I agree with most of that, but personally I have always felt that Azula was always a lot closer to Ty Lee than to Mai. The hints are small, but they're there. In "The Beach", we saw Azula make a genuine attempt to apologize to Ty Lee, and then cheer her up, possibly her only real human moment prior to the finale. Later in that episode, when Azula confessed for the first time that her mother's rejection had really hurt her, Ty Lee was the only one who really seemed to care. Also notable is what happened at the Boiling Rock; when Mai was the betaryer, Azula was perfectly willing to barbarcue her friend. But when Ty Lee stopped her all the fight went out of Azula. She could have ordered the guards to simply hurl them over the edge into the lake, but instead she suddenly all that she could bring herself to do was order the guards to take them away, unable to bear the sight of them.

well

when azula went to watch ty lee's circus she looked pretty scared.

yeah i agree with ya.

would you kiss up? or burned to a lightning barbecue?

That was sucking up. It was obvious that Azula wanted to be complimented, and that's what Ty Lee gave her (although I actually wouldn't have put it past Ty Lee to believe it).

But the scene at the end of The Beach was not sucking up. Azula was not looking for flattery, she was confessing the one thing that had ever caused her to doubt herself. And Ty Lee alone was looking at her with genuine concern. Granted, Zuko was never going to care, and Mai was preoccupied with making up and out with him, but still.

You never know. Ty Lee (and possibly Mai)'s forgiveness would probably be a fairly big help to Azula recovering (to get us back on topic). Or it might even be the other way round; if Azula were to somehow heal with her mother's help, a big step for her would be to bring herself to apologize to all the people that she's hurt. It would certainly be interesting to see.

I don't think so. Azula's main problem is that she's cut herself off from connecting with other human beings. What she really needs is a pure, uncomplicated love/friendship that isn't forced on one end. We saw in the finale that her mother's apparent rejection of her was one of the root causes of her mistrust for other people. We also saw that Mai and Ty Lee's betrayal was the root cause for her paranoia. If those two root causes were to be resolved, Azula would come a long way.

On that specific subject, I've made a new blog post enquring for help with a question about a fanfic. Please advise.

This is true not only has she isolated herself from others, she finds it unbelievably difficult to trust anyone. She is not able to trust her dad, when she has a little outburst saying that he cannot treat her like he treats Zuko, she is not able to trust her servants and her advisers.

This trust problem really started after being betrayed by Ty Lee and Mai. This is the reason why I think they will be needed for her to heal. I think I mentioned this earlier in this thread but didn't really explain the reasoning.