"The bitter thing about it, is the fact, that this kind of repeating and reproducing family stories aren't unusual." Abuse tends to come in chains. I read a thing about how a good many kids either grow up to be the abuser or go out of their way to avoid doing so at all costs. "It is too easy in my opinion, to put all the blame on Ozai. Ursa has done big mistakes with Azula as well." Though I hold him as thee most responsible, Ursa played her role. She fawned over Zuko to the point where Azula felt unloved. She also didn't really try to intervene, she kind of just let Ozai shape the girl into who she was. Granted, Ozai would be hard to combat. But we didn't really see anything in canon to show that she had tried. "In canon, he was first at the front and then lost in his grief and finally it was too late." Iroh was kind of just that unfortunate sideline player.
"A good chapter. For me this fight was one of the saddest scenes in the whole cartoon." Same, it was probably one of the most powerful moments. I felt awful for Azula, she was very alone in that moment and probably very afraid. She was just so young when it happened. And she lives in a tie period where mental illness is still very misunderstood.
They were so broken that it was hard to look at.
He had banished her and then destroyed her children. Beneath a facade of confidence and clarity she could tell that Zuko's self-esteem was still in shambles or at the very least it had been loosely patched together waiting to be shattered again at any moment.
From his manner of speech and the smile on his face, most people wouldn't be able to tell. Most people wouldn't even have a hint of it. But she is his mother and she knew him well. She knew him well enough to see through that Fire Lord's smile. That brave face he put on.
Deep down he was broken.
And he wasn't the only one all broken up.
Beneath a facade of anger, power, and nonchalance, she could tell that Azula was in pain. She could tell that the girl was constantly on the verge of tears. Tears that she held back with all of her strength. If nothing else, Azula was a strong girl.
She would attend meeting as though she hadn't been to an institution. She would act as though thing were as they should be. She hid behind pretty speeches and sharp words. But she is her mother and...does she know her at all? She knows her just enough to know that she was disappointed in herself.
Deep down she was broken.
Her daughter talked to herself when she thought that no one was looking and her son berated himself at every chance he got and for the littlest of things. Her daughter cried herself to sleep when she thought that no one could hear and her son wept rather openly when things didn't go quite as he had planned with the council. Neither of them seemed to know how to handle set-backs, failures, and flaws. Perhaps Zuko was a little closer, but even he had a hard time weathering it. Ozai had ingrained within the both of them that it was everything or nothing. That they were either glorious or they were failures. He'd left no middle ground; no room for the comfort of acknowledging that everyone has their imperfections.
For it, he had left two broken children. Two broken children who pointed fingers at each other, wishing that they could fill in each other's shoes. Two broken, jealous children, who fought constantly for what the other had, not truly knowing what demons came with what the other had. Two broken children who would do much better as allies.
She had gone and left them at Ozai's mercy.
Now she had to fix what he had shattered.
She was almost afraid.
Afraid and ashamed to admit to herself that she was afraid.
Because, what kind of mother is afraid of her own daughter?
The girl was broken and she had to make it right. Their family was broken and she had to piece them back together just as Iroh had suggested. She paused, staring at Azula. Azula who sat on her bed staring intensely at a spot on the wall. She decided to fetch Zuko. The two of the had broken alone. They will repair together.