ok so i screenshotted this moment because i thought it was pretty cool
the first time we get to see all four elements working together for a common enemy, blah blah blah, but i started laughing because
sokka’s fucking boomerang. sokka threw a fucking boomerang at princess azula, renowned lightning bender and heir-apparent to the throne of the fire nation.
and sokka threw a boomerang at her.
I said it once and i say it again.
Azula considered Sokka to be the biggest threat in this group and countered him first. What this picture miss is Sokka sanding nearby. All members of this group unleash their attack at same time, but Azula reacts to boomerang first. If you watch this part in slow motion, you could see that Sokka’s boomerang was the first thing that would hit Azula and may even incapacitate her making her unable to continue to fight. So she had to counter in first. She deflected it with well placed shoot.
Then and only then, when there is no immediate threat, she starts to create her blue fire wall to counter other elements.
Lets think about this. How hard should you have to throw something to make it move faster that any elemental attack? Either all elemental attacks are slow or you are pretty strong. That said nonbenders with good aim and strong hands could easily overpower benders if they timed it right.(Aang got captured by Yuan archers who are all nonbenders.) Azula knew of this and acted according to it. She is talented bender and you may think that she should enlist other benders to help her track and capture Zuko, Iroh, and later avatar, but instead she uses her nonbender friend to help her.
Even if you have no bending you can still fight… and win.
Let’s not forget that on the Day of Black Sun, Sokka was the one in charge and Azula was no idiot Azula knew that.
When Aang, Sokka, and Toph all confronted Azula, she proceeded to make them chase her and waste their time. Azula is not only talented, she’s sly and smart as hell. WHO WAS THE ONE WHO SAW THROUGH THAT BS CHASE?
Sokka.
NOT ONLY THAT but after Sokka explains to the Gaang that Azula is just baiting them, Azula actually verbally attacks Sokka. Not through fighting, but through words, knowing not only that an intelligent person like him could only be brought down with emotions BUT that Sokka was the leader and if she could get him the stay, Aang and Toph would follow his lead.
Azula knew Sokka was their strength and took him down. WOULD SHE DO THAT IF HE WASNT A SIGNIFICANT THREAT TO HER!!??!
No. She wouldn’t waste her time and energy on someone she didn’t think was capable of actually getting in her way.
WHEN SHE GETS HER FIREBENDING BACK SHE HAS THE OPTION OF ATTACKING BADASS METAL BENDING TOPH AND THE FUCKING AVATAR
WHO DOES SHE ATTACK?!?!
Azula never underestimated the power of non benders especially an intelligent one like Sokka. Sokka was a huge threat to fucking Azula on multiple occasions.
Remember that.
Look at this spot on fucking discourse. LOOK AT IT.
Just thought I’d drop this
into the debate as well, (instead of actually fighting him she backs off, and who blames her? Sokka’s club looks like it could shatter bones…).
Along with this:
Scenes with Azula confronting Sokka are few and far in between but they paint a pretty interesting picture, don’t they?
I mean, Azula’s friends/most trusted warriors were two non-benders. Mai was an expert with thrown weapons and Tai Lee was the only chi blocker shown in the first series, and she was able to take down half a groups of earth nation soldiers like that. Azula knows that non-benders are dangerous and she sees sokka for the genius he is
She’s knows she can take bending, she can redirect fire and she’s fought Katara a lot- but unlike Zuko she was probably never trained with weapons, she knows she has no defense to a sword or a club, and she knows that one of Ty Lee’s biggest advantage is that people underestimate her
Recently while reading the latest chapter of One Piece, chapter 914, the character Tsuru mentioned something twice to Luffy and Zoro while explaining the current state of Wano. Now, Oda has a tendency to bury important information on offhand remarks, and repeats the statement or fact several times leading up to the reveal. So when he mentions something not once,
but twice in the same chapter,
I start to listen carefully… and wonder if Wano kingdom’s isolation isn’t only a physical isolation, but one in time as well. For the sake of people’s dashes, I’ll go over all of this below the cut.
