This is probably a bad sign

[lizbee]

Apparently my new thing is to get angry when people call Azula evil. I mean, she only invaded a city, tried to kill her brother, came up with a viable plan for world-wide genocide and also burned that guy's house down that one time. PEOPLE HAVE BEEN REDEEMED FROM WORSE!

...also, you can't diagnose sociopathy in a fourteen year old, and her obsessive touching devotion to her father and psychological vulnerability after Mai and Ty Lee betray her suggest that, however much Ozai tried, she's not a fully-blown sociopath.

ALSO, when Zuko confronted the futility of the destiny Ozai had chosen for him, he developed emo-itis fell into an angst coma became physically ill and feverish for a few days. When Azula is confronted with her ultimate powerlessness in her father's eyes, she has a full-blown psychotic breakdown. THEY ARE NOT THAT DIFFERENT.

TL;DR it bugs me when people say she has no soul. In serious meta, I mean; obviously Zuko has had cause to wonder.

I was going to compare Azula to Jaime Lannister for some reason, being that they're both considered monsters, but he gets a manly redemption arc. But then I remembered the other thing Jaime is best known for, aside from regicide. *awkward*

Comments

[selvage]

Somebody's been reading Mark Watches comments again! Seriously though, :/ I have so many feelings about Azula, and I don't mean that in a glib way - she is such a fascinating, polarising character who has such swathes of potential discussion in both her past that wasn't shown on screen, and her future, given how open-ended the finale was. I resent AtLA fans who paint her with the broad brush of 'evil' or 'sociopath'; the writers imbued her with incredible depth, probably only rivalled by Zuko in terms of character depth, imho, and to write her off as merely evil is an affront. To me. Ahem.

*sidles*

[lizbee]

Somebody's been reading Mark Watches comments again!

There are gifs! And sometimes really clever stuff.

But seriously, there are also SO MANY ISSUES. I mean, even the ISSUES stuff is strictly 101-level, and if you're going to argue that "fat" is always a slur regardless of context, well, I've got some fatshionistas with cricket bats waiting for you down this dark alley.

But yes, lots of THIS! to your comment! I empathise with Azula a lot, and I think she has a lot of layers. Which I wrote as lawyers. Which I expect she also has.

ALSO, I think that saying she's the way she is because of her father's abuse is not just writing her off as a victim. Because if that were the case, well, I know a lot of RL women who would also have to be written off. It's not what he did, it's what she does next.

...I think that What Azula Did Next might be the only story I really hope Bryke don't ever tell. Because, much as I think they're tops, I can't imagine they could do it better than the fanwomen.

[selvage]

Heh, I've gotten to the point that I only read the comments by names I recognise (usually the mods and a couple of others), and the gif spams. The markspoils.blogspot.com blog sometimes has good discussion, and facedesking about comment fail.

AZULA HAS ALL THE LAWYERS. :D :D :D

I really hope Bryke stay away from the Azula backstory as well - I like to think they understand that sometimes not tying up all the loose ends is more satisfying than a neat and tidy ending. And yeah, some of the fanworks and meta about Azula post-finale are pretty rad.

[lizbee]

I've never actually read the spoiler blog. Clearly I should, if only because I imagine it's a smaller group of people.

AZULA HAS ALL THE LAWYERS. :D :D :D

THERE IS PROBABLY AN AU IN THIS.

I like to think they understand that sometimes not tying up all the loose ends is more satisfying than a neat and tidy ending.

Exactly! I mean, I hope that Zuko finds Ursa in the comics, because obviously they did have something in mind for that story (but I reserve the right to write AUs if I have better or different ideas*) but unless they decide that Azula recovers and spends her life having zany adventures/doing Zuko's political dirty work/shagging Toph/teaching firebending prodigies I'm happy to leave it up in the air.

* I blame Capital Scandal and Song Joo for the fact that I want to write fic where Ursa is working as a courtesan in Ba Sing Se, and also working against the Dai Li. All of which is going REALLY WELL until her brother-in-law opens a tea shop and her daughter leads a three-girl invasion team, and no doubt Zuko is around being ... Zuko.

[selvage]

I've never actually read the spoiler blog. Clearly I should, if only because I imagine it's a smaller group of people.

It's a pretty good place! The mod has been away with family issues for a bit, but we're just adding comments to the latest post. Arctic_hare particularly is v. insightful and enthusiastic generally.

RE YOUR FOOTNOTE: OMG NEED TO DRAW URSA AS A BA SING SE COURTESAN. STAT. AND YOU NEED TO WRITE THIS FIC. YES.

[lizbee]

OMG NEED TO DRAW URSA AS A BA SING SE COURTESAN. STAT. AND YOU NEED TO WRITE THIS FIC. YES.

I WILL WRITE IT IF YOU DRAW IT! Only I'm not quite sure how it would go, aside from the bit where Ursa smiles and tells Long Feng that she is the woman who killed Fire Lord Azulon. Let me sleep on it.