Talk:Fire Nation Royal Family/@comment-67.149.6.116-20100708083853

Zuko, in the end may have been the 'best', but the truth is both Zuko and Azula had the potential to be great masters in different ways. Zuko was a disappoint to his father because he was not born a prodigy, and had to struggle to learn his bending from the beginning, because of this Fire Lord Ozai abandon his hopes for his son and instead concentrate on his daughter, as it furthered his own plans. A strong child of his meant that he only needed to bid his time and bend his own father's ear to his favor to gain the thrown while Iroh was away fighting. I believe because of this Azula learned her underhanded ways and cruelty, She was most-likely kept close by to Ozai and favored by him, getting the best instructors for her to learn from, spending time with her. All children favor the parent that gives them the things they want and learn to act and manipulate the parent into giving them what they want most. For Azula it was love and acceptance because the things she learned to please her father made her mother reject her, in that Zuko and Azula are just the same. Ursa loved both her children, but Azula's lying and meanness disturbed her, and most likely reminded her of her Father-in-law, and her husband coldness and hatred and because it had tainted one of her children, she clung all the more to Zuko, which infuriated a young Azula. why should her mother not love her the way her father did, after all Zuko was the 'Dum-Dum', the failure, and weaker child, and after their mother's disappearance or banishment Azula made sure Zuko would never be completely excepted and thus insured her place in her father's life as his heir in her mind, after all, her father had not been the eldest, so what if she was a girl and younger she would bend her father to her, like her father did to her grandfather, even if it meant she had to be perfect and being perfect means you need no one. In the end she was wrong, and left alone with out the approval by a better, without love, or true family or friends she was completely alone and the realization of the fact drove her mad and she was in fact a monster.

Zuko being pushed away by his father long before his banishment meant that he was able in a way to escape the sickness of the mind that had prevailed his family, and because Iroh had lost his son and gained a sense of what was truly important, he was able to help Zuko learn that you need not be perfect, you are loved by those who you welcome into and share your life with,and that honor is not something other people just give you, it is something you must define for yourself and earn, though Zuko learned the last one the hard way, but eventual figured out and embraced.

So the two children were lead down different paths. While everyone I know simply hates Azula, I pity her. Betrayed by her father, is his refusal to love her for just being his daughter and use her to his own gain only to abandon her when he was on the edge of realizing his dreams. Because in the last episodes you could see Azula begging in her own way, 'tell me you love me. Tell me that I have done everything you have ever wanted and that I am the one who you trust and need most, as much as I need you.' but he only told her you have succeeded, and that she would be Fire Lord while he went on to be Phoenix King. That was not want she wanted to hear, and when he said she would be staying behind and not coming with him she broke, he was abandoning her like her mother had and she was perfect, and alone and when you are perfect you need no one, everyone is expendable and she descended into madness.

While Zuko had flourished, with friends and uncle Iroh forgiving him for his betrayal, him finding want honor meant to him, and becoming the person he always dreamed he'd one day be.

So in the end perfection, madness and emptiness, lost to imperfect hard work, the healed, and fulfilled. These two were really the yin and yang of their blood and the cycle of the negative which began with Sozin ended in the defeat of Azula and the rise of a positive area with Zuko's victory.

I know way over analyzed but I really enjoyed these two characters: The Fallen Son and The Mad Daughter.