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Player Name: Ni
Personal LJ:papirini
E-mail: papirini@gmail.com
AIM: drpapirini10839
Other characters currently in-game: Princess Serenity (AU)
Who referred you to the game?: I'm a current player. :D
Character Name: Azula
Canon source: Avatar: The Last Airbender
PB: N/A
Personality: To give people something of an idea of what she is like, Azula of the Boiling Rock most resembles, in mind and mental state, the Azula preparing to be crowned during Sozin's Comet. Having been betrayed by her two sort of-friends, abandoned by her father at what should have been a shared moment of triumph, in canon she comes to the conclusion that no one can be trusted, that anyone can turn on her at any moment, that trust is for fools and that the only person she can truly rely on is her own, perfect self - and even this is in doubt, as she hallucinates her mother, a culmination of her guilt and perhaps even remorse, feelings she almost always suppresses in pursuit of her goals. Her doubt and paranoia give way to a complete collapse when she is finally defeated by Katara and Zuko.
But like anything with Azula, it's a bit more complicated than that. And in the alternate universe, it's no different.
In this AU, Azula started out as a prodigy, obsessed with perfection and with pleasing people, and being the best no matter what. This obsession allowed a sociopathic personality to cultivate at an early age, and she as a result feels no remorse and outwardly shows little sadness towards events that most people would grieve over. For her, most bad things occur to other people because they were incompetent to begin with - quitters and losers, soft bleeding hearts, which she brooks no tolerance towards. She mocks those who are not as strong, as smart, as good as her. Or, more importantly, her father, who is practically the center of her universe and the one person above all that she strives to please. In return he would shower her with affection and attention, which was made to be a sign of her superiority over all others, including her other brother. And she was brilliant, and still is, with technical things. She easily learned firebending to such an extent that even at a young age she was considered one of the best firebenders in the world. Eventually she could make blue fire and even lightning, and the attention and acclaim she received for her skills made her the darling of her family.
But unlike in canon, her father was taken away from her, suddenly and violently, and for supporting her father and vowing revenge she was eventually locked away in a place where she was beaten and tortured. As a result, her love for her father and his beliefs became the worshiping of a fanatic. He was a god who could do no wrong in Azula's eyes, even dead. And because he could do no wrong and he chose her as a result of his rightness, it is almost a frightening, child-like logic that places the blame of everything that went wrong with her own life - the loss of her childhood, the attention and love she received, her birthright, her honor, her destiny - on everyone else.
It is a blaming game that Azula has never grown from - she is the victim and she must exact vengeance and take her rightful things back and be in control and not her enemies - and anyone she feels is either a cause of her problems or a detriment to getting what she wants must be dealt with in any way possible. And 'any way possible' means the violence and rage she felt at her father's death and as per the treatment she received at the hands of Azulon and the Boiling Rock. Attention like what she received from her father, is gotten from attacking and hurting people, and her honor and throne (which she always felt was supposed to be hers to begin with) can only be taken through the spilling of blood. Her natural genius and power is wasted on this goal to get back and keep the things she felt were taken from her when she was cast down and treated like an animal.
And as for precisely who she blames for her troubles, her time in prison has also caused her original skepticism and mocking of inferior peoples to escalate into a fear that not just people like Zuko (an inferior who was given her birthright) and Iroh (a quitter who forever tarnished her father's potential), but literally everyone was out to get her because she was her father's perfect daughter, who believed in the greatness of the Fire Nation while everyone else wanted to lose. Much like rulers and potential rulers brought up in environments where violence and death are the norm in real life, Azula is this particular Avatar universe's counterpart of people such as Ivan the Terrible, Vlad the Impaler, men who were brilliant but psychologically fragile, whose psyches were, from a young age, ravaged beyond repair by intrigue and hate, unable to function socially or mentally in a normal society and among normal people without resorting to such things as mind games, torture, and outright sadism.
Certainly, to an extent, Azula's anger and fear is not entirely misplaced; the treatment she received in prison and at the hands of her grandfather, as he sent her there, was absolutely barbaric. But her father did not, and her mother could not, teach her a way to handle any failure in any way remotely healthy, and this ultimate failure only reinforced that she and her father was always right and that the only way she could get what she wanted was to be stronger, more barbaric, worse than her captors. And because she is always right, there can be no remorse - even if, like her canon counterpart, the specter of her mother, the personification of her true guilt and sadness, still appears, a sign that there is something there, something that isn't just hate and evil and destruction. She never acknowledges it, and always forces those feelings back down before they can infect her mind any more and make her lose her focus.
TD;LR: AU!Azula is more vicious, more emotional and more paranoid and more in need of exerting control than her canon counterpart as a result of her imprisonment, and will attack anyone and anything she feels has 'wronged' her even in the slightest.
History: Azula was the second child of Ozai and Ursa, the third grandchild of Azulon, who she is named after, and the great-grandchild of both the legendary Sozin and Avatar Roku (through her mother). From the onset she was the favorite of her ambitious father, and the worry of her mother, who favored Azula's older brother, Zuko, and who voiced concern over Azula's pathological, mean-spirited behavior growing up. The split between mother and father, and brother and sister, both in temperament and who favored who were readily apparent to others in the family, including the spiritual Iroh and his son Lu Ten, Azula's respective uncle and cousin, both who liked Zuko, who was a shy, good-hearted child. The warlike Azulon, meanwhile, gave Azula attention and considered Azula, among other things, the best firebender of his three grandchildren.
Such bipolar family dynamics wouldn't have been such a big deal, except that Azula was a princess, her father was a prince, and her grandfather Azulon was the Fire Lord, ruler of the Fire Nation. The Fire Nation was a powerful, technologically-advanced country which doubled as the home of the world's elemental masters known as Firebenders. Since Fire Lord Sozin's time, the Fire Nation had been waging a worldwide war of subjugation against the rest of the world and it's elements - the Air Nomads of the highest mountains, the Northern and Southern Water Tribes that resided at each of the world's poles, and the Earth Kingdom, which comprised one large land mass. By the time of Azula's birth, the Air Nomads had long been considered extinct due to an act of genocide by Sozin, for reasons relating to the Avatar, the human incarnation of the world and the one being capable of stopping the war, being reborn among them; the Southern Water Tribe was almost wiped out as well, its only waterbender a child. The Earth Kingdom was nearly conquered as well, with only it's two largest cities, Ba Sing Se and Omashu unconquered by the Fire Nation.
