#ukano

Okay so honestly I just need to take this panel by panel because frankly my overall impression of the comic is that everyone got replaced Invasion of the Body Snatchers style with people that look the same as they do and have the same name, but have zero idea of the backgrounds or motivations of said characters, and so they were just making shit up as they went along. Like, I write fanfic, I read fanfic. I have, in general, a pretty high regard for fanfic. And of course one of the more common Dangerous Ladies childhood type fics is how did they meet, why are these three very different individuals friends, etc etc.

And this was not even approaching the worst, crappiest, least coherent of that type of fiction I've read over the last nearly two decades.

Ashes of the Academy is a giant nothing burger comic, a fart in an elevator you're trapped with until you can make your escape.

So, without further ado, let's begin:

So right here on the second page of the comic, and the first page with dialogue, we have Ursa letting us know that, apparently, contrary to what we know, the Academy made Azula a bad person. Not her parents, definitely definitely not Ursa. You got that? It was all the Academy's fault. And we will continue beating that ostrich horse the entire rest of the comic, make no mistake!

Ah yes, Ursa, noted Not Ever An Imperialist At All, Not Even Once, Nuh-Uh.

Skipping several pages that would be me saying these two things multiple times...

Credit where credit is due, I like these two panels. I like this tiny glimpse into the friendship of Kiyi and Lihua or whatever here. One, because I imagine this is more like how Azula probably actually was, based on what we see in Zuko Alone. And two, that means Kiyi is unconsciously mirroring her sister and I like that interpretation of her character. It seems that Hicks does too, on a subconscious level. Look at that devious little look on her face! Little shit. Yeah, you cause a ruckus! Adorable.

I'd be lying if I said this didn't get a chuckle out of me. Is Katara on Zuko's Ministry of Education? Lol wtf. Still funny though.

More Kiyi being a little shit that I can get behind. This time in a Little Miss Know-It-All superiority complex sense that I'm sure would get real old real fast for anyone around her.

I've pointed this out on another post but Kiyi isn't a princess? Wtf? Come on, Hicks. Like it's not hard to figure this shit out. I think giving her a character trait of literally running to her big brother the Firelord anytime she feels slighted is pretty good, but of course it's never explored, because that's not a heroic trait and Kiyi has to be a hero for some reason unlike that irredeemable monster Azula who was born bad.

So nice of you to ask her first Zuko! Fuck's sake! Being Firelord has really gotten to this boy's head, like I know he has absolute power and all that shit but damn, if I was Mai, I would be wanting to get back with him less after this, not more, regardless of whether or not I liked the job in the end. Fucking consent, bro! (Previous page has him telling the headmistress she'll do it.) Unfortunately, this is actually not ooc for what we've seen of Zuko, honestly, imo. Mai, you can do so much better. Like, I ship Maiko. I love their dynamic etc etc. But girl. Respect yourself. This boy is NOT it at this point.

This is our continuing indication that they'll be rewriting the past in this comic, and we'd all better get on board. Zuko certainly thinks Azula treated him badly and has a very, "Zuko did nothing wrong!" approach to it all, but Mai was there for the vast majority of it, witnessed it with her own two eyes, so she would not react to that sentence with, "True." She just wouldn't. At least not the Mai we know. So let the assassination of Mai’s character commence!

Like, was this comic so half-assed nobody could be bothered to look up the spelling of Ukano's name? Yes. Yes it was.

Can I be made to believe Ukano said this to Mai when she was smol? Absolutely, yes. He's portrayed as a social climber and willing to utilize basically any route he can access to gain clout and influence. That's a man who is not above using his daughter in this way. I think it's somewhat implied by Mai’s dialogue in The Beach, even. Dude was a shitty father, Caldera was rife with them. Do I believe for one second Mai became friends with Azula because of this counsel? Absolutely not. The Mai we know thinks for herself 100% of the time, it's basically her thing.

I think (or at least I like to think) that a lot of what I expected Mai's character development would be in the comic in my post before the comic came out was on the right track, so I'll try not to repeat myself too much here.

