Azir is against slavery
So then, what's going to happen when Taliyah finds this out? He's not going to enslave her family or her people. He's just going to be a good leader as he planned to millenia ago.
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An awkward breeze will blow in between them.
Obviously.
I'd be a little skeptical of Azir. Sure, thousands of years ago he wanted to be a fair and kind emperor, working to benefit all of Shurima. (Although, it's worth noting he went a little bonkers around the Ascension thing, he threatened those priests with death if they wouldn't perform it, although that's more Xerath's cunning influence.)
Then he was backstabbed, lie dead in the sands for millenia, and woke up only to realize his best friend murdered him, along with all of his people, his wife, and his children.
I think it wouldn't be too much of a stretch if something inside Azir snapped. He tried to be the good guy, and look what it got him. Of course, he WAS doing the right thing, but the sheer emotional devastation at something like that might push that fact out of his mind. Maybe all he wants now is power for revenge on Xerath. Maybe he doesn't care about the common people anymore. Azir is potentially a very different man now than he was years ago.
Or it could just be a misunderstanding, and he could be the noble and gracious emperor he always wanted to be. I think it depends on the direction Riot wants to take Azir's character. Is he a determined leader, back to help protect his people? Or is he a relic of the past fueled by hate and anger, who should have stayed buried?
I guess she might not believe him.
I mean he comes up and is like "no I'm not like the other emporers,I'm against slavery,trust me and come in my city that is likely filled with sand soldiers who could kill you whenever I wanted to do it".
From her point of view it is likely that she'd be too afraid that he just puts up a facade to fool others.
I feel like the final clash will not be about slavery. Taliya will come to clear the misunderstanding about Azir and slavery, yet that doesn't mean she is going to approve his methods. Azir is basically an imperialistic demigod that resurrected from the desert itself. I feel it's more about Taliya considering Azir a relic of the past, back to pretend servitude (still not slavery) and loyalty from a collection of tribes which had lived millenias without his rule and the presence of the Shuriman Empire itself. It's not exactly a fight against slavery or non-slavery it's more about the clash between the resurgence of old glory and tradition against the future and the change brought by the passing of aeons, Taliya feels that Shurima can still live without Azir's rule and that his time was long due. At least, that's just my personal interpretation of what might be.