A whole week of appricating our lovely princess Azula through fics, arts, and grapics among other things. Starting: October 1st and ending October 7th.
Themes: Oct 1st - Lost
Oct 2nd - Music
Oct 3rd - Sunlight
Oct 4th - Reflection
Oct 5th - Hurt
Oct 6th - Insecurity
Oct 7th - Comfort
When submitting be sure to add 'azulaweek2024' within the first five tags.
Okay so as some of you might have realized by now, this year has been just not my year.
Today, on top of the IRL stuff I already mentioned, my car decided to break down again.
I'm also in the middle of an unexpectedly) involved hiring process for a job. Back when I put up the date poll, I had no idea that this week would literally be the worst week for me to try to host an event.
I think that this year's event just really wasn't meant to be as I've been having hassles at every turn. I feel like I can't really host this event adequately this year.
With all of that said, I think that it's better if I just take an L and call off this year's event. Regarding future events, I really do just have to see where life takes me.
I apologize so much for cancelling so suddenly but I would rather not host at all than host something lackluster. If I can't put care into the event then I would rather not host it. And I feel as though I won't be able to put in a proper amount of care into hosting and people can usually tell when that happens.
Thanks so much for understanding and thanks everyone so much for all of your support since I started this event in 2018! I hope to be able to host Azula week next year but I can't guarantee it.
Good morning everyone! Today will be a bit hectic for me. So I'll reblog any works posted today, at a later time. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!
Don't forget to tag you works with 'Azula Week 2024' so that I can find them. Feel free to @azulaweek as well.
Most people wanted me to chose the themes this year so I hope that these will spark people's creativity. Feel free to interpret all of them as you'd like.
Oct 1st - Lost
Oct 2nd - Music
Oct 3rd - Sunlight
Oct 4th - Reflection
Oct 5th - Hurt
Oct 6th - Insecurity
Oct 7th - Comfort
I am a little worried about my ability to host this year as it has been a rough one. Usually I begin prep in April but something happened in my personal life that made that impossible to do. I still want to give hosting this event a shot. Thanks in advance for being patient with me.
The last week of August did win. However due to time constraints, I don't feel as though that would allow adequate time for prompt submissions and just general prep time. So I will be going with the second place winner; the first week of October!
So far there haven't been any prompt submissions so I figured that I should put up another poll;
Feel free to start submitting up to three prompts. Prompts can be sent to this blog's inbox, posted in the comments, or submitted to my main (@bellatrixobsessed1)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
@azulaweek
Zuko is happy to see Aang, Katara and even his sister Azula again after they return from a diplomatic mission from the South Pole. Unfortunately for Zuko, Azula decides to use the event to discuss politics. Zuko just doesn't understand why Azula keeps insisting that they should abolish the role of Firelord. Wasn't he a doing well as the Firelord?
Or Azula gets too much redemption and decides that monarchies should be abolished.
Commission by the lovely @oakyvii for @azulaweek day 1: Crossovers
A title page for my newest fanfic Azula the Demon Slayer, a crossover between Avatar the Last Airbender and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. If you're interested please check it out and leave a comment.
Summary: Azula takes Sokka to see a firefly boom but the fireflies don't want to appear.
Sunrise is her favorite time. The quiet and lonely golden hour that people seem to miss because they can’t be bothered to rise early enough. Perhaps it makes her selfish, but she doesn’t like to share this hour with anyone. Not even with Sokka. She likes to take it with a cup of daisy-dandelion tea and a thin blanket draped around her shoulders for the sake of having a blanket around her shoulders.Â
Sunset, the second golden hour, is her second favorite time. It isn’t as quiet; in fact it is rather noisy. The crickets are beginning to awaken and the people are well awake and making their own racket.Â
The fireflies also begin to awaken, cluster by cluster until they are everywhere blinking in the tall grasses and upon the trees.Â
Usually by now, the world around smells like smoked meats and burning the burning leaves of campfires. This is the time that she wants to share with Sokka. He enjoys meat anyhow, most certainly more than he would enjoy her shaking him awake early in the morning. Sometimes she does that anyways when she feels sad for no reason. Sometimes she does it accidentally when she wants someone to hold or nuzzle her face against. He gets grumpy but he holds her anyhow.Â
“We’re almost there.” Azula remarks.Â
“Exactly where are we going?” Sokka pushes a fern leaf aside.Â
“There’s a big hill. We’re going on top of that.”
