Azula
| Azula | |
|---|---|
| Voiced by | Grey DeLisle |
| In-universe information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Position | Princess of the Fire Nation |
| 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 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 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, nearly everyone adored her, and judging by her ship and soldiers, was given the better treatment. 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, her 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.
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 follow the Avatar group in a Fire Nation machine. After wearing down the foursome, the Avatar gang decide to split up as Aang tries to lead Azula and her friends astray from Sokka and Katara's trail, but it does not work for Azula decides to follow the Avatar while Mai and Ty Lee follow the other two (Toph had separated herself from the group long before the deadly threesome made an appearance). Azula spots the Avatar in an abandoned town and there she gets ready to fight him as well as her brother Zuko, who quickly was able to drop in on the battle as he aimed to capture the Avatar also. Azula fights the two boys and later on Katara with her blue fire and lightning bending, but in the end she is cornered. She claims to be willing to give in, saying that "a princess surrenders with honor," but to everyone's surprise and dismay, Azula quickly attacks Iroh with a surge of blue fire, and is able to escape as the four benders attack with their respective elements. In "Zuko Alone" it is implied that she could have assassinated Fire Lord Azulon, as she appears holding the dagger Iroh had given him and announces that Fire Lord Azulon is dead, but it's not certain that it was due to her.
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, constantly playing with her hair and examining her cat-like nails, and believes that power and domination are what makes a person strong. She has very few redeeming qualities.
Her lack of remorse and borderline sadistic aggression suggests that Azula could be a sociopath — her own mother, Princess Ursa even remarked, "What is wrong with that child?" In "Zuko Alone," upon hearing of her uncle Iroh's misfortune on the battlefront, she was convinced her uncle was simply a "loser and quitter," unlike her brother Zuko, who was sympathetic to his plight. This cruelty extends into her overall lack of compassion and love for her family, excluding her father, the Fire Lord Ozai, who also exhibits this trait yet favors his prodigious daughter. This mental dissociation prevents even those closest to her from holding any sway over her actions, and family thus holds little meaning to her; she once mercilessly attacked her uncle so that she could escape danger and save herself. She also did not seem to care when her mother disappeared or when her grandfather died, instead only appreciating her father's dishonorous 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. 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 near-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 controlling lightning (a technique previously only displayed by Iroh in the episode "The Storm"). Azula cannot channel lightning, unlike Iroh.
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 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. These abilities when combined with her expert martial arts skills and aggression make her extremely dangerous.
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 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 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 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.
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 without help, 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 as 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."
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 probably comes from the Spanish/Portuguese word for blue, azul, a fitting reference to her use of blue fire and lighting in her Firebending. "La" is the feminine form of "the", possibly a reference to her being female. 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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