Quaritch was shot in the arm by Spider, and later, when trying to rescue him, he was unable to lift him, symbolizing his ineffectual attempts to connect with his son, which manifest in twisted, flawed treatment even when he has good intentions.
Neytiri was shot in the back by Varang (who channels grief in a destructive way) in the same spot as Neteyam, mirroring son’s wound, which symbolically represents her wounded heart after his death.
Jake was shot in the leg by Ash warrior, which can be seen as a symbol of his past disability and a current weakness fueled by his past. May also allude to the biblical story of Jacob, who was left with a damaged leg after wrestling with God for a blessing.
As someone previously noted, everyone was shot on their dominant side: Quaritch and Jake are right-handed, while Neytiri is left-handed.
All of these shootings happened before the character’s inner healing, or, in Quaritch’s case, before giving himself time for it by escaping death at Neytiri’s hands.
Everyone talks about Zuko's redemption arc but nobody talks about Iroh's redemption arc. Probably because it's a lot subtler and we only see it from the outside, and only the tail-end of it.
Before his son died, Iroh was a pretty bad dude. He had redeeming qualities, like sparing the last dragons and loving his family. But he was still a general leading a campaign of conquest.
His redemption started after his son died. He clearly had a lot of self reflection as well as a spiritual awakening in the following years.
But he was still conflicted, trying to remain loyal to his nation and family while also practicing the principles he learned from his travels. But those things were incompatible.
Even after he had to actively fight against the Fire Nation when Zhao threatened the moon spirit, he still thought he could return to living in the Fire Nation.
It's only after Azula tried to imprison him and Zuko and forced them on the run that he gave up on the idea.
I think it's sometime around their time staying in Ba Sing Se that he finally decided to oppose the Fire Nation. At the price of his own freedom, eventually.
I think seeing Zuko's struggles with redemption reminded him of his own earlier struggles, and it's what finally pushed him over the edge. He didn't just help Zuko redeem himself, Zuko helped him redeem himself too.
it's interesting that jake doesn't consider himself one of the sky people anymore, has obviously lived more life as na'vi than human now, but he didn't raise his children as na'vi would have. he raised them as human, as a former soldier. as a marine.
orders and not words, punishments and not guidance, sir and not father. he taught them military communication from a nato alphabet in a world that doesn't even have nato. he raised them like soldiers, even in a time of peace. "i'm not gonna say it again." there's never any compromise.
his sons feel like they have to live up to him, like they have to earn his approval, prove themselves worthy before him. because jake makes them feel that way.
of course, none of that he's doing on purpose. much can be said about ex-military parents with untreated ptsd. we all know this story.
jake is still very much human, even nearing his forties in a na'vi body. him choosing the rifle over the bow every single time is symbolic. jake will never be able to live a normal life, he's spent too much time fighting in his previous one. he's never healed from venezuela. he's always waiting for the moment things turn bad again, for the war to come back.
he needs it. he doesn't know how to exist without it. and he hates himself for it.
and the thing is, quaritch knows this all too well. knows it because they came from the same place, share the same ghosts. it's one of the core conflicts between these characters, because quaritch doesn't flinch at violence the way jake does. quaritch fully embraces that part of himself.
it's even more interesting that jake does recoil from it. he doesn't want it. in his heart, he's not a warrior. simply forced to be one and never taught any other way. he winces at the memory of once being toruk makto, despises every time he has to become him again. but he keeps doing it anyway. tragic.
jake might've escaped humanity, but he never escaped the war within himself. and now that quaritch is back, he's never going to let jake forget it.
i love how lin seems to have recognized what toph couldn't—that she is not a parental type and that wanting to have a legacy is not the same as wanting to be a parent.
do i think that toph loves her daughters deeply? yes. but i think that somewhere between the ending of the 100-year war and her taking off for travels, she prioritized being authority over having freedom and the decision to have children was mostly aligned with her new path—the mentor at the metalbending academy, the chief of police, the republic city politician.
i find it compelling that it was bc of her involvement in the foundation of the republic city and perhaps bc of aang's influence that she grew more authoritative over time and focused on (to the point of being blinded by) achieving goals tightly connected to his—the responsibility of continuing their legacy and protecting what they were building together.
