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This Inconsistently Heinous was Headlined on February 2025. |
“ | Well yes, I guess you're right. I don't have sob stories like all of you. I can sit here and complain on how our mom liked Zuko more than me. But I don't really care. My own mother thought I was a monster. She was right of course, but it still hurt. | „ |
~ Azula talking about how she was viewed by her mother. |
“ | I can see your whole history in your eyes. You were born with nothing, so you've had to struggle, and connive, and claw your way to power. But true power, the divine right to rule, is something you're born with. The fact is, they don't know which one of us is going to be sitting on that throne, and which one is going to be bowing down. But I know, and you know. Well? | „ |
~ Azula betraying Long Feng and conquering Ba Sing Se. |
Princess Azula is the secondary antagonist of Nickelodeon's 2005 animated fantasy series Avatar: The Last Airbender.
She is a minor antagonist in Book One: Water, the main antagonist of Book Two: Earth and the secondary antagonist of Book Three: Fire, before returning as the main antagonist of its midquel/sequel comic series.
She is the highly strategic and ruthlessly obsessed princess of the Fire Nation and daughter of Firelord Ozai, serving as his best general and strategist during the Hundred Year War and mimics his behavior to earn his respect and love. She's the archenemy of Team Avatar, particularity towards her brother Prince Zuko and Katara.
Upon being discarded as a pawn by Ozai and driven to insanity, Azula returns upon allying with Zuko to find their lost mother before becoming the leader of the Kemurikage, opposing against her brother once more.
She was voiced by Grey DeLisle, who also voiced Mandy in The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Asajj Ventress in Star Wars: Clone Wars and Aya in Green Lantern: The Animated Series.
Her Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Her Heinous?[]
In General[]
- While she implies she has standards multiple times, they are all out of pure pragmatism.
Before Avatar: The Last Airbender[]
- Even as a child, she was already cruel and manipulative, desiring power.
- She always bullied and mistreated her own brother Zuko throughout their childhood to the point that Zuko keeps repeating to himself "Azula always lies" whenever Azula cruelly taunts him.
- She set Master Kunyo's pants on fire just because he wanted her to do a firebending technique a certain way, which resulted Ozai in banishing him to the colonies.
- She had a smirk on her face when she heard her father telling Zuko about how she was born lucky while he was lucky to be born.
- She threw large loaves of bread at Turtleducks for her own amusement instead of feeding them like a normal person would.
- She was hopeful that her uncle Iroh would get killed in war so that her father could be Fire Lord.
- She burned the doll that Iroh got for her as a present, showing how ungrateful she was unlike her brother Zuko.
- After Iroh failed his siege at Ba Sing Se due to the death of his son, Azula mocked him by calling him a loser and a quitter, showing no sympathy for his loss over his son who died.
- She made fun of Zuko over the fact that their father was planning to kill him under the order of their grandfather and tauntingly suggested Zuko to find an Earth Kingdom family to adopt him.
- When her mother Ursa asked Azula about what she heard, Azula's feigned concern for Zuko when telling her what Ozai planned to do and then walked away with an evil smirk on her face.
- She taunted Zuko about their mother's banishment.
- She had a sinister smile at her grandfather's funeral, which deeply disturbed Zuko when he saw it, showing how little she cared for her own grandfather.
- She showed sadistic joy while Ozai was burning Zuko's face, leaving a big scar on its left side.
- Like her father and grandfather and unlike her brother, she seems to only keep the propaganda going to ensure the royal family’s power rather sharing their nation’s greatness with the world like her great-grandfather intended.
Book Two: Earth[]
- When the ship’s captain told her the tides wouldn’t allow them to bring in the ship to port before nightfall, Azula threatened to throw him overboard if he disobeyed her.
- She lied to Zuko about his father wanting him back in her attempt to take them back as prisoners. She proceeded to mock him over his failures and how Ozai really wanted to incarcerate him for them as they fought.
- When choosing between being turned over to Azula or getting killed by the Earth King, Zuko and Iroh were quick to choose the latter option, showing how cruel Azula is.
- She forced Ty Lee into joining her team and quitting her job at the circus by interfering with the show, burning the safety net, and releasing all of the animals, endangering her life and making her join out of fear.
- She took over Omashu and captured its leader, King Bumi. Even after Aang agreed to give up Tom-Tom back to Mai as a deal, she convinced Mai to break their deal and not to release King Bumi because she believe it doesn't seem like a "fair trade".
- She tried to capture the Avatar several times, one time keeping the team up all night by tracking them down through Appa’s trail of fur.
- When surrounded by Team Avatar, Iroh and Zuko, she launches a surprise attack on Iroh, seriously injuring her uncle.
