Fanfic / Morality Chain (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

In the series Avatar: The Last Airbender, royal Fire Nation siblings Prince Zuko and Princess Azula are fated enemies, bitter to the end, his righteous perseverance constantly at war with her cunning strategic mind, all fueled by Azula's boundless envy for him and his status as heir, instilled in her by their cruel father pitting his children against each other.

But What If? things were different? What if Azula truly loved her brother despite everything in their childhood? How would the events of the series unfolded differently if Azula was on Zuko’s side the whole time?

PureAuthor rewrote the ATLA series with the key divergence being that Azula and Zuko share a better, more loving brother-sister-relationship that the bitter rivalry they shared in canon. This single shift in the relationship changes many things in the events that follow. It is available here on FF.net

This story involves the following tropes:

• Actually Pretty Funny: After Combustion Man has been defeated, Aang can't help but feels some amusement when Azula goes off like a firecracker and yells at Zuko for having hired Combustion Man without telling her, with Zuko desperately apologizing.
• Actor Allusion: According to Ty Lee, the Boulder's real name is Miki, as in his voice actor, Mick Foley.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Zuko and Azula share a healthy, loving sibling relationship instead of the rivalry of bitter envy and hatred from the canon series. Because of this, Azula is loyal to Zuko and actively helps him in whatever she feels would be in his best interest, like helping him chase down Aang, and later joining the Gaang.
  • Because Azula actually understands friendship due to her relationship with Zuko, her friendships with Mai and Ty Lee are much more genuine. She does still manipulate them, but they're nowhere near as afraid of her, and in fact several times Azula has trouble getting rid of Ty Lee because she just enjoys spending time with Azula.
  • Azula's relationship with Iroh is much more cordial. They're still hardly close, and she tends to think of him as a buffoon with flashes of insight, but she can at least understand his feelings over the loss of his son. She also involves him in the conquest of Ba Sing Se as a genuine gift, the bloodless conquest she thought he wanted, so that he will be redeemed and allowed to come home. She is shocked when he still turns traitor.
• Affectionate Nickname: Azula's "Zuzu" moniker for her brother is a term of endearment in this version of the story, since the two have a healthy loving sibling relationship. From his part, Zuko nicknames his sister "Az".
• And the Adventure Continues: While there is still the triumph of victory in debending Ozai, Azula reuniting with Ty Lee, and Toph giving her own idea to open the metalbending academy, the true ending of the story is in Fire Lord Zuko and Supreme Chancellor Azula preparing for another round of meetings, but ready to face it all together.
• Anti-Hero: Even after joining Team Avatar, Azula remains far less nice, more cynical and ruthless than Zuko and the rest of the team, being unwilling to help others if it isn't part of the mission to stop Ozai, staying unapologetic about her and the Fire Nation's past actions and making it clear that she'll defend the Fire Nation's interests against the rest of the world such as trying to keep the colonies in the Earth Kingdom. This causes much friction with the Gaang, especially with Katara.
• Armor-Piercing Question: In the lead-up to the Comet, when Azula realizes that Aang really doesn't want to kill Ozai (but they have no alternative), she asks simply "For what he has done, and what he plans to do, does Fire Lord Ozai deserve to die?" She gets nothing but silence in response. She says Screw This, I'm Outta Here because she refuses to take part in a plan that has zero chance of success.
  Azula: And for the record, I would still have accepted it if you told me "No, he does not deserve to die."
• At Least I Admit It: What angers Azula the most about Iroh's defection is that, by undermining Zuko's efforts to capture the Avatar, he ended up manipulating and hurting his nephew just like Ozai did while claiming to love his nephew. At least Ozai never bothered to frame his abuse towards his son as love.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Rather than trying to redirect lightning, Azula tries to control lightning, mastering the lightning someone else uses on her. It works... but it still seriously injures her and pretty much renders her useless for the rest of the fight.
• Because You Were Nice to Me:
  • Mai and Ty Lee, at the latter's behest and despite Mai's frustration, free Appa while exploring the Dai Li's lair at Lake Laogai. As a result Appa is shown to be happy to see Mai, something Azula notices but doesn't know why as Mai and Ty Lee didn't tell her about that.
