WMG / Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Search

Azula is not hallucinating, but she's actually speaking to Ursa's spirit

We've seen Aang talk to Roku's spirit reflected in the water before. It's a well known supernatural phenomena at work, seeing spirits in mirrors, and the Search does deal with the spiritual side of the Avatarverse. Azula is seeing her mother's spirit in mirrors and the water. Part of Azula's insanity is because she can't understand it.

• Part 2 seems to confirm that this is indeed something beyond a mere hallucination and is something spiritual, as the Ursa Azula is seeing knows way too much to be just a fabric of Azula's mind.
• Secondary WMG, Ursa is either dead or there is a way for a person to become a spirit.
• Jossed in Part 3. Ursa had lost her memory and didn't even know who Zuko and Azula were, so there's no way she could've been communicating with her. It really was just Azula's hallucination.

Ursa belonged to the Ember Island Players

Remember how Zuko used to say they butchered "Love Amongst Dragons" and Ursa had them watch it every year?

• As a corollary WMG, the Blue spirit mask once belonged to the troupe.
  • In one panel, we see that Ursa kept four theater masks hidden behind a portrait of her and Ozai. Two of them are the masks that she and Ikem wore in the flashbacks... and one of the others is a Blue Spirit mask. Maybe Zuko kept the mask in his exile because it was one of the few things he had left from his mother?
  • In Part 2, we learn the truth. The Blue Spirit mask was indeed part of Love Amongst The Dragons. And while she wasn't part of the Ember Island Players, she was the most famous member of the village troupe.

Azula will die or go permanently insane or suffer a Fate Worse than Death by being sucked into the spirit world for good

• Because Gene Yang asked a fan if it was even possible for her to have a happy ending.
• Because Once a Season a villain dies.
  • Jossed. She escapes.

Zuko isn't Ikem's child. Azula is

• I see this making a surprising amount of sense. Azula, as Ursa and Ikem's child, would have been directly related to an avatar, and Ursa favors Zuko since she wanted to make up for him being the Fire Lord's kid and stuff.
  • How would she not be related to an avatar? Unless surrogate motherhood is a thing in the Avatar-verse, the way her children are related to an avatar is through her.
  • Jossed. Both Zuko and Azula are Ozai's children.

Ursa was already pregnant when she married Ozai.

Zuko is still Ikem's kid, but he was born quickly enough after the wedding that Ursa could pass him off as Ozai's. Only Ursa would know any better... provided she didn't write any incriminating letters that could fall into the wrong hands— oops.

• Jossed. Zuko is indeed Ozai's son. Ozai even had spies watch Ursa months before their marriage to confirm this.

Ursa has gone slightly crazy.

In her despair, Ursa has become slightly unhinged. She's lying to herself via the letters, convincing herself that Zuko isn't the son of the man who forced her into wedlock and bullied her into bed. This inclination for mental instability is something she shares with Azula.

• Jossed. Depressed into forgetting both her children, but not crazy.

The wolf spirit

• ...is the guardian of the village, similar to Hei Bai.
  • JOSSED. It's a pet — for the mother of faces.

Zuko's name comes from a character the play "Love Amongst the Dragons". The letter is actually forged from the lines of the play's script

Alright, this needs to probably examine the background of how Zuko got his name. Several aspects of Zuko's character including the Blue Spirit disguise actually comes from the play, so let's stretch things a little further...

The controversial letter at the end of Part 1 when observed closely sounds rather like a piece from a script, because it is derived from the script of Love Amongst the Dragons. There must be a scene in the play where lead pair get married and have a son, a dragon named Zuko and at some point in the script, Ursa's character (the dragon princess) either speaks out, or writes the lines in a letter, about their son Zuko to the dragon emperor (Ikem's character). This is probably why Ursa named her son Zuko. If Azula was named after Azulon, Zuko must be named after someone. Ozai and Azula have forged a letter based on the script replacing the names of the dragons with those of Ikem and Ursa and are planning to wreck Zuko's mental balance yet again.

• Bonus points if Ikem confirms it as a line from the script.
• While not as symbolic, Zuko's name is written with the characters meaning "resurrected rule", and Ikem reads an excerpt from the play talking about how his character, The Dragon Emperor was trapped in a mortal form by a water spirit, so maybe a major plot point was that character trying to get his throne back, or Zuko was actually the name of the Dragon Emperor himself!

Azula is a mutant. Gene Yang has been reading X-Men.

The result of Genetic Engineering Gone Horribly Wrong. Her blue flame and extraordinary power and prodigial intellect is the plus. But on the downside she is incapable of empathy and becomes increasingly unstable mentally over time. It seems to be more genetic than we assumed as she seems to have given Zuko nightmares and horrors even before the guy's old enough for kindergarten! Must have been inspired by the Scarlet Witch. Or worse

Azula is now the Joker

Of the Avatar Verse. Because all that was missing till now was the insanity part.

• Half-right, sadly. All it took was one bad summer for her world to go inside out.

Ozai substituted Ursa's letter with his own doctored one

Ozai having seen the original letter that Ursa has written to Ikem, decides to play some of his usual dirty work. He substitutes Ursa's letter with the fabricated one, and plans to use it in the future to establish Azula as the next Firelord. Of course, along the way he's defeated by the Avatar, but since then he's anticipated Zuko would search for Ursa and use Azula to get information out of him right from the beginning and he's waited for the right time to play his trump card. To make sure Azula plays her part right (since she's losing her mind often), he's not told her the truth about the letter so that she'll believe it's real. Or maybe he has and she's still as crafty as ever. Bonus points that she's set the letter in her boot overhearing Zuko and Sokka's conversation and knowing too well that Zuko cannot resist.

• Also Ozai crumpled the original letter and this one looks reasonably well folded.
  • Jossed. The incriminating letter is indeed from Ursa. But the information about Zuko being Ikem's son is not true.

Azula needed Ursa's letter to forge the one Zuko reads

For the handwriting. She actually burnt the envelope and hid the letter before Zuko could spot it.

