>>One of the themes I see over again is the notion that Ozai
>>consistently fails to account for the changes in Azula since he's seen
>>her last--a mistake Akio made when facing Utena.
>
>Less forgivable an oversight for Ozai than for Akio, although Akio is
>a lot smarter than Ozai. Akio was juggling a lot of bombs at the time,
>and his plan involved Utena not actually showing up, and
>certainly not showing up being ready to lock and load.

Also, Akio had a lot less time being "dead" than Ozai did. IIRC, Utena had been away for less than 3 years, whereas Azula had been missing for ~115 years, and then lived for another 50+. Yes, Utena went through a massively accelerated growth program thanks to Kate, Corwin and the gang, but she still only had about 5% of the time that Azula did...

Still, it was nice to see that her experiences since being thawed had done her a lot of good.

Offsides

[...] in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
-- David Ben Gurion
EPU RCW #π
#include <stdsig.h>