Valley of the Dragons

No, you didn't.

No, you didn't.

Her whole backstory and part of her entire motivation in joining Azula was that she felt like she was a piece of furniture while her parents favored Tom-Tom. And don't give me the "well she knew Azula was going to force her" crap. Azula didn't have to do damn shit. Mai didn't like Tom-Tom. How did you miss a pretty critical character trait like this?

New hair cut

“She was given a chance at redemption, but she decided to kidnap kids and use them to gaslight and manipulate Zuko into becoming a ruthless leader like her father. Pure evil.”

In what fucking world is being locked up in an ABUSIVE asylum, where you're tied up and beaten for no real reason, for at least a full year, with the people responsible for the abuse you're suffering showing up to gloat in your face and then act like you're satan for not liking them much "being given a chance"? The fucking writer of said comics literally said the point of that place was to make Azula WORSE.

He wanted her as a villain, realized it no longer made sense for her character to do anything against the Gaang, or anybody, post her breakdown, so he gave her a new motive to hate them - he just didn't realize it was one that made TOO MUCH SENSE. It'd be like if the showrunners had expected us to say Zuko only didn't deserve to be abused by his father because he would eventually become a good guy and not because abusing people, especially children, is wrong.

Show!Azula is both an evil person and an abusive victim, with neither aspect of the character being the responsibility of the heroes, since they were not the ones to indoctriate her, they're just the targets she was taught to hate.

Comics!Azula is a monster THEY created. They saw a fallen enemy that had already lost everything, including the will to keep fighting, and decided to make her worse than she ever was instead of helping her or even just leaving her alone.

Literally none of the bad things she does in the comics would have happened if they had given her proper treatment, then decided what to do with her based on if she willing to change after a full recovery.

There's nothing merciful, heroic, honorable or even morally neutral about what the Gaang put Azula through in the comics. They all went through horrible character assassination in which they become hypocrites that PREACH about mercy and second chances and redemption, but in PRACTICE will abuse anyone who is not already on their side because they think being beaten into submission is the same as being healed. This stupid fandom just argues otherwise due to a hellish combo of ableism and stan nonsense.

The Gaang was supposed to be better.

They were supposed to take one long look at the cruelty, and darkness, and hatred of the world, and decided that they weren’t going to fall into that pit. That they were going to do better. That the world didn’t need any more hate. That at worst, they wouldn’t waste their breath on pieces of shit because stooping to their level doesn’t help anyone.

But what they did to Azula? What they did was the complete antithesis of what they believed in. They decided to be cruel when they should've been kind. And because they were cruel once, it's damn near impossible to trust that they won't do it again. Especially when not only should they have known better, but when the narrative won't hold them accountable for it.

In short, they created Comics!Azula. And all the stuff she did and might do in the future is a direct reflection of what they did.

You know, I'm reminded of The Incredibles where Mr. Incredible inadvertently created Syndrome by being a bit harsh to Incrediboy the one time. And yeah, it was wrong. Except it was a complete accident on Bob's part, since an actual reading of the situation and his character showed that his frustration was a lapse. And he was genuinely sorry for how he acted, but Syndrome was far too gone by that point to care.

The Gaang?

Their cruelty was intentional.

All their paranoia about Azula trying something far outstripped what she was realistically capable of doing or even did up to the point where they tried to take her down. They refused to read the situation and perhaps try to de-escalate in order to prevent Azula from becoming an imminent danger, or at least postpone whatever confrontation they might have had until the situation was under control. Which, it was. The whole time. Did nobody think that they could at least check Azula or keep an eye on her to make sure she wasn't trying shit without harassing or beating her? Or, I don't know, maybe actually talking to her to set her off balance and make her second-guess what she's doing. Or maybe give her the benefit of the doubt, like they did with Zuko, and at least try to make some kind of peace with her.

But they didn't.

Let’s play the biggest game of kick the can on the internet.

*Kaguya just glares at me while I raise my fists. I manage to throw maybe one punch, remembering how Naruto and Sakura punched her out.*

*She just catches it.*

Me: ...couldn't hurt to try. Could it?

Are there any...I dunno, particular anti takes that get under your skin? I don't necessarily mean dumb takes. I mean, takes that deliberately seem to put you in a frenzy whenever you hear it?

I think mine's the "Azula was born bad" argument. Maybe this is because I'm autistic, but I can't believe that everyone was born as some sort of set of letters that can screw them up from birth. Does that mean genetics have nothing to do with anything? I mean, no, not really. But I can't believe that in the case of Azula, it's the end all be all. Cause it completely ignores her upbringing, all in favor of pinning the entire blame on herself and insinuating that no matter what, she cannot be redeemed because of "bad blood" or anything.

In which case, no. Removing Azula's bending isn't going to "fix" her, like she's some malfunctioning robot because of a bug. Again, Ozai was a unique case. The guy was a genuine monster who abused his bending to basically subjugate everyone around him. It was more of a tool that he used rather than something he valued. Azula, on the other hand, is depicted as being a prodigy with bending and is shown obtaining high levels of firebending (blue fire, lightning, that sort of thing). She was naturally gifted and probably had the potential to be one of the greatest firebenders in the world. Ozai's bending, by contrast, was basically the apex of the bastardized version of firebending that the Fire Nation had abused for generations.

Not to mention there's not even any good reason to remove Azula's bending since they were able to defeat her in the end. People, she already lost. The Gaang know how to deal with her before she becomes a problem. Why do they need to remove her bending?

*Catra hisses and scratches Uvenk's face deep enough to leave a mark. And headbutts him for good measure.*

Uvenk: You...you DARE?

Shaman: BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! I like her! She understands!

Catra (in utter awe): ...Adora? Could we move here-oooowwww...

Granted, this could be because the particular branch of my community is a bit more laid back and willing to concede a few points here and there. And I will concede, perhaps I just got lucky. But I'm willing to bet that the number of fans that actually say these sorts of things is significantly less than how people describe it.

At most, what I've heard and seen tells me that the more zealous fans simply whitewash her actions a bit too much. That's fine. This is a fictional character we're talking about here. Sure, they go a bit too far sometimes, but sometimes a bad opinion is a bad opinion. We all make those. Shouldn't mean we should chase them out of the community for it.

That's certainly not enough to label every last fan of hers as some kind of die-hard. And it's certainly not enough to bring up freakin' biology or eugenics or Hitler youth comparisons or political agenda just to win a goddamn internet argument. Yeah, I know. I've even tried reasoning with a few of them, maybe figuring they're making too much of a big deal out of nothing. That's what they brought up. Deliberately triggering topics so they can get us to shut up.