My Azula Character Analysis

This continues my discussion on Azula from part 1.

Azula’s character exists within an important context.

Because despite all her evil, the show still has empathy for Azula. Her character exists within a very important context: what we know about Zuko and Ozai and the Fire Nation in general. Her brother, Zuko, was burned and banished by their father, who is the tyrant of the Fire Nation, an authoritarian regime that is bent on conquering the world, and not only that, is a terrible father and family man.

Zuko earned this cruel treatment because he was considered too soft and weak, and his father used it as an excuse to punish him and send him away. And guess who else was brought up in this household that left Zuko so scarred, tortured, and abused? A household where the kids are groomed for war and taught compassion is bad, where court intrigue happens, and the mother was banished while the children were still young?

That’s right…his little sister.

So already, in the back of our heads, we know Azula could in no way be left unscathed by this terrible situation. She is favored by Ozai, but he is a cold, heartless man who doesn’t have any real love to give. It is evident even in the flashbacks that Azula had very little love in her life. Her mother only ever scolds her, and Iroh doesn’t seem to know her.

Iroh gives Zuko a meaningful gift tailored straight to him.

But gives Azula a generic girl’s gift.

Her mother definitely cared for Azula, but since there was little positive energy there, Azula rejected any kind of correction, especially since Ozai encouraged her worst qualities. He gave her praise, and since kids tend to respond best to positive reinforcement, she took after him, and ganged up with him on everyone he didn’t like, including Iroh and to a certain extent, Zuko. She harbors jealousy towards Zuko because he gets more attention from their mother, and so she is cruel to him. Even in the flashbacks, when Azula is a little girl, she is already acting in a bratty and manipulative way.

Seriously, this girl needed to experience the belt more often.

Zuko and Azula as foil characters

Zuko and Azula both have the same internal motivation and the same fear: they must please their father and avoid acting in any way that could be construed as weak, or otherwise they will be punished. They must demand respect and put the mission over the lives of any one man. Azula is essentially Zuko as we meet him in season one, except she has power.

While Zuko is struggling to get his father's approval, she already has it, and must struggle to maintain it. She has all the traits her father likes and she capitalizes on them to stay in his good graces. Her father favors her because she is an extremely gifted fire bender, and she is shown to practice and take her skills very seriously. She has a harder and more ruthless edge in contrast to Zuko’s more sensitive nature, which is again encouraged by Ozai.

In terms of personality, Azula is calculated and composed, quite the contrast to Zuko’s hotheaded impatience and impulsiveness. She is able to command authority over others quite easily, whereas Zuko doesn’t have that intimidation factor. She’s also more outgoing and sharper and more intelligent.

Sorry, Zuko. Your sister really is a lot better than you in some ways…but not in everything. I get why the dad likes her better. Not saying I approve, just saying I get it…

Azula is also far more private and guarded with her emotions and vulnerabilities, whereas Zuko is willing to open up. It’s only a couple times in the beach episode that it comes to light that Azula has insecurities, but she is quick to brush them aside, because she refuses to appear weak. She does not allow herself to come across as anything less than perfect, as is evident how presentable she always appears and her polished demeanor.

Overall, her personality is more easily molded into what Ozai values, and the fact that he was the only one to give her any kind of positive attention growing up makes her susceptible to his influence. She feels that he is the only one she can get love from, and for the most part, she doesn’t even realize it’s not real love he’s giving her, rather, cold, conditional approval. Her worst fear is being treated like Zuko, the problem child. She saw his terrible treatment and avoids being anything like him at all costs.

They have the same interior need and are both on the same journey: they need to realize that they have been misguided by their father and the fire nation, that these ideals which they hold are wrong, and love and teamwork are the better ways to earn respect.

However, while Zuko has a positive change arc, and we see him grow and deconstruct the false ideas he holds and discover what it is he truly needs…Azula is unable to accept her need. She has a negative change arc that mirrors Zuko’s, and her story drives home just how important it was for Zuko to learn and develop as a character, because if he had failed learn and grow, he would have likely ended up in the place his sister ends up…not a good place.

Zuko, thankfully, had positive influences in his life, most notably his mother and Iroh. Ozai didn’t favor him like he did Azula, which meant that Zuko was far more open to their love, and the fact that he wasn’t favored—a supposed misfortune—ended up saving his moral character.

