I think about Azula shooters often and their common refrain of "if Azula hadn't had a mental breakdown, she would've won" and I'm here to tell you that no, she wouldn't have.
Azula spent so much of Book 2 being built up as this deadly terrifying force against whom the heroes are badly outmatched that it can be difficult to catch exactly how quickly Zuko is advancing.
Back up a bit to Book One. For the fearsome exiled crown prince of the Fire Nation, Zuko's not that impressive a firebender. He's not bad by any stretch, and he's able to lay the untrained Sokka and Katara flat pretty easily. Then he gets in the ring with Aang, who is an airbending master, and the difference between a regular bender and a master becomes apparent when Aang literally puts his ass to bed:
People have attributed this to the fact that no one's fought an airbender in 100 years, but I think it's also worth noting that Aang (a 12 year old from a pacifist nation) has probably never fought anyone before. Like, ever. And yet the second Aang thinks "okay, I'll attack back", the fight's over.
Zuko's got the same genetic predisposition for firebending talent that Azula does, yet it never seems to manifest because of his mental blocks. At the beginning of the series, he's already so beat down that all he really has is conviction, pride, and anger, so even with training from Iroh (the firebending master, thank you very much), he struggles. Yet throughout Book 2, when he has no time to train because he's on the run, he actually seems to advance faster. The fact that his bending is literally tied to his character arc (as his morals become tangled and he has to fight off aforementioned mental blocks) is pretty brilliant. Like, by the time of the Crossroads of Destiny, Zuko getting his ass handed to him by Aang is a pretty consistent feature of the show--he just can't match wits with him.
Hell, at the beginning of the series, he and Iroh (again: the actual firebending master) launch a combined power surface-to-air attack...which Aang casually swats away into a nearby ice wall. Come the Crossroads of Destiny, however, and Zuko by himself launches this bigass fireball that blows through Aang's defenses.
Zuko advances so quickly that it's scary. That prodigious talent is in him even if it doesn't come through as cleanly as with Azula. Who, by the way, was busy about to get flattened by Katara some few dozen feet away, until Zuko took over and then effectively stalemated her himself.
All of this in retrospect makes it abundantly clear why Zuko's firebending seemed to skyrocket so much when he learned true firebending from the Sun Warriors: it was really the only thing left. He's hard a hard road learning how to fight waterbenders, earthbenders, and airbenders, and even if unconsciously, he's applying the philosophy Iroh taught him about augmenting his bending style with aspects of other styles (see also, the waterbending-like fire whips he uses in the above gif). Once he actually understands fire and how it works, he's got it mastered. Hence why any gap between him and Azula effectively disappears as soon as their next fight--before her friends have betrayed her and her stability goes out the window. There's no real sense of urgency to their fight at the Boiling Rock prison. True, Sokka's presence with the sword helps, but Zuko doesn't look remotely worried and he counters Azula's every attack perfectly.
All her life, Azula only ever learned fire. She was taught by the best people the fire nation can employ, so she knows all the cool tricks, but she's still poisoned by the corrupted firebending practiced in the modern ATLA timeline. Unlike Zuko, who managed to get the basics if nothing else from Iroh (fire comes from the breath, and can be used to survive as much as to kill), Azula has always used fire as a weapon and a means to hurt others. She has no true knowledge of the craft, meaning she's got the same weaknesses as Zhao, she's just better disciplined to the point she can make up for it.
Zuko's victory was a given considering Azula's complete loss of control by the time of Sozin's comet, but even had she been in a perfect mental state, she'd have lost, because in many ways Zuko is simply the better firebender.
And that's the truth of it.
Too many Voids 🥰🐈🖤
Splinter said knock you out 💥 TMNT
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shocking news for everyone who follows me: i love data
The 145 films we watched this year. Can you figure out the odds one out?
