Line #31 YMMV/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheSearch


1	%%* AbandonShipping: Ozai/Ursa suffered a massive blow after the comic gave insight to what their relationship was actually like.
2	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Regarding Ozai:
3	** Was he ''always'' a heartless, power-hungry EvilPrince and abusive parent and husband or, just like Ursa, was he a victim of his father's eugenic schemes? In some point, did he really try to be a good father and husband? There is the fact that when he tells Ursa it's true that Azulon ordered him to murder Zuko, he's not cruel or forceful about it; just honest and resigned to it. Of course, then he gets manipulative when he says that she'll have to go into exile, and he won't let her take the children because he wants them as bargaining chips in case she ever decides to poison ''him''.
4	** Exactly what his relationship with Azula is. Did he legitimately believe she would be a better Fire Lord than Zuko or was his telling Azula about the letter, something he knew was fake, just prove that she is just another tool for revenge he is trying to use against Zuko and Ursa. Or, given Azula's mental state, was it all just a ploy to gain back the throne. Given how politically perceptive Ozai is and how good he is at reading people or situations, he could've taken one look at the state his daughter was in, and willingly told Azula in the hopes that Azula would've gone and killed Ursa just to spite his son for dethroning him.
5	** The true reason behind Ozai and Ursa's ArrangedMarriage. Was it, as Azulon proclaims, due to the Fire Sages' advice to breed a better, more powerful royal heir with the blood of Avatar Roku and the Fire Nation Royal Family? Or was it a calculated political strategy to avoid the rise of a potential threat to the Fire Nation Royal Family's position and power from Roku's lineage by merging the two bloodlines? Perhaps a bit of both?
6	* BaseBreakingCharacter: Ursa. People either sympathize with her due to her being forced into an abusive marriage with Ozai or find her [[spoiler:decision to abandon Zuko and Azula and willingly erase all her memories of them]] to be unforgivable.
7	* CommonKnowledge: "Ozai isn't Zuko's real father" became this for a while, thanks to Part One ending on the "reveal" that this might be the case. Cue criticism about how it completely invalidates Zuko's arc from the series, which was about him finally realizing that he shouldn't be living his life trying to please an abusive father who will never truly love him. Not to mention the implication that this means Zuko continued to occupy a throne that wasn't legally his, per ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra''. Quite a few people never bothered to read the remaining parts, where Zuko, overjoyed by this supposed revelation, must be brought down to Earth and have this HopeSpot crushed by Ursa, who confirms that Ozai is, unquestionably and without a doubt, his father and, what's more, that Ozai never questioned this fact either. What's more, Ozai is even worse than Zuko realized, because he went so far as to abuse him ''purposefully'' for the sake of getting back at his mother.
8	* ContestedSequel: Just like its [[Comicbook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderThePromise predecessor]]; fans either love this story for providing some closure to plot elements that weren't properly developed in the animated show or feel these books are comparable to fanfiction and would prefer to think of it as non-canon. Bringing it up risks starting a fan war over its quality.
9	* FanDislikedExplanation:
10	** The heavily disliked twist that [[spoiler:Zuko isn't Ozai's son]] is revealed to be a lie in the last chapter, but the reason ''why'' it's untrue, [[spoiler:along with what actually happened to Ursa]], has become an entirely new FanDislikedExplanation: [[spoiler:Ursa wrote that Zuko was not Ozai's son in a deliberate attempt to 1) see if Ozai was reading her letters (which worked) and 2) piss him off if he was (which very much worked). But Ozai, being Ozai, was more pissed that she dared play an obvious lie that he would punish Ursa by treating Zuko like he wasn't his son for the rest of his life.]] NiceJobBreakingItHero.
11	** Some fans were unhappy with the Mother of Faces being Koh's mother as well as the face that he steals faces to spite her. Many felt that this made Koh, an EnsembleDarkhorse, out to be a petty mama's boy and ruined his wise, ancient, powerful demeanor.
12	** Many Azula fans dislike [[WordOfGod Gene Yang's statement]] about "Azula's SplitPersonality" in the comic and believe Gene Yang failed to write the character well, as her "mental illness" in the comic is very unrealistic.
13	* FanonDiscontinuity: Due to FanDislikedExplanation, many fans just pretend that this story never happened or [[BroadStrokes happened in a very different way]].
