Yes! Maybe this is an odd way to put it, but I think Ty Lee is as much a master manipulator as Azula is--just in a vastly different way, and for vastly different reasons. Not only does she crave being liked by people, but she's very sensitive to how to make them do it, I think. She's so obsequious to Azula, at least partly, because she knows that's what Azula wants (i.e. it's sort of planned). And she can balance her friendship with both Mai and Azula, by knowing just how far she can push Mai before Mai would stop being friends with her, and pushing no further. (The plan to put an apple on Mai's head, teasing her about Zuko). Which may be part of why Ty Lee's so confused when the boys at the party ask her which one of them she likes best--she's used to keeping that equilibrium, and probably really does like everybody equally. Whereas I wonder if Mai never really liked Azula at all, but put up with her to be closer to Zuko. I know--I'm probably thinking about this too hard.
I would really like to see Ty Lee interacting with somebody where Azula isn't in the picture at all. There's a tiny bit of that in canon: mostly with Sokka, where it's especially obvious because she takes a sort of dominant role with him. I think it would be interesting to see how she behaves with other people.
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Date: 2010-10-15 09:10 pm (UTC)I would really like to see Ty Lee interacting with somebody where Azula isn't in the picture at all. There's a tiny bit of that in canon: mostly with Sokka, where it's especially obvious because she takes a sort of dominant role with him. I think it would be interesting to see how she behaves with other people.