And tumblr kids are just strange too. I'm taking to one person right now who says that because her friend who identifies with Ty Lee hates Mai, Ty Lee must actually hate Mai too. What? No really what?
I'd... I'd really like to rant about kids these days, but I don't even know where to start with that. You win, Tumblr. You have weirded me into submission. *whimpers*
Dreamwidth is where it's at for me. For the foreseeable future, that's still going to be my base.
Ooh, me too! Somehow I hadn't been following you there. *follows you*
I also saw the argument that giving Azula the doll itself was abuse
Whaaat. I agree with you it's all sorts of problematic, but it's not abuse directed at Azula, Christ, these people really hate Iroh don't they?
I can feel very sorry indeed for her, though not as bad as I feel for Zuko, and not bad enough to think she deserves the chance to use and abuse people into making her feel less afraid, like her apologists do.
Yeahhh, because obviously other people are just tools to make woobie widdle Zula feel safe and happy, no matter that the feeling of safety is a temporary illusion, no matter how this treatment fucks with her victims' boundaries and sense of self.
I don't even know why I'm surprised at the level of Azula apologists' toxicity. I mean of course there's no way to validate an abuser's point of view without making arguments that justify abuse, yet these people give me new heebie-jeebies every time with the lengths they're willing to go.
Actually, Azula is straight up one of the most terrifying villains ever written.
Nodnodnod. Ozai is one of the most boring villains of all time. Azula, on the other hand, is straight-up scary.
This is the fundamental truth I wish everyone understood about Azula's breakdown. That, right there.
And even if Azula weren't a psychopath and felt truly hurt by Ty Lee and Mai defying her, I don't think it should matter. Even if she felt betrayed, that doesn't mean she was. Psychopath or not, her sense of betrayal is not an experience anyone can validate, at least not without justifying her abuse.
I do feel sorry for her that she was so twisted up by genetics and upbringing that she experienced other people's personhood as a wrong against herself, but I certainly don't feel sorry for her that Mai and Ty Lee stood up to her abuse. Any betrayal she might have felt is only indicative of her outsized entitlement, not of any wrong done to her.
I'm also a little ticked that fireroyals equated psychopathy with pure evil. Maybe that's why she resisted the diagnosis for Azula despite the clear indications from the show, because to her psychopaths are monsters and not people. I disagree: Psychopathy is an inborn condition tending to low empathy, not a one-way ticket to a lifetime of depravity. It's a risk factor, not a sentence.
Psychopaths raised in very positive environments can and do (http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/01/life-as-a-nonviolent-psychopath/282271/) grow up to be productive and even brilliant, and I'm convinced this would have been true of Azula if not for Ozai's emotional abuse and if Ursa's firm and loving boundaries had been allowed to persist. Azula would never have been "nice," per se, she would always have been a little too good at manipulating people and probably would never have experienced true emotional intimacy. However, she would have been one of those people who are wildly fun to be around, a risk-taker, a brilliant thinker. She might have had too much fun playing people when she got the chance, but wouldn't have had this insatiable need to bend people to her will.
Things could have been so much better for Azula and those around her, and I see her story as a series of missed opportunities and not a monstrous destiny fulfilled.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2015-04-12 09:11 am (UTC)I'd... I'd really like to rant about kids these days, but I don't even know where to start with that. You win, Tumblr. You have weirded me into submission. *whimpers*
Ooh, me too! Somehow I hadn't been following you there. *follows you*
Whaaat. I agree with you it's all sorts of problematic, but it's not abuse directed at Azula, Christ, these people really hate Iroh don't they?
Yeahhh, because obviously other people are just tools to make woobie widdle Zula feel safe and happy, no matter that the feeling of safety is a temporary illusion, no matter how this treatment fucks with her victims' boundaries and sense of self.
I don't even know why I'm surprised at the level of Azula apologists' toxicity. I mean of course there's no way to validate an abuser's point of view without making arguments that justify abuse, yet these people give me new heebie-jeebies every time with the lengths they're willing to go.
Nodnodnod. Ozai is one of the most boring villains of all time. Azula, on the other hand, is straight-up scary.
And even if Azula weren't a psychopath and felt truly hurt by Ty Lee and Mai defying her, I don't think it should matter. Even if she felt betrayed, that doesn't mean she was. Psychopath or not, her sense of betrayal is not an experience anyone can validate, at least not without justifying her abuse.
I do feel sorry for her that she was so twisted up by genetics and upbringing that she experienced other people's personhood as a wrong against herself, but I certainly don't feel sorry for her that Mai and Ty Lee stood up to her abuse. Any betrayal she might have felt is only indicative of her outsized entitlement, not of any wrong done to her.
I'm also a little ticked that fireroyals equated psychopathy with pure evil. Maybe that's why she resisted the diagnosis for Azula despite the clear indications from the show, because to her psychopaths are monsters and not people. I disagree: Psychopathy is an inborn condition tending to low empathy, not a one-way ticket to a lifetime of depravity. It's a risk factor, not a sentence.
Psychopaths raised in very positive environments can and do (http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/01/life-as-a-nonviolent-psychopath/282271/) grow up to be productive and even brilliant, and I'm convinced this would have been true of Azula if not for Ozai's emotional abuse and if Ursa's firm and loving boundaries had been allowed to persist. Azula would never have been "nice," per se, she would always have been a little too good at manipulating people and probably would never have experienced true emotional intimacy. However, she would have been one of those people who are wildly fun to be around, a risk-taker, a brilliant thinker. She might have had too much fun playing people when she got the chance, but wouldn't have had this insatiable need to bend people to her will.
Things could have been so much better for Azula and those around her, and I see her story as a series of missed opportunities and not a monstrous destiny fulfilled.