I’m sorry but THE FUCKING WAY BOWSER PLAYS WITH LUIGIS FACE IS KILLING ME LIKE THE LIFTING OF HIS CHIN THE LITTLE MUSTACHIO TWIRL AND THE LITTLE 🧢🤏 TO HIS STUPIDLY CUTE CAP IM ASCENDING

You know something about the fall of ba sing sa (which I'm probly spelling wrong) but there where hundreds if not thounds of earth kingdom troops loyal to the earth king and around only 50 dile agents (which I'm almost positive I'm spelling wrong) like the 5 generals where captured but those where only the 5 top ranking ones not the only ones and like u got commanders as well like it wouldn't have been remotely as easy as they make it seem

It was always my interpretation that the Dai Li ranked higher in terms of authority than the Earth Kingdom Army, and in addition, that Ba Sing Se was sort of separate politically and militarily from the rest of the Earth Kingdom, simply because of their lack of participation or even knowledge of the war. So I think the idea is that, because Azula usurped Long Feng’s position as the head of the Dai Li, she therefore also outranked the rest of the Earth Kingdom soldiers in the city. (sidenote: are there actually regular Earth Kingdom soldiers in the city - or was all of the militia entirely Dai Li agents? Something I’ve never thought about before and don’t remember enough detail to be sure)

And then I think this scene serves the purpose of addressing the main issue you’re suggesting - that Azula would need the help of the Dai Li themselves in order to overthrow the government. This bit takes place before they actually capture/take down the Council of Five - the top five generals you mentioned - but between this scene, and the next one, when we see the Dai Li agents have become loyal to Azula over Long Feng, I think we’re supposed to believe that all of the power has now shifted to her.

In manipulating the Dai Li agents to believe she was their leader, and then scaring them into loyalty once they realized she had tricked them, she essentially gained the power of the entire city’s military in one fell swoop.

You are right though that, realistically, it probably wouldn’t have gone quite so smoothly as the show portrays it if it were a real life situation. If the Dai Li really had enough agents to be patrolling a city the size of Ba Sing Se, it seems unlikely that only one of those soldiers would defect to go help the avatar.

On the other hand, the Dai Li aren’t really shown to have that great of moral compasses, and it’s easy enough to believe that they would value their own lives over the lives of citizens that they’ve been willingly brainwashing for years.

Thank you for the ask! It made me think about a lot of things I had just easily accepted before. Are there regular soldiers in the city? Is there a hierarchy within the Dai Li, and did only the palace soldiers know about the shift of power from Long Feng to Azula? How much do the actual Dai Li agents actually know about the war, and their own participation in it? Why do they seem so emotionless in their participation - are they ignorant to the situation of the world? simply uncaring? or have they been brainwashed as well? (leaning towards no on that last one, simply because that one soldier with the scar does defect, but still, there’s a lot up for interpretation)

All really interesting stuff!