Nearly 92 years after the war began, Azulon and his ministers made the fateful decision to take Ba Sing Se once and for all, and Iroh, Azulon's heir as well as the most respected general in the Fire Nation, was chosen to lead the attack alongside Lu Ten. Iroh, who had had a dream as a young man that he would 'take' Ba Sing Se, readily accepted and began a difficult siege of Ba Sing Se and it's impenetrable walls, during which he and his troops did the impossible and breached the outer walls of the city. The battle lasted for a staggering 600 days, and would likely have lasted much longer if tragedy did not strike. During the outer wall breach, Iroh's son died in battle, and Iroh was completely devastated by the news. He was so disheartened by the loss that he abruptly ended the siege immediately after and brought his troops home.
For Iroh it was a turning point in his life, where he began to realize the true cost of war on life. When he returned home, however, some saw his end of the siege as a failure and ridiculed his decision not to tough it out and finish the job. His niece, Azula, saw Iroh as a quitter and the dead Lu Ten, a loser. And Ozai, Azula's father, decided to use Iroh's loss to his advantage, promptly presenting the idea that he, a man with two children and many plans to win the war, should be heir to the throne of the Fire Lord, as opposed to the now-childless Iroh.
However, Ozai completely misread Azulon, who was in fact enraged by the fact that his inexperienced, haughty younger son showed no remorse over betraying Iroh's loss in order to make a power play. To put Ozai in his place and to make him understand his brother's loss, Azulon ordered that Ozai kill Zuko as penance. Azula, who overheard the Fire Lord's orders, was happy to find her father was going to kill her brother, who she disliked as being stupid and incompetent in firebending. She went to taunt Zuko about what seemed to be his inevitable fate, only to be scolded by her mother and sent away.
-
In a normal world, after sending Azula away, Ursa would have gone killed Azulon by unknown means, allowing for Ozai to become Fire Lord over the grief-stricken Iroh. Ursa would have been banished, and Azula would have grown up to become her father's child entirely - not just his child, but his protege, his most obedient, loyal, and dangerous soldier, manipulated to be the perfect child to Ozai. Azula would have gone so far as to almost kill the Avatar and single-handedly conquer Ba Sing Se. She would have done this and more, only to be betrayed by her allies and sent away by her father when he decided to take sole credit for the final victory of the Fire Nation over the rest of the world (which, thankfully, never came to be). She would have ended up in a small island hospital on the orders of her brother, Fire Lord Zuko, where her inner demons could be properly treated after years of neglect and, perhaps, one day in the future, be excised.
But none of that happened.
How does your AU differ from canon? Ursa's plan to save her children failed. Whatever it had been, Azulon somehow thwarted it. And Ursa was instantly executed. In Azulon's rage, he ordered that Ozai and all his dishonorable bloodline be killed, and it was only through a last minute intervention by influential members of the government that Azula and Zuko were spared at all. The reasoning was that, if Iroh died without an heir, as was possible since he was a widower, Ozai's children would have to inherit the throne in order to continue the war as well as the Fire Lord's bloodline; more sinisterly, many of the ministers were supporters of Ozai, and knew that Iroh's eventual rule would be detrimental to their own ends. A child of Ozai, on the other hand, could be shaped and groomed to be a useful puppet who would surely continue the war and advance all of their fortunes. Azula, in particular, seemed much more her father's child than Zuko, who was seen even as a child as a weak-willed boy by Ozai.
However, the Fire Lord Azulon vowed that as long as he lived, both of Ozai's children would be considered blood-traitors and banished from the capital; both were sent to remote fortresses and watched like hawks. Soon enough it was his favorite grandchild, whose increasingly violent behavior after her father's death began to filter in from spies sent to watch over her, that caused Azulon the greatest concern for his well-being and that of Iroh's - the girl was already a prodigy and was fast showing signs of firebending strength that potentially rivaled the Fire Lord's power, including a blue flame and even charges of lightning. It was also well-known that she had loved her father and had been his darling, showered with acclaim and love by him and his supporters. When Azula finally attacked her guards and spoke of killing the person responsible for her father's death - knowing full well it was her grandfather - Azulon's heart fully hardened against the girl, and he ordered her taken to the one place he felt could deal with her, her powers and her treasonous behavior - the Boiling Rock. She was barely ten when she was brought to the prison, and his actions shocked even his staunchest supporters, but the Fire Lord believed that Azula was fast becoming the most dangerous threat to the stability of the realm.
The next four years she spent in the prison would prove Azulon correct. The princess soon after her father's death had lost much of her grip on what sanity she had possessed, but had lost nearly none of her genius; in prison it turned easily into a paranoid, delusional brew of intelligence, remorselessness, cruelty and hate. She believed the world was out to get her, that everyone had been against her father and thus her, and it was only fair she return the favor in whatever way she could. What would have broken most normal men in the Boiling Rock instead twisted Azula; the suffering she endured only strengthened her psychosis. She delighted in using her firebending and her burgeoning lightning against guards and prisoners alike, knowing the massive amounts of damage she could do and all of the attention she could receive before being taken into confinement. Even in the cold confinement that rendered her powers useless, she dreamed of burning, searing, and killing in any way she could, all who had wronged her, and forcing those she let live to still pay dearly. In time only the most seasoned and best-trained firebenders could properly control her, and even then with difficulty.
The outside world, meanwhile, changed as well, but entirely unlike Azula. The period of mourning, easily forgotten in other worlds by Ozai, slowly reached its full height without him. The loss of the heir and the botched result of Ozai's machinations, after so many years of success, demoralized most of the War's supporters in the Fire Nation, where before they had once derided Iroh for his decision to withdraw. Though Azulon attempted to order a second siege on Ba Sing Se, the result cost even more lives and resources than the first had, and Earth Kingdom rebels took the opportunity of the failed siege to fight back more ferociously than before, even taking back lands that had been conquered for several generations. The Nation's troops and people began to despair over the permanently shattered myth of their invincibility; where before people were talking about domination and victory, there was now the fear of total defeat and even subjugation by the Earth Kingdom and the Northern Water Tribe. Many even began to think and wonder, voicing questions as to why they were still fighting a war that started before many of their grandparents were even born. Soon only the most radical were still speaking of total victory, blind to the rapidly-changing situation.
