Azula is one of Avatar: The Last Airbender’s most complex, threatening, and compelling characters—but after her final Agni Kai with Zuko in the series finale, her fate is never really explained.
Even Avatar’s sequel series, The Legend of Korra, mentions what happened to most of Avatar’s main characters, but not Azula. If you want to know more about what happened to the Fire Nation’s princess, you’ll have to dive into the Avatar: The Last Airbender comics instead, starting with the final installment of Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Promise and the entirety of Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Search.
Searching for Zuko and Azula’s mother
After losing to Zuko and Katara during the Agni Kai, Azula suffers a harrowing breakdown, a result of years of stress, pain, jealousy, and anger all rolled into one. Instead of imprisoning her outright, as Zuko did with his father, former Fire Lord Ozai, Zuko admitted Azula into a mental health facility, taking pity on her.
A year later, Zuko is valiantly searching for his missing mother, Ursa, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances when he and Azula were still young children. While Zuko had a loving relationship with his mother, Azula always felt as though Ursa despised her, treating her with suspicion and disgust. That’s why Azula always gravitated towards Ozai—instead of chastising her for her darkness, resilience, anger, and tenacity, he praised her for it.
One of the reasons Azula lost her Agni Kai with Zuko was because she was being plagued by visions of their mother, visions that said Ursa loved Azula despite her daughter’s dark side. Azula couldn’t accept her “mother’s” love at the time, and she spiraled, a spiral that resulted in that final defeat.
Unfortunately, a year after the Hundred Year War ended, Zuko’s quest hit a dead end. He enlists Azula to help him and the rest of Team Avatar find Ursa. At first, he only wants her to speak to Ozai, hoping that his father will be willing to share more information about his mother with his sister. After she visits Ozai, however, Azula escapes and discovers a stack of letters written by Ursa in Ozai’s secret chambers. She burns them all, except one, which she hides from Zuko. She uses the burned letters as leverage to convince Zuko to allow her to accompany him and Team Avatar on their journey, and he complies.
Though Azula seems to be on the mend—she displays her impressive tactical knowledge often during the journey—it soon becomes clear Azula is not yet fully healed. Azula is still plagued by visions of her mother, all of which tell her that she loved Azula. Azula can’t believe this and becomes paranoid, picking fights with Zuko, Aang, and other people along the way. The journey is long and difficult, but eventually, Zuko finds his mother—though she now goes by a different name, Noriko, and is settled down with a husband and a new daughter. A spirit stole her memories after she fled Ozai’s palace, and she never remembered who she was or where she came from.
Ursa’s new life and daughter enraged Azula, of course, and she decided to kill Ursa as a way of ridding herself of the visions that had plagued her for well over a year. In the end, however, Noriko apologizes to Azula for “not loving [her] enough” in the past, and after a final duel with Zuko, Azula flees into the night.
Azula and the New Ozai Society
Though Azula never appeared in the next Avatar comic book trilogy, The Rift, she did appear in the next graphic novel trilogy, Avatar: The Last Airbender – Smoke and Shadow. In Smoke and Shadow, Azula returned as the leader of the New Ozai Society, a group set on overthrowing Zuko as the Fire Lord because of a prophecy—a prophecy that states that the Fire Nation will perish at the hands of the Kemurikage, mysterious spirits that haunt old warlords in the darkest corners of the Fire Nation.
Now more composed, Azula used her wit and cunning to try to overthrow Zuko and reinstate her father as the rightful Fire Lord. Azula’s trickery shook Zuko to his core, and to defeat her, he became almost as treacherous as his sister—something which Azula gleefully pointed out to him. In the end, however, it seemed Azula had no interest in reinstating Ozai but was testing Zuko instead, helping him become a better, humbler leader in the process. In the aftermath, Azula becomes Zuko’s shadowy advisor, but betrayal is right around the corner. With Azula, it’s hard to know the truth.
Is Azula ever redeemed?
Azula’s story continues in the standalone comic story Azula in the Spirit Temple. In the story, she’s still attempting to destabilize the Fire Nation, and she’s being pursued by Ty Lee. Whilst on the run, she comes across a mysterious temple in the woods, a temple which tests her to her very limits as she’s never quite sure if what she’s seeing is real or a hallucination. Azula in the Spirit Temple is a character study more than anything else—Azula decides that she does not need nor want forgiveness and redemption. She holds on to her belief that she was the one who was wronged.
The story never outright denies that she could be redeemed—Azula rejects the notion herself. Though some may not find this conclusion satisfying, it’s certainly in line with her character and turns old tropes into something new.
Azula is still one of Avatar’s most intriguing characters. Perhaps she’ll return in the upcoming animated Avatar: The Last Airbender movie, but for now, if you’re interested in knowing more about her, the comics are a great place to start.
(featured image: Nickelodeon)
