One of the elements that makes Avatar: The Last Airbender such a great show is that almost all of the main characters, whether they be heroes or villains, are compelling to watch. While the heroes are likable and interesting, the series also has some of the most well-rounded antagonists in animated television.
Azula is definitely one of the most engaging villains from the franchise because she has a believable backstory but isn’t excused for her actions just because her life was rough. While she’s not a hero in any sense, she does have both strengths and weaknesses and is a fan-favorite.
Weakness: Lying and manipulating others
If Azula was sorted into a Hogwarts house, she would definitely be in Slytherin because she’s quite smart and manipulative. Azula has no qualms about lying to others to get what she wants, and she can be particularly sneaky about it.
She lies to everyone including her own brother, and she is even able to lie so well that Toph can’t tell if she’s telling the truth or not. While this might technically be a useful thing for Azula, it’s not a good thing.
Strength: She is always planning ahead
Azula was a great strategist in many ways especially before she had her mental breakdown. The best example of this is when she infiltrates Ba Sing Se by posing as the Kyoshi Warriors, and she also is many steps ahead of Team Avatar during their invasion of the Fire Nation.
Azula is smart and calculated, so it’s just a shame she always uses these skills for bad ends.
Weakness: She lashes out at others
One interesting thing about Azula is that while she’s quite controlled and organized when it comes to things like battle and Fire Nation army plans, she can be unbalanced and emotional in other ways.
This is because she’s well-written and the creators were able to showcase that she was still a teenager with a lot of issues. Azula often gets irritated and upset and can be set off quite easily.
Strength: She’s ambitious
Both Azula and Zuko had difficult childhoods, and their upbringing messed them up in multiple ways. Azula channeled all of this into wanting to be as successful as possible and to please her father, and she had the ambition and drive to do so.
She wanted to be Firelord someday, and she definitely wanted power. Of course, these were negative things given that her goals were mostly selfish and evil, but her ambition was quite impressive.
Weakness: Her worth is dependent on her success
On the flip side of this coin, however, is how much Azula based her self-worth on being successful and getting the approval of her father. Both she and Zuko desperately wanted Ozai to care about them, and given how abusive and volatile he was, this reaction makes a lot of sense.
However, Azula really lost the plot when she didn’t have any self-worth outside of her ability to succeed.
Strength: She is very determined
Along with her drive to succeed, Azula is also extremely determined. It’s this determination combined with her many other skills that allow her to be the only person in her family to infiltrate the Earth Kingdom in Ba Sing Se.
She’s definitely not someone who will give up easily, and she sees her goals through to the end.
Weakness: She doesn’t know how to connect to others
Azula is difficult to pin down in some ways because while on the one hand, she has some potentially sociopathic tendencies on the other, she seems to want people to care about her to some extent. However, whether she can genuinely feel human connection or not, she definitely doesn’t know how to find it.
There are moments when she seems to care about what her friends think, and she is quite impacted when Ty Lee and Mai betray her. But, she only knows how to get attention through fear and intimidation.
Strength: Her natural skill as a bender
There are many powerful and talented benders in the franchise, but Azula is one of the most naturally gifted fire benders that fans ever see.
She’s only in her early teens but she can bend lightning and go head to head with benders who are decades older than her. If it wasn’t for the fact that she lost her grip on reality, she could easily have grown up to be unstoppable.
Weakness: She’s cruel
The worst thing about Azula that ends up being her downfall is her cruelty and love of power. She has no genuine connections and no loyalty to anyone, and everyone around her leaves because she only tries to control them.
While at times she seems to want to be actual friends with Ty Lee and Mai, she is awful to them. The people who could potentially have cared about her, such as Zuko, can only do so much to help her in the face of her cruelty.
Strength: She is extremely smart and cunning
Azula has a lot of personality traits that allow her to succeed at whatever she puts her mind to, but of all these traits, her intellect is definitely up there. She’s smart and strong enough to be able to command and lead armies at her young age, and she is extremely cunning in a way that can be terrifying at times.
While her intellect is a strength, this also doesn’t mean she uses it for good purposes.