True, but speaking of Caesar's conquests, there is another point of comparison between him and Aang. Lucan, a Roman poet, once wrote a poem about Caesar in which he described how when Caesar entered battle, he ceased to be a man, and instead became a force of nature; a ravaging storm, laying waste to his foes, a description that sounds chillingly similar to Aang in the Avatar State (especially at the North Pole).

It's true that despite the many good deeds he was able to do as ruler of the Republic, Caesar was no saint. On his campaigns he faced an estimated 5 million armed opponents. Civilian casualties were even greater - they went off the charts. It should be remembered though, that Caesar was no different in this regard to his peers. Back then there were no heroes who believed in preserving the balance between the nations - everyone; the Romans, the Gauls, the Egyptians, the Africans, the Spansih, the Greeks, Pontus, the Parthians - they were all out to destroy eachother completely. Caesar's distinguishing characteristic was simply that he was able to beat everyone else. It was a much more ruthless time, a "kill or be killed" situation. Caesar was a ruthless patriot who believed in doing whatever was necessary to preserve the Republic, so in that regard he was much more like Aang's past lives than Aang. To Caesar's credit though, when through with conquering his enemies he made a point of sparing them, and took the unprecedented step of granting immediate citizenship to the new subjects of the empire. The former rulers of the various lands were not deposed, but were instead allowed to become members of the Roman Senate, ensuring that there would always be sympathetic voices for the provinces in Rome's ruling body. It was by no means just, or right, but it was far more so than the systems imposed by other empires of the day.

There was also a bit of Iroh in him. During one of his fiercest battles against the Gauls, Caesar recieved news that his daughter had died back in Rome. Caesar's daughter had been his only child, and one of the few people that he had felt genuinly close to. Overcome with grief and unable to bear the thought of continuing the fight, he withdrew from the battle. Once the army had marched to safety, Caesar left his men, and spent three days by himself, refusing to allow anyone into his quarters. After three days, he emerged from the tent looking as though nothing serious had happened at all. Multiple stroies were told about what had happened to him over those three days; everything from Caesar forcing himself to abandon his grief, to a wild story about how the gods had visited Caesar and given him the strength to carry on despite the death of his daughter. Caesar's untimely withdrawal almost cost the Romans the war against the Gauls, and won him no sympathy back in Rome. Fortunatly however, Caesar was able to throw himself back into the fighting, and shortly afterwards defeated the Gauls.

There's actually another Azula/Caesar parallel - obsession with hair and general appearance. In his youth Caesar was besotted with his personal appearance - his hair had to be perfect, his clothes had to be the latest fashion, and he was so particular about his hygiene that when he was appointed as the governor of Spain, his first act as governor was to order the construction of a massive bathing complex. As he grew older and was appalled to find himself going bald he had a special act passed in the Senate allowing him to wear a massive golden crown in recognition of his conquests - just so that he could cover up / distract people from his baldness.

And you're right, his assassination also parallels Azula - after years of beating anyone and everyone who dared to challenge him head on, he was ultimately brought down by his own friends. The actual assassination was close too - when the senators first started attacking him, Caesar fought back ferociously - clubbing several of the assassins unconscious with a scepter and managing to stab several others with their own knives, all the while roaring about how he was going to make them pay for their treachery (similar to the way Azula was about to kill Mai). But when Caesar saw Brutus in the crowd, all the fight went out of him. He could not believe that someone as close to him as Brutus could betary him. Contrary to the Shakespeare play, Caesar's last lines to Brutus were actually in Greek - translating as "You too, my son?". Brutus was actually the son of one of Caesar's mistresses, and while it was never confirmed that Caesar was his father, Caesar apparently saw him as the son he had never had. The reason the line was changed in Shakepeare's play was because he did not want to include this sub-plot, feeling that it would complicate the storyline. Having uttered his final words, Caesar wrapped his toga around his head so that he did not have to look at the faces of the people who had betrayed him ("Take them somewhere where I'll never have to see their faces again!"), and calmly waited for death.

Shi Huang Di is obviously the best parallel for Azula as we saw her in the show. Julius Caesar is a parallel of what Azula probably would have been like (or may yet become like) if she had not been a villain; but had instead devoted herself to good causes, albeit in a ruthless manner.

Personally, I think that the best thing about her character is that it's only just begining. Pretty much ever since we first saw her she has been pure, uncomplicated villain. There were a few hints in the finale that she was something more, but at the time no one other than the most rabid Azula fans/lovers picked up on them. After the finale however, she had made an astonishing transition from evil personified to a complicated, very human character. What's so appealing about this is that it gives us something to latch on to - the stries of Aang and Zuko were brilliant, but they have finished, and have finished so spectacularly that they probably won't be coming back. So we focus our attention on Azula. Hence the sudden increase in discussion about her - I swear that in the week after the finale there were more threads made about her than there were about any other subject.

Anyway, glad you remembered. I'll be watching it agin, and afterwards (or the day after it since it finishes at midnight) we can have a nice big discussion of it on this thread. It won't just be Azula comparisons either - as I said on the previous page a lot of the show also focussed on the general history of China at the time - and some of the avatar comparisons that could be drawn were quite frankly astonishing.

Interesting. For me, "Jet" has always stood out as one of the turning points for Avatar. The episodes before Jet had all been good (some, like The Southern Air Temple, were simply epic), but it was in Jet that we began to see that Avatar was not just about good storytelling - this was a show that was going to make a genuine attempt to tackle real issues. The other thing I liked about this episode was that it was the first episode where the Fire Nation were not the bad guys, or at least, they were not as bad as the people who were fighting them.

The thing is that everyone with a cause, no matter what their cause is, believes it to be a just cause. People never choose to do the wrong thing - no matter how much they might grow to regret that decision later if they are wrong, at the time the choice they make is always the one that they think is the best choice, for whatever reason.

That sux

Oh well, you'll probably be able to pick out most of the main points from this thread. But still, it was really interesting to watch it.