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xan-from-space · 2 months

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Damn, the Ember Island Players were actually kind of radical, weren't they? The more I think about it, the more it feels like the only way it makes sense in-universe is if being Fire Nation propaganda wasn't the point of their play at all. Aside from a barely tacked on ending where Ozai kills Aang, the play is remarkably sympathetic to the Avatar and a bunch of enemies of the Fire Nation, even framing them as being heroes. Even at points in the story where theyre literally killing Fire Nation soldiers, the narrative still seems to be on their side; they're the underdogs, the relatable ones. Its true that the Fire Nation values strength, but still, you'd expect that in a propaganda play they would be portrayed as at least a little bit more sympathetic... And sure, to some extent the gaang's characters could be seen as defamatory caricutures (the slander on Iroh specifically was probably intentional), but that also might be due to the Players getting a lot of their information from the cabbage man, someone who actively hates the gaang and only ever really sees the worst of them. (And notably, that also means that the Players had worked with an Earth Kingdom merchant to produce the play.)

Mocking the gaang is also just clearly not the point of the play or what people are there for. Sokka's actor says that he's constantly being approached by fans; people genuinely love these characters. The gaang have built entire dedicated fanbases in the Fire Nation because of this play. Honestly, the fact that they're on a remote island is probably the only reason they're able to perform the play the way it is. I imagine it would get shut down pretty quickly on the mainland. Considering all the propaganda in the Fire Nation that we've seen so far, I wouldn't be surprised if the ending was only written that way because it's illegal to write a story where the Fire Lord doesnt win. The play reads less like propaganda and more like 'we're doing the bare minimum to get this story past the censors.'

I'm really curious about what it's like behind the scenes for the Ember Island Players. Are their shows just simple, shlocky entertainment, or could they also be deliberate political commentary? With no recording technology, a play is easier to slip under the radar than something like a book: it's impermanent, stays in one theatre, and performances can be easily tweaked if, say, Fire Nation royalty happens to come by. It's interesting to me that Ursa seemed to like them, while young Zuko had a disdain for them, saying they 'butchered' the story of Love Amongst the Dragons; in all likelihood the version of the story Zuko grew up with in the palace was heavily propaganda-filtered itself. Although, to be fair, they're arguably just not very good playwrights. When it comes to the characterization, I do think some of it only seems bad because we know what the actual characters are like, but a lot of it is just bad writing clearly meant for cheap entertainment. For example, they sexualize Katara quite a bit (and there's other, better analysis out there I've seen that examines how they fetishize her as a Water Tribe girl). And, of course, all of the characters are reduced to shallow and stereotypical comedy.

Still, I think they're worth commending for doing their research and telling a story about enemies of the state that's both sympathetic and surprisingly accurate to actual events, if not the characters' personalities, amidst the Fire Nation's rampant propaganda and misinformation. From the little amount of information about them we can extract from the show, they seem like honestly very interesting people. They're walking this tightrope line between being very close to the heart of the Fire Nation but also separate from it; between being cheap, inconsequential entertainment and being a source of actual news for Ember Island citizens; between telling the underdog story about a ragtag group of children and still trying to make it look like Fire Nation propaganda. I'm not trying to make any big argument on whether they were 'actually good people' or whatever, I just want to know more about them. I kind of wish we could see their production of Love Amongst the Dragons now...maybe I'll write something about them someday

#I wrote this in a haze after randomly catching the episode while my sister was watching it #I'm so fascinated by the inner lives of these people. What does it look like to write and produce these plays?#What does their day-to-day look like? How do the actors feel about their characters?#Actually if anyone has any fanfic recommendations in this vein please tell me #atla #avatar the last airbender #ember island players #the ember island players #atla analysis #zuko #uncle iroh #katara #ursa atla #cabbage man #cabbage merchant #fire nation

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phoenix-king-ozai · 2 months

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ATLA Comic: The Search AU Fanfiction!

Fire Lord Azulon finds out about Ursa’s letters claiming Fire Prince Zuko’s illegitimate heritage as Ikem’s son!

Crown Fire Prince Iroh the famed Dragon of the West is trying to defend Zuko’s heritage as Ozai’s son and his nephew along with him truly being Fire Lord Azulon's grandson. Iroh then tries to get Ozai to back him up on Zuko’s defense as his child.

“Ozai anyone with eyes can tell that young Zuko is your child!” “He is basically your complete copy of you when you were younger!” “Please, brother and father…don't let rumors and falsehoods kill this innocent young boy’s life!”

Ozai glares at Ursa in chains and says “Well, apparently according to the boy’s mother…I’m not Zuko’s biological father!” “You know the saying, mother’s baby and father’s maybe…” “At least I have the complete confidence that Azula is my daughter… her impeccable skills and genius talent alone are proof of that!

Ursa is livid yet feels immensely guilty for her incredibly risky and stupid false letters. She made her coffin and now unfortunately she and her darling baby boy Zuko will have to lay in the burning inferno she made...

“OZAI, PLEASE! YOU KNOW THAT ZUKO IS OUR CHILD AND IN PARTICULAR YOUR SON!”

“HE HAS COMPLETELY INHERITED YOUR LOOKS AND LOVES YOU AS HIS FATHER!”

“HE’S OUR SON, OUR BABY BOY! PLEASE! I BEG YOU!”

Ozai scoffs and gives a cold aloof humorless laugh. The complete pathetic desperation is palpably evident by Ursa’s yelling screams, frantic panics, and streaming tears!

“If so, Ursa, then why did you write such disgusting, vicious, and heinous sacrilegious lies about our child being your son with Ikem!”

“Only a completely idiotic fool would write such knowing falsehoods despite the severe consequences of these lies!” You must logically be writing the truth in these love letters!”

Azula glares alongside her father at her mother and brother in chains. Zuko, the poor boy is absolutely terrified and confused about why people are saying that Ozai isn’t his dad. This can't be true… he REFUSES to believe that it is true. Ozai is his father, his daddy, and no one else. This is complete lies and slander! IT HAS TO BE!

Ursa gives a heated glare with tears streaming down her eyes. How dare Ozai use this desperate and dangerous moment where his wife and son lives are at risk against her! Did he have no love for his wife and first born son?

“BECAUSE I DID NOT WANT TO DREAM ABOUT HIM TURNING AND BECOMING A MONSTER LIKE YOU!!!!”

“YOU ARE A SICK MAN OZAI JUST LIKE YOUR FATHER AND I PITY THE BOTH OF YOU!

“VAATU AND HIS CLONED SPAWN SON!”

Ozai is extremely pissed and livid is a mild term to express his burning and boiling rage at his unloyal and unfaithful wife. The foolish wrench had put her and their son’s lives at complete risk of immolation by his and Fire Lord Azulon’s molting wrath!

Fire Lord Azulon leaned up on his Burning Throne seat and gave a burning, seething, volcanic glare at his daughter-in-law who had just insulted him, the Fire Lord, his son, and the entire Fire Nation Royal Family.

“YOU DARE INSULT MY SON IN THE PRESENCE OF HIS FATHER!”

“YOU THE GRANDDAUGHTER OF ROKU DARE INSULT THE GRANDSON OF SOZIN!”

“YOU WHO LIVED IN A BACKWATER VILLAGE KNOWN AS HIRA’A!”

“YOU WILL HOLD YOUR INSOLATE TONGUE BEFORE I MELT IT OFF!”

“…You are extremely lucky if I don't decide to immolate you publicly nude with four heated spikes through your hands and feet dangling you in the air under the light of Agni, the Sun Spirit…”

Fire Lord Azulon finished off in a low growl full of hatred and simmering fury at his soon-to-be former ex-daughter-in-law! Iroh and Ozai was completely shocked at Fire Lord Azulon coming directly at Ozai defense as a loyal father should have. Ursa, however, couldn’t help but cower in fear an natural reaction as the Fire Lord’s flames in his throne room turned from a bright crimson red to an brilliant azure cobalt blue!

