I created this blog to dump all my fandom brain rot and ask people way smarter than I am what they think about characters I like. So, like, get ready, I guess.
Azula is brought to irl world at 16. The show doesn't exist. What happens?
Hi anon!!!
Sorry I’m a little confused so does the show exist up until Azula is taken out of it? Does Azula remember her life up until that point or is she a blank slate because she’s essentially coming from nothing.
I’m gonna go with Azula being brought into the modern world with the knowledge of the show (which she would just think is her own life) in her head and she ends up in New York City (cause that’s where Nickelodeon headquarters is).
First thing that’ll happen is Azula is almost getting run over. She has no idea what cars are or stop signs so she doesn’t understand the concept of waiting for a walk sign to turn or waiting and watching for cars. Azula would most likely try to think of NY as she would Caldera or the BSS Capital (both for formatting a plan and comfort) and figure out a strategy from there, leading into the second part.
The second thing that would happen is Azula would probably gather as much information as she could. She’d find maps, news articles, everything and try to figure out where exactly she is, where everyone else is and what to do. Azula isn’t someone who likes operating without a plan so she’d figure out how to get her basic needs met and then try to figure out where to go from there. Which leads to the third piece.
The third piece is noise, shelter, language and food. The middle of New York City on any day is loud. The noise is definitely something that could cause a sensory overload is someone isn’t used to it and, for Azula, coming from areas with less loud machinery and (probably?) less people, it would be a lot to adjust to. Also language and food would be big things. Azula comes from a place that has mostly everything written in Chinese characters. Unless Azula can magically read English now as well, she’s going to struggle. She also might struggle with the food. A lot of food in ATLA is based on Asian cuisine or it’s fantasy food (by that I mean fertilized turtle duck eggs (I took that straight from the wiki) are probably not going to be found by Azula anytime soon) and while there are certainly a lot of Asian restaurant in NY, she might not be directly next to one when she shows up in the city. Azula has never seen a hot dog or a donut or popcorn or pizza or a pretzel or any other common NY food and it’s going to throw her off. Finally, shelter. Gold coins could be exchanged for cash but that requires Azula to know where to go to exchange them and to exchange them at a good rate. I believe Azula would fully be able to sleep outside with no issue like she could make herself a place to sleep or steal something.
There’s probably much more that she’d get into but bottom line I think that she would be okay after a few weeks/months. She’d have a rocky start and not know where she is/want to go home but once she got the hang of everything she’d be able to survive.
Happy belated birthday to the heiress Cavendish and greatest witch of our time (sorry Akko) 🥳🎂🎉
Sorry I wasn’t able to wish you a happy birthday sooner! As my gift to you, I present you this story I wrote in one of my creative writing courses at uni last year. Enjoy :)
Door To Another World
BUCHAREST, ROMANIA. As I feared, the police presence had increased in the 30 minutes since I had infiltrated the Royal Palace. The lively crowds which had cheered me on when I made my dramatic entrance were all but gone. The sea of pale dots had been replaced by the glow of red and blue lights emanating from the over half a dozen police cars and trucks which now surrounded the perimeter. From the bedroom window, I watched as a group of darkly-clad men poured out from one of the trucks. I watched the helicopter’s searchlight beam down on them as they forced the doors open with a battering ram. I watched as, one-by-one, they filed into the building, their assault rifles drawn.
“I won’t divulge too many details…” My back was faced towards Manny. I decided it was worth telling him. “It belonged to Beatrix, the first Head of Cavendish. It was given to her as a child.”
“So you went through all this trouble for an old blanket?”
I wanted to turn around and shoot daggers at him, metaphorically and literally. But I quickly suppressed that desire. Because if I did, Manny would see the thin film over my eyes and the loose droplets of water running down my cheek. I did not want Manny to see me cry. Growing up, I was taught crying attracted unwanted attention and made people feel uncomfortable. Attracting attention was one of the least ladylike things a woman like me could do.
