“While Azula thrives under perfectionism, zuko totally suffers under it.” That was a beautiful sentence that describes both of those characters. Zuko is pushed to perfectionism and fails and is shamed for it. Azula strives for perfectionism and achieves it. In the end, zuko realizes that it does not matter and grows as a character while Azula is devoured by it and breaks down as a person. This simple depth is what makes this show so great.
The show is amazing on so many levels. Nearly ever character is a real person going through real; if not fantastical problems. The reactions of the characters and how they grow and fall based on the situations that unfold are portrayed with so much sincerity too.
From what I observed, the reason Zuko suffers under perfectionism while Azula largely flourishes is that he has not internalized and solidified his dilemma-he still often questions (thanks to Iroh) what his father wanted him to accomplish, and because of that, his efforts weren't as ‘focused’ and lethal as Azula's were. She, on the other hand, had become one with her father's desires and fully amalgamated them with her own. In her perfectionism, thoughts equalled actions because the former were unimpeded by a dilemma. Personality and morals (inculcated by different parents) could have had a role to play here, in addition to the fact that Zuko was more recently exposed to Ozai's conditions, but Azula grew up with them since she was closer to Ozai than Zuko was, so she had more time to be moulded by him, whereas Zuko was shaped by Ursa and Iroh for the significant part of his life.
The creators said Ozai was “the most powerful fire bender period” but the more efficient flames made me think that Azula would, or will surpass him with experience.
Why am I just now realizing that both Zuko and Azula have cutting their hair as an important part of their character arcs. My God, they're such perfect foils
They explain in "The Rise of Kyoshi" and "The Shadow of Kyoshi" that the fire nation is a very proud people and that the whole society is guided by honor and pride. (Zuko ain't the only one). Part of that pride is actually their identity and their hair is a representation of their identity. Cutting a fire nation's person hair is not a trivial doing and marks either loss of their honor (if it's done unwillingly, but can also be that if done willingly), or a will to change their identity.
And notice how all the airbenders shave off their hair as a symbol of freedom!!!!! Notice how a lot of water benders got their hair pulled back and 2 loopies reflecting the duality and push/pull very flowy nature of water!!!!! I also like how, when they go to sleep, their hair is down instead of up in a ponytail or bun it’s kinda like they let their guard down, let loose when they’re sleeping I could honestly go in depth about every character and their hair. Zuko has the most phases of hair. Mai’s Hair is the darkest, slickest of the show and it covers her face. Tai Lee’s hair is very light, fun and UNIQUE and it looks like a scorpions tail!!!
@@zm4362 amazing attention to detail, but not all avatars shave their head! BUT most AIRBENDERS do for a very practical reason that's explained in korra.. to feel the wind easier. It's also why they wear draping loose clothes! Avatars are airbenders after all so most follow suit
NO. i refuse. iroh was the perfect villain. now hear me out before you throw your pitchforks at me for calling iroh a villian..... iroh is a villain that became a good guy before our story starts. iroh was going to be the firelord and was in the middle of destroying the entire earth nation. meaning he has 100% killed at least a hundred people or more but then had a change of heart
@@azula9714 did you only read part of my comment because i never say all firebenders are evil... its just the entre plot of the show is the fire benders at the top militarized fire bending and started a war that lasted a hundred years.... so only the fire bending generals and the fire lord is bad... iroh happend to be next in line to be fire lord and was a great fire bending general... and the whole reason he is how he is was because he seen how bad he was and then changed
My theory about the blue fire. In high school science, we used bunsen burners. When you first get it going it has a normal red/orange fire, then you control the flow and focus it, then it turns blue. Azula has focused and controlled it to the point that it turns blue.
She does sometimes shoot her fire from two fingers, like Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon. Instead of using the usual punching motion most firebenders use, she probably focuses all of the chi in two fingers, heat concentrates and increases all the way to blue like you said in bunsen burners.
this would work, but when she became the firelord she maintained her entire throne room full of blue fire and once sozins comet hit, she was throwing out giant shots covering their entire fighting space of blue fire
Honestly the downfall of Azula's mental health and personality break down is so touching and incredibly personal to me. I connected with her very deeply, seeing the parts of myself that I do therapy and take medication for to work with reflected in an untreated, unhealthy way. I feel for her.
If your interested at all this video goes pretty deep into Azula's psychology, warning it's an hour long video ruclips.net/video/R4544ZUr_gA/видео.html
Azula always infuriated me. Always interfering with the Gaang (Like when she was taunting Sokka about Suki being in prison.) But I felt so, so sad seeing her mental breakdown. She had spent so long to please someone who saw her as disposable, that she hadn’t been happy with herself.
If Azula had just one person who genuinely loved and cared for her she would never have had a breakdown. All her life she had no one. Ursa was a neglectful mother. Ozai was a twisted father. Iroh stepped in to help Zuko but didn't even try with Azula. She was like 14 at the end of the series and Zuko didn't show her any sympathy. He just condemned her and locked her away in a prison. His own sister who went through the same rough childhood he did but had no one there to help her.
If she was named after her grandfather, I wonder if firelord Azulon ever bent blue fire? The flashbacks suggest he controlled regular orange fire toward the end of his reign. However he might have had the ability to produce blue fire in his youth considering he had Sozin as his father. We all know how evil that man was.
"Maybe you should worry less about the tides whove already made up their mind about killing you and more about me, who still mulling it over" BEST QUOTE OF ALL TIME ALONG WITH "Dont flatter yourself you were never even a player"
I agree... but don't forget "That's a sharp outfit, Chan. Careful, you could puncture the hull of an empire-class Fire Nation battle ship, leaving thousands to drown at sea. [Points] Because... it's so sharp."
Azula is so perfectly tragic, but there's something to be said for how perfectly unsympathetic Ozai is. I don't need any guilt for despising him, and sometimes that's what I need in a villain 😅
A feature I absolutely adored about the finale fight between Zuko and Azula was the sound design. Zuko is represented by a BELLOWS, the lungs that fuel the fire, and Azula's sound is a BLOWTORCH. I just don't get the opportunity to share this enough.
