Nah the new scrapped Zuko movie information coming out about paramount not wanting to showcase a dark political plot line is already stupid considering the dark tones we’ve had in ATLA and TLOK…but the fact that we could’ve had Zuko and Azula working together and fighting the red lotus side by side in theaters only for it to get scrapped pisses me off so badly.

💖❤️‍🔥🩷 What if Ty Lee and Azula would be Peanut characters? 🩷❤️‍🔥💖

I can't get these two out of my head 🫶🏼

Bayleef and Gimmighoul ko-fi doodle for @spidercabin! ✨

Luxray and Vulpix (Hybrid OCs) ko-fi doodle for Sibylhound! 💜

i personally don’t think azula’s control-shed is figuratively stacked with fear alone, but if you do think so, you must take into account that it is not necessarily fear of *HER* that she manipulates. think: azula wins the dai li’s loyalty by planting seeds of paranoia. she makes the claim that with long feng imprisoned, the earth king and council of five will pick them off next. this motivates the dai li into action and spurs their loyalty to her; while she is strict and ruthless, she is the ‘lesser evil’.

#‘trust is for fools fear is the only reliable way’ did irreparable damage to people’s perception of azula’s character#trust is for fools = I AM A FOOL FOR TRUSTING MAI AND TY LEE AND ZUKO#fear is the only reliable way = I CAN ONLY BEND PEOPLE TO MY WILL IF THEY ARE AFRAID; A ‘TRUTH’ I HAVE NOT PRACTICED. I SUFFERED FOR THIS.#even you fear me = MONSTROUSNESS IS MY DEFAULT STATE THERE IS NO CHANGING A SCORPION’S NATURE#like azula doesn’t use fear to manipulate zuko. she uses honour and the promise of ozai’s love.#azula doesn’t use fear to manipulate mai. i don’t really think she manipulates mai at all but if she does it’s largely with status.#which is more like. an annoying set of invisible rules for mai to follow. than helpless terror.#azula#atla

The fact that Azula doesn't expect that Zuko show her any love, compassion, or support, even when they are on good terms with each other, really suggests to me that Zuko never really gave her much love or support when they were younger, at least as far as she can remember. The fact that Zuko expects and demands that Azula do emotional labor for him and give him support in other ways suggests to me that she did give him a lot of love, compassion, and support before his exile.

Again, I'm not trying to demonize Zuko here, since he grew up in an awful and abusive family, nor to say that Azula was an ideal sibling, because she wasn't at all, but it really seems that both siblings were used to acts of love only flowing in one direction when they were younger, while acts of aggression and hate flowed in both.

Obviously this is true, but I think it goes beyond that. What’s the most obvious way that Azula demonstrates her love for Zuko? When she tries to comfort him and look after his feelings.

But we see all Ursa, Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee all try to provide emotional comfort to Zuko, and of course when Song, Katara, and Toph do the same, Zuko hardly notices it or registers it as anything significant or unusual that he should be particularly grateful. Zuko is so used to women and girls emotionally comforting him and trying to look after his feelings that he doesn’t notice it as a sign they love him or are trying to be kind to him. Females showing him compassion is so normalized that he’s confused and outraged when Katara doesn’t want to, due his bad behavior. He doesn’t notice Azula showing him empathy as a sign she cares about him since, for him, the ‘natural state of the world’ is women showing empathy to him. It’s all so normalized.

Azula's biggest moment of triumph in the series was winning together with her brother, was bringing home her disgraced brother as a hero and being celebrated alongside him.

Zuko's biggest moment of triumph in the series was presiding over the humiliation and destruction of his sister.

You know, if one of her children was going to remind Ursa of Ozai, I expect it would be Zuko, who

and not Azula, who is a girl, who is intelligent, clever and creative, who is a firebending prodigy, who hangs out with girls, who is hardworking and studious, and so on.

The main issue of the plot of the cancelled (?) Zuko movie, along with almost certainly any future official depiction of Zuko and Azula's relationship, is that any continuation of Zuko and Azula's story must reckon with Zuko's irrational immense hostility and enmity toward Azula, must reckon with his hatred of her, must retcon with the fact that he's a really shitty brother, and that simply won't happen. It could be done in a million ways but it won't be done. The most interesting thing by far about the Zuko-Azula relationship is Zuko's vendetta against Azula, the fact that he blames her for things that simply aren't her fault, but that will never be acknowledged.

Instead, we'll get one of two results:

I don't think Avatar Studios has a good enough grasp of Zuko's character to understand his flaws, nor do I think they would ever risk besmirching one of their cash cows with a story that would cast a negative light on him. It's a pity, because I think there is a real market for depicting complex and flawed sibling relationships.

p.s. This post is not a moral judgement. Zuko has complex reasons for why he acts like he does, and of course Azula is no angel herself. Yet I think Azula wants Zuko to be happy and safe (and sometimes takes actions to try to accomplish that objective), while Zuko does not desire the same for Azula.

Azula: The Price of Disloyalty

There's something heartbreakingly tragic and disgusting about Azula's situation during the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender that I don't think anyone - including Bryke - has ever thought about but is almost assuredly true. A reason that Azula could never have done what Zuko did. Could never have stood up to Ozai even if she'd wanted to. Why the price of disobedience and disloyalty for Azula would have been MUCH steeper than the price Zuko paid.

