Azula

Azula (Princess Azula)
File:AzulaHiRes.png
Voiced by	Grey DeLisle
In-universe information
Aliases	Crown Princess of the Fire Nation (formerly), Fire Lord Azula (never officially crowned, though she is called Fire Lord...at her coronation)
Gender	Female
Position	Antagonist in second and third season
Nationality	Fire Nation

Azula (Princess Azula) is a fictional character and a chief antagonist from Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is voiced by veteran voice actress Grey DeLisle.

In the show, Azula is a Firebending prodigy and highly favored princess of the Fire Nation, a race of people with the ability to create and manipulate fire. She is initially depicted as bent on retrieving her exiled brother, Prince Zuko, and delivering him to their father, Fire Lord Ozai, while accompanied by her childhood friends, Mai and Ty Lee. Eventually her focus becomes more directed toward capturing the Avatar and aiding in the war to help secure her nation's victory.

She has an exceptionally bright and quick intellect and is universally recognized as a natural figure of leadership and authority. She keeps her calm no matter the situation and meticulously engineers a positive outcome no matter the odds. She is cold, confident and bold and extremely comfortable in her command, in addition to being an exceptionally skilled Firebender.

Plot overview

Azula first appears in a flashback during Zuko's fateful Agni Kai in which Zuko was scarred and exiled by his father. She smiles at seeing her older brother burned by her father, while Iroh looks away. Azula makes a second brief appearance at the end of the first season, when Ozai tasks her with hunting the Avatar, and repatriating Zuko and Iroh.

Although Azula's age is never stated in the series itself, the Avatar website gives her age at the time of her first appearance as fourteen. She is the great-granddaughter of both Fire Lord Sozin through Ozai, and Avatar Roku through Ursa.

In another flashback, it is revealed that she is named after her grandfather, Ozai's father Azulon, who was a firebending prodigy like her. Even when she was a child, Azula demonstrated her natural talents early in life, along with her tendency for malice and perfectionism. Her sharp wit and the skill she displayed towards Firebending gained her much attention and acclaim. Her father showed her obvious favoritism, often at Zuko's expense.

Azula is depicted as interested in power from a very young age. She is shown destroying a doll that her uncle had sent her, pushing Ty Lee over when she does a better cartwheel, and also demonstrates sociopathic behavior, such as cruelty to the tame turtle-ducks that live in their garden pond. She is also seen putting an apple on Mai's head and then lighting it on fire, under the pretense that they are playing a "game." She thus orchestrates a situation which results in Zuko knocking Mai into the fountain (himself falling in with her), as Zuko was attempting to save her from the fire. Azula then stands giggling with Ty Lee at her brother and friend's humiliation. Young Azula suggests that her father would make a far better Fire Lord than the heir apparent, her uncle, Iroh, whom she also dubbed "a quitter and a loser" for abandoning his siege at Ba Sing Se after the death of his son and only child, Lu Ten.

After Iroh's betrayal at the north pole, Ozai tasks Azula with capturing Zuko and Iroh (deciding to consider Zuko no better for not yet capturing the Avatar). She tries to bait them with an offer of honorable repatriation, but a slip of the tongue from a soldier tips off Zuko and Iroh, and they escape. Azula eventually encounters the Avatar in Omashu, wherein she and Aang battle. Soon after, she names the Avatar as a personal target in addition to her brother and enlists the help of her friends Ty Lee and Mai. Azula continues to pursue the Avatar, Zuko, and Iroh for the rest of the season, becoming the main antagonist as Zuko had been during the previous season. After initially failing to gain entry to Ba Sing Se, Azula comes in contact with the Kyoshi Warriors after a battle she defeats and imprisons them. Disguising themselves as Kyoshi Warriors, Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai enter Ba Sing Se and plots a coup with the treacherous Long Feng and his Dai Li enforcers. After tearing down the outer walls of Ba Sing Se, Azula convinces the Dai Li to turn on Long Feng, securing a bloodless conquest for the Fire Nation. Azula captures Zuko in Ba Sing Se and convinces him to join her and defeat the Avatar in order for Zuko to get his birthright back. During their showdown in the catacombs, Azula appears to have mortally wounded Aang while he is in the Avatar State with a lighting bolt. Just in case Aang survived, Azula lets Zuko take credit for the kill, knowing that Zuko would suffer the disgrace.