- She used a giant drill to destroy the walls of Ba Sing Se in order to conquer it. This also could have led to the deaths of countless people as the drill could have gotten people killed while it drilled through the walls.
- She attacked Kyoshi Warriors and Appa when they are on journey to bring him back to Team Avatar. After Suki convince Appa to run away and find Aang and his friends, Azula and her friends managed to capture the Kyoshi Warriors and steal their outfits to disguise themselves so they could infiltrate Ba Sing Se. She also sent the Kyoshi Warriors to be imprisoned at the Boiling Rock.
- During the Coup of Ba Sing Se, she managed to influence Zuko to act against his better judgment in regard to his lost honor, despite his awareness of Azula's compulsive dishonesty and manipulative nature, and have him turned against Katara, shattering her whole trust on Zuko as result.
- She temporarily killed Aang in the Avatar state, which nearly resulted in the end of the Avatar cycle had Katara not revived him with the spirit water.
- She and Zuko finally captured their uncle Iroh after he risked himself to allowed both Katara to escape with nearly dying Aang. While Zuko showed his remorse for betraying Iroh, she didn't as she assured him that he's the one who betrayed him (which was far from the case).
Book Three: Fire[]
- She lied to Ozai that Zuko had killed the Avatar to ensure that if he somehow did survive, the blame would fall on him instead of her.
- She destroyed a sand castle made by children to scare them for her own amusement.
- She laughs at Ty Lee when Zuko mocks her and calls her a "circus freak."
- She joins Zuko, Mai and Ty Lee in trashing Chan's place just because he didn't want to date her.
- Personally gives Ozai the very idea to burn down the entire Earth kingdom, which is not only an act of genocide, but nigh-omnicide as well since the Earth Kingdom landmass makes up most of the landmass and houses most of the planet that doing so will result in the destruction of most of the planet and life in it. When Ozai incorporates her idea to his evil plan (albeit taking all the credit), Azula attempted to join Ozai as his chief lieutenant, burning down most of the world by his side. It is mostly due to this she passes the very high heinous standards of the franchise as this is only barely behind Unalaq and Vaatu's attempt to ravage the entire planet and plunge it into darkness and suffering as the most destructive plot in the series.
- While fighting Aang, Sokka and Toph, she manipulates Sokka into attacking her by taunting him over Suki's (his love interest) imprisonment in order to make them waste more time dealing with her, ruining the resistance's attempt to end the Hundred Year War as the eclipse ended.
- Additionally, she tried to strike him with a concealed knife when he was blinded with emotional rage, had Toph not thwarted her.
- She attempts to leave Sokka, Zuko, Suki, Hakoda and Chit Sang fall onto the boiling lake to death, but only to be stopped by Mai. She doesn't even cared if the Warden's with them.
- She tried to kill Mai when she betrayed her and told her that she loves Zuko more than she fears her, only for Ty Lee to achieve redemption and sacrifice herself to save Mai's life by blocking Azula's chi and temporarily paralyzing her.
- After Mai and Ty Lee betrayed her, she spitefully ordered for them to get sent to prison so they could rot.
- She attacked Team Avatar and their allies at the Western Air Temple and intended to kill Zuko so she could celebrate to become an only child, which led the Team Avatar and their allies being separated following the temple's destruction.
- She banished all of her servants while she was the Fire Lord out of sheer paranoia.
- When Azula and Zuko face off at an Agni Kai, Azula attempted to blast lightning at Katara, a non-combatant, that lead to Zuko nearly dying defending her.
- She attempted to kill Katara after Zuko was unable to get back up.
Sequel Comics[]
- Upon learning that her mother, Ursa, became Noriko, Azula blasts through her house in an attempt to kill her.
- She orchestrates the kidnapping of multiple children to cause chaos all across the Fire Nation capital to corrupt Zuko into becoming a ruthless tyrant to solve these issues.
- She and the Kemurikage burned a granary in an attempt to destroy the food supply of Zuko's forces.
- She coldly left one of her teammates, Chiyou, behind when she was captured by Ty Lee and other Fire Nation guards, and when she was called out on it by Zirin, another member, she told her crew that they belonged to her and that they should be grateful she freed them from their mental facility. This lead to her teammates leaving her to rescue Chiyou.
- When finding out she was trapped in a temple, Azula threw the spirit of the temple out of the way, even though from her perspective it was just an old woman who was trying to protect her.
- When it seemed she encountered Ty Lee, she tried to kill her for asking if she could read its aura, and hit her when she told Azula that she needed help in getting through her obsessions.