I remember when the brothers would try so hard to get Hank and John’s attention via Twitter and that the Green Brothers were such a huge inspiration to the start of this channel. Knowing that Hank and Jonathan were able to collaborate (even as a guest expert) on this video brings such a huge smile on my face.
My head cannon was always that some fire benders have like a recessive trait to bend blue flames. Her name is Azula...azul=blue. She was named after Azulon, her grandfather. Again azul is the base word here. In my cannon, she inherented uncommon trait from her grandfather, who could also bend blue flames.
if it was recessive she wouldve had it in childhood, which we see she does not. also she wouldve had to have bent blue fire early enough for her to be named for it. good head cannon though, you had me thinking for a second there!
@@Ryan-lr9gw Fire Lords conjure the wall/ring of fire surrounding their throne, as evident by the blue flames summoned by Azula when she became The Fire Lord, so I'm pretty sure Azulon didn't produce blue fire, because his wall of flames was regular orange in the flashback.
I always thought that Azula had more rage built up inside her, and she probably just hid it all away until her breakdown. Zuko said that Suzin made fire bending off of rage.
Saying Azula is your favourite character isn’t a unpopular opinion she’s often considered one of the best, an unpopular opinion would be saying zuko isn’t even in your favourite character list
The reasoning I always had was that her fire was blue due to the better firebending accompanied with her emotions. Just like how Zuko lost his firebending for a bit after his emotions were were shuffled, azula's flames became blue due to the pressure she and her environment put on her.
Azula is my favorite character too. She is what Zuko could have been if he had been the favorite. Azula is not evil for the sake of being evil or for her own cause. She doesn't fight for a cause or really for power. She doesn't want power because she likes power. She strives to be powerful to please her father. She always does what she thinks will please her father. Her sense of right and wrong stems from being the favorite and being raised by Ozai. Her mother being openly disappointed and disapproving of her from a young age drives her closer to her father, who sees potential in her rutlesness. You can relate to her because she tries so hard to be perfect but underneath she is really an unstable scared little girl. Don't forget, she is only 14 in the show. I love that you have started to make ATLA videos. 😊❤️️
*spits milk* I've been watching this since I was 11 (28 now). I've combed through all trivia and random facts and behind the scenes stuff and I never made that connection...I feel like a f*****g idiot🤣🤣
My take on the reason is that it comes from depression, Zuko says he used rage a strong emotion to fire bend and depression is very strong. When you are depressed there’s a lot of time that you don’t feel anything which she obviously struggles with. And in the end she literally has a mental break down, her screaming always reminds me of crying. Since she didn’t feel her like her mother loved her could lead to this, as a child she even has orange fire not blue she still had a bit of childhood innocence. And finally the dragons with the rainbow fire also made me think that the different colours are different emotions.
The first time I saw that episode it was terrifying in the best way possible, I literally had chills at the end of it (Just a few I don't mean to exaggerate)
I loved how creepy and resilient she was! That’s why it annoyed me when in LoK they just went around mind blood bending not during the full moon, like what? Hama had sooo much more drive I’m sure if blood bending was possible not during the full moon she would’ve taken the town over by now
@@beccag2758 I mean the whole point was that Amon's family were the only ones able to do that outside of the full moon. Granted they never explain WHY but it's not meant to be a universal buff to all water benders or a diminishment of Hama's threat.
I was hoping someone would mention her! I think Hama is such a notable villain, not only because she's complex, with a tragic backstory that serves as a cautionary tale for the gaang and the audience, but because she twists our assumptions on their head. Water is the healing element, it's life and resilience and two of our main heroes are water tribe! All of the villains we've met thus far have been fire or earth benders, so when suddenly here comes a water bender who uses her bending for bad, and in such a disturbing manner as blood bending, it's doubly upsetting.
When Azula first meets Aang, she slowly sets a building on fire with her blue flame, and that flame turns orange as the building catches. I think this was the show writers spelling out that her flame was hotter.
No, that Azula's blue-colored flames are hotter is a misconception, rather blue is the *actual* color of fire when burning with 100% pure oxygen, a _perfect_ combustion. It's the presence of other non-oxygen contaminants in the fire that sees it take on the characteristic red & yellow color. Whence Azula's flames coming into contact with the wooden debris and taking on the typical red/yellow color.
The reason why Azula has blue colored fire is because she is more mentally damaged than Zuko. Blue fire is hotter and red fire, so im sure this represents that Azula has more rage in her heart than Zuko. The Fire Lord showed more interest in Azula because she has hotter and more damaging fire than Zuko Edit: yes I'm aware that at the beginning of the series, Zuko has his mind set on 'honor ' so it might seem like he has more rage, but I guess Azula 's rage has been built over time until the end of the series. An example of this is the last season (i dont know what seasons exactly dont quote me on this)where she is literally HALLUCINATING that her mother is there. That's mental damage alright. Would have loved to see her in TLOK tho.
Listen, Azula IS my favorite character. There are tons of layers and nuances written into each interaction she has with other characters. She's a character you can sit down and analyze for hours, piecing together why she acts the way she does, what insecurities she has that she covers up, how the traumas she's experienced and never dealt with led to her mental breakdown and so much more. Not only is there an insane amount of depth to her character, she also (to me) had the most tragic story in Avatar. It's truly heartbreaking and leaves me tearing up anytime I watch a video about her story. What can I say, her character is amazing. With everything she went through growing up, I just wish she got some kind of happy ending or ended up finding peace. A lot of people tend to overlook the fact that she was a child during this show. All that trauma, mental manipulation and abuse, abandonment, pressure from her father, betrayal and her isolation from her peers occurred while most kids are in 8th/9th grade. Which is why after rewatching the show and understanding her character better, I wanted to punch Iroh. He looked at a mentally unwell child, being raise by someone he KNOWS is cruel, and says "She's crazy and needs to go down." NO IROH she needs help and a good role model. I love Iroh, but that scene will never sit well with me.