it had started to crumble down when she chose to destroy suyin's police report. she tarnished her authority as the chief to have the beifong authority untarnished. figure that's why she sought a true enlightment later on.
and that makes toph the most interesting character from the adult gaang. while her influence on lin and how lin grew to be makes lin the most interesting of gaang's children—she might have the most mental health and emotional issues, but she saw herself clearly and she never derailed from the path that was right for her.
poetically, thought, if toph being true to herself by distancing came to her with ease and meant freedom, lin being true to herself by distancing came to her with pain and meant loneliness.
Here's a huge ramble about cool hair symbolism in the fire nation royal family. I'm not an expert in hairstyles whatsoever, so this is just from a writing/artistic perspective!
Sozin's hair as crown prince is very similar to young Zuko's: the two little spikes away from the corner of his hairline. At this time, there was peace in the world, and he was still friends with Roku. However, as a newly-fledged warlord, all of his hair is perfectly tied back into his topknot. His levity has been replaced by ambition, and his connection to Roku has been erased in favour of that want for perfection and legacy. What's also interesting is that all of his hair is pulled into his top knot, not just the front half. I wonder if this is further evidence of his pursuit of perfection, a personal preference, or changing Fire Nation fashions...?
More under cut.
Eternally, Lu Ten's hair is perfect. And so was he: the perfect prince; the perfect heir. The patriot and the soldier, off to fight on the front lines alongside his Uncle. Dying a perfect warrior's death. The shadow of war looms over the entire series, of course, but I argue that the world of a:tla is haunted first and foremost by the death of Lu Ten - without Iroh's loss, grief, and spiritual journey, the war may have been won by the Fire Nation long before Aang was broken free of the ice. His sideburns are juuust starting to grow into something similar to Iroh's, representing how perhaps Lu Ten had just begun to morph into a younger version of Iroh himself. A perfect grandchild for Azulon and his empire.
Ursa's hair isn't much to write home about, except in the looseness of her topknot. It's soft and layered, but still very neat... Except in the loose back ends, which are jagged and uneven. Very fitting for someone who projects perfection and tries to lead with compassion when it comes to her children, but is hiding her true strength and willingness to commit dangerous acts underneath it all. Layers!
Everyone talks about Zuko's hair evolution, but Azula's is honestly more interesting to me. Hair is a symbol of pride and perfection in the Fire Nation. Loose hairs are flaws; topknots are sacred symbols of nobility and honour. Azula's hair is perfect - Azula is in control. Except... Azula isn't perfect. She's a 14 year old girl reared to be a killing machine. Flawless from the front, but always hiding jagged edges close to the back of her scalp.
"Almost perfect."
"One hair out of place."
"Almost isn't good enough."
It's interesting that this point ^ was made in regards to her lightning. It's what separates her; makes her royal and powerful. But it is also her downfall in the final Agni Kai, and these lines foreshadow that. In that fight, 'almost' was what enabled Zuko to sacrifice himself for a blow that Katara could not survive - ending with Katara restraining Azula, before saving him in turn. Nobody was there for Azula.
Another point of foreshadowing was the fight at the Western Air Temple. When Zuko and Azula's power was shown to be clearly matched for the first time, their stalemate blasts them both off the airship. But while Zuko was saved by the Gaang (specifically Katara, again, the person he first opens up to!!), Azula was left alone in freefall. And how does she survive that fall? Brute force. Ripping the symbol of her nobility out of her hair and letting her topknot fall free of control. This parallels the final Agni Kai, in which she attacked a spectator in order to get at what she perceived to be Zuko's weakness, uncaring that she threw away her claim to the throne just to win. To be perfect.
