I have to watch the series and write this while watching.
I’m starting when Azula takes the kingdom, but I may begin to write it out when she is actually going to take the Earth Kingdom.
It turns out the Wiki has a great copy of this on the Azula Wikipedia. I’m going to copy and paste that here, and then use other parts later.
Spring 100 AG
Main article: History of Azula (Spring 100 AG)
Azula was supplied with a Fire Nation royal sloop, which included a crew and sailed to Zuko and Iroh’s last known location. As they approached the port, Azula addressed her crew, emphasizing that she would not tolerate any reluctance to carry out their mission, even if they were apprehending members of the royal family. Before dismissing her crew, Azula reveled in their sense of fear. The ship’s captain approached her, explaining that the tides would not allow them to bring the ship in before nightfall. Annoyed by the news, Azula deftly let the man know that his life was at stake if he did not follow her orders.
Azula found Zuko and Iroh in a village resort and invited them to the ship with the false promise of being accepted home with open arms. Her initial plan of luring back her two dissident family members was thwarted by her own ship’s captain, who accidentally addressed Zuko and Iroh as prisoners. In the ensuing skirmish, Azula was thrown overboard, allowing her brother and uncle to escape.[19] In order to pursue the Avatar, Azula formed an elite team consisting of her childhood friends Ty Lee, recruited from a circus, and Mai, who was living in Omashu as the governor’s daughter. Azula did not manage to capture Aang and his friends in Omashu, but nonetheless was able to crush the city’s resistance and secure it for the Fire Nation, renaming the city New Ozai in her father’s honor.[14] Azula continued to pursue the Avatar, Zuko, and Iroh for several weeks, making use of technological advancements such as the tank train, being able to find them and wound Iroh in Tu Zin before fleeing the scene.[20]
After her initial failure to breach the strong outer wall of Ba Sing Se with the Fire Nation drill,[21] Azula and her team encountered the Kyoshi Warriors led by Suki, who they swiftly defeated and took into custody.[22] Hoping that it would break her, Azula sent Suki to the Boiling Rock high-security prison.[23] Disguising themselves, Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai entered Ba Sing Se and successfully plotted a conspiracy with the treacherous minister Long Feng.[6][24] She had the Dai Li arrest the Council of Five, the Earth King‘s highest-ranking generals, while she personally overthrew the sovereign. Sokka and Toph were arrested while attempting to warn Earth King Kuei against the plot, and Azula sent to a separate dungeon. Immediately afterward, Long Feng arrived on the scene and commanded the Dai Li to arrest Azula, attempting to double-cross her. Having prepared against a potential counter, Azula instead convinced the Dai Li to pledge loyalty to her. Realizing that he had been outplayed at his own game, the Grand Secretariat grudgingly surrendered. After taking control of the palace, Azula encountered Zuko in the Upper Ring and managed to convince him to join her in order to redeem his birthright as crown prince. During a battle with the Avatar in the Crystal Catacombs beneath the city, Azula mortally wounded Aang with a lightning strike just after he entered the Avatar State, leaving the Avatar presumed dead forever and the Earth Kingdom capital delivered into the hands of the Fire Nation.[7]
Summer 100 AG
Main article: History of Azula (Summer 100 AG)
After the fall of Ba Sing Se, Azula made arrangements for her friends, Zuko, and herself to return to the Fire Nation. Before leaving the Earth Kingdom capital, she passed her rulership over the city to one Joo Dee, whom she raised to the city’s Supreme Bureaucratic Administrator.[25] She also brought back her uncle Iroh in chains, who would be imprisoned in the Capital City Prison complex for his treachery. Back home, both she and her brother were welcomed as war heroes and were greeted by crowds of their people. However, Azula doubted that the Avatar was truly dead and believed that Zuko was hiding something from her. As such, she informed her father that Zuko had killed the Avatar, which would set him up for greater dishonor should he be proven to be alive.[9]
Azula traveled with her friends and Zuko to Ember Island for a brief vacation while the Fire Lord conferred with his advisers in private. Azula took advantage of this opportunity to experience life as a normal person for the very first time, choosing to keep conceal her identity as a princess. The vacation was one of the few moments of her life when Azula opened up and revealed her pain and resentment about her relationship with her mother.[9] After returning to the capital, Azula attended an important all-day war meeting with her father, her brother, and the nation’s most important generals, where she suggested using Sozin’s Comet to destroy the Earth Kingdom once and for all, a plan which dismayed Zuko and would contribute to his eventual defection from their nation.[10][26]
