#zirin

Azula: Ha! It’s me! Your vile villainess! The author of your nightmares! The dread of your-

Guard: Who are you?

Azula: Uhhhh…Princess Azula.

Guard: You expect me to believe Princess Azula has hair like that?

Azula: I was going through a rough patch, okay?!

Guard: I can tell. It looks like a five year old cut your hair.

[ Zirin knocks out the guard. ]

Zirin: Let’s go!

I decided to commission someone to draw cover arts for each of the 6 books.

This is Book 1 of 6.

Dragon Empress: The Legend of Azula

Book 1: Empire of Fire and Lightning

Explanation of the scene after the break for those that want it.

🎨 by @bearcat05

❌ Do not repost without permission.

🚫 This art may not be used to train AI.

Speaking about Azula ships, Azurin (Azula & Zirin, the girl from the asylum) is her most underrated ship, and Zirin, despite how little we know about her, is a very good candidate for Azula’s first true friend and/or love interest. I mean how little we know about her is the best thing actually, as she already has a long history with Azula but you still can make her anything.

Some reasons why they could easily bond in the future:

Zirin isn’t afraid to be honest with Azula and question her. (She speaks openly in SS and goes against her in AitST, yet without trying to harm Azula or put her down.) And that’s actually exactly what Azula seeks — that’s why she threw this social experiment with being incognito on Ember Island: to check her inner suspicions of being a monster and see how people view her as a person without the “protection” of a title. So, Zirin effortlessly gives her honesty.

Zirin has a huge reason to be very grateful to Azula, as she saved her from a place where girls were treated inhumanly for not being obedient enough for their families. And she is — she helps Azula with her mission.

Both Zirin and Azula share the same “enemy” — terrible external factors that bring them closer and encourage them to work together and treat each other with sympathy: the asylum. No one in Azula’s circle experienced this level of unfairness during imprisonment of any kind — Zuko, Mai, Ty Lee, Suki, Iroh, Katara, Toph, Ozai, and Ursa all had at least freedom of movement, and sometimes the freedom of bending or living in a freaking palace during their periods of imprisonment. Only with Zirin does Azula share the experience of literally being tortured during their imprisonment. Shared negative experiences add a level of sympathy and understanding.

The people who put them into torture are their very families (the asylum was used to throw away disobedient daughters). The family is the torturer, which adds an even deeper level of shared negative experience and potential bonding over that. Azula especially has trauma over her mother’s lack of love/showing love, personal interest, and approval of her. And Zirin’s mother is either dead or didn’t mind/stop her from being put into the asylum. Zirin might very well understand Azula’s maternal trauma.

Zirin is loyal. Something Azula very much is herself, and something she respects. Zirin’s desire to save a friend who got captured will actually seem like a positive trait from Azula’s POV after she (partially) drops her ways of controlling people with fear/status/them owing her their freedom, which she does in AitST when she lets them be instead of imposing her will on them.

Zirin is a Fire Nation noble, so despite still being far in status from a princess, they are products of the same culture and do not have to reinvent the world to understand each other’s conditions.

With Azula learning in AitST how to leave people to themselves and not drag them after herself (even if she believes she means good for them), she could develop a friendship or a closer relationship with a person who doesn’t have a history of bad or mixed feelings towards her, has a reason to be grateful to her, with whom she shares the most horrid experiences, and who understands having a family that doesn’t give a fuck about your well-being and is happy to throw you away once you step out of line.

There is a lot of ground upon which they would find each other deserving of sympathy. Despite the Fire Warriors leaving her in AitST, it’s not as painful for Azula as Mai, Ty Lee, and Zuko’s betrayal, as the girls didn’t do any harm to her in the process (they could have killed her during her sleep, for example, or handed her over to the officials), and their decision kind of made her rise above herself rather than sent her into a temporary loss of mind, which is a positive new thing for her, meaning positive associations.