Her willingness to emulate Ozai isolated her from Ursa. But deep down, Azula knew that her mother loved her. She didn't fear her, or think her a monster. It's just that those are the only ways that Azula has left to connect to people. And that is the actual hair out of place; Azula's true weakness. Fear is not the only thing that controls people, and many things can overcome it - most essentially in a:tla, love. It was love for Zuko that lead Mai to betray her, it was Ty Lee's love for Mai that lead her to betray Azula in turn. It was love that Kya sacrificed herself for, love that sent Lu Ten to the frontlines. Love that Zuko spent years struggling for, that Iroh stayed with him all along for. And for Azula, when all that fear fails, and Ozai abandons her, she has nothing. Not even control. So she cuts her hair in an attempt to punish it. The hairs at her nape are now overgrown and bedraggled. She can no longer put her own hair in the noble topknot (that, or she never learnt how... Getting waited on by now-banished servants her entire life). That is the downfall of Sozin's empire.
In contrast to Azula and Lu Ten, Zuko's always had loose strands of hair. It's most obvious in the war meeting and his first Agni Kai against Ozai: he is directly challenging the Fire Nation's prerogatives as the less-talented child. Despite trying to learn and be a good heir (as the rest of his hair is tied perfectly into his ponytail, the only time we see those side-pieces tamed) there is still one hair so clearly out of place. His weakness, at least in this moment, is the compassion that was instilled into him by Ursa. Compassion that made him bow and surrender.
Everyone already knows about the bald ponytail thing so I'll skip ahead. I appreciate how even when Zuko returns to the Fire Nation that he can't keep his hair as symmetrical as Azula's. His hair cannot match how it was when he was a child: his hair is literally too short; his experiences outside of the palace have changed him too much. His scar - his first and most eminent trauma - in and of itself prevents a 'clean' hairline. It may be long enough to be pulled back into a noble topknot, but it's bursting at the seams. A burden waiting to be undone once more, for the love of his Uncle and in pursuit of true peace for himself and the world.
It's only when he's crowned Fire Lord that the flyaways become symmetrical once again. Hairs out of place, intentionally. A new era of love and peace.
I don't have much to say about Iroh, but I find it interesting in his character design how much his topknot sticks out of his head. He's very round in general, so it accentuates even further. I think the reasoning for that is twofold: the love Azulon showed for his favoured firstborn (however the hell it was conveyed, who knows) enabled Iroh to show love to Lu Ten where Ozai had none. Even while laying siege to Ba Sing Se, he loves his son and gives thoughtful gifts to his niece and nephew. Secondly, his journey through the Spirit World and through grief itself has unfettered him from his attachment to nobility in general. His 'station' - and thus his topknot - is conspicuously mismatched with his appearance, demeanor, and philosophies. Getting rid of it doesn't even phase him.
Spider Socorro and Avatar F&A - Colonialism vs Settler Colonialism
A very brief analysis:
Avatar is a story of colonialization, Fire and Ash transitions this story into one of settler colonialism.
Within the mainstream, many conflate the two terms colonialism and settler colonialism, I think many of us including myself have been guilty of this. Mostly because the difference is not taught, and the lack of awareness feeds into the ideological maintenance of settler colonial states (I’m looking at you Canada “my home and native land”)(for reference I am Canadian, this applies to other settler colonial states I just love complaining about my own). But there is inherent difference in how the two are characterized and what the harms are.
In the words of Patrick Wolfe, “settler colonizers come to stay: invasion is a structure not an event.” (Wolfe 2006; 388). In non-settler colonialism the primary focus is about resource extraction and labour exploitation, often not about replacing native populations but about structuring their way of life and organization around colonial interests. This is seen in the first two Avatar movies where the primary motivation of Pandoran exploration is about extracting resources, and the Na’vi are forcibly moved, killed, or re-organized in a way that serves the colonial interests.
In contrast, in Fire and Ash we are shown through Spider that humans are now able to live on Pandora in a non-costly way, allowing for long term settlement and access to territory. Territory is the main motivation for settler colonialism and what makes it distinct from (standard) colonialism, not only can indefinite control over resources be assured but new land for settlement and establishing permanent/dominant population presence is key. The attempt here is to create a “new home” for which the settlers are entitled to control, divide, and exploit. In order to establish this, settler populations need to replace native populations, manifesting in various forms of genocide (physical, cultural, social, linguistic, etc).