• Half-right. She keeps the letter about Ursa being Ikem's son, but she does burn the envelope and the location of Ursa after she memorized it to travel unbound.

Zuko is not Ikem's son

Because it's rated for 7 years and up and you don't show pre-marital sex for that rating. Oh and Zuko resembles Ozai right down to the eyes. But more importantly, if Ursa and Ikem had met any time, they would have realized that Ursa's letters never reached her hometown because Ozai intercepted them all. Clearly Ursa has no clue so she's never seen Ikem since the arrangement.

• You can get away with more mature content in comics despite the recommended age, same reason manga and superhero comics are allowed to show more gore and skin that get tone down when animated (ex. Fairytail, Naruto, Bleach, Soul Eater, and most Marvel and DC comics).
• Aside from the evidence that Zuko basically looks like a young Ozai with a burn scar across the face, there's Zuko's lordship. It is shown in both The Promise, and the Free Comics Day issue about Mai that Zuko isn't exactly well-liked. The nation is still a bit imperialistic despite Zuko's best efforts so far (understandable, 100 years of imperialistic attitude doesn't disappear in a year). The only thing that's allowing him to keep the crown is his royal lineage. If any doubt comes out that he's not of royal blood, he'd be deposed since he's not one to go strong-arm like King Joffrey('s extremely powerful grandfather) in A Song Of Ice And Fire/A Game Of Thrones. But by Korra's time, it is obvious that he was not Ikem's son but Ozai's. He abdicated and his daughter took the throne, and he has a monument in the city.
  • Maybe it just never came out? In part 2 Aang advocates destroying the evidence and pretending it never existed, since Zuko is working for peace and Azula on the throne would be a disaster. (Why Azula would go along with this is another matter, but it's clearly presented as an option.) As for when he was conceived, it could have happened between the time they got engaged and when Ursa returned home; her marriage seems to have happened pretty quickly, fast enough that she could easily pass the baby off as Ozai's. (She may not know for sure herself, but it's easy to see why she'd cling to the idea that Zuko was Ikem's.) And regarding sex, sure, they're not going to show anything explicit on-panel, but they can and have implied it very heavily. Remember the Sokka/Suki tent scene?
  • Confirmed. Zuko has been Ozai's son all along.

Corollary to the above WMG: When Ursa said that Zuko was Ikem's son, she meant from an emotionality standpoint, not a biological one.

When Ozai's abuse became too much for her, she made a secret plan with Ikem to run away with him. Ursa was chosen to prove a strong heir to the Fire Nation, she'd already done that so she hoped it was enough for them to leave her in peace. She also knew if she took both of her children, than the entire Firenation army would be looking for them. Since Ozai adored Azula and hated Zuko so the choice was obvious. So when Ursa was telling Ikem that Zuko was his son, she was really saying that she was going to take him with her so they could all live as one big happy family.

• Seconded. Even if she wasn't intending anything in particular, she could have thought of Zuko as her and Ikem's son on an emotional level.
• That's certainly how Ozai chose to interpret it, and punished Ursa by treating Zuko as such.

The letter Azula burnt was the original letter sent by Ursa in the flashback. It's a Chekhov's Gun

And sometime later in the story, it's remains are going to come back.

The Blue Wolf has met Ursa at some point

• Confirmed. Ursa met the Blue Wolf so she could meet the Mother of Faces to change her face to Noriko's.

Azula or Zuko is going to die and Ursa will sacrifice her life or existence to bring them back to life

Once every season, someone dies. God would that scene make for an epic Tear Jerker or what? What would be Azula's reaction? And the fandom's reaction...Also in the Promise they had a tendency to recycle certain old plot points so maybe they might...

• Jossed. No one dies in the comic.

Sokka will get to beat Azula with nothing but his boomerang

Sokka's boomerang jokes are a Running Gag at the moment, but it might actually have more serious implications. I contemplate a point where Azula goes out of control and the rest of the gang can't keep her in check. and then the boomerang is going to do a Whack-a-Pow.

• He did whack her once when she suddenly grabs Katara thinking her to be Ursa. Sooka really has no hesitation to face a dangerous firebending lunatic when it's her sister she threatens.
• Confirmed. Sokka's boomerang does hit Azula in the head at a critical moment when she's about to hurt Noren and Noriko.

The Sukka ship is heading for rough waters with Zuki/Suzuki in the Bermuda triangle, which means we will see more comics.

For this to happen sufficient space is mandatory and so it is necessary to guess that there will be quite a few more ATLA comics coming out in the future. A Zuki (or shall we call it Suzuki?) ship seems to be in the dockyard as Suki is showing signs that she might be thinking of Zuko as more than just a friend, and it's sooner or later going to crash into Sukka. Suki breaking up the Maiko ship doesn't seem accidental.

Ozai and Ikem are the same person

OH NO!

Azula actually does not know what is in the letters apart from what Ozai told her. Ursa will at some point appear to tell the truth

She only had enough time to open the trunk and burn them before Zuko and only believes whatever Ozai told her. So the only one who really knows the truth now is...

• Confirmed. Mother of Faces returns Ursa's memories and she tells Zuko the truth. The letter is a lie she used to see if Ozai was intercepting her letters and he was. Also Ozai is fully aware that Zuko is indeed his son, and treats Zuko badly just to get back at Ursa for hoping Zuko doesn't take after Ozai. Ozai's just that messed up.

The two people in the dark are Ozai and Azula

And if it's not that it's a dark scene from Love Amongst Dragons

• Or it's a spoiler from the end scene when Ursa answers everything about Zuko's past...

The lyrics of the play that Ursa and Ikem were rehearsing will go in the Fridge Brilliance page as a form of Foreshadowing

Because now we know just how Bumi's a mad genius. The play's lyrics are hinting to some similar event that actually happens in the comic, which will later go in the Fridge Brilliance page when it comes out.

The play "Love Amongst Dragons" is actually a Bowlderized adaptation of a real piece of spirit & earth history

because the antagonist of the story is ... The Dark Water Spirit. Tropers, I forward you to Korra. Season 2.

