character info for hellpointe
Azula's on the short side, but she looks like she could easily be years older than she actually is-- at her canon age of fourteen she looks like she could easily be eighteen or older, and at seventeen she looks to be in her early twenties. She has long, very dark brown hair that she usually wears up in a topknot or back in a ponytail. As a young teenager, her obsession with perfection extended to her appearance too, and while she's relaxed somewhat since then she still always likes to look clean and well-groomed-- brushed hair, neat clothes, manicured nails, the works. At home in the Fire Nation she tends to wear orate royal costumes, military armor, or-- when she's just bumming around-- silk robes. While on Earth, she tends toward more simple tunic-style shirts and loose pants.
In canon, Azula's most obvious traits are her extreme nationalism, utter ruthlessness, and lack of any sort of sympathy for her enemies. To put it in the simplest of terms, she's a bitch-- a huge bitch, with a side of rudeness, cruelty, sarcasm, and the occasional sadism. For the most part, she has no interest in gaining friends (other than the ones she already has) or making people like her personally; in fact, she doesn't seem to like very many people personally herself. She's shown to be completely ineffectual at dealing with people on a social level-- the few times she does try, she ends up putting her foot in her mouth, or accidentally upsetting the other party. However, this only seems to bother her on a minimal level. To her, the vast majority of people are merely tools, there to be used and then discarded when they are no longer useful. She sees herself and her father as better than everyone else, and has an extreme sense of arrogance and self-worth. She is also prone to jealousy when people are able to do things that she can't. That said, she has no qualms about letting people do things for her-- as long as it's clear that she could do it herself if she wanted; being seen as weak or incompetent is one of her greatest fears. Another of those fears (ironically, due to her unpleasant personality) seems to be being alone or discarded herself. She holds a great deal of resentment towards her mother, who she felt hated her and abandoned her in favor of her brother. She craves her father's approval. And even though she can treat them horribly, it's clear that at least a part of Azula values her friends as friends, not just as tools or playthings-- even if she has no idea how to appropriately show it.
At this point, pretty much all of those personality traits are still there, though some are more muted and less prominent. Her nationalism is as strong as ever-- in two and a half years, she's had absolutely no development that would cause her to start thinking that the Fire Nation's war is wrong and that they have no right to forcibly take over the rest of the world. She's still just as ruthless towards those she considers enemies, she still has no qualms about killing those she feels deserve it, and she still has a great deal of trouble empathizing with most people (her reasoning is, why should she care? they're not her, nor are they someone that particularly matters to her). However, as she's matured, her unabashed cruelty and occasional sadism have lessened. Just as at fourteen she had grown out of throwing rocks at pond animals like she did when she was eight, at seventeen she's largely grown out of mocking or berating people for fun. In most of her day-to-day interactions, she's more serious and grounded-- experience with other worlds and dealing with those stronger than her has taught her to be wiser and more cautious, as well. While she still isn't above using people for her own gain and she doesn't see anything morally wrong with it, she does realize that there can be extreme negative consequences to using people willy-nilly. She still wants to attain perfection and gets frustrated with the failures of herself and others, but she's less arrogant-- being pitted against fighters that vastly outranked her and finding herself unable to defend herself or the things she wanted to protect have actually done quite a number on her self-esteem. She believes that she was very close to perfect in the past, during her "high point" when she was hunting the Avatar and conquering cities, and (though she isn't going to admit it to just anyone) the fact that she sees herself as having gone into a decline since then causes her quite a bit of insecurity.
How she interacts with other people is another thing that has undergone some changes. While she's certainly capable of working with others, holding conversations, and forming shallow relationships (moreso now, even, than she was in canon), her ability to truly care about most people hasn't really improved at all. She has formed a few more meaningful relationships in DDD, however, and she's definitely gotten better at showing concern, feelings, affection, and etcetera for them. This has really helped her in learning how to function normally in a healthy social relationship, something that, in canon, she has a great deal of difficulty with. There's still a great deal that she could improve upon, and she's still way behind most people in terms of social normality, but at least in dealing with people that actually mean something to her, she's getting better at it. Diplomacy is another area in which she's gotten a bit better-- while she's shown in canon to view any sort of disagreement as an act of personal betrayal, she's more willing to let the little things go now, particularly when it comes to those that she does care about. Still, she's increasingly frustrated with how socially stunted she is, even with strangers-- if she accidentally upsets or angers someone, she'll rage at both herself (for being deficient enough to make a mistake) and the person she angered (for being sensitive enough to be hurt by her words, particularly if they had no real ill intentions behind them). In the end, though, she'll still see it mostly as their fault, which makes it hard for her to improve herself.
