Heyooooooo sorry this is so late!!! I got a new computer and totally forgot the password to my Tumblr XD. Also I've gotten multiple asks piled up in my inbox asking for fanfic recs for Dadzawa stuff so I'm just gonna shove em all in here. It's mostly Midoriya-centric, some are just the dadzawa himself, a couple are with Shinsou, and then a few are just fics I like. It's a hot mess XD sorry I'm making up for being away for so long.
Anyway, onto the list!!
Midoriya-Centric Dadzawa fics:
Improbable by achievingelysium
A Cup of Tea by kyu_writes
Mockingbird by angst_goblin
Backbone by kuragay
Passing Grade by Cornflower_Blue
Pathological Fracture by morallyambiguous
every memory is a drop in the ocean by wastefulreverie
Plan C Meets Plan A by Blueseabird2
On the subject of dreaming by aizawa_wears_crocs (avenris), avenris
Barely Breathing by Cornflower_Blue
Shinsou-Centric Dadzawa fics:
Try, Try Again by deafmic
A Little Longer by deafmic
(literally just read deafmic lol they're amazing)
Fics I like (vaguely dad-like):
Awakening by Zyla_SweetBean
when there is light (there are shadows) by azureskyy
swim or drown by beeclaws
The Lost River Dragon by Zyla_SweetBean
the sins of the father (they thrum beneath the skin) by intheeveningsunrise
No offense but I feel like even as a kid, Ozai was already beyond redemption. People may say it it harsh given he was a kid but I feel like Ozai's personality by the time he was eight more like Azula, but ramp up the violent tendencies and unlike Azula who is insecure over being called a monster, Ozai would laugh in your face for a such a weak insult. Where Azula throwing oafs of bread, Ozai strangled those birds when they bit him.
I always child Ozai was the monster Azula thought she was. Ozai just didn't care. I feel like Ozai being an utterly menace the moment he could walk would make more sense.
I don't care if Azula reconciles with her friends.
I don't care if Azula reconciles with her mother.
I don't care if Azula reconciles with Iroh.
I don't care if Azula reconciles with Ozai.
I don't care if Azula completely rejects Ozai.
I don't care if Azula becomes friends with the Gaang.
I don't care if Azula rejects imperialism.
I don't care if Azula becomes a revolutionary.
I don't care if Azula dies young.
I don't care if Azula lives long.
I don't care if Azula has a romantic relationship.
I don't care if Azula has kids.
I don't care if Azula remains childless.
I don't care if Azula lives the rest of her life in the Fire Nation.
I don't care if Azula leaves the Fire Nation and never returns.
I don't care if Azula remains an antagonist.
I don't care if Azula becomes a hero.
What I care about is that Azula be written in an interesting manner.
The biggest reason I tend to advocate sticking closely to canon is that Azula, as she's portrayed in canon, is incredibly interesting and complex, and almost any change people make to that makes her less interesting.
If Azula gets a redemption arc, make it interesting.
If Azula remains an antagonist, make it interesting.
If you want to write Zuko and Azula making up, be my guest, but make it interesting because the fanon version of this is boring as shit.
If you want to write Azula never reconciling with Mai and Ty Lee, be my guest, but write it an interesting way, because "they all hated each other forever just because they hated each other and never forgave" is boring as shit.
If you want to write Azula becoming friends with the Gaang, sure, but make it interesting.
If you want to write Azula rejecting imperialism, sure, but make it interesting.
If you want to write Azula living the rest of her life in exile, sure, do it, but make it interesting.
Really hoping that this scene is of Azula standing up to a bully and not her being a bully. Her facial expression indicates that it might be the former, since she looks angry, but only time will tell. It'd be a great comparison though if it's the former, since it seems like Kiyi also stands up to a bully in this comic:
Showing that Azula and Kiyi share some good qualities would be nice to see, and a breath of fresh air from this franchise constantly painting Azula in a bad light all the time.
