Mai and Ty Lee betraying Azula during the prison arc gave me ALL of the drama i needed when i was a kid. i’m still shaking. television has never been the same
I think Mai’s words are really telling. “I love Zuko more than I fear you.” These guys were friends for years, but this was clearly a friendship based on fear. Given how we see how Azula treats them throughout the series, it was possibly even toxic. And later we see Azula simply didn’t KNOW how to treat people any other way. She’s a truly tragic figure on a deeper level than what we see, but also seeing Mai and Ty Lee finally break away from her is triumphant af.
One of the best things in this scene is Ozai’s terrified face.
Zuko straight up told him that he would join the Avatar and help him. And what did Ozai do? He gave him a small, dismissive smirk.
Because what would his weak, failure of a son could do against all the might of the Fire Nation? He didn’t even care, because he thought Zuko’s help would not make the slightest difference.
But this is the moment he realizes that the kid he thought was a pathetic, useless bender, actually taught the Avatar firebending, including his epic “fuck-you Dad” lightning redirect move (which is btw also Iroh’s “fuck-you, Brother” move), taking away Ozai’s biggest weapon and saving Aang’s life.
Freshman year of college I was in a philosophy class and I was giving some sort of group presentation. The prof asked my group “what do you think is your purpose in life?” And none of them really had an answer while I just said “to make the world a better place for those who come after us” because in my mind that’s just the obvious answer. The prof looked kind of taken aback that I just had an answer on the ready and was like “Why? What’s your motivation?”
In that moment I realized I was in front of a lecture hall of privileged students. I was surrounded by people who didn’t know poverty or desperation like I had. I clawed my way here on scholarships while they were legacy kids or trust fund babies. In that moment it clicked in my head that there’s this level of empathy that you can only gain when you have absolutely nothing to lose. A level of empathy that only the impoverished have. A level of empathy that screams out that you have to fight to make things better even if it doesn’t benefit you. It’s a concept that you can only really grasp when you have nothing to lose and the kids before me hadn’t known that pain. They hadn’t developed that kind of empathy.
My only answer that I could give the prof was “Why wouldn’t I?”
I am Silver Tongue, I am an artist. I have many characters and you can check out my art in the art tag. I occasionally practice witchcraft though I don't do anything too complicated. I am girl 2 and don't know what else to put here.
