This all got started, as I might have mentioned to you, when I saw Azula torching the doll, and her look of distaste, and I thought to myself, no, that's wrong. Azula loves to play with people, before she had people, she would have loved dolls. Her reaction only works in a highly gendered setting in which dolls are girly and girly is bad. Or if once she had human toys, dolls weren't as interesting. And the next logical step was Zuko, her human toy identifying with them. There's just something so deeply sad about Zuko protecting Azula's dolls the way he can't protect himself.
Oh no, I absolutely intended that. There are two reasons for the Ursa doll in the story. One is to show the way Azula used dolls, as symbolic people she could control, the Ursa doll is a version of their mother who says what Ursa wants her to say (and in story, I think Ursa realized this would happen and gave Azula the doll in hopes she would learn something about the way her daughter's mind worked) and also to represent the way Azula feels as if Zuko took their mother away, both viscerally, because she left because of Zuko, and also symbolically, because to Azula, Zuko was Ursa's "favorite" the way she was Ozai's. I don't think this is the truth, the way parts of fandom do. I think Ursa loved her daughter, and knew there was something very wrong with her, and was the only person to try to set boundaries for her, and next to Ozai's effusive praise, this felt like hate, whereas Ursa valued Zuko when everyone else didn't, and this read to Azula, who saw Zuko as without value, as favoritism, but it's the way Azula saw the situation. You're sympathizing with an abuser, yes, but you're sympathizing with her in her place as abuse victim. While she was Ozai's favorite, Ursa was the only stable loving force in her life, the only person who wanted the best for her just because she existed, and on some level, she knew that. Ursa's leaving shocked her to the core.
And she told herself she was glad. She yelled and screamed for her missing doll because she couldn't yell and scream for her missing mother without admitting just how she really felt.
In some ways, I think Zuko has become a replacement Ursa doll, and also an Ozai doll for Azula. He is now both the last person that she can claim love, and understanding from (and Ursa's child as she is Ozai's) and also a young man who looks a lot like their father, a father whose value of her is built on his estimation of her use to him. Ozai has the control over her. She has the control over Zuko. I think this, just as in this story she doesn't damage the Ursa doll, is why she is so reluctant to just kill Zuko. Yes, having a fall guy is nice, but surely she would be even more secure if there were only Azula.
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Oh no, I absolutely intended that. There are two reasons for the Ursa doll in the story. One is to show the way Azula used dolls, as symbolic people she could control, the Ursa doll is a version of their mother who says what Ursa wants her to say (and in story, I think Ursa realized this would happen and gave Azula the doll in hopes she would learn something about the way her daughter's mind worked) and also to represent the way Azula feels as if Zuko took their mother away, both viscerally, because she left because of Zuko, and also symbolically, because to Azula, Zuko was Ursa's "favorite" the way she was Ozai's. I don't think this is the truth, the way parts of fandom do. I think Ursa loved her daughter, and knew there was something very wrong with her, and was the only person to try to set boundaries for her, and next to Ozai's effusive praise, this felt like hate, whereas Ursa valued Zuko when everyone else didn't, and this read to Azula, who saw Zuko as without value, as favoritism, but it's the way Azula saw the situation. You're sympathizing with an abuser, yes, but you're sympathizing with her in her place as abuse victim. While she was Ozai's favorite, Ursa was the only stable loving force in her life, the only person who wanted the best for her just because she existed, and on some level, she knew that. Ursa's leaving shocked her to the core.
And she told herself she was glad. She yelled and screamed for her missing doll because she couldn't yell and scream for her missing mother without admitting just how she really felt.
In some ways, I think Zuko has become a replacement Ursa doll, and also an Ozai doll for Azula. He is now both the last person that she can claim love, and understanding from (and Ursa's child as she is Ozai's) and also a young man who looks a lot like their father, a father whose value of her is built on his estimation of her use to him. Ozai has the control over her. She has the control over Zuko. I think this, just as in this story she doesn't damage the Ursa doll, is why she is so reluctant to just kill Zuko. Yes, having a fall guy is nice, but surely she would be even more secure if there were only Azula.