You're searching for certainty. For someone to show you what you're missing. There are so many things it could be. But you have your suspicions. You have a question bubbling in the back of your brain. Sometimes you can feel it on the tip of your tongue, like you've just scoffed down three bowls of extra-spicy fire noodles in a row.
So, Princess Azula: what is the one thing you most want to ask Mai and Ty Lee about?
[ ] Your Father. In every life, they turn from him to save Zuko. Ty Lee has questioned him again and again. Mai has said you're 'weird' about him. But he's still—he's still your Father. The only one in the world who loved you from the start. Why is that supposed to be wrong?
[ ] Your uncle. Lo and Li said he was a lot like you. So why didn't he choose you? Why did he pick Zuko? What did he see in failure that he feared in success?
Even if you thought they had the answers, you refuse to dignify him with the questions.
[ ] Your mother. They were there when you were young. They left when she left. They saw it all. So why did she think you were a monster? What was so wrong with you that your own mother couldn't love you?
You are not going to spill your soul to your only friends over that woman.
[ ] Your brother. It's clear to you now, at least, that when they choose him, it's not because they wouldn't choose you. But the universe has demonstrated at length they are the exceptions. Not the rule. So what is it that he has? What essential part of Zuko's soul makes him worthy of the grace you have never been given?
[ ] You. Princess Azula the Blue. Heir apparent to the Dragon Throne. Conqueror of Ba Sing Se. Half Roku—half Sozin. Where you are, so is the Fire Nation in all its rapacious glory. Yours is the blood and bone of empire. All the things you should have ever wanted to be. But sometimes you think of fire dancing under the Moon; of three girls and the horizon and a flight across half the world. Is that wrong? Are you wrong to dream—to think, so briefly, of being something more?
I think there's not something that people are missing about this choice. It's not only about
What Azula Should Know, but also about What Ty Lee and Mai Know and can Tell Azula. The people Azula are asking matters almost as much as the question does. With that in mind, let's consider our options:
[ ] Your Father. In every life, they turn from him to save Zuko. Ty Lee has questioned him again and again. Mai has said you're 'weird' about him. But he's still—he's still your Father. The only one in the world who loved you from the start. Why is that supposed to be wrong?
This is very attractive, since Ozai is at the center of Azula's problems and her loyalty to him is already fraying. Yet the question remains "how much do Azula's friends know about Ozai"? He's not the sort of person who would ever make time for his daughter's schoolgirl friends or "waste" that much time raising even a favored child (it seems like Ozai hardly ever talked to Zuko in the first half of Season Three despite having recognized Zuko as heir and Avatar-slayer), so it's not clear how much time Mai and Ty Lee have ever spent around Ozai. It's quite possible that neither of them have ever had a real conversation with him.
Moving beyond that issue, Ozai is mostly a fairly typical Firelord for the "modern" Fire Nation and it's not even clear he's any crueler to his own family then Azulon and Sozin were. His behavior as Firelord is generally stuff that Ty Lee and Mai would have been always taught is normal. Azula just had to explain to her friends the really shocking scandal involving Ozai, that he murdered his father to seize the throne, since
they didn't know.
Finally, Azula's friends are at least somewhat aware that Ozai is a shitty father, but Mai and Ty Lee also grew up in shitty, abusive households. Really awful parenting is to a large degree normalized to them, so they're not the best people to ask about Ozai being an awful parent. Katara, Sokka, Suki, or even Aang might be better choices there.
So I'm not sure if this is right question to ask Ty Lee and Mai, since they don't necessarily know as much as people are assuming they know.
[ ] Your uncle. Lo and Li said he was a lot like you. So why didn't he choose you? Why did he pick Zuko? What did he see in failure that he feared in success?
This is obviously not possible, but it's worth noting that Azula correctly notes that they probably don't have much useful information on Iroh.
[ ] Your mother. They were there when you were young. They left when she left. They saw it all. So why did she think you were a monster? What was so wrong with you that your own mother couldn't love you?
Again, not possible, but it's worth noting Mai and Ty Lee might actually know something here, since they probably interacted with Ursa a lot.
[ ] Your brother. It's clear to you now, at least, that when they choose him, it's not because they wouldn't choose you. But the universe has demonstrated at length they are the exceptions. Not the rule. So what is it that he has? What essential part of Zuko's soul makes him worthy of the grace you have never been given?
This has it's attractions, since the way the question is formatted might lead toward the center of Azula's issues. On the other hand, we just spent a ton of time on Zuko, so maybe we should move on for the moment.
More to the point, asking the only two people in the world who not only love Azula but also like her for who she is (who like for being Azula, instead of liking her for being Princess Azula) "why people like and love Zuko instead of Azula" might not produce the most useful information. It's like asking a bat to explain what not seeing by echolocation is like, or a person with sight to explain what being blind is like.
[ ] You. Princess Azula the Blue. Heir apparent to the Dragon Throne. Conqueror of Ba Sing Se. Half Roku—half Sozin. Where you are, so is the Fire Nation in all its rapacious glory. Yours is the blood and bone of empire. All the things you should have ever wanted to be. But sometimes you think of fire dancing under the Moon; of three girls and the horizon and a flight across half the world. Is that wrong? Are you wrong to dream—to think, so briefly, of being something more?
I think this question makes the most sense.
If there's one thing that Mai and Ty Lee are experts on, it's Azula. And if there's one thing they know, it's Azula is not only the person that her father wants her to be, that she's not only the person the Fire Nation wants her to be.
[x] You. Princess Azula the Blue. Heir apparent to the Dragon Throne. Conqueror of Ba Sing Se. Half Roku—half Sozin. Where you are, so is the Fire Nation in all its rapacious glory. Yours is the blood and bone of empire. All the things you should have ever wanted to be. But sometimes you think of fire dancing under the Moon; of three girls and the horizon and a flight across half the world. Is that wrong? Are you wrong to dream—to think, so briefly, of being something more?