Having gained knowledge of the invasion during her infiltration in the Earth Kingdom, Azula warned the Fire Lord in advance, and the royal family evacuated to an underground bunker prior to the invasion.[27] Azula and her agents stalled Aang, Sokka, and Toph from finding Fire Lord Ozai before the eclipse ended. This distraction allowed the Fire Army to retaliate with full force once their bending was reactivated, bringing the invasion to an end.[8]
Later, Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee visited the the Boiling Rock, where Zuko had been captured while infiltrating the high-security prison in an attempt to rescue Hakoda. Although it seemed as if Zuko, Sokka, Suki, and Hakoda would fall into the boiling lake during an escape attempt, Mai helped aid their escape. Enraged, Azula confronted her former friend, who confessed that her love for Zuko was greater than her fear for Azula. At that moment, Azula prepared to attack Mai, but Ty Lee stopped her by blocking her chi. Azula subsequently had both Mai and Ty Lee imprisoned as traitors.[28] Afterward, Azula led a platoon of Fire Nation airships to the Western Air Temple, where she battled Zuko. During their skirmish, Azula nearly fell to her death after slipping from the airship, but was able to stop her descent by using her hairpin as an anchor in the cliff wall. Despite having failed to eliminate both Zuko and Aang, she smiled as the Avatar and his friends escaped the temple.[29]
When Ozai departed to harness the power of Sozin’s Comet to burn the Earth Kingdom, he named Azula as the new Fire Lord. Although Azula was astonished to receive the title, her father told her that while she would rule the homeland, he would become Phoenix King and become the supreme ruler of the world.[10] As she prepared for her coronation, Azula began to crack under the pressures of her friends’ betrayal and acceding to the throne, and her mental health began to deteriorate.[12][30] She became suspicious of her servants and began to banish them from the nation, along with her personal advisors Lo and Li, her own Dai Li agents, and the Royal Procession. While attempting to cut her hair for the coronation, Azula saw a hallucination of her mother. Just before the High Sage was to crown Azula as Fire Lord, Zuko and Katara arrived at the palace. Azula challenged Zuko to a Comet-Enhanced Agni Kai, to which he agreed, noticing her imbalanced mental state. During their fight, Azula’s attacks were wild, emotional, and reckless, albeit still powerful, while Zuko’s attacks were calm and controlled, and eventually, he gained the upper hand. When he began to overpower her, Azula, responding to his challenge to use lightning, directed her attack toward Katara. However, Zuko intercepted her attack and was grievously injured as a result.[1] Azula then attempted to defeat Katara, but the waterbender trapped them both in ice and chained her to the floor by taking advantage of her mental decay. Seeing herself defeated and usurped as Fire Lord, Azula let out a fiery roar before breaking down, sobbing and screaming.[11]
After the Hundred Year War
Searching for Ursa
After her Agni Kai with Zuko and subsequent mental breakdown, Azula’s insanity earned her Zuko’s pity, and rather than being sent to prison, like their father Ozai was, she was committed to an asylum on a nearby island, where she was continuously monitored.[12] Although she considered the mental health facility a “horrible” experience, Azula actually befriended some other patients.[31] About a year later, she was visited by her brother, who told her that he had consulted with Ozai on several occasions in an attempt to learn Ursa’s whereabouts, to no avail. Answering his request for help, Azula said that she needed nothing in return for her assistance, as the mere knowledge of being of service to the Fire Lord would be enough satisfaction. She also stated that she had been wondering as well what exactly happened to their mother following her disappearance six years earlier.[32]
She was placed in an adjoining cell with her father, though they did not speak with each other for half an hour. Zuko observed this and brought them tea in an attempt to make the situation more enjoyable. Azula grabbed hold of the tray with her teeth, however, causing Zuko to fall over. She angrily accused him of wanting to see her lap up the beverage like an animal since she would have had no other way to drink it while confined in her straitjacket. Her outburst prompted Ty Lee to chi block her, rendering her completely immobile. Due to her poor mental health, Azula questioned the girl as to how “she”, referring to Ursa, had managed to break the grasp of fear Azula used to have on her. Before the situation could escalate any further, Zuko intervened and stated that he had meant no harm and just wanted to ease the conversation with Ozai along. After being placed on her chair again, the chi blocked Azula arrogantly stated that if her brother wanted her and their father to have a dignified conversation, he should leave them alone, which he did.[33]