Azula and Katara are my favorite characters in ATLA. I love their tragic backstories and the parallels between the two of them, the fact they're both bending prodigies and how great fighters they are
I am so glad you all added ATLA to the fandoms. I honestly keep reverting to it as one of my favorite all time stories. Such well developed and multidimensional characters. 20 years later I still cry, laugh, and feel content on every watch.
Dude, the Agni Kai between Zuko and Azusa in, I believe, the 2nd to last episode, is my FAVORITE sequence in the whole show. It's SO visually beautiful, and so is the musical score during that sequence (but I love ALL of the music in the show).
my favorite villain was the blood bending lady. That episode gave me the chills as a child. I also just loved how she was just seen as innocent at first but later it was revealed how deadly and crazy she really was. Then her backstory kind of made her a villain you sort of feel bad for a little.
Azula! Is definitely my favorite. Grey DeLisle really outdid herself. It’s why I love playing the female wizard in Diablo 3 because it’s like playing a heroic version of Azula.
In my head cannon everyone is 4 years older than they are, the show and the characters would make more sense that way. Also, I believe it is what the creator would've done if Nickelodeon wouldn't have forced them to have child leads. Indeed it was they did with Korra when they have already proven themselves and had more freedom.
Her fire is blue because her emotional turmoil regarding her mother has driven her with a lot on anger. Azulas anger drives her firebending and because she’s so angry her fire is hotter, and more intense making it blue. In flashbacks before her mother left her fire was orange like normal. But when she left it became blue. Just read the comics, the search trilogy explores Azula’s emotional state more.
All I can say is.....FINALLY! Also J Azula is also one of my favorite characters. Her story is so complex and it parallels Katara. I’ve done more thinking than I like to admit about her mentality, story arc(including her father’s manipulation of her), and it’s parallels to katara 😅
@@justinehercthehuman Definition of the word "villainess": A female villain. Unless you are trying to imply that Azula is somehow not female, I don't think you properly understand the word you're trying to correct. That said, the correct plural would be "villainesses", so the word was still incorrect, but not in the way you've corrected it to be.
I always thought it was from where she drew her fire from. Zuko was fueled by a hate. I thought this showed how tapped in she was in being able to control an otherwise inconsolable rage. How deep it ran in her, how much hate she held.
Azula is my favorite too! maybe it's that sense of Slytherin kinship (lol she's just unapologetically herself, and she loves her friends but she doesn't ever realize it till she loses everything and I love her)
J: "Unpopular opinion, Azula might be my favourite character of the show" Me, watching my cat named Azula specifically after this character: "Well, kitty, I guess we are unpopular"😅
Part of her issue was misogyny like when iroh gave her a doll but gave zuko a knife which is mirrored when her father gives her the title of fire lord only to make a better title for himself, effectively making the fire lord title yet another doll for her to play with. She even though she basically is a perfect fire bender and perfect daughter she will never be good enough in the eyes of her father because when it comes down to it she’s still his daughter
That can make sense with Iroh, but with the firelord there was 100% zero misogyny. He always valued her over Zuko, and she first gets mad because she hated that he’d treated her “like Zuko”. The firelord gave himself a better title because he wasn’t ready to step down, and because Azula was only 14 (the fact that she was given a leadership role at all was honestly a hudge compliment).
I imagine that someone else has said it here, but from a practical standpoint it was also to differentiate Azula's fire from the fire of her opponents visually on-screen. She is the firebender with the most on-screen time fighting other firebenders, and the blue flames help the fights "read" better on screen. Also it made the final fight between her and Zuko absolutely stunning.
Ooooo, I really like this theory!! I think it could honestly be a combination of things. I remember seeing a theory somewhere that I really liked that Azula is also the only one we see bend fire with only two fingers, making her aim more precise and her power more focused, resulting in a hotter (blue) flame. Could be both?
Another interesting thing to note: in the flashbacks when Azula is a child and already lauded as a prodigy, her fire’s orange. So either sometime after Ursa is banished or Zuko is banished, her flames shift from orange to blue. Almost isn’t good enough because a lack of Perfect Loyalty to her father resulted in two of her immediate family being sent away, Lu Ten’s death, and Iroh being stripped of his birthright. Remember how one of the last things she says to Ozai (publically, even; and her family’s failures were all public) is “You can’t treat me like Zuko!” She internalizes her fear of abandonment, and the auditory hallucination of her mother’s voice even mentions it with Azula’s failed friendships with both Mai and Tai Lee
Man I'm a chemist and how long did it take me to get to the term "complete combustion" or "perfect combustion" although you were harping on her perfectionism. it would fit her to literally practice her combustion to a point where it's complete.
There was a fan theory way back when the Firebending Masters episode came out that Azula is a reincarnated dragon. It's kind of disproved by Zuko saying the last dragon 'died' before he was born, but still, cool theory, explains her power and the colored flames.
The official reason they did it was to make it easier to tell who’s fire was who’s when she and Zuko fought and to show she was more powerful than him. But honestly just so the viewers can tell the difference makes more sense than she’s just more powerful since Iroh and Ozai are more powerful than both of them and their fire is still orange
@@b2curious this theory isn't saying that she's more powerful, it's saying that due to her perfectionism she's more efficient than other fire benders, even ones who have more raw power
I forget which youtuber said it, but there was another theory that Azula's fire turned blue when her mother was banished. In all the flashbacks, she's bending regular orange fire. So the theory is she always wanted some more love from her mother, and so when her mother was banished, and she never saw mommy again, she became even more enraged and more focused (with a boost of perfectionism) and her fire turned blue.
From Mike in the art book (2010) "To symbolize that Azula was a Firebending prodigy and more skilled than her brother, her Firebending effects were colored blue. Practically, the blue fire also helped distinguish her attacks from Zuko's red Firebending during their epic battles."
If that was the case, every angry character would have blue flame. No, this is something she chose to do. Not something her body forced on her. Like lightning, it's probably very dangerous.