And that’s what I am, Daryl. A lady. Regardless of what is in between my legs, or what my voice sounds like, or the types of clothes I wear. That is who I am, whether you like it or not.
“It is not just a blanket–”
“My apologies,” Manny said sympathetically. “Bad joke. Old habit. Listen, I know the artifacts you, uh, collect are all significant to your family’s history. Right, Diana?”
My eyes widened. “By Jennifer, how do you know my–”
“I know everything I need to know about you, Diana.” Manny laughed as he walked towards me. In the light, the Man with the Upside-Down Face looked even stranger. I watched as he reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a small piece of fabric. “Handkerchief?”
Oh, no.
I frantically batted at the tears on my face using my arm, averting my gaze and turning back to face the window, avoiding eye contact. Manny let out a small chuckle as he put away the handkerchief. We stood together by the window in silence. I was much too embarrassed to say anything. Not that there needed to be much said between us, anyway. I had already made up my mind.
I was going to join the Circus of the Disquieting.
Once the initial embarrassment had subsided somewhat, I spoke again. “You seem to know a lot about me. How about I learn something about you?”
Manny smiled an upside-down smile, stroking his mustache which was… near the top of his head? The biological implications of such a configuration greatly disturbed me. “Fire away.”
“Why did you choose me?”
In an instant, Manny’s face grew more serious. It was as if a switch had been turned. “Because you’re lost, Diana. And I want to show you the way.”
“This circus of yours,” I answered.
“Not mine,” Manny said. “The Circus of the Disquieting is a family. We do things together. There’s no ‘you’ or ‘me’ in ‘family’. You’d be a part of our family.”
“I’m not ‘disquieting’,” I say, with some degree of confidence. I pause for a moment, gathering my thoughts. I open my mouth to speak, but the words come out less certain. “I’m anything… but.”
Manny scoffed. “Tell that to the Essie agents downstairs.”
The hairs on the back of my head stood up. As if on cue, the sound of clattering boots on the marble floor echoed across the palace, quickly getting louder and louder in our direction. My grip on my golden rapier wand tightened.
Manny put a hand on my shoulder. “Come on, I wouldn’t want to keep the Circus waiting.”
I watched as he walked over to the ornate wooden door of the bedroom and simply… stood there. Stood there in front of the door with his arms crossed. I was confused.
Surely, The Man with the Upside-Down Face was not going to just simply walk out the front door?
But before I could ask, Manny swung open the bedroom doors.
In my ideal redemption arc for Azula she remains enemy to Zuko and all her "ex-friends", even with her fully understanding what she did wrong to them, because with her fully (almost, she needs to stay somewhat asshole) deconstructing her worldview, she needs to become huge anti-monarchist for various of reasons (one of them is that she has urge to vomit every time Zuko or Iroh are bringing up their destiny bullshit).
Why Azula was the most effective antagonist Avatar has ever had (and why the series has never matched her)
Azula has a set of characteristics which, when combined, make her unique and special among Avatar antagonists:
She's a personal physical threat to the heroes. This isn't enough to make her special, as most Avatar antagonists are credible physical threats, and arguably it is the least important part of why she was such an effective antagonist.
The narrative never humiliated her. Even when she loses, she does so with dignity.
Azula has an intense personal connection to one of the protagonists.
Azula fights more with her mind than her body. She fights the weaknesses of her opponents, instead of their strengths. Physical violence is what happens when she fails, instead of when succeeds. She exploits and creates problems that her enemies can't simply punch or bend away.
Azula represents and is a product of an ideology, of a society, of something much bigger than herself. She represents something far greater than herself.
Azula is power made manifest, power which exists both inside her and beyond her. She has power because she is the Princess, but she also has power because she plays the role of the Princess so well. Once again, this sort of power is an asymmetrical threat to the heroes.
Azula mobilizes and leads others to help her carry out her missions, and mobilizes them well. Her personal relationships, her charisma, her leadership abilities, her ability to inspire others become tools to help her succeed.
