How Nesta Archeron and Zuko from the Last Airbender are the same but ACOSAF failed to make an actual character arc.
I've been trying to read ACOSF for around a month and it's been hard for me to finish due to the anger it gives me. This book has many problematic scenes but I will mainly talk about how Zuko and Nesta are pretty much the same but Nesta was never understood and her character was unable to grow or learn
Zuko has issues with his father which Nesta also had and both of this character have a missing mother which affects them and explains how they struggle to understand themselves and why they do certain things and how this affects them
Both have struggles with their powers, once Zuko decides to be a better person his powers are missing and he understands that his powers are driven by anger which could assimilate to Nesta when she believes that her powers are pure darkness but the difference is Zuko learned that fire is life due to the dragon trial he realized his power are not destruction and he learns again to control them but Nesta never learns, this 800+ pages never bothers enough to learn her powers instead is highly avoided and just used in less than a page of a chapter and the only time that it's pointed out as not dangerous is pointed out by amren which doesn't count as a growth. Nesta didn't learn to control her power or understood that it's not death but instead she is told her power is not dangerous.I won't count the use of her powers for the Feysaand baby because that pregnancy issue could've been resolved with so many plot options but no. Another strong female lead as a escape goat to save the day but lose everything.
Zuko hatred towards Aang is similar to Nesta towards Feyre. Even though Nesta never tried to murder Feyre like Zuko does to Aang both have a hate relationship due to the father. Zuko learns that his hate towards Aang was by the manipulation of his father and he realizes that he was a victim instead of the abuser because indeed his father was putting a huge task on a kid in order to gain honor when he was just a kid. This assimilates to Nesta, her father was unable to keep the three daughters in a good home and put the pressure on the sisters. Making feyre go to the forest and Nesta considering to marry a guy that would probably beat her up to safe the family and almost raped her . The difference is Zuko realizes that his father is the problem to his actions and forgives himself. Nesta never learns this because she blames herself of her father's death instead of realizing that her father is the reason why the three sister struggled. Instead of her crying about how her life was never easy, or come to a realization that not everything is her fault she actually blames herself and morns her father which makes no sense. Her father appears one time only out of the three books and it's only to die in the end without any accountability.
Zuko grows as a character when Nesta only learns to ask for forgiveness repeatedly to the wrong characters, never loves herself or see her worth. Zuko didn't go back to his family, he found a new family and even learned to earned it. He grew, understood himself and left everything that was affecting him . Nesta goes back to the same dog that bite her. People might excuse the actions that Feyre did to Nesta to banish her, I don't agree but I understand. But the repeated bullying, awful remarks and how they treat Nesta is awful. Rhyssand sees Nesta as a threat when not even once has she tried to harm anyone from the inner circle she actually saved Cassian, she offered to be the spoke person of the humans and even tried to build the wall with Amren. But in this book she's protayed almost equally as Tamlin which makes no sense. Rhyssand and Amren treat Nesta like a plague and use her as they see benefit in several chapters. Does Nesta find a new friend group? Sure, she does but she then asks for forgiveness to the same people that was never able to understand her or gave her the benefit of the doubt until they needed her. Instead of her finding a new path and form a new family she bows down to the dog that bite her and even says they gave her love when they didn't. Rhyssand never liked her and Amren even though friends in the beginning treated Nesta in ACOSF so horribly that not even in real life do I believe someone would ask for forgiveness to amren. SJM failed to seperate her love towards the IC and never bothered to actually give a story to Nesta. Zuko didn't go back to his father or sister. Though I understand the purpose is to have all characters happy. I felt like Nesta character was misunderstood many times thought out the book and instead of understand why she is like this, why she does this we only see that she was wrong all this time. Which is not true. Nesta is also a victim, she isn't the abuser they make her out to be which apparently is pretty bad . The only person she should ask for forgiveness is herself but we never see that. We only see how she makes herself as the problem and how everybody agrees. I believe that in this book she is having more troubles with herself than with anyone and for this reasons she should be the one able to forgive herself more than anyone else but we only she how she asks others. You can't love someone if you don't love yourself first and this goes as well with forgiveness
Both characters go through depression and both of them get someone to help them out . Zuko is lost because he can't decide between good and wrong and he even picks to be bad at some point but then regrets it. Nesta is depressed through out the book due to many things, from her past actions, her powers and so much more. The difference in here is the person that helped them. Uncle Iroh helps Zuko decide who he is and who he wants to be which causes Zuko confusion and anger because he believed his life was summarized in his father's orders and once he realized he isn't what his father wants him to be he struggles, but Iroh guides him and forgives him. Cassian fails to understand Nesta and instead of giving us atleast a couple of chapters of them talking deeply not just a paragraph of their problems, we get smut to cover the issue and this happens every chapter or most of them. This happens so much that even SJM stopped giving detailed smut scenes and she just mentions them with a couple of details. Instead of giving me smut she could've detailed their problems but we don't. We don't hear of how Nesta mother affected her in a deeper sense but we only listen to a surface of the problem. Cassian shouldn't be considered a guidance to begin with. Nesta needed someone that could understand her and help her. Not a character to write smut with. I would even consider azriel a better friend to help her due to his problem with the shadows than cassian and his often remarks of Nesta breast than her struggle of wanting to be alive.
At the end of the last Airbender you love every character even Zuko because you see his story. You understood him, saw his flaws and instead of hating him you ended up loving him when he was a villain at the beginning he even killed Aang in one chapter and still most people love Zuko. Because they were able to make his character redeem himself. That's what SJM failed to do. You never see in detail her struggles, she never grows or forgives herself. Never becomes the queen she was meant to be and it's sad. I have more opinions but I'll leave it in here it
