| Azula (Princess Azula) | |
|---|---|
| Avatar: The Last Airbender character | |
| First appearance | "The Storm" (Cameo) "The Siege of the North" |
| Voiced by | Grey DeLisle |
| Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Nationality | Fire Nation |
| Bending Element | Fire, Lightning (generation) |
| Hair color | Black |
| Eye color | Amber |
| Position | Antagonist in second and third season |
Azula (Princess Azula) is a fictional character and a chief antagonist from Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The character, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is voiced by veteran voice actress Grey DeLisle.
In the show, Azula is a Firebending prodigy and highly favored princess of the Fire Nation, a race of people with the ability to create and manipulate fire.[1] She is initially depicted as bent on retrieving her exiled brother, Prince Zuko, and delivering him to their father, Fire Lord Ozai, while accompanied by her childhood friends, Mai and Ty Lee. Eventually her focus becomes more directed toward capturing the Avatar and aiding in the war to help secure her nation's victory.
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Azula first appears in a flashback during Zuko's fateful Agni Kai in which Zuko was scarred and exiled by his father. She smiles at seeing her older brother burned by her father, while Iroh looks away.[2] Azula makes a second brief appearance at the end of the first season, when Ozai tasks her with hunting the Avatar, and repatriating Zuko and Iroh.[3]
Although Azula's age is never stated in the series itself, the Avatar website gives her age at the time of her first non-flashback appearance as fourteen. She is the great-granddaughter of both Fire Lord Sozin through Ozai, and Avatar Roku through Ursa.[4]
In another flashback, it is revealed that she is named after her grandfather, Ozai's father Azulon, who was a firebending prodigy like her.[5] Even when she was a child, Azula demonstrated her natural talents early in life, along with her tendency for malice and perfectionism. Her sharp wit and the skill she displayed towards Firebending gained her much attention and acclaim. Her father showed her obvious favoritism, often at Zuko's expense.
Azula is depicted as interested in power from a very young age. Young Azula suggests 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 after the death of his son and only child, Lu Ten.[5]
After Iroh's betrayal at the north pole, Ozai tasks Azula with capturing Zuko and Iroh (considering Zuko a failure for his inability to capture the Avatar). She tries to bait them with an offer of honorable repatriation, but a slip of the tongue from a soldier tips off Zuko and Iroh, and they escape. Azula eventually encounters the Avatar in Omashu, wherein she and Aang battle. Soon after, she names the Avatar as a personal target in addition to her brother and enlists the help of her friends Ty Lee and Mai.[6] Azula continues to pursue the Avatar, Zuko, and Iroh for the rest of the season. After initially failing to gain entry to Ba Sing Se, Azula comes in contact with the Kyoshi Warriors; after a battle she defeats and imprisons them. Disguising themselves as Kyoshi Warriors, Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai enter Ba Sing Se and plot a coup with the treacherous Long Feng and his Dai Li enforcers. Azula convinces the Dai Li to turn on Long Feng and then has them tear down the outer wall, securing a bloodless conquest for the Fire Nation. Azula captures Zuko in Ba Sing Se and convinces him to join her and defeat the Avatar in order for Zuko to get his birthright back. During their showdown in the catacombs, Azula appears to have killed Aang while he is in the Avatar State with a lighting bolt. Just in case Aang survived, Azula lets Zuko take credit for the kill, knowing that Zuko would suffer disgrace should Aang still be alive.[7]
During "The Day of Black Sun," Azula and her Dai Li agents stall Aang, Sokka, and Toph from finding Fire Lord Ozai.[8] In the same episode, Zuko has a change of heart and decides to side with Aang. Later, Azula accompanies Mai and Ty Lee to Boiling Rock, a Fire Nation prison, where Zuko has been captured, but Zuko, Sokka, Suki, and Hakoda escape. During the escape, Mai attacks the guards allowing them to escape. When Azula demands an explanation, Mai states that she loves Zuko more than she fears Azula. Azula's calm breaks, and in a fury she attempts to attack Mai, but is stopped by Ty Lee. After having both Mai and Ty Lee locked away, Azula leads a platoon to the Western Air Temple. There she duels with Zuko until they are both thrown from the airship. She survives by propelling herself to safety.
