CHILDHOOD
She was born two years after her older brother, Prince Zuko, she was born to Prince Ozai and Princess Ursa. Her father had tried to teach her brother to be strong and try to use him for his own personal gain, however he had no luck. He thought he needed another son who would hopefully be stronger, he had hoped to please his father, Fire Lord Azulon, by naming his second child after him. However to Ozai's dismay his second child was a girl. This is Azula's first rejection and the botton set to the destruction of her sanity, she wasn't accepted for who she was. However as years passed her father noticed how talented she was and dispite her gender he focused his attention on her. I believe he focused too much on her because she hardly seemed to have anytime for herslef unless her father was busy.
DUTIES AND IMAGE
As a princess she has duties and she was required to know everything about the fire nation and dictatorship. She was sent to Fire Nation Royal Academy For Girl, which made her very well educated. She apperently only had two friends, Mai and Ty Lee. Even when she was born she wasn't accepted because of her gender, her gender haunted her even to this day. Since only the first born son can become the next ruler she feels deep inside that all her work is for nothing.
Women in her society are in my opinion saw as sex symbols. The guards show off their bellys, that seems very dangerous. They have a large area where armor isn't protecting them. They could easily be killed! A sword could cut them in half, a sword could be thrown at them and they die, or they could get burned from an exident. The fire nation doesn't seem to care because women are meant to be beautiful and eye candy for the men. What does this have to do with Azula? Well she wants to prove that women can be much more than just pretty faces. To do so she showed how strong she was and was willing to do whatever it takes to become the next heir to the fire nation crown. She had to please her father by acting evil so he might one day decide to make her the next heir. Especially since she's stronger, smarter, cares more, and has worked harder than Zuko.
RELATIONSHIPS
Ozai
Their relationship is like a little girl and a little wind-up doll. Meaning Azula had to look beautiful and do tricks whenever Ozai commanded than when he was done with her he'd toss her aside; or if she failed he's just think of her as a broken toy. He never saw her as his daughter and not even a person, he thought of her as a thing and a weapon. If he could've cahnged her and made her a boy he would've, we all knew that. Azula thought her father actually loved her, she absolutely adored and worshiped him. He didn't love her or even like her, he just favored her over Zuko because of her skills. Even when she was just a little girl he used her as a tool to use for his own personal gain. He used her to try to please his father by naming her after him. Her grandfather favored Iroh over her father. Could Ozai have inherited this family trait? Could he have also favored Azula because she was the younger siblings just like him? He even had her dress like a boy. A princess should wear something more traditional, like the dress that her mother wore. Her father had her wear armer and baggy boys clothes. He still can't accept her for who she is. She raely wears a dress, I think she wore a dres once or twice. He finally allows her to be fire lord but only after it wouldn't mean anything when he takes over the world. When she made a mistake he like I said before just threw her away like a broken doll. She realizes that the one man she thought would always love her actually never did and saw her as a tool.
Ursa
Alot of mothers and daughters are distant but these two take it to a new extream. Her mother spent all her time with Zuko since his father just saw him as just a waste of space and time. So Zuko got plenty of love while Azula basically went loveless. Because of Azula only being raised by her father she's very much a brat. Her mother seemed to have only one solution, to scold her without even explaining why what she's saying is wronge. I saw a fanart picture of Ursa reading a bedtime story to Zuko in bed and outside the room was Azula crying. If this actually did happen to her as a child it made her think that her mother didn't care. Her brother got the joy of a mothers love and bedtime stories while Azula only heard them outside the door, trying not to cry. Ursa I think loved her daughter very much, however she just didn't spent enough time with her to understand her. Plus saying "What is wrong with that child?" how could she say that about her own daughter? She made Azula think that she loved Zuko more than her and that she thought she was a monster. When her mom disappeared she only said goodbye to Zuko. Didn't she think to say goodbye to her only daughter who she might never see again? This haunted Azula even to this day believing that her mother hated her. When we see her talking to Ursa in her room there's two possibilities. First theory is that it was Ursa's ghost or spirt trying to help her daughter and to make up for ignoring her by letting her know that she loves her. Second theory is that it was just Azula's imagination and she just imagined what she wanted to hear.
Zuko
They seemed to at one time be close together but as time went on drifted a part. They're seen playing tag before they find out about their older consins death. She also seemed to wanna show him a good time by having him join her in spying on Ozai and Azulon. Both are jealous of the other. Zuko is jealous because she's talented and their father favors her, while she's jealous of him because even though she had everything her heart could ever want he had the one thing she wanted, love. Even though Zuko went through many troubles he always had love while Azula never really knew what love was. She helped him because I believe she actually cared for him, not just for her own gain, but also because she loves he brother. She was worried about him when he left the party and she went looking for him and told him to come to the beach with her to try to make him less depressed. Him betraying the fire nation was the first part of her being unable to trust someone. He tries to take the throne away from her when she finally gets it, she's worked for it her whole life. Zuko didn't care about the throne he just wanted his honor. He taunted her and made her mad enough when she was insane to try to kill him. Besides she beat Zuko and he still took her throne away, it was Katara who beat her. Azula should've gotten a chance to become good, her life was just as bad if not worse than Zuko's.