(pink is Inès, green is Gabrielle, white is watched by both)
Again, thanks to @hotvintagepoll for all the great movie recs. Your blog literally made me fall back in love with Old Hollywood which then helped me get back into my passion for cinema and I'm so thankful that my cinema year was so rich (and Toshiro-full) thanks to you and your community ❤️
when your art program’s closing message hits you straight in the heart and makes you stop and contemplate the state of it all
Deep shadows pt1 Deep shadows pt2 Kings of Hyrule Malon1 Malon2 the Bet Malanya Malon3 Malon4 Malon5 postman swords threatening shadows pt1 threatening shadows pt2 threatening shadows pt3 Masks pt1 Masks pt2 Doodles pt7 The Shadow pt1 The Shadow pt2 The Shadow pt3 The Shadow pt4 Doodles pt8 Fish stories Memories pt1 Memories pt2 Shady escape pt1 Shady escape pt2 Shady escape pt3 Shady escape pt4 new time new place Divine dark reflections pt1 Divine Dark Reflections pt2 Doodles pt9 Divine Dark Reflections pt3 Divine Dark Reflections pt4 Divine Dark Reflections pt5 Divine Dark Reflections pt6 Divine Dark Reflections pt7 Divine Dark Reflections pt8 Divine Dark Reflections pt9 Divine Dark Reflections pt10 Magic sword Regroup Miss her Timeline talk1 Doodles pt10 Likelike Heroes legacy Shifting Shadow pt1 Shifting Shadow pt 2 Shifting Shadow pt 3 Shifting Shadow pt 4 Shifting Shadow pt 5 Shifting Shadow pt 6 Shifting Shadow pt 7 Sunset pt 1 Sunset pt 2 Sunset pt 3 Sunset pt 4 Sunset pt 5 Sunset pt 6 Sunset pt 7 Sunset pt 8 Sunset pt 9 Sunset pt 10 Sunset pt 11 Sunset pt 12 Sunset pt 13 Sunset pt 14 Night Dawn pt 1 Dawn pt 2 Dawn pt 3 Dawn pt 4
…to be continued…
Original sketches 1st post ever doodles pt1 doodles pt2 doodles pt3 doodles pt4 scars smith skull kid Hoarder of legend Ravio doodles pt 5: sailcloth, minish powerful ring access to Gerudo town Vai cloths natural strength sheikah materials bully sister doodlespt 6: knights, ladyfriends, face of displeasure fishing too small for the sword lost spar a secret mirror shield scar beasts after dark pt.1 beasts after dark pt.2 broken blade broken Master Sword Wall Master Wolfie Wolf and the smallest hero Nightmares saved by the wolf Linkle 1 Linkle 2 Yiga Pictographs Malink past Mipha’s journal biggest thing you fought Ganon who? dogs
art of 2023: January- cold sunrise February- shadow silhouettes march- green steps April- playful breeze may- shattered recreation June- summer shade July - starry notes August - ancient memories September - stormy draw October - eruption labyrinth November - slippery steps December - collection connoisseurs
heights? / nicknames / Why off model? / master sword Ideas / Triforce / love interests Storyboard / Storyboard2 / art process / Tools
Malon / tingle / Linebeck / Great fairy / Groose / Ravio one &only / The shadow / Swords / …. / Lizalfos / Bokos of the sea / Postman / TotK aliens?
Time / Special mask / honey&darling / long hair
Twilight / Twilight details / not a furry / hoodie / hunting ethics / “it’s complicated” / best on horseback
Warrior / full sketch
Sky / woodcarver / sailcloth / what’s up w/ the master sword / Attire Layers
Wild / Wild concept / best archer /self-doubt / wild2.0 / cooking / Totk / engineering TotK
Hyrule / Legend & Hyrule design / Red tunic / Hero of Hyrule
Legend / Legend’s hair / Dream girl
4Sword / 4Sworddetails
Wind
Got some Mikey and Klunk for you today
Every mikey needs a Klunk. Very Important tmnt requirement.
familiar faces
twitter // ko-fi UNCLE send him to the principles office and have him EXPELLED!!!
The dynamic in Rise between the rest of the team and Leo is. so fucking funny. Because like you've got these three extremely talented individuals who all seem like perfectly reasonable people at first glance, right, but then if you squint hard enough you realize they're actually all batshit insane (affectionate) and the clown boy standing behind them is secretly their common sense.
Clown boy will occasionally put himself and the others in danger to Prove Himself or Prove Someone Wrong (see Minotaur Maze and the movie) but like otherwise... i think people forget Leo's overwhelmingly the voice of reason in most situations?
Raph, Mikey, and Donnie are all incredibly powerful boys with very specific skill sets. They are also, as a direct result of this, the WORST decision-makers on god's green earth lmao. When presented with a problem, Raph will smash, Donnie will blow shit up, and Mikey will razzmatazz. They will all run straight toward death with the same oblivious enthusiasm of a dog about to run straight into a screen door. None of them realize this and all of them think they are Extremely Good At Problem-Solving.
And the guy cursed with the common sense to realize this is literally the LAST person anyone would expect.
When you look closely, the entirety of Rise is actually a chronicle of Leo trying to find new and creative ways to keep this team of superpowered fools alive while simultaneously white-knuckling his Cool Fun Guy persona so the others don't realize he's secretly the Boring Responsible One. Haha, you know what would be Cool and Fun, guys? Not going after the Spine Breaking Bandit lol. Getting home before the sun goes up lol. Evacuating that civilian lol. Not telling the guy dangling me off a roof "you won't, no balls" lol.
The sacred struggle of every iteration of Leonardo is thanklessly wrangling the most trigger-happy siblings in the world, and Rise Leo has not escaped it. He just does an occasional shenanigan to avoid detection and his brothers fall for it every time.
She/Her - 23Hello! My name is Sam. I've been in many fandoms, but the main ones right now are:TMNT, LoZ, and One Piece. I'm new to tumblr but may post more stuff eventually, I am still settling in.
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