Ursa

"fire"

- Zuko, please, my love, listen to me. Everything I've done, I've done to protect you. Remember this, Zuko. No matter how things may seem to change, never forget who you are.

Ursa was the wife of Ozai and later Ikem, mother of Zuko, Azula and Kiyi, daughter of Jinzuk and Rina, and granddaughter of Avatar Roku and Ta Min. She was a kind, caring, and loving mother to her two children, though Azula believed she favored Zuko over her.

She grew up in the Fire Nation village of Hira'a until she, as a descendant of Roku, was forced by Fire Lord Azulon to marry Ozai in order to fulfill a prophecy that would bring great power to Azulon's lineage. When she learned years later that the Fire Lord had ordered her husband to murder Zuko and that he was going to go through with it, she ensured her son's life was spared, but was subsequently banished from the Fire Nation for treason.

Leaving her loved ones


Ursa was born to Jinzuk and Rina in the small Fire Nation town of Hira'a. From an early age, she was close friends with a boy named Ikem. Though she would tease him when they were younger, they became a happy couple as they grew up.

Ursa auditioned for the role of Dragon Empress in the local production of Love Amongst the Dragons. She went to tell Ikem that she had received the role and found him rehearsing his lines on an empty stage during the day. Upon Ikem's request, they rehearsed a scene of the play in which they would have to kiss on stage, but Ursa expressed her dissatisfaction with "masked kissing", as the props stood in the way. Once she had taken off her mask, Ikem startled her with an unnerving stare; Ursa questioned him about it and he promptly proposed. Ursa, after some slight confusion, happily accepted, and they sealed their engagement with a passionate kiss.

Later at night, she gleefully made her way home to tell her mother of Ikem's proposal, but she found her mother crying over Avatar Roku's headpiece. When she inquired as to what was going on and where her father was, her mother told her that he was in the greenhouse with a visitor. However, before Ursa left the room, her mother emphasized that she loved her no matter what happened.



Upon entering the greenhouse, Ursa discovered that the guests about whom her mother had been talking were Fire Lord Azulon and his son, Prince Ozai. The Fire Lord complimented her beauty before mentioning a prophecy made by the Fire Sages that ensured a powerful lineage of rulers to come forth from a marital union between a descendant of Avatar Roku and his own bloodline. Ozai subsequently proposed to Ursa, and she, without a choice in the matter, agreed. As Ursa was leaving town with her betrothed, Ikem blocked the carriage's path. She pleaded to Ozai that he order his soldiers to stop, calling the prince "[her] love". He complied, and she stepped out from the carriage and told Ikem to go home. Despite his begging, Ursa told him that her decision could not be undone, as Ozai's proposal had brought honor to her family. She made clear to Ikem that marrying Ozai was what she truly wanted and, with tears in her eyes, told him once more to go home, knowing that it was the only way to ensure his safety. She subsequently left a devastated Ikem by the side of the road.

Life as Fire Princess


During his wedding celebration, Ozai informed Ursa that she should tell her parents that they had always been good to her, revealing that she could no longer have ties with her former life after the event. Thus, she was forced to bid her parents farewell, and started her new life as a Princess of the Fire Nation.

Following her marriage, Ursa gave birth to Prince Zuko, and two years later, to Princess Azula. On a family trip to Ember Island, Zuko nearly drowned in his attempt to assist a turtle crab. After Ozai rescued him, Ursa comforted Zuko by holding him while he recovered from his experience.

However, even after the birth of her two children, she was unwilling to forget the loved ones she had left behind and wrote to them frequently. She employed a palace servant, Elua, to send secret letters to her loved ones in Hira'a, causing Ursa to view her as part of her family, and was eternally grateful for Elua's services. However, unbeknownst to Ursa, none of her letters made it to their destination as Elua had betrayed her trust and filed the notes away on the orders of Prince Ozai. One of the letters was a message of regret and love that read, "My dearest Ikem, it's taken me a long time to admit it, but you were right. I belong with you, and nothing is worth this pain. My one consolation is our son Zuko. When I look into his eyes, it's as if I'm looking into yours. My thoughts are with you always. Love, Ursa."



Ursa was unaware of the fact that Ozai had intercepted and read her letters, and carried on life without knowing that anything was wrong. Months later, however, Ozai confronted her with his knowledge, stating that her actions were treasonous to the crown of the Fire Nation. Ursa dismissed his claims, though burst out into tears when Ozai revealed that he had taken measures to kill Ikem.