Sokka furrows his brows. “Why are we doing that again?”Â
“Because I want to show you something.”Â
“Will the cicadas stop by the time we get there? Those things are driving me crazy. We don’t have those back at home.”
“You complain about the cicadas every year.” Azula rolls her eyes.
“Is it just me or do they get louder every year?”
“I think that it’s just you.”Â
“I think that you Fire Nationals are just used to it.” He grumbles.Â
“We’re here.” Azula declares.Â
Sokka’s shoulders slump. “It’s just a big grassy hill!”Â
“For now.” Azula replies.Â
“For now!?” Sokka throws his hands up. “What does that even mean?”Â
Azula offers him a smug and cheerful smile. “You’ll see.” She unfurls the picnic blanket and lays it out across the grass. “I figured that since I made you walk all of this way, that’s I’d make your favorite…”
“Peppered komodo chicken with a touch of garlic and a side of…”
“Smoked seal jerky.” Azula fills in. “Yes.” She withdraws a pan, a cooking fork, and a small iron grate to rest the meat upon. She gathers herself a nice tent of firewood and lights it up.
.oOo.
The last of the sizzles and pops die away as the sun fully falls. Azula does not relight it and Sokka shudders, it is quite darker than he had imagined. But Azula seems entirely unbothered which he might have found reassuring if Azula wasn’t unbothered by most things.Â
She passes his meal to him. “Enjoy.”Â
He will certainly try but the sounds emitting from the shadows–the ones that Azula insists are just lemurs and screech hog-monkeys don’t make it easy. He watches Azula, ever unphased, lay herself belly-down across the picnic blanket. She rests her chin in her palms and gazes down the hill.Â
“It’s firefly mating season.” She remarks at last.Â
Sokka swallows his mouthful. “Good to know, I guess.”Â
Azula rolls her eyes and sighs. “Every few years there’s a firefly boom.” She elaborates. “It kind of reminds me of the polar lights. Less colorful, more uniformed but it’s like looking at stars but they’re in the grass.” She gestures down the hill where the first flashes are finally beginning.Â
“I’ve seen Water Tribe winters.” She continues. “So I thought that I would show you what a Fire Nation summer is like when it is at its finest…” There is something in her voice, in the way that she trails off. It makes Sokka’s stomach sink. He is being unenthusiastic and he thinks that it is cracking her confidence in this thing that she had been so excited to show him.Â
He wants to be enthusiastic but he has seen fireflies before so many times. He can’t say that this is any different from what he is used to seeing. A few drifting clouds of fireflies. It is pretty for certain but he isn’t sure if it is worth a long trek through the jungle. But Azula’s smiles are worth it.Â
She is not smiling right now. Rather the opposite. “There are usually more than this…” She bites her lower lip.Â
Sokka’s heart sinks further. He puts a hand on her back. “It’s alright, Azula. It’s still nice.” It is quality time with her and a meal that she had taken the care to cook for him. It has been prepared and is being eaten with breathtaking scenery, however ordinary it is. “It doesn’t have to be…”
“But I wanted to show you something special.” She mumbles.Â
“This is special.” He insists.Â
“But you’ve seen this before.”
“I’ve seen something similar but I’ve never seen these fireflies and they never dance around in the same way.”
Azula shrugs.Â
“How many times did I take you to see the polar light?”
“A lot, Sokka.” She replies.Â
“And did you enjoy them any less the tenth time?” He quirks a brow.
She purses her lips. “N-no.”
“Well then.” Sokka grins. And her smile starts to return.
.oOo.
Azula isn’t sure what had woke her up but she is pleased that it has. She nudges Sokka. Once then twice. “Sokka.” She whispers. He rolls over and gives a sleepy grunt. “Sokka!” She hisses again with a harder nudge.
“Wha-uh-t!?” He grumble-whines. “Go to sleep, woman!”Â
This time she gives him a very solid thumb on the back. He jerks awake. “Geez!”Â
Azula laughs.Â
“What!? Is someone dying?”Â
Azula shakes her head. “Look.” She points at the roof of their tent. It is all beaded with firefly bulbs that rest there like glowing yellow raindrops. Now and then the insects crawl down the fabric leaving a glowing trail just as rain leaves a trail of wetness.Â
Azula nods rather eagerly. She takes his hand. “Come on Sokka, the hill is probably full of them!”
