Azula

Azula is a fictional character and antagonist of Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. Created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the character is voiced by veteran voice actress Grey DeLisle.

In the show, Azula is a Firebending prodigy and princess of the Fire Nation, a race of people with the ability to create, control and manipulate fire, flame and heat at will. Upon Fire Lord Ozai's orders, she is bent on retrieving her exiled brother Prince Zuko and delivering him to the Fire Nation while accompanied by her childhood friends Mai and Ty Lee while focusing more toward capturing the Avatar and aiding in the war to help secure her nation's victory.

Plot overview
Azula first appears in a flashback, during Zuko's fight with his father using their fire abilities known in the show as Agni Kai in which Zuko was scarred and exiled by his father. Azula makes a second brief appearance at the end of the first season, when Ozai tasks her with repatriating Zuko and Iroh.

Although Azula's age is never stated in the series itself, the Avatar website gives her age as fourteen. She is Fire Lord Sozin's great-granddaughter through Ozai, and of Avatar Roku's through Ursa.

In another memory/flashback, it is revealed that she is named after her paternal grandfather Azulon, Ozai's father. Even as 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, often at Zuko's expense. Even when young, Azula suggests that her father would make a better Fire Lord than the heir apparent, her uncle Iroh, whom she dubbed "a quitter and a loser" for abandoning his siege of the city Ba Sing Se after the death of his son Lu Ten.

After Iroh's brief cooperation with the series' protagonists, Ozai tasks Azula with capturing Zuko and Iroh. Azula eventually encounters the Avatar in Omashu, and in later attempts to capture him enlists her friends Ty Lee and Mai. Azula continues to pursue the Avatar, Zuko, and Iroh for the rest of the season. After initially failing entry to Ba Sing Se, Azula comes in contact with the Kyoshi Warriors, whom she defeats and impersonates. Thus disguised Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai enter Ba Sing Se and plot a coup with the treacherous minister Long Feng, later to betray him and the city to the Fire Nation. Azula captures Zuko in Ba Sing Se and convinces him to join her in order to redeem his birthright. During their showdown, Azula appears to have killed Aang; but in case Aang survived, Azula gives Zuko credit for the kill, knowing that Zuko rather than she would therefore be disgraced by failure.

During the two-part "The Day of Black Sun" episode, Azula and her agents stall Aang, Sokka, and Toph from finding Fire Lord Ozai. Later, Azula accompanies Mai and Ty Lee to Boiling Rock, a Fire Nation prison, where Zuko has been captured; but Zuko, Sokka, Suki, and Sokka's father Hakoda escape. During the escape, Mai betrays Azula, and the latter attempts to attack Mai, but is stopped by Ty Lee. After imprisoning Mai and Ty Lee, Azula leads a platoon to the Western Air Temple, where she contends with Zuko. In the finale, Ozai marks Azula his successor; but soon afterward, Azula gives herself to insane paranoia and banishes nearly all of her servants and advisers. Before she is crowned, Zuko and Katara interrupt the ceremony, whereupon Azula challenges Zuko to single combat in an Agni Kai. However, her attacks, while powerful, are wild and emotional while Zuko's are calm and disciplined, and when his attacks begin to overpower her, Azula viciously attacks Katara, who ultimately takes her captive via Waterbending. Her defeat and capture by Katara, whom she considers beneath her, causes Azula's complete mental and emotional collapse.

Personality
Azula is a dedicated perfectionist, even as a child; and from a young age, Azula demonstrated sadistic aggression and lack of remorse.

Although a good strategist and capable of predicting her enemies, she is awkward in social situations, and later admits to jealousy of Ty Lee's ability to attract potential sweethearts during "The Beach" episode. She ends up seducing Chan with Ty Lee's advice to act dumb; however, she scares him away when she shows her real personality by firebending blue flames while telling him "Together, we will dominate the earth."

From childhood she believed her mother favored Zuko and thought Azula monstrous, which she admitted to be true but it still hurt. After she was betrayed by Mai and Ty Lee, her mental state gradually collapsed. After her defeat, it is revealed in the graphic novel, The Search, that she was admitted into a mental institution in the Fire Nation due to her insanity, paranoia, and deranged mental state.

Although Azula acts cold-hearted towards her uncle and her brother, she appears to show some care and affection towards her friends, for example, looking out for her brother throughout the beginning of season three, although she can also be quite domineering and manipulative, shown when she threatened Ty Lee into leaving her circus.

Abilities
Azula is a very difficult person to defeat in single combat. Her excellent fire-bending abilities, hand-to-hand combat skills, intelligence, and agility make her a formidable opponent. She is proficient in producing lightning. Iroh, Aang, and Zuko have also been shown to redirect lightning using Iroh's technique, though Aang and Zuko have never been seen creating lightning.

Azula is unique in that she creates blue flames. Azula can also use her firebending in previously unseen ways, such as jets of flames and whirling disks. She often firebends using only two fingers, rather than a closed fist or open hand common to other firebenders. 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, Katara, Sokka, Zuko, and Toph. She is even able to charge up her fire before releasing it, as was seen during one fight with Aang.

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. 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 fan, Azula jumped horizontally and knocked Suki's sword out of her hand and onto a tree.

She also has the ability to lie without altering her heart rate and breathing patterns, indicating her psychopathic tendencies, and making it nearly impossible to detect if she's lying, as demonstrated in the Episode "The Day of Black Sun". 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.

Azula is an expert in persuasion. She is capable of using psychological warfare, intimidation, and mistruths to con other people into obeying her.

Video games
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.

Film
Azula appears in the live action feature film The Last Airbender in a flashback where Zuko gets his scar and before the end credits roll, she is played by Summer Bishil.