• Which would mean that the Avatar initially incarnated to save humanity from the wrath of that Spirit. That would be the most "flashbacky of all flashbacks" that the creators have promised us.
• Alternatively, it was written during the time of the Fire Nation colonies, as the wanted posters of the Blue Spirit allude to a suspect wearing an Earth Kingdom Opera mask. The playwright was probably Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation cultural ministers censored and/or rewrote it. Case in point being The Boy in The Iceberg

Ursa really did write that letter, but...

As a test.
She suspected that none of her letters were getting through, so wrote down the most shocking thing she could think of in order to get Ozai to admit it.

• Seems to be very plausible indeed. Ozai's reaction to it confirms her suspicions that her letters were being intercepted — and she intended to shock him to confessing it. She was going to tell Ozai the truth when he accuses her of treason, but at that point he interrupts her with his story of having wiped out Ikem. It seems that in the shock of Ursa believing Ozai, the truth of the letter was completely swept aside.
• Confirmed.

Should Ursa be found, she will reveal that it was not because of her love for Zuko that she killed Azulon

Instead she will reveal that she killed Azulon to save Azula's life, and it will be revealed after Azula had all but killed her in her mad rage.

Zuko's Blue Spirit mask was the alleged water spirit from the excerpt Ikem was reading for "Love Amongst the Dragons".

• Because it just makes so much sense. Blue draws association with water, and it makes the mask seem more symbolic. Zuko uses the Blue Spirit persona whenever he needed to do something Zuko wouldn't
  • Actually true as we find out in Part 2 with even more explanation. Zuko and Azula would end up playing out the final scene in Love Amongst the Dragons and Azula always made Zuko be the Water Spirit/Blue Spirit. It seems Zuko was far more used to the mask than we thought.
  • At which point we must really ask the question as to how long it would have taken Azula to guess the Blue Spirit's identity in ATLA's 1st season.

Ursa died a long time ago.

Because the way Azula blames all her problems on Ursa, I can't see this going any other way than for her to find out that the so-called diabolical mastermind was dead and buried long before she could have possibly started acting against her. Whether this shocks her out of her delusions is another thing altogether...

• Jossed. Ursa is alive and well living her life as Noriko.
• Although from a certain point of view you could say she did "die" as she was mind-wiped when she became Noriko without any memory of her past other than her love for Ikem/Noren. Ursa ceased to be until Mother of Faces returned her identity.

Ursa has three children.

When she wrote "our son", she was referring to Zuko and Azula's older half-brother, whom she hid and snuck out of the palace. Ozai didn't know about it until she was pregnant with Zuko, so he began to suspect that Zuko wasn't his son. After than, he placed even more restrictions on Ursa so he'd be sure that Azula was his daughter.

• Mostly Jossed, but she does have three children... Zuko, Azula, and Kiyi.

Ursa wasn't banished for killing Azulon but because of that letter. Ozai engineered the whole series of circumstances to ensure she had no other choice

The real reason for banishing her was because she had begun to exercise a huge influence on Ozai, who saw her as a threat to his plans — perhaps it was because Ursa realized that at some point he was intercepting her letters. So she takes drastic measures. The letter Ursa wrote was not really true, but it was meant to blackmail Ozai threatening him with the possibility of a scandal. However Ozai, Magnificent Bastard that he is, waits patiently for the right time and eventually break free of her control. This is possibly how he does it...

Iroh's bereavement gives him an excellent chance to infuriate his father into ordering Zuko's death. Later he confronts Ursa and reveals he plans to go ahead with Azulon's order to kill Zuko. He accuses her of blackmail and threatens her with Zuko's death for her attempts at creating a scandal. Or she could let Zuko live but face exile. Alternatively, he may threaten to kill her instead. However, both know that Azulon will ensure that Zuko dies either way. So Ursa is forced to come up with her plan — by enabling Ozai to become the fire Lord, her sentence may be reduced to banishment so she goes ahead and kills Azulon. The plot was a set up by Ozai so that he could become Firelord and finally be rid of her influence.

• Secondary WMG, it was also partly or wholly Azula's idea to get rid of her mother. There's a very sneaky yet haughty expression on her face both in the comics and the scene at Azulon's funeral. Can you believe it, Ozai's manipulated a child into gleefully assisting in committing particide!
• Another secondary WMG, Ozai wanted to kill 3 birds in one stone — dispose of Ursa, kill his father, and become firelord while possibly allowing his children to live (if for the only reason that he saw them as useful pawns in his future plans).
• It looks like most of this seems confirmed — although the exact details are sketchy, he does let Zuko live but ensures Ursa's exile. But his claimed motive is one of his own personal safety now that he know how skilled Ursa is at making poisons.
  • Set pieces are there but the map is wrong. Ozai wants the throne, Azulon won't give it to him. Ozai's ploy for it blows up in his face. Ursa decides to create a poison that would technically nullify the order, then Ozai banishes her and keeps the kids for collateral.

Azulon wanted Zuko killed because he saw Zuko as an experimental failure

It makes sense now since it came just after the , he needed a reason to weed out what he thought was the bad crop. Claiming to punish Ozai for arrogance was just an excuse. His real motive was to ensure that his bloodline continued only through Azula.

• Fridge Horror: By that token, was he also responsible for Luten's death somehow? Then that whole episode takes on a totally darker tone altogether.
  • Jossed. Zuko was only to die for poetic justice. Eye for an Eye, so that Ozai would theoretically know the pain of losing his first born son.

Ozai actually killed Azulon and banished Ursa in the name of treachery. But the real reason she was banished was due to the letter

The plan was Ursa's, but it's Ozai who kills his father. He becomes Firelord and has Ursa take the blame for it (or perhaps she volunteers). One possible way this can happen is that after killing Azulon, he confronts her with the truth of the letter and threatens to make a scandal out of it. Ursa is left with no choice but to choose exile and she is blamed for Azulon's death.