Zuko and Azula are completely shocked by what their mother Ursa said to their father Ozai in front of the now-whispering Royal Court! Sure, both of their parents sometimes got into arguments. However, this full-blown yelling and loathing was completely foreign to both of them!

Iroh on the other hand knew that it would be extremely hard for Ursa to adapt to her new lifestyle and his brother's ruthless imperialistic personality. Yet, this fire and fury is not something that he expected from his young sister-in-law! He fears only immolation and ash for his sister-by-law now by the Fire Lord’s own personal burning desire for vengeance…

#atla #azulon #iroh #ozai #ursa #zuko #azula #avatar #fire nation royal family #avatar the last airbender #fire family #fire fam #atla fanfiction #atla au #atla comic fanfiction au

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merlot-and-chardonnay · 2 months

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The Slighted Sons: A Character Comparison of Aemond and Zuko

Okay, here I am writing another character comparison analysis between two characters from two different shows. This time I'm going with Aemond Targaryen from HotD and Zuko from AtLA.

Now you're probably wondering what could these two possibly have in common.

Well, there's plenty actually. Both surface level and a little deeper.

So, brace yourself, and let's go over them.

Also I realize I'm making this post the day the live action remake of AtLA is released on Netflix, and I actually didn't know. I swear I must be psychic or something.

First a quick character synopsis for each.

Prince Aemond Targaryen is the second born son of King Viserys and Queen Alicent. From an young age, Aemond desperately wanted to have a dragon of his own, even more so when his brother and nephews started tormenting him for being the only one without. He eventually got his wish when he claimed the dragon Vhagar, which his cousins and nephews beat him up for that and...well we don't need to go into what happened next. After that, Aemond became known as the One-Eyed prince and as he grew, he invested in studying his history and philosophy as well as training intensely with the sword.

And then we have Prince Zuko, the oldest son of Firelord Ozai and Ursa, whom left under mysterious circumstances when Zuko was still a child. When Zuko was invited into a war meeting at the age of thirteen, he spoke out of term, angering his father, whom Zuko had to fight in an Agni Kai to restore his honor. Refusing to fight, and being subsequently scarred as punishment, Ozai banished Zuko, saying the only way Zuko could restore his honor and return home is to capture the Avatar.

So, on the surface, Aemond and Zuko are both princes, royalty, and they were physically traumatized in one way or another as children, with Aemond taking a dagger to the eye, and Zuko getting burned by his own father.

Oh my god, I just realized both Aemond and Zuko's injuries are in the exact same place, over the left eye. I did not notice that until now! :0

But, as I mentioned before, there's more to compare to:

1. Dysfunction Family Dynamics

Okay, I best cover this part first. Both Aemond and Zuko's family are pretty dysfunctional, but in different ways.

One thing that is similar is the ways they were treated by their fathers.

Aemond is the second son, and in Westeros, second sons don't have much to claim in terms of land or title, they often have to make their own way. He trains with the sword and pays attention to his lessons. Even if that wasn't the case, Aemond is still overlooked by his father in favor of his sister Rhaenyra. If we recall from episode 7 of HotD, the night Aemond lost his eye, Rhaenyra, who was trying to cover for her sons when it came to light Aemond called the boys bastards, she demanded of her father that Aemond be 'sharply questioned' so as to learn where he heard such slanders. And it looked like Viserys was prepared to do all this, despite his sons' maimed state.

Much how Viserys often favors his oldest daughter, we saw similar dynamics between Zuko and his own father, whom often favored Zuko's sister Azula. Despite being the oldest child and Heir Apparent, Zuko was constantly overlooked by Ozai, especially when Azula surpassed Zuko in her firebending. As Zuko mentioned in the season finale of Book 1, he brought up how Azula was a firebending prodigy that everyone adored, and that his own father had told him this:

"She[Azula] was born lucky. He says I was lucky to be born." -Zuko; AtLA

Now, I want to make clear, I am NOT saying Viserys and Ozai are the exact same people; Viserys may have been a shitty parent, but he was in general a good man, albeit, a man who made passive decisions in attempts to please everyone in his court. Ozai in contrast is just a ruthless and cruel man overall, and it showed in his parenting to Zuko and Azula too.

Ozai was harsher on Zuko presumably he saw him as weaker, and he doted on Azula, probably because her personality was similar to his, being sadistic and taking pleasure in putting fear in others. But as we saw in the series finale, Azula had a heavy burden placed on her in order to please her father, probably because she did see the way Ozai treated Zuko, and she knows not to get on her father's bad side as a consequence.

Ozai's abuse towards Zuko was direct, while Viserys was more indirect. Viserys was not the one to cause physical harm to Aemond as Ozai caused to Zuko, but Viserys didn't seek any kind of recourse, instead demanding that his sons and grandsons make peace and put the incident behind them...

Yeah, like that was ever going to happen. She said sarcastically.

Oh my god, I actually want to see Ozai and Viserys put in the same room and hear them criticize each other on their parenting styles. OOOOHHH the irony!

Another similarity is the way Aemond and Zuko are doted on by their mothers. Say what you will about Alicent, but the woman was the one who would do anything to see that justice was served to avenge the loss of her son's eye. She was also the one who comforted Aemond when he was bullied by his brother and nephews for not having a dragon, and she was the one who was frantic with worry upon hearing Aemond lost his eye.

And in the AtLA episode "Zuko Alone" we got to see the way Zuko's mother Ursa doted on him as a boy, being the one to comfort Zuko when he tried to demonstrate what he learned in terms of firebending before his grandfather. She was the one who told Zuko she loved watching what he learned, and that it was okay that he wasn't as ahead in his training as his sister was. And in the comic, "the Search", we saw Ursa take the fall for the death of Firelord Azulon, doing what she needed to do to see that her son and, her daughter even, would be safe and out of harm's way.

And of course, before continuing with the similarities, I have to talk about the difference in Aemond and Zuko's relationships with their uncles.

Uncle Iroh was basically the father to Zuko his own couldn't be bothered to be, being there to support Zuko during his exile era (even when Zuko would push him away at times), and being there to embrace Zuko when he lost way and found it again. We stan Uncle Iroh in this household...and his tea making, the guy is a true GOAT, just saying:

It's more than what I can say about Aemond's relationship to his uncle Daemon. Daemon never really cared about his brother's children with Alicent, presumably because it was an extension of his loathing hatred to Otto Hightower.

And for anyone who has read the Fire and Blood novel, we all know how that ended with Daemon and Aemond fighting each other on top their dragons above the God's Eye.

We also stan Daemon in this household, our toxic problematic Rogue Prince :P

Now, I want to see Daemon in the same room as Ozai. They're both second sons, yet Ozai was pronounced the new FireLord in place of his father. I want to see Daemon take notes on how that was accomplished.

Also, quick note, while Aemond didn't have his uncle to rely on as a father figure, the closest he would get to that is probably Criston Cole, whom Aemond trusted enough to convey his true feelings about the thought of Aegon being king back when he and Criston were looking for the guy in Episode 9

Okay, moving on.

2. Hot Temperaments

Both Zuko and Aemond had shown to have rather firery tempers at times, especially Zuko in Book 1. Aemond is usually a little more calm and collected, better at masking his emotions, but even he has breaking points, particularly in season finale when he demanded that his nephew Lucerys put out an eye to repay the one he lost, and he snapped when Luke refused.

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And, as we've seen, their hotheadedness got the both of them into a lot of trouble at times, be it Zuko when he challenged Zhao to Agni Kai in his anger to prove he was not the disgraced prince, or Aemond when...he chased Luke on dragonback and, unable to control Vhagar (cause dragons are not slaves), accidentally killed Luke and his dragon, consequently starting the domino effect that led to the Dance of Dragons.

Oh yeah, speaking of Dragon Dances.

3. Dragons!!

Even though we didn't see Zuko riding any actual dragons till season 3 of Legend of Korra, I still think it counts.

I think Zuko could've had a chance to become a rider, if his great grandfather Sozin never started the tradition of hunting dragons in the first place. Even still, dragons do hold a certain level of cultural significance to the Fire Nation and the FireLord's family.