Azula has a similar journey, where things happen to her that challenge her lie that she must seek dad's approval and rule tyrannically through fear. But unlike Zuko, who turned things around and became better, she doubles down on the lie she believes.

And it destroys her.

Azula steamrolls through season two achieving accomplishments hitherto unheard of for the Fire Nation. She crushes Ba Sing Se, an elusive stronghold the Fire Nation has hammered away at for a hundred years. She brings back Zuko and captures Iroh as originally commanded, and slays the Avatar, even though he gets revived, and is welcomed back as a war hero, reaching the peak of her villainous arc.

However, once at the top, the only way is down. And in the end, all her glorious accomplishments could not save her from a bitter fate. Azula’s fall is harsh and brutal and the ground is unyielding.

Azula gets humanized

In season two, Azula seems fairly one-note on the surface. We don’t see many cracks in the villainous exterior, except for a couple notable ones in the first episode she officially appears in. She gets annoyed at finding a hair out of place while practicing, showing an unhealthy obsession with perfectionism. She’s overly unreasonable to her captain, as well.

Then she’s viciously cruel to Zuko, trying to lure him into a trap by getting his hopes up. She’s straight up detestable for a lot of this season.

But things begin to change in season three. This is when the writers start to humanize her some more. As befitting Azula’s highly guarded disposition, they begin introducing more subtle hints and cracks in her perfect exterior.

In the beach episode it becomes evident that she can’t navigate regular social situations with people her age, and neither can Zuko. Turns out being groomed solely for war and being obsessed with control is not conducive to regular social interactions.

I want to note that there are very deliberate dialogue choices placed throughout the show that point to her downfall and project her insecurities. Her friend Ty Lee gets more male attention than she does, which prompts Azula to say,

"Those boys only like you because you're so easy. You're not a challenge, you're a tease. It's not like they actually care who you are."

This is something Azula is saying about herself. She has never had anyone in her life who cares about her as a person, rather than a war weapon.

Even in the flashback episode, Azula was always jealous of Ty Lee, who is cheerful, kindhearted, and a better acrobat than Azula.

When Ty Lee gets upset, Azula takes back her harsh words and admits to being jealous, which is a shocking moment. Who knew that Azula could be self-aware? And then Ty Lee gives her advice on how to flirt. And Azula, despite thinking it's stupid advice (and I fully agree with her for once, although to Ty Lee's credit it seems to work), follows it.

Around the camp fire, when Mai mentions her family and how she had to be quiet and behave, Azula is the one to comment on this.

"So you had a controlling mother who had certain expectations. If you tried to speak up you were shut down. That's why you're so afraid to express yourself."

Apparently Azula relates to Mai's situation and understands why she is the way she is. Azula isn't the most expressive person either, and sees something of a kindred spirit in Mai. Azula isn't someone allowed to express weakness or who she really is, being brought up by someone as strict and brutal as Ozai. And she was constantly shut down by her mother in the flashbacks, as well.

She then reveals that she resents the way her mother treated her as a child, and is jealous that Zuko got more attention from their mother, but she says she doesn't care. We know she does, though. She states her mother thought she was a monster, and what's more, she's not pleased about it. This hurt her, and while she is aware that she's a terrible person, and says her mother was right, it shows some part of her doesn't want to be the way she is.

These along with a few other brief moments give a core of humanity to Azula. She wants her parents' love in a real way, but she doesn't get it from her father and she never felt like she got it from her mother. In fact, she fears her father and what will happen if she lets him down, which leads to her perfectionism and her lying to him about who killed the avatar, to keep herself covered in case he survived.

She and her brother generally regard each other with disdain and animosity, but there is a brief moment where they connect and reminisce about the summers they spent at the beach house. She admits to him that the beach house is depressing, acknowledging their troubled upbringing. Not to mention there’s a couple times when she seems to show some familial warmth towards him.

 The relationship between her and Zuko is interesting. They are rival siblings who have been pitted against each other, and have serious quarrels, but they still seem like…siblings. Some kind of familial bond exists between them, however damaged it may be, and Azula has genuine respect for Zuko’s position as the Fire Nation prince. When they are together in the Fire Nation, they generally get along fine.

All these little moments make her character a bit enigmatic. She’s been a terrible person thus far, and seems like someone who has a bastion of emotional strength, so it comes across as a little odd, since we’re not used to seeing these moments from her.