Mai and Ty Lee
Even though Azula is a princess and any girl would wanna be friends with a princess, these two were her only friends. They always stood by each other like good friends should. Azula knew she probably get betrayed by someone but she thought she could count on them. They were more than just best friends to her, they were like sisters to her. She tries to be a good friend and shows she cares, but being kind is an awkward place for her so she sorta makes it seem cruel so she doesn't look soft. They're also a mager part of what caused her decent into insanity.
She could see that Mai had a crush on Zuko so she got Ty Lee on the plan to get them together. She made it seem like just some childish, immature, mean joke so they don't think she's become soft or anything. They know that neither is good at expressing themselves and they respect that because they feel the same. Mai betrayed Azula for Zuko. She's been best friends with Azula her whole life and she betrayed her for a guy she never really got to know until just a few months ago. There's an expression called "Sisters before misters" I think Mai should look it up. Zuko hurt Mai and didn't even break up with her to her face, he did it in a letter; that's like an old fashion way of breaking up over text message. Why choose a guy who couldn't brake up with you to your face over your best friend? It was sorta for the best to save him and his friends but still you wouldn't have expected it from your best friend. When she said "I love Zuko more than I fear you" to Azula that meant to her that she loved Zuko more than her. She already knows how that feels because it's happened with another person, her mother, Ursa. All through season 3 Mai was always with Zuko and it seemed like she only wanted to be Azula's friend because of Zuko. Azula felts awful that one of her only friends put her boyfriend above her.
Azula had more of a relationship with Ty Lee than with Mai. Ty Lee actually played with her and made her so called "childhood" seem almost like an actual childhood. Azula was at the same time jealous because even though Azula is this great beauty she doesn't get attention from guys because they're afraid of her. Ty Lee gets guys without even any effort and can control them without scaring or manipulating them, which is what Azula was taught to do when it comes to people. However even when Azula tries to make Ty Lee feel bad, she doesn't feel better about herself and tries to cheer her up and appoligizes. Ty Lee helps her try to act better with guys since she's aware that she's clearly awkward with guys and parties. Even when people fear Azula, Ty Lee doesn't show it because of their friendship. They can relate to each other on not getting enough attention; Ty Lee didn't get attention from her parents because she had six older sisters who looked exactly like her, while Azula didn't get attention from anyone in her family except her father, which was only when he wanted to use her. When Ty Lee betrayed Azula it came out of no where. Nobody expected that to happen, especially Azula, even Mai was shocked. I mean her and Mai weren't that close especially compared to Azula. Always stay with the friend your msot close to. Which speeded up Azula's self destruction.
Iroh
He seemed to somewhat care about Azula when she was a child. However he didn't try to look into her interests but he did with Zuko. He gave Zuko a knife and Azula a doll. It's clearly obvious that Azula is kinda a tomboy and hates girly stuff. When Zuko has hard time in his life he helps him to find the right path. Why couldn't he do the same with Azula? Could he have inherited his fathers family trait of picking favories? "She's crazy and she needs to go down." he basically just gave up on her. For a wise old man he's pretty stupid!
LOVE LIFE
Since she was taught about dictatorship and concuring the world since she was a little girl, this caused her to be awkward with being a teenager. While most teenage girls her age are very good and social when it comes to being a teenager and talking to boys, Azula never knew that luxury. Her view of a love between two people had a bad influence from her parents. Her parents marriage was an arranged marriage, they didn't love each other, they treated each other with content and tolerance. Can you imagine being a little kid growing up with parents that are together but don't love each other? It also seemed that since he was of royal blood, Ozai was the one who took control of the relationship and made all the choices. So rather than learning about marriages being a supporting, loving, and respecful union, she see's it the same way she does war; to dominate, concure, and manipulate. We see how awkward she is with boys, she tries to flirt but is so awkward that she goes back to her usually additude of I will concure you. Her raising is so bad that with everything that goes on in her life her solution is to dominate over something. Chan was an arrogant person who wasn't right for her. She needed someone who could try to help her see the good in the world and that there's much more than just trying to dominate or manipulate.
HER DECENT INTO MADNESS
It's the day that Sozin's comet cames and she was going to be crowned Fire Lord, but only after it means nothing. Her insanisty grew because now she couldn't even trust her own father, someone she could add to her list of people she couldn't trust; her mother, brother, uncle, friends, and now she couldn't even trust her servants. She banished everyone in the castle, believing they would betray her. She also didn't sleep all night and when people don't get sleep they sorta imagine things and it increased her insanity. She tries to fix her hair herself but it's a mess and she cuts off her bangs making it worse. We've seen Azula before as a proper princess who always dresses nice and her hair always has her hair look perfect, but now she's different. Plus the comet increased her power and knowing she had more powe might have also increased her insanity. Could the comet also have the power to make people who are insane even more insane? When her and Katara fight there's one question we should ask. Did she let herself get defeated on purpose? She new every inch of the palace and knew that there was water there, she knew that Katara could defeat her since she's a waterbender. It could be that she though insanity, defeat, and the institution was her only way out of her duties, image, mother, father, family, friends, the betrayal, the lack of chilhood, the rejection, the anti-social attitude, the love life, and the fact that all her work was for nothing. It's debatable if she had her defeat happen on purpose or if it took her completely by surprise. The poor girl never had a chance, she was doomed the second she was born. I believe there's good in her and that she'll actually become a good guy after some help. If Zuko was given many chances why can't she be given a chance? Her life was just as bad if not worse. If you wanna believe she's just a heartless monster remember this, she's just a 14 year old girl. If you wanna believe there's good in her than that's amazing.
