Player Info:
Name: Erin
Over 18?: sadly
Contact: plurk: goblin, discord: envy#6274
Characters Currently In Game: none

Character Info
Name: Princess Azula of the Fire Nation
Canon: Avatar the Last Airbender
Canon Point: post-Smoke and Shadow
Age: 18

Background: https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Azula

Personality: In the very beginning, we are introduced to Azula as an enemy, and a cruel one at that. One of her first lines was threatening the captain of her ship with death if he didn't do as she had asked. She is an apathetic, manipulative sadist who craves power and perfection. We constantly see her drilling herself to be the best bender she can be, because even though she is one of the best it doesn't matter until she is the best. In fact, her constant drilling and motivation to gain power gave her the ability to calmly control her emotions and give her a peace of mind, enough to be able to manipulate lightning, and she and her father were the only ones shown to possess this ability in the entire series, proving it is a very powerful one. The lightning is called "cold-blooded fire", which fits for Azula, because of her lack of empathy she is able to control her one track mentality.

Her cruelty and apathy are showcased multiple times throughout the series, for example when she found out that Iroh's son died, her first reaction was whether or not it would make her father the heir of the throne. In addition, she despises her Uncle Iroh (probably with help from her father as well) because she believes he is a quitter and a loser, something she doesn't tolerate, when he decides to grieve for his lost son instead of continuing to fight in the war. You see her smiling in the background when both her father and Zuko are being punished and must fight in an Agni Kai, and she does not seem to mind, like Zuko had, when their mother suddenly disappears. Even though Ty Lee and Mai are probably her closest companions, she has no problem manipulating them to do her bidding, much like when Ty Lee didn't want to leave the circus. She used fear to control her and get her to do as she pleased, something she is used to doing. Fear is the driving force in relationships with Azula, she is able to control them completely with it. Even Iroh, a very powerful firebender himself, decided that it would be better for him and Zuko to face certain death in the Earth Kingdom than try to deal with the Fire Nation and be given to Azula.

In war, she is the perfect ally and the worst enemy. She knows how to play the game, not ever backing down despite the odds. She was always able to twist the situation into her favor, showing great resourcefulness and perception far beyond her years. She has excellent self-control of her emotions even in tough situations, and can sputter lies as if they're the truth with no physical reaction to them. Even when her bending is gone, she can give others a run for their money, as shown in Day of the Black Sun. When Sokka was screaming in her face and the Gaang had her cornered, she didn't back down and continued to taunt and tease, getting them all to do exactly as she wished. Without Azula, the capture of Ba Sing Se probably wouldn't have happened, as Azula was able to infiltrate the Earth Kingdom and gain the trust of the King through the use of the Kyoshi Warriors uniforms that Azula, Ty Lee and Mai singlehandedly took down by themselves. I think that if Azula hadn't been around to be a major roadblock in the Gaang's way, that they would have succeeded much sooner in defeating Ozai, yet one girl was enough to pose quite a threat.

Although some may say that this calm, collective and cruel warrior is just housing some hurt little girl deep inside. In the episode "The Beach", you see many sides of Azula that you didn't think existed. The people on the island didn't recognize Azula, something that obviously made her uneasy when only Ty Lee was receiving all the attention. While she intimidated others, she couldn't use fear to control the situation and it made her extremely jealous of Ty Lee's ease with dealing with people, especially boys. In fact, Azula takes interest in one boy and it is shown she simply does not know how to converse with them, even after confiding in Ty Lee that she would like to be more like her. She ends up scaring him off, which of course makes Azula resort to violent tendencies, but this inability to talk to others without being feared is just one weakness Azula has.

It probably all starts in her childhood. While many of the flashback scenes are plagued with Zuko's bias, we do see Azula already sprouting up as the leader of the kiddie posse, taunting and teasing. When Ty Lee was able to do better than she, she pushed her over. She constantly pulled "pranks" on her friends, like putting a flaming apple on Mai's head, and treated Ty Lee, Mai and Zuko like they were much beneath her. She destroys a doll that is given to her by her Uncle, and she watches her father with amusement get punished. Azula also claims to have heard Azulon sentence Zuko to "death" and was the first to taunt him with the news. She even manipulated her own mother to get her to make Zuko play with her and her friends.

While Ozai took an interest in Azula from the very beginning, grooming her to be the perfect heir while ignoring Zuko, their mother did the exact opposite. When Azula mentions that her mother thought of her as a monster in The Beach, she quickly covers it up with humor, but later on in the series we see that her mother not caring for her as much as Zuko was probably what drove her to be a more vicious person. After all, Ozai does not show compassion and affection, simply approval. A nod of the head is the greatest gesture Azula would ever get from the only figure in her life, while Zuko had the affections of Iroh and Ursa. What is a person going to turn into if all they have is a crafty politician to follow, with no softness in them at all? She was jealous of Zuko from the very beginning, even if she would never admit it. It was obvious that Ursa favored Zuko more than she, just as it was obvious Ozai favored Azula more than Zuko. I think that even the fact that Ursa abandoned her children in order to save Zuko was even more harmful to her, as while Zuko had Iroh to rely on as a positive figure, Azula officially only had her father as a mentor.

