#wingsfreedom

"For I am the Blue Wolf."

Beautiful work! God I love the presence and impact of this piece, carries over how intimidating and powerful this man has become!

TV show meta (updating...)

Azula meta:

Azula tried to live up to Ursa's wishes too, not only Ozai's (character study + observation)

"Might is right" Ozai’s ideology about power and how it affected Azula

Azula's extreme behavior; it's nature and origin (meta)

In which Azula listens to reason and looking for alternative options that don’t rely on brute force (examples)

Zuko Alone: Azula’s beautiful Firebending

Zuko Alone: Ozai’s training of Azula (observation)

Azula's motives in the war meeting (character study)

The Phoenix King scene: Azula's vulnerability

Child soldiering and align interests: Azula’s means to get love from her father

"Being counted on isn't the same thing as being loved", an interpretation of the kind of relationship Azula has with her father

Azula and being merely inches away from dangerous attacks by the Gaang

Azula's language and team mentality

Loyalty matters much more to Azula than success/results

The Last Agni Kai: Azula’s refusal to kill Zuko

Mirror scene: what makes Azula redeemable to me

Mirror scene: Azula’s hair symbolism and control

Post-war: positive Azula arc (essay)

Post-war: Azula’s mental health (discarding the comics and all post-atla content take)

Post-War: opening the chakras is best therapeutic approach to Azula

Theory: Azula is dressing in male fashion (?)

My take on Azula's morality

"I'm sorry it has to end this way, brother"

“My brother is being difficult as usual.” -Azula

"Aside from “The Beach,” in which parts do you think Azula acts most like a 14-year-old?" (response)

What Azula does in her free time (collection)

Lost Adventures: Azula's childishness

Azula's nervousness

Azula and physical touch (observation)

Rare sight: Azula looks cute if she was caught off guard (observation)

Rare sight: Azula’s Soft Smile

Azula and the Dragon Lady stereotype (fandom problems)

Azula's name true origin

Ozai meta:

Abyss arc for Azula as a corruption arc instead of redemption

Azula's eye color

Firebending study: Why Ozai is the top Firebender in ATLA

My interpretation on Ozai's character (meta)

Ozai's treatment of Zuko and Azula during his first years as Fire Lord (headcanon)

Phoenix King Ozai: fashion and preparations

Iroh meta:

Iroh doesn’t dislike Azula because she was evil (meta)

Iroh's problem with Azula (a much shorter post)

Why Iroh is wrong about the way he treated Zuko in Book 3 (Iroh critical)

Iroh and Ba Sing Se

Why Iroh fails miserably at being a saint despite the desperate attempts at sugar-coating

Mai and Ty Lee meta:

Mai and Ty Lee's relationship was NOT lovey-dovey

Mai and Ty Lee having fun in Book 2

Headcanon: Ty Lee has synesthesia

What attracted Ty Lee to Azula

Mai's issues and her inability to bond with Tom Tom in ATLA

Return to Omashu: the trade and Mai's choice

Zuko meta:

Zuko's team work doesn't get enough credit

Zuko is a heart-motivated yet goal-oriented character

Zuko's inferiority-complex (and how it negatively affected his personality and relationship with his sister) (meta)

Zuko's competition

Zuko's first seed of wisdom and Azula's role in it (observation)

Zuko relies on Azula for help, advice, knowledge and comfort

Canon Zuko vs Fanon Zuko (about fighting Azula)

Zuko is one of the best Firebenders in the series

Zuko uses fear/physical aggression to establish his authority

Ursa meta:

Theory: Show!Ursa's hometown is Ember Island (theory)

The background of Ursa in the TV show

"Ursa tried to correct Azula's cruel behavior" is NOT actually true

What Ursa meant by "never forget who you are" line

Ursa's failure as a mother: Why Ursa's encouragement of her children to spend time together scene is tragic in nature (Azula & Ursa meta)

Narrative meta:

"The Storm" and "Zuko Alone" flashbacks: the questionability of Zuko and Iroh's narration of Azula (unreliable narrator)

Zuko Alone flashbacks: metaphorical narrative (shorter post)

General meta:

The Rock that bounced Aang back into the Avatar State and percussive readjustment (detail)

Why Firebenders can't bend in the eclipse but can bend at night

Caldera: the Forbidden City (fire nation map)

The popularity of Zuko, Azula and Ozai in the Fire Nation

Azulon's emphasizes on the First-bornTM and what does it say about his character (observation, theory/headcanon)

Reasons for Firelord Azulon to dislike/overlook Azula

How old Lu Ten was when he died

Post war: royal family continued tragic ending, permanently

The location of the "inner fire"

Critique

Zuko Alone: writing issues ("You're no Hero.")