It piques the audience’s curiosity about her. She may be cold, threatening, and a supremely competent enemy to our heroes in situations when she’s acting as the princess of the Fire Nation, but she's something of a sarcastic and insecure girl in regular circumstances, all the while maintaining her manipulation and cruelty.

It comes to light that there is something very brittle about the hard-core exterior she projects, a fragility beneath the soldier and warrior, and a sadness and confusion she carries within herself. Azula is not actually strong, in the sense that she is able to handle true adversity.

The writers add this depth to Azula’s character in an extremely organic way. It happens so smoothly you almost don’t even realize it’s happening. It’s just a line here, or a gesture there, if you blink you could miss it. Unlike Zuko, who is open and bombastic about his feelings and has a grand sweeping arc throughout the show, Azula is more private, more guarded about her feelings, and her development is more understated. But it’s there. The writers showed us that she’s just as human as Zuko and Iroh and all the other main characters in the show.

Forshadowing for her downfall

And before we move on to the next section, here's some more examples of dialogue and bits of action foreshadowing her eventual decline.

• "It means uncle's a quitter and a loser. A real general would stay and burn Ba Sing Se to the ground, not lose the battle and come home crying."

Sounds similar to what will happen to future you.

• "It’s shame when you can’t trust those closest to you."

…gets betrayed by Mai and Ty Lee, her two closest friends.

• Tells her brother to "Stop acting like a paranoid child"

…starts acting paranoid in the finale.

• "I’m a people person."

…finds out not so.

Her hair gets cut by Katara's water…she cuts it in the finale.

One hair out of place…all her hair is out of place in the finale.

Chases Team Avatar until they are tired…she is tired at the end.

"I don’t have sob stories like all of you"…ma'am that's because yours is coming soon.

Calls brother pathetic - projection much?

The way this all comes together at the end makes for a satisfying conclusion to Azula arc, and it also feel like revenge.

The turning point

Up until close to the end of the show, Azula is never shown to crumble, break, or get overly fazed or frustrated, even when things go wrong. She’s always on top of every situation, pivoting when things don’t work, and basking in victory when they finally do. She seems unstoppable, unflappable. She accomplishes every goal she sets out to achieve. Consequences evade her. It’s maddening. How will she get defeated, when she has won over and over again and never once felt karma?

Well, introduce this girl.

With one fell swoop, Mai single-handedly dismantles Azula’s psyche and sends her into a spiral.

We need to discuss Azula’s friends for a moment, because they are pivotal in her downfall. First of all, it’s interesting that she even has friends.

The scene where Azula first meets Ty Lee flabbergasted me, I won’t lie. There’s a few twists in this series, but this one was the biggest for me…girl how do you have friends when you’re so evil? Especially someone as sweet and good-natured as Ty Lee? My brain couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing.

Most villains have lackeys and minions, but not friends. Yes, these are rocky friendships, and Azula is poor at navigating relationships, but they are legitimately her childhood besties. There may be serious issues within these friendships, but they are more than just employees or slaves. The fact that they seem to have some level of care and respect for each other, however twisted it might be on Azula’s side, suggests early on that there’s a very human side to her.

Ty Lee, the circus girl, is a gentle soul and easily intimidated by Azula’s strong personality. But Mai, despite being blasé, is made of far sterner stuff. She may be affable enough, but she’s not a pushover.

Tensions between them begin to arise when Mai gets annoyed that Azula is stepping between her and Zuko.

When Zuko leaves to join Team Avatar and is trying to escape from the prison, this escalates into Mai’s outright defiance when she chooses her relationship with Zuko, her love interest, over her relationship with Azula.

In Azula’s younger years she had watched her mother choose Zuko over her. She was misreading the situation, obviously, because their mother gave Zuko more attention because he needed it. Ursa never meant to neglect her daughter, and Azula was never attentive or obedient to her anyway. But in her mind, she was neglected, and is hurt by it. Because of her upbringing, she doesn’t know how to navigate relationships through love, and does so through fear instead, because she doesn’t think people will stay with her otherwise.

Now her friend has decided to defy her in favor of Zuko, and Mai’s declaration hits her where it hurts the most, not only reopening that past wound, but challenging her perfectionism and competence. Azula has always prided herself on being able to read and manipulate people, but Mai implies that’s not the case.

For the first time in the show she loses her cool, and it’s also the first time she experiences a solid defeat, and not just a setback. She has made a miscalculation and a mistake, and it has cost her the mission’s objective.

Azula, unfortunately, resorts to a very Azula thing and takes up a fighting stance, with no regard for the fact that this was her friend.