I believe the actual reason was because having 2 fire benders on screen was hard to draw so they just decided to make her fire blue. Or at least that is the rumor
@@kristianavolika4337 would've been a quick fight: - Azula shoots lightning - Zuko redirects it back - Azula is surprised and doesn't know how to redirect it herself and then she ded
8:45 The fact that even in Azulas mind her mother still act very caring towards her, sugests that deep in her mind Azula knows her mother actually loves her.
“Ahead of her is ... possibly Iroh”?!?!? Most definitely Iroh!!! Uncle Iroh takes her down in like 10 seconds in their first battle. The only reason he doesn’t absolutely destroy her is because he actually cares about people.
The creators actually mentioned that part of the reason why they made her fire red was to show the contrast between her and Zuko in the final Agni Kai. It creates some sick visuals in that fight.
It was explained in the episode firebending masters that most firebenders source of fire is rage and anger and at the end just like uncle iroh and the two dragons, Zuko's source of fire becomes life, I am guessing azula's deeper hatred and broken mental and emotional state is the source of her blue fire
9:11 the way J says "perfection" makes me think of Chandler Bing: "Gum would be perfection." "That's a sharp outfit Chan(dler)... careful, you could puncture the hull of an Empire-class Fire Nation battleship, leaving thousands to drown at sea!"
![How Do Avatar Ghosts Work? [Avatar: The Last Airbender Theory]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/V_aLGuRwmDw/mqdefault.jpg)
![How Do Avatar Ghosts Work? [Avatar: The Last Airbender Theory]](/img/tr.png)
Who is your favorite character in Avatar and why is it Azula?
TOPH 100%
she is so sassy and always right
She has blue fire
bc i feel so bad for azula
@@futbol_rolf9624 true
Mine absolutely has to be Iroh.
“While Azula thrives under perfectionism, zuko totally suffers under it.” That was a beautiful sentence that describes both of those characters. Zuko is pushed to perfectionism and fails and is shamed for it. Azula strives for perfectionism and achieves it. In the end, zuko realizes that it does not matter and grows as a character while Azula is devoured by it and breaks down as a person. This simple depth is what makes this show so great.
The show is amazing on so many levels. Nearly ever character is a real person going through real; if not fantastical problems. The reactions of the characters and how they grow and fall based on the situations that unfold are portrayed with so much sincerity too.
Truth
From what I observed, the reason Zuko suffers under perfectionism while Azula largely flourishes is that he has not internalized and solidified his dilemma-he still often questions (thanks to Iroh) what his father wanted him to accomplish, and because of that, his efforts weren't as ‘focused’ and lethal as Azula's were. She, on the other hand, had become one with her father's desires and fully amalgamated them with her own. In her perfectionism, thoughts equalled actions because the former were unimpeded by a dilemma. Personality and morals (inculcated by different parents) could have had a role to play here, in addition to the fact that Zuko was more recently exposed to Ozai's conditions, but Azula grew up with them since she was closer to Ozai than Zuko was, so she had more time to be moulded by him, whereas Zuko was shaped by Ursa and Iroh for the significant part of his life.
The creators said Ozai was “the most powerful fire bender period” but the more efficient flames made me think that Azula would, or will surpass him with experience.
The comics have already shown Azula leave Ozai in the dust.
@@a_fine_edition2746 I haven’t read the comics, but I’m glad they touched on that.
Lol 😂
Why am I just now realizing that both Zuko and Azula have cutting their hair as an important part of their character arcs. My God, they're such perfect foils
They explain in "The Rise of Kyoshi" and "The Shadow of Kyoshi" that the fire nation is a very proud people and that the whole society is guided by honor and pride. (Zuko ain't the only one).
Part of that pride is actually their identity and their hair is a representation of their identity. Cutting a fire nation's person hair is not a trivial doing and marks either loss of their honor (if it's done unwillingly, but can also be that if done willingly), or a will to change their identity.
And notice how all the airbenders shave off their hair as a symbol of freedom!!!!! Notice how a lot of water benders got their hair pulled back and 2 loopies reflecting the duality and push/pull very flowy nature of water!!!!!
I also like how, when they go to sleep, their hair is down instead of up in a ponytail or bun it’s kinda like they let their guard down, let loose when they’re sleeping
I could honestly go in depth about every character and their hair. Zuko has the most phases of hair. Mai’s Hair is the darkest, slickest of the show and it covers her face. Tai Lee’s hair is very light, fun and UNIQUE and it looks like a scorpions tail!!!
@@zm4362 wait I want to know more. Keep going
The Rise of Kyoshi explains that in the fire nation, hair is associated with honor
@@zm4362 amazing attention to detail, but not all avatars shave their head! BUT most AIRBENDERS do for a very practical reason that's explained in korra.. to feel the wind easier. It's also why they wear draping loose clothes!
Avatars are airbenders after all so most follow suit
Azula is the perfect villain: scary, dangerous, badass, and yet tragically sad
NO. i refuse. iroh was the perfect villain. now hear me out before you throw your pitchforks at me for calling iroh a villian..... iroh is a villain that became a good guy before our story starts. iroh was going to be the firelord and was in the middle of destroying the entire earth nation. meaning he has 100% killed at least a hundred people or more but then had a change of heart
@@leoneyamada5408 did you even watch the show??
@@firewingy What? It's true. Iroh was a military general. He almost broke ba sing se's wall.
@@leoneyamada5408 did you watch only parts of the show?
Where does it say being a fire bender is a bad guy?
@@azula9714 did you only read part of my comment because i never say all firebenders are evil... its just the entre plot of the show is the fire benders at the top militarized fire bending and started a war that lasted a hundred years.... so only the fire bending generals and the fire lord is bad... iroh happend to be next in line to be fire lord and was a great fire bending general... and the whole reason he is how he is was because he seen how bad he was and then changed
Azula’s blue flames are undoubtedly gorgeous.