When Zuko was taking her back to her old quarters in the palace where she would be staying, he asked her whether or not she had been able to coax the needed information about Ursa’s whereabouts from Ozai. She dodged the question and asked in return whether or not he had ever experienced the sensation of being chi blocked. When Zuko said he had not, she proceeded to meticulously describe the feeling, mentioning that one becomes extremely flexible right before regaining their full control. To prove her words, she twisted her arm out of her straitjacket and fired a lightning bolt at her brother. In the ensuing skirmish, she managed to free herself entirely and made her way into a nearby building. Via a hidden passageway, she went to one of Ozai’s secret chambers, where she retrieved a stack of undelivered letters, which Ursa had written to her hometown. Before Zuko could take them from her, she burned them, having already read them herself. She concealed one of them, however, as it contained information that suggested Zuko was not actually Ozai’s son and thus had no claims to the throne. Unaware that Ursa wrote down false information because she knew the letter would be intercepted by Ozai, Azula kept it for leverage so she could eventually overthrow Zuko and let her brother believe that all had been destroyed. In return for knowledge about what had been written in the allegedly burned letter, she requested to be allowed to go with him on his search for their mother.[33]
Complying with the request, Zuko released her from the mental institution and allowed her to accompany him, unbound and with dignity. When she showed herself to Team Avatar, however, she was immediately attacked by Katara. She easily dodged their attacks and proceeded to taunt and insult Sokka. It did not come to a scuffle until the next day when a short struggle ensued between her and Sokka. Azula disarmed him with a small, non-lethal lightning shock after he threatened her with his boomerang. The rest of the team immediately intervened and immobilized her with their bending. Upon her release, she haughtily stated that if they all just stayed away from her, they would get along perfectly.[33]
She traveled with Team Avatar on Appa to Hira’a to find her mother, but her mood was erratic, unpredictable, and characterized by delusions and hallucinations, as she constantly asked Team Avatar how “she” had contacted them, referring to her mother. Upon nearing Hira’a, she attempted to escape by jumping off of Appa. Aang swooped down and caught her in free fall, but she set his glider afire, causing him to crash to the ground and securing her getaway. She ran away but stopped as she neared a stream and heard her mother’s voice coming from the water. She argued with the reflection, accusing Ursa of desiring to ruin her from the day she was born and heading a conspiracy to strip her of her power, of which she also claimed her mother had been jealous. However, she triumphantly stated that thanks to Ursa’s letter, she now had all the proof she needed to take the throne from Zuko. She thus revealed her own plans to find and kill Ursa herself in order to stop her once and for all. She let out an emotionally toiled scream as the hallucination of her mother confirmed her love for her, prompting Azula to fire a lightning bolt at the mirage, stating the love declaration to be nothing more than Ursa’s last treasonous attempt to set her own mind against her.[33]
At that point, Zuko arrived and asked to whom she had been speaking. Reacting aggressively, Azula wanted to strike her brother down but was encased in ice by Katara before she got the chance. As the waterbender approached her, she accused her of being one of Ursa’s co-conspirators. Her rant, however, was interrupted when the wolf spirit appeared and attacked the group. As they were being overpowered by moth wasps coughed up by the spirit, Azula asked Zuko to free her so she could help, convincing him that she could not possibly make things worse for them and stating that if he could not even trust his own family, there was no one left to be trusted. He melted her icy restraints, and true to her word, she created a large lightning bolt and shot it away from the group, drawing the light-oriented moth wasps and wolf spirit with it. That night, Azula was talking in her sleep and shivering from the cold before Zuko covered her with a blanket: during this time, he found the letter she was hiding and was left stunned by its contents.[33]
The next day, the princess was awoken by another hallucination of Ursa. She was urged by her mother to stop what she was doing, as Ursa believed it was not Azula’s destiny to assume the throne. In response, Azula intended to shoot her mother with lightning, but Ursa only pleaded with her more urgently to find her true destiny. Azula snapped out of her hallucination with Katara’s hand in her grip; Sokka prepared his boomerang to strike her, but Katara managed to calm the unstable firebender down. After her outburst, Azula discovered that the letter she had kept was missing and immediately assumed that Zuko had taken it. Her brother was not at camp, however, and Azula threatened Sokka and Katara with fire to force them to tell her where Zuko had gone. After burning down a few nearby trees and bushes, she stormed off after Zuko.[16]
Azula found her brother sitting with Aang at the edge of a cliff discussing the letter questioning his heritage. Frustrated, she shot fire blasts at him, and a duel broke out. While Aang ran back to check up on Sokka and Katara, Azula was grabbed by Zuko and held over the cliff while she accused their mother of tipping him off to the letter’s location before learning that he had held it all night. Zuko requested that they stop their fighting, to which Azula agreed, and they both returned to camp. After the rest of the team put out the fires, the entire group continued their journey to Hira’a.[16]
