Princess Azula is the secondary antagonist of the Nickelodeon television series Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the comic, The Search, a minor character in The Promise, the main antagonist of the Suki Alone, and Smoke and Shadow arc and the titular protagonist of the comic Azula in the Spirit Temple.
She was the princess of the Fire Nation, the arch-enemy of Katara, and and the younger sister of Zuko. She sets out on killing the Team Avatar and ensure her brother becomes a villain like her and her father. At theEnd of the series she is just as ruthless and crazy like her father is.
She is one of the main antagonists in the follow-up comics.
Personality[]
Azula inherited her father’s cruel and sadistic nature which is best highlighted when she smirks when Ozai burns Zuko and she suggests burning the Earth Kingdom to the ground when Sozin’s concert.
After Mai and Ty Lee betrayed her on the Boiling Rock, Azula’s sanity soon began slipping. During the destruction of the Western Temple, Azula openly mocked Zuko about “being an only child” showing her willingness to kill her own brother. She was haunted by visions of her mother, Ursa claiming to love her and pushed over the edge without her "friends" to support her. In her paranoia, she thought that the rest of her allies were out to get her, such as accusing one of the servant girls of leaving a cherry pit to purposefully kill her. The fact that Mai and Ty Lee betrayed her also led her to accuse Dai Li of trying to kill her and that her former mentors, Li, and Lo, were questioning her judgment. She momentarily forgot that they were not Firebenders and ordered them to fight an Agni Kai with each other.
Due to the dark circles under her eyes, she barely had any sleep, making it clear that her paranoia was worsening. When Zuko and Katara confronted her, Zuko noted that there was something off about her when he looked upon his younger sister. Azula became desperate and overconfident in her abilities, which ultimately led to her demise when Katara utilized a firebending technique with her waterbending. After her subsequent defeat by Zuko and Katara, Azula was finally sent Azula over the edge as she cracked, screaming, and crying uncontrollably having failed to be crowned Fire Lord.
Appearance[]
Azula is a beautiful girl with dark brown/black hair and golden eyes. She looks like both her parents equally. Sharp eyes & hard-angeled eyebrows, widow's peak from Ozai. However, she has a straight nose, pointy chin, narrow face from Ursa
Powers and Abilities[]
Firebending[]
Azula was one of the most skilled Firebenders of her time, recognized as a prodigy by both Ozai and Zuko. According to Zuko, his sister was a firebending child prodigy and adored by others. Her flames were originally orange when she was younger. However, the more powerful Azula became, the appearance of her fire changed. Azula used her flames to make fire constructs of jets whirling disks and blades. When her fire was formed into fireballs, the balls were concussive. She was also able to create swirling flamed shields that withstands the other elemental attacks (including Sokka's boomerang. During her fight with Aang outside of Ba Sing Se, Azula charged her fire before unleashing it on Aang. However she was defeated by Aang, who thwarted her attempts to tear Ba Sing Se's walls down in "The Drill." She also held her ground against Suki and other Kyoshi Warriors despite their experience and training. Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee infiltrated Ba Sing Se posing as the Kyoshi Warriors revealed that Azula had won. Azula later stated that Suki was her favorite prisoner, further revealing that she had won the duel against Suki.
Azula mastered the challenging skill of generating and directing lightning, a sub-skill of firebending, and was the first character in the series to showcase this ability.
Princess Azula generating lightning
As Azula gradually lost her sanity before the arrival of Sozin's Comet, her firebending became unfocused and wild, making her more dangerous. However, it also resulted in her becoming easily exhausted. Due to her state of mind, her attacks on Zuko and Katara were ferocious and destructive. Due to her mental instability, this ultimately resulted in her defeat by Katara's hand. She could also breathe fire as she struggled against her chains.
Also, unlike her brother, Azula could generate and manipulate lightning despite having her own inner turmoil inside her.
Appearances[]
Avatar: The Last Airbender[]
Book One: Water[]
- The Storm (flashback, no lines)
- The Siege of the North, Part 2 (no lines)
Book Two: Earth[]
- The Avatar State
- Return to Omashu
- Zuko Alone (flashback)
- The Chase
- The Drill
- Appa's Lost Days
- The Earth King
- The Guru
- The Crossroads of Destin
Book Three: Fire[]
- The Awakening
- The Headband
- The Beach
- The Avatar and the Fire Lord
- Nightmares and Daydreams
- The Day of Black Sun, Part 2: The Eclipse
- The Boiling Rock, Part 2
- The Southern Raiders
- Sozin's Comet, Part 1: The Phoenix King
- Sozin's Comet, Part 3: Into the Inferno
- Sozin's Comet, Part 4: Avatar Aang
Graphic novels[]
- The Promise Part Three
- The Search trilogy
- Smoke and Shadow trilogy
- Suki, Alone
- Azula in the Spirit Temple
History[]
Early Life[]
Azula was born in 85 AG to Prince Ozai and Princess Ursa. Even as a child, Azula was a firebending protege and favored by Ozai for her talents. They used to be close to Zuko but they eventually grew apart. She started attending the Royal Fire Academy for Girls where she met Mai & Ty Lee. She begun studying their moves that she was insecure of doing and started using her friends to her advantage, even at one point manipulating the girls into stealing desserts that visited Mai's family alongside Ty Lee. When they later went to sleep, Mai experienced nightmares and talked about the Kemurikage in her sleep; Azula overheard this, but merely considered it interesting instead of feeling any empathy. At the same time, Mai and Ty Lee are often guests at the Fire Palace and played with Azula and met her brother Zuko. As Azula grew up she felt that her mother thought she was a monster and favored Zuko over her. As such, Azula begun joining her father Ozai in abusing Zuko.
