Azula's Tragedy (pt.1)

If you know me, you'll know two things about me. First, I have daddy issues. Second, I love Azula from the fabulous 2005 nickelodeon tv show called Avatar: The Last Airbender. And, believe it or not, these two things might be intrinsically connected. I've first watched ATLA in 2018. I think it came on netflix and I had a few memories of seeing some episodes on TV when I was younger so I gave the show a chance. Ever since, Azula has lived in my mind and in my heart almost constantly. To me, she's such an interesting and tragic character. Most people dislike her, some even hate her. My own friends are really divided about her. I managed to make them see she's not that bad, though. In truth, I could talk about Azula for hours. The way she's been written, the way her character developed through the years, the medias and the public's eyes. In 2020, when lockdown happened and ATLA got a resurgence on the mainstream, more people discovered this story and its characters. More people discovered Azula. In 2018, there were already plenty of fanarts since the show was already 13 years old. I wasn't the first to love her and I'll certainly won't be the last. But even though she had a fanbase of her own, most people still viewed her mainly as a background antagonist and only that. She was cool, sure. But they didn't care much. Just like every antagonist EVER, she had her niche fans. People who, like me, saw between the lines of her character. Or people who just liked that she was sassy and stuff. 

The show has a plethora of really interesting and varied characters. You'll always find your pick if you watch it. There will always be at least one character you like a bit more than the others. For me, it was Azula. My other favourite characters are Suki and Sokka. You might want to remember this because it'll come back later! But, anyway, here comes 2020 and everyone and their mothers watch ATLA for the first time. The fandom is now made up of a very wide spectrum of people. The one who were kids or teenagers in 2005, watching it on their little TVs. The one who, like me, discovered it way later but still in their youths. Kids and teenagers discovering it in 2020 through tiktoks or their twitter feeds. And adults, too. 

When you go on AO3, Azula is the sixth character with the most fics written about her, she comes close behind Toph and has exactly 1600 fics more than Iroh, the seventh. In 2009, according to the wayback machine, she had a grand total of 17 fics. She currently has 11044, on the 10th of March 2024. Azula is the main antagonist of the story, considering Zuko has been an antagonist for like half of the story and Ozai just hides behind his children. She was an antagonist in 2005 and she still currently is one, in 2024. Almost 20 years later. While every other characters has been allowed growth and change, she is frozen in the same state. In ATLA's sequel, The Legend of Korra, the main cast all got old and they're almost all dead. But they still exist in this universe. They're mentioned, loved and missed. They exist. And even if there are many flaws about the paths some of them chose (...............Toph), at least they evolved and changed. But Azula doesn't exist in this world. The story left her behind. Zuko is still alive and he's present in many episodes in the third season. But not once he mentions his sister. Not once. I found it appealing. 

So today, I'll talk about Azula's redemption. Why the story used her only for other's growths, why her character seemed doomed from the start and why she deserves to be redeemed and in the canon. This will be divided into two articles. You can continue reading this one if you're interested in understanding better how I view Azula's character in the canon. If not, you can leave here and go to the second part. I won't hold it against you but I'll have to warn you that, maybe, some of the things I say won't make any sense if you don't know how much I care for her...

 Furthermore, this will be a very long rant of my thoughts and ideas. English isn't my first language and I don't really proof-read anything that I write since it's mainly for my own enjoyment so if there are any spelling mistakes or weird turns of phrases I'm sorry! And, yes, I'll probably sound crazy, don't mind me...

In 2020, I wrote a 45 pages document about Azula's redemption through some songs lyrics I thought fitted her situation. There were 20 songs in total on this playlist, ranging from Rihanna to Aurora with a bit of Taylor Swift and Beyoncé in the middle. This playlist still exists and you can listen to it here. Just know that I added some songs over time so not all of them are on the original document. I still have the same ideas and thoughts but I also think some things deserve to be changed. Firstly, the format. While it was interesting to choose music to accompany her redemption, I think some song choices weren't perfect and the overall execution wasn't that good. If you take out the lyrics of the songs, then it's almost nothing. You go from 45 pages to 22. Half of them! Some of it also feels really lazy and that's because it is. I was just going insane from being locked in my room for six months straight and had a severe case of hyperfixation. 

Now, it's four years later. I've been stuck in my room for the past fifteen months and I'm having a severe case of hyperfixation so I find it fitting to rework this and put all of my thoughts about Azula's redemption and the treatment she received in canon in the same place. Centralizing my thoughts in a way. 