The hills, the canopy, the tree bark. Everything. Clouds of fireflies are suspended over the pond and make themselves cozy in the leaves of cattails.Â
Sokka blinks. “They’re everywhere.”Â
Azula nods.Â
“I’ve never seen so many!”Â
She nods again and takes his hand. “Come on, Sokka.”Â
“Where are we going?” He asks. She knows that he will be able to deduce the answer soon enough.
.oOo.
He and Azula wander through the tall grass. It tickles his waist as he wades his way through. Although it is significantly higher on Azula–perhaps reaching her belly button or a little above–she seems to sift through the grass with ease.Â
Sometimes it is nice to just walk hand in hand with her, letting her lead him along. Tonight she guides him through a field of stars. Each blade of grass seems to be tipped with a firefly bulb or two. And each strand that they part seems to rouse a whole cloud of them into the sky.Â
Azula extends her arms and cups her hands. When she parts them to let him peer inside he finds that she has come away with at least five or six fireflies.Â
“This must have been fun for you when you were a kid.”
Azula shakes her head. “Father wouldn’t let us chase them. He didn’t want us to get our robes dirty. We got to look and that was nice enough. But I never had the chance to…” she reaches up and plucks another firefly from the sky.Â
Never had the chance to be a kid. He can see as much on her face. And he realizes that, technically, this is a first time for her too. A childhood dream coming to life.Â
“Who do you think can catch more?” Azula quirks a brow.Â
“I can of course.” He declares. “I’m taller so I can reach more of them.”Â
“But I’m faster.” Azula counters. And he can’t dispute that. She has reflexes on top of that and this easy, fluid way of maneuvering through the world around her. She does a half twirl to look back at him. There are fireflies in her locks and crawling on her billowing robes, over her outstretched arms.Â
She doesn’t even have to lift an arm to catch the fireflies.Â
He can’t see himself but he imagines that he is similarly dressed in fireflies. Any traces of sleepiness ebb right out of him.Â
If he falls asleep now, he fears that he will never see something like this again.Â
Azula holds her hand out and he takes it.Â
Just as he had held her hand when he introduced her to the lights.Â
He has shown her the winter and she has showed him the summer.Â
He will show her the grand melting of a Water Tribe springtime and she will introduce him to a burning Fire Nation autumn.Â
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
@azulaweek
Azula has a great idea to secure an advantage in the upcoming Kuai Ball match for her team. She is going to seduce the team captain of the opposing team, Suki. A fool-proof plan, since Azula has no romantic feelings for Suki whatsoever, no matter what her friends might insinuate.
Azula Week 2023 Day 5 Prompt: Kuai Ball/Time Travel
Just in time for @azulaweek we have some undersketches for @book4air (The Book 4 Air Restoration Project).
This is a rewritten and redrawn version of “The Search” to fit with our overarching story for Book 4: Air. It’ll be fully voiced and orchestrated with limited animation like the previously released episodes.
So here are our never before seen previews! Just like I promised!
This takes place right before Azula and Sokka fall through the roof into Noren’s house. A moment of understanding between them as Sokka apologizes for antagonizing Azula, and even opens up to her about his own guilt for resenting Kya’s sacrifice. Kya did it all for Katara, and Sokka felt forgotten because he also needed his mom. He hates himself for feeling that way because saving Katara was the right choice. He is surprised when Azula isn’t judgmental, and feels similarly about her own mother’s sacrifice for Zuko.
Sadly the moment is ruined by Zuko proclaiming himself as Fire Lord inside, and Azula assumes the entire conversation was a trick to stall her.
This beautiful art was drawn by the one and only @rickorangejr-blog! Give him some support and check out his original content.
Here is a clip of another edited scene, fully voiced and partially animated:
Help us finish Book 4 Air - including our remade version of “The Search”! Whether you weren’t a fan of the original, or you were but would love some new and refreshing content, we hope you will enjoy our take.
Support us on Patreon as episodes are expensive to produce and we pay fully out of pocket.
Or if you can’t, help signal boost our videos so we can overcome the YouTube algorithm!