For some reason this panel hit really hard lmao. In a hopeful way

I think my observation that Mai was often forced into things she didn't want, mainly by her parents chasing status, and later Azula. This is, most likely, why she pushed down her emotions, since in her adolescence, her emotions and desires did little to help her. Of course, this led to Mai struggling to express herself and using mainly passive aggressiveness to get through negative emotions.

Though I don't know how I feel about the comics seemingly completely handwaving Michi's involvement in how Mai was brought up. Michi seemed to be at least eager to bolster Ukano's political career at the cost of Mai's psychological wellbeing, mainly being the one to quash Mai's self expression and even scaring her with stories of evil spirits. Also the potential Tom Tom neglect but we won't talk abt that right now.

Mai : My mother said I had to keep out of trouble. We had my dad's political career to think about.

But this isn't too much of a retcon, I suppose, more of a... recontextualisation. Michi could just be incredibly unaware, and, once she realised her husband wasn't great, she decided to step up and try to do better as a parent. Which is commendable.

I know a lot of people were a bit upset about the notion that Azula and Mai's friendship wasn't "organic", but rather due to Mai being pressured into it by her father, as Mai and Azula seemed at least a little bit fond of each other in the show.

Though I don't think this necessarily duscredits Azula and Mai's relationship. I think it was always a complex thing, with both characters having a lot of layers to themselves and their interactions. And Mai befriending Azula at her father's behest doesn't mean she stayed Azula's friend for that reason. We see that Azula had many sycophants, but seemingly only her relationships with Ty Lee and Mai endured.

I also know some people disliked that Mai wasn't a "meanie" like Azula, but, honestly, just because she wasn't as eager and active about it as Azula. Though it is important to note that Mai is implied to have participlated in Azula's bullying (throwing le knives at your fellow middle schoolers may be a little more than bullying though), as well as being complacent in Azula's bullying of others. Which, if you haven't been bullied before, even if only one person is actively bullying you, there's a whole lot of difference between them being alone, and then having a friend standing there menacingly.

And we've already seen that Mai will often do the bare minimum for Azula, and even shunning her "duties" if she thinks she can get away with it.

I think, boiled down to its bare essentials, "Ashes of the Academy" is about characters in the Fire Nation who were previously complacent despite potential doubts taking an active role in dismantling the Fire Nation's harmful traditions and unlearning their compliance.

This is where the mild parallels between Mai and headmistress Shihan come in. They're both characters who were complacent in their environments, bolstering the power of dangerous people and systems just by keeping their heads down. It was safer, easier to comply.

Shihan grew to become one of the Fire Nation's regime's upholders, directly contributing to the indoctrination of new generations. Mai could've easily followed a similar path, if it weren't for Zuko. While I don't think, at the time of atla, she shared much of his 'redeemed worldview', he was still someone she cared for, someone she was willing to rebel for. And it was the first step of Mai unlearing what had been drilled into her from her childhood.

And although the Gene Luen Yang comics weren't the most graceful about this, we did see Mai growing to be more opinionated and genuinely believe in dismantling the system. Once she realised it was possible, and she had gotten more freedom in her life, she grew as a person. Shocker.

It's also important to note that it was, in essence, Zuko who showed her that rebellion is possible. Which is another reason to as why she may have been so hurt when he left. They both felt trapped by the Fire Nation, but alleviated each other's misery. And then, from Mai's perspective, Zuko abandoned her, going somewhere that she wasn't aware she could follow.

However, Mai has, by the time "Ashes of the academy" happened, learnt that she can, in fact, follow Zuko in rejecting the restrictions their upbringings' had placed on them. And that she can, like he did, inspire others, like Shihan and the children, to strive for a better tomorrow. It's all very sweet actually.

It also makes me happy to see that they've both grown so much and gotten healthier since we last saw them. It makes me happy to see Mai tell Zuko whrn she has an issue with something he's done instead of letting it boil over until she blows up at him. And that Zuko is learning to trust again, and to share the burdens of ruling the Fire Nation.

