Intermission for "Azula isn't evil - Part 1: Rambling"
To all of the people who supported my Azula isn't evil post, thank you so much!! I just have so much to say and I'm glad to see that there are people who agree with and if not, at least see my perspective. It might be a while before other parts will come out. So, I am appreciative of the support while I have it!!
While you are waiting for the next couple of parts, I'll give you a little nugget of something to chew on. 😉 This pose is in a similar style to that original post and the sense of I am just going off of my memory. So please take what I say at the grain of salt. Like I said before thank you so much for supporting me and that post.
In the AtLA community, it feels controversial to say that "Azula isn't evil" because to a lot of people who here that phrase they think that Azula stands or people pointing that out are saying or implying that Azula is a good person. With that what I feel a lot of these people don't understand is that when someone says "Azula is not evil" they are not trying to say or even impliy that she is ultimately s good person. (If they are in fact implying that then that is their prerogative. That doesn't mean that you should take every time someone says "Azula is not evil" under sweeping brush that means that every person who says that or says something similar is trying to imply or say that she's a good person.) What Azula stands they are trying to say is that she isn't EVIL. Which seems obvious but evil is such a strong word when there are arguably people who have done worse than her in the show.
Note: To the people who are zuko stans or love him, the part below this post is probably not for you. I don't mean this in a condescending way. I just mean like if you feel like you would be heated by any type of like criticism or anything please don't read this part of the post.
What I feel like annoys me the most is the fact that Azula and Zuko could have been on the same path. Now... here's the hot take: I feel like without Uncle Iroh's guidance along with Ursa's that Zuko would have probably been worse and done worse than Azula. To summarize why I think this it's because Zuko blindly followed his rage and his emotions. He just went and just attacked with no consideration as with not plan. He damaged villages like the kyoshi warriors and the time in the first season where he attacked the Southern Water Nation. With Azula, she's calculative of all these things. Most of the time from what I recall we don't see many civilian casualties from her or heck even civilians getting hurt from her actions. What makes that side of Zuko scary is that it's unpredictable in a sense. You can't tell when he's going to act on his emotions.You can't really say the same for Zuko. Not saying that as a way to diminish him, his growth or his character but I'm just saying that like if he never had that guidance then like just think about it. I hope this doesn't come off as me antagonizing Zuko. I am just going off of what I remember from watching the show.
Also something I would like to say is that I feel like people take zuko's comment about azula's talent the wrong way. Zuko's clearly jealous that she was talented but he was jealous in a way that made him forget on how she worked on her talent. Sure, having talent makes things easier for you but that is totally negated if you don't work on it. If Azula was lazy or didn't train diligently Zuko would have easily been better than her in all of those categories. Even with the talent that she had because at the end of the day talent is a stepping stone. We know this because of the lightning bending scene where she literally redid a whole practice just because one strand of hair was not in place. She literally was able to so casually and effortlessly hit a plank like that. That's not something someone who has not trained can just do effortlessly and casually.
Please tell me when I am speaking out of turn because like I said before I am purely writing this out of memory. So, if I am misrepresenting Zuko and Azula in that section please tell me because I am not afraid to change this part of the post. I am worried that I might have misrepresented them.