  • Mai reveals to Katara that this is how she became friends with Azula, after Azula defended her by frightening away a group of girl bullies that were harassing her at the Royal Academy for Girls and letting her become one of her companions to prevent it from happening again.
• Being Evil Sucks: While Azula never outright expresses dissatisfaction with the way she has lived her life, once she joins Team Avatar, many of the glimpses she offers into her life as the princess of the Fire Nation show that aside from her friendships with Zuko, Ty Lee, and Mai, the way she lived her life didn't really bring her much happiness. In the midst of one of their largest ideological disagreements, Katara admits she doesn't know whether she should hate Azula or feel sorry for her.
• Break Them by Talking:
  • Just like in the show Azula does this to Long Feng after she outsmarts him and gets the loyalty of the Dai Li over him.
  • She also does this to Jet, after he realizes that she manipulated him into infiltrating the Earth Kingdom palace and helping her coup. Her speech is so effective that Jet is left drained of his fighting spirit.
    Azula: I didn't need you, Jet. Not for any step of my plans. Oh, you helped, but I never needed it. So do you know why I went to track you down anyway? The answer is simple. I know how very much you hate the Fire Nation, Jet. And after today, Ba Sing Se becomes Fire Nation territory. It will be our flag that flies on the city walls, our banner that will be draped across the front of the Palace. And from now on, every time you walk out of whatever hole you live in and see those flags, see that banner, see the Fire Nation soldiers stationed throughout Ba Sing Se, you will know that you helped make this happen.
• Completed Fic: Finished 1/17/2024, with the comment that when they started everything, the story expanded greatly outside of their own explorations.
• Cruel Mercy:
  • Azula deliberately leaves Jet and his gang alive so that every time they see the Fire Nation flag in Ba Sing Se, they'll know they helped make that happen.
  • While Aang certainly didn't intend it this way, Azula sees his De-power of Ozai like this. She cackles when she realizes what happened.
• Death Glare:
  • Azula gives one to Ty Lee after she asks Azula to do it again after Azula's sneeze causes the fire she's sitting nearby to become larger and blue.
  • Mai gives one to Azula, which she ignores, because she refuses to go to a healer to heal Ty Lee faster after their trip to Lake Laogai, even if as Azula points out, this would mean risking being found by Long Feng and the Dai Li.
  • Katara gives many to the Fire Nation kids, but especially to Azula, after they switch sides.
• Deconstruction: Azula chewing out Iroh for choosing to betray the Fire Nation even after Azula offered him a peaceful way out of his banishment deconstructs Iroh's Trickster Mentor behavior towards Zuko in canon, specifically the fact that he was pretending to support Zuko's hunt for the Avatar for three years while actually undermining him in the hopes that Zuko would realize during that time how the rest of the world saw the Fire Nation. As Azula points out, Iroh has been emotionally manipulating Zuko just like Ozai had. Iroh in turn realizes that, regardless of his intentions, he had destroyed his nephew's trust in him.
• Determinator:
  • Azula, who never gives up no matter the circumstances, and even refuses to back down to Katara even when bloodbent and threatened of death by ice arrows during the Southern Raiders plot.
  • Ty Lee, who goes after and manages to keep up with Azula and Zuko's zeppelin even far away from the capital, and all on her own feet, to tell them about Mai's capture, even to the point of total exhaustion.
• Doesn't Like Being Touched: Downplayed. Zuko doesn't like when Mai pokes her finger on his chest, which she's aware of, and why she does it when trying to tell him something important.
• Does Not Like Spam: Mai doesn't like mango juice, finding it too sweet to her taste.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Azula believed that Iroh had halted his siege of Ba Sing Se due to him merely growing disillusioned with the number of lives it had taken after losing his son, so she opted to conquer Ba Sing Se herself from the inside without spilling a drop of blood and gift it to Iroh so that he could have his name restored in the Fire Nation. She didn't realize that Iroh had concluded that the Fire Nation in general was in the wrong for even wanting to conquer the world and is left hurt when Iroh reveals his defection from the Fire Nation to protect the Avatar.