Ozai and Ursa: decided not to have more kids after Zuko and Azula. They easily had the time to do it and the resources to raise as many kids as they wanted, but no.

Kya and Hakoda: likely decided not to have more kids due to resource restraints.

Chief Arnook and his wife: we really don't know, it's possible she died when Yue was young and Arnook didn't remarry.

Iroh: either he really hated having kids, he had fertility problems, or there are a bunch of unacknowledged bastards running around.

Ty Lee's parents: I assume seven kids was enough for them.

Ukano and Michi: almost certainly had fertility problems. It took them so long after Mai to have Tom-Tom.

Honestly, before the comics, I would have said Ukano is more likely to be redeemed than Michi. Both parents are shown to be concerned about Tom-Tom, but Ukano doesn't hesitate to go for trading Bumi where you'd expect a Fire Nation Fanatic to balk at least a little, and Michi is the only one we see shutting Mai down, so we get a much more negative slant on her. I suppose, in retrospect, we can retcon this all to say that at least Michi pays attention to Mai while Ukano ignores her completely, but it's not a natural reading in a series where even moments of silent character interaction get at least a little musical sting to call attention to it.

That said, I also thought both Ukano and Michi would immediately back Zuko as the pathetic power-chasers they are, so Ukano deciding to be a loyalist to a guy in jail who can't even sit up properly really surprised me, never mind Michi showing up working in Auntie Mura's shop. But, again, we can perhaps say in retrospect that Michi is the only die-hard social climber and Ukano really just wants to spread Fire Nation imperialism as a true believer. That one is a bit more of a natural reading, as Michi was the only one talking about getting to lord around like royalty, but again, if we weren't meant to group Ukano in with that, I'd expect him to actually get some characterization before suddenly showing up in the comics as an anti-Zuko terrorist.

But it is what it is, and as you say, Michi suddenly being redeemed off-screen and having a good relationship with Mai is very jarring. Everything with Mai and her family is jarring, really, from her suddenly having a poster of herself hugging Tom-Tom to her father having disappeared and kidnapped Tom-Tom with no one mentioning it until he shows up to kidnap her as well to Michi suddenly being someone Mai wants in her life. Apparently the only thing we're allowed to actually see happen to her has to involve Zuko in some way. The 'Mai Family Drama' story could have been something more substantial than 'Smoke & Shadow' in terms of plot and probably theme, but I guess Mai doesn't rate a story focused on her unless it can involve Azula in some way.

And it's very easy to read all these family developments as an over-reaction to the criticisms of Mai's character in the fandom and an attempt to address that, but I have a hard time believing Gene Yang is savvy enough to know about Mai Hate and he wants to do something about it. If that were the case, why was he pushing his Zuki agenda? If he's so locked in to the Avatar fandom, why did the Mike and the Bryan had to tell him that Jet actually died? It's one of our favorite gags!

In the end, I think it's mostly about Gene Yang having a desperate need to reconnect the entire AtLA cast with their families. Zuko has to seek advice from Ozai, he gets his mother back and a brand new sister with no complications, Toph reconciles with her dad, Katara gets a new stepmom, and Ty Lee reconciles with her sisters and embraces how identical they are. Gene likely didn't bother redeeming Michi or even addressing her character because he had no interest in her beyond an opportunity to salvage some family for Mai in the wake of the plot with her father. Perhaps the Mike and the Bryan had Ukano earmarked as a villain, and Michi's off-screen redemption was Gene's contribution.

But either way, like everything established during Gene Yang's run, it's a super-weird disconnect from AtLA and we're all stuck with it now. The least they could do in compensation is show us Michi interacting with Ursa and have both of them being weirded out by each other's new characters.

"Were you always a peasant?"

"Were you always invested in your children?"

In the Avatar comics, Mai's father is plotting against Zuko to bring Ozai back to the throne while his daughter is first in line to produce the next heir to the throne. The man is a proposal away from having his name on the Royal Family Tree, and you want me to believe that he's going to be trying to restore the guy who probably wanted him executed for failing to keep King Bumi imprisoned, let alone keeping the city of New Ozai, the one with his name on it, under control?