Facts
Most the time, so is she
@@emmalemon1597 she’s 14 bro
@@taiwothomas5759 Doesn’t mean she ain’t pretty
@@taiwothomas5759 doesn’t mean that Slytherin isn’t either
My theory about the blue fire. In high school science, we used bunsen burners. When you first get it going it has a normal red/orange fire, then you control the flow and focus it, then it turns blue. Azula has focused and controlled it to the point that it turns blue.
She does sometimes shoot her fire from two fingers, like Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon. Instead of using the usual punching motion most firebenders use, she probably focuses all of the chi in two fingers, heat concentrates and increases all the way to blue like you said in bunsen burners.
this would work, but when she became the firelord she maintained her entire throne room full of blue fire and once sozins comet hit, she was throwing out giant shots covering their entire fighting space of blue fire
Honestly the downfall of Azula's mental health and personality break down is so touching and incredibly personal to me. I connected with her very deeply, seeing the parts of myself that I do therapy and take medication for to work with reflected in an untreated, unhealthy way. I feel for her.
yeah, I personnaly relate more to Zuko and his insecurity, but they are both so relatable
If your interested at all this video goes pretty deep into Azula's psychology, warning it's an hour long video
ruclips.net/video/R4544ZUr_gA/видео.html
So true I have been a perfectionist my whole life and I now do nothing all day cause I hit my breaking point
Azula always infuriated me. Always interfering with the Gaang (Like when she was taunting Sokka about Suki being in prison.) But I felt so, so sad seeing her mental breakdown. She had spent so long to please someone who saw her as disposable, that she hadn’t been happy with herself.
In the history of animation, Azula is probably the most effective object lesson in why perfectionism SUCKS.
If Azula had just one person who genuinely loved and cared for her she would never have had a breakdown. All her life she had no one.
Ursa was a neglectful mother. Ozai was a twisted father. Iroh stepped in to help Zuko but didn't even try with Azula.
She was like 14 at the end of the series and Zuko didn't show her any sympathy. He just condemned her and locked her away in a prison. His own sister who went through the same rough childhood he did but had no one there to help her.
@ilove bigbrother i don’t think arrogance was her main issue, dude
If she was named after her grandfather, I wonder if firelord Azulon ever bent blue fire? The flashbacks suggest he controlled regular orange fire toward the end of his reign. However he might have had the ability to produce blue fire in his youth considering he had Sozin as his father. We all know how evil that man was.
Object lesson? Yes. But Mayuri Kurotsuchi's explanation of why perfection is a terrible thing was SO much more brilliant.
Stop Insulting the cartoon
“And possibly Iroh, and, let’s not forget, the actually Avatars”
Jeong Jeong: “Am I a joke to you?”
"Maybe you should worry less about the tides whove already made up their mind about killing you and more about me, who still mulling it over" BEST QUOTE OF ALL TIME ALONG WITH "Dont flatter yourself you were never even a player"
Or the Earth Kingdom if you're Zuko or Iroh.
I agree... but don't forget
"That's a sharp outfit, Chan. Careful, you could puncture the hull of an empire-class Fire Nation battle ship, leaving thousands to drown at sea. [Points] Because... it's so sharp."
@@crazypandakitty1095 😌😌 how could I forget, shed be the most awkwardly funny protagonist if they decided to go that way
@@biancadawson4302 right lol
Nah bro it's
"I am a 400 foot tall purple platypus bear with pink horns and silver wings"
Azula is so perfectly tragic, but there's something to be said for how perfectly unsympathetic Ozai is. I don't need any guilt for despising him, and sometimes that's what I need in a villain 😅
Evil, unstable, and makes blue flames: Azula or the gas burners on my stove.
This comment made me laugh, thank you! :)
Trick question: it’s my creme brûlée torch
Azula, easy.
Gas burners are typically stable.
If your gas stove has issues you should get your gas lines and stove checked
@@porcupinethecat5073 you missed the joke
A feature I absolutely adored about the finale fight between Zuko and Azula was the sound design. Zuko is represented by a BELLOWS, the lungs that fuel the fire, and Azula's sound is a BLOWTORCH. I just don't get the opportunity to share this enough.
I remember when the brothers would try so hard to get Hank and John’s attention via Twitter and that the Green Brothers were such a huge inspiration to the start of this channel. Knowing that Hank and Jonathan were able to collaborate (even as a guest expert) on this video brings such a huge smile on my face.
Toph is my favourite character. I make jokes about my wheelchair like she does with her blindness.
You just roll with it don't you?
My head cannon was always that some fire benders have like a recessive trait to bend blue flames. Her name is Azula...azul=blue. She was named after Azulon, her grandfather. Again azul is the base word here. In my cannon, she inherented uncommon trait from her grandfather, who could also bend blue flames.
if it was recessive she wouldve had it in childhood, which we see she does not. also she wouldve had to have bent blue fire early enough for her to be named for it. good head cannon though, you had me thinking for a second there!
@@amarisb7596 That, and Azulon didn't bend blue fire.
Ya I noticed that too
I wonder if Azulan's fire was also blue.. we never see him bend.
@@Ryan-lr9gw
Fire Lords conjure the wall/ring of fire surrounding their throne, as evident by the blue flames summoned by Azula when she became The Fire Lord, so I'm pretty sure Azulon didn't produce blue fire, because his wall of flames was regular orange in the flashback.
I always thought that Azula had more rage built up inside her, and she probably just hid it all away until her breakdown. Zuko said that Suzin made fire bending off of rage.
Saying Azula is your favourite character isn’t a unpopular opinion she’s often considered one of the best, an unpopular opinion would be saying zuko isn’t even in your favourite character list
I loved her
The reasoning I always had was that her fire was blue due to the better firebending accompanied with her emotions.
Just like how Zuko lost his firebending for a bit after his emotions were were shuffled, azula's flames became blue due to the pressure she and her environment put on her.
Azula is my favorite character too. She is what Zuko could have been if he had been the favorite.
