Azula

Azula
File:AzulaHiRes.png
Voiced by	Grey DeLisle
In-universe information
Aliases	Fire Nation Princess
Gender	Female
Position	Antagonist in second and third season
Nationality	Fire Nation

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

Plot overview

Azula first appears in a flashback displaying Iroh's story about the Agni Kai in which Prince Zuko was punished by his father for speaking out of turn at an important War meeting by receiving his trademark facial scar and sentence of exile. She appears laughing while Iroh looks away. Azula is not shown again until the end of the season, after the siege of the Northern Water Tribe, at which point Ozai orders Azula to arrest Zuko and Iroh for failure to capture the Avatar and the betrayal of the Fire Nation, respectively.

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Azula's destructive ways were evident even as a child.

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 young Zuko mentions that she throws rocks at the tame turtle-ducks that live in their garden pond. She is also seen putting an apple on Mai's head and then setting it afire, 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 humilitation. 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. In Azula's mind, she thought of her mother thinking that she was a monster and loved Zuko more than her. So she took her father's side and drove herself into perfection. In her father's eyes she is nothing less than perfect to become the next firelord. Years later, when her brother is scarred by their father during an Agni Kai duel, she is shown watching triumphantly and eagerly.

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). While Zuko initially believes that Azula is here to escort Zuko home, it later becomes apparent that Azula is only there to capture them. Zuko and Iroh escape from Azula and are wanted by both the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation. 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. Using the disguises of the Kyoshi Warriors, Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai enter Ba Sing Se and she arranges to meet with the security agents known as the Dai Li, with whom she overthrows the Earth Kingdom. 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. It is assumed that the Avatar State has now become broken, and Aang is later shown explaining that his seventh chakra is now "locked". Azula suspects that Aang survived and eventually blames this on her brother.

Upon her return home in the third season, it is revealed that Azula has not taken credit for the murder of the Avatar, but has given it to Zuko, hinting that his honor would suffer if Aang's survival were known. This could lead many fans to believe that Azula planned to steal the throne from Zuko all along, as hinted at during a prophetic dream that Zuko has in Ba Sing Se, wherein Azula was depicted as a blue dragon.

During "The Day of Black Sun," Azula serves as a distraction to keep Aang, Sokka, and Toph from finding Fire Lord Ozai, assisted by Dai Li agents. Also in that episode, Zuko, having decided that the Fire Nation was wrong in trying to conquer the world, becomes a traitor and leaves to join the Avatar. 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.) 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.

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Azula has a vision of her mother, signifying the start of her breakdown.

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. Azula's sanity begins to deteriorate, which leads her to banishing nearly all of her servants, along with the Dai Li. When she is about to be crowned, Katara and Zuko arrive, whereupon she challenges Zuko to an Agni Kai. Zuko accepts the offer and later gains the upper hand, after which Azula distracts him by attacking Katara with lightning. Zuko saves Katara at the cost of his own safety; Katara then fights for her own life and ultimately captures Azula. After Katara healed Zuko's injuries, Azula began screaming, crying and shooting fire out of her mouth uncontrollably while Zuko and Katara looked on.

According to the official Nick website, Azula has been sent to a mental health facility on an island where she receives constant care and supervision. [1]

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 nationalist, 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 Ty Lee 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, treats people as expendable, and seems unable to view them as her equals. 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 does retain some insecurities. Although she is shown as a good strategist and capable of predicting what her enemies will do, she has a disadvantage in ordinary social situations. In particular, she does not know how to act around teenage boys, whom she tends to intimidate. Her over-competitive nature surfaces during a Kuai ball game, where, despite its being a friendly game, she turns an opponent's slight lameness against her and overly crushes her, comparing the game to an act of war. She later admits to jealousy of Ty Lee's ability to attract potential sweethearts. 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. 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 his daughter (or Zuko) when it suited his purpose. 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 by making them fear her - a paranoia that ultimately drives her insane following the betrayal of her closest friends. Above all, she is obsessed with pleasing her father, as pleasing him is the only way to gain his approval, which she craves. azula is seen as a villian through the series.

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 to the main characters in the show.

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.

The second most noticeable feature of Princess Azula's bending is that she creates blue flames, setting her apart from the Avatar, Zuko, Iroh, and Fire Lord Ozai. (Whether this is due to some superior ability is never stated but not likely, as Iroh or Fire Lord Ozai would most likely be able to do it if it were.) 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 melee fighter; in the "The Avatar State", she easily blocked or parried all of Zuko's attacks without the use of Firebending, and in "The Eclipse", 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 tactician, 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 change other peoples' minds quite effectively. 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. Azula is willing to put the lives of people at risk for power, and respect.