Talk:Azula/@comment-95.148.220.254-20120201002728/@comment-1454424-20120201115405

If you are going to use Azula is 14 as an excuse, I would like to point out that Zuko is only 16 and therefore, a lot of his more questionable actions can be forgiven. EXCEPT, none of Zuko's questionable actions WERE forgiven. The guy made-up for everything. He made-up for hiring the Assassin by helping Team Avatar against the Assassin and trying to call of said Assassin at that point. Of course by that point the Assassin had a personal vendetta against Team Avatar for staying successfully alive against him but that's another matter. Zuko made-up for whatever he did to Kyoshi Island by helping Suki escape. Plus the fact that he was instrumental in taking down Ozai and Azula and ending the century long war as Fire Lord is pretty much atonement for his past deeds.

As for Azula, she was never innocent! Even as a child she gleefully imagined her uncle dying. She looked on with a smile while her father burned her brother's face and 14 year old isn't 4 year old. In the entire series, including childhood flashback, Azula has been shown to be cruel, manipulative and sadistic. Just look at how she pressured Ty Lee into joining her! The only time you got even the faint impression that Azula might have some genuinely good feelings is when she did not rat Zuko out to their father when she found out Zuko was visiting their uncle in prison and even then, Zuko certainly thought that Azula was playing a game with him and hedging her bets with him as a ready made fall-guy. Since Zuko should know her better then us, I am going with Zuko.

Besides all that, what makes you think Azula WANTS or is even capable of redemption. Just because you want it, doesn't mean Azula wants it. She started and ended the series unrepentant, just like her father. The fact that she was declared insane and thus mentally incapable of distinguishing right from wrong is basically the ticket that got her off, so to speak.

As for Iroh, like seriously, he was fighting a war. People die in wars, properties get damaged, lives get disrupted. These are the facts of war. However, waging war is in itself not a crime (maybe it should be but it isn't). 'War Crimes' is a category in itself and there is no evidence that Iroh ever committed War Crimes. Besides, in a century old war, I am sure even Earth Kingdom generals didn't have their hands entirely clean and we know this based on the thuggish Earth Kingdom soldiers Zuko encountered during "Zuko Alone".

However, it still doesn't excuse Azula or provide openings for her story to continue. Azule's is just a ruthless, insane bitch who clearly had no hope of ever being anything but a patient in a mental institution. I mean, even if Ozai had succeeded, how long do you think Azula would have lasted as "Fire Lord"? Given how mentally unstable she had become in the lead-up to her coronation, I am pretty sure that if Ozai had any sense left after his little power trip, he himself would have return to the Fire Nation and disposed of Azula personally and put someone else in-charge, just so Azula wouldn't destroy the Fire Nation with her insanity. To quote Iroh, "She's crazy and needs to go down". She went down, end of story.