In terms of personality and how she acts, this Azula is somewhere between how she is for the majority of the series (cold, calculating, in control at all times) and how she is during the show's finale (uncontrolled, unbalanced, prone to hysterics and crying fits). On her good days, she can be nearly as calm and collected as she was in the past, not allowing others' opinions to get to her and able to simply brush off anything. On her bad days, however, even the most mild of criticisms can send her flying into a rage. She's unstable as a general rule, even if some days are better than others. She suffers from both insomnia and nightmares, thanks to some of the things she's been put through during her time on the community (for example, a plot that involved her mother figure having her head ripped clean off has given her a bit of a phobia of headless bodies, even though gore doesn't normally phase her). Hiding her emotions and forcing herself to appear unflappable and flawless is another thing that she's generally given up-- while she still avoids admitting to "weaker" things such as fear or sadness, she's more willing to talk about herself and what she's feeling, even with people that she doesn't know all that well.
In some ways, Azula has changed a lot. In other ways, she hasn't changed much at all. A lot of this has had to do with necessity of change (or lack thereof)-- for example, one of her biggest flaws in show canon is her single-minded determination to win the war and take over the rest of the world, at any cost. In this AU, that hasn't changed, because she's been given no reason for it to change. Sometimes she can be mature beyond her years, particularly when it comes to things like battle or ruling a country. Other times, she can act much younger than she actually is. This is especially true in DDD canon, where some parts of her psyche have matured while others have devolved. All in all, she can be a pretty odious character, but she can also be surprisingly pitiable. She was trained from very early childhood to be the perfect soldier, and unlike her brother, she eagerly jumped at the chance to do whatever her father asked of her. While I personally don't think that she was brainwashed or forced into doing the things that she did and I believe that a great deal of responsibility for her actions should lie on her shoulders, early childhood indoctrination and lack of healthy, nurturing parental relationships essentially obliterated any chance she might have had of growing up normally. Though it's shown that she is far from simply the emotionless soldier she likes to portray herself as, years of unquestioning belief in and fighting for a cause can't be simply erased. While the creators of her canon have said that she does have the potential to heal and even "redeem" herself in the long run, there's no denying that this would be a long process with far more opportunities for failure than for success.
Maim/murder/death: Let's talk about it first/nothing permanent/nothing permanent.
Kissing: She probably won't react well unless she's very close to the character trying, or she's on a downward spiral/feeling particularly emotionally vulnerable. Romantic kisses are actually less likely to get an angry or confused response than purely platonic ones are, though she still likely won't reciprocate.
Hugging: Again, unless she's close to someone or in an vulnerable enough state, she'll avoid touch. If she is close enough to someone that she's willing to be affectionate, though, she'll do it quite a bit. It's something she's relatively new and inexperienced at so she'll probably be a bit awkward, but she does really like it a lot.
Badtouch: She will eat your soul. Seriously though, sex isn't something that she values very highly-- she isn't a virgin (having had sex with a girl before; she's never had sex with a guy), but while she isn't asexual and she doesn't hate sex, it doesn't factor highly onto her list of things that she likes to do. She's capable of enjoying it and she does think it feels good, but ultimately, she finds it awkward and embarrassing. While you have my full OOC permission to go for it if it's IC for your character, Azula is quick to label people as horrible perverts unless there's a lot development-- and even if there is, she won't necessarily reciprocate.
Threadhopping: Sure, I'm completely fine with it as long as you don't hop into a locked conversation or RL (unless your character would logically stumble upon the scene or you ask permission first).
Fourthwalling: Go for it. She already knows it all. Anyone who tries to tell her that she's actually a fictional character (as opposed to someone who just happens to be considered fictional on some worlds, that is) will get a long lecture on her understanding of the multiverse, though.
Backdating: I'll continue any old conversation/thread/log, no matter how long its been since the last comment (in other words, if you dropped a thread two months ago and now want to continue it, go ahead and I'll reply!). The same goes for replying to old entries- though obviously, I'll backdate any responses. The only exception to this would be if you replied to an entry from before your character was in the game. In that case I'd probably delete the comment because it wouldn't be following continuity. D:
HOW'S MY DRIVING?- Tell me, please!