• Easily Forgiven: Justifiably subverted much like in the show. Suki and Toph are the only ones willing to give their chance to Zuko, Azula and Mai after they leave the Fire Nation side, the first due to her having witnessed Ty Lee's sacrifice and Azula's reaction to it and the second because she has the least reasons to have a grudge against them and focus on the practical aspects of having the Fire Nation kids join the Gaang. Once again Katara is by far the most distrustful and hostile toward them, though her anger and grudge are mostly directed at Azula this time.
• Embarrassing First Name: Ty Lee recognizes the Boulder as Miki, her circus' former strongman, and keeps calling him by his true name much to his embarrassment.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Azula views Iroh's defection to protect the Avatar as a personal betrayal. Iroh is forced to concede that she isn't wrong for thinking this way after she points out to him that he has just destroyed both her and Zuko's trust through his actions.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Azula's sole motivation is to protect Zuko. Even when she joins Team Avatar, it is only because Zuko left the Fire Nation, and the only way to protect him is to take down their father. It takes a long time before she will even consider that a hundred years of war might have been wrong.
• Friendly Enemy: Despite being on the opposite sides of the war, Ty Lee acts friendly to Suki while she's Azula's prisoner and even says that she hopes they can be friends once the war is over, much to Suki's bewilderment.
• Guile Hero:
  • Azula, even when she's on the Fire Nation's side, due to her cunning and use of manipulation to reach her goals as always.
  • Mai shows that she can be quite cunning and manipulative herself, posing as a naive enthusiastic girl in an Earth Kingdom town to cause a brawl over a wanted poster of Zuko between bounty hunters and other people in a tavern, by loudly saying that there must be a lot of gold to win with the bounty, causing the other people to want to have a look at it. Azula herself remarks that she didn't know this side to Mai.
• Headbutting Heroes: Azula and Katara become this, after Azula, Zuko and Mai leave the Fire Nation's side and join the Gaang. Katara remains hostile toward Azula because of her ruthless and unapologetic attitude towards her past actions, Lack of Empathy for people who aren't her family or friends, and of her making it clear that she'll defend the Fire Nation's interests over the rest of the world. Azula on the other hand doesn't return Katara's hostility but still dislikes her, fighting back against Katara while scoffing at her more idealistic and altruistic view of the world. Though things are slowly warming up between the two, they still can't be called friends for now.
• Heroic BSoD: Azula actually faints after Ty Lee sacrifices herself at Boiling Rock.
• I Control My Minions Through...: Azula's more positive relationship with her brother means she actually understands empathy, so she controls Mai and Ty Lee through something more resembling actual friendship rather than just threats. Take her recruitment of Ty Lee: Instead of setting the circus on fire, she just feigns disappointment to guilt her into coming along.
• Implied Death Threat: Katara gives ones to Azula at the Western Air Temple, much like what she did to Zuko in the show. Unlike Zuko, however, Azula is unimpressed, mockingly pointing out how Katara waited until she was alone and had no one to back her up to make her threat. A Staredown Faceoff ensues between the two until Katara finally turn on her heels and stalks away.
• In Spite of a Nail: Despite all the changes, Ty Lee still betrays Azula at Boiling Rock. Which is to say, she performs a Heroic Sacrifice so that everyone else, including Azula, can escape. Azula screams at her not to do it, but Ty Lee ignores her.
• It's Personal: In canon, Azula's feud with Long Feng was Nothing Personal; he was just in her way. Here, he had the Dai Li capture Zuko, and she is pissed—even if she doesn't show it. She takes great pleasure in tearing him to pieces with her political maneuvering.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When discussing the Fire Nation colonies, Azula is the one who points out that the Earth Kingdom never cared about them, the Fire Nation built them up, and most of the locals have lived there for generations now. You can't just hand the colonies back to the Earth Kingdom and call it fair. Of course, she's entirely focused on the economic impact losing valuable manufacturing hubs would have on the Fire Nation, rather than on the fact that the locals don't actually want to be part of the Earth Kingdom.
