Ok so let’s break down my thoughts on this scene
First of all, I love Ursa. (I mean look at my bio) If you feel you may be angered by my opinions, feel free to scroll on by and have a lovely day.
In the first panel we see Azula with a sort of shocked expression as her mother has caught her firebending for the first time. In the next panel her expression shifts to sadness. Ursa’s expression across the next two panels seem to mimic this. Yet they have key differences. Azula looks upset to be caught, perhaps worried that her mother may be mad at or disappointed in her. But before I discuss Ursa’s panels, I want to jump to the next panel real quick. We see Ozai elated to see that Azula is a firebender. For a moment one could think that this is a rare good parenting moment for him. But a quick reminder of details of The Search changes everything. It is revealed in the comic that Ozai had an arranged marriage with Ursa due to her relation to Avatar Roku. Firelord Sozin thought that a strong and powerful bloodline could be created from the two. As Ozai states, “She’s a prodigy to be bending at such a young age!” we are reminded of this. Azula and Zuko were born to be weapons. That being said I’m moving back to the panels of Ursa. Her eyes are incredibly expressive to me. It’s exactly as Azula says a couple pages later, she was scared for her not of her. Ursa was scared for what was going to happen to Azula. Scared that she couldn’t save her. The direct contrast of Ursa’s sorrow and Ozai’s joy makes a great panel. It’s almost like light and dark. I think it’s neat that in this scenario of light and dark you would think that joy is light and sorrow is dark, but given their characters it’s quite the opposite.
I think people often neglect the fact that Azula and Zuko weren’t the only ones manipulated by Ozai. Ursa was too. And this panel is great example. That look on his face and the italics used in “proud” lead me to read this in a very condescending and manipulative tone. The fact that he’s asking Ursa to tell her daughter she’s proud of her when he can’t even say it himself (he never said he proud of her in the previous panel just that her ability was amazing) bothers me deeply. As I mentioned earlier Ursa’s eyes are incredibly expressive to me. Just looking into her eyes in this panel makes me want to start sobbing. That look of knowing what was going to happen to Azula and not knowing if she could save her. Wishing there was something she do. And poor innocent Azula not knowing what’s coming for her and just wanting her mother’s love and admiration. I know the final panel is pretty controversial in the fandom. I don’t think it’s one of Ursa’s best moments, but I don’t think she said this to be hateful in any way. I think it was just her safest was of speaking her mind in that moment. Because deep down I truly believe that she cared deeply for Azula. I mean that’s her baby. But her situation is so incredibly complicated. She couldn’t say no to Ozai but she didn’t want her children to grow up as weapons, even though she knew there was really nothing she could do to stop it.
Anyway sorry this took me so long to post and idk if any of this is even good or makes sense but yeah. Brain.exe stopped functioning mid writing this but I will always defend Ursa and Azula and hate on Ozai.