Azula is not evil for the sake of being evil or for her own cause. She doesn't fight for a cause or really for power. She doesn't want power because she likes power. She strives to be powerful to please her father. She always does what she thinks will please her father. Her sense of right and wrong stems from being the favorite and being raised by Ozai. Her mother being openly disappointed and disapproving of her from a young age drives her closer to her father, who sees potential in her rutlesness. You can relate to her because she tries so hard to be perfect but underneath she is really an unstable scared little girl.
Don't forget, she is only 14 in the show.
I love that you have started to make ATLA videos. 😊❤️️
An explination that barely makes sense is that Azul means blue in spanish. AZULA💙🔥
And in portuguese too
I was waiting for J to mention it in the video, buuuuut well 😅
Azula would mean the female from of blue. And 3ED REPLY!
My thought exactly
*spits milk* I've been watching this since I was 11 (28 now). I've combed through all trivia and random facts and behind the scenes stuff and I never made that connection...I feel like a f*****g idiot🤣🤣
My take on the reason is that it comes from depression, Zuko says he used rage a strong emotion to fire bend and depression is very strong. When you are depressed there’s a lot of time that you don’t feel anything which she obviously struggles with. And in the end she literally has a mental break down, her screaming always reminds me of crying.
Since she didn’t feel her like her mother loved her could lead to this, as a child she even has orange fire not blue she still had a bit of childhood innocence. And finally the dragons with the rainbow fire also made me think that the different colours are different emotions.
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*Perfectly balanced as all things should be*
The balance is off .Thanos
I am inevitable SNAP .Thor NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"No matter what, she'll never be good enough for herself"
That hit hard 🙃 (I'm kinda perfectionist sometimes)
Hama isn't a main villain or anything but she just opened up the door for me to respect water benders more and omg how resilient 🧡
The first time I saw that episode it was terrifying in the best way possible, I literally had chills at the end of it (Just a few I don't mean to exaggerate)
Possibly the most tragic backstory of any character still alive by the last time we see them.
I loved how creepy and resilient she was! That’s why it annoyed me when in LoK they just went around mind blood bending not during the full moon, like what? Hama had sooo much more drive I’m sure if blood bending was possible not during the full moon she would’ve taken the town over by now
@@beccag2758
I mean the whole point was that Amon's family were the only ones able to do that outside of the full moon. Granted they never explain WHY but it's not meant to be a universal buff to all water benders or a diminishment of Hama's threat.
I was hoping someone would mention her! I think Hama is such a notable villain, not only because she's complex, with a tragic backstory that serves as a cautionary tale for the gaang and the audience, but because she twists our assumptions on their head. Water is the healing element, it's life and resilience and two of our main heroes are water tribe! All of the villains we've met thus far have been fire or earth benders, so when suddenly here comes a water bender who uses her bending for bad, and in such a disturbing manner as blood bending, it's doubly upsetting.
When Azula first meets Aang, she slowly sets a building on fire with her blue flame, and that flame turns orange as the building catches. I think this was the show writers spelling out that her flame was hotter.
Not only that, the building also changes its design when Azula shoots at it!
No, that Azula's blue-colored flames are hotter is a misconception, rather blue is the *actual* color of fire when burning with 100% pure oxygen, a _perfect_ combustion. It's the presence of other non-oxygen contaminants in the fire that sees it take on the characteristic red & yellow color.
Whence Azula's flames coming into contact with the wooden debris and taking on the typical red/yellow color.
@@Boss_Isaacperfect combustion results in more heat though
The reason why Azula has blue colored fire is because she is more mentally damaged than Zuko. Blue fire is hotter and red fire, so im sure this represents that Azula has more rage in her heart than Zuko. The Fire Lord showed more interest in Azula because she has hotter and more damaging fire than Zuko
Edit: yes I'm aware that at the beginning of the series, Zuko has his mind set on 'honor ' so it might seem like he has more rage, but I guess Azula 's rage has been built over time until the end of the series. An example of this is the last season (i dont know what seasons exactly dont quote me on this)where she is literally HALLUCINATING that her mother is there. That's mental damage alright. Would have loved to see her in TLOK tho.
Also if you didn’t know blue fire can also be caused by salt. So ig azula is salty
SanJim best reply I have ever read
Probably true by the end but I refuse to believe that earlier in the series Azula is more damaged and has more rage
@@sanjim5156 Uhm no.
Listen, Azula IS my favorite character. There are tons of layers and nuances written into each interaction she has with other characters. She's a character you can sit down and analyze for hours, piecing together why she acts the way she does, what insecurities she has that she covers up, how the traumas she's experienced and never dealt with led to her mental breakdown and so much more. Not only is there an insane amount of depth to her character, she also (to me) had the most tragic story in Avatar. It's truly heartbreaking and leaves me tearing up anytime I watch a video about her story. What can I say, her character is amazing. With everything she went through growing up, I just wish she got some kind of happy ending or ended up finding peace.
A lot of people tend to overlook the fact that she was a child during this show. All that trauma, mental manipulation and abuse, abandonment, pressure from her father, betrayal and her isolation from her peers occurred while most kids are in 8th/9th grade. Which is why after rewatching the show and understanding her character better, I wanted to punch Iroh. He looked at a mentally unwell child, being raise by someone he KNOWS is cruel, and says "She's crazy and needs to go down." NO IROH she needs help and a good role model. I love Iroh, but that scene will never sit well with me.
Azula and Katara are my favorite characters in ATLA. I love their tragic backstories and the parallels between the two of them, the fact they're both bending prodigies and how great fighters they are
I am so glad you all added ATLA to the fandoms. I honestly keep reverting to it as one of my favorite all time stories. Such well developed and multidimensional characters. 20 years later I still cry, laugh, and feel content on every watch.
Loving the return of the avatar theories!
Dude, the Agni Kai between Zuko and Azusa in, I believe, the 2nd to last episode, is my FAVORITE sequence in the whole show. It's SO visually beautiful, and so is the musical score during that sequence (but I love ALL of the music in the show).