How would you write Azula’s story after the war?
Oooo! I actually have written an outline for Azula's post canon arc a few years ago, but because Tumblr would rather spend time and money on stupid failure projects like that Live nonsense instead of something actually helpful like making the archive less annoying to use, I can't be bothered to find it. So, I'll write it here again. It'll probably be a bit different because I think I may have changed my mind on a few things since the first version of this. If anyone finds the original, leave a note, so it'll show up in my activity feed. Also, disclaimer, this is only one version of an Azula redemption that I've thought up, and this is how I see this particular circumstance going. I have other ideas.
So, after the war, Azula goes to the mental health hospital for her breakdown. She hates it, and she hates being there, and the hates all the people trying to change her because there is noting wrong with her. In the end, the doctors agree. There is nothing wrong with her that they can help with, so they let Zuko know that she is fit to stand whatever trial he wants to have for her.
That leaves Zuko in a tough spot. Azula really hasn't changed at all, and she makes it clear that she thinks it should be her on the throne instead of her brother. He can't let her go, because there are such extreme reactions to her. On the one hand the general public hates her. To them, she represents the same things Ozai did; a greed for power at whatever cost to the people she deems expendable. On the other hand, she has a decent amount of support among Ozai loyalists for the same reason (Ozai is probably dead by now, btw. Executed by an international tribunal. Aang was pissed. It was a whole thing). He can't keep her in the palace because there is a very real possibility that she will try to assassinate him, or challenge him to another Agni Kai, and Zuko would actually have to kill her this time. So, he exiles her. It was either that, or prison.
Azula end up on one of the smaller, more remote islands in the Fire Nation archipelago. There is a very small community there of locals. Azula is appointed a modest, but comfortable home, and a team of servants who are there to both make her comfortable and make sure she doesn't get up to anything. It pisses Azula off more than if Zuko had just put her in prison. There is no way off the island. No one has anything larger than a fishing boat, and ships only come a few times a year to deliver supplies. The locals are far enough removed from the Fire Nation capital that the fact that Azula is nobility is a curiosity more than anything. There are no loyal subjects among them, though, to Azula's disgust, they think Zuko's doing an alright job (the other Fire Lords either ignored them, or made their lives miserable. Zuko actually seems to be...trying to get to know them?).
There is no one who cares enough to join up with Azula to take him down. No one awe inspired enough to make her their de facto ruler. And despite the fact that Azula is the most powerful firebender on the island, by far, she is out numbered. A fact that was made clear after she attacked and killed one of her guards (who was a local son), and the entire town converged wanting to kill her. She was only spared because her guards from the capital held the line long enough for the governor of the island to be notified and pull up with reinforcements. Azula can't go any farther than the garden behind her house for almost two years for her own protection.
Eventually, when Azula is allowed to move more freely (though still heavily guarded), she treats the locals like they are beneath her, which does her no favors. The more she puts on airs, the less people respect her, including her own prison guards servants. This is a problem for Azula. She's used to manipulating either by fear, or by playing to people's egos. No one fears her on that island, and no one's ego is touched by what she offers. She's a tiger that's been defanged and declawed. Alone.
Sometime around her fifth year in exile, she is assigned a new maid after she ran off a four of them. This new maid is a middle aged war vet with a smoking habit and a limp. She has no respect for titles and airs, and while she does her job well, she also will not put up with Azula's attitude for long. She will go barb for barb against Azula, and when Azula snaps and starts throwing things and firebending at her, the maid makes fun of her for having a tantrum. Azula tries to fire her several times, but each time, the maid reminds her that she works for Zuko, which only pisses Azula off more. Eventually, Azula realizes that she can't scare this maid off, and she grudgingly accepts her presence. They don't become friends right away, but Azula does come to respect the way the maid doesn't back down from her. Any time Azula snaps at her, the maid snaps right back. After a while, their relationship does grow into something like what Zuko had with Iroh, and the maid gets Azula into gardening.