• confirmed, but different circumstances. Ursa gives Ozai a ploy and poison to kill Ozai's father for the throne in return for Zuko and Azula's safety.

Azulon was poisoned to death

He could never be beaten in a fight, so it was the only other way.

• He could also have been suffocated in his sleep. Even if he woke up during the attack, he couldn't fight back, because no breath = no firebending.
• But poisoning would have been much more subtle as it could avoid having to fight one's way past the royal guards.

CONFIRMED! And it was more subtle than we thought. Colourless, odourless and tasteless. Bonus points for Ursa's mother being a herbalist. But it was actually Ozai who administered the poison.

Ozai and Ursa ran into severe issues because of their conflicting ancestry

She was the granddaughter of Roku after all so there must have been a lot of conflict and tension in the relationship. For all we know, if it weren't for Ursa, Ozai might have gone ahead with his schemes a lot sooner. Perhaps that's why she was really banished.

• Half-Jossed: The marriage was a shit-show from the get-go. They could've had absolutely perfect genetics and it all would still have gone to hell.

Azula has some of Vegeta's DNA

Probably proof that Saiyans visited the Avatar Earth and somehow became part of Azulon's plan to produce Super powerful Firebenders. Or more reasonably, the creators have been watching DBZ. Look at her, insanity issues aside, she's just like Vegeta in every way, even to the point of talking things like, "For a True Firebender..."

Ursa became a spirit to reunite with Ikem or to act as a Spirit Mentor to Zuko & Azula

She had planned to go back to Ikem, but from the time he met the blue wolf, Ikem is either dead or has somehow found a way to enter the spirit world. A heartbroken Ursa does something to become a spirit herself so she can find her old lover.

• Or she became a spirit so that she could watch over and guide her children.
• Bonus points if she became a spirit especially for watching and guiding Azula, since unlike Zuko, she has no moral conscience. There's a reason why she needs to watch over her daughter and stop her from claiming the throne, but that's for another WMG.

The lives of Ursa, Ikem & Zuko will mirror the roles of the characters in "Love of Dragons"

Ursa was planning on divorcing Ozai at some point, taking Zuko with her and reuniting with Ikem. If not that, she at least intended to elope with Ikem taking Zuko along, making for quite a scandal

Assuming the letter is true, that's why she uses the words "our son" to refer to Zuko. Ursa was clearly unhappy in her marriage and wanted to get out somehow. In the time setting of the Avatar Verse, a divorce — especially in the Royal family — would have caused quite a controversy. But the Crown prince's wife eloping with a former lover taking her son with her would have been an even greater scandal.

• [[spoiler: Not entirely wrong. Ursa wanted to get out of that marriage fast but wanted to take both Zuko and Azula. That was the original intention, then Ozai went back on his word to a degree and kept the kids as hostages in case Ursa decided to try to poison Ozai in turn.

The forest or Forgetful Valley is a part of the Spirit World or from another planet

It came along with a Spirit who came from the Spirit World to the physical. That symbol with 3 circles probably suggests. Knowing what went into Voyager 1, perhaps it's a sign to indicate that the forest is of alien origin.

• The last sentence seems Jossed. It was actually a map of the forest indicating the 4 lakes.

Azulon arranged Lu Ten's death and also Zuko's death in order for Ozai and Ursa 'perfectly bred' child to be the heir

Iroh is the elder son or Azulon, he was next in line to be Fire Lord and then his son Lu Ten would be next. Iroh was a fierce and loyal soilder but I doubt he would have ever forced a young girl into marriage simply to produce a strong heir. Azulon wanted the Royal Family and Roku's genes to cross and Ozai was willing to do anything to claim the throne.

After Azulon's demonstration, Azulon would have seen Azula as the success of his genetic experiment and would have therefore decided to dispose of Luten and then Zuko to weed out what he saw as experimental failures and ensure that the Fire Lord's line would continue through her alone. Azulon was the only person who could have arranged for Luten's death in a way that no one would find out. Had Ozai had done it Iroh would have found out from someone who was loyal to him after all he was the crown prince and only way this could have happened is if the orders were from above Iroh.

That whole scene where Azulon was angry at Ozai for trying to claim the throne after Lu Ten was killed was just an act made to excuse the potential killing of Zuko as retribution for Ozai arrogance. In reality Zuko was also due to have been killed just like Luten because his skills were not at Azula's level and his lineage was not certain. Which would also mean that Ursa really did kill Azulon to save Zuko's life. Ozai wouldn't have cared because his father death just meant that he was the Fire Lord that much sooner and he would either banish or kill Zuko later ensuring Azula as the next Fire Lord.

• And he banished Ursa on the pretext of treachery so that he could be free of her influence and freely exert his evil plans.
• And what evidence do you have of this claim. Azulon's anger seemed very genuine.
  • No. Azulon loved Roku while Ozai was the Unfavorite. Back in the series proper, Azulon was furious at Ozai for trying to make a power play during his grandson's death in battle. You're right about Iroh and his sense of principles. Besides, did you see how utterly unimpressed he was with Azula's firebending? Azula could have given Azulon the world and still never be happy with her or Ozai.

The dialogue between Ozai and Azulon with Azulon ordering him to kill Zuko was all staged to remove Zuko and Ursa from the picture

Azulon had determined that Azula the prodigy was the true heir he had been seeking and the successful product of the genetic experiment, he and Ozai decided that Zuko had to be disposed off and that Ursa had served her purpose. It may be possible that as Roku's granddaughter, Ursa would have been horrified at Azulon's plans and would have acted as a restraining influence on Ozai. In any case she was no longer useful.

So they stage the whole scene of Ozai's disobedience knowing that Azula is watching them behind the curtains (perhaps Ozai told her to do so) and ensure she gets to know of Zuko's impending extermination. As expected she tells Ursa who in turn probably manages to tempt Ozai with the promise of becoming Fire Lord himself. Perhaps she blackmails him with the idea that Zuko might not be Ozai's son and threatens to create a scandal if Zuko was killed. In the end she manages to find a way to kill Azulon and she is banished.