Azula would appreciate having someone outside of her princess/child-soldier experience with whom she could talk about her buried pain and struggles and receive something more than ignorance as an answer, as Zirin shares essentially the same or very similar problems. Azula would also appreciate her honesty and fidelity while maintaining her newer achievement of not commanding her friends around and building a relationship (based on shared bad experiences in the past) on a voluntary basis.

So if they meet again (and there are tons of scenarios in which they might meet again), they very well might bond and do ship-worthy things.

Bonus: as we barely know Zirin, you can write/draw her character to be anything you like in whatever surroundings (with them having any kind of positive or negative relationships with other characters). Azurin has no limitations! It can be:

two wanted assassins in a relationship

fucking off to the Spirit World to have a Miyazaki-type adventure

Sherlock and Watson but with no Mary to bother them, so they could actually fuck

a minister of some sort and her gf throwing the maddest lesbian showings at official events

etc.

“What does it matter?” Azula challenges. “They’re still my choices.”

There is an uncomfortable moment of silence that makes Azula nervously shift in her seat before Aunt Wu speaks again. “Does it make you feel powerful to think about it that way, Azula?”

Femslash February Day 10 : Zirin & Azula

I will love you till the end of time

I would wait a million years

Promise you'll remember that you're mine

Baby, can you see through the tears?

Love you more than those bitches before

Say you'll remember, oh baby

Say you'll remember, oh baby, ooh

It focuses on the Fire Nation and talks about, among other things, the effects of Sozin's criminalization of queer folk, the abusive nature of Fire Nation asylums, and Zuko's struggles to de-Sozinize the Fire Nation. However, it gets really dark at times, and not everyone gets a happy ending.

So if you guys have time, I would be honored if you took a look at it. Thanks!

Thanks for the question, Amor!

With Mai.

Azula and Mai love each other intensely, and are both somewhat dependent.

Azula doesn't want Mai to EVER abandon her again, while Mai just wants Azula to never change, she doesn't like change, and all she wants is for Azula to be the euphoria and chaos she has in her life.

But let's think about the fact that they are both in therapy, they are healthy, and they can both live completely independently, but they still need each other, as a calmer and another to have a euphoria.

With Ty Lee.

They are both very devoted to each other, but they are toxic. Azula has a lot of insecurities, and being with Ty Lee makes it worse, because Ty Lee is a flirtatious girl and she is a free soul, always running away and never being in the same place, that drives Azula crazy.

While Ty Lee hates that Azula has so many insecurities, and that she is always being so controlling. But if they go to therapy, maybe both of them can finally be healthy, but they will still have some problems.

With Katara.

Both are a complement, is one missing something? Then the other one has it, they are a balance. But they both have the same problems, although it is Katara who always solves it, only if it is a minor problem, because then someone else has to intervene.

But if you go to therapy, you both will have a completely healthy relationship.

With Yue.

They are both like the sun and the moon, and you know, the moon always chases the sun. They are like this, Azula does not want to accept her sexuality, while Yue accepted it because she had never felt that strong feeling, not even for Sokka, and she will fight for that love.

But then Azula will accept it and believe me, they are so adorable together and so healthy that everyone envies it.

With Suki.

They are enemies to companions to lovers to girlfriends. They have almost no problems, Suki is mature enough to understand why Azula behaves like this, and Azula is intelligent and understanding who understands why Suki has to leave instead of when to go on her missions. Everything is fixed when Azula starts living on Kyoshi Island, and goes on missions with her girlfriend.

With Toph.

I personally don't like it very much, but there are some fanfics that captivate me.

I think it all started because of the sexual tension they had, and sometimes they have problems, because of their strong personalities, but they always work it out.

If they have a little therapy they would both be completely healthy, they just need to communicate and support each other.

I'm not going to include June because she's older than Azula, and I'd rather see them both with June as her uncle Iroh.

And I didn't put Zirin in either because I haven't seen the comics where Azula is.

By the way, I don't like jinko, but I prefer to watch them so that Mai can be with her friends, that's why I didn't wear it.