Uncle Iroh, after all, was known as the Dragon of the West, having earned that title when he supposedly slayed the last dragon before Zuko was born.

Spolier alert, that wasn't actually how it went down.

Even though we never saw Zuko ride a dragon during the duration of AtLA, we did get to see him and Aang learn about firebending from the dragons, having mastered the Dragon Dance, and getting a better understanding of the element of fire and its true nature. Dragons also hold significant sway for the Targaryen family, and they also held cultural significance for Old Valyria before the Doom. Aemond's ancestors Aegon the Conqueror, and his sister-wives Rhaenys and Visenya, wouldn't have been able to unite the Seven Kingdoms successfully had they not had dragons at their side (Seven minus Dorne, who refused to kneel to the might of Dragon Fire for as long as they had even after Aegon's official conquest, kinda similar to how the Earth Kingdom refused to bow to the might of the Fire Nation even after the Fire Army's conquest of Ba Sing Se).

One of the dragons that was part of the initial conquest was Vhagar, whom Aemond claimed at the young age of 10, and it's a feat Aemond takes particular pride in, especially when he had gone as long as he had without while the rest of his family had dragons left and right.

Although, Aemond did learn a rather hard lesson from Vhagar, that dragons cannot never truly be tamed, they will do their own thing, and to try and think otherwise can result in deadly consequences.

4. Honor Oriented

Both Aemond and Zuko are heavily duty bound and place varying levels on emphasizing honor.

Zuko, obviously, started off in the series determine to restore his honor by capturing the Avatar, and we saw the lengths he would go to see that through.

Aemond considers himself an honor bound man; while he never had to go on any quests to restore his honor, he was duty driven, taking his school lessons and sword training seriously, refusing to indulge in deprive acts as his brother Aegon had.

5. Sibling Rivalry

Zuko was often pitted against his sister Azula, courtesy of his father, and Azula took pride in being able to master firebending techniques at a faster pace than Zuko could hope to. And it was something Azula would snubly rub in Zuko's face, even more so when the two would actually fight, such as in Book 2, when Zuko went after Azula for lying to him, and Azula pointing out how much of a disappointment child Zuko is to their father.

Their rivalry, I would also like to point up, was dialed up compared to Aemond's rivalry with his brother Aegon. I mean, Zuko and Azula had a physical fight in the form of Agni Kai during the series finale, which would also determine who would become the next firelord.

While Aemond never had such fights against Aegon, the guy did resent the fact Aegon was firstborn, and because of that, he was expected to become king in the eyes of the Greens, even though Aegon was not deemed fit by Aemond to be king due to his excess indulgences in wine and women and the fact Aegon shirked away from his duties and training, while Aemond surpassed Aegon in all these things.

Aegon didn't exactly make things easy for Aemond too when they were children, especially with the Pink Dread prank Aegon clearly convinced Jace and Luke to pull on Aemond.

Aemond knows he is better suited to the position as king, but he is a second son, so there's no chance of that happening (that is until an tragic accident at Rook's Rest during the Dance left Aegon critically injured and unable to perform his kingly duties, leaving Aemond in charge as Prince Regent).

The resentment is there nevertheless.

6. Fan Favorites

Be honest, you had the biggest crush on Zuko when you first saw the show...well, I did anyway.

I was in middle school when AtLA first aired, and I would like to credit Zuko as the first fictional guy whom I really crushed on as a girl who was slowly moving into my teen years. This scene especially, I'd like to credit for...definitely awakening something in me...;)

I also know for a fact people felt similar tingly feels when we saw Aemond as an grown man.

Certainly helped with actor Ewan Mitchell's portrayal and how he brought adult Aemond to life, especially with this scene:

Be honest, you felt things too about Aemond...I certainly did.

Actually I know this is fact, why else would there be so much smut related content around Aemond on this sight?

Conclusion

Aemond and Zuko are princes of prominent royal families who are also slighted sons; one was firstborn and the other is second born, but both slighted nonetheless, by their families, especially by their fathers

Much so that they had to find father figures in other people.

Both were heavily doted on by their mothers, both received physical scars by their family members, and both learned different lessons from the dragons, whom hold cultural significance to their families as well as their ancestral lands.

Both were pitted against their siblings, and both have fiery hot tempers that got into trouble on more than once occasion.

And both Aemond and Zuko are fan favorites to the point where numerous fans write fanfiction on both characters, be it reader inserts, or ships, etc.

We love and stan our brooding, tragic princes, no matter how toxic and angry they may be.

Also, I really want to write a crossover between HotD and AtLA, but I would probably do like maybe two chapters possibly (I say that, but knowing me, that would probably extend into a longer story, and I already have enough of those to work on as it is). I would like to see what it would look like if Aemond and Zuko were put in the same room.

Have a nice day, y'all :)

#hotd #atla #aemond targaryen #zuko #prince zuko #aemond #house of the dragon aemond #iroh #aegon ii #atla azula #Youtube

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guiltycorp · 2 years

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Diluc event thoughts!! SPOILERS! This is far more than I expected tbh, simply because at least there’s some new info. Even if it’s not exactly integrated into gameplay well at all haha. At least it’s proof that mihoyo still cares about those specific characters and their relationship! What other duo in the game receives that much attention! Adelinde dialogue + Kaeya Kind of sad how she turned him away even if her phrasing implied that it was solely for the mission. Didn’t even give him any wine. Contrasted with how Diluc gave the Traveller super expensive grape juice... Ehh. Kinda harsh.

But on to the good part. Kaeya’s letters (beautiful handwriting lol)

Some timeline info - Diluc didn’t leave the city straight away after the fight and his resignation from the Knights. Varka, Jean and Kaeya started unraveling Eroch’s dealings very soon after Crepus’s death.

Kaeya is so............. Didn’t even wait for Diluc to leave to start writing to him with relevant news. This is getting sadder.

I hope that everyone will check on the secret compartment since at least it confirms that Diluc did answer him on occasion. Plus it says something that he recently reread those letters and left them strewn across the room.

However it doesn’t seem like Diluc shared any info about his travels, and instead Kaeya sleuthed everything about him himself, like the information about the secret organization and that Diluc is the Darknight Hero.

Now more than ever I want to see more details of their fight, I kind of assumed that it wasn’t just Kaeya straightforwardly sharing his secrets and that instead he might have also said some meaner stuff about Diluc himself, but then again. According to this event, maybe not. Side-eying Diluc tbh, so far it doesn’t seem like whatever Kaeya told him was bad enough to warrant slashing at him with a claymore.

Oh yeah and we have confirmation that Diluc really went for it, enough to at least injure Kaeya.

And it’s also still a bit unclear what was happening before the fight. Why didn’t Kaeya come along with Crepus and Diluc to the winery during Diluc’s 18th birthday, did he live and work separately back then too? That would explain at least why him staying in the winery is seen as a bit of an issue by the household.

This bit... People seem to think that this means Kaeya and Diluc get along just fine and they’re simply too private for other people like Varka to notice. But idk. To me this reads like Kaeya quietly accepting that Diluc isn’t interested in any actual communication (after all, his answering letters are all brief, first one provoked by Kaeya’s ‘eye’ comments), and that he respects Diluc’s boundaries enough not to force the issue.

Varka’s letter

So.... Varka really was away on an expedition during the incident of Crepus’s death? Since he says that Jean ‘wrote to him’ even though they would assumedly work in the same office. But in Kaeya’s second letter he writes that Varka ‘would have probably sat [Diluc] down for a talk’ if he learned of his plans to leave, so he was in the city after all? Unclear.

Interesting that Varka would go as far as to attribute Ursa’s death to Crepus, claiming that Eroch stole his credit, even though in the manhwa it was stated clearly that Dottore defeated the drake later, thus putting Mondstadt in the Fatui’s debt.

So, apparently this is confirmation that Eroch was one of Dottore’s clones.