Good idea, but ultimately not the case. Azula put on a much better performance than Zuko; but Azula's the child of what Azulon considers an irritating Tag Nut at best. So what if she's prodigial? 2 X 0 = 0. And that would only work if they really knew Azula was back behind the curtain. And given how bad that marriage was; Ursa couldn't do jack and shit to them. Also, considering that Azulon gave the order for Zuko to be killed in the first place, it's quite plausible that the royal family would have found a way to do the deed and carry on like nobody's business.

The Zuko that we know is Ursa's Replacement Goldfish for the Zuko referred to in the letter.

Proof That The Letter Is Fake

The Letter was written as if by a woman who made a mistake and regrets it and wishes she had made a different choice. We know that Ursa was lying when she told Ikem that marrying the prince was what she really wanted (to stop him from getting himself arrested or killed), but Ozai doesn't. Ursa never really wanted to marry Ozai and never had a choice in the matter — quite different from the persona of the supposed letter-writer. Ozai, however, assumed that what she said in the street that day was true and wrote the fake letter with a woman who freely chose to marry him but later decided she'd made the wrong choice in mind.

Zuko is Ozai's son, and Ikem and Ursa have no children together.

It's all based in a confusing bit of grammar. "My one consolation is our son Zuko." 'Our' could still mean 'mine and Ozai's'.

• Point one is confirmed, Zuko and Azula are actually the children of Ursa and Ozai. Point two is Jossed, they both have younger half sister - Kiyi, the daughter of "Noren" (actually Ikem) and "Noriko" (actually Ursa).

Ursa wrote the letter, but...

It was multiple pages long; Azula burnt the first page that would have clarified that Zuko wasn't Ikem's son in order to falsely accuse Ursa of something she likely didn't do. She was likely sending Ikem a letter talking about how sweet Zuko was and how Zuko's personality was similar in some ways to his. The other pages, if there were any, were probably lost.

• The page Azula burnt was Azula's insurance to come along on the journey lest Zuko never finds out about their mother.

Noren and Noriko are Ikem and Ursa with new faces and no memory of their old lives.

The anti-Koh spirit gives people new faces, and lives in the Valley of Forgetfulness. Meaning the price for a new face is that you lose your memories associated with your old face. Ikem embraced a new face because he wanted to forget the loss of his one true love. Ursa embraced a new face because she's lost everyone she loved in her life, and had a murderous ex-husband who might decide to have her hunted down on a lark. Being an accomplice to regicide probably didn't help. Ursa's new face is why she didn't recognize Azula or Zuko.

Ikem became Noren. Ursa became Noriko, who came to the village after Ursa supposedly returned for a brief time. She and Ikem/Noren paired up in their new personas because True Love Shines Through, and they carried the seed of that love like the amnesiac spirits did in Love Amongst the Dragons.

• As a corollary, by the end of the search, they will be restored to their original selves and regain their memories, just as the two dragons.
• But then how to explain Azula's visions of Ursa's spirit? She is clearly not hallucinating. Seeing spirits in mirrors and the water is a supernatural phenomenon.
  • Maybe the spirit is Ursa's memories and personality, while Noriko is Ursa's consciousness and "soul"? Sort of like how Korra can commune with Aang and they're both distinct individuals, even though in another sense they're the same person. Personally, however they get around that, this theory is either true or it's been consciously set up as a fake-out, because all the evidence points this way: Noriko is new to the village, she met Noren five years ago, we also see Ursa meeting Noren about that time, Ikem met the wolf who heralds the Mother of Faces, Ikem has seemingly vanished without a trace... Not to mention Azula flat out being told "you're going the wrong way, go back" by Ursa, and the way it fits neatly with the play.
• Confirmed! Ikem and Ursa did become Noren and Noriko thanks to the Mother of Faces. This way they can live their lives peacefully together without any painful memories. While Noren remembers his and Ursa's past, Noriko has forgotten her time at the Fire Nation Palace because the memories were too painful.
• However, Ursa spirit theory is Jossed. Azula's really just that broke-brained.

Rafa lost his face to Koh the Face Stealer.

Rafa has a particular kind of deformity that cannot be healed. He cannot eat, talk or see and wears a mask. Why? Because his face is not just mutilated, his face is actually gone! He probably tried to steal something from the sacred sanctuary, broke some sacred rules in the process and was punished by Koh not unlike Avatar Kuruk. So the solution is to find the mother of all faces. Misu must have found it while reading about Koh.

• Or he somehow ended up in the spirit world and met Koh trying to steal something, but got his face stolen.
• Also with his face gone, he now lives only by spiritual power, probably how Koh allowed him to live despite the loss of his face. Hence he is between life and death.
• Confirmed! Rafa lost his face to Koh the Face Stealer.

The mother of faces is related to Koh.

• Perhaps they are brother and sister, keeping with the theme of the comic.
• Confirmed! However, Koh is the Mother of Face's estranged son.

The Mother of Faces inspired Time Lord Regeneration.

At some point, the Time Lords studied the Mother of Faces’ method of giving people new faces and realized they could use it to prolong their lives. They developed a similar technique that could heal themselves from otherwise fatal injuries, with the face changing as an unavoidable side effect. Whether the Mother of Faces approved of this or not is anyone’s Wild Mass Guess, but it’s safe to say that they have met at some point.

Ursa and Ikem as well as Misu and Rafa will be restored to their normal form by the end of the Search.

Because their stories are analogous to and somehow mirror the lives of the characters in "Love of Dragons" in their own ways.

Azula just fatally injured or killed someone at the end of Part 2.

She shoots lightning at the siblings and Zuko jumps in the middle, but it looks like he was too late. Or did it hit him?

• Jossed. Zuko successfully redirected the lightning.

Azula's lightning disfigures Misu's face as well.

And Aang has to appeal for both of them now.

• Jossed. Zuko successfully redirected the lightning.

Zuko's scar will be gone by the end of the Search.