So, I'll start with what's currently canon and what I think about the way things are. I'm talking about the original tv show and the comics. I haven't watched the 2024 netflix adaptation in full yet but I have some reserves about it, to be honest. For one, Sokka's actor is pissing me off and I find him extremely ugly so it's a pain to watch whenever he's on the screen.. The other castings are actually almost perfect so it only makes me more mad to know he ruined it all. Also, the fx and cgi are horrendous (pay your artists!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and the overall pacing really annoys me. The story is all jumbled over and some of the choices they made don't make sense to me. I'm sure there are many more criticisms but as I said I've seen only three episodes so far and the only thing I liked is Azula, of course. And Suki, my beloved. I know there are differences and her relation with Ozai is one of them so I'm interested to see how it goes but I can't get past all the other things I dislike so... Maybe one day. But this won't happen today.

In the canon, Azula is one of the main antagonist. I insist on this term. She's NOT a villain! One of the creators of the show said in the artbook that she was his favourite villain but it's just misusing this term. Based on Oxford Languages definitions, a villain is a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot while an antagonist is a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary. In the same artbook, she's also described as sadistically manipulative. Is Azula evil? Is she profoundly immoral and wicked? Does her actions warrant her being called a villain? She sure is important to the plot but I see her more as someone actively opposing the Gaang and being hostile to others than being someone immoral and evil. Her moral compass is flawed because she's been raised in a cruel household. She's manipulative and she's cruel but I don't believe her to be a sadist. She's a broken child, not a psycho or sociopath.

The creators treating her as a villain instead of an antagonist is the first proof that Azula was doomed since the start. In the same artbook, Zuko is also called a villain but the intentions are clearly different. Someone in their team wondered "What if there was a young villain going after Aang in each episode" and that's how Zuko was born. He's not painted as cunning or a sadist, there is not a single negative thing said about him. He's just "a scary-looking kid" and it's even said that "His journey and his decisions, both good and bad, made him the most complex and realistic character on the show". In comparison, Azula is once again called a dangerous villain. I want you to understand that words and the way they used hold power, especially in the narrative. I'm not criticizing the creators' decisions, by the way. I'm just trying to show that, despite everything, Azula has been locked into her position since the very start of the story, making the process of a redemption arc for her far more complicated than for her brother. It's crystal clear that she has never been written with a redemption in mind.

I'm also not saying that every antagonist or villain ever should get redemption arcs. Some characters are far more interesting the way they are and, most of the time, redemption doesn't mean anything to them. But in Azula's case, I just find it cruel. It was as if the narrative only used her to help others' growths and then dumped her. It's almost been twenty years since the start of the show and her fate still hasn't been decided. It's breaking my heart.

Azula is shown as obsessed with power. Going to great lengths as to prove her worth to her father. Since she started firebending, Azula has always been put in competition with her older brother, Zuko. She was a prodigy and he was not. This made her relationship with her brother tainted with unhealthy competitiveness and jealousy. Their father even saying at one point that "[Azula] was born lucky" while "[Zuko] was lucky to be born." Ursa called him out on this but it didn't mean anything. It just reinforced both of their feelings. Azula felt like her mom was protecting Zuko too much and Zuko felt like their father was once again favoring Azula. And I believe both of these things are true. Ozai favored his daughter for her aptitude and potential and pushed her always farther. Ursa saw how both her husband and daughter acted towards Zuko and tried to shield him from them. The rift between them only grew as years passed on. Azula's sense of superiority and jealousy turned into cruelty. Zuko had to stay at the back and see his sister turn into someone mean and terrifying; their father's golden child.

 While there's not a single doubt that Ozai is the abuser and the instigator of all the harm they both went through, I also believe that Ursa and, to some extent, Iroh had a part in it too. As adults, they should've protected Azula from her father's emprise. They could have demonstrated empathy and kindness towards her just like they did with Zuko. But, as it was shown in the comics and the show, they barely even tried to reach her before it was too late. I kind of dislike Iroh because of how hypocritical he is. He never made any attempt to care about Azula. He offered her gifts that were clearly not bought with her in mind and he didn't even try to get to know her better. He has always been very, very critical of her while excusing Zuko's actions and supporting him in every way. For someone who advocates for forgiveness and empathy, he never showed any sympathy towards his niece. And I can understand that Azula's childhood was when Iroh's life started going awry but he still paid attention and cared about Zuko so, in the end, it doesn't really excuse his actions.