14	* HilariousInHindsight: This was the story that established Ozai as not just the AbusiveParent who wields [[PlayingWithFire fire as his powerset]] but one who married Ursa as part of an eugenics experiment to produce more powerful children, resulting in Zuko whom he personally scarred and Azula who's the AxCrazy child with TechnicolorFire. Later on, the anime ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' introduced Endeavor, an abusive father and superhero who wielded fire as his superpower and married a carefully selected woman as part of a SuperBreedingProgram to produce children who could potentially surpass his rival All-Might. Among those kids were Shoto who can [[BurnScarsBurningPowers produce powerful flames and has a scarred face]] and Toya/Dabi who's the psychotic unhinged male equivalent to Azula with his own blue flames. The only difference is that Endeavor wasn't the parent who scarred Shoto and Dabi believed himself to be TheUnfavorite of the family.
15	* IKnewIt:
16	** We get explicit confirmation that [[spoiler:Ursa was behind Azulon's death]], though the details differ a bit from the popular theory.
17	** Many called that [[spoiler: Noren and Noriko were Ikem and Ursa]] and that [[spoiler: the letter revealing Ikem to be Zuko's true father is a lie made up by Ursa to strike at Ozai.]]
18	%%* JerkassWoobie: Zero-Context Examples; don't unhide without explaining how the trope applies.
19	%%** Azula naturally continues to be this, with her pain and insanity even worse than before.
20	%%** [[spoiler: Koh the Face Stealer]], who doesn't even appear here, becomes one due to his revealed backstory and FreudianExcuse.
21	* JustHereForGodzilla: The book initially drew viewers in so they could find out what happened to Zuko's mother, FanDislikedExplanation be damned. It left viewers with another reason to keep reading on: [[spoiler: Will Azula ever recover and redeem or recover and stay a villain? Or will she not recover at all]]?
22	* MoralEventHorizon: See [[MoralEventHorizon/AvatarTheLastAirbender here]].
23	* NeverLiveItDown: Ursa's [[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic portrayal in this comic]]. A lot of fans seem to exaggerate Ursa's faults and downplay either her good qualities or Ozai's own actions. Despite what many say, Ursa's decisions in the story are not portrayed as completely in the right, with even Ursa expressing regret for what she did and apologizing for not loving Azula enough before choosing to regain her memories and face. Yet, she is known best here for unintentionally causing Zuko to be treated worse by Ozai (Even though that doesn't excuse how Ozai reacted and in fact, makes the abuse all the more despicable) and getting a new face at the cost of the memories of her children (regardless of the fact that Ozai's blackmail and leverage didn't give her much of a choice in the matter.)
24	* RonTheDeathEater: Admittedly, [[spoiler:what Ursa did was terribly tragic and there isn't really any excusing it; even Ursa herself agrees with this. However, some fans take it too far and actually claim she's a worse, more awful parent than Ozai.]]
25	* TheScrappy:
26	** Misu and Rafa. Many readers found these two to be a pointless waste of space who took time away from more important things and an unnecessary source of conflict (they exist solely to agitate the Mother of Faces because they're an extra wish more than the mother would grant).
27	** Some see Ikem as a Scrappy too, either due to being at the center of the [[spoiler: (fake-out)]] twist that he's Zuko's true father, or that while he's not a bad or terrible person, there isn't much to him aside from being Noriko's husband.
28	* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: The reveal of why Ursa left her family: [[spoiler:Ozai exiled her after she gave him an untraceable poison to kill Azulon, since Ozai made it clear that he would follow orders and murder Zuko unless Azulon died and left the throne open. After she found Ikem, she met the Mother of Faces and decided to erase her memories of her children so she wouldn't be tempted to return to the capital to see them]]. It was supposed to be seen as tragic, but a lot of readers instead saw Ursa as a selfish jerk who [[spoiler:threw her children under the bus to get back at her abusive husband, then abandoned them completely.]]
29	* TheWoobie:
30	** Kiyi, [[spoiler: Ikem and Ursa's little daughter, who obviously ends the story being traumatized as Hell for all that gets revealed.]]
31	** [[spoiler: Ursa]] is a straight-up Woobie for most of the story (though some readers lost their sympathy for her by the end of the story).

Context YMMV / AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheSearch