Avatar: The Last Airbender -- Azula in the Spirit Temple

Product Information

Mai: I guess you just don't know people as well as you think you do. You miscalculated. I love Zuko more than I fear you. In the spirit vision of the moment when Azula first consciously used firebending, Ozai is portrayed as wearing the royal regalia, including the Fire Lord headpiece, even though he was only a prince at the time. Limp and Livid: She goes like this during her final battle with Zuko in the advanced stages of her Villainous Breakdown. Along with her Laughing Mad persona and perfectly-working firebending, she becomes a really creepy opponent ◊. She's actually the current trope image. She continues to do this in The Search, where she believes that Ursa's controlling everyone around her to ruin her life.

Deconstructed Character Archetype: Azula deconstructs The Sociopath, Faux Affably Evil, and Card-Carrying Villain. In "The Beach" where she honestly tries not to be evil, the normally super-competent Azula's utterly clueless how to act and drives away a guy she was interested in when she lapses into her normal personality. It's Played for Laughs then, but it later revealed she has serious issues with being viewed as such but embraced it because she knew of no other way to get approval. Once that stops working and alienates everyone she cares about, she's too far gone to change, gradually breaks, and end up one of the most tragic characters in the series. As a strategist, this is both her greatest ploy and her greatest weakness. So long as the pieces act according to how she wants them to (through coercion or intimidation), she can topple a city in less than 48 hours. Just watch her actions in Ba Sing Se for proof; she played the Dai Li like fiddles. They could have betrayed her but by then they were too into her mind games. In the Grand Finale, Fire Lord Ozai grants his position to his daughter, Azula, right before turning it into a puppet position by naming himself Phoenix King. This comes as a slap in the face to Azula and exacerbates a Villainous Breakdown that's been brewing for a while.Daddy's Girl: Favored by her father. For her abilities and talent; nothing more. When Azula realized this near the end of the series, she was devastated. The Comically Serious: In The Beach where she brings the same intensity to a volleyball game as combat. Azula: You chose Zuko over me. You saved him by helping poison Grandfather Azulon...and then you left. You abandoned me. You weren't there to protect me from dad, so I became what he wanted—his deadly Firebending weapon. I didn't have a choice.

She rages at her hallucination of her mother in a mirror as she realizes that she is completely alone and unloved, thus also clearly raging against herself. Always Someone Better: She was always superior to Zuko when they were growing up, even though he was the older sibling. Her firebending was much stronger than his and unlike him she can produce lightning. In most of their fights she overpowers him and forces him to flee. This starts to become subverted near the end of the series once Zuko becomes more self assured and learns the true nature of firebending and Azula starts losing her composure and grows increasingly insane. In "The Southern Raiders", Zuko duels her evenly for several minutes and the match ends in a draw, with both parties emerging unscathed. And in the finale when they battle in an Agni Kai for the throne her breakdown gets the better of her and Zuko stays one step ahead of her the whole fight. She is forced to cheat by trying to shoot Katara with Lightning and Zuko injures himself trying to redirect it. It's played straight once more in the post-series comics during the Smoke and Shadow trilogy where once Azula has gotten over her psychological hangups, she grows much stronger by Zuko's own admission and defeats him in a dagger-to-dagger duel towards the end of the story.But not so! We leave this novel, not with a redeemed Azula, but one who if anything has actively chosen to shun redemption when it was offered to her. To my mind a great choice. Previously Azula's endgame was the fairly vague post-Kemurikage stuff, but this novel takes the time to lay out all the pieces on the board and define much more clearly where Azula is at, physically, mentally, and emotionally. The scenery, clothing, and set pieces all feel completely at home in the Avatar world as well. The eponymous spirit temple, for instance, has a great Fire Nation design to it, filled with detail both on the outside and inside that make it feel like a real place. In fact, the temple is in many ways as much alive as the characters themselves, and the scenery and shadows within help make it feel that way. Azula continues her destabilizing campaign against the Fire Nation and her brother, Fire Lord Zuko. Obfuscating Stupidity: She pulls this on Long Feng. She deliberately plays the part of somewhat smart young girl who is way in over her head when she meets Long Feng and teams up with him. Once he decides to betray her, she reveals just how cunning and ruthless she really is.

While Azula is as ruthless as her father and a self-styled monster, she's never killed her subordinates in the series. In fact, even at her craziest, she simply banishes instead of killing. The Chessmaster: At only 14 years old, she comes up with a plan that, within 48 hours, successfully conquers a city that had remained standing for a century. Azula: It's because they haven't made up their minds. They're waiting to see how this is going to end. I can see your whole history in your eyes. You were born with nothing. So you had to struggle, and connive, and claw your way to power, but true power, the divine right to rule, is something you're born with. The fact is they don't know which one of us is going to be sitting on that throne and which one is going to be bowing down. But I know and you know. (sits on the throne) Well? Never My Fault: Azula wants to be loved by her family- but she also believes they are the ones who should apologize for hurting and betraying her. The spirit visions also call her out on this and point out how much she has hurt those that cared for her, which Azula defiantly refutes- even though it visibly gets under her skin. By the end of the story, she still has too much pride to admit to any wrongdoing, but her actions imply she understands it on a subconscious level.The other is an unsettling piano motif offset by chimes and eerie vocals. It usually plays when she's fighting, but it also underscores Zuko's impression of Azula in "The Western Air Temple." Now let’s talk about the artwork. Peter Wartman and Adele Matera do their best to copy the look and feel of Avatar: The Last Airbender in terms of the general art and color style, and for the most part, they do a good job at it. Femme Fatalons: She has long fingernails, though she later cuts them. She also uses the slashing motion in combat in her first episode, giving Zuko three nice straight scars.