{Lucid Zuchini}

The Gaang's hands (with Team Azula and Yue) + headcanons

Aang supported, respected, and comforted Katara throughout the series.

The first one to ever trust or help Zuko was Aang.

Everyone in the Gaang did chores, not just Katara.

Katara comforted many characters, not just Aang.

Appa should have been afraid of Zuko.

Sokka is not a good judge of character.

Sokka should have been the one to go with Katara to face Yon Rha.

Toph is bratty.

Toph didn't care about the war.

Haru showed a lot of hatred for the Fire Nation.

Hahn was a missed opportunity. And so was every ek kid.

Katara was the only normal one for not trusting Zuko.

There are more pros than cons in keeping Jet alive for the plot.

Jet was a great leader.

All the Freedom Fighters were fine with flooding the village.

Ty Lee can be cruel.

Mai was friends with Azula, willingly.

Suki deserved more development.

Jin should have gotten the chance to confront Zuko over Ba Sing Se.

Teo should have made plans with Sokka.

Hakoda should have praised Katara for her bending.

Hakoda should have been able to fight in the finale.

The White Lotus made a lot of characters look worse.

The only actions Zuko regretted were the ones against Iroh.

Zuko was fully prepared to capture Appa and use him as bait by any means necessary (ie firebending).

Iroh is a hypocrite.

Azula was abused.

Azula lost many times.

Bloodbending isn't evil.

I think Iroh was likely very similar in terms of his ambition and dedication to serving his father in his Dragon of the West days, and it probably disturbs him to see those traits in Azula. It’s a reflection of his former self that he’s trying to run away from.

Meanwhile I honestly don’t think Iroh and Zuko have a lot in common personality wise. I think Iroh is attached to Zuko because he’s afraid of failing him like he believes he failed Lu Ten. After Lu Ten’s death, Iroh’s ambition shifts to fixing his past mistakes and one aspect is saving Zuko like he couldn’t save his own son.

Thank you! Yeah, it was kind of bittersweet. I think it's also the most complete version of a redemption for Azula that I could think of working for her. The thing about her staying in court with any sort of power is that, to me, it feels kind of like letting a drunk run a bar. The reason I see Azula needing to either be in prison or in exile is because within certain circles, Azula would have a lot of people wanting to put her on the throne in Zuko's place. I think it would take a long time for her to not want to be on the throne in Zuko's place, and well, there goes the whole redemption narrative for her.

I wanted to go a bit more in-depth with this piece that I did for zukka week 2023 because i got inspired to do more insane clothing details. ID in ALT.

Ramble about the influences/inspirations below:

Kintsugi (金継ぎ, “golden joinery”), also known as kintsukuroi (金繕い, “golden repair”), is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise.

ID under the cut

I’ve seen better dynamics between Zuko and Azula in FANFICTION than in the actual show or comics.

It’s like, you can give them moments of actually being siblings and STILL give them a complicated relationship and have Zuko feel inferior to Azula.

They grew up together, they had the same parents, they were both neglected by one of their parents, in Azula’s case BOTH of her parents.

And personally I feel like Ursa was kind of failing as a mother for Zuko as well but I won’t get TOO into that. She loved him, yes, but that doesn’t mean she truly did any good for him other than preventing him from being killed to be honest. If she genuinely cared for her kids she would have made sure they’d stick together and be there for each other. She would’ve taught him how to actually survive in the fire nation palace.

Ursa could have done so much for Azula as well. Ozai wasn’t present in their lives. In Zuko’s flashbacks, and even in the comic, we see that he is practically nowhere to be found half the time. Who was stopping her from watching Azula train? From complimenting her and giving her praise? From sitting with her by the turtleduck pond? She could have done literally anything with Azula and she chose not to.

Yes, Ursa was a victim but that doesn’t excuse the fact she failed as a mother.

And do you know what? The grooming process does not stop with the child victim. It usually involves other adults in the child's life as well, as the abuser both gains the trust of their victim's trusted adults while also working to further that rift and isolate the victim.

Ursa is actually a really good example of this, because she was also being groomed by Ozai to the point where she was forced into a situation where the only way she could help her children would put her out of their lives forever, and by that time Ozai had already created enough of a rift between Ursa and Azula that Ursa's attempts to teach Azula kindness just increased that rift.

To look at this situation and say that Ursa, or Iroh, or Zuko, or anyone other than Ozai is at fault is to buy into Ozai's manipupativeness.

Because at the heart of it, Ursa's banishment was a way for Ozai to get the throne without having to dirty his hands, and then he gets a convenient scapegoat in Ursa, someone who can take the fall for Azulon's death, ensuring that the real story never gets out.

And like, Zuko at thirteen stood up against the regime, but he also stood up in a way that is very public, in a war meeting he was not supposed to be in.

What if the plan of what was supposed to happen to the 41st division was never supposed to leave that war room? I know the show is sort of simplistic in its political morality, but it isn't a stretch to say that Ozai probably would not want it to be known that he and his top generals were willing to use underhanded tactics and sacrifice their own men. It kinda puts a damper on the whole "glorious fire nation" propaganda angle.

But then Zuko is there, and he speaks up about it.

Anyways,