Talk:Azula/@comment-4640094-20110610195424/@comment-4629706-20110626052909

Ok, Lssj, I've been irritated by you before, but no. Just no. She is not JUST a monster, and they did not have the same upbringing. It was totally different, and if you want to know how, here it is.

Throughout all of Azula's life, she was unloved. There was Ozai, who showed false love to her, and Ursa who could have given a crap less about her. Striving constantly to please her father, she would settle for nothing less than perfection, and when she didn't get it, she brought the competition down to her level (see here for a very good example). Being a perfectionist, I can understand that. She had it perfect; but she had it awful at the same time. While she made everything seem all hunky-dorey, she was covering up feelings of being unloved, of having insecurities, of being imperfect. Anything could upset her seemingly flawless personality, but her two best friends betraying her, her mother not loving her, her father burning down a country alone, and having to deal with your treacherous brother and some filthy peasant from the south pole? That's over the top. But, in my opinion, probly the main reason she was so evil was pleasing her father, who was the true evil one, making his daughter no more than a minion, a tool. In order to please Ozai, she had to prove just as evil as he was. Well, fill in the blanks from there on out.

Zuko. What can be said about Zuko? Well, for the most part, he had the same upbringing as Azula (though the parent who cared for him was banished), there is one huge difference: Zuko was banished. He had the same contant strive to please his father, but being around his uncle for so long and going through so much (especially in book two), Zuko gradually began to switch sides. After he "switched" sides, he couldn't go back. He realized this when Azula proposed that awful plan and Ozai accepted it. He had been in the position of those peasants who would be killed in a blaze, and he felt sympathy. That was the true turning point. He realized which side he truly belonged to.

See the difference? Good.