History of Azula (Summer 100 AG)

With Ba Wing Se conquered, Azula returns home to await the Fire Nation's victory after the supposed death of the Avatar.

Returning Home


In "Going Home Again", a canonical interlude comic featured within the second All-Avatar Nick Mag Presents edition, Azula is shown making arrangements for their return to Fire Nation. One of which is passing her position as ruler of Ba Sing Se over to Joo Dee, whom she views as the perfect person to leave in her stead, dubbing the former tour guide Supreme Bureaucratic Administrator. Azula then refuses to take no as an answer when a reluctant Zuko chooses to remain in Ba Sing Se. Gathering Ty Lee, the princess schemes to use Mai and Zuko's mutual childhood crushes to entice her brother's decision. With the false report of a meeting with a Admiral Liang, she sets the two up on a Fire Nation-themed dinner date, featuring the Dai Li agents serving as waiters. However, the ruse is uncovered when Zuko overhears Azula and Ty Lee giggling in the nearby bushes. The princess attempts to catch herself, claiming that she was just telling Ty Lee to stop messing around in the bushes. Neither Zuko nor Mai buys into the tale and leave off on a private walk around Ba Sing Se.

The following day, while boarding the ships, Azula looks on at Zuko and Mai speaking affectionately with one another and concludes that her plan seems to have been quite successful after all. She then turns to her chained uncle and wonders aloud if the prisoner will even survive the trip home. As she bids her brother farewell, Zuko suddenly makes the resolve to come with them back to the Fire Nation. Azula slyly tells her brother to do whatever he wants, as it's his decision.



Azula and Zuko return home and both are welcomed with open arms by the people, with a rally held in their honor to praise their successful efforts at the Earth Kingdom capital. Later at the old turtle duck pond, Azula and Zuko converse about Zuko's long-awaited meeting with their father. Zuko is anxious not only about the upcoming audience, but also that he must return to his father without the Avatar. Azula shrugs it off, once again restating her position that the debt is repaid by the Avatar being dead. At this, Zuko momentarily hesitates to agree in Aang's supposed demise. Azula however appears to disregard it and simply walks away.

When Zuko at last meets his father, it is revealed that Azula misinformed Ozai that he was the one who killed the Avatar. Perplexed, Zuko immediately goes to Azula's chamber to question her actions. Azula claims that she saw how worried Zuko was about not having the Avatar, she decided to give him the credit for his demise out of a generous gesture to repay his aid in the takeover of Ba Sing Se. Zuko refuses to believe her explanation, accusing her of retaining an ulterior motive. Azula nonchalantly points out how letting him have all the glory over slaying the Avatar could do little to benefit her, but insidiously acknowledges the fact that should it be discovered that the Avatar was indeed alive, all that glory would swiftly turn into shame and foolishness. She assures Zuko that he has nothing to worry about, as he already said himself, there's no way the Avatar could have survived. With that, the princess bids her deeply incensed brother goodnight.



Azula, Mai, Ty Lee, and Zuko all travel to Ember Island for a brief vacation while the Fire Lord confers with his advisers in private. Azula takes advantage of this opportunity to experience life as a normal person for the very first time, choosing to keep her and Zuko's true identity a secret. At the beach Chan and his friend, Ruon-Jian, are impressed by Ty Lee and Mai. The two decide to invite Ty Lee and Mai to a party at Chan's house. Azula then interrupts Chan, insisting that she and Zuko are invited also. When Azula and the others arrive at his house, Azula mentions that his "sharp" outfit is so sharp that it could "puncture the hull of an Empire Class Fire Nation battleship, leaving thousands to drown at sea." This "compliment" weirds out Chan and he awkwardly thanks her. Later, after shooting down Ty Lee, she confides in her old friend that she needed help talking to boys. After a very short and awkward lesson, Azula insists that Chan give her a tour of the house. He leads her out onto the deck and starts making a few jokes. Chan then moves in and kisses Azula. He then calls her pretty and she replies "Together, you and I will be the strongest couple in the entire world! We will dominate the earth!", coupled with a small display of her unique blue flames. Chan then makes an excuse to leave. Later, Azula plays the role of interpreter as the group takes turns telling stories which provide deep insight about how their lives have been. When her turn comes, Azula states she doesn't have a "pathetic sob story". However, she does softly admit that she was aware that her mother loved Zuko more and thought she was a monster, then callously adds that her mother was right, but it still hurt. It is later on hinted that Azula harbors repressed feelings of rage towards her mother for this. For the first time, she is seen as almost completely vulnerable and almost seems to have resigned herself to what she is in the absence of her mother. As a testament of their special day, Azula proceeds to lead the others into disrupting the party and trashing Chan's home.