F&A makes it clear that this will happen if humans can access ways to make Pandora habitable to them. The point is that now they will be massacred and eradicated, allowing for human settler colonialism to be enacted (ie “let’s just share the land”) will cause mass destruction to the Na’vi. Furthermore, “sharing the land” is not a one time deal, the marginalization of native populations structures settler colonial states in ongoing ways - not an event but a structure - the Na’vi will never be able to return to their way of life if settler colonialism happens.
I don't really feel like writing a conclusion cus it’s not like this is an academic paper lol but this is why I hate the direction that the franchise is taking, symbolized through spider. Now I’m not gonna hate on a kid (I will) but omg why would they do any of that. If they cared at all about real Indigenous people the studio should get way more radical and just say “fuck colonizers” and boot them all outta Pandora (not that Disney would do something that interesting).
Anyways here’s a poor citation of the paper I am referencing, theres a ton more to be mentioned like “logics of elimination” which I may write about in the future or edit/add to this later. I recommend anyone who’s interested in the topic to read this paper.
Wolfe, Patrick. 2006. “Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native.” Journal of Genocide Research 8(4) 387-409.
I was watching the deleted/original cut of the scene with Neytiri holding Spider hostage which — first off, incredible scene by the way like holy shit — but it made me think about how perfectly it served for Neytiri’s character.
Someone might’ve already talked about this already, but what I don’t think a lot of people realize is that this scene serves as the payoff for earlier Neytiri-related scenes as well as a starting point for her arc going forward.
If you haven’t watched the scene, here, it’s a far more impactful version of an already hard hitting scene and I’m going to treat it as what “really” happened in the story for the sake of analysis.
The first moment I’m focusing on is this one where Neytiri goes to pick up her bow after killing a few RDA grunts, only to find that the bow is now broken and unusable.
There’s a running theme in these two movies that I’ve seen people point out and that’s how Neytiri keeps losing things that are precious to her, whether they be people, places, or objects.
In the first movie, she loses a lot including but not limited to the Hometree, the Tree of Voices, her older sister, Tsu’tey, her Ikran, and her father. When her father dies, he grants her the Ceremonial Bow and that’s what she ends up using to fight in all subsequent battles.
In the second movie, she thankfully doesn’t lose as much, but she’s still forced to leave her home and her first born son is killed in the heat of battle, rough times all around.
You’ll note that I didn’t include losing her precious bow on the list of things she lost and that’s because she didn’t lose the bow, she broke it.
All the other losses I’ve described are caused by the RDA, but this one isn’t. Instead of her bow being broken by another grunt in the heat of the battle, she’s the one who breaks it by swinging it haphazardly at her enemies.
I may not know all that much about archery or making weapons, but I’m almost certain that bows aren’t designed to be used like that, which is why her bow broke the way that it did.
And it cannot be understated how important this bow must be to Neytiri. I mentioned before that it was given to her by her late father, making it an important connection to her family already, but it’s also made from the wood of Hometree. So not only is it a connection to her family, it’s a connection to her people and the home that was stolen from them.
All that and she still broke it, not because she didn’t cherish the bow, but because she just couldn’t control her anger enough to handle it properly.
And that’s what I feel Neytiri’s fatal flaw is, as well as what her arc will be primarily focusing on in the upcoming movies — Neytiri’s anger and hatred leads to blind rage, and she becomes liable to hurt those she cares about.
For the record, I am not making the claim that Neytiri’s flaw is that she gets angry. Being outraged by death and destruction, hating those who bring about injustice, these aren’t flaws and aren’t things she should be vilified for. What is a flaw is how she uses her anger, or rather how it uses her.
Jake spells it out pretty cleanly in a scene that happened a while ago. When Tonowari told Jake and Neytiri about the destruction the RDA was causing to the nearby villages, they immediately connect it back to Quaritch. Neytiri describes how they have to finish off Quaritch — “we have to hunt this demon, trap him, kill him” — and this is what Jake says in response to that idea:
“We gotta be smart…”
He’s not dismissing the idea of doing something, he’s just cautioning her on how they go about doing it. That’s the crux of Neytiri’s most prevalent flaw, it isn’t her becoming angered at the injustice she and her people face, it’s her not being smart about how she acts on it.
