Another Redeemed!Azula Thought…

i didnt post in the zutara tag? and like it was a random thought and I DO have people to discuss the ship with, both in person and on this platform. and im not obsessed, and i dont hate it. there are plenty of similarities between katara and zuko and i do see the appeal. i just. thought it was funny? idk i came here to have a good time and now im being attacked.

i can explain why zutata DOES NOT work because of maths. all anyone ever talks about is how they have so many parallels. fire/water, banished/respected, painted lady/blue spirit etc. "nono that only makes them a better couple" guys parallel lines never meet. they dont intersect. AKA THEY ARENT TOGETHER. AND LIKE IF WE WERE TO COMPARE ZUTATA TO ZUKKA YOU CAN SEE ZUKKAS BETTER

older brothers, prodigy sisters - similarities

fire/water, bender/non bender - differences

its a healthy balance smh

Basically the best Zukka dynamic:

If you disagree you're wrong and you have no taste.

it's really interesting to me how you can tell the level of respect azula has for mai, ty lee, and zuko through how she directs them within the confines of the fire nation's expectations of them all.

azula is someone who really values and upholds the fire nation's expectations of conformity, especially in regards to court. she herself plays her part as she's expected to. she plays by the rules her father sets for her, parrots his beliefs, renames omashu "new ozai" for her father, tasks herself with finding the avatar (zuko's fool's errand) and conquering ba sing se (iroh's greatest military failure), and is consequently ultimately hurt and betrayed when her father punishes her despite this by refusing to let her come with him during sozin's comet and giving her a meaningless title to mollify her. to her, playing by the rules that are set out for them within the fire nation, whether spoken or not, is essential, and to not play by them results in punishment. this mindset was already instilled in her before zuko's agni kai, but it was no doubt fully solidified by witnessing her brother pay for his inability to play the role he was assigned as a dutiful son and strong heir.

as a result of this, zuko is the most obvious liability of the fire nation kids in azula's eyes. he has already failed to abide by the rules once and is likely to do so again if she doesn't stop him from doing so. make no mistake, azula does not want zuko to stumble again. she manipulates him into coming home despite his wavering resolve by reminding him of what he could have and what he's always wanted (their father's respect, his honor and birthright restored, the return of a feeling of normalcy/familiarity) because she loves her brother and wants him to play the role he's supposed to successfully. if she didn't love him, she could easily have taken him home as a prisoner like her father wanted her to initially or killed him. i won't even entertain the notion that she brought him home specifically to take the heat if the avatar wasn't really dead; that is a deeply stupid thing for her to do which would result in her judgment and honor being called into serious question as she's the one who vouched that zuko killed the avatar which would be a failure in her role as the dutiful daughter and honorable princess.

so azula appeals to zuko's weaknesses to get him home because she loves him. but she still doesn't respect him because of his prior failings, so she tries to keep him on the straight and narrow within the confines of their roles in the fire nation. she confronts him about visiting their disgraced uncle in prison, tells him his actions could be misconstrued (although she knows exactly how zuko means them; she wants to remind him to play his part or suffer the consequences once more). she shuts him up in war council meetings by speaking over him so that he won't say something that would result in their father punishing him once more. she attempts to prompt him into letting her know if they should be worried about the avatar still, although he doesn't confide in her since he doesn't trust her and instead takes matters into his own hands by hiring combustion man. azula does not threaten to harm zuko herself if he fails in his role; she instead manipulates him with her knowledge of his personality and reminds him of the harm that their father will cause him if he fails.

ty lee is another problem azula thinks she needs to solve. once more, she loves ty lee, but ty lee has shown azula that she is not a reliable person to play her role as she's meant to. azula believes ty lee's failure to be even worse than zuko's, though. zuko said the wrong thing in a war council meeting because he didn't understand the rules; ty lee understood the rules, and she chose to run away anyway. this is not just ty lee being oblivious, but her choosing to intentionally disobey the rules.