But like, this also means that Varka is a huge liar since he didn’t actually unveil the truth of the incident and Mond seemingly accepted the version of the story where Dottore saved the city lol.

In which case it’s also more understandable that Diluc still holds onto his grudge against the Knights.

Also, Diluc’s answer... He’s a bit um. Obsequious? Daddy issues showing I guess. Wonder if he would slander Knights of Favonius as freely as he usually does to Varka’s face.

Alice’s letter

Small detail, but I find it funny how she mentions both Diluc’s ‘brother(s)’ AND his friends, while Diluc himself only mentioned ‘friends’ in his Cat Tail’s message. What’s even going on inside his head.

Letter from the Winery

Just overall weird implications that the Winery’s staff is aware of Diluc’s fight with Kaeya and that their disagreement was severe and loud enough to almost warrant refusing to host him when he visits, but not really.

Since Kaeya still visits often ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Having such an ambiguous status is not particularly good for Kaeya’s character though.

Jean’s letter

Nothing of note except that she mentions Abyss Order as a known entity. Chronologically that’s when Diluc had just returned to Mond, so the Abyss Order was already around before the events of the game, although unclear for how long.

Secret Compartment

I LOVE THAT KAEYA ISN’T 100% ROYALTY AFTER ALL like wow im just so happy about this!! His family might have stepped up as ‘regents’ in the wake of the cataclysm (or earlier, but the cataclysm seems to be the implication) but that is far more noble than being monarchs who failed to save their people!

With that, all the royalty hints still kind of make sense, but relieve him of the responsibility and unsavory implications. I think it’s 100% the correct decision for the writers to make, they wouldn’t be able to properly condemn monarchy lol.

And the fact that his family line is compared to fire, it’s just so poetic. Especially if my theories about owl stuff will get confirmed later and then Ragnvindrs will also be connected to Khaenri’ah’s people in that way.

And Irmin? In real life Irmin or Jǫrmun is theorized to be one of Odin’s avatars or a proto-version of ‘the main god’ in Norse/Germanic mythology, and Irminsul (one of the holy trees) gets its name from him, too. I wonder if in Genshin this is the only one-eyed king or one from the line of many.

I suppose no time travel is involved after all and Alberichs simply survived throughout the last 500 years. And Kaeya never saw Khaenri’ah as it was before Celestia struck it down!

This has cool implications for his motivations, as someone who didn’t have to live through the trauma of genocide and war himself but still inherited the grievances of his ancestors.

It’s also even a closer parallel to immigrant narratives than I previously thought. I wonder if that also means that Kaeya has more living relatives around.

*bangs pots* alive mom from teyvat

By the way, checked the chinese version and he uses 义父 to refer to Crepus, still a rather literary title used for a father figure, not necessarily ‘adopted’. But eng translators have clearly decided to stick to adoption, whatever.

And ah... So his hidden eye has a scar over it after the fight, but it’s still in working condition? Unclear why he was hiding it and continues to do so, magical eye probably still a possibility.

Despite their polite tone, this exchange still reads as a bit petty. Diluc didn’t apologize still, so... Even if Kaeya doesn’t blame him for anything, it’s a bit strange for Diluc to be this alright with maiming his closest friend.

THAT SAID it’s cute that Diluc starts every time with ‘thanks for the letter’. And that he told Kaeya to take better care of himself.

But still... Kaeya involves himself in all of Diluc’s affairs, he always talks about him, he regularly writes letters to him, he’s lonely and he spends way too much effort on trying to get closer to him again. All of their interactions (except for the first on-screen one) have been started and maintained by Kaeya. What does he get in return? Hmm.

Just give us something mihoyo... Anything. Diluc going out of his way to help Kaeya or at least a phrase from him implying that there’s a reason for his reticence? Some guilt or perhaps a misguided attempt to let Kaeya build another new life without him, I don’t even know.

Also at this point the Traveller must be fully aware that Kaeya’s from Khaenri’ah if they had any doubts before. But considering that they don’t even try to question either Venti or Zhongli about the cataclysm, this is unlikely to be all that important for the main story.

#genshin spoilers #genshin lore #diluc event #diluc #kaeya #text

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avatarfandompolice · 1 year

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What's with this fandom and flat out ignoring the actual villains in the room?

Ozai's parenting screwed up Zuko and Azula, but somehow Ursa is worse compared to him. Kuvira made the conscious decision to become a dictator with many crimes under her belt such as her "summer camp" to weed out non Earth Kingdom pure blood citizens but somehow the blame is on Suyin. Unalaq merges himself with a dark spirit and uses it to severe the connections between Korra and her past lives, but guess who get fingers pointed at their face? Spoilers: it's not the guy who's main goal was to plunge the world in eternal darkness.

It's so frustrating because Ursa, Suyin and Korra are characters that deserve so much better than fans targeting them with their misguided slander when the actual perpetrators are right in front of them.

It stems from a few things:

1 - With Kuvira, she is an extremely likable and relatable villain. People want to absolve her of guilt whether consciously or subconsciously just because they like her. It’s a similar situation to Azula where she’s such a strong presence that people can’t attach bad actions to her. It’s one of the reasons a lot of people think Kuvira’s prison camps and giant robot are “OOC” because “in character” for them would just be her acting like a boss babe but not really doing anything bad. Su becomes an easy scapegoat because there is one, tiny, minuscule moment in B3 where Lin thinks Su might be working with the Red Lotus, and people just ran with that apparently.

2 - With Ozai, it again goes back to Azula. Azula’s issues in the show always result in her mother being brought up, and if someone lacks the inference skills to realize what’s going on, they’ll just think that Ursa caused Azula’s issues. From canon, Ursa struggled to connect with her daughter despite wanting to, and Azula in her teen years subconsciously knows that missed connection with her mother is why she is so messed up. But again, if you have the mental capacity of a peanut then this may not be clear. Since Ursa is relatively unknown in terms of backstory within the series, she’s an easy scapegoat because people can paint any picture they want with her. Not to get too much into another topic, but the exact action of people just formulating whatever backstory they wanted with her is why people hate her portrayal in the comics.

3 - With Korra, it’s just people still bitter that Korra even exists. They over-emphasize every mistake she makes to glorify how “perfect” Aang was (despite that not being even remotely true). You can look at any bad event that an antagonist caused in LOK and find at least one person putting 100% of the blame on Korra simply because they have some undying devotion to defending the original series. I find that unbelievably sad considering nothing about LOK is trying to minimize or compete with ATLA at all.

4 - And most importantly, it is people simply trying to analyze things in a way that makes them feel smart. The obvious answer to a bad thing happening in a story is that an antagonist did it, but they want to seem smart and subversive. Their whole value is placed on feeling smarter than a Nickelodeon cartoon, and they will make the most outlandish statements devoid of any context just to make the show seem “bad.” Unfortunately, in a world where there is an epidemic of videos and metas over-analyzing the most basic of story elements in stories, this is a byproduct: people who fabricate problems in stories to analyze just for clout.