Azula is the greatest character on ATLA I just wish she had a redemption arc.... Better than the one she had in the comics
No, it would be cliche because we already have an awesome redemption ark in zuko
my favorite villain was the blood bending lady. That episode gave me the chills as a child. I also just loved how she was just seen as innocent at first but later it was revealed how deadly and crazy she really was. Then her backstory kind of made her a villain you sort of feel bad for a little.
Zuko because he has one of the best character arcs in all of Avatar
Not just avatar. Arguably the best among Anime. Period.
Azula! Is definitely my favorite. Grey DeLisle really outdid herself. It’s why I love playing the female wizard in Diablo 3 because it’s like playing a heroic version of Azula.
It's sad to mention but she was also only 14 in ATLA. Imagine going through all that trauma and perfectionism at such a young age.
That is sad
@@brookekennel744 yeah most people seem to forget it's pretty heartbreaking
In my head cannon everyone is 4 years older than they are, the show and the characters would make more sense that way. Also, I believe it is what the creator would've done if Nickelodeon wouldn't have forced them to have child leads. Indeed it was they did with Korra when they have already proven themselves and had more freedom.
sadly I don't need to imagine it, because I was aperfectionist from a very young age and it demaged my mental health so much
@@bluehairedemon I'm sorry but I hope you've gotten better or at least handle it better 😔❤️
Her fire is blue because her emotional turmoil regarding her mother has driven her with a lot on anger. Azulas anger drives her firebending and because she’s so angry her fire is hotter, and more intense making it blue. In flashbacks before her mother left her fire was orange like normal. But when she left it became blue.
Just read the comics, the search trilogy explores Azula’s emotional state more.
Me and someone in my class literally had this conversation earlier
Oh awesome!!
Hah
@@SuperCarlinBrothers I just thought it was to symbolize her going insane
@@cryptic_sunflower ooh maybe
@@cryptic_sunflower It’s just hotter fire, do I think it’s representing her rage and hated.
One of my favourite videos on Azula is the “psychology of Azula” amazing analysis of her character.
Azula, as psychotic as she is, I'd probably want her to be the one to teach me firebending
All I can say is.....FINALLY!
Also J Azula is also one of my favorite characters. Her story is so complex and it parallels Katara. I’ve done more thinking than I like to admit about her mentality, story arc(including her father’s manipulation of her), and it’s parallels to katara 😅
Azula is one of the best villainess’ ever.
Period!!!!
This is a fact
villains* tbh
@@justinehercthehuman Definition of the word "villainess": A female villain.
Unless you are trying to imply that Azula is somehow not female, I don't think you properly understand the word you're trying to correct. That said, the correct plural would be "villainesses", so the word was still incorrect, but not in the way you've corrected it to be.
@@christianrose9166 the apostrophe does the same thing so it was never incorrect
DANG that is a fascinating explanation for why her fire is blue
I always thought it was from where she drew her fire from. Zuko was fueled by a hate. I thought this showed how tapped in she was in being able to control an otherwise inconsolable rage. How deep it ran in her, how much hate she held.
I cant be only one who realizes that Azula's name is also a play on the Spanish word for blue: Azule
But Azulon’s fire isn’t blue…
yes azula is also one of my fav characters 😔
I feel like it is in most people’s top 6
Azula is my favorite too! maybe it's that sense of Slytherin kinship (lol she's just unapologetically herself, and she loves her friends but she doesn't ever realize it till she loses everything and I love her)
I've always wondered about this, thanks for the explanation!
Hope you enjoy!
J: "Unpopular opinion, Azula might be my favourite character of the show"
Me, watching my cat named Azula specifically after this character: "Well, kitty, I guess we are unpopular"😅
Yes! Back to the avatar theories. Don’t get me wrong I love all your theories, but this theory series is elite!
Part of her issue was misogyny like when iroh gave her a doll but gave zuko a knife which is mirrored when her father gives her the title of fire lord only to make a better title for himself, effectively making the fire lord title yet another doll for her to play with. She even though she basically is a perfect fire bender and perfect daughter she will never be good enough in the eyes of her father because when it comes down to it she’s still his daughter
That can make sense with Iroh, but with the firelord there was 100% zero misogyny. He always valued her over Zuko, and she first gets mad because she hated that he’d treated her “like Zuko”. The firelord gave himself a better title because he wasn’t ready to step down, and because Azula was only 14 (the fact that she was given a leadership role at all was honestly a hudge compliment).
She is a great villain and her descent into madness is a beautiful train wreck.
FINALLY! SOMEONE ELSE WITH AZULA AS THEIR FAVORITE CHARACTER!
As soon as I met Azula on screen I loved her. The people watching with me thought I was crazy, but I love her
Azula was Grey Griffin’s favorite character to voice.
Emboar:
Shiny Emboar: I am the more perfect version of you
The amount of detail put into this show continues to astound.
I want to shake the hand of whoever wrote "wut a noob" next to ang bending all four elements
When you said that Azula was one of your favorite characters i was so relieved that i wasn’t the only one.
I love how he said unpopular opinion when everyone loves Azula.
Ikr. I was like, wait that's an unpopular opinion?
LoL So true. 💙
We love to hate her!
I imagine that someone else has said it here, but from a practical standpoint it was also to differentiate Azula's fire from the fire of her opponents visually on-screen. She is the firebender with the most on-screen time fighting other firebenders, and the blue flames help the fights "read" better on screen.
Also it made the final fight between her and Zuko absolutely stunning.
I finished ATLA a few months ago but still obsessed with it!
Its sooooooo good!
@@SuperCarlinBrothers i feel bad i came on to the Avatar bandwagon with netflix not Nick😞
I really appreciate these new 4K videos. They are CRISP.
Azula has the best lines in the show.
The "never even a player" line always gets me.
I love that you guys started doing Avatar videos, I just recently got into the show, and I am obsessed!
I thought today's video would definitely be a The Falcon and Winter Soldier video. Guess we'll have to wait til Thursday for that one eh?
Ooooo, I really like this theory!! I think it could honestly be a combination of things. I remember seeing a theory somewhere that I really liked that Azula is also the only one we see bend fire with only two fingers, making her aim more precise and her power more focused, resulting in a hotter (blue) flame. Could be both?