After all, goals over relationships always.

That’s when sweet little Ty Lee, who’s been terrified of Azula and a pushover this entire time, steps in and decides that enough is enough, and takes Azula down with pressure point strikes to the elbow and kidney.

It’s a great moment because we’ve been waiting so long for Azula to finally get taken down a notch, and see her friends sever this toxic tie.

And this isn’t like a villain being betrayed by a couple lackeys they never cared about. No, these were her friends. This is intensely personal. Yes, she imprisons them, but she is very upset over losing them, and the next time we see her she is acting in an uncharacteristically reckless manner. She’s no longer her usual cold and calculated self. She is more emotionally charged and on edge from this point forward.

While Zuko is becoming more centered and controlled, Azula is becoming more unbalanced and out-of-control. She depended on her friends to keep her centered and back her up, and their betrayal has shaken her badly, leading her to question her entire philosophy of controlling people through fear.

But more blows are still to come.

Azula spirals into madness.

Then her worst fear comes true when her father casts her off like the pawn she always was for him, treating her like the brother she deems worthless.

While we aren’t rooting for these two, Azula’s feelings of shock and betrayal are very tangible. She has done so much for her father, including capturing Iroh, conquering Ba Sing Se, and taking on the dangerous mission of distracting enemies during the invasion on the day of the black sun, when she couldn’t bend. Not to mention she is coming right off the betrayal of her two friends, and she is looking for his support. Azula protests, and Ozai scolds her, which makes her shut down fearfully. Her father appeases her by declaring her the new Fire Lord, which she accepts cheerfully, but he is manipulating her.

Azula is not someone equipped to be able to rule a nation, because the only way she knows how to control people is through fear, and she cannot inspire any kind of loyalty on her own.

Her lack of interpersonal skills prove to her detriment when the time comes to rule through her own power rather than the power she had wielded from being the Fire Lord’s daughter. Her philosophy of ruling through fear has been challenged and left her tormented and wrestling interiorly. If fear doesn’t work, anyone could betray her, so she becomes paranoid and banishes all her servants, her Dai Li agents, who have been her personal bodyguards, and even her mentors, Lo and Li. After effectively dismantling the Fire Nation government, she is left alone and isolated.

The fatal decision

In storytelling, there a moment that happens before the showdown where the hero is at their lowest point. All seems lost. This is often called the “dark night of the soul.” But during this time, the hero has a revelation. They confront their lie, and overcome it. This is when Simba realizes the truth that Scar killed his father. It’s when the detective in a mystery story realizes the truth of a clue and unravels the mystery. Whatever lie the character has believed throughout the story, they overcome it in this moment, in what is often called the “aha” moment. Then, in the final showdown, they go on to prove in external fashion that they have conquered their internal flaw. 

But Azula is a tragic character. And a tragic character, when confronted with their lie, doubles down on it, and goes into the finale without learning their lesson.

Azula’s life is shambles. She has clung to her lie, and it has brought her to this. Alone, friendless, unhappy, and unfulfilled, even when she has recieved the honor of being Fire Lord. Her brother has left to join the Avatar. Her father has left her behind. Her friends and bodyguards are gone. And there are no servants to scold and boss around, no one to blame for her misery but herself. She is losing control, and she can’t even do her hair right.

Suddenly her delusions are swept aside and she reflects on the truth of her actions and her philosophy of ruling through fear. Azula recognizes that she drove away her friends through her own actions, that she’s hurt people, and that everything that has gone wrong in her life is her own fault. She knows she’s the villain.

And she starts to regret it.

That’s when her mother appears. Azula despondently declares that Ursa thinks she’s a monster. Ursa tells her, gently, that she’s confused, and she has been using fear to control people all her life, like her friends Mai and Ty Lee.

And she’s right, and Azula acknowledges it.

But then she snaps back and tries to justify herself.

Azula, perhaps, comes to realize that her mother always loved her, in a real way, unlike her father, even if it came in the form of correction. But she rejected that love foolishly. She is torn between what she’s been taught about ruling people through fear from her father and her own desire for control, and what her own conscience is telling her, which is represented by her mother. Her mother doesn’t even fear her, rather she loves her. While deep down this is really what Azula wants to hear, she also cannot stand it, since it means that everything she believes in is wrong.