They reached the border of Hira’a, and the Team Avatar disguised themselves using crimson robes. Azula was the only one who still wore her own outfit. The group arrived just as a performance of Love amongst the Dragons was ending. Azula and Zuko recalled the times they used to see the play and how they acted out the battle scene; Azula bragged she made a better Dragon Emperor, which is why she took up the role between the two. The play ended, and Azula followed the others. They met the leader of the Hira’a acting troupe, Noren, who offered them information on Ursa in addition to tea and an invitation to his and his wife, Noriko‘s, home. Azula and Zuko spoke with the couple’s daughter, Kiyi, about her doll. The princess mentioned she used to give her dolls “headcuts” instead of haircuts, offering one for Kiyi’s doll, which scared the young girl and caused Zuko to berate his sister. Afterward, the firebender remarked that she was “tempted to burn the whole place down, but resisted for [Zuko]”. The thought drew Katara’s ire, causing the two girls to argue. The increasing tensions between Katara and Azula resulted in Zuko declaring that Forgetful Valley would be the last stop for the trip.[16]
Upon arrival, Azula attempted to make a path by burning parts of the valley, drawing criticism from the rest of the group once more. When Aang found a flutter bat that brought him to a pond, Azula and the others followed the two there. The Avatar said it was a spiritual place and urged everyone to respect it, but Azula once again saw a hallucination of Ursa urging her to stop the mission. The princess promptly went against Aang’s word and blasted the pond with lightning, and yelled at Aang that Ursa had told him to bring them there. Katara was about to freeze her in place, but a rain of flower-shaped ice discs began to attack the team, and the nearby plants began to pull the team in one by one. Azula saved Sokka from a vine, explaining that the more “peasants” she kept around, the higher her chances of survival were. Katara countered with plantbending and ordered whoever was attacking to reveal themselves to the team.
Rafa and Misu, brother and sister themselves, arrived and set up camp with the group. Misu warned them that Forgetful Valley’s ponds needed to remain undisturbed. She told her and Rafa’s story to the team; the sibling bond they had resulted in uncertain looks from Azula and her brother. The princess cut the story short and asked about Ursa, to which Misu replied that neither she nor Rafa had seen her. As Aang prepared to cross into the Spirit World to seek out the wolf spirit, Azula walked away; when confronted by Zuko, she snapped at him, wondering if they were really going to find their mother or help “a couple of vagrants”. Zuko said that it was Aang’s duty to help people, and Azula accused the Fire Lord of not wanting to hold the throne anymore, traveling with Team Avatar to help people instead. Her focus quickly shifted toward her psychotic beliefs, and she accused Ursa of orchestrating Rafa and Misu’s arrival to throw them off her trail. She prepared to shoot lightning at the siblings, warning her mother that her plans would fail.[16]
Her attack was thwarted by Zuko, however, and she was forced to calm down, awaiting Aang’s return. When the Avatar brought the Mother of Faces with him, Azula interrupted Misu’s plea to the spirit to grant her brother a new face with a demand to know about Ursa. After learning that the Mother of Faces had given Ursa a new identity as Noriko, Azula promptly took off to Hira’a with her brother and Sokka chasing after her. Barging into Noren and Noriko’s house, Azula was finally able to confront her mother, demanding to know if Kiyi was supposed to be her replacement because she was such a monster. Sokka held her off temporarily, but the princess ultimately slammed Ursa to the wall and prepared a ball of fire, intent upon killing her.
She teared up when her amnesiac mother apologized for not loving her enough, but after being separated from her by Zuko, she began attacking him. Azula asked Zuko why he would not allow her to take the throne, saying he would be free of something he did not want, while it would rid her of the “incessant nagging in [her] head”. Upon being told that she was wrong, Azula protested, reminding him that he had the opportunity to throw her over the cliff and be rid of both her and the letter. Zuko answered that he knew the throne was his destiny and went on to say that no matter how messy their relationship was, she was still his sister. Azula, in tears, burned an opening through a nearby wall and ran outside, dropping the letter in the process. She ran off toward the Forgetful Valley, calling her brother weak when he begged her to stay so that he could help her and vanishing from sight.[34] Although Zuko tried to find her in the weeks before he returned to the capital with Ursa, Ikem, Kiyi, and Team Avatar, Azula managed to remain hidden, which caused Zuko to believe that she did not want to be found.[35]
some part of me feels more like azula than anyone else in the series, almost being perfect and having one hair out of place. I guess I have some personal reasons to write this fic.
“Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”