@General B.H. it literally says she isn’t going to

What is "it"? The spirit? The spirit is not omniscient. I know she wants revenge on the girls that left her service but that doesn't mean she won't redeem herself. Sometimes redemption takes time.

Not every villain needs a redemption, tbh Azula shouldn't get one, she should serve as an example of what happens when you're raised by someone who's as tyrannical and psychopathic as Ozai but didn't have a real father figure in their life like how Zuko had Iroh

The problem is that a well-written antagonist has a personality. And Azula's personality is something more than a stupid monkey who runs around the world and demands that the throne be returned to her. Simply put, a villain is a role of character in the plot. But Azula as a person has no reason to play this role. Because we have already been shown in the show that the title of Fire Lord does not make her happy at all. Moreover, in the show she was not obsessed with this title at all. Simply put, there is no purpose for which Azula should oppose herself to Aang and company and, as a result, there is no reason for her to turn into an antagonist again.

Your argument is flawed, Azula never said the throne has to return to her. Azula said she wants to make Zuko into a fierce leader just like she did in Smoke and Shadow, so she is repeating a precedent that was already made before. The spirit calls her Firelord because it thinks that is what she wants, but they are two different entities.

Azula herself to my knowledge doesn't want to be Firelord again, otherwise she wouldn't have repeated what she said in the graphic novel that proceeds this one. Now, I'm unsure how she thinks she can make Zuko a fierce leader by attacking small agricultural facilities but hey maybe I'm missing the big picture. Maybe she wants him to retaliate with more military force.

What may have confused you is that Azula said Zuko is a weakling who is unfit for Firelord and that Ozai was the only one other than her who was but he is now a shell of himself because he can no longer firebend. The thing is, Zuko being a weakling unfit for the role would be a reason Azula would need to "make" him into a legitimate leader.

Azula might think she is capable of being the Firelord but that doesn't mean she wants that position as she's already said her destiny is different. That is why before now, when Zuko had his speech in Smoke and Shadow, she was watching from the distance.

Azula is also intelligent so she likely knows that taking the throne would make her a target of Aang, Katara, and several others. She might be more successful moving through the shadows and manipulating the moves that her brother in office makes. Also, by the end of the comic, her short-term goal has at least changed to getting revenge against people who she said could play a pivotal role "in transforming Zuko".

Seriously? In this particular comic, Azula literally quotes Zuko:

I am Azula, daughter of Ozai the Phoenix King! I am the rightful Fire Lord!

I'm the only one left with any claim to the Fire Nation throne!

Add to this her biography from the role-playing game.

As for previous ideas, they were also banal and insignificant. Azula creates chaos - the people hate Zuko, who is unable to cope with this - Zuko holds on to the throne with a stranglehold and turns into a tyrant. Only this plan has an initial problem - the people of the Fire Nation have nothing to do with Zuko's legitimacy. From the very beginning, Zuko sits on a throne of foreign soldiers' bayonets. And he made asshole decisions from the start, for example, he almost started a new war.

In Azula in the Spirit Temple:

Azula says this, "I gave them the opportunity to change the future of the Fire Nation! To make my dear brother Zuzu into a Fire Lord worthy of the throne."

But in a way, we are both right. As Azula in the Spirit Temple is a sequel to Smoke & Shadow. I just looked at Smoke & Shadow again and I noticed this quote.

"In the last twenty-four hours, I've shown just how ruthless you can be. Deep down inside, you're still one of us. You can deny it for a little while, but eventually you will become just like me. And then, in a sense, I'll be Fire Lord again."

So Azula wants Zuko to be a fierce Fire Lord. That is a goal that she has which she repeated in both stories. It is the overlapping goal and trend in the series. However, Azula in a way, wants Zuko to be Fire Lord through her.

Also, Azula saying she is the worthy Fire Lord would make her more qualified to train someone else into being a worthy Fire Lord. Azula may feel she's the only one with a rightful claim but that doesn't mean she wants it, and it also doesn't mean it's her destiny. That is something she wants to change by making her brother worthy just like her so she can rule through him.

Also, as to why Azula cares more about the Firelord title now (regardless of whether it is based on controlling Zuko or directly ruling) is because people are not stagnant. They grow and change over time. Just as their opinions can. Azula still not being mentally 100 percent can have an influence on that too.

Only this is not development, but degradation. Azula, with all her intelligence and talents, turns into the damn Zuko, and even with much less chance and much more vague and unpleasant prospects.

This is also somewhat off topic, but I find it awesome that Azula’s quote in the role playing game and in the spirit temple is identical to what she says in the first chapter of Macai’s Journey when she met Macai which launched November 2020.

In it, she says, “I am Azula, daughter of Ozai, and future Fire Lord!” It is almost the same quote but it fits the timeline. Because Ozai wasn’t Phoenix King yet and it shows how well Azula was portrayed in that fan series.

I naturally had a nostalgia burst as I saw several parallels from some things in AMJ with this comic. Might have made me a bit biased but there are some things that I think could have been potty rated differently like her objective and what not.

I’ll admit her quotes are a little all over the place but that shows her mental state. I also like how this conflict felt a bit like a small scale Civil War where we see different Fire Nation members fighting each other.