In the scene on the beach, Zuko declares that he is troubled and angry at himself. I don’t think it was a coincidence that the creators put Zuko saying this in the presence of Azula, and her being the one to ask him why. His answer:

"Because I'm confused. Because I don't know the difference between right and wrong anymore."

Azula responds by calling him pathetic. But later on, she, too, is confused, and angry, with nowhere to direct her anger other than herself, and unsure of what she wants or who she is. She just knows, deep down, that she’s done wrong in her life, her life is falling apart, and it is her fault.

Azula’s quest for power and essentially getting all she wants, like Zuko, has left her unhappy and unfulfilled. She could accept that her mother loved her, and that she mistreated her friends and her brother, and that all her life she has made wrong choices. If she did so, she might be able find a way to repair her relationships and pull her life back together. But her pride is too much to surrender, and her resentment against her mother is too strong.

She does not have a person to support her, nor has she gone on a long journey of change and discovery like Zuko has. Azula is not empowered to make a change for the better.

So she lashes out, rejects her mother and doubles down.

 And kneels in front of the shattered mirror, sobbing, all alone.

You can really feel her agony and despair. It's the first time we've actually seen the hardened exterior completely fall away, and seen Azula for who she truly is: A confused teenage girl who wants to be loved and accepted for who she is.

But she chose to reject the idea that she could be loved.

The Final Agni Kai

Later, she is about to be crowned Fire Lord with no audience in sight, since she has banished everyone and her father has left her alone, taking the fleet with him. Zuko and Katara pull up, and Azula realizes she has one last pillar to stand on. Even if she has no one, even if her father left her behind, even if her mother thought she was a monster, she is still more talented than her inferior brother, right? She can still defend the homeland from the traitor and the enemy that accompanies him, and best him, and bring about some old sense of security as the superior sibling. She gets up and challenges him to an Agni Kai.

I have a problem with Zuko here. He has always been spiteful and jealous of Azula, and wanted to best her, and it doesn’t seem like that has changed much. He has come to an understanding of the family dynamic and that their dad is in the wrong. Azula has been trapped under his influence. Why doesn’t it ever occur to him that she in an unfortunate situation?

Aang is facing off against Ozai, whom he has never met, nor interacted with. And yet Aang pleads with him. He tries to find a solution other than fighting. Obviously, this doesn’t work. But Zuko?

He grew up with Azula. Sure, she may be on the wrong side, and she may have treated him callously at times. But they played together as kids. They laughed over funny jokes Iroh made in his letters. They recently played a game of volleyball together. She gave him a chance to return home, refused to rat him out on several occasions, reassured him at times, even sought him out and connected with him once. Zuko recalls a time when their family was happy and untroubled, before their father’s ambition destroyed everything. Deep down, both of them know that their childhood was a mess. In the beach episode, she found him alone at the beach house, and though few words were spoken, they silently acknowledged it together. And she’s his younger sister.

And yet, he doesn’t try to appeal to the humanity within her, or plead with her not to fight, or try to explain why he left and what the true nature of the Fire Nation is, that they are in the wrong and they must end this war. Maybe he knows that there is no appealing to her. Maybe he simply sees her as another Fire Nation enemy to be disposed of. After all, he showed no qualms whatsoever about Aang killing his dad.

On the other hand, I would have despised it if he had done this and gotten a harsh rejection from Azula. So perhaps it is for the best.

He immediately recognizes something is off about her. Which is a nice moment because it shows he knows her, in a way Katara doesn’t. He accepts the challenge, and the showdown is on.

She is incredibly unbalanced and unstable during this fight, in contrast to Zuko and their first fight at the beginning of season two, when she was the centered and balanced one and he was not. Zuko can now match her skills, and he fights with solid stances and calm focus, while Azula is aggressive and unsteady.

She quickly becomes exhausted and out of breath, dismayed that she can’t penetrate his defenses.

I want to make a note of the music during this scene…this is a solemn orchestration that seems to acknowledge the tragedy of Azula’s downfall and the fact that two siblings have been pitted against each other by their warped upbringing. When Azula is exhausted, the supporting strings go silent and the lead cello weakens, leaving just the single base drum…as if the music itself is tired.

She knows she can’t win. She is going to lose against someone whom she considers inferior to herself. But at this point she has chosen her delusions and pride over anything else, and refuses to surrender.

He knocks her down and taunts her, a reversal, again, of their first encounter when she baited him to get him off balance. His exact words:

“No lightning today? What’s the matter? Afraid I’ll redirect it?”

