Like many other relatively new fans of “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” I started watching the animated series in the midst of the pandemic. For a children’s show, I was pleasantly surprised at how fleshed out and complex its characters are. One that stands out to many fans is the iconic antagonist Azula.
Azula is first introduced as a lethal firebender who is much more threatening to Aang and his friends than her brother Zuko — both are hunting down Aang, who is the last airbender. She demands fear wherever she goes and wipes out anyone in her way. I started out convinced she was a purely sad*stic person who was born evil.
However, by the third season, we learn that Azula is more human than she seems. In the episode “The Beach,” Azula begins to reveal her insecurities stemming from her mother’s lack of affection. This is where we get the famous line: “My own mother thought I was a monster. She was right of course, but it still hurt.” Her deep-rooted mental issues are fully exposed in the show’s last few episodes. After being betrayed by her only friends, she spirals out of control and is eventually defeated. The last shot we see of Azula is her chained up, screaming and crying.
Her ending is so heartbreaking that it’s hard not to have sympathy and wish better for her. I have often seen comments from viewers expressing their desire for her to have had a chance at redemption, just as Zuko did.
However, Azula’s character is so impactful because she lacks a redemption arc. Her tragedy sticks with you long after you watch the finale and is one of the many things that makes “Avatar: The Last Airbender” so incredible.
It’s important to note how Azula both mirrors and contrasts Zuko. Both have the trauma of growing up in a household in which their father, Ozai, was abusive to them and their mother, Ursa. The siblings were also raised as rivals from the divided support of their parents. Ursa loved and encouraged Zuko’s ability to feel empathy, while disapproving Azula’s more unpleasant tendencies. Ozai praised Azula for her bending talent and permanently disfigured Zuko’s face. Thus, Azula took after her father, learning from his ability to rule by fear. This is a prominent element in her relationships with others and ultimately one of the reasons she ends up alone.
Both siblings strongly desire the approval of their father, which serves as a driving force for their actions. Zuko eventually realizes that their father is abusive. Azula, sadly, remains trapped. She never stops believing that she needs to be the perfect princess of the Fire Nation. Keep in mind that Zuko was also a villain at the beginning of the show — in one episode, he even burns down an entire village. However, with the guidance of his wise uncle Iroh, Zuko strives to become a good person and joins Aang in the fight to defeat his father. In comparison, Azula had no one to play a positive mentor in her life.
In “Sozin's Comet, Part 1,” fearing that her father is about to abandon her, Azula tells him, “You can’t treat me like this! You can’t treat me like Zuko!” This quote reveals how her father used his ruling-by-fear tactics not just on her brother, but on Azula as well. She has seen how her father has physically and mentally hurt Zuko, and is determined to never be treated like that. Azula was just as much a victim of Ozai’s abuse as Zuko.
Even if she was born with some of the cruel aspects of her personality, her upbringing no doubt affected the person she became. When we compare Azula and Zuko, we can understand that their vastly different fates were influenced by factors out of their control: Azula’s fate might have been Zuko’s, and vice versa.
The brilliance of Azula’s final scene comes from its overwhelmingly sad tone, aided by the melancholy soundtrack and voice actor Grey DeLisle’s crying skills. The audience isn’t supposed to be happy that Azula has finally been defeated; instead, we recognize the tragedy of a sister and brother being led to duel each other through no fault of either.
Azula’s storyline is particularly impressive when you remember that it takes place in a show written for children. Too often I see that children’s media shows black-and-white depictions of villains and their morality; when they get bad endings, it’s because they deserve it. However, Azula’s upbringing and eventual mental breakdown subverts our expectations. The way she invokes sympathy in the show’s primarily young audience is extremely important because it shows that people are not simply good or bad. Just as Azula did not reach redemption, many real-life people are unable to rehabilitate themselves and improve who they are. Even if there is no excuse for their actions, we can understand that it might have been difficult for them to go down a different path.
Azula could not be saved because she did not want to be, showing that her self-improvement needed to start with personal efforts she did not take; this includes making amends with those she wronged and changing her behavior. Even so, Azula’s complexity allows us to humanize her.
Ultimately, Azula’s lack of a redemption arc makes her a better character. She demonstrates that not everyone on the “bad side” is purely bad. Some people don’t have the privilege of a loving, wise guardian and instead are groomed to live a life of destruction. Whether Azula’s actions are forgivable is up to debate, but the emotional impact of her tragic downfall is undeniable.