The last two moments I’d like to draw attention to are the one where one of Quartich’s lackey calls Neytiri a “wild animal” and the one where she actually acts like one.
For the record, Lyle and Quaritch are in the wrong for likening Neytiri to an animal and dehumanizing her in the process, especially when the reason they insulted her was because she was acting violent in the video where she was protecting her husband. However, it’s undeniable that during the fight on the Sea Dragon, Neytiri is the most violent and rage filled we’ve ever seen her.
It’s particularly noticeable right before she realizes she broke her bow, which is definitely not a coincidence I’ll tell you that much.
She screams in the guys face and stabs him over and over and over again, after which she gets up and starts growling, searching for anything else that moves. It’s not a stretch to say that, in this moment, she’s acting almost like a bloodthirsty animal hungry for vengeance, not too dissimilar from the wild animal the recoms painted her as.
And all of this, her accidentally breaking her father’s bow, being asked to be smart about it all, acting like a wild animal, it all comes to a head in the moment where she uses Spider’s life as leverage to save Kiri’s. It starts off good when she makes Quaritch let Kiri go, but when Kiri is freed from Quaritch’s grasp and she can turn her attention to the man himself…
…she puts the blade back against Spider’s neck and utters those infamous lines:
“A son for a son.”
I’ve seen a lot of people comment on how “powerful” of a scene this is, and while I agree that it’s a powerful storytelling moment and extremely important to Neytiri’s character, I think a lot of people miss the fact that this isn’t an admirable moment of a mother’s rage, but a scary and dark moment where Neytiri is about to fall to Quaritch’s lows.
Because if Neytiri had actually gone through with this decision, then she would’ve done the same thing to her family that she did with her bow — destroy it. What’s important to note about Neytiri’s hatred towards Spider is that; while it’s understandable considering all the trauma she went through at the hands of his father and the RDA, she’s the only one in her family that feels this way towards him.
For one thing, Spider is both Lo’ak and Kiri’s best friend and they know how much Spider hates being Quaritch’s son, there’s no way that they’d just accept Neytiri after she killed their best friend. We don’t get much development on Spider’s relationship with Tuk or Neteyam, but we see Spider protect Tuk, tease Neteyam, and cry during Neteyam’s death, so they must be friends on some level.
And finally Jake. Admittedly, Jake is pretty lukewarm towards Spider throughout the entire movie, but I’d argue that’s him keeping a respectful distance because of him wanting to side with his wife and not any malice Jake genuinely holds towards Spider himself. We even see him checking over Spider at the end of the movie like he does with Lo’ak and Neteyam.
As much as Jake unconditionally loves Neytiri, I cannot see a world where he’s able to look at her the same way if she killed an innocent child.
And I do mean innocent, because at this point in time Spider’s only “crimes” are being human(not his choice) and being Quaritch’s son(also not his choice). Even if Neytiri’s feelings towards him are understandable and valid, her actions at this point are not justifiable and Jake knows it.
That’s not even mentioning how she hisses at Kiri during this scene, she’s not acting with her family’s best interest in mind, she’s acting on pure rage.
If she had gone through with it and killed Spider, Kiri and Lo’ak would hate her, Tuk wouldn’t be able to look at her the same way again, and Jake probably would’ve left her. She truly did come a hair’s width away from destroying something precious to her once again.
Now let’s talk about Spider for a minute because he’s crucial to all of this, as Neytiri’s hatred for humans extends to her hatred of him.
We already know that, to the Na’vi, “I see you” is considered a respectful greeting, but it’s also a show of great understanding between two people; it’s why Jake’s two pivotal emotional moments at the end of the movies are him telling a loved one “I see you,” it’s because he’s come to understand them as a person beyond what he initially thought.
In contrast, Neytiri does not see Spider, her eyes are shut. Instead of seeing Spider as a person, all she sees is just another human who ought to be with his own kind, a demon. And this is honestly fine, Neytiri isn’t Spider’s mother or caretaker so she’s not obligated to try and understand him as anything deeper than her enemies child and her own children’s best friend.