Perhaps Zuko gets his face healed by the Mother of all faces?

• Doesn't seem too likely; there's already an official picture of adult Zuko with the scar still in place.
• That's a good thing, too, or it would be the biggest cop-out the comics could ever pull, even worse than if The Letter turned out to be true.

The letter was actually a Batman Gambit on Ursa's part.

She was suspicious that her letters were being intercepted, so she decided to write something that would force Ozai to act to confirm her suspicions. She may have also hoped that it would get Ozai to summarily banish her and her children (death penalty just doesn't seem to be a thing in the high echelons of the Fire Nation — taboo against kinslaying, perhaps?), thus granting them freedom. She may have also already been ready with her "tasteless, odorless poison" in case her husband would react violently. Somehow she was already aware that Ikem was out of Ozai's reach, ofcourse; maybe his departure to the Forgetful Valley happened right before the royal wedding?

• Well, it could be considered a Batman Gambit Gone Horribly Wrong. Ursa wrote the letter simply to get Ozai to admit he was spying on her. While Ozai knew that what was in the letter wasn't true, as punishment to Ursa, he decides to treat Zuko as if it was.

Azula is in danger and probably heading for big trouble with the spirits ignoring all of Ursa's warnings.

Ursa is trying to warn her to stay away as her insanity is going to create big trouble with the spirits. The warnings are becoming increasingly more severe and now Ursa is actually imploring Azula to turn back as she is going the wrong way. That means Azula is unknowingly putting herself in a very dangerous position. Exactly what will she do next is difficult to say, but her insanity fits are increasing in direct proportion to how close she thinks she is to finding her mother. And this leads to the next WMG.... Somewhat confirmed upon interpretation of Smoke and Shadow. Yes, Azula looks better and has some degree of sanity...however, Azula is still preaching about the old ways of the Fire Nation: Control through fear and power, completely missing why she went bonkers in the first place. It's not said to the characters in the book and nobody picks up on it, but Azula's mentality nearly goes back to square one and looks to set herself up for a bigger brain break later down the line.

Ursa is going to sacrifice herself to save Azula's life near the end.

Azula goes beyond control and in the process the forest takes out it's wrath on her, probably resulting in her being killed or seriously injured or a Fate Worse than Death. Ursa will then make another sacrifice to save Azula's life (and probably restore her sanity).

• Jossed. Both Ursa and Azula are still alive at the end of the comic.

Azula will lose her bending.

When she starts desecrating the spiritual landscape in her out of control madness. She may even go permanently insane at the idea

• Jossed, Azula is still perfectly capable of bending. In fact, despite her emotional turmoil being greater than before, she's improved her lightning bending.

Azula will undergo a complete change in personality near the end.

Ursa has been telling her that a much more beautiful destiny lies ahead of her if she truly becomes who she's supposed to be. So maybe the valley will force her to forget her past and turn out a new leaf...well that's overly idealistic, but still...

• One of Zuko's early lines was something like "the world could use more idealism right now". Do not underestimate the idealistic outcome here.
  • For now, [[Main/Jossed Jossed; Azula regains some sanity but goes right back to trying to rule through fear. Only difference is that it's to be done through Zuko.]]

Azula will be forced to lose her memories.

It's happening in forgetful valley and it suggests that people with tortured pasts go there to forget — and probably implies literally wiping away past memories and the trauma they bring. At the very least, all her conspiracy ideas borne out of insanity have to go if she is ever going to regain her sanity.

Azula's again showing cracks in her armour. At the bottom of her cold exterior, Azula is vulnerable, unsure, and an emotional wreck and to top things up she is unwilling to embrace who she really is supposed to be. So on the other end of the scale, probably only way to restore Azula to what Ursa means when she says "take of your mask" would be a complete memory re-write.

• Jossed.

Azula will be restored to sanity only when she throws her false mask away.

Ursa seems to have diagnosed Azula's problem quite well — she's an emotional wreck at heart because of her mask of fear and intimidation and her idea that she is the One True Heir to the throne. It is the root cause of her insanity fits and conspiracy theories. At some point in Part 3 she's going to be forced to face the fact or else go mad for good.

• Throwing away the false mask may be literal and thus fold in to the above WMG: Azula gets a new faces and loses her memories.

Part 3 will see the birth of The Dark Spirit

This is based on several previous WMG's, namely: (1) the visions of Ursa are actually the memories/personality of Ursa that she shed to become Noriko and (2) that Azula herself will shed her memories by the end. This WMG is that whatever Azula leaves behind will become the Dark Spirit, the villain of Korra Book 2, who we already know shares Azula's voice actress.

The mother of faces is not benevolent and will run into a confrontation with the Gaang

Again the symbolism in the Love of Dragons play, the Water spirit has supposedly cast a spell on the hero and forced him to forget who he is in the body of a mortal and after the hero somehow regains his old glory, he recognizes the trickery of the Water spirit, defeats him and is reunited with his love. Similarly the mother of faces is actually an antoganist — she gives faces at the cost of erasing people's past memories and forcing them to forget who they really are, putting them under her spell. Probably she also forces them to break off all past contact with their previous friends and loved ones as a price just like what Ozai demanded from Ursa. This may be why Noren and Noriko are lying about Ursa's fate. Therefore, if the truth about what happened to Ursa and Ikem is revealed, it might require the Avatar and co. to confront the spirit and somehow force her to restore them back to their old selves.

Kyi is actually Zuko's sister or at least half sister

On the assumption that the previous WMGs about Ikem and Ursa are true, then Kyi is at the very least Zuko's half sister. Hints in this regard are how Zuko takes a liking to the child and her dolls and how she gets so friendly with him that she tugs his arm at the end and wants to know if he'll come back. It's definitely full of those "older brother vibes".

• Confirmed! Zuko and Azula are Kyi's half-siblings. Ursa is their mother.

