I think it’s so great that they showed her not being able to wrap the guys at that party round her little finger, because it would have been so easy to make her the familiar manipulative female who can translate political power-playing into successful flirting.
I have actually been having vague thoughts about the disparity between how incredibly good Azula is at manipulating people when it comes to power, fear, or a specific thing she knows they want, and how incredibly bad at it she is when those aren't in the picture, and why it's the wedge between the two that eventually tips her into mental illness.
Because in some ways, she's too socially inept to be a good sociopath! *g* I mean, true sociopaths can seem utterly charming and adorable and have everyone convinced that they're the real woobie -- Azula never looks like anything other than what she is, and she never really bothers to try to seem like a nice person.
(Whether there's a smidge of neuroatypical stuff in the mix to begin with, or whether it's purely that growing up in that family means you get really fucked-up socialization -- and she never has the mitigating bond with Ursa and Iroh that Zuko gets -- I don't know.)
But she thinks she's a "people person." She thinks that power/fear/goal manipulation is all there is to it.
And that's why Mai's betrayal (and Ty Lee's) starts things cracking, because apparently there's this whole other emotional factor that's turned out to be hugely important and that she can't understand or predict or cope with.
And once she knows that's there -- anyone could betray you. Anyone could be plotting, anyone could be motivated by things you can't understand or control. So everyone/everything is a danger to her.
And that paranoia's already kicking in when her father starts changing the rules on her, too ("You can't treat me like Zuko!"), and okay, he's giving with one hand, but taking away with the other, and she has to be perfect and she can feel herself slipping --
And then Katara defeats her and that cannot happen, that cannot have happened, somehow she's ended up in the wrong reality and all she can do is scream and scream as if she can somehow tear herself out of this world into the reality she's supposed to have.
Ahem. Not that I am bringing my recentish experiences with mental illness to this or anything. *coughs*
But that final scene with her chained to the grate hurt to watch.
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branchandroot
If it's okay to intrude
Date: 2010-09-22 07:50 pm (UTC)I have actually been having vague thoughts about the disparity between how incredibly good Azula is at manipulating people when it comes to power, fear, or a specific thing she knows they want, and how incredibly bad at it she is when those aren't in the picture, and why it's the wedge between the two that eventually tips her into mental illness.
Because in some ways, she's too socially inept to be a good sociopath! *g* I mean, true sociopaths can seem utterly charming and adorable and have everyone convinced that they're the real woobie -- Azula never looks like anything other than what she is, and she never really bothers to try to seem like a nice person.
(Whether there's a smidge of neuroatypical stuff in the mix to begin with, or whether it's purely that growing up in that family means you get really fucked-up socialization -- and she never has the mitigating bond with Ursa and Iroh that Zuko gets -- I don't know.)
But she thinks she's a "people person." She thinks that power/fear/goal manipulation is all there is to it.
And that's why Mai's betrayal (and Ty Lee's) starts things cracking, because apparently there's this whole other emotional factor that's turned out to be hugely important and that she can't understand or predict or cope with.
And once she knows that's there -- anyone could betray you. Anyone could be plotting, anyone could be motivated by things you can't understand or control. So everyone/everything is a danger to her.
And that paranoia's already kicking in when her father starts changing the rules on her, too ("You can't treat me like Zuko!"), and okay, he's giving with one hand, but taking away with the other, and she has to be perfect and she can feel herself slipping --
And then Katara defeats her and that cannot happen, that cannot have happened, somehow she's ended up in the wrong reality and all she can do is scream and scream as if she can somehow tear herself out of this world into the reality she's supposed to have.
Ahem. Not that I am bringing my recentish experiences with mental illness to this or anything. *coughs*
But that final scene with her chained to the grate hurt to watch.