Azula, Zuko, & Psychopathy | Avatar: The Last Airbender Video Essay by Shain Slepian aka TimeCapsule
Vložit
- čas přidán 26. 07. 2024
- These writings helped me out a lot when writing this script:
- cobra-diamond.tumblr.com/post...
- cobra-diamond.tumblr.com/post...
- / there-is-no-such-thing...
If you like this video, please like, comment, and share this sucker around. Like what I do? Send me a tip:
www.buymeacoffee.com/shainsle...
Buy my book! www.amazon.com/dp/B093QXV29C/
Hire me to consult on your script: shainslepian.com
Links to my articles, portfolio, reviews, and all that jazz: linktr.ee/Shainstimecapsule - Krátké a kreslené filmy
Her mother was also very lacking in understanding her and showing compassion. Her father totally shaped who she was and messed her up all the way.
"You can't treat me like Zuko!"
Huh, why am I crying?
I just got something in my eye 😭
I really like the little bit you did from Ozais' perspective on the Agni Kai.
He's obviously an evil bastard, but I still find it fascinating to look at things through the villains pov and I haven't seen anyone make a psychological breakdown on Ozai before (other than saying he's evil and these are the ways he hurts people).
If it isn't too much to ask, do you think you could make a full video on Ozai and his warped ideals?
Thanks! Oo, amazing idea! I think I'll do that next!
For you, my friend: czcams.com/video/Za7tZBSopSY/video.html
Regarding how Azula and Zuko turned out differently, I think it's also partially that Azula was more aware of how cutthroat the Fire Nation can be. Like, when she tells Zuko their father's planning to kill him, Zuko says, "Dad would never do that to me." He still needs to reassure himself with the whole "Azula always lies" thing, but -- unlike Azula -- he denies that Ozai would kill him. Meanwhile, Azula grows up with the knowledge that her father would kill her brother if ordered (and their grandfather would order it), which makes violence (even against family members and children) seem expected/normal to her.
Re: the comics. While it’s not the direction I would go if I were writing her, I don’t inherently hate the idea of Azula’s hallucinations persisting post-season three. What I _hate_ about The Search is that they handle it in the worst way possible. It seems the narrative doesn’t have any sympathy for Azula _and_ is condoning violence against mentally ill people.
This has such a suprisingly low amount of views considering content quality. I agree with you fully that Azula is nowhere near psychopathic, but I wasn't fully able to express why (as I had little knowledge on the creation of psychopathy as a concept before this) until watching this video. You truly are wonderful at character analysis, and I feel like I've gotten a much better understanding of Azula after this.
Thanks so much! That's very kind. I have several Avatar videos, and I would love to get more views on this video. If you could share this around, I'd really appreciate it 🙏
Here's my new vid on Ozai! : czcams.com/video/Za7tZBSopSY/video.html
We saw that Ozai was the "pure evil" (for the lack of a better word) and in contrast to him, Azula can be viewed as a redeemable villain because of her perfectionism and other human traits. Or I just relate to her too much, I don't know lol
'Azula wants power!'
Also Azula...one of 2 heirs to the throne, with the other one banished and disinherited till Azula reinstalls him as crown prince...so she herself put herself down the ladder...for evil reasons of course.
On top of that, she has to convince herself that she wants to be Firelord when Ozai pawns the title off on her -- You'd think she'd be _happy_ to get more authority if she were just power-hungry.
@@brightfury7976 Plus she never seemed to have given it a thought...despite her being the only heir for years, she seemed to have always seen Zuko as the one to take the throne in the end, even when he was on daddy´s bad side.
I'm literally just finishing a video about this! Watch this space
Concerning Long Feng, you should not necessary see this as Azula´s believe as she´s not having a conversation here, she´s talking to the Dai Li, not Long Feng. She battles over control with her words and wins and that is the only time she brings up any divinity. It may be her believe, it may be just the right thing to say to the traditionalist Dai Li, who betrayed their king for a commoner.
Also a sign that we mostly see The princess of the Fire Nation, not Azula, is the Beach. She is dominating people around her till she realizes nobody knows who she is...then she becomes an awkward teen who tries to flirt and is hurt by a boy´s rejection. A mask formed to be what Ozai showed her to be what he, and therefor the Fire Nation, expect of her.
And surrounded by people who didn´t know her and the few she felt comfortable around, brother and friends, she let that mask slip.
Thanks for commenting! I wouldn't disbelieve anything a character says without textual evidence, or if the statement is patently questionable. Not believing her here is sort of putting the cart before the horse, determining she is likely to lie based on something one is assuming to be a lie. This statement by her is entirely consistent with her characterization, so I interpret it as one of the few statement on her beliefs that we receive. I hear you though, she is certainly performing. I just believe that performance reflects a sincere belief. Thanks!
Speaking of Azula's redemption, have you read the most recent comic "Azula in the Spirit Temple"? I think it showed that while Azula can be "redeemed" she still doesn't want to change, and until she does there isn't anything that can be done about it. Which makes sense, considering how people in real life are, and considering how long Zuko took to get out of denial about his father and stuff.
