Princess Azula

Player Information

Name: Al
Age: 33
Contact details: alkapwnd on Plurk Alkapwnd#4721 on discord or alkpawnd87@gmail.com
Other characters: N/A

Character Information

Name: Azula
Canon: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Canon Point: After Book 3 of The Search
OU/AU/CRAU/OC: OU
Age: 17

World Information: The world of Avatar
The long and short of it is that Azula's world is one that is recovering from over 100 years of war. Technology is at best Steam and coal based, but they are poised to grow in leaps and bounds in the next few decades.

It is a world of magic, where spirits can slip through the veil between the etherial world and the mortal one at times, and where humans can be born with an innate ability to manipulate elements of Earth, Fire, Water and Air.

Personal History: Princess Azula of the Fire Nation

Personality:

At this point in her life Azula feels like she really has lost it all. Her status, her home, even her mind to some degree. To put it plainly she's miserable.

Most of the time, Azula can be haughty, snobby and downright mean having been raised all her life to believe that she was just born better then others. And on top of superior breeding by way of being a Fire Nation Royal, she adds to her sense of superiority by having trained daily to be more physically and mentally competent and capable then most adults in her world.

All her life she's been a prodigy and the pressure of that combined with her ambition drove her to great heights. She was a war hero! She helped her father achieve his goals after her elder brother had failed time and time again and where did that get her? She almost had the crown, the position of leadership she had spent all her life striving for and it was snatched away from her at the last minute.

She feels like her brother, mother and life in general cheated somehow.

She can be paranoid, growing anxious and suspicious of even those closest to her due to two of her most loyal "friends" betraying her when she was ordering them to cross a moral threshold they were unwilling to cross. The paranoia can grow to such degrees that she has hallucinations of her mother whom she believed for a time was somehow the mastermind behind her downfall.

The reality of it is that her mother was always more doting on Zuko being the first son and in turn Azula felt neglected. She would lash out and her mother would scold her to the point where Azula has said "Even my own mother thought I was a monster." Of course Azula will then laugh it off saying her mother was right but it's clear that rejection early on in her life is what set the stage for so much down the line.

When things aren't all terrible Azula can actually be fun and thoughtful at times even going so far as to be frivolous. While vacationing on Ember Island with her brother and two friends (Before their falling out) Azula spontaneously decided that she would pretend not to be a Princess but instead be a normal Fire Nation teenager. At a party they were invited to she even took some lessons from her friend Ty Lee on how to flirt with a boy. It was petty and beneath her but she enjoyed herself all the same.

Then once she had determined the evening was over and everyone was in a bad mood she and her brother and friends returned to wreck the party and set the building on fire. Good times.

She can be cruel, she can be ruthless and she takes particular joy in showing people up, but after losing as much as she's lost she's been forced to accept she still has a long way to go. She isn't even sure she wants the throne anymore after seeing how quickly the citizens accepted Zuko as their new leader and were willing to just abandon the war that her family had spent a century winning.

But if she's not the Fire Lord, and there's no war for her to help win then what's left for a young prodigy who rose to the top and was knocked all the way back down so fast?


CRAU developments: N/A

Key themes:

True power: Azula was raised to believe that power was one of the most important things a person could have. Ruling by respect and fear was always more important then trust and love to her father and so she too aimed to amass as much power as she could. Studying and training, surrounding herself with talented yet obedient people. Azula used fear and manipulation to hold onto power and control over herself and others as long as she possibly could. It was only when she lost that control that she started to feel powerless and she began to spiral.

Family: The Fire Nation Royal Family did a pretty good job of messing up their children on the whole. Where Zuko was scorned by his father and doted upon by his mother, Azula was constantly praised and encouraged by her father for her natural talents and in turn scolded and reprimanded by her mother for her behavior and attitude. There was a time we could see where she was happily playing with Zuko like siblings should, but he makes his disdain for her clear quickly in the show.

Over time her mother vanished and Azula would later find out she willingly gave up her memories of her children so she could start a new life, start a new family and live happily without the burden of knowing she abandoned them. Meanwhile Azula's father who praised her talent and skill and always compared her to her brother in an attempt to make him better, abandoned her as well for his own lofty world dominating desires, showing little if any appreciation for how much word and effort she had put in to help him reach his goals.

Even her wise old uncle who doted on Zuko and raised him like a son, never connected with Azula trying to treat her like a more traditional girl when she was younger and had no interest in such things, and then writing her off as dangerous and crazy later on in life.

Perfection: Azula strives for perfection in everything she does to her own detriment. Almost isn't good enough and failure is not an option. If she can't have a flawless victory then she works twice as hard at revenge. But having been taught all her life that her nation and all it does is striving for perfection it became a weakness to see how other nations and ways of thinking wound up being stronger in the end. Overlooking her own flaws and being blinded by her supposed perfection led to miscalculations, poor choices and eventually her downfall.

Main Motivation: Azula at this point has lost everything and everyone, so when she ran off into the woods overwhelmed with emotions about her mother and her brother, her only motivation would have been to get as far away from them as possible and re-evaluate.

In further comics in her canon she has come to the conclusion that her destiny was never to rule the Fire Nation but to guide Zuko from the shadows, molding him into the Fire Lord she wants him to be. But I figure time out inbetween worlds on a train might give her a new direction in life.

Skills:

Firebending: Azula from a young age displayed a talent for the martial art of Firebending, being able to conjure flames out of thin air with body movements and manipulation of chi. Her skill is often noted that while most firebenders have orange or red flames, hers burn a pure and clear blue or white.

Lightning bending: A dangerous and difficult technique that only very advanced Fire Benders can master. Azula not only mastered it, but has developed her technique to the point where she can use it casually without much thought. While Uncle Iroh posits that one needs a clear mind to use Lightning effectively, Azula was able to wield it skillfully even while having a mental and emotional breakdown.

Physical skills: Azula's high level of athleticism and agility allow her to accomplish amazing feats of dexterity such as running up walls, performing mid air acrobatics and dodging and redirecting attacks bare handed.

She has shown that through her time with her former friends Mai and Ty Lee she has learned acrobatic and Knife throwing skills, though she isn't quite on their level.

She has also shown a trained talent for unarmed fighting.

Intelligence: Azula's greatest weapon and eventually her greatest weakness was her mind. A skillful tactician and strategist Azula orchestrated the downfall of the Earth Kingdoms last great city, something that her Father and Uncle had both failed at.

She is clever, manipulative and skilled at reading people finding their weaknesses the more time she spends studying them so she can best leverage that weakness against them. Not to mention her skill at lying is so high she can even fool someone like Toph who has effectively made herself a human lie detector by reading a persons vitals.

Unfortunately when she finds herself in a bad state of mind she can become erratic, paranoid, unable to focus and prone to emotional outbursts. So long as Azula can keep herself in a good place mentally and emotionally, her mind will always be her greatest strength.

Item: Her royal headpiece.

Sample: Sample from TDM
Another sample from the TDM
Sample from previous game

Notes: I look forward to getting the chance to play with you all.