Azula

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Avatar: The Last Airbender character
Azula
Nationality	Fire Nation
Gender	Female
Hair color	Dark Brown
Eye color	Gold
Age	14 [1]
First appearance	"The Storm" (Flashback) "The Siege of the North"
Voiced by	Grey DeLisle

Princess Azula is a fictional character and major antagonist in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. She is voiced by Grey DeLisle. Her name is the feminine form of the Spanish and Portuguese word "azul", which means blue, the unique color of her fire.

Azula is a gifted Firebender and highly favored crown princess of the Fire Nation. In addition, she is the first female Firebender to appear in the series, and is the Firebender silhouetted in the opening credits of each episode. She is initially bent on retrieving her exiled brother, Prince Zuko, and delivering him to their father, Fire Lord Ozai. During season 2, she was accompanied on her search by her childhood friends, Mai and Ty Lee but were betrayed by them in the third season when they finally tire of living in fear of her wrath.

Contents 1 Creation and conception 1.1 Musical Theme 2 Plot overview 3 Personality 4 Abilities 5 References

[edit] Creation and conception

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (February 2008)

[edit] Musical Theme

Azula's theme is based on the Fire Nation theme that can be heard throughout the entirety of the series. The Fire Nation theme is mostly composed of drums, bass trombones and French horns in very low registers.^[2] Due to the masculine sound of the Fire Nation theme, The Track Team decided to alter it into a more feminine, but powerful, sound for Azula. They combined the gamelan's eerie bell like quality with a choir to highlight her deeply rooted and controlled evil. The theme is also supposed to help portray her as malevolent, not crazy.^[2]

[edit] Plot overview

Azula was born to Prince Ozai and Princess Ursa around two years after her brother, Zuko. As such, she is the descendant of both Fire Lord Sozin (from Ozai) and Avatar Roku (from Princess Ursa).^[3] She is named for her grandfather, Ozai's father, Fire Lord Azulon. Azula grew up in the riches, splendor, and privileges of being royalty in the Fire Nation. Even when she was only nine years old, Azula expressed her natural talents, along with her tendency for malice and perfectionism. Her sharp wits and the prodigy she displayed towards Firebending gained her much attention and acclaim and made her Ozai's favorite child. Her father began raising her as his true heir early on, taking her into his confidence and grooming her in politics while ignoring Zuko. From the quality of her ship and soldiers, her favored status was readily apparent.

She had no desire to waste time playing around like a regular girl. She was much more interested in power, suggesting 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.^[4] No love developed between her and Zuko throughout the next few years—when he was burned by their father in an Agni Kai, she watched with a savage triumph.^[5]

In the first season, it was revealed that Azula was present for the Agni Kai in which Prince Zuko receives his facial scar from his father.^[5] At the end of the season, after the Siege of the North, Ozai orders Azula to arrest Zuko and Iroh for failure to capture the Avatar and betrayal against the Fire Nation respectively.^[6]

Azula first encountered the Avatar in Omashu during the second season, where she and Aang battle. Soon after, she named the Avatar as a personal target in addition to her brother and enlists the help of her friends Ty Lee and Mai.^[7] Azula continues to pursue the Avatar for the rest of the season, in place of her brother Zuko. While in Ba Sing Se, though, Azula is side tracked by her conquest of the city, which was the capital of the Earth Kingdom. Eventually, she is able to convince her brother to help her secure Ba Sing Se and take down the Avatar. During their showdown in Ba Sing Se, it appears Azula mortally wounds Aang, while he is in the Avatar State. She is then confronted by an angry Katara and the two engaged in battle to the point where Katara actually pushes Azula back but Azula is later saved by her brother. It is assumed that the Avatar State has now become broken, although Azula suspects Aang survived. She eventually blames this on her brother.^[8]

Upon returning home in the third season, it is revealed that Azula has not taken credit for the murder of the Avatar. She gave the credit to Zuko to make him feel better when he faces their father and repay him for his aid in the siege of Ba Sing Se. After Zuko connotes that she's lying, Azula deduces that in case the Avatar was still alive, all of Zuko's glory would turn to shame.^[9] On "The Day of Black Sun", Azula serves as a distraction to keep Aang, Sokka, and Toph from finding Firelord Ozai.^[10] Later, Azula goes to the Boiling Rock with Mai and Ty Lee to tend to her brother who was recently captured, but Zuko, Sokka, Suki, and Hakoda escape thanks to Mai. Azula asks her why she did it, and Mai tells her that she loves Zuko more than she fears her. Azula becomes very angry and attempts to kill Mai, but is stopped by Ty Lee who paralyzes her Chi. Azula then instructs the guards to lock them both away forever and let them rot. Their current fate is unknown.

