Azula
| Azula | |
|---|---|
| Voiced by | Grey DeLisle |
| In-universe information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Position | Princess of the Fire Nation, Firebending Master |
| Nationality | Fire Nation File:Firebend.jpg |
Princess Azula is a fictional character voiced by Grey DeLisle on the 2005 animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender.
History
Azula is 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 almost certainly holds designs on his throne. Zuko and Iroh both express a deep dislike of Azula. While in Zuko's case it stems from a childhood spent enduring Azula's physical and psychological torments, Iroh reacts purely to her amoral ways and her eagerness in carrying out her father's world war.
Azula grew up in the riches, splendor, and privileges of being royalty in the Fire Nation. Her sharp wits and the fact that she is a Firebending prodigy gained her great attention and acclaim, and quickly made her Ozai's favorite child. Her father began raising her as his true heir early, taking her into his confidence and grooming her in politics while mostly ignoring Zuko. From the quality of her ship and soldiers, her favored status is readily apparent. In the final seconds of the first 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, she failed to finish her brother off, as Iroh redirected her lethal lightning attack away from Zuko and into a cliff, and then kicked her off the edge of her ship and into the ocean.
Later she appears in "Return to Omashu" to recruit her childhood friends, Ty Lee and Mai, to help her with her task of capturing her brother and her uncle. Ty Lee, who was "persuaded" by Azula, decides to join her and the two travel to Omashu (which Azula later names The City of New Ozai), where they meet up with their friend, Mai. Unlike Ty Lee, Mai easily agreed to join the Princess in her quest. It is during this episode that Azula first encounters the Avatar Aang and is where she soon seeks him as another target.
In "The Chase," Princess Azula and her two friends relentlessly pursue the Avatar group, using a Fire Nation machine and lizard mounts to pursue them night and day. After wearing down the foursome, the Avatar gang decide to split up as Aang tries to lead Azula and her friends away from Sokka and Katara's trail. Azula notices the deception, however, and send Ty Lee and Mai to follow Sokka and Katara while she continues chasing the Avatar. Azula spots the Avatar in an abandoned town and there she gets ready to fight him as well as her brother Zuko, who had tracked them and had his own plans for capturing Aang. Azula fights the two boys, and despite the fact that both mostly concentrate on attacking her she dominates the fight, landing a knockout blow on Zuko and later trapping Aang beneath some fallen rubble. Victory is denied to her, however, when Katara, Sokka, and Toph, show up to rescue Aang, while Iroh arrives to help Zuko. Cornered, she claims to be willing to give in, saying that "a princess surrenders with honor," but to everyone's surprise and dismay, Azula takes advantage of Iroh momentarily being distracted and seriously wounds him with a surge of blue fire, then escapes as the four benders attack with their respective elements.
Azula isn't seen again until "The Drill" where she, with her allies Mai and Ty Lee, are overseeing War Minister Qing's efforts to use a giant drill to break through the walls of Ba Sing Se. When the engineers report an accident involving a frozen engineer and stolen schematics to the drill, the three girls investigate. Upon finding Aang, Katara, and Sokka attempting to break the engine's braces, Azula forces Aang and his gang to quickly flee. Azula follows Aang to the top of the drill, where she begins a brutal match. Azula once again proves how dangerous a firebender she really is, holding her own against the Avatar who, by this time, is trained proficiently in three different elements. When the water and earth waste Katara and Toph have been forcing to stay in the drill cause an explosion, mud reigns free onto the battlefield, interrupting a second round between Azula and Aang, and sending Azula flying off the edge of the drill. She digs her fingernails into the drill's edge, and steadily climbs back up. She then attempts to stop Aang from destroying the drill, but Aang manages to dodge her fire blast, and uses a powerful impact on an earthen wedge to destroy the drill and knock Azula away.
Azula then appears in "Appa's Lost Days". This part takes places chronologically before the events in The Drill, and in it she, Mai, and Ty Lee have been tracking Appa's trail while he is seperated from Aang. She arrives in a forest and encounters the Kyoshi warriors and Appa, but no Avatar, as Aang and Appa had been parted previously in the episode "The Library". Nonetheless, after a brief trade of snide remarks with the Kyoshi warriors, Azula and her friends initiate a fight. The Kyoshi warriors are soon overmatched, surprised by the three enemies' deadly fighting skills. Suki forces to Appa to flee and continue trying to find Aang before turning for a showdown with Azula, however as the episode was being shown from Appa's point of view it is uncertain how the battle ended.
It is clear that Azula and her team has defeated Suki and the Kyoshi warriors, as it revealed that she and her allies have successfully infiltrated Ba Sing Se under the disguise of Kyoshi warriors themselves in at the end of The Earth King.