In the finale, Ozai, after declaring himself the Phoenix King, dubs Azula as the new Fire Lord, but says that she must remain in the Fire Nation to lead the people while he is gone. Soon after receiving her new responsibilities, Azula's sanity begins to deteriorate into paranoia and she banishes nearly all of her servants, including her mentors Li and Lo and the Dai Li. There is almost nobody present to witness her coronation. Before she is crowned, Zuko and Katara interrupt the ceremony and Azula challenges Zuko to an Agni Kai. Zuko and Azula prove to be evenly matched, until Azula tries to attack Katara. Zuko shields Katara with his own body. Katara manages to defeat and shackle Azula, who is last seen shrieking and crying.
Azula is a dedicated perfectionist, relentlessly drilling herself towards perfection and will settle for nothing less.[9] Even as a child she was seen to react with hostility when outdone. In a flashback, a young Azula is shown pushing Ty Lee over after she beats her at cartwheeling.[5] She is rather vain and believes that power and domination are what makes a person strong.[10] From a young age, Azula demonstrated sadistic aggression and lack of remorse.[5]
Although she is shown as a good strategist and capable of predicting what her enemies will do, she is awkward in casual social situations. In particular, she does not know how to act around boys her age, whom she tends to intimidate. Her over-competitive nature surfaces when she gloats manically after winning a "friendly" Kuai ball game. She later admits to jealousy of Ty Lee's ability to attract potential sweethearts. It has been shown that she does still retain some form of empathy, displayed in "The Beach", when after making Ty Lee cry, immediately apologizes. From a young age, she believed her mother favored Zuko and thought Azula monstrous; despite saying that her mother was right she states that it still hurt that her mother believed this about her. Azula, as stated in "The Beach" considers herself to be the "most beautiful person ever."
Azula is a very difficult person to defeat in single combat. Her excellent fire-bending abilities, hand-to-hand combat skills, intelligence, and agility has made her a formidable opponent.
Azula is proficient in the firebending technique of producing lightning, a pure form of firebending. The only other known firebenders who are capable of producing lightning are Iroh and Ozai. Iroh, Aang, and Zuko have been shown to redirect lightning using Iroh's technique, though Aang and Zuko themselves have never been seen creating lightning.[9]
One unique feature of Azula's firebending is that she creates blue flames, setting her apart from all other firebenders. Azula can also use her firebending in previously unseen ways, such as jets of flames and whirling disks. Notably, Azula often firebends using only two fingers, rather than a closed fist or open hand.[6] Azula can fight for long periods of time without tiring. She is also able to generate powerful shields of swirling flames, which she once used to withstand the simultaneous combined attacks of Aang, Zuko, Katara, and Toph.[11] She is even able to charge up her fire before releasing it, as was seen during one fight with Aang.[12]
Azula 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.[10] She is also a skilled unarmed fighter; in "The Avatar State", she bested Zuko without firebending, and in "The Day of Black Sun", avoided the combined forces of Aang, Toph, and Sokka for several minutes without her bending to aid her. In "Appa's Lost Days", when Suki made a stab attack at Azula with her sword, Azula jumped horizontally and knocked Suki's sword out of her hand and onto a tree.[8]
She also has the ability to lie without altering her heart rate and breathing patterns, making it near impossible to detect if she's lying, as demonstrated in the Episode "The Day of Black Sun", when she says, "I am a 400 foot-tall purple platypus-bear with pink horns and silver wings." She is also an accomplished strategist, as she was able to conquer Ba Sing Se, a city thought to be impenetrable, while usurping the Earth King and hierarchy of the Earth Kingdom capital all in one swift move.[10][13]
Azula is an expert in persuasion. She is capable of using psychological warfare, intimidation, and mistruths to con other people into obeying her.
In The Ember Island Players actress Azula was played by Tara Strong.
She appears as an antagonist in the video games Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Burning Earth and Avatar: The Last Airbender - Into the Inferno, again voiced by Grey DeLisle.
Azula briefly appears in the live action feature film The Last Airbender before the end credits, (like her first appearance in the series) played by Summer Bishil. She also appears in a flashback where Zuko gets his scar.
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