Talk about giving your whole plan away.

This is obviously not a smart move to use against someone in a such a bad mental state, and comes back to bite him.

The once collected, nonchalant princess, who refused an Agni Kai duel previously, takes the bait.

But Zuko should not have forgotten that his sister is a lot more cunning than he is, even when cornered, and he especially should not have forgotten right after he told her exactly what he was going to do. Her old wiliness resurfaces, and she goes for a cheap shot at Katara.

Which forces Zuko to take the shot.

And Zuko is finished.

Part of me doesn’t like how she cinched this situation with a dirty trick. I think it would have been better if she attempted a dirty trick and failed, or had it backfire. Just to drive home the fact that everything she does and stands for is wrong. It would have been poetic to have it lead to her defeat somehow. And it would have twisted the knife that much more.

But that’s not what we got.

The stakes in this scene feel very high: Zuko is seriously hurt, possibly electrocuted, and Azula has come between him and Katara, so she cannot reach him to help. Azula is now wielding lightning and hurling it in Katara’s direction, driving her away from Zuko. The princess must be dealt with first.

So she and Katara face off. And this just goes to show how far gone Azula’s mental faculties are: Azula has enhanced powers and knows she has the upper hand, and it makes her careless. Katara is fleeing and seeking cover behind the pillars, but she keeps her wits about her. She recognizes Azula’s deranged state and prepares to trap her by luring her over a drainage gutter.

And Azula falls for it. The Azula of old, with her astute mind and calculated precision, would have perceived the threat and never walked over that grate. But now she pays no attention, completely locked in on her quarry. Katara lands the finishing blow by capturing her and chaining her down, and then attends to Zuko.

The final pillar of Azula’s psyche crumbles, and she knows at this point that she has well and truly lost, to her inferior brother and his peasant friend no less, and there is no way forward for her, and no stability for her to cling to. Her crown was taken by her brother, she has no allies, she has failed her post, and if her father returns from the war front she will for sure be punished and disowned, and if he doesn’t, she is at the mercy of her enemies. She has no control over the situation anymore, her life and everything she knows is utterly shattered, and her stress becomes overwhelming.

Azula begins to hyperventilate, as if she is having a panic attack. She starts to lash out and flail violently against the chains in extreme rage and pain, screaming and spitting fire, before throwing herself to the ground and breaking into uncontrollable sobs. She stops fire bending, but continues to thrash about and scream and cry like a wounded animal.

And this scene is surprisingly hard to watch. Even Katara, normally so cold to enemies, looks horrified when the shot cuts back to her.

This is a child who was twisted up by her own evilness, encouraged by a terrible parent, and destroyed by the same upbringing and ideology that Zuko had to liberate himself from. She has lost everything, her friends, family, social status, freedom, even her faculties and sanity, and is now writhing on the ground in keen agony.

I’ve never been sure about Zuko’s expression in this scene. His face looks blank, and possibly stern. It softens a tiny bit into what could be understanding…as if he realizes that this could have been his fate if he had not made the decision to right his life. I’m not sure if he feels bad for her or not.

All this time Azula is crying in an incredibly broken, shattered way. She looks utterly defeated and despairing, and she makes no attempt to escape or fight back. She goes back to hyperventilating, still sobbing. The scene cuts.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the very last time Azula is ever shown or mentioned in any of the on-screen ATLA productions (excluding the remakes). (Yes I know there's comics but I'm not counting them right now).

I don’t know what happened afterwards. Zuko might have killed her for all I know. I hope he didn’t, but he was adamant that Aang kill his father, and he views his sister as an enemy to be disposed of just like him. I fear he went into the fight with the intention to kill her, especially since he was goading her into lightning, which is incredibly dangerous. Which is interesting because I don’t think Azula was ever out to kill him…she even mentions having the family physician look after him.

But Zuko…I’m not so sure. He visited their father, and we saw what happened to him. But we never got that with Azula. The point is, they had her captured, and we never saw her escape, and we never saw her again, so they might have given her the thumbs down.

I would have liked for Zuko to go over and try to comfort her somehow. She is his little sister despite everything.

But whatever they did to her, her fate feels feels very deserved, and like justice has been served. But you don’t feel good about it. It sucks to see a life in such ruin, no matter how deserved it is. The music is melancholy and the victors are silent.

Her downfall isn’t triumphant like you’d expect when she was first introduced as the ruthless and cunning villain, rather it’s bitter and haunting, and leaves a sobering underpinning to the show after it’s over.