Where's the political savvy? Where's the logic?

"Oh, but Mai broke up with--"

Then have him trying to push her back. Make THAT the story. "Daughter, are you OUT OF YOUR MIND?!?!? Your whole family is counting on this!!! Don't you love us? Didn't we raise you for this? You can sit on the throne! You'll never have to work a day in your life! You'll be the most important name in the family legacy! Why would you leave him?"

The implausible secrecy of Ukano's role

This might be a hot take, but the idea that “no one really knows that Ukano is the leader of the New Ozai Society until Mai admits his involvement”  makes no sense.

Mai was not the sole trusted ally in a position to divulge this information. It's commonly overlooked that Ty Lee knew.

How have I never seen posts questioning why Ty Lee omitted the whole "and Mai's dad/Master Ukano is the leader of the New Ozai Society"? There might be some posts that I've missed. Please link any found in the comments.

Anyways, I can understand why Mai, her mother, Auntie Mura, and heck even the Warden, if he knows, wouldn't mention this because they are family. Duh! And who knows, maybe her mum didn't want Mai telling people about her dad being an underground Ozai loyalist. So that's why Mai resorted to strictly foiling his plans since he's still a threat, only for her to be unable to bring herself to arrest her own father, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

But what does Ty Lee get out of also omitting this, that too for an entire month? Yes, she's Mai's best friend, but she's also a Kyoshi Warrior and has the means to inform Zuko.

Considering how critical Ty Lee is regarding Mai using Kei Lo. How is that in line with her staying quiet? Or relaying the whole message about the Big Plan, only to leave out the caveat of who the leader is?

Apparently, Ty Lee played along with keeping it a secret for an entire month. And that plot point is abandoned after Part One. It's almost as if to make it seem that Mai is the sole ally of Zuko, who knew.

Mai letting her father get away doesn't mean there is no way of tracing his involvement in the New Ozai Society back to him.

For one, his followers surrendered. Wouldn't it be standard to assume that, because of that, said followers are likely to cooperate during an interrogation and spill the beans on Ukano?

And it begs the questions of why Zuko apparently didn't think to ask Mai, Kei Lo or hecks the Kyoshi Warriors especially Ty Lee what they know about the New Ozai Society? And vice versa.

Kei Lo is a known former member. Mai got information from him and informed Ty Lee, which led the Kyoshi Warriors to send him a message and coordinate action with Zuko. It's clear as day.

Yet, there's no mention of any immediate or direct questioning regarding the New Ozai Society. A lot could have been avoided if such questioning had indeed occurred.

What's the deal? Is there no investigation? Did Zuko believe that the New Ozai Society wouldn't be a problem in the future? Did he just ship those followers to prison, not bothering to track down the other members? Huh?

Okay, this confuses me. If Kei Lo wants Ukano arrested, then why did he sit on this for an entire month? Seriously, this comic follows a trend of characters sitting on important things for a month!

How did they not seem to react or even hear Mai implying that her dad is involved.

Maybe she was whispering?

Okay, the best point for last!

The Name Is A Dead Giveaway!

Does it ring a bell?

The New Ozai Society is clearly named after not just Ozai, but "the City of New Ozai", the Fire Nation's name for Omashu during their subjugation.

When we first meet Ukano in the series, he's appointed Fire Nation governor of Omashu (later renamed New Ozai), and according to Avatar Extras, "the mastermind behind the invasion of Omashu."

That name alone should have warranted Ukano as a prime suspect of involvement. An Ozai loyalist organisation conveniently named after both the deposed Fire Lord and Omashu's Fire Nation name. That's not easy to write off as a coincidence; it's a walking red flag.

Ursa: I know... I know...

Ukano: What's wrong with him?

Ursa: Sir Bartholomew died...

Zhao: Sir Barth— IN YOUR BOOK?!

Ursa: Yes, can't you see he is grieving?!

Ukano: This is dumb.

Ozai: YOU DON'T READ! HOW WOULD YOU KNOW?!