azula, mai & ty lee: a look in on their friendship
allies. betrayal. insanity. we all know the story of how these three went up in flames.
right, but in all actuality, we all do know the story of how ty lee and mai’s betrayal broke azula and was the starting point to her paranoia and insanity. but i was having many thoughts since my atla rewatch on how exactly mai, azula, and ty lee worked and why this was such a big deal, etc and etc and etc. so here we are, at an essay.
ty lee and mai are friends with azula for unknown reasons. we know they met at an academy, and it’s likely mai and azula were in the same circles, due to mai’s father’s position. ty lee’s family, on the other hand, was likely noble, but not of extreme prominence. still, they’re the ones who ended up sticking with azula and becoming her ‘friends’, when she had virtually no one else in her life. so already, they have at least some importance to azula, and she to them. but i digress, so anyways.
mai, azula, and ty lee are all opposite and very different from one another, but one thing i noticed is how they act around their emotions: most directly, how they’ve each cultivated themselves a personality revolving around the repression of certain emotions. for mai and azula, it’s a more repression of emotions in general, but with some distinct differences, mainly in why they don’t let themselves feel what they feel. whereas azula never lets herself be imperfect - which is why she never lets herself feel anything that could be compromising, such as attachment, love, sadness, or anything but rage, anger, and pride. but azula still feels, while mai never lets herself feel anything. she’s expressionless and apathetic. she doesn’t let herself care about anyone or anything, which differs from azula, who never lets herself care about anyone, but cares about something, which is what drives her (much like zuko, oddly enough - they’re both very goal oriented). for ty lee, this is being the nice girl all the time. she’s always happy. she never lets herself be sad. she’s always smiling, laughing, and being generally bubbly with whoever she meets, even her enemies.
ty lee is used to living her life as part of a set, where she lacked individuality and such. what i find strange about ty lee is that she’s never truly independent - she joins the circus, but she can’t really make her own choices, even away from her sisters. she joins azula, where she’s once again a follower, never a leader. i think that ty lee is someone so used to following, to being a part of something, that she can’t truly distinguish herself from a group (re: she also joins the kyoshi warriors, essentially becoming part of a set once again), despite all her efforts. it’s like she unconsciously returns to other people over and over again.
however, i think this also feeds into her relationship with azula. because ty lee is very loyal. she never spoke out against azula, and she always did what she said. she never complained, or voiced any of her thoughts; she always kept up a cheerful facade. we can even see that azula was jealous of ty lee at points (like at ember island), because people like her. she obviously cared enough about ty lee to apologize to her (ty lee is also the only person azula has ever apologized to, so that’s saying something).
but more on that first sentence. while mai’s betrayal did hurt azula, i think she, in some way, might have expected it - mai was never as actively loyal as ty lee. she’s quiet and she’s apathetic; essentially, she came with azula because she thought it would be less boring than her home life. azula, too, was aware of mai’s relation to zuko and their childhood feelings. i’m not exactly sure how to articulate this, but i think that, while mai’s betrayal was shocking, it was something that could be understood or explained. there was a reason to it that azula knew, even if she didn’t want to believe it.
but ty lee?
ty lee was the one person azula probably trusted and cared about. she was practically the only person azula could count on to never act out and to never let her down. yet, at boiling rock, she acts out on her own - something she’s never done before (again, while mai might not have ever really acting on her own, i always saw a clear line between her and azula). this is ultimately what shatters azula, the realization that she’s alone and maybe she always has been, in a way. that she can never trust anyone fully again. that she can’t care, that she can’t joke around, that she can’t build a bond, because everyone will let her down, even the people who she assume never will.
i also think azula never considered the fact that ty lee could be loyal to someone other than her. to azula, mai and ty lee revolve around her, but i don’t think she ever considered that they could have a bond of their own, with one another. azula lived with the assumption that she was the most important person to both of them, yet they both chose someone else over her, which i think also fed into her fear that she’s not good enough and she never will be, despite all her efforts.
anyways. i don’t know if this makes that much sense, but i wanted to attempt to summarize some thoughts i had about these three without going on too long rambles. tl;dr: they’re complicated. you should probably read through this; it’s not that long.
