The Rise and Fall of Azula: Why Her Philosophy Failed

I guess one might say that Azula's downfall is essentially the absolute worst case of Former Gifted Kid™ Burnout.

I think it's symbolic that Azula lost to KATARA rather than Zuko. Katara is a mirror to Azula in every way - she's the prodigy princess with an older brother who's of little use to their kingdom, just like Azula, except where Azula leads with fear and loses everything, Katara leads with love and care, persevering when completely out of her element and ultimately regaining most of what was stolen from her. Katara showed that approach to leadership as early as Imprisoned, where she instigated a prison riot. Compare The Desert to The Drill - Mai's comment on the sludge vs Aang's surrender to Katara's empathy. Even in The Runaway, the point when Katara's rule as the de facto parent of the group is rebelled against, still had Toph reconcile with her due to how her love won her over.

Can everybody take the time to appreciate that when katara defeats azula, she uses water from the "secret river that flows right to the fire lords palace" that aang learned about in the fire nation school in the headband episode. I love the continuity in this show.

one of the best written villains of all time in my opinion. while ozai might’ve been portrayed as the big bad of the show, azula easily takes the cake as the best antagonist. from conquering ba sing se, taking down the avatar, finding out about the invasion, even ozai’s final plan to burn down the earth kingdom was azula’s idea. her fall from grace was both satisfying & heartbreaking. satisfying because the villain got taken down, but heartbreaking because at that moment we see that she was simply just a child raised by her father to be nothing but a war machine

Azula is such a great character that people are still arguing whether or not she is innately evil. There's so much nuance that you can make an argument for her environment being the driving factor for her issues. You can almost feel bad for her even though she is completely unhinged. And this is basically a side character, just incredible. Avatar is the greatest 🙌

Never thought about it before, but you're right. Mai and Ty Lee just don't try very hard when Azula isn't around. Tai-Li is terrified of her, but not really interested in the outcome. Mai is just there for the hell of it, but if it's going to be work, she's out.

I reject the notion that Azula rejects personal connection- rather, she fails at it. Azula can handle setbacks and counterplays, she can accept failure when it can be blamed on others and keep plugging away. She can even understand that there are situations she can't barrel at and power through, that sometimes she has to acknowledge the strengths of others and counter them in ways that might seem unpleasant or humbling. What she can't face is the idea that there is something that is just genuinely beyond her ability to control and command, that she has to let go and surrender- truly surrender, not as a gambit or lie- to grow towards. So she rationalizes. It's not that she doesn't want to connect, doesn't want to feel love and feel like there's someone she can trust as an equal, she does. She's a child who's spent her whole life seeking parental approval and only getting it in the most narcissistic, cruel ways. She rationalizes that it's not her failure to connect, but rather their failure to live up to her expectations. She rationalizes that these people just aren't worthy of her, that maybe she is a monster and that's okay, that she doesn't need friends that don't fear her. So she never has to face this challenge again. She gives up. She doesn't surrender, she quits and says she never really wanted the goal in the first place. The grapes are probably sour anyway. And this is the difference between her and Zuko. Azula is driven to achieve perfection, but doesn't know how to keep going when that is taken away from her. Zuko expects nothing and persists anyway.

Another neat detail showing how she was unraveling... After Mei and Tai Lee betrayed her.. She stops bending with fingers and very precision firebending.. Instead she started bending with fists and palms with bigger and wider burst of firebending.. The attention to detail 👌🔥

I want a 26 minute breakdown on the importance of Appa and Momo

"we are not made for ourselves. we are made for one another" is such a beautiful, powerful line.

"My own mother thought I was a monster... She was right but it still hurt" - azula

I don't think Ozai ordered Azula to take his place on the Day of Black Sun. I think it was entirely her idea. At that point, Ozai didn't know the avatar could be alive. He believes Azula told him the truth, that the avatar is dead. Azula lied to her father in an attempt to save face and put a collar on Zuko in one fell swoop. And to protect that lie, she would have offered her plan to replace her father in the bunker. That way if, by chance, the avatar was alive and leading the invasion, Ozai would never know and she could continue to manipulate him as it suits her. Neat, tidy, and efficient. A perfect plan. But she couldn't have predicted Zuko would put himself at risk by telling Ozai the truth. Ozai is just as much a manipulator as Azula and believed her to be a faithfully loyal pawn, a reliable asset. When he found out she had been lying to him she lost all that credibility. In fact, she a threat to him now. Now he knows she serves her own ends and is capable of manipulating him. So he does what any manipulator would, he manipulates her back. He doesn't tell he he knows, instead he keeps her out of the loop and changes important plans without letting her know. He begins keeping her at a distance and Azula can sense that their relationship has changed, but she doesn't know why. When she's left behind, she realizes she lost the most important thing in her world, her good standing with her father. Not only is her world view shattered by Mai and TyLee, but everything she's worked so hard for comes crumbling down. Ozai made her fire lord and in the same action took all her power away.

Azula’s downfall was heartbreaking to see. Not that I wanted her side to win the war but I felt terrible for her in the finale after hating her for the whole rest of the series. I always cry when she is shackeld to the grate after the agni kai with Zuko and shes just crying and screaming. Seeing her sanity shatter broke my heart cause she’s just a 14 year old girl at the end of the day.

She was a reflection of the fire kingdom itself. By that kingdom’s standards she was the perfect warrior, leader, and ruler…and it completed destroyed her. She symbolizes that the fire nation’s principles were always doomed to failure.

the fact that azula was imagining her mother being there proves that despite all her belief in fear she ultimately if only subconsciously knows that love is indeed stronger than fear

By the end of the series Azula had more presence as the main villain than Ozai. Ozai was technically the big bad behind it all, but Azula was far more intimidating and frightening than Her father.

Your analysis of the Dai Li was incredible and cleared up confusion I've had for more than a decade 😳

I've just saw someone arguing that Azula is the symbolisation of East Asians. I have to step in and say that whilst nothing can ever be perfect, it doesn't give us an excuse to not strive to be better, the best of ourselves. Zuko symbolises the flaws of East Asian "honour"(shame) based societies, Azula symbolises the flaws of perfection. Both are interesting constructive takes on East Asian culture. However, just as Zuko could get a better understanding of his flaws and improve, I had hoped that Azula would to, despite whatever Avatar Studios is up to currently.

I can still remember seeing Azula dor the first time. She was a menace and terrifying in a way no other villian was up till that point. She was precise and focused. She wasnt so cloppy as Zhao or Zuko. But her tragedy is that...shes just a kid. For all her grandstanding and all her power...shes just a child. Much like how Aang was far to young to have the world hoisted onto his sholders, Azula was far to young to desire the world.

Also, Zuko and Azula both have character arcs that run opposite to each other. Zuko starts off as the scorned child, the screw up, and the one whose technique is messy and unfocused. Azula is the golden child, the type A who reflects perfection. But as time goes on, the tide shifts. Zuko becomes healthier and gains more of an identity beyond being the prince: he learns that there is more to life than his father’s approval and gains friendship and love as a result. By contrast, Azula becomes more and more dependant on her Father’s words, losing the closest people that she had to friends in the process, and ends the show utterly alone and stuck in her assigned role, even as it grows more meaningless. When Zuko goes on a spiritual journey and must choose which path he goes down, it’s hard not to imagine that Azula went through the same thing, only she made ALL of the wrong choices.