thinking about azula like she's such a good character. not good in the sense of protagonist levels or redeemability, but just a really solid character. you think about her mental illness and her trauma and it clashes with her character so hard in the finale like no one expects that shit.
like u think ab all the trauma she went thru and used fear to make people scare her like she didn't even try to let people in her head at all her whole childhood. like she wanted to be the star child so bad that she followed direct order of her father who she idolized so desperately because in her head, her mother thought she was a monster so her she went directly to her father.
the little. manipulations or permissions she used her whole life that she LEARNED from her dad and family compared to zuko who got out once he started to understand why what his nation was trying to achieve was bad... she knew exactly what to do like from the get go man she used her dad's dislike for his own son, her brother, because in her mind zuko was keeping their mother to himself.
people don't think about it but what ursa did to protect zuko and her family truly enabled her daughter AND her husband to relentlessly torture and mistreat zuko his whole childhood. azula grew to hate and resent her brother and part of me likes to think that she felt betrayed by zuko, in the sense of that she lost her mother, her brother, AND her father.
she put all of her plans together only to have them fall apart, because she finally pushed everyone out of her life to the point of a complete and life threatening mental break. her actions aren't forgiven, zuko is implied to never heal his broken relationship with her, it's this real ass problem that happens to plenty of people who are mistreated by their own family members.
it's gut wrenching and you almost feel bad for her when she starts hallucinating her mother, her brain telling her over and over that the whole time her mother loved her so dearly and she knew it and wouldn't accept it. she doesn't want to accept the life she's put in front of her and it's reasonable considering she's. still a child by the time the finale rolls around.
she's honestly such an interesting and fresh type of character that's been a very interesting thing to learn about since i was a child and i hope others feel the same way and appreciate the writing between her and zuko. it's great.