• Lack of Empathy: Azula cares for Zuko, Ty Lee, and Mai, in roughly that order (her feelings for her father are more about respect and fear than love). Everyone else can burn for all she cares. This causes many clashes between her and Katara after she joins Team Avatar.
• Luxury Prison Suite: When Zuko and Azula defect from the Fire Nation, Mai is captured and held at Boiling Rock (Ty Lee manages to escape). They break in to find her... in a perfectly comfortable room with bed, couch, and a small library. Mai is even allowed to keep her knives. That's what happens when your uncle is the warden.
  Azula: [deadpan] Hello, Mai. We came to rescue you from the horrible tortures you were suffering here in the Boiling Rock.
• Manipulative Bastard: Despite being nicer than her canon self, Azula remains just as manipulative as she was in the show, being willing to manipulate even Ty Lee, as well as her father and uncle, and playing Long Feng and the Dai Li like a fiddle. Though her greatest achievement may be having convinced Jet, of all people and despite his deep hatred of the Fire Nation, into helping her to rescue Zuko, unwittingly assisting her in her coup of Ba Sing Se.
• Morality Chain: Subverted. Despite the fic's title, Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee act more as a Morality Pet for Azula than the trope definition of a Morality Chain.
• Nerves of Steel: Like her canon self, Azula is capable of keeping her cool, showing no fear in situations where most others would panic. Even when Katara uses her bloodbending to immobilize her and threaten with water droplets that she could turn into arrows, Azula simply dares Katara to go through it.
• Nominal Hero: Azula is only interested in protecting her brother and her friends to a slightly lesser extent, which leads to her objectives overlapping with Gaang. Naturally, her general lack of concern towards anyone else causes her to butt heads with Katara a lot.
• Not So Stoic: Mai becomes completely enraged and emotional after learning that Zuko has been arrested by the Dai Li, requiring great efforts from Azula to prevent her from going right away after the Dai Li and make her cool down until they find a way to rescue him.
• Obliviously Evil: Azula never understood why her mother seemed to get mad at her whenever she exhibited sociopathic behavior, due to Ursa being unable to figure out how to properly communicate with her and actually convey that Azula's behavior was not normal for a child.
• Odd Friendship: Toph and Azula strike up a friendship, based half on Brutal Honesty and half on being mutually ruthless, with a dash of their shared background as pampered nobles.
• Parents as People:
  • Ursa loves Azula, but she clearly has a great deal of difficulty understanding how to talk to her. From Azula's perspective, her mother keeps getting mad at her for completely random things and won't properly explain herself after.
  • Even Ozai gets a dash of this. Yes, he's a terrible person and a worse father, but Zuko repeatedly makes the mistake of capitulating to him when he's angry, instead of standing his ground. If Zuko was willing to defend his ideals more (as shown when he returns from the Earth Kingdom), Ozai would punish him less.
• Perspective Flip: Essentially, this entire fiction is a perspective flip of the series to Azula's POV. Just... more connected.
• Point of Divergence: Zuko and Azula's Adaptation Relationship Overhaul changes many of the events of the canon series.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • As in canon, the event that led to Zuko being banished was when he objected to new recruits being sent against earthbenders. Azula objects as well, but on practical grounds. Sending recruits against earthbenders with a superior position is a moronic move that will lose a number of soldiers with no possible benefit.
  • When Zuko's team discovers the village from "The Painted Lady," Azula points out that the entire town is guilty of treason and will have to be made an example of. Zuko argues that word of any punishment will quickly reach the Avatar, who likely thinks he's still managed to keep himself hidden. Subverted; Zuko is just looking for an excuse not to punish them. Azula sees through it, but praises him on finding a way to word it that will be palatable to the court.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Azula gives a few What the Hell, Hero? speeches tearing apart their holier-than-thou perceptions of themselves.
  • To Iroh in Chapter 25 regarding him attempting to betray and foil her and Zuko at Ba Sing Se. He justifies what Azula sees as a betrayal to the Fire Nation as him prioritizing peace and balance, framing himself as the Only Sane Man of the Fire Nation for being on the Avatar's side and trying to stop the Nation from killing him. Azula, however, makes him realize that in doing so, he unintentionally destroyed his nephew's trust in him through lying to him, following him on his journey while never intending to actually help him capture the Avatar.