- She rejects the temple spirit's offers to redeem herself, with her saying that it was for the weak. Even when the spirit called her out for refusing the second chances that it gave her and corrupting it through her twisted nature, Azula was unrepentant and boasted about her ambition to become the rightful Fire Lord.
- After escaping the temple and finding her teammates who had rescued Chiyou, she left them while saying that they aren't worth her leadership.
What Makes Her Inconsistent?[]
- The biggest reason why she can't count as Near Pure Evil is that she is far too tragic and sympathetic, as the reason she was as twisted as she is is because she was a product of a very unhealthy environment; Ursa gave more attention and affection to her brother to the extent that she left Azula behind and unintentionally made her believe that her own mother despised her.
- Meanwhile, Ozai was an abusive father who she feared disappointing and failing, so she started mimicking his behavior in order to ensure his love and protect herself, fearing being treated similarly to how he treated Zuko.
- After being put under too much pressure for so long, then being abandoned by her friends and Ozai rewarding her with a position that she felt was essentially useless at that point, getting the only thing she actually wanted for so long shattered her mentally to the point that Zuko and Katara took pity on her and she is sent to an asylum.
- Overall, she is just a girl forced to be a war machine that she could barely function outside war, as seen when she had a genuine interest in Chan and was saddened when her lack of social skills turned him away.
- To make matters worse still, she was conceived from a loveless and utterly twisted union as her grandfather Azulon forced her mother to marry her father in order to sire powerful heirs.
- In Azula in the Spirit Temple, it was revealed that the main reason she resented Ursa was that, from her perspective, she chose Zuko over her then left her with Ozai. She reveals she hates the fact that she was molded into the monster that Ozai made her, showing hidden self-loathing.
- She cares for several people:
- Though she tried to kill her in paranoia, she loves her mother and even sheds tears when the amnesiac Ursa apologizes if she never loved her enough. When talking to an hallucination of her in a spirit temple, she tells her "mother" that she wanted her to have allowed Ozai to kill Zuko and stopped him from turning her into a monster.
- Although was always cruel to him, in some twisted way, she cared for Uncle Iroh as in her dream, he is seen on the beach with rest of her family, enjoying the time.
- She has some twisted care for Zuko, restoring his honor for helping her conquer Ba Sing Se (restoring his birthright as Ozai’s heir), setting him and Mai up, and warning him out of genuine concern of being mistaken for a traitor for speaking with Iroh, who is considered one by the Fire Nation. At Ember Island, she genuinely sympathized with Zuko as he became conflicted over who he is.
- In fact, most of the time she does try killing him is mostly due to her growing insanity, and when managing to regain it in the Smokes and Shadows comic trilogy, she came to accept Zuko's destiny as the Fire Lord and tried molding him into a better Fire Lord (on her twisted point of view) through the chaos she instilled.
- She also has a genuine friendship with Mai and Ty Lee despite some twisted moments with Ty Lee that nearly endangered her life. Her slow sanity slippage started out of being hurt by Mai and Ty Lee turning against her. She even apologizes to Ty Lee for bitterly insulting her at Chan's party. It is implied she chose not to make Mai and Ty Lee's punishment worse than what she demanded for their betrayal, and she was deeply conflicted over hurting them further.
Trivia[]
- For some time, Azula was considered a Near Pure Evil before the issues of her being too sympathetic and failing the heinous standards were brought up that got her cut, which lead her to be considered as a Villainous Benchmark. However, eventually, while it was agreed she is far too sympathetic to count, counterarguments on the genocide against the Earth kingdom being her sole idea and having attempted to personally participate as Ozai's lieutenant when incorporated into Ozai's plan were made against her failing the Heinous Standard and eventually was approved as Inconsistently Heinous.
- As the creators said themselves, Azula was never intended to be PE or NPE, therefore the script of beach episode and last episodes of season 3 were partially written as they are for the wish of the creators to show the audience that Azula can be a good person.
- She is a foil to her brother Zuko, who is Inconsistently Admirable. She shows what Zuko would be if he had everything he thought he wanted and never realized how the Fire Nation's global war had actually damaged the world.
- It's currently unknown whether her live-action counterpart from the Netflix live-action adaptation is considered to be Inconsistently Heinous or not, as that version's harsh upbringing is reflected by her many attempts to please her father who pits her against Zuko for his respect and doesn't smile when her brother gets scarred like in the cartoon and seems comparatively nicer to Mai and Ty Lee, treating them as her confidants.
External Links[]
- Azula on the Villains Wiki
- Azula on the Avatar Wiki
[]
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TV Shows The Legend of Korra Books Fanon See Also |
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