The enigma of Azula is solved.

The final moments of Azula onscreen casts light over her entire character. Azula may be the villain, but she’s also a victim. She manipulates others because she herself is being manipulated. She has never been treated well by anyone, and so she strives to get approval from her father, who uses her insecurities to control her. She doesn’t think her mother loved her or she can be loved, and so she uses fear to keep people with her. But even that doesn’t work, and they leave her, much like her mother did. No one ever cared about her as a person, only as a weapon or an authority figure.

It’s made clear in a few moments throughout the show that Azula does have a desire for real relationships and connection, as is shown in the beach episode and when her mother appears to her. She is not entirely callous and cold-hearted, and she is actually capable of taking direction and being self-aware. There is something of a normal teenage girl in her, who feels hurt when her friends leave her and by her mother’s treatment of her. But being brought up in a strict regime where she had to meet stringent expectations and cater to her father’s evil ways ultimately left its toll on her.

When the control and perfection she so desperately clung to slips away, the steely façade of confidence and level-headedness breaks.

Azula shows herself to be a psychologically damaged person who carries a tremendous amount of pain within, and she can no longer cope with it. She bears scars just like Zuko, but they are less visible.

While on the surface it indeed seems like Azula is the lucky golden child, whose prowess comes naturally to her, and who has that coveted daddy’s approval, the dramatic irony is she is not the lucky one. She is every bit as psychologically damaged as Zuko, if not more so, because she had no one growing up to show her a better way of doing things, like Zuko did.

Zuko’s banishment removed him from a terrible situation and his hardships allowed him to grow in character and as a person. He had Iroh and his mother, two positive influences. His supposed weaknesses and misfortunes saved his moral character.

Azula had all the wrong things and wrong ideas that Zuko wanted or did have. He was jealous of her, and he sought to have her life…after all, she had their dad’s approval, she was skilled, she was smart, she got the throne and power, and she wasn’t banished or disgraced by the Fire Nation.

But in the end, all these things and the pressure of trying to maintain them broke her, and she lacked or rejected the one thing Zuko had—love from authority figures who truly cared about her. When people began to turn against her, she had no safety net, and nothing to soften her fall.

And this is the inherent tragedy to her story. Azula was just doing what she was brought up to do. She was following orders, and she was fighting against her nation’s enemies in a war. She only ever tried to harm people she saw as enemies and traitors to her nation. She was still sadistic and cruel, but that is how she was encouraged to be growing up. The other choice was to be like her brother, who was punished.

Ozai had twisted her up so much by the time she was introduced that she never really had a chance to avoid such a cruel fate. She was in too deep, doomed from the start by her own talents, and destined to face up to the terrible consequences of her actions and upbringing, and deal with the emotional toll her own twistedness inflicted on her soul.

But the writers don’t try to force us to sympathize with her, nor do they ever excuse her actions based on her own warped upbringing which continues to the present. Azula is never presented as someone without agency or who is actually “good” deep down. There are no delusions about who she is and how twisted she is. But there is remorse for her fate and that she had to turn out like this.

Azula’s fate versus everyone else in the show

One thing that is striking about Azula’s character (especially for a Nickelodeon show) is the way her story ends versus everyone else’s.

Team Avatar, Mai, Ty Lee, and every major character, even many former enemies, get their happy ending. Even Ozai makes an appearance in the aftermath, and a ray of hope is given to him. But there’s not a single mention or show of Azula. The very last we saw of her was in the throes of agony, crying and screaming while chained down to a drainage grate.

This is something I am a bit conflicted on. I would have liked to see a bit of hope extended towards her, and maybe the possibility of healing or restoring her position as the princess of the Fire Nation sometime in the future.

But it’s also a very honest portrayal by the writers: some people are dealt a bad hand and don’t get a happy ending. In Azula’s case, she was too deeply entrenched in the Fire Nation agenda to have a shot at redemption like Zuko did. And at this point, she may be so morally and psychologically damaged she can never return to a normal life.

All because of this man Ozai.

Dude, what have you done to your kids? Seriously?

As sad as it is, it is a tragedy well portrayed.

