Agreed. Beneath the fantastical premise is a relatable story about the importance of friends and family and the ways they can influence us. I imagine anyone who's been in an abusive or emotionally negligent household or relationship can relate to Zuko and Azula.

It may sound over dramatic, but her breakdown has always reminded me of Shakespeare's Richard III, when he's alone and left with nothing but how hateful he's become - "What do I fear? Myself? There’s none else by. [...] Then fly! What, from myself? Great reason. Why? Lest I revenge myself upon myself? Alack, I love myself. Wherefore? For any good That I myself have done unto myself? O no, alas, I rather hate myself For hateful deeds committed by myself."

At the end, Azula didn't feel like a villain, and her defeat didn't feel like a victory. In terms of asking for potential suggestions, I tried thinking of something out there and unique but failed. Then again, you're happy to do popular stuff like ALTA. As a result, I'd suggest Eren and Reiner from Attack on Titan, the latter especially not only going through something very similar to Azula but actually coming out the other end.

I think Azula did what she had to in order to avoid being attacked and traumatized by her father the same way he did to zuko

It would have been so great if we had given an Azula Alone episode. Maybe we would have seen Azula’s life after Zuko got banished. She was smiling when Zuko’s face was getting burned and had the Oh yeah expression. But maybe life wasn’t so great for her since she is the Crown Princess during those years. There was no Zuko to distract Ozai. She had all of Ozai’s attention. I think if Ursa had given her more love, then Azula would still be the same as the series. She would still have Ozai’s influence, something that Zuko didn’t have. I think if Ozai saw Ursa showing more love to her and counteracting with Ozai’s teachings, then he would have increased his influence on Azula or done something to hurt Ursa. Ursa would still be gone during her childhood. She was already going down that path when Ursa was still there in the palace. I don’t criticize Ursa for scolding Azula anything she did for pretty bad behavior. Ursa is able to be a parent to Azula in those parents. Azula had Mai and Ty Lee to play with. Zuko doesn’t have any childhood friends it seems like. With Iroh and Lu Ten gone in Ba Sing Se and Ozai neglecting him, there would be no one else that would given Zuko the time of day.