#atla #lok #avatar the last airbender #avatar #the legend of korra #Kuvira #suyin beifong #Korra #avatar ursa #Ozai #Azula #notice how all the scapegoats here are women too

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isorottatime · 2 years

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god, you know what i think about a lot?? sabine’s opinion on the jedi. she was raised in empire-era mandalore (well. krownest. mandalore system) and then sent to the imperial academy when she was 12~13. so there’s no goddamn way she ever had positive opinions on the jedi. and don’t worry, i didn’t forget the siege of mandalore!! yes, ursa fought with ahsoka…. but that was because of bo-katan. bo-katan is not a fan of jedi. during s7 she was even less of a fan of maul so “other enemy of my enemy is my friend” yadda yadda— i’m getting off track. ursa was a nite owl, is my point; an offshoot of death watch. yeah, the nite owls were evidently a bit less hostile towards jedi… but then, the empire. i don’t think it’s talked about enough that the empire absolutely decimated the public’s opinion of the jedi. they said the jedi were planning a coup (which they did, but let’s not get into these details here) they slandered their reputation; for example, they said plo koon killed children. anyway. ursa raised her daughter under imperial rule; it’s shown in season three that sucking up to the empire is very important to her (obviously. to survive lmao). and she’s mandalorian. so tween sabine absolutely grew up hating the jedi. then! the imperial academy— the propaganda against the jedi didn’t contradict anything she’d been taught so far, so why would she question it? she didn’t even really question the empire until they used the duchess like … that. she was raised pretty comfortably. then just because she defected and evaded the empire, why would she question what she’d been taught about the jedi? what would push her? the general public’s opinion hadn’t just flipped after o66, people had been losing faith during the whole war. sabine had known nothing but negativity about the jedi. then!!! she’s found, half dead (ketsu showed no signs of jedi non-negativity, either) by these three randoms and a murder droid. how does she find out kanan’s a jedi? does kanan keep his distance at first, then she confronts him? 14~15 y/o sabine finding herself having to rely on these strange people to nurse her back to health, with nowhere to go.., then she finds out one of them’s a jedi… her whole settling in arc in general. i Crave it. how did her opinion on the jedi change?? ++ we get one line from hera in trails of the darksabre, where she says “remember how long it took for her to trust us.” i’m chomping at the bit where is sabine’s arc about her trusting the crew. taking them as her new family. she’s the most wary when ezra joins, she doesn’t trust him tipping her life —that she finally feels settled into— upside down. he’s 14~15, just like she was when they found her. is the crew trying to replace her? they found a kid who’s got more skills. of course she was only there because she was good with weapons. this kid is force-sensitive! her times up. oh god what now— you get the picture.

this absolutely spiralled away from my original point

#.txt #sabineposting #sabine wren #swr #star wars #sorry about the grammar #no proofreading. sorry #sw rebels #star wars rebels #sabine #sabine star wars #ghost crew #the ghost crew #the ghost #space mom #space dad #ursa wren #tcw #tcw s7

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sokkastyles · 2 years

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Let’s Read ATLA: The Search pp70-115

I’ve seen this section used a lot by the “Zuko is a bad big brother” crowd, when it shows exactly the opposite. Zuko may be seeing a bit of himself when he says Sokka gets the short end of the deal, but as Sokka already pointed out, Zuko has given Azula chance after chance, and she’s manipulated him, tried to harm him, and tried to harm his friends, as well as accusing him and everyone else of conspiring against her. And she’s lying to him.

Aaaand, he found the letter.

I like how Azula in the first panel is drawn to look like baby Azula sleeping in the flashback.

The “she’s hallucinating” thing is still tiring, and hallucination!Ursa doesn’t say anything new than what she already did in the series. But it’s really just Azula talking to herself. Azula’s mind isn’t turning on her because of Ursa, but because of her own self doubt. She knows the truth deep down.

If Zuko isn’t Ozai’s son, then he can rationalize away his father’s abuse of him. Which is very much NOT what the message should be here, because it was wrong either way, but I can see why Zuko would want to believe this. Poor boy just wants a family.

I already know how this plot turns out, but I REALLY hate this plotline for the way it implies that Ozai treated Zuko poorly because he might not be his son, as if that’s an excuse. The last panel is implying that Ozai’s resentment of Zuko grew out of Ursa giving him so much attention, but the same thing could have been accomplished without implying that Zuko isn’t really Ozai’s son. In fact, I’ve always had the headcanon that part of the reason Ozai resented Zuko was because he was Ursa’s first child, and Ozai is the kind of person who would want Ursa all to himself, even to the point of resenting his own child. That’s also why I think he wanted Azula to spend so much time with him and created a wedge between her and her mother, or fed whatever already was there.

Of course Azula thinks that the least pretty flower in the garden deserves to be burnt. Of course Azula feels entitled to hurt her brother, who is lesser than her.

“I don’t understand why she has to be so mean.” --> “Why’d our relationship have to be like this?”

Because what Zuko wants is some kind of escape from his family’s dysfunction. I think he would give up the throne in exchange for happiness if he didn’t believe that he had a duty to help heal the world, but he doesn’t value power the way Azula does, and she can’t understand that. He doesn’t want it to be like this and Azula is accusing him of things that aren’t even real so of course he doesn’t know how to help her, of course he gets angry at her after all the times she lied to him and manipulated him, and she’s still doing it.

And he’s letting her keep the letter, too, even though he knows what it says now.

Sokka, just because you lampshade how dumb this plot is doesn’t make it any smarter.

Are we still wondering where Azula learned that she was entitled to do whatever she wanted?

Also, Ozai making a point of saying how embarrassing it is for a prince to have a nonbending first born...like Lu Ten.

And this is also why I will not abide Ursa slander. This woman has to sit here while her powerful husband belittles one of her kids and poisons the other. I don’t know if she was intentionally lying about Zuko not being Ozai’s son or if it was some kind of fantasy she came up with to cope with her situation, or if she thought Ikem would help her if he thought Zuko was his.

So we have a story about two lovers who are separated by spirit shenanigans and masks. These kinds of stories are also always about class, the Dragon Emperor being cursed to assume the form of a lowly mortal and falling in love.

One interesting thing that Hallucination!Ursa told Azula at the stream was that she needed to take off her mask, and Azula talks about playing the Dragon Emperor and being a better one. But Azula doesn’t see that she herself is wearing a mask, and she’s still clinging to trying to reach for power. She hasn’t learned the lesson of the play (yet.)

As for Zuko taking on the role of the Dark Water Spirit, of course Zuko always had to be the villain to Azula’s hero, but the play implies that the Dark Water Spirit, though being the villain of the story, is also a force for good, teaching the Dragon Emperor the lesson of humility. This fits with how Zuko’s Blue Spirit role represented a chance for him to free himself from his identity as prince, and in the series he used it to do things that were both good and bad. It’s really interesting to me that a Fire Nation play gives this role to a water spirit. I bet Ozai didn’t like this play very much.

So the gaang arrive in the village where Ursa lived, watch the play, and start asking about Ursa. They’re approached by a guy named Noren who says Ursa used to act in the play and invites them to his house.

This marriage conversation is weird and I don’t like it.

Wait, that’s Kiyi. Oh, I don’t like this.

Of course Azula resents this girl’s innocence. And Zuko protecting Kiyi from his sister because he was always on the receiving end as a child.

IKEM WHAT DID YOU DO????

Aang’s right, but this would be more effective if Aang didn’t jump so quickly at the chance to kill Zuko in the last comic over a miscommunication problem.

We flashback to that night Azula told Zuko that Ozai was going to kill him. I was right in that Ursa learned about the plan from Azula.

Ozai’s banishment of Ursa is explained as fear of her knowledge of poisons, which makes sense. But what doesn’t really make sense is why Ozai couldn’t just give the poison to Zuko. Or indeed, why he needs poison at all, since he was planning already on killing Zuko in his sleep and told Ursa “he won’t feel a thing.” I think Ursa is right in that Ozai would rather Azulon be dead, because then Ozai gets what he really wants, but the question then is, if Ozai is able to kill Zuko painlessly in his sleep, why couldn’t he just do the same to Azulon without Ursa’s help?

I guess maybe the issue would have been keeping the death a secret, whereas Zuko’s death was ordered by Azulon so Ozai wouldn’t need to keep it a secret. I always thought that the reason Ursa was banished was to take the blame for Azulon’s death, since Ozai tells Zuko that she committed treason that night.

One small difference I did notice was that in this comic, she goes to Azula’s room to kiss her, then goes to Zuko’s room to kiss him, and it looks like Zuko wakes up on his own, whereas in the show she definitely wakes up Zuko on purpose. It still makes more sense for her to not wake up Azula, since Azula was hostile to her in their last conversation and wanted Zuko dead, and also was obviously lying to her mother about not wanting Zuko dead, and Ursa knew it, too. If Ursa wakes up Azula, Azula is likely to catch on to what she’s about to do and possibly cause a scene, which would ruin the whole plan.

