Seeehmen

In case it wasn’t clear to y’all already - I noticed this tidbit today pointed out from my friend.

The Avatar cookbook, the latest official literature from Avatar studios, gave us really important hints about Mai’s reconciliation with Azula and a Maiko endgame. It’s weird to think that a cookbook has this much weight, but the fact that the Avatar wiki took notice of it means it’s pretty significant.

Azula’s lightning recipe shows that Mai and Azula reconciled after the Hundred Year War and after Smoke and Shadow (considering that Azula was in prison during the in between period + all the other events that transpired in the trilogy.)

Amazing! And now let’s look at the Ember island cherry ice cream recipe:

“Zuko knows this is my favorite flavor of the offerings at the Ember Island shop.”

I think it’s clear that this suggests Mai and Zuko get back together in the future after the context and interpretation of the first recipe. A cute headcanon on my end: Does Zuko give Mai all the cherry ice cream in the world during her pregnancy cravings? Also how did Mai ever find out about Azula’s Cherry pit incident lol!

The Official Avatar Wiki also states that Ukano is reinstated in the Capitol after his time in prison.

I know Bryke sometimes go back on their word and not everything is perfectly aligned in the Avatar Universe - but even the mention of Azula’s reconciliation with Mai and Mai’s reconciliation with Zuko makes this reality all the more tangible:

Lokgifsandmusings: I received a remarkable and moving essay after responding to this ask regarding my intent on my series of Azula metas. In my view, it is the best framing of the disputes around Azula and how I’m choosing to close this set of analyses. I urge anyone who is a fan of ATLA to read it in its entirety. It is a note that assumes I am the reader, but I don’t think its meaning will be lost on anyone:   

I want to preface this by saying that I find your meta fascinating, that I am aware you have no desire to excuse or decomplexify Azula, and with reassurance that I, also, think she is a painfully complicated character. Unfortunately, I do suspect much of the pushback against your critique comes from a place of dismissal and a desire to comfortably write Azula off as “born evil”.  

Having said that, I think it would be a mistake to view all disagreements on this as stemming from that reaction, or from ignorance (either on the part of the viewer, or Bryke) of intersectional issues, or with the “born evil” point of view.

queertoons talks about lenses and that’s absolutely accurate. As an alternative lens, I offer the fact that my partner finds it incredibly emotionally difficult to watch ATLA because he was physically abused by his father as a child and he now suffers complex PTSD as a result. The Ozai-Azula-Zuko dynamic is especially painful for him because it mirrors his father’s favouritism of his sister, and the way she became a secondary abuser. Almost certainly out of some kind of survival instinct and he very clearly blames his father for ruining her chance at healthy development. While she may not be consciously aware of it, she absolutely was abused too, even if she was never subject to violence.

I've also been (very passively) working on the adult Azula design

Changed her hairstyle a bit more - no honor, no topknot - as well as her face to resemble her mother's

Gave her tanner skin, girlie is no longer a royal nor an aristocrat

I just saw another Reddit comment saying Azula wasn’t friends with Mai and mostly only cared about Ty Lee. And I just gotta say…

I respectfully disagree.

The Boiling Rock proves Mai meant a lot to Azula.

First, Mai publicly commits treason and betrays the Fire Nation and Azula.

What does Azula do? Order the guards away and gives Mai a chance to explain herself. She even says “I never expected this from you” and “you of all people know the consequences”. Put a pin in that for a moment.

Giving a traitor who just publicly and flagrantly betrayed you and your nation to help an even worse traitor to your nation (Zuko, who on a personal level hurt both Mai and Azula by doing so) a chance to explain themselves is already significant. But even moreso is the fact that Azula doesn’t make a single move to harm Mai until Mai purposely and effectively hits Azula’s trauma weak point like the master marksman she is.

When Mai says “I guess you don’t know people as well as you think you do” this is already an insult. She’s putting down Azula’s intelligence and manipulation skills, things Azula clearly takes pride in. And yet despite how insulting that is, Azula still waits for Mai to explain herself. Even as Mai throws that barb at her, Azula wants to hear her out. Until Mai throws the even worse insult right at Azula’s weak point.

“I love Zuko more than I fear you” isn’t a statement of Mai being afraid really. It’s Mai throwing a powerful dig at Azula’s biggest fear and trauma, the one Azula tried to dismiss during The Beach with a joke to avoid showing her own vulnerability: Azula fears that Ursa hated and feared her but loved Zuko. It’s why during the mirror scene, a grief stricken and emotionally volatile Azula bitterly says to the hallucination of Ursa “even you fear me”.

Only then does Azula get triggered enough to lash out in return. Mai was only capable of hurting her so much precisely because Azula loves and trusts Mai so much, and precisely because Mai knew what to say to hurt her.

Even so, Azula does the forms for fire, not lightning. And after she is chi-blocked, Azula orders both Ty Lee and Mai jailed, not executed or banished despite having every right to do so since they just publicly committed treason against the Fire Nation.

See the quick strike? It’s more like when she attacks Iroh in The Chase with blue fire:

Lightning, by comparison, always has a wind up for her. Even when comet-boosted or otherwise.

Remember Azula’s line we put a pin in? Let’s go back to it now. Why does Azula say “I never expected this from you” and “you of all people”. What is the significance here?

We know Azula is a perfectionist. She can’t stand a single hair out of place. This informs her frustration with Zuko and Ty Lee, both whom she adores, but whom are constantly failing to stay in their place and play their role. Zuko messes up, gets himself banished. Ty Lee runs away and joins the circus. What does Azula do? Endeavor to use any means necessary to bring them back into the fold. It sounds crazy, but from her perspective, she’s helping them shape up.

But Mai? She’s different. Mai knows her place. She knows what’s expected of her. She says herself that she learned to be quiet and still so as not to risk her dad’s political career. She hates it and searches for any excuse to leave her stifling expectations at home, but she only does this in an acceptable way: when ordered by the princess to join her on a mission for the Fire Nation.

This is why Azula is especially shocked. Because of all people, Azula thought Mai was the only one of her friends who understood their duty to the nation and wasn’t a colossal fuck up.

Azula may be more affectionate with Ty Lee, but she definitely respected Mai more.