Absolutely 100% agree. Being the named next in line under the domineering influence of far too up close and personal proximity to ultimate, overarching, royal power when one has already inherited and also been blessed with an outstanding degree of innate, hereditary divine power as Azula does courtesy of her relation to her great-grandfathers, particularly Avatar Roku as a little girl leaves her overall temperament to go unchecked with no room to grow and thus no space or time to forge her own identity individually of her father at all. They are co-dependents. Ozai depends on her to be the perfect military weapon to enact his regime so she depends on him for true validation; validation he is slow to give, then far too quick in actively giving it with no true warmth or genuine, unconditional affection behind it when he does so as to leave her craving more and more and thus leaving her in the lurch to expect more which is a horrible place to be stuck in for so long. Zuko was, in some ways, very lucky not to be under their father's constant eye at home where Azula was far too many times too often for her own good, to her own detriment. What Ozai did to both of them was abhorrent and heinous but, perhaps most fundamentally, the child he used and abused the worst in purely psychological terms given he never punished her physically yet still punished her when she didn't serve him perfectly was Azula. It is far better to be the scapegoat to take that necessary time out to come to know that all one has to decide is what to do with the time given to one than to be the one who is living under a purely psychologically abusive influence at home all the time, day in, day out since it is much harder to see oneself as abused overtime the longer it goes on and on when none of it is physical and all of it is psychological. For indeed, another way one can read the moment when she breaks down and sobs and screams in grief, mental fatigue and misery as Azula finally breaking under the sheer exhaustion and weight of the psychological pressure put on her that pushed her to pressure herself without ever being allowed to be able to find, develop and nurture her own sense of self outside of her father without fully knowing and understanding how to trace her breakdown right back to its true source when, deep down she'd always known that true source to be her father while never knowing how to escape from never knowing to want to or needing to escape . Life for the victim of pure psychological abuse on its own with no physical abuse involved is nothing but pure torture to the soul; a shadow of another's dark and twisted soul on a helpless soul that stunts and distorts the victim's individual soul, preventing it from ever growing individually of their abuser. Azula is basically denied the chance to break free or to ever even want to try and break free; to learn and grow and flourish as Zuko learns the hard way due to mercifully not having to live under the same roof as his father for so long over so many years. Azula was never allowed the chance to know to want such a chance let alone that she deserved it; their father actively made sure she would never be able to entertain the possibility that there was a chance for freedom from him since he sought to ensure that she wouldn't know to believe she deserved such a chance as the one she so begrudges her brother for the guidance he had so he could take that chance as he did. I know what pure and debilitating psychological abuse on its own is; I've been ruled by it from childhood myself; I've lived it. As despicable as Azula's war crimes are, as manipulative as she shows herself to be, she is, however, perhaps the most traumatized by mental and psychological abuse out of herself and Zuko. Not that Zuko isn't traumatized of course, he absolutely is as a result of physical abuse and the psychological abuse that comes with it but, his banishment was a blessing in disguise; the chance to forge his own path with the right influence to guide him in Uncle Iroh. Zuko did not live with the abusive influence of his father day in, day out over all of the years of his young life on the same insidious and, in some ways, far more spiritually abusive scale as his sister. Azula did; she sold her soul to destruction itself out of destruction tearing at her soul from the inside out.. She bore the brunt of immense and back breaking mental abuse and brainwashing while being rewarded for the worst kind of behaviour she did not know to question all through childhood into her teens. I've lived under two similarly psychologically abusive influences from home too, the first going right back to my childhood and living in that kind of environment only leads one to craving and harbouring a very real and raw, aching desire for parental warmth and acceptance, belonging and love until it becomes so overwhelming that it weighs on you as the hunger for that basic human need in a child grows and gasps for it overtime. More than anything else, it leaves one deeply and exceptionally scarred in mind, heart and soul over many long years when the abuse is all inherently psychological and is, in some ways, a sense of living yet not truly living in the way of living for oneself and the need and right to one's own peace of mind, sense of self and self-improvement. What Azula suffers at her father's hands can easily be called emotional rape - an emotional rape of the mind and soul until she has no sense of self, no sense of identity or purpose; only pain, deep, searing, emotional pain and a headachingly horrible sickness of sorts in the mind as a result of her mind having been so violated by a parent she did not know to defy or question who knew exactly how to prevent the growth and blossoming of her soul from the earliest days of her childhood. While the Avatar does indeed heal the world at large by restoring balance between the elements and the Four Nations, Azula is perhaps the longest suffering individual who suffers the greatest internal imbalance within herself in mind and soul in the throes of her mental breakdown and a mental breakdown brought on by abuse and mistreating others as a result is, well, it is one of the worst experiences in life in general and a deeply unhappy place to be . In moments like that one just wants it all to end; maybe even to die sometimes when one has been so thoroughly messed up and suddenly knows just how messed up during such a traumatic awakening to the reality of what has not only been mental and psychological torture but also spiritual torture as Azula no doubt realizes in that moment. To know that what only appeared to be the best days of her life were also the worst and that she'd been entirely robbed of a proper, happy, innocent childhood where she'd deserved to be protected and cared for by both parents rather than neglected and abandoned by (in her mind) an emotionally absent mother as well as spoilt and overindulged in equal measure through manipulation and brainwashing by a narcissistic father into self-destruction and self- sabotage in what should have been a safe and loving, harmonious home is something worth grieving and mourning for anyone. All she knows in that moment of mental and spiritual exhaustion and loss of self is that, at the end of pushing herself to the absolute breaking point as her father so insidiously compels her to do is that that whole period of her childhood that should have been a protective and genuinely nurturing one is gone; that the innocent and trusting little girl Azula once was is gone; everything and everyone she'd trusted so easily and unconditionally as a child to keep her safe and love her that only ever actually hurt her so deeply all the way to her brokenness is gone, forever. That, I think is why the sheer weight of her misery overwhelms her in the end because the thing she can cry about and has absolutely every right to cry about so much is that she lost her entire childhood, all sense of a self she deserved to know she could make for herself if her mother had only been there for her as much as she'd been emotionally present for Zuko or taken her away to a safer place upon banishment far away from a father who only ever taught her to bring out the worst in her through inflicting the worst on her. It's so sad that, contrary to Zuko in the end, Azula truly lost herself and thus lost her way. No child ever deserves to be so abused to within an inch of the soul by a toxic influence over such a pure and innocent soul. I would know. I've been there. I see a fair amount of myself in Azula both in the way she's unable to relate to others of her own age and is so full of guilt and self-loathing at the way she mistreats others not necessarily because she genuinely wants to but because she's been allowed to and has been led to believe that she somehow has the right to. She isn't just some perfect princess from the outset. She's a traumatized child who's been raised by a parent with a grandiose image of himself and who did not do anything to him to deserve it.