However, because Neytiri refuses to see Spider as anything other than another human, she lets this hatred for him and his heritage fester until she feels comfortable to threaten his life and see him as a means to an end. And that, no matter how much one may argue it’s understandable from her perspective, leads to dire consequences.
Namely, Spider’s choice to save Quaritch.
Now, before anyone yells at me let me clarify — I am not saying that Neytiri is responsible for Spider’s choice, nor is she responsible for any harm Quaritch will cause in the upcoming movies. However, it’s undeniable that her actions influenced Spider’s decision, whether directly or indirectly.
When Neytiri threatened Spider’s life, Quaritch initially plays off the fact that he’s technically not his son, citing that they aren’t even the same species. But when Neytiri pushes even further, he breaks and shows that he does actually care about Spider, willing to let go of his hostage in order to protect him.
This is big for Spider as his only major desire is to have a family, specifically a parental figure who genuinely cared about him as he is. I’d even go as far as to say that this moment probably proved to Spider that Quaritch cares about him as more than just a mean’s to an end. He’d already helped Quaritch bond with an Ikran and find the Sully family(against his will), he had nothing else to offer but Quaritch still wanted him alive.
This, along with the months they spent together, are what pushed Spider to make his decision at the end of the movie, a decision he was explicitly conflicted about.
And this came about from Neytiri’s decision. I know a lot of people would argue that Neytiri had to do this because it was the only way to save her daughter, and I’ll agree that there weren’t many options for her. But this wasn’t a tactical move she was making, she wasn’t bluffing or putting on a show to force Quaritch’s hand, she was explicitly going to kill Spider just to make Quaritch hurt in the same way she was hurting.
Also, if we want to nitpick we could also say that the months Quaritch and Spider spent together also came about as a result of her actions. When they’re running away from the Recoms, Spider is the only one who falls to the ground and Neytiri doesn’t even think to try and go get him.
“B-But there’s no way Neytiri would’ve been able to save him and get away! She has her own children to worry about!” I hear you typing in the notes of this post, and to that I say you’ve got a point.
However, the fact that Neytiri doesn’t even consider going down to rescue him, doesn’t look over the branch and hesitate before making the difficult decision to prioritize Kiri and feel bad about it later shows that her reasoning is solidly NOT rooted in him being one of her kids or not.
She doesn’t even try, and because of that Quaritch and Spider end up forming the basis for a solid bond.
TLDR; Neytiri’s fatal flaw is that she allows her anger and hatred to cloud her better judgment and control her, leading to a destructive attitude that can ultimately hurt the people she loves and make things worse for her.
Now, what does this have to do with her arc going forward?
At this point, I’m pretty sure everyone has heard at least a little bit about the next movie, Avatar Fire and Ash. I’ve seen people theorizing that the fire tribe will be joining forces with the RDA, that they don’t believe in Eywa, and that Neytiri will have to infiltrate the tribe in order to rescue her children.
I’m not certain whether any of this is true, but what I am certain of is that — if these concept arts hold water by the time the movie is released — then the fire tribe we’ll be encountering in the third movie is going to be an extremely violent community, likely one that puts emphasis on anger and hatred.
And if the rumors are true and Neytiri really is going to be infiltrating them, then Neytiri’s flaws might be able to inform what narrative role the Ash People and Varaang in particular will have in the third movie.
I’ve already explained how in depth how her flaw is how she allows her anger to take control of her and close her vision; she’s volatile like lava and burns hot like fire, becoming liable to burn everything and everyone around her.
From that perspective, she seems more suited to be a fire Na’vi rather than a forest or reef one, no? The choice to take us to a volcanic, fire steeped region isn’t just James Cameron checking off the boxes like “oh we did forest and water, fire next!” its him taking us to a we might find uncomfortably befitting of our worst traits.
And that’s basically what I think Neytiri will have to face upon encountering the Ash People — they are the embodiment of all her flaws put on display.
Varaang specifically may work as her narrative foil, a literal funhouse version of her at her worst(from my perspective the concept art of Varaang actually looks a lot like Neytiri, so that’s interesting).