Soon enough Azulon died, and Iroh became Fire Lord. His first action was to retreat from Ba Sing Se and consolidate and retain the lands won by the Fire Nation during the war, resulting in a stalemate. However, Iroh's long-term plan was in fact to fully change the people's already-disillusioned hearts towards peace, restore the conquered lands to their rightful owners, and end the war for good. He also wished to ensure that those from the Fire Nation who had made settlements in the Earth Kingdom had a choice to stay or leave. Most importantly he recalled Zuko to the capital, and installed him as heir. In fact, by this time Iroh had become disheartened by the idea of being Fire Lord, his philosophy having changed considerably since his son's death. Zuko, meanwhile, had been growing to become a fair and decent man even in exile, and only wished to do what was best for good and honor of the nation and its people, as opposed to personal glory. It was decided that after Zuko's education and training was finished in several years' time, Iroh would step down and Zuko would become Fire Lord, and in the changing climate of the Fire Nation, this was accepted and welcomed by nearly everyone.
Almost, but there were still those few war-hungry nobles, generals and industrialists who dreamed of total war and saw Iroh's sudden rise as a threat to their own positions and power. They remembered Ozai's promise of strength and ridiculed Iroh's seeming softness. And then there was Ozai's younger child, who had once been the apple of her father's eye. If they could get her out of the Boiling Rock, and convince her to join them, they could easily de-stabilize Iroh's grip on the throne and take over. And of course it was assumed that Azula, still young, still impressionable, would be grateful for the throne and the restoration of her power, and bow to whatever her allies' demands might be. So they began to smuggle people into the prison to pay Azula, now fourteen, their respects and to try and convince her to bid for the throne. Then it would only be a matter of planning the perfect time to escape. It helped that the Warden of the Boiling Rock seemed to be willing to aid them in their quest.
The princess, suddenly shown the respect and adulation she had lacked after four long years, seemed to need little convincing and agreed that she should be the Fire Lord, and that the war would continue under her reign. Nor did she have any scruples about overthrowing her own brother and uncle, having fantasized about it for years, especially now that Zuko, who she always hated for having her mother's love, was being shown favor instead of her. Azula's new supporters, however, could have scarcely comprehended what those in the prison who became privy to their plans tried to warn them about: that by this time Azula was a crazed, angry, vindictive and hateful young woman, a true monster who hated and distrusted everyone. She loved the attention she was getting and the fact she was being given an opportunity to incite violence; in truth she was manipulating those who saw her as a potential puppet as much as, if not more than, they were her. The 'Fire Nation's last hope' was just as dangerous to them as she was to Iroh and her brother. Even the prison's Warden knew the danger of letting this particular prisoner, who defied him even under torture, free, though the potential rewards that waited his family (given that his favorite niece, Mai, had been known to be a childhood friend of the princess's) for aiding in the coup eventually proved more powerful than his scruples.
Unfortunately, Azula's new supporters only saw what they wished to see, and began to bide their time for Azula's escape. The time finally did come, for the most unexpected reason: the Avatar, the spirit of the planet that was long thought dead, was uncovered under an iceberg in the Southern Pole. His return a sign that the war was about to end and their fortunes about to fall, the conspirators learned that Iroh and Zuko planned to invite the re-awakened Airbender to the Fire Nation capital to discuss options on how to end the war. Realizing there was no time to lose, Azula's allies made their way to the Boiling Rock in order to free the waiting Azula.
And it's at this time she disappears.
Strengths: Firebending: Azula is one of the strongest firebenders in canon, and in this alternate world this still holds true, even after her years in prison. She is able, simply through her own will and the strength of her own body, to create fire from her hands and feet (and if she's angry enough, from her mouth a la through a technique called "breath of fire") and bend it in any direction she wishes. She is capable of, among other things, making fireballs several times her own size and using her feet like rockets to propel her into the air. Unique among all others in the series, her flames are blue - a testament to the true strength of her hatred, anger and remorselessness, traits which, according to official Fire Nation brainwashing training, are the source of a Firebender's true power.
Lightning creation: Azula is one of the few Firebenders, aside from Iroh and Ozai, capable of creating lightning. Lightning in her canon is an extremely powerful weapon which can even strike down an Avatar while they are in the midst of the ultimate ability known as the Avatar State. The only way to counteract a Firebender's lightning is through the modified chi-utilization techniques invented by Iroh.
Prodigy/Tactician: Despite her emotional chaos, Azula is still a genius able to learn and put to use any kind of information, skills and powers at an abnormally fast rate. Likewise she is still capable of using her skill and intelligence to find weak points of enemies and scheme her way through various situations and get what she wants whenever she is so inclined to.
Lying proficiency/lying discernment: Azula is capable of lying extremely well when she wants to. She is in fact so skilled at lying that her heart rate does not change from her use of deception - a feat that was realized in canon by Toph Bei Fong, who is capable of detecting such changes to discern if people are telling the truth. She conversely is capable of discerning whether someone is lying to her or not, though precisely how is not known. It is likely because she can see others' microexpressions.
Weaknesses: Emotions/Irrationality: This Azula is far, far more likely to be irrational and emotional in comparison to her canon counterpart, lashing out when provoked, possessing a much shorter temper than she did canonically. This is all tied to her anger, which can easily get the best of her, waste her numerous talents and possibly turn her into a complete wreck very easily if something does not go her way. This anger and emotion, and difficulty in controlling it as canon Azula can, is also connected to every other weakness she possesses.
Paranoia: Azula is of the belief everyone will eventually betray her. So naturally, she will betray them first. She will abandon, attack and attempt to kill anyone on her side and not on her side that she believes will betray or is betraying her, even under the flimsiest pretexts.
Obsessive: Once Azula focuses her sights on something she particularly wants, she will pursue it even to the point of insanity - especially if it involves getting rid of an enemy or potential enemy.
Perfectionism/Control Issues: Azula wants everything perfect, and everything in her life under her control. If she cannot control something or someone, she will try and get rid of them. If something is not deemed perfect in her eyes, it is destroyed ferociously.