Noren and Noriko are Ikem and Ursa, but they remember their past all too well and are bound by some condition not to reveal it to anyone

A twist on the other WMG that goes on the lines of them losing their memories. This one differs in that both of them have definitely not lost any of their memories, but their price of getting a new face and identity is to start a new life and break off all contact with their past (again). Hence Ursa cannot reveal herself to her children and Noren/Ikem cannot talk about his meeting with Ursa. But for her children's sake Ursa probably obtained some kind of spiritual arrangement to at least contact them in spirit.

• Partially confirmed. While Ursa/Noriko does not remember her painful past, Ikem/Noren knows to keep both of their pasts secret to protect themselves.

Noren and Noriko are the reincarnations of Ikem and Ursa

Getting a new face is probably not unlike reincarnating in many ways. That's probably why Ursa seems to appear as a spirit to both Zuko (in the promise) and Azula (in reflections). That's another way of saying that they are in fact dead, and the spirit of Ursa that we are seeing is the identity and memories and intelligence from her past incarnation, but in reality the souls of Ursa and Ikem have now taken up new bodies altogether and are now different people. Ursa appears in the form of her past self whenever she wants to act as a Spirit Advisor to her children.

• Subverted. Noren and Noriko are not reincarnations of Ikem and Ursa, rather they literally are Ikem and Ursa with new faces (and in Ursa's case, with her memories of her life at the palace erased). Though Ikem still has his memories.

Azulon actually wanted Ozai to kill Azula as his punishment

Ozai's punishment has "just begun" which meant Azulon was probably referring to Ozai suffering in the long term. The truth is that there is an error in Azula's statement that Azulon wanted Ozai to know what it's like to lose one's first born — Iroh has only one son. Ozai would not suffer much to get rid of Zuko as by that point he didn't even believe Zuko was truly his son anyway. But he would suffer heavily were he asked to kill Azula — the success of the Tyke Bomb experimentand the future of his race. That's the point where he hatches the plan to kill his father, take the throne and get rid of Ursa '''all''' in one sweep.

• That also explains why Azula has that sneer on her face from that point right up to Azulon's funeral — she is a co-conspirator in Azulon's death because she was his intended target and so she was all too glad to dispose of him.
  • Jossed. Azulon wanted to issue out poetic justice, an eye for an eye. However, if the order WAS to kill Azula, Ozai would have done so.

Azula is right. However, Ursa is taking orders from Avatar Roku to prevent another Fire Nation Face–Heel Turn

This came after thinking about Zuko's dream from the Promise. It's clear that there are several forces at work with their own plans to steer the fate of the Fire Nation in their respective directions. In Ursa's case, when she finds out that her parents are dead and she is now all alone, she finds a way to contact her grandfather Avatar Roku for advice. In all the circumstances that follow, Avatar Roku is the Man Behind the Man and is secretly trying to ensure that Azula does not get the throne. Feeling responsible for failing to stop Sozin, Roku, now as a spirit, advises his granddaughter Ursa into plotting to ensure that the Fire Nation does not fall into the hands of a dangerous lunatic like Azula while trying to get her to throw off her "mask" (which would be Ursa's own personal concern). This is in direct opposition to the Ozai-Azula duo's plan of trying to make Zuko's lineage null and void by declaring him an illegitimate son of Ursa.

Ursa and Roku are thinking about the future of the fire nation that has just been liberated from Ozai and do not want it to fall back into Azula's hands. Hence Ursa is trying to stop her from taking the throne. Azula is right, Ursa is ruining her plans of become Fire Lord. That would also explain how Zuko saw Ursa's spirit behind Roku's in his dream and how Roku is aware that she is her granddaughter.

• Secondary WMG: Now with Aang having opted to save Zuko, Roku probably realizes his mistake that trying to kill Zuko would have allowed Azula a chance at the throne.
• Secondary WMG: If Ursa is not dead, she probably learnt some spiritual tricks from her grandfather to appear in Azula's visions and in mirrors.
• Secondary WMG: Ursa goes to commit suicide in one of the lakes in Forgetful valley when Roku appears to stop her and act as her Spiritual Mentor

Azula is cursed to die or go permanently insane if she becomes Fire Lord

Because there's a curse on the throne!
Or maybe it's because Azula was born insane and it's only a matter of time before she cracks. And in the process does something that could lead to the destruction of her nation.

• Wrong on the first one. One of the most important messages of Azula's storyline in the original series is that Monsters are made, not born. However, at that moment in time when her mind and heart were breaking apart, she would've made a lot of bad choices and decisions based in either wrath or paranoia that would've brought down the fire nation.

Noren and Noriko are actually not Ikem and Ursa, but are hiding her whereabouts out of fear.

They were interrogated by Vachir when he came to the village looking for Ikem and that's how he found out about Forgetful Valley — maybe he tortured them or burned their house down in the process. Later on they hid Ursa in their house for a while and maybe they somehow got her reunited with Ikem. Hence Noren is very suspicious of anyone who comes inquiring about know about Ikem or Ursa probably thinking that the fire nation still wants to hunt them down. Azula's attitude is definitely helping his fears.

• Secondary WMG: He recognized who Ursa was, and he also recognized Zuko, Azula and the Avatar.
• Secondary WMG: Ursa is living secretly in their house the whole time...
• Jossed. Noren and Noriko really are Ikem and Ursa, but Ikem/Noren knows to keep their past secret to protect themselves.

Ursa does not want to be found

Perhaps she is really dead and the Search will be futile, perhaps the Search will prove to be too dangerous for her children, especially Azula. Hence she is trying to dissuade Azula on what she calls a futile quest. Or finding the truth of her will entail a Deal with the Devil or some other terrible price to pay. Or perhaps as an earlier WMG says, she and Ikem have become Noriko and Noren and they don't want to be disturbed in their new life, so Ursa prefers to contact Azula in spirit.

• Confirmed. Ursa has gotten her face changed into Noriko and wants to live peacefully with Ikem/Noren.

Azula is suffering from severe guilt over what happened to her mother and is masking it by self brainwashing herself trying to justify that her mother is conspiring against her. That is her mask that Ursa wants her to remove.

