Azula has fun with training already. She likes it for more than just its material benefits, she just doesn't like spending her time on stuff which doesn't also benefit her in some way. So giving her additional stuff to do along those lines isn't going to change anything.
Iroh hoped she would at least try to play with it rather than immediately toss it out. He's not omniscient.
I'm speaking strictly about the show. Not a fan of the comics.
The scene in question happened when Iroh was still laying siege to Ba Sing Se, so Lu Ten hadn't died yet.
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I was refering to Iroh general favoritism to Zuko compared to Azula. Tho I admit I misremembered the timeline on this event.
I think a lot of people are assuming he put a lot of thought into Zuko's gift.
I think the doll was at least from the Earth Kingdom as it was dressed in the "latest fashion for Earth Kingdom girls". I doubt Fire Nation allowed foreign cultural trends to be distributed on thier soil.
Considering this was all during the siege, I'd bet he took it off some princess that was captured.
And even if it was... that just is fundamentally lamer than Zuko's gift.
...Because it wouldn't have changed anything? The Earth Kingdom general got mentioned because it was ironic: his fancy knife said "never give up without a fight" but its former owner gave up without a fight.
He only broke through the Outer Wall into agrarian zone of Ba Sing Se there is no princeses to find there and shortly after he gave up. I think the doll could have came from any other towns or vilages he came through while he was a general.
The Earth Kingdom has nobility living around all over. If not within the agrarian zone looking over their property then you'll find manors around the city's periphery I bet. But at this point it's quibbling about very minor details.
Well there is that "she is crazy and she needs to go down" quote he says about her. It does make him look like he dismissed any notion of helping her out of his mind. The question is when he gave up on Azula. The minutes when they got reunited or even before he joined Zuko in exile. But judging by the look he is giving her when she appears he already seems to hold strong negative opinion about her.
Almost certainly the latter, given his flashback in The Storm depicts her as smiling at Zuko being maimed... even though she's behind and to one side of him, while he's got his eyes closed and his face turned in the other direction.
... or, since he didn't actually describe her doing that, that's just, y'know, part of the flashback? Like, Avatar doesn't actually do unreliable narrator flashbacks, that's not a thing. Assuming that in this one case, actually Azula smiling represents that's what Iroh thinks she did as opposed to what she actually did is wild.
meh personaly I never consider flashbacks a perfect representation of ones memories. I just picture Iroh telling the story normaly while the flashback of the related moment is only for us viewers and not every detail showed were mentioned in the story told.
I mean, that's much later
Actually, thinking on it, I wonder if a pai sho set might not have been a good gift? It could be justified as learning to read and outthink an opponent, being constrained by the rules and yet still managing to win, etc., but it's also something that's inherently social and conducive to contemplation rather than rapid violent action.The Laurent said:
