#I really don't think we need to believe Ozai hurt Azula physically for their relationship to be a complicated toxic mess | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

the-badger-mole · 1 year

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A is for Ambition

I was having a conversation with a friend on the discord server I'm on about Azula, and this point came up about the sexism surrounding the way she was treated both by the canon reducing her actions to mental illness and by fandom tropes reducing her actions to her traumas. While I strongly believe that both her mental health and her past traumas had a hand in Azula's development, I think a lot of her character and actions (most of them, in fact) can also be attributed to her genuine ambition.

Ambition isn't bad in and of itself, and I think there is a version of Azula that could have used that ambition productively. But she didn't, and narratively speaking, that should be okay. What bothers me most about the idea of a redemption for Azula- and I know I've talked about this before- is that it doesn't take all of her motives for the choices she made into consideration. I don't like the way that dismissing her actions as the result of mental illness and abuse robs her of agency and reduces her to being a puppet. If there was one thing Azula was not, it was a puppet. Frankly, the dismissal of Azula's actions as a result of her mental state and upbringing smacks really strongly of misogyny. As if Azula in her natural state would be devoid of the ambition that made her so deadly. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I think all or even most of the people who want to redeem Azula and use her mental health and relationship with Ozai as an easy way to do it are misogynist, but I think the fact that those were presented as reasons to factory reset her and make her a loving supportive sister for Zuko did come from a misogynistic place. And it didn't start withing the fandom.

As a society, we have a problem letting women be villains without explaining it away somehow. There are scores and scores of stories of women who turned evil (or more accurately turned anti-hero) because she was scorned by a man, or abused, or otherwise hurt, usually by a man. Or she turned evil as a result of something happening to her child (obviously not the case here). Then there are the genre of women who turn evil because they feel threatened by another woman. There isn't a whole lot of space for a woman who wants to do evil things simply because they benefit her or because she enjoys them. The best example of a female villain who was in it for the love of the game that I can think of is the original Maleficent, and then they decided that making her more complex meant giving her a tragic backstory a la a very thinly veiled date rape allegory. There isn't a lot of space for a female villain who cursed a baby because she needed to remind these uppity humans who they were dealing with.

Azula was almost definitely abused by Ozai- and possibly even physically abused- but that wasn't all of her motivation. I would go as far as to say that wasn't even most of her motivation. Azula was a ruthless, cunning, ambitious girl, who enjoyed what she did. If there is going to be any redemption of her, that needs to be acknowledged first. But really, does she need to be redeemed?

#atla #azula #let her be ambitious!#we stan a dark queen #azula was highkey scarier than ozai #love that for her #THE YEAR OF CONTENT!!!!

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seyaryminamoto · 6 years

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Ok I need you opinion on this, In Final Battle Sozin Comet book, I read through Azula's PoV when she rejected Ozai's decision. She deeply regretted the second these words left her mouth, and said lines like "I never raised my voice to my father before. Never." and "I'm shaking." and "Oh no.. What will he do to me now?". I mean she literally feared physical harm, but also was combinated with fear of rejection and abandonment. It's so fucked up. What does she feel this way toward him?

Why does she feel this way, you mean? Well, I think it’s not that hard to guess what’s going on behind the scenes.

Azula was there, watching and rejoicing as Ozai burned Zuko during the Agni Kai. She knew Zuko was being hurt, but she wasn’t appalled by it. Both because of how Ozai groomed her, and because of her building resentment towards her brother, she saw him being hurt and thought he deserved it.

All her life, Azula has been competing with her brother and had her father’s support in everything. This is something Zuko coveted, and it’s something Azula always took pride in having for herself.

When things get complicated, though, Azula tells Ozai that he can’t treat her like that: he can’t treat her like Zuko. This is when Ozai tells her to shut up, and that sequence you’re asking about happens.

Why would Azula be this terrified of what Ozai might do to her? Because she’s afraid of the worst case scenario. It may not be conscious on her part, but Azula knows what Ozai can do to the child who disappoints him, the child who fails him. And she doesn’t want to be that child, so she tries to stand up to him to demand the respect she believes she deserves. She achieves the entire opposite effect: Ozai tells her to shut up.

Her fears then seem to come true because Ozai would have never said those words to her before. She isn’t used to this, but she thinks she’s condemned herself to becoming the same thing Zuko is in their father’s eyes. He doesn’t trust her anymore, he doesn’t respect her anymore, he wants her to be quiet. As I said, she knows what he could do to Zuko. Her fear of being hurt by him, in my opinion, comes from that awareness.

I know there’s a lot of people who are convinced that Azula was physically abused by Ozai too. Personally, I don’t subscribe to that theory at all. I don’t believe Ozai ever abused Azula physically because he had a pretty great excuse to do that when Zuko revealed she had lied to him about Aang, and yet it seems he didn’t do anything to her. At the start of Boiling Rock, Azula is her usual self, no noticeable changes in her personality and behavior until the betrayal. If Ozai had given her the beating of a lifetime for having lied to him about the Avatar, she wouldn’t have been as calm and collected as she was before the betrayal. The markings of her breakdown would have started to show already.