Ready to have your mind blown by an absolutely shocking plot point? Really ready to hear it?

Azula is female.

"No shit." You're saying. Think about it for just one second, though. Azula is the younger sibling. Born to be the 'spare' although she eclipsed Zuko easily. Princess Azula is the female younger sibling. In a country that obsessively practices arranged marriages - many of them quite terrible - amongst the nobility.

In almost any other circumstance, were it not for her disposition and her firebending ability, her fate would otherwise be locked in. And it's her usefulness to Ozai and the family dynasty that keeps that option off the table.

What do you think would have happened if Azula hadn't moulded herself into Ozai's 'perfect weapon'? Really?

If Azula's fire and fists are no longer useful to Ozai, there's only one thing left to her father - who we know is a vicious, despotic, cruel tyrant not above putting his kids through hell - that would have any perceived worth in the society in which they live.

Ozai would marry her off in a heartbeat, and probably to someone with certain...expectations. And where if she didn't go along with the plan, she'd either have to fight to get out of it (and get locked away or wind up on the run)...or die inside if she couldn't.

And she knows that. She absolutely knows that.

Her mother, the person she loathes most in the universe, was essentially put into that EXACT situation by Ozai's family, was likely at least a partial driver in Ursa's feelings towards Azula, and ultimately led to Ursa poisoning Azulon - both to protect Zuko [but not Azula] and to get her freedom back.

But wait. It gets worse. Because the very first time Zuko spoke against Ozai, Ozai burned him and banished him.

So imagine a thirteen year old Azula. Burned just like her brother. Scarred horribly AND in a world that much like our own demands a level of beauty from women it doesn't from men. And now she's either a thirteen year old girl cast out entirely alone (and we know Iroh is depicted as having little sympathy for her unlike her golden child brother) or else maimed and then married off anyway, and likely to someone far worse than would have arranged to marry her if she hadn't been scarred.

So you're Azula. You have three options.

And Ozai's not going to tolerate weakness. If Azula said she wanted to move to Ember Island and become a painter, do you really think that the Fire Lord, especially in the face of his son's weakness, is going to be allow his other child to run off and have a normal or joyful life?

So of course Fire Lord Azula is her end goal. Because every single other opportunity available to her ranges between bad and abhorrent.

Commissioner @notoriouspat asked for tyzula campus secret pics 🤭

Actually, no, I don't think that friendships dropping like flies in your late 20s and early 30s because no one has time for that between overwork and family obligations and marriage and kids and partners and the ritual of the time slayer is normal and ok. No I don't think deep conversations and spontaneous adventures being replaced with a tired coffee every six months is a normal part of growing up. I don't think that emotional intimacy and soul bonds disintegrating in the face of practical inconvenience is a fact of life. I think that means something is deeply deeply wrong with our society and I will never forgive it for the friends I've lost

Please keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times

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Someone pointed out her nails were short when she's with her girls soooo

Iroh

I would like to talk about the fact that the fandom considers and presents him as a saint, even though he is not.

Warning. Everything I write next is NOT HATE towards him.

The first thing I would like to start with is how he is whitewashed by the show itself and why many people who watched "Avatar" do not even notice the bad things he did. For the first time, he did not have a conflict with characters who were on the good side (gaang). In the first season, when Zuko was the antagonist and Iroh was always by his side, he was not even noticed. Hell, he is the OLDER BROTHER OF THE FIRE LORD, it is logical that he became worse than Zuko. However, they only got angry at Zuko because he was very aggressive and loud. And Iroh was perceived simply as "Uncle Zuko". Katara, who was not accepted by Zuko for so long, in the third season when Gaang met the Order of the White Lotus, completely calmly accepted Iroh, which is very illogical. All the good characters perceive him as a good person, which proves that the show itself shows him as a good character.

And here's the thing that annoys me the most, ignoring it. Iroh's attitude towards Azula. He thinks she's crazy, even though she grew up in the same conditions as Zuko. What's more, Zuko had some kind of moral compass due to the love of his mother and Iroh himself, while Azula didn't. Ursa treated her in such a way that Azula formed the opinion that she considered her a monster (let me remind you: "What's wrong with this child?"). Like, what the hell, General? Azula is the same child as Zuko, why is Zuko "He just chose the wrong path, he can change, because he's actually good", and his sister "Azula is crazy". He himself demonized her, refusing to admit even to himself that she wasn't "crazy", but the same child as Zuko, who just needed support and love. This is very stupid.

This shot serves as excellent confirmation that he himself demonized her. In his memory, Azula smiles during Angi Kai between Ozai and Zuko, but she was sitting in front of him and he couldn't see her expression.

He's just offended by her. (Maybe he was offended by some woman in the past, like Azula or something.) I don't think that's bad in the context of Iroh being a quality and well-written character. I think it's bad that the show whitewashes him and presents his unfounded hatred as a given instead of revealing it. I don't think that the hypocrisy and double standards contradict his persona as a wise, deep-thinking, intelligent mentor with a deep philosophy. It's not bad. What's bad is how they show it. And the show shows it to us as a given and pretends that the hypocrisy and double standards regarding the fire siblings don't contradict his philosophy in any way