so when azula comes to collect ty lee to resume playing her role, azula is initially friendly, perhaps giving ty lee the benefit of the doubt that she might have wised up, but the moment ty lee demonstrates that she is still refusing to play by the rules azula is convinced they all have to play by, azula turns to manipulations and threats of harm to pull ty lee back into line. like with zuko, azula loves ty lee but does not respect her. she knows that ty lee will not play the role society says she must unless azula coerces her into doing so. unlike with zuko, ty lee does not require multiple corrections from azula. the threat of harm once is enough for ty lee to return to her duties. noticeably, ty lee also manipulates azula a lot when she does so, showcasing her awareness of the roles they're all playing and her ability to play with the best of them.

but mai is different from zuko and ty lee. azula both loves and respects mai. yes, azula has to go out of her way to collect mai as well, but mai has moved to omashu with her parents. she never stopped playing her role. azula does not believe mai would ever stop. she respects mai's intelligence in a way she doesn't with zuko and ty lee because mai respects the rules of the game. so azula not only never utilizes threats or manipulation with mai, but she treats mai as almost an equal and allows mai to treat her as an equal. she asks mai to come along with her, and mai agrees. she promotes mai to a position of power above that of her parents, and mai obliges. she says that the trade of bumi for tom-tom is unfair, and mai calls it off. but it's not only when mai plays by the rules of the game that azula respects her and does not threaten or manipulate her to keep her in line. even when mai blatantly disobeys azula's orders, azula allows it. even when mai screams at her during the beach, azula allows it. mai knows that azula will allow it, too. she openly scoffs at the idea of azula lightningbending at her. why? because azula respects mai and her judgment. she sees mai as an equal because mai plays the game as well as azula does, including her moments of rebellion (this is undoubtedly what azula disobeying ozai by bringing zuko home under false pretenses and directly lying to him is, albeit a much higher stake rebellion than mai's refusal to search the sewers).

notably, while azula declares her intent to kill zuko after he commits treason and tells ozai that she lied to him, even when mai and ty lee take the ultimate step out of line with their roles, she doesn't allow them to be executed. i say "allow" here because she's not the fire lord, so it wouldn't be her personal decree to have them executed but rather her father's. they committed high treason. they not only aided and abetted in a prison break and the escape of some of the fire nation's most wanted but physically attacked a member of the royal family and the crown princess at that. this is a crime that's punishable by death, and yet mai and ty lee stay in their cells in boiling rock, seemingly unharmed given mai's unscathed appearance at the end of sozin's comet. ozai would have no reason to not simply execute them, but azula would since she loves them. it's entirely possible, she was on some level holding onto hope that she could coach them back into line again somehow.

but why does she hope to rehabilitate or at least preserve her friends while aiming to kill zuko? it's pretty simple: when zuko failed to play his part he did so in a way that meant azula was punished for having failed in her role as the dutiful daughter and honorable princess because she chose to play a different role that she gained nothing from playing: the role of zuko's sister. so in azula's eyes, zuko went out of his way to not only lapse in his role as the dutiful son and strong heir but to purposefully fail to play the role of her brother in a way he knew would cause her harm. do mai and ty lee also fail to play the roles of her friends while instead revealing their loyalty to someone else entirely when they betray her? yes, but them doing so does not result in ozai's wrath.

if azula had said “I can’t remember my mother’s face. as hard as I try to picture her, all I can see is zuko” (which obviously azula would never say because she would never want to admit to missing ursa or having any weaknesses of course, but you get it) everyone would’ve been like “oh she can no longer associate her mother with anything other than her sacrifice. she can only remember what her mother did for her brother, and now they are inextricably linked in her mind, so she does not realize the ultimate tragedy that she actually does see her mother every time she looks in the mirror, because she has her mother’s face.”

but of course, that’s exactly what sokka said about his mother, who sacrificed herself to save katara. and now katara feels a massive responsibility to honor that sacrifice, while in turn, sokka bears the responsibility of keeping katara safe, so when he tries to think about his mother, all he can think of is katara and the central role she plays in their narrative. in this sense, they are both adopting kya’s legacy: katara must be kya to prove that her sacrifice was not in vain, and sokka must be kya in sacrificing himself for katara.