    Azula: I guess continuing this conversation is pointless. It's not like you actually care about how Zuko feels anyway.
    Iroh: You have no right to say something like that.
    Azula: Don't I? You've been nothing but cruel to Zuko, Uncle. How am I supposed to interpret that?
    Iroh: Cruel?
    Azula: Oh? What else am I supposed to call it when you've been stringing him along for three years, Uncle! You never had any intention of letting him capture the Avatar! He trusted you, Uncle! He trusted you, and relied on you, and now you've taken all that trust and thrown it back in his face!
    Iroh: Those three years were meant to guide him-
    Azula: And even assuming your nonsense holds any water, you 'guided' him so well that no one was more surprised than Zuko when you turned on us! Excellent work, Uncle. You were so incompetent you couldn't even corrupt him properly. You know what, Uncle? As far as I'm concerned, you're no better towards Zuko than Father ever was. At least he was straightforward about things.
  • Katara gets one from Azula in the rewrite of "The Southern Raiders". Azula intentionally leads her to the wrong soldier as a Secret Test of Character, wanting to see what Katara will do. When Katara bloodbends the captain without first confirming whether or not he is truly her mother’s killer, she fails the test, and Azula refuses to take her to the real killer.
    Katara: Aang. It's Aang. He set you up for this.
    Azula: What a surprise. The twelve-year old boy who happens to be the Spirit of Balance thinks revenge is bad. Now don't get me wrong, we both know I don't give an owl-rat's feather for what you want to do to the man. But the Avatar asked this of me, and right now I care a lot more about staying in his favor than yours. (pauses, then smiles) And if it's any consolation, you've actually made me very glad tonight.
    Katara: What?
    Azula: Well, for one thing, it allowed me to confirm what I always suspected: that deep down inside, you're just as ugly as I am.
    Katara: (launches a water whip at Azula, who dodges) Don't you dare. Claim that I'm anything like you!
    Azula: Oh, really? Then what do you call what you did back there?
    Katara: What I did?
    Azula: You didn't do it cleanly or quickly. Oh no, you taunted him. You tormented him. You wanted him to suffer. You wanted him to be afraid. To know that his life was in your hands. That's why you bloodbent him instead of just freezing him to the wall. Quite the rush, isn't it? To feel so big, looking down on one so powerless, so...small.
    Katara: No! No, that's nothing like what you do! He deserved it!
    Azula: Did he? Did you even bother to confirm who he was before you attacked? Did you know what this man has done to warrant such treatment? Because he's not the one who killed your mother, in case you forgot.
    Katara: Shut up.
    Azula: But maybe it's because he's Fire Nation military. So obviously, he's an evil, evil man who probably kicks puppy-doves and steals sweets from children. I mean, that's what we all do, isn't it? The big, bad Fire Nation?
    Katara: Shut up!
    Azula: And really, don't think I don't see it. What you were doing to that man, you don't wish it was him lying crumpled and helpless under you. You wish it was me-
    Katara: SHUT UP! (bloodbends Azula into a submissive position, then summons a globe of water near her head) Tell me where Yon Rha is. Right. Now.
    Azula: (softly) Or else? (Katara hesitates, then releases Azula and sends the water back to the ground) Well, look at that. You're not nearly as bad as me, after all.
  • Katara gets a good one back at Azula at the colony, when Azula insists that they need to stay Fire Nation.
    Katara: You know what really got me? When you were discussing all the reasons for why the colony should stay with the Fire Nation, you know what would have been an argument that might have convinced us? The people. The people who've lived here for generations. Families that would have to be uprooted and sent straight home if we just declared the colony be returned to the earth king. Actually, not even home. Because they don't know the Fire Nation at all. They've never lived there. And that's not all! Don't think I didn't see that there were families that had married across nation lines. If the Earth Kingdom took the colony back, what would happen to them? Would they remain, except this time the Fire Nation gets to be the second-class citizens? Maybe they'd be deported instead. An entire city of families, torn apart. You want to convince us? Convince Aang? That would have done it, way better than talking about the Fire Nation's pride or economy or any such nonsense. After all, aren't you supposed to be good at manipulating people? But that never occurred to you, did it? Because the people here don't matter to you. Not one bit.