Note that I didn't mention Azula's tragic backstory, or the writers leading the audience to feel sympathy for her. Those are standard Avatar techniques to make villains more "complex," but the reality is that the writers never showed Azula's "tragic backstory" to the audience and they only made a very limited and late, half-hearted attempt to humanize her to the audience.
I don't think Avatar as a franchise should try to endlessly copy Azula and the qualities that made her unique, but, given how disappointing Avatar villains have so often been since her, I think writers in the franchise would benefit from actually considering what made her such a uniquely great antagonist.
I didn't want to get back into Azula posting, but I keep seeing the discourse making rounds on reddit again.
I don’t think it's any use arguing whether Azula should be/deserves to be redeemed anymore. That's always just going to be up to who is writing her, whether it's Yang deciding she doesn't or Hicks leaving it ambiguous. Plenty of fans and fanfiction authors have done that for themselves.
Maybe we should ask ourselves what we would do if we were in the Avatar world, not what Zuko or Aang would do, what each of us as an individual would do to deal with Azula, how we would react, knowing all we know about her.
Azula is not a likeable person, and her cruel streak personally disgusts me. That said, I can't in good conscience condemn a teenager to a life of imprisonment, torture, or just death. Get her a lot of therapy, get her a lot of support, and keep a very close eye on her though.
There are people both real and fictional, some in Atla and Tlok, that have done worse for longer. There are villains worse than Azula still given a chance to change by the heroes and forgiven by the fans.
Doing the right thing isn't easy, and it's not always fast. When I think of all the people and heroes I look up to, I know they'd choose mercy and second chances.
Red satin sheets
Mask her body and mind.
Pull them back, what will we find?
RODDACEMBER 2025 | DAY 19: ORIGIN
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A moodboard and short poem based on my adaptation of Neridah in my AU, The Phantom Chariots, where she is one of the main characters. If you're interested, the prologue (entirely from Neridah's POV) is available to read on AO3 (username: fusionfanatic) here!
avatar: the last airbender (2x03, 2x07, 3x05, 3x11, 3x18, 3x20, 3x21) // avatar: the last airbender - the search // what it means to inherit, by stacey waite // avatar: the last airbender - azula in the spirit temple.
Roddacember runs during December to celebrate all of Emily Rodda’s books.
With a new prompt every day, make a piece of fan content of your choice. You can draw some art, write fic, make a playlist, rant about something, or whatever you vibe with!
Remember to tag it #Roddacember 2025 so we can check it out <3
I’ve also created an AO3 collection for those who would like to write fics!
Update
Trying out a different hybrid structure with the first half being questions or lil activities we can do together and the second is the traditional one-word prompts
For the visual I condensed the prompts into a keyword so it would fit, but they are expanded below the read more. I have also created a master doc which contains the prompts of all years.
Notes
A reminder that you don’t have to commit to every day. Take care of yourself. You can make it more manageable by skipping days.
Feel free to interpret the prompts as metaphorically or as literally as you want!
If there’s anything you are confused about, feel free to ask me in the notes or DMs or whatever.
You can also check out what the fandom did previously at #Roddacember 2024, #Roddacember 2023, #Roddacember 2022, #Roddacember 2021, #Roddacember 2020 and #Roddacember 2019.
Hot take: I actually think making Azula worse would help ‘fix’ her. The problem is that she’s too good. Too much of a perfectionist, too willing of a soldier to her country, too loyal of a daughter to her father. She needs to stop being good — she needs to put her own wellbeing above the will of horrible people and a horrible system. To redirect her passion and drive into getting as far away as possible and healing so that she can do good.
Would you ever want Azula to return to her family and reconcile with them?
Personally? No, I wouldn't want her to go back to her family. She has every right to cut ties with her family and go far away.
But, in her character it is shown that she is someone loyal to her family, so maybe they only talk through letters, but she would still stay away from them.
I like the found family trope, so that would be a good ending for Azula.
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