Azula

Azula
File:Azula.jpg
Voiced by	Grey DeLisle
In-universe information
Gender	Female
Position	Fire Nation Princess
Nationality	Fire Nation

Princess Azula is a fictional character voiced by Grey DeLisle on the 2005 animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender.

History

Azula is Prince Zuko's younger sister, first seen in the audience at Zuko's ill-fated Agni Kai. She is named for her grandfather, Ozai's father, Fire Lord Azulon. Azula seems to take great pleasure in the punishment inflicted on her brother Zuko, and may hold designs on his throne. Zuko and Uncle Iroh both express resentment towards her. Zuko dislikes her because she was favored by the Fire Lord Ozai and Iroh dislikes her most likely because she is a spoiled little brat. Being a firebending prodigy, and the favored sibling, everyone adored her, and judging by her ship and soldiers, was given the better treatment. In the final seconds of the season finale, Fire Lord Ozai gave her the task of capturing Zuko and Iroh.

In "The Avatar State," Azula attempts and fails to capture Zuko and Iroh, (now considered traitors to the Fire Nation) luring Zuko with the false promise of being accepted back home with open arms. When Zuko learns of the deception, he attacks her, but is unable to land a single blow. However, her over-inflated ego was certainly damaged when Iroh channeled her lightning attack away from Zuko and into a cliff, and then kicked her off the edge of her ship and into the ocean.

Personality

Azula relentlessly drills herself towards perfection and will settle for nothing less; she enjoys being the best and cannot stand others surpassing her. She enjoys torturing her brother, calling him by a disliked nickname, "Zuzu," and mentioning his inferiority in their father's eyes. She is likewise vindictive and ruthless with others, and does not hesitate to threaten death upon those who would disobey.

She is also rather vain, constantly playing with her hair and examining her cat-like nails. Her lack of remorse and borderline sadistic aggression suggests that Azula is possibly a sociopath; her mother once remarking, "What is wrong with that child?". In "Zuko Alone," upon hearing of her uncle's misfortune on the battlefront, she was convinced her uncle was simply a "loser and quitter," unlike Zuko, who was sympathetic. This also seems likely given her proficiency for lightning-bending because, according to Iroh, the key to it is mastery over your emotions. Sociopaths essentially feel no emotion so this would naturally come easily to Azula.

Her lack of compassion for her family, especially her brother, and the cruelty she shows to her brother, indicate she loves little. She has threatened to kill her subordinates for trying to guide her towards more reasonable courses of action, and attacked and attempted to kill her uncle in order to escape. She also did not seem to care when her mother disappeared or her grandfather died, most likely because these events apparently brought Ozai to the throne---and made it likely she would follow in his footsteps.

Abilities

Azula is revealed to be proficient in the highly difficult technique of creating and controlling lightning (a technique previously only displayed by Iroh in the episode "The Storm").

The most noticeable features of Princess Azula's bending are her ability to bend lightning and her characteristic blue flames, both of which are much more intense than both red and yellow fire; and it is also notable her ability to produce much larger flames than previously displayed by most other firebenders on the show. These abilities when combined with her expert martial arts skills and aggression make her extremely dangerous.

Allies

Presently Princess Azula is travelling with her old friends Ty Lee and Mai in search of Zuko and Iroh, who were now proclaimed to be traitors by her father Fire Lord Ozai, as well as finding the Avatar if convenient. While Ty Lee did not want to join Azula on her mission, Azula's methods of persuasion (by ordering the circus ringmaster to make Ty Lee's performance in "Return to Omashu" increasingly more dangerous) were enough to change her mind. Mai, however, was more than willing to join Azula in her mission, claiming that her lifestyle in Omashu was deathly boring.

Family

Fire Lord Ozai

Explicitly stated by Zuko, Azula is favoured by their father, Fire Lord Ozai; her cruelty and sadistic attitude is only matched by his. As firebending prodigy and the favored sibling, everyone adored her and, judging by her ship and soldiers, she was given the better treatment. In the final seconds of the season one finale, Fire Lord Ozai gave her the task of capturing Zuko and Iroh.

Princess Ursa

Little has been revealed of the relationship between Azula and her mother, Princess Ursa. It is known that she cared deeply for the neglected Zuko, despite her daughter Princess Azula having better Firebending powers. This is a direct contrast to her husband Ozai's feelings towards his children, who has stated that while Azula was "born lucky," Zuko was "lucky to be born." It is also seen that Azula was often scolded by Ursa for the mean and disrespectful remarks she made about her brother, uncle, or grandfather.

In one scene she is shown saying goodbye to Zuko, while some one in the hallway is running about. She is shown tense and in a hurry at this time, suggesting that she may be leaving Zuko for an extended period of time or permanently for some reason. This is later touched upon in "Zuko Alone," when Azula claims Zuko that his Father was going to have to kill him after angering the then Fire Lord Azulon. Zuko tells himself that Azula is just lying, but as his mom gives him her final goodbyes, she states that everything she has done has been to protect him. Despite the fact that Ursa disappears on the same night that Azulon dies, it is unclear what exactly took place or how these two events are related. Ursa's ultimate fate is unknown. It is noted, however, that Azula seems to show no concern or sadness at all over the death of her grandfather or the disapperance of her own mother; like her father Ozai, family seems to pale in comparison to her desire for power.

Prince Zuko

Zuko is Azula's older brother, but there is no love between the two. She takes pleasure in his suffering and may hold designs on his throne. Azula has been known to lie and deceive her brother and use psychological torture against him, even when they were both children. Zuko distinctly loathes his sister, resenting the fact that she is the favoured sibling in their father's eyes and that she is a firebending prodigy. He is determined to defeat her, no matter the cost.

Iroh

Like Zuko, Iroh cares little for Azula. Even as a child, Azula had a considerably low opinion of her uncle; she promptly torched a doll he had sent her from an Earth Kingdom city he had recently conquered and called Iroh a "quitter and loser" for losing heart and failing to capture Ba Sing Se after the death of his son Lu Ten. Unlike Zuko, Iroh is not blinded by emotion and can see through Azula's lies. Despite Iroh's tendencies to avoid unnecessary conflict, he knows that she is sadistic and will go as far as teaching Zuko more difficult bending techniques in order to help him defeat her. Iroh likely surpasses Azula in terms of bending ability and they are the only characters so far who can create lightning; however, Iroh's weakness lies in his carefree nature and has been viciously attacked by Azula successfully as a result.

Relationships

Aang

Aang, as the Avatar, has become Azula's target along with her brother and uncle.

Ty Lee

Ty Lee regards Azula as a friend, but ever since they were both children, she hasn't treated Ty Lee as a friend. Because Azula cannot stand to be "number two", even as a child, she shoved Ty Lee to the ground when she could do acrobatic flips that Azula couldn't. Presently, Azula seems to show just as little mercy to her "friends" as she does to her adversaries.

Mai

Like Ty Lee, she regards Azula as a friend. However, like Ty Lee, Azula treats her with little concern, doing things like as causing her brother Zuko to fall with Mai into the water in order to laugh at them when they were children.

Trivia

• Azula appears to be one of the only female Firebenders on the series.
• Azula is the Firebender silhouetted in the opening credits of the series.
• Azula's name probably comes from the Spanish/Portuguese word for blue, azul, a fitting reference to her use of blue fire in her firebending.