    Azula: Why do you care so much? Toph or Suki, I could understand. They're Earth Kingdom, for whatever it counts when living in such a chaotic, disconnected state. The Avatar too. Embodiment of balance and all that. But you? Why would a waterbender from the south care what happens to these people after the war?
    Katara: Yeah, that's it. That's exactly what I'm talking about. You don't even understand why I'd care for the wellbeing of people in general?
    Azula: And why should I? I can't afford to care about so many people. And neither can you, Katara. Once push comes to shove, at the end of the day there are only so many people you can rely on. Those are the ones you help. Those are the ones you care about. Because otherwise, you're just going to waste energy on people who won't have the means or the desire to help you in return.
    Katara: You're a princess! Your entire job is to care! I mean, in between being pampered and being treated like you're a divine gift to the world just for being born!
    Azula: No it wasn't. My job was to be perfect. Because weakness in the Fire Nation court means you get trampled upon and cast aside. Smile and put on a charming face for someone you're plotting to destroy. Shake hands with someone while keeping an eye out for the dagger he might be hiding behind his back. Know every nook and cranny and secret path in the palace, because you never know when you might need to escape an assassination. Otherwise it's not good enough. Know the history and background of every noble you meet, because you never know when you might need to exploit them for a favour. Otherwise it's not good enough. Know everything there is to know about Firebending, and become the youngest person to learn Lightningbending in the history of the Fire Nation, because when you boil it all down the truth is that your strength is all you can rely on, and either you can protect yourself and impose your will on others or you can't! And that means you're not! Good! Enough!
    [beat]
    Katara: You know, at the South Pole, there's no such thing as 'going it alone.' People don't hunt individually, or even for their families. The tribe goes out together, and brings back their kills together to be divided for everyone. Those who stay at home work together to make clothes and blankets, and keep the fires going for when the hunters return. We do this because southern wastes and the ocean don't care about you. They can provide game and fish and life, one instant, and bring death the next. You learn to trust the person next to you with your life, even if you barely know each other, because that's how you make it home alive. [sighs] I guess that's where we learned to care. Something you never did.
    Azula: [laughs] So you're saying it's just down to the environments we were raised in?
    Katara: No, I'm saying the way you grew up was awful and wrong, and I don't think that's the whole story, but it definitely played a part in you becoming who you are now. I know you genuinely care about Zuko, about Mai and Ty Lee. And you know what, at this point I'm willing to bet you really do care about Toph too. But if that's as far as you're willing to go... if you're not going to even bother to try caring about anyone beyond that, and if you just see everything else as a means to an end... then I'm sorry to tell you this, but, that's just not good enough.
  • After years of either agreeing with Ozai or simply nodding and pretending to agree, Azula finally deconstructs how immature his worldview is.
    Azula: You keep speaking about never changing and never yielding to others as if that's something to be proud of. I understand, father. I really do. When someone challenges me, I push back. I might not change my mind. I might not change hers. But I grow that way. I gain that way. But what about you? The world irritates me, so I'll just demand the whole world to change to suit me? That's the way a child thinks. Or is that what you've mistaken for authority, sitting alone behind that barrier of flames?
    [beat]
    Azula: You're scared. Scared that there are parts of the world that won't simply kowtow to you for existing. And so you seek to grasp more power. If you cannot make them listen, you'll burn them away instead. Will this be enough? Will turning the Earth Kingdom into ashes satisfy you, Fire Lord? We both know it won't. Because, even with all the power in the world—you're still weak.
• Sherlock Scan: Upon visiting the village and factory of "The Painted Lady" Azula and Mai are quick to recognize signs of waterbending and airbending having been used in the factory, allowing them to deduce that Aang is alive.
• Shipper on Deck: Part of the reason Azula brought Mai along was because she knew that Mai and Zuko had mutual crushes. She is mildly annoyed when they spend so much time together, but she saw it coming.