Lack of control over lightning: Even though she has the ability to create lightning, her emotional and mental state is such that she completely lacks control over it, nor was she never taught how to control herself while creating it. As a result she causes almost as much damage to herself as she does to others with it. Her hands in particular are scarred, seared, and burnt from the countless times she's mishandled lightning.
Zuko, the Avatar and/or Iroh: Saying anything about how great Zuko and Iroh are and about how horrible Azula is by comparison, or about how they helped end the war and bring peace, or anything remotely good about them, and it will make her extremely angry. Continue pushing on the subject, and she will attack the person talking about Zuko or Iroh. Likewise, she will target Zuko or Iroh if she knows he is within her grasp, no matter what. She's absolutely obsessed with them both and will utilize everything she has at her disposal to destroy them both in the most painful way possible, even if by doing so she runs the risk of ruining other schemes in play - to her, Zuko and Iroh > everything else. The same applies to a lesser extent towards the Avatar, though thankfully Azula at the time of her disappearance does not know the identity of the Avatar - just that he is an Airbender.
Ozai: He's dead, but he is a touchy subject for Azula. Say anything bad about him and Azula will go apeshit. She will lose it. There is almost no restraint when it comes to the dead man she worships as a demi-god.
Preferred drop-in point: Manhattan. MANHATTAN. MANHATTAN.
What are some of your plans for this character in their new environment? Kill Zuko Ally with people who despises the world as much as she does, maybe make her own gang or something to wreak her vengeance on humanity because YOU ARE ALL AFTER HER YOU WEAKLINGS AND YOU DO NOT DESERVE TO LIVE.
And kill Zuko. Violently. Bloodily. Repeatedly.
First Person Journal Sample: [The comm turns on, to reveal a rather bored-looking Azula reclining in what looks like an expensive chair, with a cup of some kind of drink in her other hand. And surrounded by walls adorned by expensive-looking paintings. It's probably best not to ask where she got them. But she is, for the first time, allowing her face to be shown on the network.]
Well, I suppose the secret's out now that everything's gone down. Yes, I am Azula. Yes, I am a firebender. And yes, Zuzu's my brother.
[It's only noticeable to the more astute watchers that Azula's grip on her cup tightens.]
My incompetent, knock-kneed, weak brother.
[Is that drink bubbling a little bit, and is that...yes. That's steam coming from the cup.]
You know, you so-called 'heroes' can do yourselves and this sad world of yours a favor and stay away from him from now on. Or even better, perhaps one of you would be willing to find him and bring him to me so I might do as I will with him. Save yourselves the drama.
Because if you thought what happened before was....unduly harsh? Well. That was me being kind. I can do far worse. Especially as I don't tolerate fools who would aid a person who would go crying to mommy when things got even remotely tough for him--
[CRACK. On the word 'tough', the hold on the glass becomes so tight, the heat from Azula's hand so strong, that it breaks into several pieces. Several pieces stick themselves into her discolored, swollen hands, drawing blood and mixing with the juice that had come onto her hand. She looks at her hand, before clenching her fist without a second thought, lighting the pieces stuck in her on fire. She speaks again, acidly.]
--Even though mommy's dead. But I can easily arrange a reunion, Zuzu. I know you're just dying to see her again after all of these years.
[She opens her hand, and the mixture of glass, blood and juice falls from her palm, dripping onto the floor.]
As for the rest of you, you have twelve hours to use your collective super brainpower and decide what you plan on doing. If you turn Zuko over to me by then, no one will be hurt, and you can all go back to your happy little lives and not have to worry about what I'll do next to your precious little cities. If you don't, none of you will have any cities left to worry about. And don't bother trying to bring that joke of a group you all call 'law enforcement' in to help you make up your minds or, heaven forbid, stop me. They won't help you. At all. Trust me on this.
So...you all might want to get a move-on. Time waits for no one. And neither do I.
[Click.]
Third Person Sample: It's a cold, dark alley in Manhattan that Azula chose for her next hunting ground.
The blue flames lick the man's back as he runs from his pursuer, screaming. She stops, momentarily, allowing the man to get closer to a door that could be his escape from the fires. Toying with him. Giving him hope. She dashes that hope in the next second, throwing a huge blast of fire right at the man, sending him flying into a wall.
Hmph. Azula steps forward as she watches her victim quiver and push tears back from his injuries. His suit was seared and he had patches of burns on his face, but the force of his impact into the wall had broken something - most likely the leg he was trying to nurse. A grown man crying like a baby. How pathetic.
She had half a mind to end his life at that moment. Escalate the robbery, end his pitiful existence and sate her desire, her anger, at least until the next time. But no. He'd live. For what she was planning, he needed to live.
"Please, take it!" The man begs her as she grabs his wallet from his pants. "Take whatever you want, just...please, don't kill me!"
"Mmm hmm." After snatching whatever money she could - girl had to eat, after all - she casually unzips another pocket, taking out a family photo. She could feel the fear coming off of him as she flips it over, and a smirk tugs at her face as a result. "Oh, and what cute kids you have. Their portraits would look absolutely stunning on--" What were those things called? Oh right. "--milk cartons."
"You...you wouldn't!!" The man's eyes bug out, and he begins to shake violently. "You wouldn't hurt my children-!!"
"Oh, of course not." Azula casually tosses the picture at the man's forehead. "Because you're going to tell the cops that a boy with black hair, brown eyes and a large scar on his left eye did it. Isn't that right?"
"What-"
"You will give them the description I just gave you." Azula took two more steps forward, the smile replaced by a very dangerous snarl as she picks the photo up again. "And you will not deviate from that story Because if you do?"
The photo suddenly erupts into blue flames, causing the man to cry out. The burning photo is dropped to the ground, and stomped on viciously as Azula turns heel. She'd made her point very clear, and he knew she was serious. Of course she was. She was in control and she didn't make idle threats. She wasn't a child anymore. Not like her sad brother, who is certainly going to wake up the next morning to a very big surprise waiting for him at his door. And that would only be the beginning of what she has planned. She didn't care if he wasn't 'her' brother, it was still him. He will rue the day he was born.
Oh, yes. Just the beginning.
"Oh, and thanks for the money." At this, she also sets the wallet on fire before tossing it on the ground as she walks away. "You can have that back now."