APPLICATION- Run-on sentences, horrible grammar, and all.
CR CHART- I'm actually going to try to keep this updated.
This post also serves as a contact/plotting/spam/whatever post, so feel free to use it whenever you want.
In canon, Azula's most obvious traits are her extreme nationalism, utter ruthlessness, and lack of any sort of sympathy for her enemies. To put it in the simplest of terms, she's a bitch-- a huge bitch, with a side of rudeness, cruelty, sarcasm, and the occasional sadism. For the most part, she has no interest in gaining friends (other than the ones she already has) or making people like her personally; in fact, she doesn't seem to like very many people personally herself. She's shown to be completely ineffectual at dealing with people on a social level-- the few times she does try, she ends up putting her foot in her mouth, or accidentally upsetting the other party. However, this only seems to bother her on a minimal level. To her, the vast majority of people are merely tools, there to be used and then discarded when they are no longer useful. She sees herself and her father as better than everyone else, and has an extreme sense of arrogance and self-worth. She is also prone to jealousy when people are able to do things that she can't. That said, she has no qualms about letting people do things for her-- as long as it's clear that she could do it herself if she wanted; being seen as weak or incompetent is one of her greatest fears. Another of those fears (ironically, due to her unpleasant personality) seems to be being alone or discarded herself. She holds a great deal of resentment towards her mother, who she felt hated her and abandoned her in favor of her brother. She craves her father's approval. And even though she can treat them horribly, it's clear that at least a part of Azula values her friends as friends, not just as tools or playthings-- even if she has no idea how to appropriately show it.
At this point, pretty much all of those personality traits are still there, though some are more muted and less prominent. Her nationalism is as strong as ever-- in two and a half years, she's had absolutely no development that would cause her to start thinking that the Fire Nation's war is wrong and that they have no right to forcibly take over the rest of the world. She's still just as ruthless towards those she considers enemies, she still has no qualms about killing those she feels deserve it, and she still has a great deal of trouble empathizing with most people (her reasoning is, why should she care? they're not her, nor are they someone that particularly matters to her). However, as she's matured, her unabashed cruelty and occasional sadism have lessened. Just as at fourteen she had grown out of throwing rocks at pond animals like she did when she was eight, at seventeen she's largely grown out of mocking or berating people for fun. In most of her day-to-day interactions, she's more serious and grounded-- experience with other worlds and dealing with those stronger than her has taught her to be wiser and more cautious, as well. While she still isn't above using people for her own gain and she doesn't see anything morally wrong with it, she does realize that there can be extreme negative consequences to using people willy-nilly. She still wants to attain perfection and gets frustrated with the failures of herself and others, but she's less arrogant-- being pitted against fighters that vastly outranked her and finding herself unable to defend herself or the things she wanted to protect have actually done quite a number on her self-esteem. She believes that she was very close to perfect in the past, during her "high point" when she was hunting the Avatar and conquering cities, and (though she isn't going to admit it to just anyone) the fact that she sees herself as having gone into a decline since then causes her quite a bit of insecurity.
How she interacts with other people is another thing that has undergone some changes. While she's certainly capable of working with others, holding conversations, and forming shallow relationships (moreso now, even, than she was in canon), her ability to truly care about most people hasn't really improved at all. She has formed a few more meaningful relationships in DDD, however, and she's definitely gotten better at showing concern, feelings, affection, and etcetera for them. This has really helped her in learning how to function normally in a healthy social relationship, something that, in canon, she has a great deal of difficulty with. There's still a great deal that she could improve upon, and she's still way behind most people in terms of social normality, but at least in dealing with people that actually mean something to her, she's getting better at it. Diplomacy is another area in which she's gotten a bit better-- while she's shown in canon to view any sort of disagreement as an act of personal betrayal, she's more willing to let the little things go now, particularly when it comes to those that she does care about. Still, she's increasingly frustrated with how socially stunted she is, even with strangers-- if she accidentally upsets or angers someone, she'll rage at both herself (for being deficient enough to make a mistake) and the person she angered (for being sensitive enough to be hurt by her words, particularly if they had no real ill intentions behind them). In the end, though, she'll still see it mostly as their fault, which makes it hard for her to improve herself.