Azula, along with her father, brother, and all the high-ranking military officials in the Fire Nation, attends an important all-day war meeting. It is later revealed that, at that meeting, Azula was the one who suggested burning to ashes the entire Earth Kingdom using the power of Sozin's Comet, a plan that Ozai readily adopted, much to Zuko's dismay.

The Day of Black Sun


A few minutes after the beginning of the solar eclipse, as the Avatar, Toph, and Sokka manage to locate and burst into the Fire Lord's underground room, they are confounded to instead find Azula. She reveals that she's known about the invasion for months and is fully prepared to face and delay the attackers. Azula has two Dai Li agents she brought back from Ba Sing Se attack the trio while she runs away, closely pursued by Aang, Sokka and Toph. Once the agents have been defeated and Azula is cornered, Sokka realizes that she's merely wasting their time and that they should just forget her in favor of searching for Ozai. As they start to leave, Azula mentions Suki to Sokka, stating that she gave up hope on him ever rescuing her from her imprisonment. This revelation promptly makes Sokka charge at her in blind rage. Azula pulls out a shuriken, but Toph senses it and pins her to the wall. Sokka furiously demands to know where Suki is, while Azula simply remains silent. When the eclipse ends, Azula breaks her restraints and coyly informs the trio of Ozai's precise location before running down the hall. As the invasion draws to a close, the princess is shown observing the Avatar and his friends escape aboard Appa from her airship. However, she chooses not give pursuit, knowing that sooner or later, they'll be back.

During Azula's confrontation with the group, Zuko confronts his father, Ozai, and tells him that Azula lied to him by saying that Zuko killed the Avatar, when in reality Azula struck down the Avatar but he managed to survive in the end. Ironically, Ozai seems to have pardoned his daughter for these crimes, as in "The Boiling Rock, Part 2" she evidently has not faced punishment. Azula may have manipulated him once again.

Betrayed
Azula arrives at the prison with Ty Lee and Mai (who does not accompany her, but instead visits Zuko). The Princess interrupts the Warden's interrogation of the guard who is accused of taking part in a failed prison-escape attempt, only to inform him of his mistake: i.e., the guard was not one of the group she was sure was responsible for the escape plan: Team Avatar.

She and Ty Lee later battle Sokka, Suki, and Zuko on the gondola. While Ty Lee fights Suki, Azula takes on Zuko and Sokka. Zuko manages to block her fire blasts, while Sokka moves in to strike her with his sword. Yet, despite their efforts, neither Zuko nor Sokka manage to defeat her. As the guards are about to cut the lines and drop the gondola into the boiling lake below, she and Ty Lee back flip to the other gondola. Much to her dismay, she finds her friend Mai defeating the guards to save Zuko and his friends.



After the battle, she tells Mai that she should not have saved Zuko, since she knew the consequences. However, Mai tells Azula that she miscalculated, and she now loves Zuko more than she fears Azula. The idea of an emotion she has never fully experienced being stronger than her ability to instill fear and control sends her over the edge. As the tension rises, Azula and Mai are about to fight, but just before Azula can attack, Ty Lee suddenly blocks off two of her chi paths and paralyzes her, much to the surprise of all three of the girls. The guards come to Azula's aid, and she tells the guards to put Ty Lee and Mai where she can never see their faces again, and "let them rot".

