does like the idea of having power and control over her and to some extent having her killed is the ultimate expression of power over her. And if, say, Zuko has agreed to "international trials of war criminals" and thinks that the international tribunal will end condemning her to death, he might prefer to do it himself instead. I'm sure he could come up with some justifications about why this is "better for everyone," but ultimately it'd be about control.

Thoughts?

[zuko-always-lies]

"How come you don't like comics! Ursa? She's a victim of abuse!"

Yes, and she's also a piece of shit. And stupid. The writers somehow succeed in making her worse as time goes on in every comic that she's in. Ursa being a not so good mother is pretty much established in the show thanks to Azula's view of her, something that at no point in time does the narrative try to paint as being untrue, not even in the comics. And before anyone comes at me, I'm not saying that Ursa never loved Azula or thought that she was a monster. She did love Azula. But I'm sorry, if your child feels as if you never loved them and thought that you saw them as a monster? YOU FUCKED UP SOMEWHERE. And you know what? I actually like this about Ursa's character. It shows that she has flaws, and that she's not the perfect mother that Zuko views her as. It makes her interesting. What's annoying is that in the comics, all of this gets wiped away. The writers have this mentality that Ursa has zero responsibility at all when it comes to how Azula turned out because of her horrible marriage with Ozai. They can never seem to touch upon their relationship (aside from Spirit Temple, where it's actually mentioned outright that Ursa did indeed fail Azula) and have Ursa acknowledge her mistake and own up to it and actually help Azula. She shows the bare minimum of concern for her eldest daughter. You mean to tell me that one of your children fucked off to who knows where, and you aren't trying to go out there and find her? Wow. Such a great mom. Mother of the year.