So why on earth is this something to even think about? It’s just a statement of time. Usually, I’d also chalk it up to a random fact thrown out by Oda to enrich the world and history. Authors and writers like to spew out random dates and times to create a history of their world. Except in this case, this date is tied to an actual timeline, an important one at that – the timeline of current events.
You see way back in Punk Hazard, the audience is introduced to Kin’emon and Momonosuke. Over time we are introduced to aspects of their story.
Ok so this obviously establishes intent of where they were going and how it lines up with the main storyline. We know the order of events over multiple chapters and episodes: Kin’emon and Momo made it to Dressrosa, Momo was separated and sent to Punk Hazard, Kin’emon headed there eventually as well and met up with the Straw Hats. Raizo was the only one to make it to Zou.
We also know in chapter 818 and 819 that Oden sacrificed himself in order for Momo and his retainers to escape from Kaido and his interrogation. They then leave for Zou to seek allies in the Minks.
But now we’re told the Kozuki clan was defeated and their rule overturned 20 years ago.
So what gives? Did Momo and them stay in Wano for that long until departing to Zou? Were they adrift at sea for years like Brook?
Then there’s the added complication of Momo himself. He’s described several times as being only 8 years old, including by Kin’emon.
How could Oden have been defeated, killed, and Kin’emon and them set adrift for twenty years if Momo is only 8? And we know it’s not some sort of Rogue circumstance given Momo’s mother was killed before him by Kaido.
Icing on the cake is Momo’s remark in Zou about having met Roger himself when he visited Wano Kingdom 20+ years ago.
All of this leads me to believe that Wano kingdom is separate from the rest of the world not only in location but also in time. From what I can gather, time seems to move slower there… or something to that effect. Even though only a week and a few days have gone by during the events of Whole Cake Island, the remaining Straw Hat crew on Wano managed to establish themselves in jobs and community. Zoro even managed to get himself in trouble for murders that, at minimum, happened over the course of a month.
There’s also the reveal in chapter 909 that Shusui and Ryuma’s corpse were robbed 23 years ago.
However, Hogback didn’t work for Moriah at that point.
Given the timeskip, Hogback began work on zombies 12 years ago. Did Moriah collect potential zombies as far back as 11 years prior to that? We know Moriah didn’t begin his zombie army until after his defeat by Kaido.
Thematically, Oda has lovingly crafted Wano Kingdom as a feudal era Japan. Now this time period was renowned for it’s isolationism. It kept to itself and its own ways as the rest of the world moved forward at a more global pace.
All in all I’m curious to see if this is just an odd discrepancy, I’m a moron who missed some basic detail and tin-foil hat-ed a conspiracy, or if there is actually something to the flow of time being different in Wano. Perhaps it’ll explain why everyone there is so huge, aging like elves where a 20-year-old is more like 8 in terms of both size and maturity.
Hey sorry it took me forever to reply! I’m always happy to meet other people that love her as well because I spend like……wayyyyy too much time arguing with people about her and it’s nice to know there are others who can hashtag relate.
Azula’s character is IMO the most misinterpreted aspect of ATLA by far. Sometimes I wonder if it has to do with some kind of disparity in how the audience views men vs women (IE: certain traits like assertiveness or cunning are seen as positive in men but negative in women) and people insist on seeing her as inherently evil because they cant imagine a female possessing those traits while simultaneously being a complex human being with a plethora of thoughts/emotions/experiences that inform her behavior. Like, that’s just a hypothesis but it’s alarming how gung-ho people are about insisting she is evil incarnate when she is a 14 year old girl struggling to cope with the exact same abusive environment her brother is lauded for overcoming. It would take me too long to hash out all my feelings on the subject so I’ll just link you to a few comments I’ve made about her on the avatar subreddit, my username is Hokally:
Also I know some of yall are gonna dig through my comment history so just to save yall some time – 90% of the shit I post is about low brow reality tv like Teen Mom and there is literally nothing juicy in there whatsoever because im a boring bitch. Bet.
Cheloneuniverse 