Canon does want to do good by Azula's character but I don't think they know just how to do it. Are we supposed to believe that she was a "monster" by birth and hence Ursa didn't favour her? Or can we actually blame Ursa for not giving a child the love she deserves, which the comics seem very hesitant to do? For the most part, I like the comics, I think they did do a good job on the worldbuilding level, showing decolonisation and industrialisation and loss of cultures, but they really messed up with The Search.
I have a lot of thoughts about Azula, how her relationship with Ozai shaped her and how it might affect her "redemption" going forward. I think a lot of people forget that she was just 14 and if she did not behave the way she did, she likely would have been "discarded" by Ozai.
Anyway, I liked your take on Azula's character, I had thought a bit about the culture and time she was a product of (being from a collectivist culture that was colonised, I couldn't not go there) but not as much as I could have and how history and nationality ties in to values.
Oh and idk if you'll appreciate this but HelloFutureMe's video essay on Azula's psychology provides great insight, so I'd recommend that.
Thanks for the comment! To be honest, I haven't been keeping up with the comics. I'm not a big supplementary materials person anyway, but the search more or less killed my interest in it entirely. Frankly, if its not on-screen in the same story in which it was introduced, I have a hard time caring about any development she might have been given. I'm But thank you for telling me about it - while I more or less think the window for a coherent redemption arc is closed, I'm glad to hear she is still being considered and contemplated by writers and readers. You're right, she's insanely young, and the idea that she couldn't come to see the virtues of a new kind of society is abhorrent to me.
Yes I've seen that! It's been a while though, so maybe I'll rewatch it. I like Hello Future Me in general though. Thanks again for engaging!
I'm Happy that somebody appreciated the comics, cause I hated them, expecially for the plot. I studied a lot about decolonization, and they simplified in a superheroistic way, and the same made with industrialization thing. But It's Just my view about them, and I appreciated something like some characters and ideas, but I hated that forgotten a lot of characters like Bumi, Haru, Piandao, Theo, Meng and the two Earthling Tribes and their ancestor and the "globe thing".
Anyway, her comic was interesting, but I think that they had to do after her escape by the Gaang after The Search, and maybe we could find her in the Earth Kingdom like a sellsword (or "sellsfire") who works for Bumi and Tyro with Sand Bender Tribes o against a xenopbobic rebellion in Omashu, starting there her "new kingdom" in a good way, learning new things, and with the Gaang that accept her presence and the "Crazy ideas" of Bumi. Not the Classical "becoming friend of my enemies" but a development in to a morally grey character with her objectives Who can become good or bad.
Yes, I hated the Joker-Azula of Smoke and Shadow, or Smoke and Weed as I call that.
But I understand that Bryke, or more precisely Di Martino, would have some problems with a similar plot, not for problems with Korra, but cause they wouldn't like a Situation when the Heroes are not Superheroes Who stop everything with their personalities and powers and fuck society, culture and people (they're libertarians, expecially Di Martino), when accept the Heroes as Epic Heroes who can change in a limited way inside a culture and similar things (like happened in AtlA but not in LoK), Well clearly It isn't a thing that they love.
@angelocoll7802 oh not me, I despise them
If quidditch is the human condition, what are the Bludgers? Mindless automated obstacles, arbitrarily made of solid metal, purpose-built to injure the players and to be a method by which the players can injure each other indirectly (because more direct but less violent forms of checking are forbidden). They raise the stakes, the tension. They're a story device. They're Azula - the singularity point of the "danger context" that the characters offered the privilege of dynamism and development can orbit around.
I don't think Iroh dismissing Azula's capacity for redemption was contrary to the rest of the text - I think it was the actual views of its authors at its most earnest, testing the waters for agreement just like telling a deniably-racist joke in mixed company. One of the coremost themes of the show, pacifism, is its most weakly explored: Aang's personal moral victory in subduing Ozai without taking his life is nothing more than personal. The story ends before we see if it had any consequences. Additionally, it isn't earned as a result of Aang's trials over the course of the series the way that the martial aspect of his victory is MASTERFULLY crafted to be; but given to him in his sleep by an out-of-context Godlike figure; revealed only at the moment of its relevance.
In other contexts, the only consequence for excess violence is Katara's disapproval, as the only reward for restraint is her approval. Jet plays a strawman of a rebel, whose methods jump from crude but effective to cruel and disaffected the moment he needs to be used as a moral scapegoat. Katara fails to defeat Hama until she accepts her capacity for bloodbending, and she only finds closure over her mother's murder by physically overpowering Yon Rha - the fact that she chose only to humiliate rather than kill him is ornamental; her privilege to even have that choice was earned by her brute force.
Avatar is not at all anti-violence, rather it depicts violence as a language by which peace can be negotiated. In that way, Zuko would be able to be even more of an outlier - if his redemption wasn't ALSO written in the language of violence. Teaching Aang to master firebending (culminating in the two of them being anointed side by side by literal dragons). Maybe some day he goes on to learn more actual pacifism from Iroh, and maybe when tested against the pressures of ruling a former fascist state those methods do prove effective - but if so, it all happens off-screen; and the writers are not challenged to explain how.