As for Ursa, it's a bit more complicated but also really simple. She never wanted to marry Ozai but she did. She was forced into a loveless and abusive marriage and suffered from it. She was trapped, alone and scared. She gave birth to two children and you can believe she never really wanted to. Who would willingly bring children into such a household? However, she had a duty and she was disposable. But once they were here, they became her responsibility. She had to protect them from the abuse she was facing. I'm not blaming her for Ozai's actions, once again. I know firsthand how hard it is to react and protect others from abuse. But every choices she made, the canon shows us that she made them with only Zuko in mind. She left the two of them to save him. She saved herself at the same time. She ran away and freed herself. Zuko didn't die for his father's sins but he was punished nonetheless. 

I don't doubt Ursa loved Azula. She even said it at some points in the story. She was her mother and I believe that she truly wanted to love her the same way she loved Zuko. Love isn't a ranking. She had enough space in her heart for both of them. But she also never told her daughter that she loved her. Never once. The only proof of her affection for Azula is from the night Ursa left them. She kissed her daughter in her sleep. Azula probably never knew about it. And I think that some part of her was sincerely scared of the person she would become. Just like Ozai, she saw Azula's potential. She saw that she was a prodigy. Her first reaction was fear and distrust. She loved her, was scared for her and probably scared of her. I wouldn't go as far as say that she thought Azula was a monster. But there was cleary a part of her that thought of the worst when she saw her firebending. 

This made her harsher on her daughter. She wanted so badly to guide her in the right direction, but she didn't know how to do it. So Ursa constantly reprimanded and berated Azula. And even if it was the right thing to do as a parent, even if Azula deserved to be disciplined, Ursa should also have learned to balance it with love. But she didn't. She showered Zuko with affection and tenderness but only scolded Azula. You could say it was because Ozai had already taken her as his favourite and so Ursa could not really do anything but it's not true. By constantly pampering Zuko, she also hurt him since Ozai saw this as a sign of weakness from his son and only punished him more for it. As I said, she's far from being the reason why Zuko was abused in the first place but, in my opinion, she actively participated in Azula's abuse. As soon as Azula proved to be a firebender, Ursa shut her out. She even said "You are your father's daughter." when Ozai asked her to tell Azula how proud she was of her. You could argue that it isn't one hundred percent reliable since it's from Azula's point of view in an hallucination, but it still is something resembling the truth. And it's such a cruel truth... 

Ursa and Iroh let Azula get wrapped up around Ozai's finger and did NOTHING to help her. She was merely a child when it happened! She probably wasn't older than four when they both deemed her a hopeless case. FOUR! No wonder Azula spent the next thirteen years thinking her mother hated her. She was broken even before Ozai really made her into the person she became. And even if I say that, I want you to remember that Azula is no older than seventeen in the comics and only fourteen in the tv show. She was just a child! She's only a teenager! She should have never been left alone with this man during all these years. Ozai physically and mentally abused Zuko. Ozai also pushed Azula to abuse him, too. She took part in this abuse, there's no point in denying it. She saw how their father treated Zuko and made the decision to side with him, in order to prevent being his victim's too. She coped the way she could without even probably realizing it. Her abuse was easier to deal with if she was sure that she wasn't abused. You could say she protected herself by taking part in Zuko's abuse. It doesn't make it right, though. 

I once saw someone talk about how, from Zuko's perspective, Azula didn't deserve any kind of forgiveness. I may be right, I'll never argue against that. I think it's ultimately his choice, if he wants to forgive her or not. I don't think forgiveness and redemption come hand in hand or is a general thing. It comes down to each individual and their sensibility. I believe Zuko would try his hardest to forgive his sister because it'll also help him to heal. On the other hand, I don't see Ty Lee ever approaching her ever again. It's not because she's less forgiving than Zuko, though. It's more that Azula is the person who harmed her the most in her life and it's really hard to heal from such a damaging relationship. Ty Lee wouldn't hold a grudge against her, but she would also entirely cut ties with her. 

 Azula made terrible things during all the course of the story. She hurt people mentally and physically, she committed crimes and was an all-around terrible person. But I want to reiterate that she was a child. I believe it's important that you keep that in mind. She still has plenty of time to heal and grow up from that. 

Zuko was given the right to heal from his abuse and to become a better person. He got a redemption. He was helped by Iroh and his friends and, later, even by his mother. Zuko is a good person at heart, has always been. Zuko is the exemple of a good victim, in this story. He was a victim of abuse for years, has done bad things but acknowledged them and made peace with his actions. He was given the right to redemption because the story care about him and needed him to grow in order to advance. His role as an antagonist was only to show that the real villain was Ozai. But also because having only a grown-ass man beefing with a child for three seasons would have been really weird. Ozai needed pawns and he used his children for that. 