This marks an important turning point in her life because following the betrayal of her friends, Mai and Ty Lee, she never displays her cold merciless precision and clarity of mind again. It's possible that she considered them to be the only friends she had ever had, and that it seemed to her that Zuko had stolen them from her.

Pursuing Zuko


A few days after her defeat at the Boiling Rock, Azula tracked Zuko and Sokka down to the Western Air Temple. She attacked with a full fleet of airships, and was intent on killing Zuko more than ever before; claiming to about to be celebrating herself becoming an only child. Zuko attacks, creating a diversion while Aang and the others escape. As the battle progresses, Zuko and Azula seem evenly matched until the fight is abruptly ended when their flaming fists meet one another (resulting in an explosion) and they are both thrown backwards off the airship. Zuko is saved from falling to his death by Appa and Team Avatar while Azula propels herself (using firebending) to safety and latches onto the nearby cliff-side.

The Ember Island Players
In the play her character shows no signs of her cruelty likely due to propaganda. However, at the end of the play her character kills Zuko's character to wild cheers, which leaves the real Zuko looking taken aback.

A Fragile State of Mind


When Ozai crowned himself Phoenix King, he appointed Azula to be the new Fire Lord (after a short discussion in which Azula felt he was looking down on her in the same way he did to Zuko). Azula, however, had already begun to lose her grip on reality and her father not wanting her with him only made it worse. She began banishing her subjects out of fear and paranoia, including a servant for leaving pits in her cherries, which she took as a crime against her life; the Dai Li for taking five minutes to arrive after being summoned (during which she believed "an assassin could have done away [with her] and been on his merry way"); and the Imperial Firebenders for their potential to betray her. When Lo and Li confronted the Princess on her well being, she became enraged, and told the twins they must have an Agni Kai. When Lo and Li said they couldn't because they weren't Firebenders, Azula banished Lo while pointing at Li, confusing them as to who was banished. With all her subjects banished, she attempted to fix her hair herself. She failed, and instead cut off a large portion of her trademark bangs. It also appeared that she wasn't sleeping well as she had dark circles under her eyes by this point, possibly afraid someone might kill her while sleeping. She was also haunted by a hallucination of her mother. In her hallucination, her mother showed sorrow as her daughter was, in her mind, confused. After Ursa told Azula she loved her, Azula threw her hairbrush at her mirror in a fit of emotional rage, ending the hallucination. Azula then fell to her knees bitterly sobbing to herself.



Her coronation, without the Fire Nation subjects and only the Fire Sages that are present, was interrupted by her brother and Katara. When Zuko proclaimed that he would be Fire Lord. Azula challenged Zuko to an Agni Kai, which Zuko accepted, noticing that something was off about her. At first, they seemed to be evenly matched, but as Azula continued to slip into insanity, she began to wear herself out. This was evident when Zuko managed to strike her down once despite her enraged and advanced moves. Zuko taunted her, declaring she was afraid to hit him with lightning. Azula took the bait, shouting "I'll show you lightning!" She first aimed at Zuko, but then realized Katara was vulnerable and shot at her instead. Zuko jumped in the way and took the lightning bolt head-on trying to redirect it in mid-air. Even though he succeeded, some of it still remained in his body, seriously harming him and removing him from the fight.



Azula then moved on to Katara, who is distraught over Zuko's injury. Azula did her best to keep Katara away from any water and frequently insulted the duo, calling her a filthy peasant, and saying "Zuzu, you don't look so good." Katara eventually immobilized her in a frozen splash of water from an underground canal and used the opportunity to chain her to the floor. When Azula saw her brother stand after Katara's healing, she finally broke. She began to breathe fire in a fit of rage while rolling around the floor, screaming and crying uncontrollably. Reduced to this feral state, she was completely lost within her own madness. She was no longer the composed, calculated and methodical princess she once was, finally descending into pure insanity.

After her Agni Kai, Azula was transferred to a mental health facility on a nearby island where she was monitored around the clock.