Prince Zuko - Blog Posts

Redraw of Zuko, 2016 vs 2021

some close ups:

in my head sirius and regulus are zuko and azula in another universe. The heirs of a kingdom, the familial expectations, groomed from a young age by their families, seperated by those expectations. Sirius being the "different" outcasted one, regulus being the "prodigy" who couldn't unlearn the family's ways. zuko's exile (leaving home at 16), azula's crashout when the life she wanted isn't what it seemed (sets the stage for regulus' betrayal). Zuko joining team avatar AKA sirius finding the marauders. Yup.

Drama with Hama - or not

In the show and overall by viewers, Hama is not considered a good character. The show insinuates, that Hama is performing revenge on innocent people of the same civilation (the firenation) just as how the soldiers of the firenation kidnapped and enslaved the waterbenders of the southern water tribe. By fans she is mostly viewed as evil and crazy, since she „cursed“ Katara with the ability to bend blood.

But is Hama actually evil?

The more i rewatched the show, the more i understood, that Hamas hatred and actions are actually pretty understandable. Of course i do not defend the kidnapping of innocent civilians but in my opinion, to not relate to Hama, is actually what i would consider barbaric.

Hama had to watch her whole civilisation, her friends, her family and most importantly her culture being slowly but surely erased, by the fire nation until she was the last one remaining and had to surrender.

When hama was arrested, she was prevented free movement, as her limbs were chained so she, nor the others would be capable of bending the water. The cages were above the ground. They were occasionally fed, from afar with little dosages of water, as if they were wild inhumane creatures. She probably was forced to watch her friends die in those cages as well. God knows, how long she was arrested in that Jail, and what else she had to go through.. Only by training on rats, to control them, via bloodbending, she managed to escape.

Of course it was wrong to perform revenge on innocent people, especially if she just could've kidnapped the soldiers of the firenation, but overall - considering what she went through, i can only sympathize with her and eye people suspiciously who can't. Because no one, who experiences the same barbaric and horrific things that hama did, would remain sane. This kind of experience really takes a toll and changes everyone. And i 100% understand Hamas frustration and act of vigilantism.

And the Bloodbending technique - she gave on to Katara - is not a curse, but more a reminder of the torture that the firenation put the water benders through and also a symbol of how powerful water benders really are; because no matter what you truly think of hama as a character, you cannot deny that she is truly a real selftought master of waterbending!

Azula's Motivations in ATLA

I haven’t been in the ATLA fandom long enough to know how popular this opinion is, but I think at her core, Azula wants to be accepted, to be loved, to belong.

I think you can tell a lot about a character by finding out what breaks them. Looking at goals can be helpful, but a lot of the times goals can mask true desires.

What truly begins to break Azula is the betrayal from Mai and Ty Lee. She's also strangely bothered by the belief that her mother thinks she's a monster. In the scene where she hallucinates her mother, Azula only breaks down and shatters the mirror when her mother says she loves her. As if Azula desperately wants it to be true but can't believe it, so she lashes out.

In the finale when Ozai leaves her behind to go destroy the earth kingdom, she says: “I thought we were going to do this together” and “you can’t treat me like Zuko”. She’s desperate to belong, to be accepted by her father. And even though she’s had his approval for her entire life, she’s immediately afraid of being cast aside.

While she is pretty obsessed with succeeding at everything she does and doing things perfectly (ie “almost isn’t good enough”), I think the real reason she’s so obsessed is because she believes she must earn her worth in order to be accepted.

Azula hasn't had many experiences with healthy relationships as a child so she makes people stay by instilling fear and proving her worth. Power and success aren't what she truly desires. They are more so a means to an end.

I also think in the last Agni Kai, she breaks down not just because she's defeated, but because Zuko and Katara defeat her together. A painful reminder that other people have support they can rely on, but she has no one.

It's also really interesting to compare her to Zuko because I don't think Zuko has the same motivation at his core. Yes Zuko became obsessed with chasing the Avatar to be accepted by his father, but really it was about his honor. Zuko saw acceptance in the Fire Nation as a means to an end for his own worth and honor.

And that's the reason Zuko isn't satisfied when he's back to belonging in the Fire Nation again in season 3. And he's not satisfied in the Earth Kingdom with his uncle's support, nor satisfied being accepted and trusted by Katara in that cave.

I'm not saying Zuko doesn't care about or want acceptance from people, just that there is something deeper motivating him.

When Azula pushes people away, it's defense mechanism. When Zuko pushes people away, he's yearning for something more.

I will always simp for this man

But if these men came up to me. I would simp for them as well

Cause damn. Why can’t they be in real life?

And I just realized something. They are all firebenders. They got the good genes.

I love making us an ocs it’s part of my enjoyment of media sometimes there story altering and change huge chunks of the story and sometimes there small joke ocs that have little to no baring on the plot, and sometimes there an oc that is active in the story but the plot doesn’t change all that much.

Like my ATLA oc Mebh in the context of the show she has very little say in the story. And that on purpose I love avatar and I wouldn’t want to change it in a au and risk butchering it’s themes and story. After avatar and lok however are free rain in my mind. So here’s my atla au.

The spirit would in my mind is a bridge between other worlds it has many connections to many different places

One of those places is the world of the avatar and then there’s the world of witch’s

Mebh grew up in this world where magic and spells rain supreme, but magic is extremely difficult and laws limit it’s use to the upper classes with people having to go to extremely expensive schools and gain permission from the raining sovereign to practice magic

Mebh is a lower class girl from a small town

In the beginning of the series we would know nothing about her backstory just know she practiced magic illegally and got stuck in the world of avatar along with her familiar a owl griffin named peaches

Lost she runs into Zuko and Iroh during the first year of his banishment, she saves there lives from something and iroh decides to help her and she joins them on the ship

Mebh doesn’t ever help zuko on his journey to find the avatar, even after they find aang, but she never hinders it she just there to hangout with iroh and go through iroh therapy

She’s not really out of place and you can just assume for the most part that she’s a non bender with a weird look

She has light red hair that she keeps in two long braids and her clothes are a mix of fire nation, earth nation, and a earasaid so yea she stands out

Before the raid of the northern water tribe her magic is hinted at but due to how different it is she still only practices it In secret but now with the help of iroh who helps her figure out spells and magic

During the raid on the northern water tribe she mostly stays with iroh until the moon spirit scene

Mebhs people hold the moon in very high regard and credit it as there patron so when general zhao kills it she immediately attacks him with magic and only stopping when aang and the ocean spirit work together

After this her secret is out and she uses magic a lot more

I was going through old sketchbooks a while back and found this gem. XD XD

Thank you everyone who suggested a character! I really enjoyed making these! :)

"Who would have thought, after all these years, I'd return to the scene of my greatest military disgrace..."