During "The Day of Black Sun," Azula and her Dai Li agents stall Aang, Sokka, and Toph from finding Fire Lord Ozai. In the same episode, Zuko has a change of heart and decides to defect to Aang. Later, Azula accompanies Mai and Ty Lee to the Boiling Rock, where Zuko has been captured, but Zuko, Sokka, Suki, and Hakoda escape. During the escape, Mai attacks the guards allowing them to escape. When Azula questions her about her actions, the reply is "I guess you just don't know people like you think you do. You miscalculated," hinting that she is not as perfect as she believes herself to be. "I love Zuko more than I fear you." (Earlier in season three Mai and Zuko had begun a romantic relationship, but it was temporarily ended when Zuko became a traitor, although they both still loved each other.) Azula's calm breaks, and in a fury, she attempts to attack Mai, but is stopped by Ty Lee. After having Mai and Ty Lee locked away thus severing her ties with them, a crazed Azula leads a platoon to the Western Air Temple. There she duels with Zuko until they are both thrown from the airship. She survives by propelling herself to safety.

In the finale, Ozai, after declaring himself the Phoenix King, dubs Azula as the new Fire Lord, but says that she must remain in the Fire Nation to lead the people while he is gone. Soon after receiving her new responsibilities, Azula's sanity begins to deteriorate into paranoia, which leads her to banishing nearly all of her servants, including the Dai Li. There is almost nobody present to witness her coronation. Before she is crowned, Zuko and Katara interrupt the ceremony and Azula challenges Zuko to an Agni Kai. Zuko and Azula prove to be evenly matched, until Azula takes a shot at Katara. Zuko shields Katara with his own body. Katara manages to capture Azula on her own, and her defeat drives Azula into a maddening despair as she sobs over her defeat and the loss of her innocence.

According to the official Nick website, Azula has been sent to a mental institution on an island.

Personality

Azula is a complex young woman. Ever since she was born, she was raised by her father to be a cruel, ruthless firebender and to manipulate people by controlling them through fear. She is a dedicated perfectionist, relentlessly drilling herself towards perfection and will settle for nothing less. Even as a child she was seen to react with hostility when outdone. In a flashback, a young Azula is shown pushing Ty Lee over after she beats her at cartwheeling. She is rather vain and believes that power and domination are what makes a person strong. She is known for being one of the cruelest characters in the series. From a young age, Azula demonstrated sadistic aggression and lack of remorse. She lacks empathy, to the point that she can be considered a psychopath and treats people as expendable, and seems unable to view them as her equals, let alone her superiors. For this reason, she eventually gains the distrust of all of the other characters, including her former friends and even Fire Lord Ozai himself. Her amorality and ability to act without hesitation or remorse also accounts for her ability to create lightning, as the skill requires peace of mind.

Ironically, for all her refinement and self-confidence, Azula retains some insecurities. Although she is shown as a good strategist and capable of predicting what her enemies will do, she is awkward in casual social situations. In particular, she does not know how to act around boys her age, whom she tends to intimidate. Her over-competitive nature surfaces when she gloats manically after winning a "friendly" Kuai ball game. She later admits to jealousy of Ty Lee's ability to attract potential sweethearts. Despite her cruel and sadistic treatment towards others, it has been shown that she does still retain some form of empathy, displayed in "The Beach", when after making Ty Lee cry, immediately apologizes. It later becomes apparent that her bullying and abusive treatment of people, even friends such as Mai and Ty Lee, stems not only from her cruel nature but a deep-rooted fear of love and inability to trust in others. From a young age, she believed her mother favored Zuko and thought Azula monstrous (despite saying that her mother was right). Although her father clearly favored her over her brother Zuko, it is plain that Ozai did not show genuine love for either of his children, simply dispensing approval to them when it suited his purposes. This shaped Azula's fears that she would be unable to rely on anyone for affection. Unable to trust others, she instead tries to dominate them through fear - a paranoia that ultimately drives her insane following the betrayal of her closest friends. Azula, as stated in "The Beach" considers herself to be the "most beautiful person ever."