And we’re getting this not just because of Ursa forgetting who she is but because of Zuko wishing he could be someone else.

#atla comics #the search #atla comics critical #zuko #azula #ursa #ozai #antikataang

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juniperhillpatient · 2 years

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Care to share one or more of your takes you would consider controversial for atla.

Ooh this is tough cause I feel like I’m constantly sharing my ATLA opinions so they’re mostly known 😅

A rundown of bullet point takes that I won’t budge on & think are straightforward but see people debating constantly anyway 👁👁

The Boiling Rock Betrayal was well written & did make sense people just over complicate it. Mai & Ty Lee deserved more detailed examinations of their views in other instances but it’s extremely plain what happened in this instance: adrenaline fueled actions were taken in an emergency / life threatening situation. Mai & Ty Lee weren’t wrong to save lives (it also wasn’t planned? why & how do people think it was?) & Azula was sympathetic for being hurt after the betrayal (but she was still unequivocally the villain here)

We don’t know enough about Ursa from the show to truly know what her relationship with Azula was like, making multiple interpretations of the dynamic equally valid

This is less about the show itself (though the comics & the writers being insecure about their canon ship don’t help) & more the fandom but K.at.Aang vs. Z.utara arguments are some of the most obnoxious pointless arguments I’ve ever seen & the slander toward both Aang & Zuko from opposing sides is REALLY sad considering their friendship & character arcs are at the heart of the show. It’s a kid’s show y’all calm down you can want whichever cartoon characters you want to kiss it’s not that serious. These arguments also tend to frame Katara as a prize to be won rather than one of the most badass characters in her own right & it’s uncomfortable

Anti Zuko takes from Azula fans & anti Azula takes from Zuko fans are both equally embarrassingly hypocritical & ugly

Hm okay a lot of these have had to do with the Fire Nation characters, let’s mix it up. Sokka isn’t a super genius OR a dumbass. He’s someone who would get bad grades for not doing his homework cause it’s boring but he aces every test. He’d explain some complicated physics subject to you then eat pizza out of the garbage in front of you. This one might not be *that* controversial but I do feel like I see debates over his intelligence lol

Southern Raiders is a great episode & it’s not about shipping (I mean it *can* be but that’s not the main point) it’s about opposing ideologies. Katara not necessarily forgiving Yon Rha but also not killing him is an AMAZING Katara moment where she makes the best choice for HER. If you hate this episode cause of shipping discourse or bad takes or whatever you’re missing out on an excellent episode that finally explores the anger & grief Katara has over her mother’s death. I see so much discourse over this episode but I try to ignore it cause it’s one of my favorite episodes & I don’t want fandom bs to ruin that for me

I loved Jet & felt like there was a lot to explore in this kid who’s charming & manipulative because he had to become that way because of trauma & wanted to care for other kids. I loved his dynamic with Katara & later Zuko & seeing how he’d changed. I initially thought his death, while it made me sad, was narratively fair to drill home the brutality of war. But the vagueness & later jokey callback changed my mind. Can’t drill home brutality if you’re gonna write it like *that.*

Final take & this is about the fandom at large: we forget this is an early 2000s kid’s show. It was fantastic storytelling visually beautiful & we wouldn’t still be talking about it if the characters didn’t grip us. The endless discourse & debates over things that don’t matter are tiring & ultimately a waste of time & energy - so that’s my final unpopular atla take for the day 😄 (also I’m NOT claiming to be guiltless when it comes to partaking in these debates lol) (also this isn’t about *analysis* which is always fun I’m talking more about discourse over dumb shit like why iroh gave azula a doll)

Thanks for the ask!

#asks #answered #you probably know all of these lmao #I’m not exactly quiet on my opinions 😂

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gigigle · 1 month

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I really hate how ursa is done in the comics idk

Like I'm done with the arranged marriage and her and ikem but I hate the other stuff.

1. Her and azula

I kinda wish they made her and azulas relationship more complex and nuanced instead of it being that ursa loved her all along and never favored zuko

Because I just think that's a little lazy. I feel like if ursa had favored zuko it would've made sense like if we keep the ikem part of all of it then I think it would be interesting that ursa favored zuko because he reminded her of her past and ikem. Also that with zuko she could at least pretend he wasn't ozais.

But with azula she couldn't pretend at all. And then coupled that with the fact that azula had a spark in her eyes that zuko didn't and she saw how ozai reacted to that and how he treated zuko that she would feel like she would need to protect him even more. I think it would be an interesting thing if zuko reminded her of her old life while azula reminded her of her present life.

And that would cause a rift between them. And then we would have azula acting out for her mothers attention and acting more and more similar to ozai which would just further increase the rift. Because ursa would struggle to separate her daughter from her abuser like she can with zuko. Especially since azula would also spend most of her time learning from ozai and listening to him.

Im also not saying she would a horrible mother either. Because I think even with this scenario that she is still nuanced because she got forced into a situation she would have never chosen and is just trying to get through it day by day. I think it would be that like ursa, azula was just a casualty of azulon and especially of ozai. Because had ozai not been there I think she would have been a much better mother.

Like idk I just feel like with how the comics wrote ursa and ozais relationship this would make even more sense than her being just a slightly flawed mother but she was trying her best. Idk I'm not very articulate.

2. The forgetting thing

It sucks. I hate it so much actually. It's just so bad, like I feel like the writer couldn't think of anyway to make it make sense that ursa would never go back to her kids but tbh I can think of some ways.

Like ursa is definitely terrified of ozai and he knows where she went and she would still go back to her hometown.

So maybe ozai knows this and every now and then he sends soldiers around there to just do a bit of patrol maybe even have them raid her parents house as a way of telling ursa that if she does something her parents and ikem are gonna be the price. Which I think would work.

Also I think with azula and zuko that she just kept telling herself that zuko had Iroh and that azula was ozais favorite. She probably just repeated those constantly like how zuko does with azula always lies. And soon after like a year she believed it.

Also I think she wouldn't get any information on them because ozai would make it harder and like we see in canon not that many know of or recognize azula and zuko. Like in the beach episode kids who seem to have noble parents don't even know about them so I think it would make a lot of sense that the royal family is way way way more private esp during ozais reign. Because yk ozai killed his father,stole his brothers birthright, and In ozais opinion had a failure of a first born. And maybe ursa was also too terrified of what shed find out or just to leave hir'a/her hometown.

Also part of me thinks it was lazy writing so that they wouldn't have to have ursa have difficult conversations about why she never went looking for them or just a conversation with azula because we never actually get a real ursa and azula convo.

3. Kiyi

I hate her. Like she just feels like such a a replacement and lazy writing. Like they wanted zuko to have a healthy brother sister dynamic with someone and they didn't know how,didn't think of, or just didn't want to write that with pre established characters, they decided to make a character that was everything azula wasn't and was the perfect little sister and daughter.

Like I think she could be fun but I also think she was just so that zuko could have that dynamic without having to put in the work of writing azula a semi redemption arc or smth.

But also I think maybe they could've given zuko that brother sister dynamic with katara or toph. Like we see zuko jealous of sokka and katara and maybe we get stuff we're zuko and katara will act like sibling or like the relationship he always wanted with azula but then gets reminded that he can't have that.

Also It feels like a way to also give ursa the perfect daughter but I do think rewritten she could work. I think she's a fun concept.

End

Tbh I just wanted to rant because I feel like so much was done that was just kinda boring and lazy.