Personality
Azula relentlessly drills herself towards perfection and will settle for nothing less from herself or those that serve her. She exhibits a need to be the best among her peers; even as a child she was seen to react violently when another child would outdo her. She was likely spoiled by her father as a young child. She is rather vain and believes that power and domination are what makes a person strong. She has very few redeeming qualities, if any.
Her sadistic aggression and lack of remorse suggest that Azula could be a sociopath — her own mother, Princess Ursa even remarked, "What is wrong with that child?" In "Zuko Alone," her first reaction to hearing of her uncle Iroh's son Lu Ten dying in battle is to wonder whether this now makes her father the heir to the throne. In a similarly cold-blooded comment, when hearing that Iroh is ending his two siege of Ba Sing Se due to grief over his son's death, she dismisses him as a "loser and quitter,". This cruelty seeming total lack of compassion extends to all of her family, with the exclusion of her father. She grins maliciously when Zuko is burned and scarred by their father. She also did not seem to care when her mother disappeared or when her grandfather died, instead only appreciating her father's dishonorable gall in stealing Iroh's birthright to the throne.
Most of all, she enjoys torturing Zuko, calling him "Zuzu," a nickname he detests and frequently tells her not to use. She derives pleasure from reminding him of his inferiority in their father's eyes, and causing him great embarrassment in front of both friends and family. She is likewise vindictive and ruthless with others, and does not hesitate to threaten those who would disobey or fail to fulfill her wishes.
Azula's mastery of the Firebending art has not helped curb her attitude. Her characteristic blue flames symbolize the power she possesses and constantly seeks to increase. Her apathy also accounts for her ability to create and direct lightning, the "cold-blooded fire;" according to Iroh, the skill requires complete control of all emotion, which would not prove difficult for Azula with her one-track mentality.
Abilities
Azula is revealed to be proficient in the highly difficult technique of creating and guiding lightning (a technique previously only displayed by Iroh in the episode "The Storm," though that was lightning he himself had not created).
The most noticeable features of Princess Azula's bending are her ability to create lightning and her characteristic blue flames, both of which are much more intense than the red, orange and yellow fire normally used by Firebenders. Also notable is her ability to produce much larger flames than previously displayed by most other firebenders on the show. She is even able to charge up her fire before releasing it, as was seen during her fight with Aang in the Episode, "The Drill." These abilities when combined with her expert martial arts skills and aggression make her extremely dangerous and deadly.
Allies
As of the season two episode "Return to Omashu," 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. They also seek to find and capture the Avatar, although only as a secondary goal. 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 (now New Ozai) was deathly boring and needed a change.
Family
Fire Lord Ozai
Explicitly stated by Zuko, Azula is favored by their father, Fire Lord Ozai; Azula's cruelty and sadism is only matched by her father's. 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 unkind 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 disappearance of her own mother; like her father Ozai, family seems to be pale in comparison to her desire for power.
Zuko
Zuko, a.k.a. Zuzu (the nickname in which Azula had called him in "The Avatar State" and also in "The Chase"), 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 hates his sister, resenting the fact that she is the favored sibling in their father's eyes and that she is a Firebending prodigy.
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 is the only other character who has been shown with the ability to create lightning, and has demonstrated the technique of redirecting lightning, of which Azula has no knowledge.
Relationships
Aang
Aang, as the Avatar, has become Azula's target along with her brother and uncle. In their first encounters, she nearly defeats him, normally forcing him to flee. However, he proves that, with newly learned bending skills, he can stand against her. In "The Drill" Aang defeats her in battle with a little help from Momo, though the victory was hard fought.
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. Azula also bullied an unwilling Ty Lee into joining her search for the Avatar and her brother and uncle while she was doing a performance (forcing the ringmaster to set fire to the net underneath her and releasing the most dangerous animals) until she finally gave in. As with her family, Azula seems to show just as little mercy and compassion to her "friends" as she does to her enemies.
Mai
Like Ty Lee, she regards Azula as a friend. However, Azula treats her with as little concern as she treats Ty Lee with, doing things like causing her brother Zuko to fall with Mai into the water in order to laugh at them when they were children. What is interesting to note, however, is that Mai does not necessarily fear Azula, as shown in the episode "The Drill", where Mai refused an order from Azula to chase Sokka and Katara in the drill's waste system.
Trivia
- Azula is the first female Firebender to appear in the series.
- Azula is the Firebender silhouetted in the opening credits of the series.
- Azula's name might come from the Spanish/Portuguese word for blue, azul, a fitting reference to her use of blue fire and lightning in her Firebending, and "-a", usually used to denote the female gender. Another proposed theory is that the name is an alteration of the Hindi word asura, meaning "demon."
| The Last Airbender (The Legend of Aang) |
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| The Legend of Korra |
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| Chronicles of the Avatar | |||||||||||||||
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