I've also seen people say that Azula had everything growing-up while Zuko had nothing. I could argue that it's both correct and wrong. Azula had her father's attention, friends and power. She was a prodigy. But they're all things that broke her later on. She became a puppet in order to please Ozai. She became cruel just for him. She only wanted power and to prove herself. She wanted to be the greatest. Just as any gifted child, the burn-out was inevitable from the start. She lost her friends because they were never really friends to start with. She forced them to do whatever she wanted, she pushed their boundaries and hurt them repeatedly. Fear has always been a constant in her life. She feared her father, feared what he could do to her and turned her fear into something to shield her. She used it to hurt others. As she said, "Fear is more reliable than trust". In one of the comics Ty Lee even says that she never lost her fear of [Azula]. And she's been her closest friend for the longest time. 

So, right maybe Zuko had no friends growing up but I'm not sure it's something he lacked, really. I mean, just see how he acted with people in season one. They weren't his friends but he would have been rude and demanding towards anyone at this point so, in a way, it's not so bad that he didn't really have friends. Of course it made him awkward around people his age and unable at first to express his feelings and thoughts without using violence. But he also had Ursa's love and Iroh's interest. And let's not act as if Mai and Ty Lee didn't exist. They weren't his friends in the first place but they still spent some times together when they were younger and later on, too. When Zuko comes back to the Fire Nation, he spends time with them and Azula. It probably isn't by choice but he goes along well with them. They even are more of his friends than Azula's in the current timeline. 

If you look at it from Azula's point of view, she always did what she deemed essential to her survival. She pursued her father's ambition, went to great lengths to prove her worth. She did everything she had to do in order to stay on top of everything and everyone. And in the end, she still lost absolutely everything. Her father, her power, her title. And the worst thing is that she still believes Ozai was right. At no point in the show or comics there is any talk about Azula realizing how she's been hurt by him. It's always all about her mommy issues and her troubles with her friends and stuff. Don't get me wrong, it's really interesting but I believe that her relation with her father is truly worth of being more talked about. It's something I'm glad the netflix show tried to do. As I mentioned, I haven't seen enough of it to really have an opinion about the choices they made but I believe it's great to see another side of Azula. Here's a little something I wrote last year that, I feel, encapsulate very well how I see their relationship. 

"My Father never did anything to me," were the words Azula always repeated, softly, to herself. Whenever it was difficult to love him, to respect him, she'd remember that he had never did anything to harm her. Sure, he'd hurt others. His subjects, his ministers, his own brother, his own wife. His own son. But he never laid a hand on her. Never shout when it was only the two of them in his council room. Of course, Ozai was no tender man. He had never been soft as some fathers are. But he never, ever, hurt her the way she saw him hurt others. He believed in her. He put his trust on her. He had high expectations, yes, but nothing she couldn't shoulder. Because he had raised her to be the best. To be his true heir. And she always did whatever it took to be deserving of his trust and love. Because it had to be love. What could have it been if not love?

As I said at the start of this post, my love for Azula and my own daddy issues are two sides of the same coin. So is my story with abuse. And I sincerely believe it is the main reason of why I love this character so much. I don't see myself in her the way I'd do with others, she's not someone I believe I've ever been. But I feel like we share a place in the universe. I've also been my father's golden child in some way. Just like Azula, he never hurt me the way I've seen him abuse others around us. I think that I have to talk about this so you understand the way I see her better. It's very different than the way I love other characters because, whatever I do, I'll always come back to her. It's been six years since I first saw her on my screen. And ever since, she's been the first I ever think about when I think about my favourite fictional character. She's the one I wrote many, many words about just to try and explain how much she matters to me. I don't have many merch of her, not any tattoo or anything. Many people in my life probably don't associate me with her at a first thought. But I know she'll always be there so I feel a little bit less alone in this world. 

Maybe the way I see Azula now is way too tainted by my own ideas so I can't really get other people's opinions about her. I must admit that I can get easily pissed when I see people online saying things about her I don't agree with. I'll never get into an argument about it but I get mad on my own and it's already embarrassing enough as it is. 

Anyway, I believe you can see now a bit more clearly how I see her. The character she's in my mind and the love I have for her. I think it was important to lay these foundations before going into her redemption. Because if I told you at the start of this post that I wholeheartedly and fully believe that Azula could heal through art therapy and with Suki's help, you'd probably think I'm crazy. And maybe you still do. But if you read this far, I'm sure you're at least ready to trust the process and read the second part of this article. :)

So, I'll leave you on that! I'll see you soon!!