When Azula was nine, Azula received an Earth Kingdom doll from her uncle Iroh, who was leading an 600 day siege of Ba Sing Se. A few days later the family got weird that Lu Ten perished in battle. While Zuko mourned for, Azula was indifferent towards their cousins death and that Iroh was coming back home after surrendering to forces. Ozai attempted to use this to his advantage by trying to convince Azulon to pass over Iroh as Fire Lord. In retribution Azulon ordered for Ozai to kill Zuko so he could suffer the pain of losing his first born as Iroh did. The young girl overheard the conversation after she and Zuko were told to display firebending in front of Azulon. She went over to her brother's room and sadistically and cheerfully told Zuko that their grandfather ordered their father to kill him. Ursa overheard Zuko and Azula arguing that Ozai was going to kill Zuko. Infuriated, Ursa took her daughter's hand into another room, and learned what her father-in-law ordered her husband to do. Azulon was later poisoned by Ursa after promising to help Ozai become Fire Lord and save Zuko from his father's wrath. The next morning, Azula told Zuko that their grandfather died last night. She stole Zuko's dagger from him but he eventually got it back. Angry Zuko told his little sister she was sick and ran to confront Ozai, demanding to know where Ursa was. Though she had resented that her mother had seemingly favored Zuko, Ursa had also shielded Azula from Ozai's worst manipulation. With her mother gone, Azula thus became obsessed with pleasing her father and always achieving perfection.
Azula later attended an Agni Kai between her father and her brother after the latter spoke out against a general's plan to sacrifice the 41st Division. When Zuko thought he was going to fight the general, he was shocked to find he was going to have to fight Ozai. However, questioning the general's plan disrespected the Fire Lord in Ozai's eyes. As Zuko refused to fight his own father, Azula smiled sadistically as Ozai burned Zuko's face and promptly banished him, declaring that he could return only after having found and captured the Avatar, who had disappeared nearly one hundred years prior. During Zuko's absence, Azula ascended as heir to the Fire Lord, with Lo and Li acting as her firebending teachers.
Okay did not fully confirm her position as crown princess, meaning that Zuko was still a possible contender for the throne. For the next three years, she would continue her relentless training in firebending, strategy, and combat until she refined herself enough to serve her father. Eventually, her firebending advanced to the level where her fire was blue, and she could create lightning, thus increasing her overall bending power and intensity, making her a formidable opponent. However, this period was also marked by Ozai's emotional manipulation of Azula to the extent that, year later, she expressed her wish that her mother would have been there to protect her from Ozai's influence.
Live-action appearances[]
The Last Airbender (2010)[]
When Zuko kidnaps an unconscious Aang, Zuko mentions Azula to an unconscious Aang and laments how she is their father's favorite child growing up.
She appears once at the battle where Zuko refuses to fight and again at the end, she accepts the role as hunter of her older brother and uncle, and destroyer of the Avatar.
Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024)[]
Azul will star in the 2024 live-action remake of the original series. When Zuko and Iroh fail to apprehend the Avatar, she will hunt them down.
Trivia[]
- Azula is the shadowed firebender in the opening sequence of each episode, despite using blue flames.
- Her name may be a reference to the word "azul" meaning blue in languages like Spanish, Filipino, Galician, and Portuguese, due to her firebending having blue flames.
- While the princess is the overall secondary antagonist of the series, Azula served as the main antagonist of the Book 2: Earth arc of Avatar: The Last Airbender. This seems to be a reversal in the comics where Azula featured as the primary antagonist of the comics such as the Smoke and Shadow and the secondary antagonist of The Search.
Gallery[]
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Gen I: Aang (The Last Airbender - Netflix) • Appa (Netflix) • Katara (The Last Airbender - Netflix) • Momo (Netflix) • Sokka (The Last Airbender - Netflix) • Zuko (The Last Airbender - Netflix) • Suki (Netflix) • Toph Beifong Avatars Order of the White Lotus Air Nomads Fire Nation Water Tribe Spirits Other | ||
- ↑ Avatar Extras for "The Crossroads of Destiny" on Nicktoons Network refers to Azula as "Earth Queen Azula", meaning that she reigned in the nation as ruler beginning from Long Feng's second incarceration and likely until she left Ba Sing Se. However, Azula was never officially crowned, and thus she can only be considered as a usurper.