At the 2008 Comic-Con in New York, a trailer was shown for the upcoming episodes in the series. In the footage, Azula seems to be losing her temper and her self-control. If the clip is watched in slow motion, Azula's Mother, Ursa, can be seen in the mirror. The recent leaks of the upcoming Book 3: Fire, Vol. 4 DVD covers reveal that Ozai appoints Azula as Firelord in his stead. Whether or not she has a change of heart is currently unknown, but it is likely that she will turn on Aang and attempt to kill him. Her temper and her self control drastically changes as the trigger was the betrayal of Mai and Ty Lee. It implicates that her power decreases and her use of power is haphazard - occurs random, out of anger and ferocity. Her lightning ability and skill prominence when manipulating firebending will decrease slowly due to the immense severity of anger and drastic transition of self control - becoming more of the previous Zuko in the earlier episodes of the series.

[edit] Personality

Azula is surprisingly a complex character. On one hand she is a dedicated nationalist. Azula relentlessly drills herself towards perfection and will settle for nothing less.^[11] Even as a child she was seen to react with hostility when outdone.^[4] She is rather vain and believes that power and domination are what makes a person strong.^[12] She is known for being one of the most savage characters in the series. From a very young age, Azula demonstrated sadistic aggression and lack of remorse,^[4] which suggest that Azula could be a psychopath. Her cruelty and seemingly total lack of compassion extends to many within her family.^[4] Her apathy also accounts for her ability to create and direct lightning, as the skill requires peace of mind^[13]. It's this peace of mind that enables her to be such an excellent tactician, regularly displaying a perception and resourcefulness that allows her to take advantage of almost any situation.

Ironically, for all her refinement and self-confidence, Azula does retain some unsureness. As a result of her sequestered life of royalty, Azula has come to develop a considerable amount of social ineptitude, particularly in her uncertainty of how to act around boys. Her over-competitive nature surfaces during a Kuai ball game, where, despite it being a friendly game, she turns an opponent's slight lameness against her and overly crushes their opponent. She later admits her jealousy over how much attention Ty Lee receives from boys. ^[14] Interestingly enough, Azula also has a softer, more sensitive side to her. In one instance, she reveals how it hurt that her mother thought she was a monster despite thinking it herself. In another instance, after making Ty Lee cry at a party, she quickly apologizes to Ty Lee, admitting that she is jealous of the amount of attention Ty Lee gets from boys. Also, as shown in a Season 3 preview, Azula was actually in tears. She is seen throwing a hairbrush into a mirror, which shows her mothers reflection in it. Whether these human traits that she occasionally displays will lead to her having a change in heart towards not only Aang, but her view of world domination remains to be seen.

[edit] Abilities

Azula is proficient in the difficult technique of using lightning, a pure form of Firebending.^[11] The second most noticeable feature of Princess Azula's bending is her ability to create blue flames. Azula has been seen using flames in previously unseen ways, such as jets of flames, whirling disks, and blades of fire.^[7] Azula can fight for long periods of time without tiring and she is also able to generate powerful shields of swirling flames which withstood the full force of four simultaneous elemental attacks.^[15] She is even able to charge up her fire before releasing it, as was seen during one fight with Aang."^[16] She 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.^[12]. Azula 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. She is an extremely skilled liar, as even Toph was not able to detect her lying.;^[10] and an accomplished tactician, as she was able to conquer Ba Sing Se, a city thought to be impregnable.^[12][9]

[edit] References

v • d • e Avatar: The Last Airbender Characters Aang · Katara · Sokka · Toph · Appa · Zuko · Iroh · Azula Universe Water Tribe · Earth Kingdom · Fire Nation · Air Nomads · Spirit World Waterbending · Earthbending · Firebending · Airbending Franchise Trading cards · Avatar: The Last Airbender (video game) · The Burning Earth · Into the Inferno Episodes Season 1 · Season 2 · Season 3