Abilities

Azula is a very difficult person to defeat in single combat. Her excellent fire-bending abilities, hand-to-hand combat skills, intelligence, and quickness has made her a formidable opponent.

Azula is proficient in the difficult technique of using lightning, a pure form of Firebending. The only other known firebenders who are capable of lightning are Iroh and Ozai. Iroh, Aang, and Zuko have been shown to redirect lightning by Iroh's technique, though Aang and Zuko have never been seen creating lightning. Even while breaking down into paranoia and insanity, Azula is still able to create lightning, suggesting that she draws power from another source.

The second most noticeable feature of Princess Azula's bending is that she creates blue flames, setting her apart from the Avatar, Zuko, Iroh, Fire Lord Ozai, and other firebenders. Azula has been seen using flames in previously unseen ways, such as jets of flames and whirling disks. Notably, Azula often firebends using only two fingers, rather than a closed fist or open hand. Azula can fight for long periods of time without tiring. This discipline seems to deteriorate with her sanity; in her final battle with Zuko, she strikes with less precise, somewhat wasteful bursts of flame, explaining why she tires so quickly and easily in that fight. Her reckless unpredictability in that battle, however, makes her all the more dangerous, given that Sozin's comet was present at the time. She is also able to generate powerful shields of swirling flames, which she once used to withstand the simultaneous combined attacks of Aang, Zuko, Katara, and Toph. She is even able to charge up her fire before releasing it, as was seen during one fight with Aang.

Azula is able to propel herself, using her flames, in a manner similar to a rocket. This ability has also been extended as a means to fly for short periods of time as seen in the Boiling Rock. She is also a skilled unarmed fighter; in "The Avatar State", she bested Zuko without firebending, and in "The Day of Black Sun", avoided the combined forces of Aang, Toph, and Sokka for several minutes without her bending to aid her. In "Appa's Lost Days", when Suki made a stab attack at Azula with her sword, Azula jumped horizontally and knocked Suki's sword out of her hand and onto a tree.

Her ability to lie without altering her heart rate and breathing patterns may stem from her discipline, or from the detached aspect of her personality that allows her to inflict savage cruelty without any hint of hesitation or remorse. She is also an accomplished strategist, as she was able to conquer Ba Sing Se, a city thought to be impenetrable, while usurping the entire Government and hierarchy of the Earth Kingdom capital all in one swift move.

Lastly, Azula is an expert in persuasion. She is capable of using psychological warfare, intimidation, and lying in order to convince other people to obey her, so skilled she can even lie to Toph, who has skilled lie detecting abilities. She has used this to persuade Zuko and Iroh to return home in the episode "The Avatar State," she convinces Ty Lee to give up her dream career in order to hunt Zuko in "Return to Omashu" intimidating an entire legion of elite Earthbenders (the Dai Li) to turn traitor and join the Fire Nation, as well as convincing Zuko to betray Iroh, at the end of season two.

Appearances in other media

Episode

In The Ember Island Players actress Azula was played by Tara Strong.

Video games

She appears as an antagonist in the video game Avatar: The Last Airbender - Into the Inferno.

Film

Azula briefly appears in the live action feature film The Last Airbender before the end credits, (like her first appearance in the series) played by Summer Bishil. She also appears in a flashback where Zuko gets his scar.

External links

• Azula at Nick.com