This is a little bit of an ATLA rant post, so bear with me here. Itâs probably going to be all over the place because Iâm sick, and Iâm pretty worked up about this lmao:
I love Azulaâs character, but why do all of her apologists feel the need to diminish Zukoâs character to build her up? You canât play her off as an always-innocent victim who was never a perpetrator because she wasnât, and neither was Zuko. They were victims of their father and the war, yes. However, they also participated in conquest, destruction, etc, in which they were OBJECTIVELY the perpetrators. Itâs not even up for debate.
Zuko got his redemption arc because he worked for it. The show made him suffer due to the consequences of his actions and the actions of his father, who he would later realize was evil all along. Azula didnât get ANY of that. She didnât suffer (or at least wasnât shown to be suffering) until it was too late in the show. It wouldâve been poor writing to give her further development, and itâs very poor comprehension to see her as a good person. Sure, she was 14, but that doesnât absolve her of her bad decisions. Zuko was 16. Theyâre both children. War makes kids grow up too fast. Thatâs sort of the point of the entire show.
âAzula had it worse than Zuko!â I donât like comparing trauma. I find it unproductive since experiences may be concrete but oneâs internalization and processing of such experiences are not straightforward in the slightest. If it hurt, itâs valid. That much is true, yes, but there are also patterns in abusive dynamics that are worth noting.
Ozai pitted Zuko and Azula against each other using the classic scapegoat vs. golden child tactic. In this case, Zuko was the scapegoat and Azula was the golden child. He was shamed for anything he did and she was praised for her skills. All of this was Ozai projecting, as this behavior so often is. Zuko was subjected to the most violent punishment such as his physical abuse (the Agni Kai), psychological abuse (this was in the comics, but Ozai would slam his fist on the table and he also told Zuko he was going to kill him when he was born, the entire purpose of this being to frighten and scold him), emotional abuse (constant shaming/propaganda/manipulation), physical neglect (his banishment), and emotional neglect (ignoring his questions about his mother/not meeting his emotional needs). Those are all I can think of right now, but out of all the ones I mentioned, the only oneâs applicable to Azula are the emotional abuse and the emotional neglect. Both of which are TERRIBLE, of course. Iâm not trying to argue that her childhood wasnât bad, but this is common in the scapegoat-golden child dynamic. The scapegoat is conditioned to constantly feel fear and self-hatred while the golden child is conditioned to be egotistical and domineering like the outward expression the abuser has for themselves. This is why, in early Book 3, Zuko is seen being much more cautious and worried at home while Azula seems to have no fear at all. Heâs used to being punished and Azula isnât. Both are unhealthy. Punishment should never be violent or induce fear, and children need to be taught morals in order to form relationships later in life.
This is also partially why Zuko got his redemption and Azula didnât. The scapegoat, being subject to the most abuse, is more likely to develop C-PTSD, an addiction, and other mental health complications later in life. However, they are also more likely to become cycle breakers because theyâve experienced the effects of abuse so much on themselves (this does not mean they canât become abusers. That occurs a lot as well). Golden children were manipulated and emotionally abused and witnessed their siblings being treated terribly, but because of how much they were in their abuserâs grasp, it doesnât typically come as quickly to them to break the cycle. It has worked for their survival, and not for the scapegoatâs. Manipulation is harder to escape when it works in your favor. Zuko got away from their father sooner, not just because he saw the state of the Earth Kingdom from the war, but also because he was able to relate more to the victims than his own country.
So yes, Azula is just as much of a victim of Ozaiâs as Zuko. Yes, she was emotionally abused and neglected and forced to grow up way too fast. Yes, her father never really loved her and turned her into a war machine and all of this is tragic. It is. Abuse is never justifiable and it never does any good. Azula is an example of this. Sheâs supposed to be a tragic character because everything she believed in her whole life was a lie, but because she did so much wrong, no one was willing to stick around for her. After all, why would they? Her being a war machine makes her an incredibly difficult person to be close with since she always USES people.
Stop comparing her to Zuko. Sheâs not Zuko. Theyâre both different sides of the same broken family caused by generations of parents who cared more about power than love. Donât talk about how much worse she had it than Zuko, and definitely donât blame Zuko, Iroh, or Ursa for her pain. Ozai is her abuser. Stop looking for fingers to point.
Of course, AUs and playing around with ideas is creative and fun, but when people try to push this different idea of her character into the canon where sheâs compassionate and not ruthless, where her and Zukoâs lives were the same so since he got a redemption arc, so should she, itâs just wrong. This rant isnât about fanfiction or alternate storylines, itâs about people horrendously mischaracterizing the fire siblings and pretending itâs actually what happened
I hope this post made sense, and thanks for reading this long rant LMAO.