• Slobs Versus Snobs: Azula constantly scoffs at having to deal with Earth Kingdom peasants, and repeatedly refers to Katara and Sokka as "Water peasants." She doesn't appear to be aware that they're the children of the chief, and thus even if not royalty, then certainly higher class than peasants.
• The Social Darwinist: Ozai, as canon, believes that strength is the only thing that matters. He tells a hypothetical story about him executing a peasant for bumping into him as if this is some grand sign of his strength instead of a childish overreaction. Azula has followed in his footsteps more than a little, but ultimately she realizes something he never does: There's more than one kind of power, and being nothing but a murderous jackass will eventually result in someone stronger taking you down.
  Azula: That's your philosophy to the very end. Power and brutality is the only way. Compromise is vulnerability. Weakness. I used to agree with you. Honestly, a part of me still does. I came here to tell you that this is where it ends. I won't be chained to you, or your views, any more. I've found another way. Maybe you'll find one yourself, while you're in here. After all, someone once told me that suffering could be a pretty good teacher.
• Staredown Faceoff: Azula and Katara have several of these, the first in the western air temple after Katara threatened Azula against hurting Aang. Two later happen in the story version of the Southern Raiders, first when Azula reveals that she knew who and where the man who killed Katara's mother is, and wanted to see what Katara would do to the wrong culprit, the second when Katara used bloodbending on Azula to try to force her to tell her where Yon Rha is, with Azula staying defiant, before Katara gives up and break down in tears.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Azula is very, very rarely impressed with anyone in the Fire Nation besides Ty Lee and Mai. And the main exceptions are Zuko and Iroh.
  • Most of the Fire Nation generals are incompetent idiots. This is apparently partly due to Lowered Recruiting Standards; with the imminent return of Sozin's Comet, they won't actually need competent people in charge soon, since all resistance will soon be completely shattered.
  • The soldiers who accompany her on the way to the Earth Kingdom are supposed to be elites, but she considers their Firebending forms atrocious. On the plus side, her primary way of dealing with this is forcing them to train with her—while it's not fun for them to be used as punching bags, they do know they learn from the experience.
  • She facepalms when she finds out that Mai's parents allowed an evacuation due to a suspicious plague in a city that was already known to have a resistance movement. She's also annoyed that they've agreed to trade the extremely valuable King Bumi for the return of their kidnapped infant son Tom-Tom, but she can understand capitulating... until she finds out that offering Bumi was their idea.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Azula, and Zuko and Mai to a lesser extent at first, with the Gaang after their defection but especially with Katara once again. Katara's anger and hostility is mostly focused on Azula due to her greater ruthlessness and past actions, as well as her Lack of Empathy for people other than for her family and friends while being unapologetic about her and the Fire Nation's past actions, unlike Zuko. Azula on the other hand tries to ignore Katara most of the time but is more than willing to fight back verbally when Katara confronts her. It's only after their adventure with the Southern Raiders that their relation slowly starts improving.
• The Unapologetic: While she agrees to join Team Avatar to protect Zuko, Azula doesn't show any regret or offer any apology for her past actions when she was an enemy of the Gaang, nor for the Fire Nation's actions. While the rest of the Gaang begrudgingly take it in stride, this is a great source of friction between her and Katara.
• Undying Loyalty: Due to Azula being nicer than her canon self and not believing that fear is the only way, Mai and Ty Lee follow her out of love rather than fear and are fully loyal to her.
• Unequal Rites: The Fire Nation teaches that firebending is inherently superior in every way, and that all the other elements are broken by their very nature. While Azula rolls her eyes at some of the pseudo-philosophical bull that they're taught ("The very act of earthbending is self-defeating. The essence of earth is steadiness, and to earthbend is to disrupt that steadiness. Thus, earthbenders are inherently inferior."), she's clearly internalized the lessons more than she'd like to admit. She mentions that Katara is very good "for a waterbender," and even though she understands the tactical advantages of different elements, several times she is surprised to find herself actually impressed by them.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Azula and Toph's relation, the two often snark at each other and annoy themselves, but still warm up to each other relatively quickly, have a friendly bending match and Toph is the first and only member of Team Avatar whom Azula truly confides in.