Tallmity Truther

Go buy yourself a US 10c coin from 1935, which will apparently set you back around $8.50; set your time machine for New York, April 18th 1938; walk up to a newsstand and buy a copy of Action Comics #1 with your dime.

Come back to the present, send the comic off to be professionally graded, tell everyone you found it in a yard sale, sell it at auction, and congratulations: your $8.50 is now $3.25 million.

Repeat with Detective Comics #27, Amazing Fantasy #15, etc.

Hell, if you don't wanna draw attention to yourself, just pick less expensive comics! Need $600 quick? Go to February 1991, pick up New Mutants #98 for a dollar, and a Deadpool fan will take that off your hands really quick.

All the things daylight reveals

Like, she probably starts doing the mental math and soon she’s torching her desk because, like, the Fire Nation had been on a fast track to wide spread food shortages or something.

And that would have been before Ozai’s comet fueled slash and burn tactics he’d basically prompted her to voice for him. Y'all remember the Painted Lady episode right? Think of that village as just one of hundreds outside the capital or the rich people vacation hot spot of Ember Island. (he who burns the fall crops in the land he is trying to take over when the home country’s productivity is being slowly smothered by the environmental impact of war has no right to be so proud of himself).

And Azula further loses it at the number of incompetent bootlickers her father had running the non-war related offices. She sends for a document or some other information and none of the old men running around bowing can answer her questions. She tells them she wouldn’t trust them to keep tabs on a single toddler (Mai’s parent’s level of competence comes to mind) in a private palace courtyard let alone the day to day running of her country and fires most of them on the spot…. (With only minimal blue flames involved, won’t Zuzu be so proud of her). Soon half the domestic affairs offices are being run by much younger people. People who almost meet her unrealistic expectations. Not surprisingly many are female. Only slightly surprisingly (given her use of the Di Li) many are colony kids of mixed heritage.

“there were two of them. the girl was harsh and proud where the boy was gentle. but there was something deeply lonely about them both.”

If one were to find how firebending got corrupted in the Fire Nation, how it was turned from one's identity into just another weapon, I'd start with Azula.

One of the core aspects of Azula's character is her firebending, and not just because it's blue and unique to her. To be more accurate, it's one of the few things that she's really passionate about that isn't initially related to Ozai and the Fire Nation as a whole. And we can see this whenever she trains. Like how in the demonstration for Fire Lord Azulon she's really into it. How she closes her eyes and lets the movements guide her and whatnot.

We see this again when she practices lightning bending, something that Iroh claims you need a mind at peace in order to accomplish. Which is what we see: she's calm, she's focused, she's into it. She wouldn't be able to generate lightning if she were angry, enraged, or drawing from pure emotion like most other firebenders.

Azula doesn't just see her firebending as a weapon. For all her problems, it feels like firebending at least gives her a peace of mind. And it's probably one of the few things she more than likely enjoys just for the sake of it as well as using it offensively.

It's also where the problems start.

The Fire Nation during the war was HIGHLY militaristic. Essentially, everyone was expected to give their all for the war effort and their whole society was structured around violence and competition. Those who dominated were fit to lead, while those who weren't were sent to the meatgrinder. A lesson Azula more than likely learned when it was burned onto Zuko's face.

Suddenly, that passion for firebending wasn't just for the sake of firebending. In conditions like that, it could be the right tool to keep yourself on top. It's not like seeing firebending as nothing but a weapon was a concept alien to Azula: her father was Ozai after all, and he saw almost everything as a piece or tool. In fact, he was the one who called her a prodigy. So if that's the case, I think it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for Ozai to encourage Azula's competitiveness and turn her love for firebending into an obsession to win at all costs. How nothing less than victory was acceptable in his eyes.

And Azula DOES have an obsession with winning. She treated a game of volleyball like it was a military operation. That doesn't just come from nowhere, it would've been a perfect conditioning if you want a loyal and deadly servant.

The ultimate tragedy is that Azula's love for firebending was twisted into a need to win. Since in the Fire Nation, winning was the difference between getting on the Fire Lord's good side, or being thrown to the wolves.

lu ten died attempting to conquer the earth kingdom. lu ten was there because his father, iroh, was leading the siege. ursa laughed when iroh joked about burning ba sing se to the ground. zuko laughed too, mirroring his dear mother who taught him about the wonders of imperialism. and the fact that some people think that azulon was a good guy because he favored iroh is crazy. he favored iroh because iroh was the better imperialist, was more charming and tactically savvy as he bent the world to his will. people who think that azulon didn't like ozai because ozai was cruel literally have it backwards. ozai was cruel because azulon didn't like him. sozin shaped azulon, and azulon shaped iroh and ozai. azulon reigned for most of the war, and he was responsible for decimating the southern water tribe and colonizing the earth kingdom.

iroh only realizes the error of his ways well into middle age, after spending a majority of his life colonizing the world. he only stops to reconsider once he experiences the adverse effects of war for himself through the loss of his son. likewise, zuko can only gain empathy for the victims of the war by being one himself, as a refugee in the earth kingdom, and bonding with people who have been hurt by the fire nation. azula doesn't get that chance. ozai doesn't get that chance. azulon, lu ten, and ursa are dead, so they will never get that chance. but it's not like there is some ontological moral divide separating azula from zuko. zuko was a sensitive child whereas azula was better at embodying fire nation values of power and cunning. zuko was punished for his outbursts whereas azula knew how to keep her mouth shut. therefore, zuko experienced circumstances that led him to disavow fire nation imperialism.