I have a hard time seeing how so many people could have approved or been indifferent to Ursa's portrayal in The Search. It just seemed to cut away everything we learned about Ursa; I didn't put it in so many words at the time, but it seemed bizarre that she would use her own allegedly beloved son to get back at her husband, never seeming to consider that he might take it out on Zuko. If she actually loved Zuko, she wouldn't have done that; she would either have found a different way to get back at Ozai, or she would have suffered in silence. But even that is going on the assumptions of Ursa's personality in The Search, which isn't like herself in canon at all. She had agency in canon. She was really like a bear; slow moving, generally peaceable, avoids conflict, but anger her or threaten her children and there's little that moves faster or fights more fiercely. And in the episode "Zuko Alone," when Zuko asks Ozai where Ursa is, he just stands there and can't even look at his son. That moment was important; it humanized Ozai and says something, I think, about his relationship with Ursa. He must have realized what she did and why she did it, and he knows he will probably never see her again, and that fact actually bothers him. He evidently got over it, or wound up shifting his anger onto Zuko, but at that moment, he felt a deep pain at the loss of his wife, who selflessly protected their family when all he could think of was his own advancement.

I definitely wanted more Azula, but yeah, what I really wanted was more Royal Family in general. I also came into it with some spoilers, and came to expect a Game of Thrones-esque subplot as I watched it and what I knew of it melded with what I was watching and thoughts (not always entirely conscious) of what I would do with the story if I were writing it. I'm a writer; perhaps not a very consistent one, but I am a writer at heart, and much like the friend who got me into writing, I like to think of what I would do with a story. I like coming up with my own headcanon, particularly if the actual canon was unsatisfactory.

I'll have to get back to Retroactive! When I started reading it, I had chills the first couple of chapters, starting from the point where Suki looks in the mirror and idly takes note of her gold eyes. I'm all like "wait a minute... Suki's eyes weren't gold in the show... what is going on here?!" I look forward to seeing how the story ends, and I intend to thoroughly enjoy reading it in the meantime!

There really are a lot of fanfiction takes on Azula, aren't there? I'm still trying to figure out how I see here; on the one hand, I suspect she wouldn't settle for less than being a magnificent Shakespearean villain, but on the other hand, I can't help but cheer for her a little and want to make her a hero, or redeem her somehow... but how are you supposed to redeem someone that has been built up as so delightfully, beautifully messed up, someone who in her normal state would not want to be redeemed, or see any need for being redeemed? There's a lot of chaff out there to be separated from the grain when it comes to Azula-centric fanfiction; some of it is really good, some of it is okay, and a lot of it is not so good at all. Of course, really, I suppose there's a lot of chaff to be separated from the grain when it comes to fanfiction in general. I'd be curious to hear how you came to your view of Azula, and how you see her. If you'd rather talk about this through PM on ff.net, we could do that instead.

Thanks for the reply!