#smokeandshadow

This particular comic  features one of the biggest holes in the sequel to the series. Starting with the fact that the secret Ozai society only wants to remove Zuko from the throne because they think he is traitorous and incompetent; in few words, they want to put Ozai back, and this society is neither well organized nor has its clear objectives, since Ukano from the start of the comic he is been manipulated by Azula. It is seen that he does it for fear of the Kemurikage and not on his own account,  he's a character who doesn't know which side he's on. 

There is not a single dialogue other than removing Zuko and putting Ozai back. That's it?  There is no strategy, nothing is neither politically or economic explained. What benefit would the society have with Ozai? Having their old jobs? Their old pay? Get out from jail? Be named nobility? Go back to the 100 year war? We have already seen what Ozai's reign is like. Apart from going back to the same thing, what else? I'm sure the first thing Ozai would do upon returning to the throne would be to kill Zuko and the avatar. Oh, and Ursa and her family too. And what would happen to his allies? nobody, never thinks about what the new Ozai regime would be like.

Clearly this is all an assumption because there is not even initial communication with Ozai. The great plan is to make riots and kidnap the children. So the people will go against the government and the leader will withdraw. In every country in the world, since the beginning of history there have always been riots and kidnappings and the leader does not withdraw. Ah, but a very different thing is to have a political, economic and military strategy to carry out a coup d'état. 

Now we move to the development of the comic. I’m a little confused, in smoke and shadow p3; Zuko redirects Azula’s lighting, but then immediately gets hit by a freaking lighting at his chest and abdomen. (When I first read it I swear I began to tear my hair because Zuko was doomed) [+pic on that] But…ummm, he just gets knocked to a wall? Uh, writing team, are you sure how lighting works? Then Azula and her team escapes… uh, are we sure we are talking about the same characters? They escaped the freaking avatar, the freaking Fire Lord and the freaking Kyoshi warrior leaders?[+pic on that] Is it the same show were two non-benders and a metal bender took down the entire fire nation air fleet in Sozin’s comet?

And Azula ... oh I didn’t want to talk about this, but Azula as a villain was a total failure, from the beginning, as we had seen in the comic "The search" she doesn’t have any essential development, she’s only there to be the schizophrenic aggressive teenager that you have to take care of. Azula went from being the mastermind that was able to emotionally manipulate her brother and friends to do whatever she wanted, the one that started the drill project to penetrate Ba Sing Se's outer wall, the one that defeated the Kioshi warriors, the one who in disguise gave a damn coup d'état in Ba Sing Se and defeated… to the madwoman who kidnapped children so she could to rule through Zuko's mind. More than being a respectable villain with potential, he became a nuisance and a headache for everyone, before, when I saw Azula, it was like "OMG", now what is she gonna do? Now she is like “ here we come again- while I rub my temples”.

There is a part in the comic where Azula tells Zuko that in 24 hours he has been ruthless like her, that within him, he will always be one of her own and that sooner or later he will be like her and that is why, in a certain sense, she will be Fire Lord. Well in the last hours the only thing we have seen is how Zuko continues to eat from the palm of Mai's hand, and how he throws tantrums with his friend Aang because he doesn't want to do what he says. The only thing he does is fire an officer who disobeyed.

Ok I got lost, first Azula tells that she has accepted she will never become Fire Lord, but after Zuko becomes a psychopath like her, she’ll rule through him. So yes or no? And then she disappears (again). So the children were only stolen because of a complete illogical idea by Azula? all this for something that has no foundation? First, they didn’t turn the country against Zuko, but rather a few citizens of capital city, they didn’t release Ozai, they didn’t communicate with him, nor did they assassinate anyone from his council or his men, and in the end the children will return to their parents and the idea that thanks to the Fire Lord and the avatar, things were solved.

Instead of a plan against him, it seems a plan in favor of him, so that citizens believe that only thanks to them, they are safe. Hell, if my son was kidnapped and the Fire Lord and the Avatar returned him to me I would be their faithful servant until I die.