Guilt over a dark and dirty secret — it was she who was responsible for her mother's banishment. It was she who probably suggested to Ozai that her mother was a skilled herbologist. From her statement in Sozin's comet, it appears that she has been seeing Ursa's spirit for a long time before the finale. It's more or less confirmed by now that she gleefully co-conspired with Ozai to kill Azulon and get Ursa out. Perhaps she intended only to kill Azulon but didn't think of losing her mother in the process. Whatever the exact details are, the guilt is hanging over her her and is fundamentally responsible for her insanity. To keep herself sane, she needs to hide that guilt. So she tries to drive away her mother's spirit because it is too painful for her conscience when Ursa claims to love and care for her in spite of how she had ruined her life.

Due to insanity and pride however her reaction is one of anger against her mother but it is actually a mountain of guilt. Azula is trying to silence her guilty conscience by convincing herself that her mother is trying to conspire against her and that in turn justifies her actions — and it allows her to express her anger against herself on her mother instead. Eventually she turned into a Conspiracy Theorist by lying to herself the whole time suppressing her conscience to the point of brainwashing herself in a futile attempt to stay sane. And now she believes her own Conspiracy Theories so much that whenever she sees her mother's spirit, she gets wild with rage. This might actually be the "mask" that Ursa is repeatedly talking about.Secondary WMG: Her visions of Ursa might actually be her own repressed conscience. Or Ursa herself is trying to act as her moral conscience as she has become too confused and misguided.

• Half right. Ursa's illusions is Azula's repressed conscience but not because Azula had anything to do with her mother's disappearance; but rather their failed relationship. For all her talk and sass, Azula is self-conscious about her cruel streak and possibly her childhood brattiness; realizing later in life that all her talk of getting people to fear her got her nothing. What we see is different and yet, not unlike what we saw of Zuko's internal war through the animated series. Azula's hallucinations are at war with the Fire Nation propaganda she got drilled into her little head but it's also combined with a more desperate desire to be loved and trusted by a parent and her friends. The mask here and in smoke and shadow is analogus to the "tea shop" worker mask Zuko wore: This is not who she really is and wants to be but unlearning that stuff is immensely difficult and takes years of proper therapy to beat out.

Ozai was only born to be part of Azulon's Eugenic Project of Sozin/Roku, and nothing more

Based on his relationship with his father and his status, it seems odd that Ozai would be 20 years younger than Iroh and that Azulon wouldn't give Ozai the throne, even when Iroh's bloodline has died out and that he had Ozai marry Ursa for his eugenic project. And why hasn't Azulon bother have first and most favorite son, Iroh, marry Ursa instead of his unfavorite and second son? Well, perhaps the Fire Sages gave Azulon the prophecy too late, as Iroh was already married. Not wanting to strain his relationship with his favorite heir, Azulon conceived another son for the prophecy, and ensured that the new son, Ozai, will be prepare for his role as the producer of uber firebending children. As result, Ozai was pampered and spoiled within the palace walls, never exposed to the outside world nor the war frontline that his elder brother was facing, yet at the same time, never given much love and affection from Azulon as he had for Iroh, only seen as a failsafe key to fulfill the prophecy.

When Ursa gave birth to Zuko, Ozai felt enraged because his role is to sire powerful children for Azulon, and Zuko's lack of fire bending spirit embarrassed such role of his. And since Ursa is the descendant of the Avatar, arguably the best bender in the world, Zuko's lack fire bending would likely to point to Ozai's blood, which would make Ozai a failure in Azulon's eyes. Paired up with the best blood and couldn't even produce a good fire bender. Thankfully, he was convinced otherwise, and Zuko did show fire bending skills, only to read the letter about Zuko's heritage a few years later...

Ursa's fate will unhinge Azula for good

She will in the end realize that there was no way for her mother to have plotted against her or spoken to her in any manner at all, but unfortunately for her, this belief is the only focal point that has been keeping her mind steady, that too only by rage. Now with all clarity gone, she'll collapse into total insanity. Azula simply cannot accept or face the truth within her conscience.

• [[Main/Jossed Jossed. Azula learns what happens but it isn't the brain breaking we thought would happen. Rather, Zuko's amazing speech about how he'll never turn his back on Azula gives Azula some steady ground to regain her sanity.

Zuko is Ozai's son but the letter caused Ozai to cross yet another Moral Event Horizon and take his wrath on Ursa by disowning Zuko instead. The Unfortunate Implications of letter resulted in Zuko being condemned to a life of misery

There are two possible ways of doing this. One is that after reading that letter Ozai began to consider that Zuko was no longer his son and therefore began to treat him like a low class child.

The other is that Ozai is smart and is fully aware that it's impossible that Ursa could have met Ikem. He concludes (or realizes it after their argument in Vol.2) that she lied to him just to force him to confront her over her letters and decides that if she can be that smart then she deserves some particularly painful treatment. For her disobedience and potentially scandalous words, he decides to punish her by taking all his wrath out on Zuko, treating him badly before her just so that he can give her more pain than any abuse he could inflict on her directly. He wanted to show her what he would have done to Zuko had her letter been indeed true and went ahead with it being the monster he was. Zuko's early difficulties with bending would have added fuel to whatever Ozai had in mind. Zuko thus became the center of his parent's feud.

Either way, the letter paved the road for all of Zuko's suffering. Both possibilities would certainly explain Ozai's favoritism of Azula and his cruelty to Zuko, although the second possibility would be much more clever writing that plays with the reader's heads for a while but in the end avoids splitting the fanbase and does not doom the central theme of who Zuko is — it's clear in Vol.2 that Ozai is aware of just what lengths his wife will go to and that is one reason for his ill-treatment of her. In short the letter basically led Ozai to disown his son and cross a new Moral Event Horizon yet again, as he has done virtually every time he gets story space.

• Confirmed. Ursa's wishful thinking that Zuko was Ikem's son gives Ozai a reason to treat Zuko as he were Ikem's son. In other words, very miserably.

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