I also think it’s important to note that Neytiri is absolutely going to find out that Spider saved Quaritch in the third movie, or at least it’s incredibly likely if the Ash People really will be working with Quaritch. That means that her hatred for him and her need for revenge will come back into play, this isn’t over.
But this time things will be different, because in between Neytiri learning of Spider’s betrayal she will also get especially close to the Ash People and find that she is uncomfortably similar to them at her worst. Before she does something she might regret, Neytiri will be forced to ask herself some important questions:
Is revenge really worth it? Is this the kind of person she wants to be? If Jake wasn’t there that night, would she have the blood of a child on her hands? Will she hurt other people she loves because of her anger?
These questions are ones she likely never wanted to ask herself, but they’re necessary because she’s starting right in the face of people who didn’t.
Fighting my fear of the ATLA fandom to give my analysis of the “I love Zuko more than I fear you,” scene from a Maizula lens
Let’s start with the preluding line.
“You miscalculated.”
Azula doesn’t miscalculate, that’s kind of her whole thing. We’re introduced to Azula as a character when she refuses to have one hair out of place. She’s perfect. She doesn’t miscalculate.
Her miscalculation is, of course, believing Mai is on her side.
Except Mai has been on her side.
It can’t have been being cruel to Zuko that forced Mai to change sides. Azula does that all the time—she’s been groomed to be cruel to him for years.
Telling Azula she miscalculated is such specific wording. It’s less about declaring her new allegiance, it’s not insulting anything about Azula’s cruelty to members on her own side, it’s insulting Azula’s perfection, the most fragile thing about her.
Mai knows this. She understands Azula and how to push her buttons. Enough that Azula’s shout back, “No! You miscalculated!” feels more out-of-control than Azula normally is.
“I love Zuko more than I fear you.”
I honestly don’t doubt Mai loves Zuko. They’re both trapped in an awful situation, and they’ve been friends since childhood. But I fail to see it as romantic. In fact, while Mai appears to be the one with the crush on him as a little kid, she shuts down most—if not all—Zuko’s attempts at romance.
While it could be a part of her mask, feigned indifference as a defense mechanism, if anything, having feelings for Zuko while he’s on the Fire Nation’s side would only be beneficial.
(But if you’re a big Maiko shipper, take it this way. Mai knows that Zuko isn’t truly loyal to the Fire Nation, she knows he deserves better, but she’s too powerless to leave with him. So she shuts him out.)
Mai and Zuko have been expected to get together their entire lives. It’s beneficial for her to have feelings for him. As beneficial as her indifference is. But she doesn’t.
We see her smile at Ty Lee in the comics, sometimes, but she also jokes with Azula in her proper introduction. “Please tell me you’re here to kill me.” Mai has a sense of humor! It’s just reserved for Azula!
So. Assuming Mai doesn’t love Zuko romantically, and assuming she does love Azula romantically, this sentence takes on a new meaning.
Azula controls people constantly through fear. It’s why she’s more afraid of her mother loving her than fearing her. She doesn’t get love, she gets fear. This is also why she craves Ozai’s affection to such an extent. He’s the only one who loves her. (Well, he doesn’t, but she’s useful to him, and that’s the second best thing.)
Ty Lee doesn’t appear to be an exception. Azula threatens Ty Lee to get her to join. But she doesn’t really threaten Mai, unless I’m remembering wrong. Mai and Ty Lee are her closest friends, the closest equivalent she has to love even if she probably doesn’t view it that way.
Azula has consistently been rejected for her brother, with the exception of Ozai. Iroh and her mother both seem to hold affection for Zuko, but fear for her—although, we don’t see much of Ursa, so it’s hard to say if that’s only her perception or actual reality.
If Mai and Azula are close, Mai would know this.
“I love Zuko,” is an automatic way of saying I don’t love you because Azula has been taught that love is finite, and must be split between her and Zuko. Then “-more than I fear you,” immediately removes the element of fear that Azula has over Mai.
Mai removes three elements of Azula’s power: her perfection, her superiority over Zuko, and the fear others have over her.
Mai knows Azula, and knows how to hurt her.
She’s rejecting Azula to defeat her, and it kills Azula inside.