#avatar the last airbender #atla #azula #azula in the spirit temple #uncle iroh #zuko #the search #smoke and shadow #fire lord ozai #ikem #not ursa slander #ursa #avatar comics

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pafsplayground · 1 year

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I haven't mentioned the Cave Daycare AU in a while, so here's a status update:

My rendition of the story is up to seven chapters

I have written four whole chapters of the Stella/Teeny side fic

Neby has written six chapters of their own thing from Nebula's perspective

Comedy and Tragedy have fics from their perspective, detailing Comedy's decommission and also the duo meeting Sun n Moon after Nebula and Esme disappeared

We have several branching AUs, including, but not limited to, Mermay and Cryptid AUs

The Cryptid AU itself has almost as much story as the OG AU

Jerry keeps getting worse and worse

We're bringing back Bonnie

Monty slander is still a consistency

Nebula almost dies part 2

We've claimed a lullaby/music box cover of Death Bed Coffee as the "fnaf end credits music box" for the au

Roxy/Stella/Teeny is a crackship for the Nebula Stella personality swap au

There is a kahoot with exactly 69 questions

And we are currently crack shipping every DA with Roxy, much to the behest of resident Roxy enjoyer, Cbear (Ursa), this was the intention, get rekt lil man

We've only had these scrunklies for a handful of months but there's not a day that goes by without thinking of them

#judy talks #judy's friends #judy's ocs #da cave au

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pastabrand · 3 years

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Sometimes I lay awake at night thinking about how fragmented Zuko and Azula are because of their family. With all the constant abuse for literally all their lives, I’m not surprised they turned to unhealthy coping mechanisms (Zuko with anger to hide any perceptions of ‘weakness’ and Azula perfectionism to an extreme degree). They were raised to believe that love was conditional, something to be earned through a rigid set of rules and expectations rather than something they should always have no matter what. How often did Zuko work himself past exhaustion to achieve even a scrap of Ozai’s affection? How much did Azula unintentionally harm herself to stay in his good graces? This can extend to people like Mai/Ty Lee and Iroh. Did Azula ever obsess over her actions to ensure Mai and Ty Lee would still like her before adapting to fear tactics instead? Did Zuko ever hide in the ship to prevent Iroh from seeing him do something that Ozai would’ve punished him for? And most importantly, do they ever learn to overcome this? I know the show has Zuko on the path to recovery, but does he ever actually recover? Does he ever understand, in its entirety, that he has Iroh’s unconditional love? Or, an even better question, does Iroh actually give Zuko unconditional love? Who’s to say that Iroh wouldn’t try to move to someone like Azula should he see that Zuko is inadequate to rule the Fire Nation. Iroh was raised in the same family and same standards after all. There’s nothing to indicate that he’s any different since Zuko’s never had competition for Iroh’s favor.

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limanesce · 3 years

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a bat.......dead body.......glitter......queen ur secret murder weapon sounds like a twilight vampire 😳

i hate you.

#yusra major #your name reminds me of the ursa major/minor constellation just because yusra sounds like ursa #so thatll be your tag #also major because old #ive never read or watched twilight before why would you slander me in this way #my cute bat will be havin a date with your head soon #i want a baseball bat now just for decoration purposes #yusra i lied im sorry i love you #i would never physically maim you #i think

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hello-nichya-here · 2 years

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The thing that would be really hard for Zuko I think, is realizing Ursa isn't perfect.

Which, in my eyes I think is a trauma response. Father was always hard. Angry. Cruel. Uncaring.

So mother was always kind, loving, wonferful. Perfect.

And with Ursa suddenly diasapearing at a young age, he never really quite came to terms with the idea that his mom wasn't perfect.

That's a really good point, and there's also few more things that would only make that perception of Ursa as "perfect" stronger for Zuko.

1 - Somebody just suddenly disappearing, especially a parent disappearing from their kids' lives, can make the people who were left behind grief for them as if they were dead - and Zuko DID think Ursa really had died, so to him, someone saying she wasn't perfect isn't just slandering her, they're actively insulting his deceased mother and tainting the memory of her

2 - When Zuko found that she could possibly still be alive, he also found out that the reason she is not around anymore is because she sacrificed everything to save his life, so that brings the whole adoration factor way up

3 - He already turned his back on a parental figure that tried to look out for him and regreted it bitterly.

4 - The person who is claiming Ursa wasn't perfect is Azula. The sister he was trained to see as an enemy that can never be trusted and will lie to him just because.

5 - Ozai, the person Azula trusted and loved the most and was raised by is an abuser and manipulative as fuck; even if he accepted that Azula isn't lying to him when she says she believes their mother didn't love her, Zuko could just convince himself that this was some lie Ozai put in Azula's head and that she'll see the truth once Ursa comes back and is the perfect mother he remembers her as.

So yeah, Zuko would definitively struggle to accept that his mother is only human and thus makes mistakes. If for some reason he never finds her, it'd take him years to begin to accept that maybe his feelings of gratitude for everything she did for him are clouding his judgement. The sooner he finds her and more he actually spends time with her, the harder it will be to keep pretending she is this saint he made her up to be.

(It could be interesting to see him finding his mother... only to find out that she still supports the war, is disappointed in him for "betraying" their nation and their family, and thinks Azula did the right thing killing the Avatar, but I'm not competent enough to write that scenario)

#asks #zuko meta #ursa meta #fire nation fuckery #fire nation royal family

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nothing-more-than-hot-leaf-juice · 4 years

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I couldn't really get into Azula, tbh. I mean, she is a Whole Look and I appreciate her lack of chill, but she felt like she needed more dimension.

AIGHT! LOOKS LIKE IT’S TIME TO WRITE SOME MORE AZULA META. Because I’m not about to have one of the most complex antagonists in television history slandered like this.

If you want to talk dimensions, let’s start there. From the basis of her actions, we can characterize Azula as many things: manipulative, ruthless, ambitious, and lacking in empathy. We see her as a military strategist: commanding the drill to go through the wall, conquering Ba Sing Se by staging the coup, and planning the destruction of the Earth Kingdom with Sozin’s Comet. We see her as a master manipulator: convincing Mai and Ty Lee to join her hunt in season 2, convincing Zuko to betray Iroh, lying to Ozai about Zuko killing Aang, and stalling Sokka at the invasion by taunting him about Suki. We see her trying to kill her brother and uncle all throughout season 2 just on her father’s orders, shooting Aang with lightning in the season 2 finale, almost killing Zuko multiple times in season 3, and nearly killing Katara in Sozin’s Comet.

So from her actions, we can characterize her simply as power-hungry and lacking in empathy, sure, but it’s in her motivations that her dimensions lie. And everything, everything Azula does in this show is to prove to her father that she’s worthy of his favoritism.

We’re introduced to Azula in season 1 indirectly via Zuko and we know some things about their father already. The two main things being the whole ‘burned half of Zuko’s face off and banished him for speaking out of turn and refusing to fight him’ and the whole “[their] father said [Azula] was born lucky” and “[Zuko] was lucky to be born.” At the end of season 1, Ozai calls Zuko “a miserable failure” and we see him about to send this mysterious sister figure to do something about that. We know that Ozai had absolutely no sympathy whatsoever for his son and horrifically, publically abused him over what exactly? Showing weakness.

That’s what we know from season 1. With Azula’s introduction in season 2, it’s clear that their upbringing was way more messed up than just this one instance. We start to see that there are these cracks in the royal family and the manipulation and callousness goes way beyond Zuko’s banishment.

From the Zuko and Iroh plot of The Avatar State, there are a couple key moments where themes of favoritism, perfectionism, and jealousy enter. It starts with the three-year anniversary of Zuko’s banishment where he’s sitting in self-loathing just wanting his “father not to think [he’s] worthless,” holding onto Ozai’s approval as the achievable thing that will mean he’s worth something. We see Azula practicing lightning bending (something we have never seen a firebender do on the show before, it is clear that she is incredibly talented) but still berates herself for being ‘one hair out of place’. We see Zuko lash out at Iroh for implying that Ozai might not really want him to come home despite what Azula says, and we know that Iroh genuinely cares about Zuko and wants him to be safe, but Ozai doesn’t. Iroh introduces the concept that “things in [their] family are not always as they seem, but Zuko reduces this to sibling rivalry, and there’s a reason why. Zuko and Azula have been raised under a competition for their entire lives, and for that entire time, Azula was winning. And by this point she’s still winning. She’s ecstatic that she’s the favorite child while Ozai wants to “lock [Zuko] away where he can no longer embarrass him”. By the end of this episode, one thing is clear: Azula and Zuko are competing with each other. Only one of them can be good enough for their father. But while Zuko takes his first step to cut himself off, Azula doesn’t want to stray from this competition that she’s winning.