Another thing I find a bit irritating is that not a single character in the show acknowledges the nuance of Azula’s character. One hand this is understandable, considering she has been their proverbial thorn ever since she was introduced. But Iroh simply dismisses her, and it never comes up that she is being tightly held under Ozai’s influence, and that is a terrible thing for her. When he calls her crazy the first time, it is understandable because they are on the run from her and she has just struck him with fire, so he doesn’t have any indulgent feelings towards her at the moment. But later on, the narrative is still to take her down.

Even Zuko, who used to be very similar to Azula and went through a whole arc of discovering how unfortunate his upbringing was, has not a single word of understanding towards her, and except for a brief instant when she’s falling, is never shown being anything other than spiteful and hostile towards her. You can actually find more examples of her showing care for Zuko than he does for her. When they are together in the Fire Nation, Azula is sometimes sarcastic and condescending towards him, but more in a way that befits her sharp personality rather than in a mean or hurtful way. She rarely mocks or acts spiteful towards him, which is more than can be said of Zuko.

More for the sake of his arc than Azula’s I think it would have been brilliant to have a moment for him to offer her grace, or show some understanding towards her situation. In my opinion, it would have brought his arc full circle, to becoming someone who understands others who are evil and troubled, just like Iroh understood him, and was able to bring him around because of it. Zuko’s arc is praised as being one of the best character arcs in modern television, yet it lacks something fundamental at the end. The writers needed to take his arc one step further to truly cement it into brilliance.

What could this look like? Maybe have a scene after her defeat where he tries to connect with her as a person. She once revealed to him and their friend group that she thinks her mother thought she was a monster. Have Zuko reassure her that she’s not, and that this isn’t her. Have him explain that their dad pitted them against each other, and it doesn’t have to be this way, and she can find love and peace, like he did. Have him put a hand on her shoulder and try to comfort her, if nothing else. Even if it’s rejected, just the fact that he showed care will linger with her, and may break down her barriers in the future.

And then here’s the most important thing…don’t have Azula go the typical cliché villain route of outright rejecting it. Perhaps have her initial reaction be suspicion and rejection, because she’s not ready to trust again yet. Then have her be conflicted about it. Show that she wants that connection, but is still too angry and damaged to accept it. And leave it open-ended. We aren’t sure if Azula will ever come around, but the possibility is there. Azula is far too nuanced of a character to go down the typical path of villains like Shen and Drago, but I also don’t see her being immediately accepting.

If Azula is going to change for the better, she needs to be shown compassion, and treated gently but also in a firm way that doesn’t put up with her nonsense. I think that’s the only way possible for Azula to come around. I also think Zuko, as her older brother, the new Fire Lord, and the one who has a deeper understanding of his family, has a responsibility to help Azula get better.

Conclusion

This is turning into a whole thesis, so let’s wrap it up.

Overall Azula is a superb bit of a character writing, and after Zuko, probably the most compelling character in the series. (In fact, I think she’s a much more interesting character to analyze). She’s fascinatingly complex, even if her story ends on a sour note, and she brings much more dimension to the story and characters by being a foil to Zuko and a reflection of Ozai’s villainy.

She deepens Ozai as a character by providing a different view of him as a father and a leader, and showcasing the damage he has done to his family from a different perspective than Zuko and Iroh. Her inclusion elevates the show by adding texture to the world and characters that wouldn’t exist without her.

The entire story arc of the princess of the Fire Nation drives home just how important it was for Zuko to change and grow as a character, because his fate could have been similar to hers.

One critique I have for the show is that it doesn’t provide much closure for her story. I would have liked to have some kind of closing scene for her that gives us an idea of her future and where she goes from here, sort of like we did for Ozai.

Is she executed? Is she in jail? If so does Zuko visit her, does he try to reach out to her and help her find healing? Does she continue to deconstruct the false ideology she was brought up with and possibly come around and seek restitution? Could she reforge her relationship with Zuko or possibly even Mai and Ty Lee? Could she come to the good side even? Imagine having her intelligence and drive as a force for good…now that would be something.

I’ve heard there are comics that continue her story, but I haven’t liked anything I’ve heard about them, so I won’t be checking them out.

Anyway, for right now, that’s all I have to say about Azula, the tragic Fire Nation princess. Thanks as always for being here.

PS.

Actually, I have one more thing to add. The most villainous thing Azula ever did was ruin Zuko’s name with that horrible, tasteless, nausea-inducing nickname that makes me die inside whenever I hear it. It’s not funny, clever, or cute. Why did you laugh at it Aang? Why??? Ugh it hurts my brain so much and I will never type or utter it…

Anyway, bye.