While Avatar: The Last Airbender is well-known for having great heroic characters that are unique and well-written, many of the antagonists from the series are also incredibly well-done. The interesting villains in both Airbender and The Legend of Korra make for a compelling story.
Though Firelord Ozai might be the final bad guy for Aang to defeat, Azula is the more complex and interesting character in many ways, and she interacts more often with Team Avatar. While she’s not a good person, she does have some positive traits as well as some awful ones.
10 Worst: Has no empathy
While most characters who are well-loved by fans are overall good, Azula is a fan-favorite villain. Because of this, her worst traits are going to be far more troubling than the worst traits of someone like Katara or Sokka.
Azula is only really worried about herself and what she wants, and she has no real empathy or sympathy for other people. She can’t put herself in other people’s shoes, and she has no compassion for the suffering of others.
9 Best: Self-assured
Azula is only around 14 years old during the events of the show, so it’s not that she’s always completely confident. However, she is pretty self-assured about many things in life including her abilities, power, and intellect. She has good reason to feel this way because she is somewhat of a prodigy.
She definitely believes that she is supposed to be in charge, and while this is bad news for everyone else, it makes her happy.
8 Worst: Controlling
Most antagonists in fantasy series are going to be controlling people in one way or another, but what makes Azula so interesting is that she’s quite young and also wants approval and friends. While she does seem to on some level want to have loyal friends who care about her, she is completely controlling of those closest to her and doesn’t know how to inspire closeness in any other way besides using fear and control.
This is partially why her friendship with Ty Lee ends up upsetting her so much because Azula doesn't understand how to connect with people and treat them well.
7 Best: Passionate
While the things Azula is passionate about aren’t exactly good things, there’s no denying that she is very invested in the things she causes and the causes she believes in. This is part of why she’s such a scary and powerful foe for Team Avatar to deal with.
She is emotionally invested in the Fire Nation taking over the world, and she definitely has a strong thirst to prove herself as a leader and legend.
6 Worst: Insecure
While Azula can be self-assured about the skills and abilities she knows she’s good at, she can be quite insecure about other things. She craves her father’s approval just like Zuko does, but she just hasn’t ever lost it.
However, she’s seen what Ozai will do to his own children, so she clearly has a good reason to want to stay on his good side. She’s also insecure about her friendships and potential romantic relationships, and she struggles to relate to her peers.
5 Best: Powerful
While Azula isn’t a morally good person in any way, there’s no denying that she’s powerful. There’s definitely something interesting about having such a nuanced villain of a series that’s a teenage girl, and the fact that she’s not weak at all despite her age is fascinating.
She is a talented fire bender who takes to fighting easily. She definitely makes for a formidable adversary.
4 Worst: Power-hungry
While being powerful can be a good trait, and is especially refreshing to see as a trait for a young female character, being power-hungry isn’t so great. There’s nothing wrong with a healthy amount of ambition, but nothing Azula does can be considered healthy. She wants to dominate and control other people, and she is particularly sadistic.
It’s clear that Azula is not a mentally stable person and also that the family line she comes from has a lot of issues. This combined with the abusive and terrifying situation Azula and Zuko grew up in honed Azula into someone who had no real chance.
3 Best: Intelligent
One of Azula’s greatest traits is that she’s extremely smart. She’s good at strategy, and she’s often one step ahead of everyone around her.
This is why she’s able to take over Ba Sing Se and the Dai Li easily and also why she’s able to figure out Team Avatar’s plan for The Day of Black Sun. While her intellect means a lot of trouble for the Gaang, she’s definitely really intelligent.
2 Worst: Cruel
This has already been briefly touched on, but as this is one of Azula’s worst and most vile traits, it deserves its own entry.
Azula is just a cruel person. She has no real compassion for anyone else, and she’s willing to kill her own brother. She doesn’t get upset by the suffering of others like most people would, and she often thinks cruelty is funny especially if it means she’s gotten the upper hand over someone else.
1 Best: Determined
The truth with all of Azula’s traits is that even her objectively best traits aren’t really good because of the way she directs them. However, overall one of her most positive traits is that she’s determined.
She doesn’t quit, and she will keep trying to an intense degree to succeed. She clearly has trained very hard to learn her bending and fighting skills along with being born naturally gifted