Personal LJ:papirini
E-mail: papirini@gmail.com
AIM: drpapirini10839
Other characters currently in-game: Princess Serenity (AU)
Who referred you to the game?: I'm a current player. :D
Character Name: Azula
Canon source: Avatar: The Last Airbender
PB: N/A
Personality: To give people something of an idea of what she is like, Azula of the Boiling Rock most resembles, in mind and mental state, the Azula preparing to be crowned during Sozin's Comet. Having been betrayed by her two sort of-friends, abandoned by her father at what should have been a shared moment of triumph, in canon she comes to the conclusion that no one can be trusted, that anyone can turn on her at any moment, that trust is for fools and that the only person she can truly rely on is her own, perfect self - and even this is in doubt, as she hallucinates her mother, a culmination of her guilt and perhaps even remorse, feelings she almost always suppresses in pursuit of her goals. Her doubt and paranoia give way to a complete collapse when she is finally defeated by Katara and Zuko.
But like anything with Azula, it's a bit more complicated than that. And in the alternate universe, it's no different.
In this AU, Azula started out as a prodigy, obsessed with perfection and with pleasing people, and being the best no matter what. This obsession allowed a sociopathic personality to cultivate at an early age, and she as a result feels no remorse and outwardly shows little sadness towards events that most people would grieve over. For her, most bad things occur to other people because they were incompetent to begin with - quitters and losers, soft bleeding hearts, which she brooks no tolerance towards. She mocks those who are not as strong, as smart, as good as her. Or, more importantly, her father, who is practically the center of her universe and the one person above all that she strives to please. In return he would shower her with affection and attention, which was made to be a sign of her superiority over all others, including her other brother. And she was brilliant, and still is, with technical things. She easily learned firebending to such an extent that even at a young age she was considered one of the best firebenders in the world. Eventually she could make blue fire and even lightning, and the attention and acclaim she received for her skills made her the darling of her family.
But unlike in canon, her father was taken away from her, suddenly and violently, and for supporting her father and vowing revenge she was eventually locked away in a place where she was beaten and tortured. As a result, her love for her father and his beliefs became the worshiping of a fanatic. He was a god who could do no wrong in Azula's eyes, even dead. And because he could do no wrong and he chose her as a result of his rightness, it is almost a frightening, child-like logic that places the blame of everything that went wrong with her own life - the loss of her childhood, the attention and love she received, her birthright, her honor, her destiny - on everyone else.
It is a blaming game that Azula has never grown from - she is the victim and she must exact vengeance and take her rightful things back and be in control and not her enemies - and anyone she feels is either a cause of her problems or a detriment to getting what she wants must be dealt with in any way possible. And 'any way possible' means the violence and rage she felt at her father's death and as per the treatment she received at the hands of Azulon and the Boiling Rock. Attention like what she received from her father, is gotten from attacking and hurting people, and her honor and throne (which she always felt was supposed to be hers to begin with) can only be taken through the spilling of blood. Her natural genius and power is wasted on this goal to get back and keep the things she felt were taken from her when she was cast down and treated like an animal.
And as for precisely who she blames for her troubles, her time in prison has also caused her original skepticism and mocking of inferior peoples to escalate into a fear that not just people like Zuko (an inferior who was given her birthright) and Iroh (a quitter who forever tarnished her father's potential), but literally everyone was out to get her because she was her father's perfect daughter, who believed in the greatness of the Fire Nation while everyone else wanted to lose. Much like rulers and potential rulers brought up in environments where violence and death are the norm in real life, Azula is this particular Avatar universe's counterpart of people such as Ivan the Terrible, Vlad the Impaler, men who were brilliant but psychologically fragile, whose psyches were, from a young age, ravaged beyond repair by intrigue and hate, unable to function socially or mentally in a normal society and among normal people without resorting to such things as mind games, torture, and outright sadism.
Certainly, to an extent, Azula's anger and fear is not entirely misplaced; the treatment she received in prison and at the hands of her grandfather, as he sent her there, was absolutely barbaric. But her father did not, and her mother could not, teach her a way to handle any failure in any way remotely healthy, and this ultimate failure only reinforced that she and her father was always right and that the only way she could get what she wanted was to be stronger, more barbaric, worse than her captors. And because she is always right, there can be no remorse - even if, like her canon counterpart, the specter of her mother, the personification of her true guilt and sadness, still appears, a sign that there is something there, something that isn't just hate and evil and destruction. She never acknowledges it, and always forces those feelings back down before they can infect her mind any more and make her lose her focus.
TD;LR: AU!Azula is more vicious, more emotional and more paranoid and more in need of exerting control than her canon counterpart as a result of her imprisonment, and will attack anyone and anything she feels has 'wronged' her even in the slightest.
History: Azula was the second child of Ozai and Ursa, the third grandchild of Azulon, who she is named after, and the great-grandchild of both the legendary Sozin and Avatar Roku (through her mother). From the onset she was the favorite of her ambitious father, and the worry of her mother, who favored Azula's older brother, Zuko, and who voiced concern over Azula's pathological, mean-spirited behavior growing up. The split between mother and father, and brother and sister, both in temperament and who favored who were readily apparent to others in the family, including the spiritual Iroh and his son Lu Ten, Azula's respective uncle and cousin, both who liked Zuko, who was a shy, good-hearted child. The warlike Azulon, meanwhile, gave Azula attention and considered Azula, among other things, the best firebender of his three grandchildren.
Such bipolar family dynamics wouldn't have been such a big deal, except that Azula was a princess, her father was a prince, and her grandfather Azulon was the Fire Lord, ruler of the Fire Nation. The Fire Nation was a powerful, technologically-advanced country which doubled as the home of the world's elemental masters known as Firebenders. Since Fire Lord Sozin's time, the Fire Nation had been waging a worldwide war of subjugation against the rest of the world and it's elements - the Air Nomads of the highest mountains, the Northern and Southern Water Tribes that resided at each of the world's poles, and the Earth Kingdom, which comprised one large land mass. By the time of Azula's birth, the Air Nomads had long been considered extinct due to an act of genocide by Sozin, for reasons relating to the Avatar, the human incarnation of the world and the one being capable of stopping the war, being reborn among them; the Southern Water Tribe was almost wiped out as well, its only waterbender a child. The Earth Kingdom was nearly conquered as well, with only it's two largest cities, Ba Sing Se and Omashu unconquered by the Fire Nation.