There’s also that Ozai is shown using Azula to impress Azulon in the Zuko Alone flashback. He’s very satisfied with everything his daughter does, and he ushers her to show off her knowledge and firebending prowess. All along he smiles, and seems to be pleased to show his father what a capable girl he’s raised… and then Zuko steps in and Ozai’s smile disappears. The difference in treatment is blatant, it’s obvious, it’s there.

We saw he burned Zuko on ONE opportunity. Zuko never says that his father hurt him many times, he only talks about the Agni Kai. Ozai’s abuse towards Zuko was layered and multifaceted, but it only got physical ONE TIME. The rest of it was emotional, psychological. You can think that’s the worst kind of abuse, maybe, and it certainly can be very harmful, but I don’t believe Ozai resorted to burning Azula to teach her lessons when he wouldn’t even burn Zuko regularly, even though he despised his son as much as we know he did.

Another thing that I don’t think anyone takes into account other than myself, but… Ozai’s actually slightly attached to Azula, I believe. Not in an actual loving way, no, but I think it’s because Ozai’s father treated him the same way Ozai treats Zuko. I believe Ozai might have decided to groom Azula into the perfect heir while being his second child because that’s what he wished his father had done with him. He especially sees Azula’s talent in firebending, and he sees her academic and leadership aptitudes from early on too. He thinks that she’s everything he COULD HAVE BEEN, if Azulon had given him a chance.

… Not true, though, because Ozai actually resembles Zuko, but the guy doesn’t have the most sound judgment ever.

So he projected on Azula, and he made efforts for her that he never made for Zuko. He gave her opportunities to actually fulfill important military missions, gave her a huge barge for her exclusive use, airships, left the defense of the city in her hands for Day of Black Sun… did you know Ozai never served as a military officer in any capacity, yet Iroh did? Do you think it’s chance that he provides Azula these military opportunities and resources while giving Zuko nothing comparable? I’m pretty sure it’s not. I’m really convinced he did it because he projected on her and wanted her to be successful from a young age as he would have wanted to be, despite she is clearly more similar to Iroh while Ozai is similar to Zuko.

He entrusts Azula with the mission of catching Zuko and Iroh, even though he could have sent other people, multiple squads, whatever he pleased. But he trusts Azula can do it, and in the end, his trust pays off because not only she delivers those two but she also delivers Ba Sing Se on a silver platter. He knows he can trust her… up until she lets him down. But even then, he doesn’t really raise a hand against her. He just doesn’t trust her anymore. His attitude and behavior are more akin to indifference than to actual displeasure towards her.

Only, Azula doesn’t know this. She has no idea if her father knows any limits, and she knows his approval can be withdrawn as quickly as it was given. She doesn’t know what’s going on inside Ozai’s mind, and she’s already falling apart: thus her fears are heightened, worsened, to the point where she thinks he might hurt her because he hurt Zuko for speaking out of turn before.

Further evidence is also that Azula’s body has no signs of burns, in a show that has even pulled off some crazy stuff like:

See that mark on Aang’s foot? It’s SO EASY to miss it, and yet it’s there. Where did that scar come from?

That’s right. Part of the damage Aang takes in Book 2‘s finale is still evident by the next season’s finale. The scar on his back is always there as well, goes without saying. Zuko’s scar is also never hidden, so scars, in this show, don’t fade away just like that.

If Azula had ever been harmed by Ozai, not only would her behavior likely be different (she might be a lot more insecure, less confident than she seems to be, kind of more similar to Zuko in that way, and she would have been WAY too scared to lie to Ozai about Aang’s alleged death), but she would have been shown with burn marks because unless Ozai only burned her lightly (which isn’t all that likely, since in these headcanons he’s supposed to have been even more abusive to Azula physically than he was to Zuko), the burn marks would show in episodes like The Beach:

She shows more skin here than at any other point in the show. If Ozai burned her anywhere, it would’ve shown here. It doesn’t.

So I don’t think Azula’s reaction comes from some sort of conditioned behavior, if that’s what you might have thought. I think it all stems from knowing that she could lose her standing, become an eyesore, a problem to get rid of, the same way Zuko was. For further context, Ozai is the last person she has left in her life. The only one she assumed would never leave her, who would always validate, encourage and approve of her worst impulses. And then even he discards her, which destroys her inside in every possible way. She’s already falling apart, and Ozai’s rage isn’t something she ever expected could be turned against her.

#anon #I'm all in for debating how much Azula's parents harmed her and shaped her into who she is #but I think the show was trying to say something pretty clear when it established Ozai's dynamics with both his children #saying Ozai abused Azula physically but we just didn't know it diminishes the physical harm he does to Zuko #Ozai definitely damaged Azula a lot #but I don't think it was on a physical level #the show wouldn't have kept it under such tight wraps if he had #even the comics would acknowledge it #seeing as they're determined to make Ozai a much worse person than he already was #I really don't think we need to believe Ozai hurt Azula physically for their relationship to be a complicated toxic mess

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