Suki, Alone (2021): why Azula's meeting with Suki as well as the conditions of the Boiling Rock and Kyoshi Island's refusal of trading with the outside world were retcons and made-up events

Why post-war content failed at satisfying Azula arc

Azula's role in post atla-content (summary)

Comics

The Search: Ursa's escapism (why comics!Ursa was a bad mother)

The Search: abuse in design

Fanfiction

Backstory: Azula's Childhood (fic + images)

Honor mentions, other people's meta:

Future Azula: the possibilities i wanted the comics to take (post war)

https://wingsfreedom.tumblr.com/post/649497434097172480/i-think-the-ending-of-aot-is-supposed-to-be

Hello anon,

sorry, but I do not think it is very polite to link another person’s post and to ask me to comment on it :)

I don’t believe you are in bad faith, but it is a little awkward.

Anyway, I have talked about the ending many times and I have made clear I am satisfied with it and I think that Isayama planned it since early on, at least in its most important aspects (Eren dying, Mikasa killing him and freeing Ymir, Armin saving humanity in the future).

I also think it is great other people are coming up with alternative endings that use other characters more. In short, to each their own :)

Also, tagging @wingsfreedom since you link to their post!

oh I really really like the friendship potential here. in canon, i think it would take a long while – I imagine Aang might be quite wary/sheepish around Azula for a bit, at least until he’s older, simply because she tried to kill him & his friends a number of times, and would need time to process that, but I like to think that as an adult I can imagine him wanting to reconcile and help her on the path towards redemption after she’s taken a few positive steps (e.g. apologising to people, rebuilding a relationship/reconciling with Zuko) and be a supportive figure there. In the show, I think Aang really *needs* to believe that the Fire Nation aren’t inherently evil, because that’s core to the worldview the Air Nomads taught him & his friendship with Zuko is very important in that regard, and I like to imagine that he’d equally want to offer an olive branch to Azula once she shows signs of being receptive to one. I imagine for Aang he’d hope it’d help him process those events (whereas I imagine other characters, e.g. Katara, might prefer to have limited to no contact) & I think he gets genuine fulfilment out of helping set Azula on the right path.

As for how it’d turn out, I like to imagine actually it’d progress beyond ‘helping Azula’, beyond shared meditation sessions and rather profound discussions about differences between Fire Nation and Air Nomad outlooks, to a friendship that is actually full of fun and mischief? I think Aang serves a similar role here that he does to Sokka (who in S1 is always complaining about goofing off too much and wants them to stay on track) in that he introduces a lot of levity. Azula puts a lot of value in formalities and titles imo, and around Aang she can let go of that in a way that is rather liberating? They tease each other. They goof off a little. She gets to laugh. But also, so does he. I think as a fellow prodigy with a title and responsibilities of an adult, I think Azula would empathise a lot with what Aang has to handle, even if at first she thinks he should perhaps use his authority/titles more to push his way through situations, she comes to respect his approach despite the differences, and ends up being someone Aang comes to for advice regarding certain matters eventually. I also imagine Azula being a fiercely loyal friend and defender of Aang. 

I imagine in a role-swap AU (i.e. Zuko takes Azula’s role as s2-3 antagonist, and Azula gets a fleshed out redemption arc instead) it’d probably turn out very similarly! Azula accompanies the gaang because she believes ‘it is practical’ but might not believe in the main mission or see herself as part of the group (at first) and Aang tries to convince her to really commit, so there’s this intellectual element to it at first, but as they become closer, I think Aang helps her relax/be less ‘uptight’ (as the others would see it), act her age for once instead of a little soldier. Again, I think they’d be quite mischievous actually, and maybe mess around a little (in a non-destructive way for once) or go on adventures. This is just a personal headcanon, but I like to imagine Azula, who insisted on being the hero whenever she and Zuko would play-act together, once always dreamed of going on big adventures and being a hero, but buried that aspiration as ‘a childish dream’ when she began to take more responsibility, and that Aang allows her to realise what she thought was just a foolish little idea.