Nearly 92 years after the war began, Azulon and his ministers made the fateful decision to take Ba Sing Se once and for all, and Iroh, Azulon's heir as well as the most respected general in the Fire Nation, was chosen to lead the attack alongside Lu Ten. Iroh, who had had a dream as a young man that he would 'take' Ba Sing Se, readily accepted and began a difficult siege of Ba Sing Se and it's impenetrable walls, during which he and his troops did the impossible and breached the outer walls of the city. The battle lasted for a staggering 600 days, and would likely have lasted much longer if tragedy did not strike. During the outer wall breach, Iroh's son died in battle, and Iroh was completely devastated by the news. He was so disheartened by the loss that he abruptly ended the siege immediately after and brought his troops home.
For Iroh it was a turning point in his life, where he began to realize the true cost of war on life. When he returned home, however, some saw his end of the siege as a failure and ridiculed his decision not to tough it out and finish the job. His niece, Azula, saw Iroh as a quitter and the dead Lu Ten, a loser. And Ozai, Azula's father, decided to use Iroh's loss to his advantage, promptly presenting the idea that he, a man with two children and many plans to win the war, should be heir to the throne of the Fire Lord, as opposed to the now-childless Iroh.
However, Ozai completely misread Azulon, who was in fact enraged by the fact that his inexperienced, haughty younger son showed no remorse over betraying Iroh's loss in order to make a power play. To put Ozai in his place and to make him understand his brother's loss, Azulon ordered that Ozai kill Zuko as penance. Azula, who overheard the Fire Lord's orders, was happy to find her father was going to kill her brother, who she disliked as being stupid and incompetent in firebending. She went to taunt Zuko about what seemed to be his inevitable fate, only to be scolded by her mother and sent away.
-
In a normal world, after sending Azula away, Ursa would have gone killed Azulon by unknown means, allowing for Ozai to become Fire Lord over the grief-stricken Iroh. Ursa would have been banished, and Azula would have grown up to become her father's child entirely - not just his child, but his protege, his most obedient, loyal, and dangerous soldier, manipulated to be the perfect child to Ozai. Azula would have gone so far as to almost kill the Avatar and single-handedly conquer Ba Sing Se. She would have done this and more, only to be betrayed by her allies and sent away by her father when he decided to take sole credit for the final victory of the Fire Nation over the rest of the world (which, thankfully, never came to be). She would have ended up in a small island hospital on the orders of her brother, Fire Lord Zuko, where her inner demons could be properly treated after years of neglect and, perhaps, one day in the future, be excised.
But none of that happened.
How does your AU differ from canon? Ursa's plan to save her children failed. Whatever it had been, Azulon somehow thwarted it. And Ursa was instantly executed. In Azulon's rage, he ordered that Ozai and all his dishonorable bloodline be killed, and it was only through a last minute intervention by influential members of the government that Azula and Zuko were spared at all. The reasoning was that, if Iroh died without an heir, as was possible since he was a widower, Ozai's children would have to inherit the throne in order to continue the war as well as the Fire Lord's bloodline; more sinisterly, many of the ministers were supporters of Ozai, and knew that Iroh's eventual rule would be detrimental to their own ends. A child of Ozai, on the other hand, could be shaped and groomed to be a useful puppet who would surely continue the war and advance all of their fortunes. Azula, in particular, seemed much more her father's child than Zuko, who was seen even as a child as a weak-willed boy by Ozai.
However, the Fire Lord Azulon vowed that as long as he lived, both of Ozai's children would be considered blood-traitors and banished from the capital; both were sent to remote fortresses and watched like hawks. Soon enough it was his favorite grandchild, whose increasingly violent behavior after her father's death began to filter in from spies sent to watch over her, that caused Azulon the greatest concern for his well-being and that of Iroh's - the girl was already a prodigy and was fast showing signs of firebending strength that potentially rivaled the Fire Lord's power, including a blue flame and even charges of lightning. It was also well-known that she had loved her father and had been his darling, showered with acclaim and love by him and his supporters. When Azula finally attacked her guards and spoke of killing the person responsible for her father's death - knowing full well it was her grandfather - Azulon's heart fully hardened against the girl, and he ordered her taken to the one place he felt could deal with her, her powers and her treasonous behavior - the Boiling Rock. She was barely ten when she was brought to the prison, and his actions shocked even his staunchest supporters, but the Fire Lord believed that Azula was fast becoming the most dangerous threat to the stability of the realm.
The next four years she spent in the prison would prove Azulon correct. The princess soon after her father's death had lost much of her grip on what sanity she had possessed, but had lost nearly none of her genius; in prison it turned easily into a paranoid, delusional brew of intelligence, remorselessness, cruelty and hate. She believed the world was out to get her, that everyone had been against her father and thus her, and it was only fair she return the favor in whatever way she could. What would have broken most normal men in the Boiling Rock instead twisted Azula; the suffering she endured only strengthened her psychosis. She delighted in using her firebending and her burgeoning lightning against guards and prisoners alike, knowing the massive amounts of damage she could do and all of the attention she could receive before being taken into confinement. Even in the cold confinement that rendered her powers useless, she dreamed of burning, searing, and killing in any way she could, all who had wronged her, and forcing those she let live to still pay dearly. In time only the most seasoned and best-trained firebenders could properly control her, and even then with difficulty.
The outside world, meanwhile, changed as well, but entirely unlike Azula. The period of mourning, easily forgotten in other worlds by Ozai, slowly reached its full height without him. The loss of the heir and the botched result of Ozai's machinations, after so many years of success, demoralized most of the War's supporters in the Fire Nation, where before they had once derided Iroh for his decision to withdraw. Though Azulon attempted to order a second siege on Ba Sing Se, the result cost even more lives and resources than the first had, and Earth Kingdom rebels took the opportunity of the failed siege to fight back more ferociously than before, even taking back lands that had been conquered for several generations. The Nation's troops and people began to despair over the permanently shattered myth of their invincibility; where before people were talking about domination and victory, there was now the fear of total defeat and even subjugation by the Earth Kingdom and the Northern Water Tribe. Many even began to think and wonder, voicing questions as to why they were still fighting a war that started before many of their grandparents were even born. Soon only the most radical were still speaking of total victory, blind to the rapidly-changing situation.
