Joo Dee

"earth"

- You're in Ba Sing Se now. Everyone is safe here.

Joo Dee was an official of Ba Sing Se who had been brainwashed and trained by the Dai Li to be a guide for important visitors to the city. Her robotic, cheery demeanor, mechanical mannerisms, and tendency to hold the party line when talking about the official political practices of Ba Sing Se were all the result of brainwashing by the Dai Li. In general, she existed to neutralize unwanted outside influences. Joo Dee once served as a caretaker and tour guide for Aang and his companions after their arrival in the city. She later served as Supreme Bureaucratic Administrator to the city, a position that was created after the Fire Nation's coup.

History
Joo Dee first appeared to be a stereotypically vapid and ignorant tour guide; despite the fact that Sokka had information regarding the war against the Fire Nation, she constantly "handled" the entire group into following her tour, promising them an audience with the Earth King of Ba Sing Se within six to eight weeks. She was constantly smiling and was made to be seem somewhat eerie. When Aang and the group went searching for Appa and information dealing with the war on the Fire Nation, Joo Dee hung back from the others, ever-smiling. When Sokka asked a question that got close to the truth, Joo Dee would smile broadly and shake her head at the person under interrogation, eliciting a withdrawn, scared reaction from him or her. When Aang and the group crashed the Earth King's party in a botched attempt to alert him of the solar eclipse that caused firebenders to lose their bending power, Joo Dee urged them to leave before they were caught; but when Aang was exposed as the Avatar, her perpetual smile melted into something closer to hopeless despair and fear.

After meeting with Long Feng, Aang and company were to be escorted home by Joo Dee, but they were shocked to see that a different woman with the same name and eerie smile who claimed to be Joo Dee had taken the place of the Joo Dee they first met when they arrived to Ba Sing Se. The original 'Joo Dee' reappeared later, claiming her disappearance was because she took a holiday to Lake Laogai, suggesting she had actually been brainwashed again after she failed to properly handle Team Avatar. However, after her efforts to prevent Aang and his friends from searching for Appa failed, she was seen distraught before Long Feng, one of the few times she showed emotion (other than smiling, of course). Long Feng was then seen hypnotizing her. Later it was revealed that the Dai Li brainwashed many women into becoming Joo Dees, and may have simply considered them to be interchangeable.



It was revealed that Azula placed Joo Dee in charge of Ba Sing Se as Supreme Bureaucratic Administrator following the fall of the capital. According to Azula, she was the "perfect" person for the job.

Trivia

 * Joo Dee's design and personality was based on Miken Wong, the line producer for the show.
 * In a real-world parallel, North Korea requires that all foreign visitors to Pyongyang be attended to by state guides at all times.
 * Joo Dee sounds rather similar to Judy and is possibly a reference to the common name. It also brings to mind the name Judas. In shepherding, a Judas is a goat who has been trained to lead sheep and cattle from one place to another, such as grazing fields, pens, slaughter, etc. Of course, if the Judas proves ineffective at leading other livestock, it is slaughtered.
 * Joo Dee, in China, is the equivalent of "Jane Doe"; this fits the fact that the Joo Dee(s) lack identity and are so alike.
 * Joo Dee did once show signs of free will when talking to Long Feng regarding her failure to handle Team Avatar. She attempted to explain that she couldn't work well under the conditions, meaning that she possibly took the job of her own free will, though it was revealed that she had been brainwashed - like the other Joo Dees - as Long Feng was able to convince her to continue taking charge of Team Avatar utilizing a code word.