Hello, I've decided to write an incredibly long cope post on why Azula isn't a war criminal and everyone who thinks so is just dumb. To preface, Azula is probably the character I enjoy most from AtLA aside from Zuko. I utterly detest the comics and pretend they don't exist as they character assassinate everyone from the show and muck things up to the nth degree. I will be ignoring them.
I will, to the best of my ability, jot down all of her major on-screen actions in the order they appear during the show and give my judgement on them. I'll probably break this up into a few parts so we'll just see how much I feel like cramming in here first.
1.) Her First (Proper) Introduction (Not counting the end of Book 1) we have Azula addressing a platoon-sized element of Royal Guard, who may have apprehension of engaging with Zuko and Iroh, that they are to perform their duties or face consequences. Then the Captain of the ship informs her that the tides won't allow the ship to be brought in. She threatens him with being thrown overboard if he doesn't figure it out.
Honestly, she was tame here. I was a much bigger asshole as an NCO and this is jargon no different than what you'd hear from a Corporal or Sergeant. Wah, my superior officer (in this case, the daughter of my actual divinely-blessed supreme ruler who leads an absolutist east-asian inspired magocratic regime.) was mean to me! Grow up. 2.) Deceiving Zuko and Iroh into coming aboard her ship so they can be imprisoned and brought back to the Fire Nation in chains. Sure, not the nicest thing to be lied to about this by your sister and then, after figuring out it was a ruse, engaging in a lethal duel with her. Not a good mark, innit.
3.) The recruitment of Ty Lee could have been handled with a larger helping of tact, but If I was approached by the Supreme Ruler's daughter to be recruited for her Special Military Operation I probably wouldn't respond with "nah." Idk, sounds like a bad idea. Definitely not a good mark for Azula though.
4.) Mai hugged her and thanked her for getting her out of Omashu. Doesn't scream coerced to me.
5.) Playing hot potato with Mai's brother isn't a good look, but Mai didn't seem to give a shit and as far as I remember it's never brought up by Mai against Azula ever.
6.) She shot Iroh after claiming to surrender. This is perfidy and can be counted as a war crime under Article 37 of the Geneva Conventions. However, there is no Switzerland and no Geneva in the world of Avatar, so this is a moot point. There is no known document detailing the laws of war and having one done up post-war and applied retroactively is bad and not good to do. Not unless you have sweeping declarations made (like the Allies and USSR did in WW2) before you win and apprehend your war criminal cabal.
7.) The drill scene is a standard combat scene and would have no real bearing on anything other than being an antagonist. Mai out right refuses an order of hers and seemingly there's no repercussion we can see.
8.) Fighting the Kyoshi Warriors. Oh boy, one of the big ticket items people like to have brought up when talking about Azula. The actually engagement is fine and the Kyoshi Warriors make themselves an enemy of the Fire Nation but fighting its very own Princess. They then lose to Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee and are taken as POWs. Unfortunately for the anti-Azula crowd, losing and having a skill issue isn't grounds for war crimes. You lost. Get over it.
Suki, being the important character with a name and screen time gets sent to the special prison (I believe the others as well but I'm rusty on the details) because that's what important characters get. Important things.
This leads onto the next, and more controversial action, the disguised coup of Ba Sing Se.
9.) When the Azula Trio sneak into Ba Sing Se, they do so by disguising themselves as the Kyoshi Warriors to infiltrate the Earth King's palace. Azula uses this opportunity to take control of the Dai Li and oust both Long Feng and the Earth King and assumed control. The contention raised is the usage of the disguises when fighting and the coup itself.
At the Dachau Military Tribunal, when trying Otto Skorzeny, they were found not guilty of wearing American military uniforms when conducting false flag operations. The abridged version is that the Allies weren't about to also out themselves for doing the same thing. The general rule now is that while disguised as the enemy conducting military operations, you don't attack while wearing the enemy uniform unless you distinctly mark yourself or are found out and fired upon (Although this can be incredibly difficult to prove).
Ty Lee and Mai are first attacked by Toph and therefore begin to defend themselves. Azula at this point is is not in a Kyoshi disguised but is semi-officially leading the Dai Li and is the engaged first by Iroh and Zuko. Most laws and manuals pertaining to this would have Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee not necessarily at fault following an investigation of it.
As for the coup, well you got outplayed by a trio of teenage girls. A gigantic skill issue if there ever was one.
10.) Shooting Aang. Probably the top most reason for Azula being an evil, despicable, no good, awful, terrible, wretched, vile, sickening, sociopath, etc. You name it, someone has probably said it. In reality, if two child soldiers shoot at each and one kills the another, we generally try to still offer mercy and compassion because children shouldn't be fighting in wars. This is an exceptionally complex and heavy topic that no one has managed to figure out today, let alone a fanfic writer. Yet it seems no proper care is given to the subject how how difficult it is to address.
I ultimately place the blame on the adults for letting children fight a war in their stead.
I'm going to finish this up as part 1. Part 2 will be all of the Book 3 actions and maybe some finishing thoughts. No time table on that, just whenever I'm not getting too felted by War Thunder or something. There's certainly alot more explanation I could give, but I'd rather do that with a one-on-one instead of loading up a single post with a gigantic wall of text that rivals the height of a Tank, Combat, Full Tracked: 105-mm Gun, M60.
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