How A Villain May Fall
/Villains usually get the short end of the stick. Sometimes you laugh at them; other times, you feel sorry for them. Case in point, I think Azula from Avatar: the Last Airbender makes others feel a bit of both.
(Spoilers warning)
We first hear Azula mentioned through Zuko in Book One referring to her as his sister. He says his father stated that she was born lucky and that he was lucky to be born. Ouch. We know about what led to his burn scar and banishment, but being forsaken in favor of your YOUNGER sibling who seems to be better than you in every way. Zuko can’t seem to catch a break.
When we finally see Azula in person, she is tasked to be the one to bring down the Avatar by Fire Lord Ozai. We get a feeling she’ll be a formidable foe in the future. And we’re right.
During Book Two, she manages to topple the Earth Kingdom by conquering Ba Sing Se, with the help of the Dai Li and Azula’s ‘friends.’ And manipulate Zuko into coming back to his home nation, betraying Iroh in the process and killing Aang (he survives) while in his Avatar state. No joke. All while managing to be manipulative, level-headed and calm.
Azula on the Earth Kingdom throne
Image provided by fanpop.com
However, we surprisingly see some depth to Azula in the third and final book. Where it becomes clear that she can’t function in a normal-setting with other people her age (this is shown in the episode: The Beach), and even though she is Ozai’s favorite child, she believes her mother, Ursa thinks of her as a monster, even stating that she’s right, but it still hurts her feelings. But it isn’t until the Boiling Rock episode that we see precisely when Azula begins her descent, in which she confronts Mai over her helping Zuko. Mai roasts Azula, saying she doesn’t know people as well as she thinks and that she loves him more than she fears Azula, setting over the edge replying that Mai should’ve feared her more.
It appears there’s going to be a fight, but Ty Lee stops the emerging fight by Chi Blocking Azula. They try to escape, but guards catch them. When one of them asks what they should do with Mai and Ty Lee, Azula answers in a way we’ve never heard before, ordering that they put them somewhere where she’ll never see their face again and to let them rot. When the time comes for the Fire Nation to launch their forces to attack the Earth Kingdom and the Earth benders with Sozin’s Comet. Azula hopes that she and Ozai would attack and conquer together, but becomes genuinely shocked when he tells her to stay in the Fire Nation kingdom.
She protests stating that it was her idea to burn down the whole Earth Kingdom, but Ozai tells her to shut up quite harshly to his supposed ‘favorite’ child. He then gives her the position of Fire Lord, ruler of the Fire Nation, an empty title since he gives himself the position of The Phoenix King, supreme ruler of the world. Think about it, you do all the groundwork for your father, for whom you work so hard to honor, and all you get is a now worthless role. How sad is that?
The sting of Mai and Ty Lee’s betrayal and Ozai excluding her has changed her and not for the better by the series finale. Such as when she banishes her servants, the Dai Li agents and the imperial fire benders for even the most minor of indiscretions like banishing a servant for ‘leaving’ a pit in her cherry before demanding her feet be thoroughly scrubbed. Okay, her strive for perfection hasn’t changed, but it shows how much she’s slipping, especially in one scene where Azula is trying to style her hair herself but messes it up badly. So in a fit of rage, she cuts her hair and we get this exchange of dialogue with a surprise visitor;
This shows Azula's inner turmoil, her battle with herself. Ursa isn't there, so all of this is Azula telling HERSELF that she used fear to control her friends, she’s telling HERSELF that her mother truly did love her. But her negative qualities overpowered whatever good qualities she might’ve had.
Before Azula gets crowned Fire Lord, Zuko interrupts and declares that he’ll become Fire Lord. In response, she challenges him to an Agni Kai and he accepts, much to Katara’s shock. But he replies that he notices something off about his sister like she’s slipping. The thing is, he’s not wrong. Before the Agni Kai starts, she says “I’m sorry it has to end this way, brother.” with a creepy grin. Zuko replies, “No, you’re not.”
As the Agni Kai proceeds, we see that both have changed in character by fighting. Zuko manages to stay in one spot while blocking Azula’s attacks using styles from other benders, and Azula is constantly moving erratically like he used to. When Zuko mocks her about not using her lightning and being afraid he’ll redirect it, she loses it, but Zuko manages to keep his cool and Azula sees that, she plays dirty and directs her lightning… at Katara. Zuko gets in the way, saving Katara but becomes unable to continue. Katara takes over for him, though she finds herself powerless against the now completely insane Azula. That is until she sees a sewage system with a pile of chains and hatches a plan. When Azula finds her, she doesn’t hesitate to attack headfirst without noticing the sewer and Katara uses this to her advantage by freezing herself and Azula solid. Katara swims within the ice and chains Azula down, unfreezing them and tightening the chains before healing Zuko. At this point, Azula has a total meltdown, breathing heavily, screeching and squirming like a wild animal and breathing blue fire out of her mouth, before breaking down into sobs still chained down.
Remember when Zuko mentioned what Ozai told him about Azula being born lucky and him being lucky to be born? In reality, it was quite the opposite. Zuko went through many struggles but was successful in the end. He gained friends, became the Fire Lord, helped end a destructive conflict and reunite the nations. Meanwhile, Azula had everything, then lost everything and ended up insane. She lost her friends, her family and lost herself. The only luck she truly had was being born. And that sometimes is all too true for many villains.
Jhadiva Elliott
Hi, my name is Jhadiva. I’m a college student studying Professional Writing and the technical editor of this group.
My hobbies are writing, watching movies and karate. My favorite genres to write about and watch are horror, action, thriller, mystery and fantasy. I enjoy being creative and I find the flawed characters of stories to be the most interesting.
