The Tributary

Design for Autumn Landscape window by Louis Comfort Tiffany, American Decorative Arts

Gift of Robert W. de Forest, 1925, transferred from Archives, 1958 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Medium: Watercolor, ink, and gouache on paper

for katara, being a grown up means being like her mother (or at least like her idea of her mother). it means taking the responsibility for domestic tasks, making sure her family is safe and healthy and cared for, and ensuring that what needs to get done gets done. this is a role katara has been trying to fill since she was eight, and she clearly has complicated feelings about it: she understands that she is a child who doesn’t deserve to have this burden on her shoulders, but she doesn’t know what else to do with it. growing up is something that has been forced on katara—if she doesn’t take care of everyone, who will? she has a fair bit of resentment because of this, and she relishes every chance she gets to buck her role and be the child she is.

for sokka, being a grown up means being like his father (or at least like his idea of his father). it means being a warrior who can protect his home and his people, being strong enough to make decisions that will keep them safe even at his own expense, and knowing what needs to get done. this is a role sokka was trying to fill even before his father left, but he throws himself further into it afterwards. sokka doesn’t see himself as a child who deserves better; he sees himself as a man who should be doing better, doing more. growing up is something sokka forces himself into—if there isn’t anyone else to protect everyone, he has to. he has no small amount of guilt because of this, and he shuts himself off from everything he considers childish to focus on what he thinks of as his duty.

Water Mill, Thiers, 1830, Theodore Rousseau

What strikes me about this scene, though, is how it does parallel the way Ozai treats Zuko.

Azula: [Pants.] Sorry I’m late, father. Good palanquin bearers are so hard to come by these days. So, is everything ready for our departure?

Ozai: [Facing the ship.] There has been a change of plans, Azula.

Azula: [Worried.] What?

Ozai: I’ve decided to lead the fleet of airships to Ba Sing Se alone. You will remain here in the Fire Nation.

Azula: But I thought we were going to do this together.

Ozai: My decision is final.

Azula: You … you can’t treat me like this! [Rising.] You can’t treat me like Zuko!

Ozai: Azula, silence yourself.

Azula: But it was my idea to burn everything to the ground! I deserve to be by your side!

Ozai: Azula! [She bows her head.] Listen to me. I need you here to watch over the homeland. It’s a very important job that I can only entrust to you.

I find it very interesting that Azula is late to meet Ozai, since not being perfectly punctual seems so very un-Azula-like. Her armor has already begun to slip here, due to the defection of first Zuko, then Mai and Ty Lee, all three people that she thought she had control over. And then of course she blames it on the palanquin bearers, because she herself has to be above blame. When she can’t exert her control over the people closest to her any more, she exerts control over her servants. And she of course cannot admit lack of control over herself. She wasn’t late. The palanquin bearers were.

But I also feel like it’s more than that. Ozai was prepared to leave without her and doesn’t even inform her until the last minute, when she shows up running to assume her place by his side, that there’s been a change of plans. This is similar to the kind of gaslighting that Ozai does with Zuko, and mirrors how Zuko was simultaneously not told about the war meeting once he was back home and yet expected to be there and chastised for being the last one there, something which I think that Ozai did purposefully. 

In the scene above, Azula is immediately put in a position where Ozai has the upper hand. It also mirrors how Zuko was so kept out of the loop even before his disgrace that he had to ask Iroh to let him in the war meeting. It’s hard to say whether this was due to Zuko being too young at thirteen, but since he brings up his duty as prince to Iroh, and since Azula seems to have been very familiar with war meetings at fourteen, I think this is due to Ozai purposefully shutting Zuko out. In contrast, this is the first time we see him do this to Azula. He’s not even looking at her as he tells her the plans have changed.

When she says that Ozai can’t treat her like Zuko, she stands up, furious. This is in contrast to Zuko falling to his hands and knees to beg for mercy once he perceives Ozai’s displeasure. Ozai tells Azula to silence herself where he once let her speak freely, and she brings up how it was her idea to burn Ba Sing Se. An idea that she brought up in the war meeting when she wasn’t even asked to speak and is interrupting. Zuko was burned for speaking up when he wasn’t supposed to and Azula was praised for talking out of turn and interrupting her brother. It’s no wonder she would be confused now, when she’s exhibiting the same behavior her father praised her for a few days before. Furthermore, it highlights what being “treated like Zuko” means for her. These are rules that are supposed to apply to Zuko, but not her.

And then he gives her an empty title and a task that’s basically meant to get her out of the way while he takes all the glory. Sound familiar?