On the island is the ne'er-do-well youngest son of a lesser noble who is in something like exile himself. He didn't hurt anyone, but he had several substance abuse issues that caused his family a lot of embarrassment. His parents sent him to the island to either clean up, or drink himself to death. He'd been on the island for several years before Azula was sent, but they don't meet until several years after she arrived. He is what Mai probably would've been if Azula hadn't become friends with her as children. He's snarky, lazy, and a bit eccentric. He is annoyed with his parents for sending him to this island, but he also acknowledges that he probably wouldn't be doing much if he hadn't been. Only, there would be more parties. He and Azula have something like a friendship, and they do help each other grow. Not much. He drinks a bit less with her, and she becomes less aggressively power hungry, but they are united in hating the island and the people who sent them there. I haven't decided if this turns into a romance or not, but they do become close.
Between him and the maid, Azula has the opportunity to vent like she hasn't had before. Eventually, she does come to realize that she no longer wants power like she did before. She finally admits what she never dared before and tells her new friends that she hated Ozai towards the end. She complains about her mother, too, but on getting more details, the maid realizes that Ursa was a good mother doing her best with a child who didn't respect her. That shakes Azula, and even though it takes a long time, she does come to peace with her mother's memory.
Zuko visits the island at least once a year. That's when he gets to know the people on the island and what they need from him as a ruler. He becomes pretty well liked among them, which helps smooth some of the rougher feelings towards Azula over time. Especially since he often brings his wife, with her healing hands and informal, downright manners, with him. Azula refuses to see him for the first few years (almost a decade). Zuko respects that, though he does try to visit whenever he's on the island. Then one year, she does agree to have tea with him. They sit together in silence for an hour before Azula unceremoniously ends the visit. Zuko begins writing to her after that. Just short letters about the weather, and startlingly, his children. That's how she finds out she's an aunt of four, with one more on the way. She finds out through gossip that her brother married the Avatar's waterbender, and the maid laughs at her for not knowing. It was big news when they started dating, over a decade ago. Bigger news when their engagement was announced, the entire country was holding it's breath when they had their first child, and the parents refused to tell anyone if the kid was a firebender or not for the first three years of their life. Azula missed it all. The next time Zuko visits, they have tea again, and this time they talk for an hour before Azula ends the visit.
Azula is surprised to find that she doesn't hate her brother anymore. She did for a long time. Especially after their Agni Kai. She doesn't feel much of anything towards him anymore. Not hate. Not affection. Just a bit of curiosity to see how he's turned out, and what kind of ruler he is. She knows that the people on her little island are beginning to like him a lot. More than they like any politician, anyway (though that bar is pretty low). A few of them even love Katara (mostly the very young ones). Their teas when he visits gradually get longer. Zuko still clearly cares about Azula, and they do build up something of a friendly relationship. Zuko never brings his family, and Azula never asks to see them. It works for them that way.
In the meantime, Azula loosens up to the people on the island, and by the time she's approaching 40, she's become one of them. She and her other exile friend are something of oddities among the locals, but they like her well enough now. A few of them have even had the honor of being welcomed into her home, or of being gifted herbs from her garden. Some of the local children even come by to hear stories of her days in the palace and of her brother, the Fire Lord who saved the nation. She tells them very embarrassing stories of Zuko's childhood. One day, Azula realizes, with no small amount of surprise, that she likes her life, and the people in it. Even loves a few of them. Her maid is elderly by now, but she hasn't been replaced, even though Azula serves her more often than not. Azula and her fellow exile, if they are not actually in love, are at least platonic life mates. She doesn't have children- doesn't want children- but she cares about some of the local ones -the braver ones- like her own. They would never call her auntie (too her face), but they love her, too.
This is the quiet redemption arc for Azula. Now that I type it out, I realize, it kind of reminds me of a mix of Hester Prynne and Mary Lennox