Azula, did nothing wrong she did what she was told to do. Her father teached her that way, so she was a good child, she wasn't the sweet little girl, but she was listening to what her father said, she did her best to please her father and meet his expectations. But her father only saw her as a tool. And at the end all of that teaching did not help her making propre allies. Then in that moment when her friends left her and Mai said she loved Zuko more than she feared her, I think that's when she realised, she never loved her father, she feared him, did her best not because she didn't wanted to disapoint him, but because she feared that she will end up like Zuko or her mother. And worst, she didn't have anyone to turn into for help, because she did so much wrong, that no one in the right mind will dear help. Why would they? Frankly thats more of my point of view on the charater more then anything but sure I really hope she get a propre chance to redeem herself, and hope Zuko don't totally give up on her. Or that he find at least the strength to put her out of her misery.

Great analysis. Azula could possibly be my favorite character in any story. Watching her break down in the finale is so devastating to me that I can't even watch A:TLA anymore because I only end up depressed. And I keep hoping that she will eventually find some redemption in the future.

Great video! You did a wonderful job looking into how the lack of real love and affection in Azula's life molded her personality but also ultimately stunted her growth as a person. As for suggestions for future analysis videos, if you feel like sticking within the realm of ATLA, I'd love to see one of these for Katara!

11:25 Zuko would have never become Azula, he did not have the cold nature that Ozai and Azula had naturally. He would be Iroh before his son's death probably. Kind hearted deep down but doing bad stuff. Azula and Ozai are both victim of their upbringing, but they had the talent to thrive in that environment in the first place. It is always nature and nurture both at work, one doesn't take over completely the other one.

Faith Lehane from Buffy is fascinating when viewed through a similar light.

No she still can be redeemed

I just wanted to let you know that there will be a comic called Azula in the spirit Temple, and also avatar studios will be releasing a film focused on Zuko in 2026. So there is a possibility of Azula getting redemption. Azulas story in the gap between Aang and Korra is unexplored mostly and there is no indication as to what happens to her by Korra era. In fact Zukos family is unknown mostly in Korra. In Korra we get glimpses of relationships between Katara Aang and Tophs Kids and grandkids, but with Zukos kids and grandkids sadly nothing🤷🤷 There is so much unknown about Zuko Izumi Iroh II and Zukos granddaughter. For all these years since the end of Korra Zukos family has not been the focus of the Korra show or Korra comics sadly. So many questions.

I never understood the shes naturally evil thing coz that whole family was messed up from sozin all the way ozai iroh(who laughed at the thought of injuring ppl in ba sing se) before his sons death and azula who grew up learning from ozai if zuko didn't have Ursa in his life like azula didn't he would've turned out the same if he was just as good as azula but coz his mother was so overprotective of him he had a good heart deep down Ursa thought azula didn't need it and clearly feels guilt of azula

What if thrax was redeemed? If it would happen what would it look like? He's the son of queen Hippolyta and ares

I agree. Also great video.👍

great vid

I love how your justify her actions while trying so hard to make your point

Could you do a video on the character called Cedric from Sofia the First?

I love your 🧐 face. 🙏

correction,, Azula killed* Aang

Honestly how can someone be so cold yet so hot

Azula's downfall is certaintly tragic. But her story is not nearly as heartbreaking as Jet's or Yue's. They were good kids, and due to circumstances had to sacrifice their lives. Jet especially lost everything and was left alone in the world. At the very least in case of Azula she does have Zuko and her mother who are shown in the comics to care for her, and do want to reach out. Maybe a miracle can happen.

You a woman like!? Well that really debunks that moronic claim Lily Orchard's "Avatar is sexist" claim.