I'm not sure Azula is capable of caring about someone else in the way we think about it, but she values them, and is dependent on them on some level.
I imagine the abuser is always hugely dependent on the abused. The abuse itself has to arise out of some need, even if the stated reason is a dickish one like "because I can." I think for Azula as for a lot of abusers it came out of the need for control, and being able to dominate Ty Lee and Mai fulfilled that need for her.
In this light, it's no wonder Azula fell apart after their act of defiance; her utter failure of mastery over the two most reliable variables in her life meant everything in her world was now out of her control and she was totally helpless.
This is Azula's paradoxical tragedy: In trying to achieve total self-sufficiency from the unpredictability of affection and need, something I believe was triggered in part by her mother's disappearance, she actually set herself up for abject dependence on other people. When they refused to prop her world up, it simply fell apart.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2013-09-13 02:07 am (UTC)I imagine the abuser is always hugely dependent on the abused. The abuse itself has to arise out of some need, even if the stated reason is a dickish one like "because I can." I think for Azula as for a lot of abusers it came out of the need for control, and being able to dominate Ty Lee and Mai fulfilled that need for her.
In this light, it's no wonder Azula fell apart after their act of defiance; her utter failure of mastery over the two most reliable variables in her life meant everything in her world was now out of her control and she was totally helpless.
This is Azula's paradoxical tragedy: In trying to achieve total self-sufficiency from the unpredictability of affection and need, something I believe was triggered in part by her mother's disappearance, she actually set herself up for abject dependence on other people. When they refused to prop her world up, it simply fell apart.