Izumi

"fire"

- The Fire Nation has spent too much of its history fighting nonsense wars, and I refuse to drag my nation into another one unless there's no other choice.

Izumi is the Fire Lord of the Fire Nation, daughter of Lord Zuko, and mother of General Iroh. She ascended the throne in 167 AG following her father's abdication.

Early life
Izumi was born a princess of the Fire Nation to Fire Lord Zuko following the Hundred Year War. At some point during her life, she had a son, whom she named Iroh after her great uncle, and a daughter. As Crown Princess of the Fire Nation, Izumi ascended to the throne as Fire Lord following her father's abdication in 167 AG.

171 AG
Following the anarchy in the Earth Kingdom in 171 AG, Izumi and the other world leaders tasked Kuvira with restoring order to the chaos-ravaged nation, granting her the position of interim president until the Earth Kingdom was stabilized enough for Prince Wu's return and restoration to the Earth Kingdom throne.

174 AG
Three years later, Izumi traveled to Republic City in her official capacity as Fire Lord to attend Prince Wu's coronation as the fifty-fourth Earth King. There, she witnessed Kuvira denounce Wu's authority and dissolve the Earth Kingdom in favor of the Earth Empire under her own rule. Izumi and the other world leaders convened after the coronation and agreed to send Suyin Beifong as their representative to speak with Kuvira and convince the metalbender to step down.

Weeks after Korra failed to stop Kuvira from taking Zaofu, Izumi attended a meeting of the world leaders, excluding the Water Tribes' representatives, at City Hall. She was unimpressed with Wu's suggestion to attack Kuvira with an army of "highly trained badgermoles", and her glare toned down the eccentric ideas of the Earth Kingdom royal. Before they could continue, their meeting was interrupted by Korra and Opal and later by Bolin and Varrick, who all alerted them of Kuvira's plan to manufacture a spirit vine-powered super weapon.



When Raiko suggested a preemptive strike to halt due to the possible threat, Izumi firmly stated that her army would not support such an aggressive and unprovoked action. As the president tried to reason with her, pointing out that Kuvira was a threat to the world and needed to be stopped, she explained that her nation had already spent too much of its history fighting meaningless wars and she refused to put her nation through another one unless there was no other choice. When Raiko relented and revised his offensive plan to one of defense in which he would fortify the borders, Izumi readily offered the Fire Nation's help.

Personality
Izumi displayed a calm and patient personality. Conscious of the dark past of her nation, she does not support aggressive and unprovoked attacks on other nations. She also takes her role as a leader seriously and showed no tolerance for humor when discussing military actions.

Trivia

 * Izumi is the first known female Fire Lord, as well as one of only three known female members of the Fire Nation Royal Family by blood, the other two being her daughter and her Aunt Azula.
 * According to her son, Izumi has a close friendship with the Avatar and Southern Water Tribe, just like her father.
 * Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko considered giving Izumi and the Fire Nation a larger role in Book Four: Balance, but ultimately decided against it to keep the story focused.