See when a fic is actually able to articulate why Azula being put in some comically evil Arkham Asylum mental ward is a Bad Thing I can tolerate it, but I gotta make sure I put my voice out there that like.
Why Does Everyone Write Azula Getting Put In Cartoon Evil Fire Nation Psych Wards. Can't you think of Anything Better Guys.
The most we see about Fire Nation mental care in the show is like, that the Royal Family has a Royal Physician - which can lead us to conclude wealthy families have private doctors and so there probably are some levels of both public and privatized health professionals for the various social classes. And presumably the Fire Sages might be involved since they're kind of spiritual leaders. But is there a genuine example of like, a psych-ward equivalent in any of the cultures that inspired the Fire Nation that predates the western invention of the psych ward? Or is it just an invention of the comic author's 'madwoman' fetish or something?
But also. Azula is the BELOVED Princess of the Fire Nation. 150 years of imperialist ideology do NOT disappear overnight, and neither would Azula's support in the Fire Nation just bc she lost the Agni Kai. Recall in The Siege of the North Pt 2 Zuko spoke of how Azula was adored by "everyone" for her Firebending. She was eleven then. Imagine how loved she is at fourteen? Imagine how loved Azula is when she TAKES the Earth Kingdom, a country that has withstood a century of war, without sacrificing any FN blood? Imagine how loved Azula is when she is declared Crown Princess and then Fire Lord? Why in the fuck would Evil Mental Ward Staff Abuse their beloved Royal who just won them the war? It's a completely frivolous, silly concept.
If word got out to the MANY still-imperialist people of the Fire Nation that Zuko was enabling Azula's abuse, they'd riot and start an anti-Zuko civil war. Many likely already propagandize him as a traitor, a filthy Avatar sycophant, or a usurper who stole the throne from the rightful Crowned Heir. We must remember that the only time the Fire Nation ever loved Zuko was when Azula lied and said he killed the Avatar/helped her take the Earth Kingdom. When he was declared traitor again, all that support shifted back to Azula.
The cultural standard of "obey your Fire Lord at all costs" will be extremely testy when the Fire Lord reverses a hundred-and-fifty-years-of-imperialist-agenda in a day, and besides they'll take anything an excuse to just launch a civil war because people are LOOKING for a weakness to boot Zuko off the throne. And it's not like Ozai can take the throne, so Azula is the militarists' best bet for a 'better' Fire Lord. Plus Iroh fucked off to Ba Sing Se, it's not like he can help. That's how the Hundred-Year-War becomes the Hundred-And-Fifty-Year-War real quick.
This also isn't going into the very likely possibility that a girl who had a stress-induced breakdown and believes she lost everything and no one loves her, getting hauled into a physically/sexually abusive psych ward, would prob just kill herself . And how her death would make her a martyr in the eyes of every last loyal Fire Nation patriot.
It's like the same way Aang removing Azula's bending so Azula can "get better" is an atrocious concept to set her on a redemption arc. A mentally destroyed Azula getting energybent would break down, stop functioning, and kill herself, not find 'understanding in her suffering'. Not to mention Aang would sincerely object to it on the basis of like, literally all of his principles, and lose his own bending trying to take hers.
Plus this isn't even going into the character reasons why "I think prison can set you on the right path Ozai my physical abuser" Zuko wouldn't dump his sister in an abusive mental ward, even if we give the benefit of the doubt and say mental wards do have precedent for existing in the Fire Nation despite Zero Mention Of That Being Standard Practice.
I just genuinely HATE how Azula spending time in a physically and sometimes even sexually abusive asylum is just treated as the basic "starting point" for many Azula fics, as though it's what's 'supposed' to happen to her. In my head, after the finale, Zuko does remove her from the palace - because "banishment set me on the right path" era Zuko would say 'she needs to be removed from this environment to find the right path' - and place her on a guarded island run by the Fire Sages where she receives her own spiritual healing - the Fire Nation equivalent to mental health therapy. Occasionally Zuko visits her, he tries for a regular schedule but government duties often hold him up. And maybe (insert girl of choice) visits Azula because she needs a break from the world and they end up becoming each other's point of stability and romance ensues... Or Ty Lee becomes Azula's guard in a role-reversal of the power dynamic they had and they grow closer....
As far as what Zuko does with Azula, he's not an idiot and would be able to recognize that "if I don't try and get her on the right path there will be a lot of people in the Fire Nation that want her to sit on the throne instead of me. So I should make sure I keep her in a safe and secure environment, maybe guarded by the soldiers and guards she's talked down to in the past because they won't listen to her or get swayed by her into turning on me, and I should make extreme care that she's treated well because she's mentally fractured."
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