The worst of the case is that they left a huge hole where Azula could have developed as a character. The last time we saw her was when she told Zuko that he was useless, and she disappeared into the forest (The search). And we see her again when she appears to Ukano for the first time and demands that he start doing something because otherwise the kidnappings will start. Ok here we had a great loss. Azula left without clothes, without food without ANYTHING in the forest, how did she get to the capital city? Magically a map was found? I may not get out from my house frequently, but I'm sure that when you get lost for weeks, you look more like a tramp than yourself. How did she survive? Hunting forest animals with fire bending? How did she found clothes? How did she got to the mental hospital? I didn’t know she had friends in the institution. How did she convince them to join her? Where did they get the sedative from? From the hospital? How did they escape? Why did Zuko never found out that there was a massive flight of patients from the mental hospital? How Azula found out that Ukano was the leader of the society? If it is called a secret society for something? What is Azula’s objective/ benefit for manipulating Ukano? Ukano wants to reinstate Ozai on the throne, while Azula tells him that Ozai has never been part of the plan, but then she already knows that he will never be Fire Lord. ¿?

If I want to understand, if neither she nor Ozai are going to be Fire Lord and if they are not going to give a decent coup d’état, what is the real objective of this? That time when Azula was alone was a great opportunity to either:

a)    Show her as a vicious, ruthless and cruel villain. Show that she had gotten worse and now she evolved to carry out by herself a coup d’état, to see her ruthlessly murder someone. A villain that really scares you, with true psychotic and macabre plans, not the one that makes you roll your eyes every time she makes an appearance.

b)    Give her, her much-deserved redemption arc.

But she doesn't do any of this. All she does is hit people ,be rude,  throw lightning bolts, and manipulate Ukano.

Does she murder someone? No. Does she or the secret society have a political, economic or military strategy? No. Does she make more allies apart from her crazy friends? No. Does she have a real interaction with her allies? No. Does she or the secret society enter the government? No. And out of nowhere she says that she already understood that her destiny had never been to be Fire Lord and miraculously she stops having visions of her mother, that she feels free, more powerful and without that burden.  Hey, all the more reason was it for you to become a better villain or to start your redemption process. Not for you to make this ridiculous plan so that you can rule through Zuko's mind.

All this is a pity, and our wonderful Azula falls into a filler villain who only acts as such to give the supposed meaning of the comic. And since her goal was only to have someone bad to get more comics, Azula disappears again into the haze to never make a mention in LOK again. So I'll assume she went into the same thing as Suki’s and Kei Lo, once they didn't need her she was thrown out.

And I am not mentioning how Zuko and Aang's relationship has severe misunderstandings, they don’t seem best friends and I’ll not mention how Zuko is clinging to a woman who clearly disrespects him and is no longer interested in him, but… Maiko is another analysis.

Sooner or later Ukano breaks down and is going to free the children. But Kiyi discovers that she is a fire bender, and she makes a hole in the wall releasing everyone. (One of the saviours is a 6yo). Oh, I almost forget that all of this happens in a couple of days because in North and South part 2, Kanna says it has just been a couple of days and Aang goes back to the tribe (Don’t worry it was just Azula).

Irial merely smiled, unrepentant. There was no denying, no lying, between them, but he didnt feel the need to divulge his reasons, besides he didn’t truly believed it would matter to the young Summer Queen. However, he was slightly amused by the flash of power from her, causing him to chuckle.

"Now, now, love. I’m not here to provoke you - not yet at least."

smokeandshadow

smokeandshadow

It was a Friday night, a hot Summer night that invited you to celebrate. Leslie was at a garden party from which she didn't know who the host was. But that didn't matter. The whole school was invited. Free alcohol was traded between minors. Most of the kids were drunk just as Leslie, but that wasn't anything new to her. She drowned her sorrows in parties, consuming liquor to numb the pain and just forget all her worries for a short while.

She was dancing between a filled crowd while laughing about nothing in particular. She was enjoying herself very much. As she noticed that the bottle in the hand she was holding got empty, she stopped abruptly in her tracks and moved to fill it up, telling her friends she would come soon.