Ozai plays a big part in Azula's personality. He is number one in her life, and she would do anything he wanted her to as long as it made her look better in his eyes. There was no affection in their relationship, but if Azula excelled in her studies, in her firebending, and in her abilities then Ozai was proud of her. It is no wonder why she tried so hard for perfection, because the more perfect she could be the more her father would approve of her. She is completely devoted to her father, never questioning his actions and always going above and beyond in what he asked. After all, when she was sent to capture Iroh and Zuko and bring them back, she ended up manipulating Zuko to rejoin the Fire Nation, captured Ba Sing Se and convinced the entire world that the Avatar was once again, dead (of course, multiple times we see that Azula knows that Aang is still alive which is why she graciously lets Zuko take the glory for his death.) She even put her life on the line in The Day of the Black Sun, to be in the way of the Gaang and stop them from threatening her father's life. While I'm not taking her after Boiling Rock, the devotion that she had for Ozai was not returned, while he abandoned her in the Fire Nation just as he abandoned Zuko. Yes, she got to be crowned Fire Lord, but it meant nothing if her father could not be by her side, as she had tried to do. She knew Ozai didn't truly love her, she had nobody, and Zuko had it all.

Despite all of the awful things Zuko said about her, Zuko and Azula were actually extremely close. While Azula was extremely jealous of him, and constantly manipulated and tortured her brother, you seem them frolicking together in Zuko's flashback. They were always together as children, and the promise of a life back with Azula and Iroh drove Zuko back to the Fire Nation in season 2. Before she thought Aang was alive and it was just a clever scheme to make sure Zuko got in trouble if it were not the case, Azula wanted Zuko to take the glory of killing the Avatar so he could be in favor with their father again. She didn't want him to go away again, everyone in her life had abandoned her and she didn't want Zuko to leave her alone again, even if he was something she wished she could somewhat be (at least someone who received true love and affection.)

Ty Lee and Mai are another large part of her life, and her relationship with them shows another part of her personality. The need to be in total control. While useful in combat, it is clear that Ty Lee and Mai were not simply chosen just because they would help Azula out in the war. They were truly her friends, or the closest to friends that Azula would ever have. Even if Azula had to manipulate Ty Lee to do what she wanted, Ty Lee and Mai didn't act as frightened of Azula or as worried about their health around Azula as others did (although they did fear Azula) because Azula truly did trust them. After all, the first person Azula turned to for some advice and the first person she has ever admitted any sort of weakness to was Ty Lee. Knowing the type of person Azula is, you would have to be pretty close in her circle for you to be the one she turns to for help. She clearly trusted both girls with her life, for example if either of them failed during her plan to capture Ba Sing Se, her life would have been in serious jeopardy. However, her jealousy of Mai's relationship with Zuko was apparent, especially in their childhood. If she allowed Zuko and Mai to be together, then it would just be like Zuko taking Ursa from her all over again. While she allowed their relationship progress after Zuko came back to her, she always was under the impression that Mai would always choose her over Zuko.

When fear was no longer able to control the people she trusted, that was the last straw for her. If she couldn't control the people she wanted around her, who would be fearful of her at all? This paranoia drove her to the brink, eventually removing all of her servants from her household. She even saw a hallucination of her mother, and her anger toward her mother and her words to the hallucination showed that this wasn't the first time she had had these hallucinations. Without Ty Lee, without Mai, without Zuko, she was stripped from all she had ever known. It was herself and her father now, and he abandoned her in the end as well. She was alone, she was all alone. All she had built up was now gone, and while she had the ability to become one of the most powerful people in the world, the Fire Lord, she couldn't take it. Azula was truly broken. She had been betrayed again by someone choosing Zuko over she, and then her other friend decided it would be better to face death and choose Mai over her as well. The only people Azula ever trusted were now gone.

Nobody cared to show up at her coronation, and then Zuko shows up. We see what happened there, her madness drove her unable to fight Zuko with the calm mind she once had. Then again, she was unable to drive Katara away from him, and while chained up and broken, Zuko was receiving thanks and affection from a friend. In the end, even her father got a prison cell and a visitor. All she got was a home in a mental institution with no one ever to check up on her, she was officially alone. Her only fear.

While Azula appeared to have it all in the beginning, she is fragile. Her mental stability is only one smash away from shattering into tiny pieces. While she is in control, while the people she trusts are still with her, she is alright. Hurt and broken, maybe, but still a functional human being. While Ozai claimed that Azula had been born lucky, it was really her brother that had it all.

Not much has changed post-Smoke and Shadow, but Azula's instability has become more in balance after she and Zuko found Ursa. Although nothing will ever "fix" her relationship with her mother, but it enabled her to follow her own path as she cut herself off from Ozai in hopes of fulfilling a new destiny: making Zuko the best Fire Lord in history.

Powers:
• manipulation of fire: called "firebending" on her own planet, her flames are blue-- speculated to be hotter than the flames of other firebenders
• manipulation of lightning: an advanced technique of firebending, Azula is one of the only firebenders on her world able to perform this.

Inventory: her spooky spirit mask + garb, other than clothes and probably a knife or two I'd say... that's all she got...