Soon enough Azulon died, and Iroh became Fire Lord. His first action was to retreat from Ba Sing Se and consolidate and retain the lands won by the Fire Nation during the war, resulting in a stalemate. However, Iroh's long-term plan was in fact to fully change the people's already-disillusioned hearts towards peace, restore the conquered lands to their rightful owners, and end the war for good. He also wished to ensure that those from the Fire Nation who had made settlements in the Earth Kingdom had a choice to stay or leave. Most importantly he recalled Zuko to the capital, and installed him as heir. In fact, by this time Iroh had become disheartened by the idea of being Fire Lord, his philosophy having changed considerably since his son's death. Zuko, meanwhile, had been growing to become a fair and decent man even in exile, and only wished to do what was best for good and honor of the nation and its people, as opposed to personal glory. It was decided that after Zuko's education and training was finished in several years' time, Iroh would step down and Zuko would become Fire Lord, and in the changing climate of the Fire Nation, this was accepted and welcomed by nearly everyone.
Almost, but there were still those few war-hungry nobles, generals and industrialists who dreamed of total war and saw Iroh's sudden rise as a threat to their own positions and power. They remembered Ozai's promise of strength and ridiculed Iroh's seeming softness. And then there was Ozai's younger child, who had once been the apple of her father's eye. If they could get her out of the Boiling Rock, and convince her to join them, they could easily de-stabilize Iroh's grip on the throne and take over. And of course it was assumed that Azula, still young, still impressionable, would be grateful for the throne and the restoration of her power, and bow to whatever her allies' demands might be. So they began to smuggle people into the prison to pay Azula, now fourteen, their respects and to try and convince her to bid for the throne. Then it would only be a matter of planning the perfect time to escape. It helped that the Warden of the Boiling Rock seemed to be willing to aid them in their quest.
The princess, suddenly shown the respect and adulation she had lacked after four long years, seemed to need little convincing and agreed that she should be the Fire Lord, and that the war would continue under her reign. Nor did she have any scruples about overthrowing her own brother and uncle, having fantasized about it for years, especially now that Zuko, who she always hated for having her mother's love, was being shown favor instead of her. Azula's new supporters, however, could have scarcely comprehended what those in the prison who became privy to their plans tried to warn them about: that by this time Azula was a crazed, angry, vindictive and hateful young woman, a true monster who hated and distrusted everyone. She loved the attention she was getting and the fact she was being given an opportunity to incite violence; in truth she was manipulating those who saw her as a potential puppet as much as, if not more than, they were her. The 'Fire Nation's last hope' was just as dangerous to them as she was to Iroh and her brother. Even the prison's Warden knew the danger of letting this particular prisoner, who defied him even under torture, free, though the potential rewards that waited his family (given that his favorite niece, Mai, had been known to be a childhood friend of the princess's) for aiding in the coup eventually proved more powerful than his scruples.
Unfortunately, Azula's new supporters only saw what they wished to see, and began to bide their time for Azula's escape. The time finally did come, for the most unexpected reason: the Avatar, the spirit of the planet that was long thought dead, was uncovered under an iceberg in the Southern Pole. His return a sign that the war was about to end and their fortunes about to fall, the conspirators learned that Iroh and Zuko planned to invite the re-awakened Airbender to the Fire Nation capital to discuss options on how to end the war. Realizing there was no time to lose, Azula's allies made their way to the Boiling Rock in order to free the waiting Azula.
And it's at this time she disappears.
Strengths: Firebending: Azula is one of the strongest firebenders in canon, and in this alternate world this still holds true, even after her years in prison. She is able, simply through her own will and the strength of her own body, to create fire from her hands and feet (and if she's angry enough, from her mouth a la through a technique called "breath of fire") and bend it in any direction she wishes. She is capable of, among other things, making fireballs several times her own size and using her feet like rockets to propel her into the air. Unique among all others in the series, her flames are blue - a testament to the true strength of her hatred, anger and remorselessness, traits which, according to official Fire Nation brainwashing training, are the source of a Firebender's true power.
Lightning creation: Azula is one of the few Firebenders, aside from Iroh and Ozai, capable of creating lightning. Lightning in her canon is an extremely powerful weapon which can even strike down an Avatar while they are in the midst of the ultimate ability known as the Avatar State. The only way to counteract a Firebender's lightning is through the modified chi-utilization techniques invented by Iroh.
Prodigy/Tactician: Despite her emotional chaos, Azula is still a genius able to learn and put to use any kind of information, skills and powers at an abnormally fast rate. Likewise she is still capable of using her skill and intelligence to find weak points of enemies and scheme her way through various situations and get what she wants whenever she is so inclined to.
Lying proficiency/lying discernment: Azula is capable of lying extremely well when she wants to. She is in fact so skilled at lying that her heart rate does not change from her use of deception - a feat that was realized in canon by Toph Bei Fong, who is capable of detecting such changes to discern if people are telling the truth. She conversely is capable of discerning whether someone is lying to her or not, though precisely how is not known. It is likely because she can see others' microexpressions.
Weaknesses: Emotions/Irrationality: This Azula is far, far more likely to be irrational and emotional in comparison to her canon counterpart, lashing out when provoked, possessing a much shorter temper than she did canonically. This is all tied to her anger, which can easily get the best of her, waste her numerous talents and possibly turn her into a complete wreck very easily if something does not go her way. This anger and emotion, and difficulty in controlling it as canon Azula can, is also connected to every other weakness she possesses.
Paranoia: Azula is of the belief everyone will eventually betray her. So naturally, she will betray them first. She will abandon, attack and attempt to kill anyone on her side and not on her side that she believes will betray or is betraying her, even under the flimsiest pretexts.
Obsessive: Once Azula focuses her sights on something she particularly wants, she will pursue it even to the point of insanity - especially if it involves getting rid of an enemy or potential enemy.
Perfectionism/Control Issues: Azula wants everything perfect, and everything in her life under her control. If she cannot control something or someone, she will try and get rid of them. If something is not deemed perfect in her eyes, it is destroyed ferociously.