when sokka says he cannot picture his mother’s face, what we know as the audience (although not upon a first viewing, because “the southern raiders” is crucial to contextualizing the present dynamic of this family) is that he has his mother’s face. thus, when he tries to picture his mother’s face, his own face, all he can see is katara, because he has sublimated his own identity and selfhood for her ever since kya’s death demonstrated the very real consequences of what katara’s status as the last southern waterbender meant for their family and their people. while katara’s duty is to remember, to carry on that legacy, sokka’s duty is to repress, to deny himself anything outside of his responsibility to katara.

when he says that katara is the one who’s always been there, the one who held their family together after kya’s death, of course she did, because katara was the reason behind kya’s death, so of course katara’s very existence, the fact that she survived, is what gave them the hope to keep going. not to mention that katara knowing that her mother sacrificed herself for her made her feel the need to be her mother, to prove herself and fill that new hole in their family.

katara is all sokka sees because she is the most important thing in his life bar none. sokka cannot picture himself without seeing katara, because she is his identity far more than he has any understanding of himself as an individual. sokka can only understand himself in terms of what he can do for others, and katara is the primary figure in his life and has been for a very long time. he does not see her as a mother, he sees her as his mother, in that he sees her as kya, due to the exact nature of his family history and legacy, but if people think that means that he is somehow careless with katara, that is exactly wrong, and their interpretation of what he said is incredibly reductive because it does not take into account the rest of their relationship as it is depicted in the show, which illustrates why sokka said what he said and why he feels the way that he does.

katara is not a mom, she is not sokka’s mom, she is not aang’s mom, she is not toph’s mom, she is not even momo’s mom! she is her own mom, because she needs to be, because she needs to carry on kya’s legacy and the legacy of her tribe—and that in and of itself is fucking tragic, so terribly heartbreaking, such a weighty burden for a little girl who does not deserve to have to carry the grief and hope of her entire people. so yes, she is her own mom—but she is not anyone else’s.

please please elaborate because i love it so much but cannot explain why

I can't overstate how much Maizula blows every other Azula ship out of the water. Unfortunately, understanding how and why requires some very attentive reading of the source material, so it's not nearly as popular as it should be.

i genuinely dont think that the fire nation is discriminatory and that the water tribes are insteaf. eg. mai ty lee and azula are some of the most respected people in the fire nation. and two of then arent even benders. they fight better than most. they went to school for this and we see female soldiers/prison guards etc. but then look at the northern water tribe. katara isn't allowed to fight. period. idek but the fire nation is 100% not sexist. i do think that being gay is discouraged but only because it is encouraged to have children to better the nation. and as the most technologically advanced nation, i think they're also the most advanced in thinking. so like my final thoughts: fire nation is not sexist or homophobic, they fully support either but just want more bending/powerful children. water tribes (definitely northern, less so southern) is a bit less accepting of these things/ignorant. nwt is definitely sexist and we also see that sokka has grown up amongst misogyny or whatever. also zuko is gay. btw. just. my boy aint straight. and sokka had his bi awakening in boiling rock (when zuko breathes fire cause ughhhhh) but didnt know it was his bi awakening (sokkas the definition of 'no homo but')

i can explain why zutara DOES NOT work because of maths. all anyone ever talks about is how they have so many parallels. fire/water, banished/respected, painted lady/blue spirit etc. "nono that only makes them a better couple" guys parallel lines never meet. they dont intersect. AKA THEY ARENT TOGETHER. AND LIKE IF WE WERE TO COMPARE ZUTATA TO ZUKKA YOU CAN SEE ZUKKAS BETTER

older brothers, prodigy sisters - similarities

fire/water, bender/non bender - differences

its a healthy balance smh

Whoever requested out to the world to do this, here ya are.

Aftermath of trashing chad’s house on Ember Island 👍

(Released after they found out who these hooligans are)

That whole thing about fictional couples being alive in other universes has to be real because I’ve seen it TWICE now.

Two years ago I worked with an extremely smart girl who had blonde hair and a weird relationship with her dad. Her long term boyfriend who she’s been dating since they were like 14 has jet black hair with a grey streak in the front (and only in the front) and bright green eyes.

Now I’m working at a summer camp and one of the campers has a father who looks exactly like every piece of fan-art of James Potter (glasses and British accent included) and a mom with bright red (natural) hair.

MAKE IT MAKE SENSE