We independently assess all our recommendations. Purchases through our links may earn us a commission.
The iconic American anime series Avatar: The Last Airbender has three main villains: Prince Zuko, Princess Azula, and Fire Lord Ozai. Toward the end of the series, Zuko (under the direction of his wise Uncle Iroh) decides to forsake his family and join Team Avatar to save the world from destruction. While Zuko faces some distrust among the members of Team Avatar at first, he eventually becomes a powerful force for good as a skilled firebender and teacher of the Avatar. With his help, Aang is able to defeat Fire Lord Ozai, take away his ability to firebend, and imprison him for life for the many war crimes he’s committed against the other nations.
So, Fire Lord Ozai spends the rest of his days powerless and imprisoned. As we know from The Legend of Korra (the sequel series to Avatar set one generation in the future), Zuko remains friends with Aang and the rest of the members of Team Avatar for life and has been spending his life traveling the world on his dragon as an ambassador for peace. So, that leaves us with the third main villain from Avatar. What happened to Princess Azula after Avatar: The Last Airbender?
The last we see of Azula in the series is at the end of her mental spiral as she’s wielding her great firebending capabilities wildly and irresponsibly. Katara tricks her into stepping over a grate with water underneath it and is able to freeze her and then use a nearby chain to restrain her. At the end of the scene, Azula is left screaming and writhing, rendered completely powerless. However, after this, she’s never seen in either Avatar: The Last Airbender or The Legend of Korra again. So, what happens to Azula?
Azula Gets Placed in a Mental Facility
Luckily, we get a ton of insight into the life of Azula (and the rest of the cast of ATLA) from The Lost Lore of Avatar Aang, an archive of encyclopedia entries about the original series. In this archive, we learn that Azula is pitied by her brother Zuko after her defeat because of her declining mental state. So, instead of being placed in a prison (as her father was), Azula is sent to a mental health facility on a nearby island to recover. And, while Azula said that attending the mental facility was all-in-all a bad experience, she did manage to befriend some of the patients.
However, Azula comes back on the radar of Team Avatar when Zuko reaches out to her for help in finding their mother, who disappeared six years earlier. Azula agrees to help, and Zuko places her in an adjoining cell to their father, Ozai, hoping that Azula can get some information out of him about their mother Ursa’s whereabouts.
But, after some arguing, Azula demands that Zuko leave her alone with her father to talk in private. This is the first indication that Azula’s intentions may not be pure. When Zuko returns to bring Azula back to her cell, Azula manages to break free of her straitjacket and fires a lightning bolt at her brother. She then escaped down a secret passageway where she collected a series of letters written by their mother, Ursa, which contained important information about who held the right to the Fire Lord throne. Azula then burns the letters so that she alone knows of the secrets they contain.
Azula Joins the Search for Ursa
Zuko eventually agrees to free Azula and allow her to join the search for their mother if she agrees to tell him what was written in their mother’s letters. Azula then joins up with Team Avatar to search for Ursa, traveling on Appa’s back to the Fire Nation town of Hira’a, the hometown of Ursa.
Along their journey, Azula’s mood is erratic and unpredictable, and it’s clear that she can’t be trusted. As they near the town of Hira’a, Azula jumps off of Appa and attempts to escape. Aang glides down to try to collect her, but she burns his glider, causing them both to tumble to the ground and allowing Azula to escape.
Alone in the forest, Azula starts having hallucinations of her mother. In the visions, Ursa tells Azula that she loves her, but Azula is unable to accept this love and accuses Ursa of being jealous of her. She then declares that her true plan is to kill her mother and steal the throne from Zuko.
At that point, Team Avatar catches up to Azula, and Katara once again encases her in ice. Unfortunately, at that moment, they’re attacked by a group of moth wasps. Azula convinces Zuko to free her so that she can save them, and, true to her word, Azula creates a lightning bolt that leads the moth wasps away.
Related
Why ATLA's Azula Resonates With People While Inspiring Fear
The 9 Most Memorable Villains in the Avatar Franchise
Team Avatar eventually learns that Ursa has assumed a new identity as Noriko, a woman living in a home in Hira’a. At that moment, Azula rushes ahead of Team Avatar, intent on getting to her mother before they can.
Azula Confronts Her Mother
Azula arrives at Noriko’s home before Team Avatar can catch up to her. She demands to know if her mother tried to replace her. However, Noriko doesn’t seem to remember much from her days living under the identity of Ursa.
Infuriated, Azula prepares a ball of fire to kill her mother. But, she ultimately spares her mother and begins to cry when Noriko apologizes for not loving her enough. Azula then demands that Zuko give her the throne, but he refuses, saying that he knows that the throne is his destiny and not hers. Ultimately, Azula escapes through a hole that she burns in the wall and runs off to the Forgetful Valley.
Although Zuko went off to the Forgetful Valley to find his sister and offer her help, he could not find her, leading him to believe that she didn’t want to be found.
Azula Forms a New Plan
Living in the Forgetful Valley, Azula forms a new plan to overthrow her brother Zuko. First, she frees her friends Zirin and Ningka from the mental health facility where she was held. While in disguise, they begin abducting children from the capital but are eventually discovered by Zuko, Aang, Ty Lee, and Suki.
Eventually, Azula is able to lure Zuko into a tomb shaped like a Lion Turtle, which Azula reveals is the tomb of the first Fire Lord’s most trusted advisor. She then attacks Zuko and pins him to the ground, holding a fire dagger over him.
Zuko informs his sister that killing him will also kill her chances of ever becoming the Fire Lord. But Azula reveals that she has already accepted the fact that she’ll never become the Fire Lord. Rather, she reveals that her plan all along was to shape Zuko into a more forceful and ruthless leader.
And, while Zuko and Team Avatar were able to rescue all of the kidnapped children, Azula claims that she was the real winner because she showed how ruthless Zuko could be. The last time we ever see Azula in the world of Avatar, she’s perched on a rooftop with her followers, listening to a speech that Zuko is giving to his subjects.
Zuko tells his subjects that he’s going to try to be a better leader from then on. To this, Azula sneers and sarcastically says, “How touching.” She then puts a mask over her face and disappears into the city, never to be seen again… for now.
