#a:tlab

dating a moon maiden

Northern Water Tribe

click for better quality on mobile

I'm completely in love with the NWT artwork from The Art of the Animated Series (original image here) so I thought I’d put some life into it!

so, after watching atla, it kinda hit me that I relate to azula more than I thought and it bothered me bc although I enjoyed her character, I also pitied her. turns out, I’m very much like her lmao. so, here it goes:

(1) I recently got into an argument with my parents and older sibling bc I was feeling jealous and pressured abt something (won’t go into details abt that). a little shouting later (yikes), my dad said he never realized I felt that way bc I was always the sibling who seemed so “put together.” I got higher grades, got awards in two sports for years, and didn’t have “problems” in those stuff like my older sibling, etc., so he and my mom didn’t support me too closely bc I seemed strong and independent enough to do them on my own (I’m not trying to brag lmao this is just what he told me agshags). so I guess that’s the first reason that makes me similar to azula — I was good at things that my sibling wasn’t.

(2) another reason was that I realized my parents favor my older sibling. during one part of the fight, they pointed out that she was always the nicer and kinder one and that I was selfish for a lot of things, one of them being that I pursued my interests for years (i.e. the two sports I mentioned) while she didn’t do that. it really bothered me bc my sibling was the one who never asked to do any sports or music classes or whatever in the first place, and I was only able to pursue what I liked bc I begged my parents to let me do it for years when I was a kid to the point that I was a late starter in those sports. but, apparently, they saw me doing something I was passionate about for most of my life as selfish and that it was an inconvenience to them. I suppose one difference with azula and zuko to my situation is that azula said only ursa favored zuko despite him not being a “prodigy”; on the other hand, azula felt that her mother saw her as monster — in my case, I think it’s both parents who feel that way about me.

(3) that fight kinda felt like a breaking point for me. I was crying and shouting and trying not to go crazy, and it’s scary how it was so similar to when azula cracked during her agni kai with zuko. so, here I am, on day 2 of not talking to my family, typing this whole rant on tumblr lmao.

(summary): even though I achieved more in school and extra-curricular activities (disclaimer: not an honor student or genius or anything but y’all get the picture lol), it turns out that I’m still not good enough for my parents. I realized that I may come off as meaner and more hardheaded compared to my nicer sibling, but I didn’t know that it was to the point that my parents favored them so much more than me. maybe I have anger issues idk lol, but either way, all my achievements mean nothing because they prefer my older sibling over me any day.

TL;DR — I relate to azula bc despite all my academic and sports-related achievements, my parents (not just my mother aka like ursa to zuko haha) prefer my older sibling way more than me (bonus: I also had a mini breakdown during my fight like azula did in her agni kai with zuko yikes)