Later one night, Ursa found her children squabbling over something. Curious, she pulled Azula aside to get the full story and found out that Ozai asked Fire Lord Azulon to pass Iroh's birthright of the throne to him now that Lu Ten had died in the Siege of Ba Sing Se. As punishment for his insolence, Ozai was tasked by an infuriated Azulon to feel the pain of losing a firstborn by killing his own. Shocked by this information, Ursa sent Azula off to bed and went to find her husband. After Ozai declared that he had every intention of going through with his orders, Ursa made a deal with him: the throne for Zuko's life. Ozai accepted her offer on the added condition that she was to leave the palace after having concocted the untraceable color- and odorless poison, as he feared that she would otherwise slip it to him as well. Ursa tried to negotiate that she would leave with her children, but was forced to leave on her own lest they would all be hunted down and killed by Ozai.



Ursa crafted the poison and handed it to Ozai before making her way to the rooms of her children to say her goodbyes. She kissed a sleeping Azula on the cheek, before moving on to Zuko and waking the young prince. She reminded him of her true, strong motherly love and told him to always remember who he was, no matter how things seemed to change. She subsequently pulled the hood of her cape over her head, and walked away into the shadows. She left the palace on a boat, heading back toward Hira'a.

After the banishment
Arriving in Hira'a in the middle of the night, Ursa went to her parents' old house to visit them. However, a little girl opened the door instead and informed her, unaware of who she was, that Jinzuk and Rina had both passed away years prior. Saddened and with nowhere to go, Ursa retreated to the theater stage in the middle of the town and cried to herself in silence. Noren came up to her, believing that she was looking for a part in the next play, but after realizing how sad the former Fire Nation princess was, he invited her to breakfast, something Ursa gladly accepted.

Personality
One of Ursa's defining features was her strong motherly love and protectiveness of her only son, Zuko, and her life was dedicated to safeguarding him from any harm.

Her relationship with her only daughter, Azula, however, was strained by the fact that the young princess was emotionally abusive toward everyone else in the family, especially her older brother, Zuko. She was forced to discipline Azula on a regular basis, but it was apparent to her that her daughter's cruelty was beyond a normal level. Azula believed that Ursa thought of her as a monster, which scarred the princess for the rest of her life and may have influenced some of her later behavior.

Because of their different personalities, Ozai and Ursa slowly grew apart. Their different personalities shaped the lives of their children, each of them favored by a different parent.

Despite much of the strife and sadness in her life, Ursa showed that so long as someone she loved was free and happy, she was content to suffer through her trials.

Abilities


Ursa was taught a great deal about many medicinal herbs and poisons from her mother, a master herbalist. After she accepted Ozai's marriage proposal, she was not known to practice the skill, and it remained unknown to the prince until Zuko's life became endangered, and she offered her skill to Ozai. She used her knowledge of herbs and medicine to create a powerful colorless and odorless poison that was completely untraceable.

Trivia

 * She appeared in one of Zuko's nightmares, desperately calling out to her son for help.
 * While imprisoned together in the Crystal Catacombs of Old Ba Sing Se, Zuko disclosed information about his own mother to Katara, which briefly won him her trust.
 * It was also revealed that Azula harbored some resentment toward her mother for favoring Zuko. This resentment eventually aided in her mental collapse, as she could not reconcile her belief that Ursa hated her with the subconscious knowledge that her mother did love her.
 * Avatar Roku was Ursa's grandfather, making two of Zuko and Azula's great-grandfathers Fire Lord Sozin and Avatar Roku. Similarly, Ta Min, her grandmother, looked similar in appearance to her. Her relation to Avatar Roku also means that she and Aang were related spiritually.
 * Ursa never appeared in the present timeline of the television series. Her story was told in flashbacks.
 * During the 2008 San Diego Comic-con, it was announced that a reunion between Ursa and Zuko had been arranged, made into a storyboard by director Joaquim Dos Santos, but then dropped just before the finale was finished, as requested by show co-creator Michael Dante DiMartino for reasons unknown.
 * In the 2010 roundtable discussion with M. Night Shyamalan, one change he said he may make in the sequels of his is to reveal Ursa's fate.
 * In 170 ASC, Jinora, who had read the adventures of Team Avatar, asked her paternal grandmother what happened to Ursa. Katara began to answer that it was an incredible tale, but before she could go any further, she was interrupted by Ikki.
 * Ursa was cast to play the Dragon Empress in a production of Love Amongst the Dragons at Hira'a, but never got to perform due to her engagement and subsequent marriage to Ozai. She did, however, watch a production of the play by the Ember Island Players every year when she and her family went to Ember Island.
 * Ursa also kept a collection of four theater masks hidden behind a painting of her and Ozai: the masks of the Dragon Emperor and Empress, along with the Dark Water Spirit's, from Love Amongst the Dragons, and an unknown white mask. Zuko later used the Dark Water Spirit's mask to disguise himself as the Blue Spirit.