In terms of personality and how she acts, this Azula is somewhere between how she is for the majority of the series (cold, calculating, in control at all times) and how she is during the show's finale (uncontrolled, unbalanced, prone to hysterics and crying fits). On her good days, she can be nearly as calm and collected as she was in the past, not allowing others' opinions to get to her and able to simply brush off anything. On her bad days, however, even the most mild of criticisms can send her flying into a rage. She's unstable as a general rule, even if some days are better than others. She suffers from both insomnia and nightmares, thanks to some of the things she's been put through during her time on the community (for example, a plot that involved her mother figure having her head ripped clean off has given her a bit of a phobia of headless bodies, even though gore doesn't normally phase her). Hiding her emotions and forcing herself to appear unflappable and flawless is another thing that she's generally given up-- while she still avoids admitting to "weaker" things such as fear or sadness, she's more willing to talk about herself and what she's feeling, even with people that she doesn't know all that well.
In some ways, Azula has changed a lot. In other ways, she hasn't changed much at all. A lot of this has had to do with necessity of change (or lack thereof)-- for example, one of her biggest flaws in show canon is her single-minded determination to win the war and take over the rest of the world, at any cost. In this AU, that hasn't changed, because she's been given no reason for it to change. Sometimes she can be mature beyond her years, particularly when it comes to things like battle or ruling a country. Other times, she can act much younger than she actually is. This is especially true in DDD canon, where some parts of her psyche have matured while others have devolved. All in all, she can be a pretty odious character, but she can also be surprisingly pitiable. She was trained from very early childhood to be the perfect soldier, and unlike her brother, she eagerly jumped at the chance to do whatever her father asked of her. While I personally don't think that she was brainwashed or forced into doing the things that she did and I believe that a great deal of responsibility for her actions should lie on her shoulders, early childhood indoctrination and lack of healthy, nurturing parental relationships essentially obliterated any chance she might have had of growing up normally. Though it's shown that she is far from simply the emotionless soldier she likes to portray herself as, years of unquestioning belief in and fighting for a cause can't be simply erased. While the creators of her canon have said that she does have the potential to heal and even "redeem" herself in the long run, there's no denying that this would be a long process with far more opportunities for failure than for success.
Maim/murder/death: Let's talk about it first/nothing permanent/nothing permanent.
Kissing: She probably won't react well unless she's very close to the character trying, or she's on a downward spiral/feeling particularly emotionally vulnerable. Romantic kisses are actually less likely to get an angry or confused response than purely platonic ones are, though she still likely won't reciprocate.
Hugging: Again, unless she's close to someone or in an vulnerable enough state, she'll avoid touch. If she is close enough to someone that she's willing to be affectionate, though, she'll do it quite a bit. It's something she's relatively new and inexperienced at so she'll probably be a bit awkward, but she does really like it a lot.
Badtouch: She will eat your soul. Seriously though, sex isn't something that she values very highly-- she isn't a virgin (having had sex with a girl before; she's never had sex with a guy), but while she isn't asexual and she doesn't hate sex, it doesn't factor highly onto her list of things that she likes to do. She's capable of enjoying it and she does think it feels good, but ultimately, she finds it awkward and embarrassing. While you have my full OOC permission to go for it if it's IC for your character, Azula is quick to label people as horrible perverts unless there's a lot development-- and even if there is, she won't necessarily reciprocate.
Threadhopping: Sure, I'm completely fine with it as long as you don't hop into a locked conversation or RL (unless your character would logically stumble upon the scene or you ask permission first).
Fourthwalling: Go for it. She already knows it all. Anyone who tries to tell her that she's actually a fictional character (as opposed to someone who just happens to be considered fictional on some worlds, that is) will get a long lecture on her understanding of the multiverse, though.
Backdating: I'll continue any old conversation/thread/log, no matter how long its been since the last comment (in other words, if you dropped a thread two months ago and now want to continue it, go ahead and I'll reply!). The same goes for replying to old entries- though obviously, I'll backdate any responses. The only exception to this would be if you replied to an entry from before your character was in the game. In that case I'd probably delete the comment because it wouldn't be following continuity. D:
HOW'S MY DRIVING?- Tell me, please!
APPLICATION- Run-on sentences, horrible grammar, and all.
CR CHART- I'm actually going to try to keep this updated.
This post also serves as a contact/plotting/spam/whatever post, so feel free to use it whenever you want.