In Zuko Alone, this favoritism goes deeper. Just like with Ozai, Ursa’s approval and love is conditional, but these are conditions Azula isn’t meeting. She’s not as empathetic or sweet as Zuko and their mother isn’t shown treating her with the same affection as she does with Zuko. It’s not just Ozai favoring Azula over Zuko with that one scene of Ozai smiling when Azula performs her firebending and frowning when Zuko performs his, it’s Ursa favoring Zuko over Azula. It’s Ursa treating Zuko with gentleness and care and only reprimanding Azula for the way that she is.

Despite the fact that she’s obviously getting all her ideas from her father. This mentality of ‘I must do anything for the throne, even throw my own sibling under the bus,’ is all from Ozai. And when Ursa leaves, there’s no one to keep her in check. There’s only one parent to win the affection of and she’s already succeeding because all she has to do is be a better firebender. All she has to do is follow Ozai’s example of callousness and ruthlessness in order to be the favored child. And keep in mind, being ‘the favored child’ under this roof isn’t something petty, it means ‘one of you gets to be the heir and the other might not be allowed to live.’ This episode reveals what’s been going on in Zuko and Azula’s head this whole time. It reveals that they’re both constantly thinking that only one of them is going to be seen as worthy in their father’s eyes, as they were taught to believe that Ozai was more ‘worthy’ than Iroh since Iroh retreated from Ba Sing Se after Lu Ten died. And the other one, the one that wasn’t seen as worthy, that one was ‘disposable.’ And for most of their lives, the ‘disposable’ one was Zuko.

But while Zuko spends most of the series slowly learning, with Iroh’s help, that the situation shouldn’t have been like this, that parental love and protection shouldn’t have to be conditional, Azula is still stuck in this mentality. And season 2 is full of examples of Azula doing everything in her power to prove herself to Ozai. Her task was to just bring Zuko and Iroh home for imprisonment, but along the way she added ‘capturing the Avatar’ and ‘conquering Ba Sing Se’ as additional tasks for herself. Why? Because those were the things Iroh and Zuko failed at doing. And she needs to prove that she’s better than them, otherwise what’s going to stop Ozai from deciding that she’s the person who he’s going to be disappointed in next? But if she does these things, if she conquers Ba Sing Se, if she finds the Avatar, that means she’ll still be considered useful to him, right? That means she’s the one who “has father’s love,” right?

Because that’s what Azula strives to be over anything else: useful. She wants to be the person he relies on. The child he believes in. There’s a really good example of this early in season 2 when Azula goes to Omashu to get Mai:

Azula takes control of the situation. She doesn’t really have anything to do with this city or the fake plague or the hostage trade. This is entirely the governor's responsibility and she’s just there to pick up her friend, but since she’s there, she has to make sure things are in order for her father. So she strips the governor of his power, takes control of the hostage situation to ensure that Bumi doesn’t slip through her fingers, and renames the city ‘New Ozai’ just for good measure. We see Azula as the actual proactive villain for all of season 2 and she would be well within her rights to name the city after herself. But she doesn’t. Because that’s not why she’s doing anything she’s doing.

The flashback showing where she suggests burning down the Earth Kingdom reveals a lot with her body language. She suggests this by interrupting Zuko, who’s more resistant to the idea to ‘destroy their hope.’ He doesn't agree with Ozai’s idea, but she needs to show that she’s on her father’s side. She’s the one who can be as ruthless and destructive as he is. So she suggests this and looks to Ozai for approval, and once he gives it, that’s when she looks pleased. The actual plan to destroy the Earth Kingdom isn’t what brings her joy at this moment, it’s Ozai’s approval of her suggestion. We didn’t see her clap once his back was turned. This isn’t about the plan itself, it’s about Azula’s ability to be the heir she thinks Ozai wants her to be.

And it’s in this moment in Sozin’s Comet shows exactly where Azula’s been coming from this whole time:

This whole time, it hasn’t been about the destruction. It hasn’t been about what she wants. It’s been about being the favored child. It’s about being better than Zuko. In Azula’s eyes, she’s done everything right. She’s master lightning. She wasn’t the traitor like her brother or uncle. She conquered Ba Sing Se. She showed her father that she was on board with the destruction of the Earth Kingdom and proved her loyalty. She did everything right. But there’s a part of her that was waiting for this shoe to drop for years, ever since she watched her brother get his face burned off for not meeting Ozai’s standards. And she sure as hell remembers that all throughout the series and it shows: she can’t afford to be imperfect because she knows the consequences if she’s not.

But in this moment, her fear shows. Her fear of not being good enough. The fear of being imperfect, disposable. She’s been terrified of this moment her whole life and has done everything to delay it. This moment: where Ozai casts her aside, where she isn’t good enough to come with him in her eyes. There’s no one left but her: no Iroh, no Zuko, no Ursa. Everyone else left and there’s no one else to compete with. And she’s left alone with this meaningless position of Firelord now that Ozai’s about to declare himself ‘Phoenix King’ and she clings onto that position because it’s her last chance to prove herself after this rejection.

She goes off the deep end because she’s all alone. She’s snipped out anyone who was imperfect. She cut off her friends once they betrayed her. Azula isolated herself on the throne and demanded perfection because that’s what she saw her father do. Family wasn’t important to him. Loyalty and perfection were. So that’s the example she follows but it’s lonely and terrifying, so she loses herself. All her fears about not being good enough come back up after Ozai leaves her behind. That’s why she mentions Mai and Ty Lee. That’s why she sees Ursa. These are the people who didn’t choose her, and now that her father has left her behind and she hasn’t met his standards for the first time in her life, all those vulnerabilities and insecurities come to the surface. The thing Azula fears most over anything else is rejection, which is why she’s obsessed with perfection. Because she’s been taught that if she’s good enough: if she perfects her firebending technique, if people fear and respect her, and if people choose her, then that means she’s not disposable.

And at the end, she’s the one who challenges Zuko to an Agni Kai. To prove one last time that she is worthy. That she was worthy all along and that her father was right to choose her to be Firelord.

And there’s an interesting parallel to consider here. The first time we ever see Azula is at Zuko’s Agni Kai with Ozai in the season 1 flashback, and at that one she’s smiling at her brother getting punished because it signifies to her that she won. Ozai picked her. Zuko was the disposable one. And in the end she wants that to still be true and finds that it’s not. In the end she loses and she doesn’t know what to do with herself now that she’s the one cast aside.

And that’s the tragedy of Azula, really. This entire time she was conditioned to think that her value and the value of the people around her rested in perfection and she spent the entire series trying to prove herself. She was convinced that love was something that needed to be earned and that if she didn’t get results, if she didn’t win, then she didn’t deserve it.

And that’s just a small piece of her character if we’re being honest. This doesn’t get into the details of how Ursa’s treatment shaped her, how her relationship with Zuko was ruined by their parents, how her bending is a reflection of her mental state, or how he relationship with Mai and Ty Lee reflects her view of herself and others. Azula is one of the most complex villains in television history not only because she has a rich backstory, interesting motivations, or unique persona, but because underneath everything, she’s just a teenage girl who doesn’t wants her dad’s approval and is so deeply terrified of being cast aside. She may be ruthless and she may lack empathy, but those traits stem from deeply rooted damage and vulnerability.

(For some more Azula meta I did a deep dive into how The Beach foreshadows her breakdown and reveals her vulnerabilities and here where I talked about how she and Zuko were pitted against each other and had their relationship damaged by parental favoritism.)

#hot leaf meta #azula #atla #zuko #ursa #ozai #iroh #avatar the last airbender #sozin's comet #zuko alone #the avatar state #the babes are asking #I kind of feel that this ask might have been a joke #but I needed to get some meta out of my system #long post #what does that tag even do?#does anyone actually have 'long post' as a blocked thing?#tw: abuse

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