The BoUlderrrr ... is the best villain IN ALL ... of the show. And he WILL crush you.
Another interesting thing to note: in the flashbacks when Azula is a child and already lauded as a prodigy, her fire’s orange. So either sometime after Ursa is banished or Zuko is banished, her flames shift from orange to blue.
Almost isn’t good enough because a lack of Perfect Loyalty to her father resulted in two of her immediate family being sent away, Lu Ten’s death, and Iroh being stripped of his birthright.
Remember how one of the last things she says to Ozai (publically, even; and her family’s failures were all public) is “You can’t treat me like Zuko!” She internalizes her fear of abandonment, and the auditory hallucination of her mother’s voice even mentions it with Azula’s failed friendships with both Mai and Tai Lee
Man I'm a chemist and how long did it take me to get to the term "complete combustion" or "perfect combustion" although you were harping on her perfectionism. it would fit her to literally practice her combustion to a point where it's complete.
I’ve seen lots of posts about Azula’s fire, so I’m really glad this video is made
Also never forget Kyoshi's girlfriend making fire so hot it turns white
We need a video on this right now
@@rollieb3888 Yeaa the novels add so much in worldbuilding
Wait that really happened?
@@robot8290 Yeah some benders in these novels are so powerful they almost break the rules of the world
But you do know that Blue Fire > White Fire, right?
There was a fan theory way back when the Firebending Masters episode came out that Azula is a reincarnated dragon. It's kind of disproved by Zuko saying the last dragon 'died' before he was born, but still, cool theory, explains her power and the colored flames.
You never know, maybe it’s blue because the creators were like, “hey let’s mix it up a bit and make her fire blue!”
Yea this is definitely the outside explanation, out of the AATLA world. But that's boring so we try to find an in world explanation
The official reason they did it was to make it easier to tell who’s fire was who’s when she and Zuko fought and to show she was more powerful than him. But honestly just so the viewers can tell the difference makes more sense than she’s just more powerful since Iroh and Ozai are more powerful than both of them and their fire is still orange
@@b2curious this theory isn't saying that she's more powerful, it's saying that due to her perfectionism she's more efficient than other fire benders, even ones who have more raw power
@@rockyman1011997 yeah I know, I was just proving a couple of the official reasons
english teacher: "the curtains were blue because of the sadness in the main character's heart"
author: "the curtains were frickin blue"
I forget which youtuber said it, but there was another theory that Azula's fire turned blue when her mother was banished. In all the flashbacks, she's bending regular orange fire. So the theory is she always wanted some more love from her mother, and so when her mother was banished, and she never saw mommy again, she became even more enraged and more focused (with a boost of perfectionism) and her fire turned blue.
"Azula is menacing."
JoJo reference?
Also, "Azula" is the feminine form of azul, spanish for blue.
From Mike in the art book (2010) "To symbolize that Azula was a Firebending prodigy and more skilled than her brother, her Firebending effects were colored blue. Practically, the blue fire also helped distinguish her attacks from Zuko's red Firebending during their epic battles."
Maybe because her feelings of anger and rage are constantly burning because of her poor mindstate?
If that was the case, every angry character would have blue flame. No, this is something she chose to do. Not something her body forced on her. Like lightning, it's probably very dangerous.
9:17 omg i NEVER realized that she still bended orange fire when she was little. that honestly gives ground to this point being intentional
0:09 I thought it was obvious, she is the hottest person in the fire nation.
The reason her fire is blue is because her lightinng and firebending are so similar so when she was training it started becaming blue
YAY
Edit: plus I love Azulas flame
High five for the early birds! 👏
@@mistingwolf ✋
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 *standing effing ovation*
This explanation is only second to the Gryffindor-sword-missing-horcrux theory for me.
I believe the actual reason was because having 2 fire benders on screen was hard to draw so they just decided to make her fire blue. Or at least that is the rumor
Essentially, because they were always going towards that last Agni Kai w/ Zuko & you had to be able to tell who's who.
But they could have made her use just lightening instead then.
@@kristianavolika4337 would've been a quick fight:
- Azula shoots lightning
- Zuko redirects it back
- Azula is surprised and doesn't know how to redirect it herself and then she ded
8:45 The fact that even in Azulas mind her mother still act very caring towards her, sugests that deep in her mind Azula knows her mother actually loves her.
“Ahead of her is ... possibly Iroh”?!?!? Most definitely Iroh!!! Uncle Iroh takes her down in like 10 seconds in their first battle. The only reason he doesn’t absolutely destroy her is because he actually cares about people.
I came into this wondering how you turned the idea of 'her flames are hotter' into a full video.
Was not disappointed
I'm just gonna be honest. Azula is my favorite villain in the show.
The creators actually mentioned that part of the reason why they made her fire red was to show the contrast between her and Zuko in the final Agni Kai. It creates some sick visuals in that fight.
Clicked way too fast for myself 😆
same here
It was explained in the episode firebending masters that most firebenders source of fire is rage and anger and at the end just like uncle iroh and the two dragons, Zuko's source of fire becomes life, I am guessing azula's deeper hatred and broken mental and emotional state is the source of her blue fire
U do now that "azul" means blue in spanish
Was waiting the whole video for him to mention that; surprised he didn't!
@@nickgarcia6572 yea!
Gosh it still just makes me so happy that y’all make avatar content now!!!
I clicked so fast when I saw the new video!!!! 🥰😎🥰
Smoke and shadow part 1 zuko bends rainbow fire so technically she isn't the only one able to bend blue fire
He never made any blue flames, and the dragons also not.
Jay, that's a common opinion. Azula is one of the most well made villians. She's more popular and scary than her father!
9:11 the way J says "perfection" makes me think of Chandler Bing: "Gum would be perfection."
"That's a sharp outfit Chan(dler)... careful, you could puncture the hull of an Empire-class Fire Nation battleship, leaving thousands to drown at sea!"