Lack of control over lightning: Even though she has the ability to create lightning, her emotional and mental state is such that she completely lacks control over it, nor was she never taught how to control herself while creating it. As a result she causes almost as much damage to herself as she does to others with it. Her hands in particular are scarred, seared, and burnt from the countless times she's mishandled lightning.
Zuko, the Avatar and/or Iroh: Saying anything about how great Zuko and Iroh are and about how horrible Azula is by comparison, or about how they helped end the war and bring peace, or anything remotely good about them, and it will make her extremely angry. Continue pushing on the subject, and she will attack the person talking about Zuko or Iroh. Likewise, she will target Zuko or Iroh if she knows he is within her grasp, no matter what. She's absolutely obsessed with them both and will utilize everything she has at her disposal to destroy them both in the most painful way possible, even if by doing so she runs the risk of ruining other schemes in play - to her, Zuko and Iroh > everything else. The same applies to a lesser extent towards the Avatar, though thankfully Azula at the time of her disappearance does not know the identity of the Avatar - just that he is an Airbender.
Ozai: He's dead, but he is a touchy subject for Azula. Say anything bad about him and Azula will go apeshit. She will lose it. There is almost no restraint when it comes to the dead man she worships as a demi-god.
Preferred drop-in point: Manhattan. MANHATTAN. MANHATTAN.
What are some of your plans for this character in their new environment? Kill Zuko Ally with people who despises the world as much as she does, maybe make her own gang or something to wreak her vengeance on humanity because YOU ARE ALL AFTER HER YOU WEAKLINGS AND YOU DO NOT DESERVE TO LIVE.
And kill Zuko. Violently. Bloodily. Repeatedly.
First Person Journal Sample: [The comm turns on, to reveal a rather bored-looking Azula reclining in what looks like an expensive chair, with a cup of some kind of drink in her other hand. And surrounded by walls adorned by expensive-looking paintings. It's probably best not to ask where she got them. But she is, for the first time, allowing her face to be shown on the network.]
Well, I suppose the secret's out now that everything's gone down. Yes, I am Azula. Yes, I am a firebender. And yes, Zuzu's my brother.
[It's only noticeable to the more astute watchers that Azula's grip on her cup tightens.]
My incompetent, knock-kneed, weak brother.
[Is that drink bubbling a little bit, and is that...yes. That's steam coming from the cup.]
You know, you so-called 'heroes' can do yourselves and this sad world of yours a favor and stay away from him from now on. Or even better, perhaps one of you would be willing to find him and bring him to me so I might do as I will with him. Save yourselves the drama.
Because if you thought what happened before was....unduly harsh? Well. That was me being kind. I can do far worse. Especially as I don't tolerate fools who would aid a person who would go crying to mommy when things got even remotely tough for him--
[CRACK. On the word 'tough', the hold on the glass becomes so tight, the heat from Azula's hand so strong, that it breaks into several pieces. Several pieces stick themselves into her discolored, swollen hands, drawing blood and mixing with the juice that had come onto her hand. She looks at her hand, before clenching her fist without a second thought, lighting the pieces stuck in her on fire. She speaks again, acidly.]
--Even though mommy's dead. But I can easily arrange a reunion, Zuzu. I know you're just dying to see her again after all of these years.
[She opens her hand, and the mixture of glass, blood and juice falls from her palm, dripping onto the floor.]
As for the rest of you, you have twelve hours to use your collective super brainpower and decide what you plan on doing. If you turn Zuko over to me by then, no one will be hurt, and you can all go back to your happy little lives and not have to worry about what I'll do next to your precious little cities. If you don't, none of you will have any cities left to worry about. And don't bother trying to bring that joke of a group you all call 'law enforcement' in to help you make up your minds or, heaven forbid, stop me. They won't help you. At all. Trust me on this.
So...you all might want to get a move-on. Time waits for no one. And neither do I.
[Click.]
Third Person Sample: It's a cold, dark alley in Manhattan that Azula chose for her next hunting ground.
The blue flames lick the man's back as he runs from his pursuer, screaming. She stops, momentarily, allowing the man to get closer to a door that could be his escape from the fires. Toying with him. Giving him hope. She dashes that hope in the next second, throwing a huge blast of fire right at the man, sending him flying into a wall.
Hmph. Azula steps forward as she watches her victim quiver and push tears back from his injuries. His suit was seared and he had patches of burns on his face, but the force of his impact into the wall had broken something - most likely the leg he was trying to nurse. A grown man crying like a baby. How pathetic.
She had half a mind to end his life at that moment. Escalate the robbery, end his pitiful existence and sate her desire, her anger, at least until the next time. But no. He'd live. For what she was planning, he needed to live.
"Please, take it!" The man begs her as she grabs his wallet from his pants. "Take whatever you want, just...please, don't kill me!"
"Mmm hmm." After snatching whatever money she could - girl had to eat, after all - she casually unzips another pocket, taking out a family photo. She could feel the fear coming off of him as she flips it over, and a smirk tugs at her face as a result. "Oh, and what cute kids you have. Their portraits would look absolutely stunning on--" What were those things called? Oh right. "--milk cartons."
"You...you wouldn't!!" The man's eyes bug out, and he begins to shake violently. "You wouldn't hurt my children-!!"
"Oh, of course not." Azula casually tosses the picture at the man's forehead. "Because you're going to tell the cops that a boy with black hair, brown eyes and a large scar on his left eye did it. Isn't that right?"
"What-"
"You will give them the description I just gave you." Azula took two more steps forward, the smile replaced by a very dangerous snarl as she picks the photo up again. "And you will not deviate from that story Because if you do?"
The photo suddenly erupts into blue flames, causing the man to cry out. The burning photo is dropped to the ground, and stomped on viciously as Azula turns heel. She'd made her point very clear, and he knew she was serious. Of course she was. She was in control and she didn't make idle threats. She wasn't a child anymore. Not like her sad brother, who is certainly going to wake up the next morning to a very big surprise waiting for him at his door. And that would only be the beginning of what she has planned. She didn't care if he wasn't 'her' brother, it was still him. He will rue the day he was born.
Oh, yes. Just the beginning.
"Oh, and thanks for the money." At this, she also sets the wallet on fire before tossing it on the ground as she walks away. "You can have that back now."