Talk:Azula/@comment-3387809-20110518224059/@comment-3973838-20110521191032

Thank you, IBK. :) I liked your analysis on Mai and Azula's relationship - that's pretty much the way I see it. They were friends, but definitely not close friends. In The Beach, when Mai tells the group about her family life, Azula responds as if she'd never heard Mai talk about that before. On the other hand, when Ty Lee talks about her past, Azula says "Here we go again...", as if she's heard it many times. So it's very likely that Mai doesn't share a lot of personal information with Azula - yet close friendships are all about sharing personal information. So that's another piece of evidence pointing to Azula and Mai not being close friends. :-P

@MightySifuKatara

Wow, nice insight into Mai and Azula's relationship. :) I think you're right about the reason Mai started hanging around Azula in the first place. (Also, she might have wanted to hang around Azula just so she could be near Azula's brother. People do that, you know...)

@Kaizuh

I actually agree with most of your post, except for the last paragraph (I'll get to that in just a minute). But I will let you contemplate this question: are jealousy and hate always completely separable emotions? If you're extremely jealous of someone, can't that jealousy manifest itself in hate?

As for your last paragraph... I get your point, but I think it's an oversimplification of what could have happened. If I've learned one thing from watching shows like Justice League, it's that fights never go down as simply as one might think they would. Take Flash, for instance. His super speed should technically allow him to dodge almost anything, but that clearly is not the case. And don't get me started on Green Lanterns (even though I think they're super cool)... Similarly, Azula technically might be able to Firebend a knife out of the air, but that doesn't mean that would have happened. A lot of things must be considered. First of all, Azula and Mai were standing fairly close. Combine this with the fact that Mai can throw knives at lightning speed, and it would boil down to Azula's reaction time. Could she have responded in time? Maybe, maybe not. Azula isn't perfect (though she'd probably disagree with me); and as MightySifuKatara pointed out, in the heat of the moment, Azula had let her temper get the best of her. When Azula loses focus like that, she makes mistakes (see Sozin's Comet for an extreme example...). And those aren't the only variables to consider. But I'll just leave it at that, because this post is long enough (indeed, too long) as is. :P