IMPORTANT: SINCE WE HAVE 7 VILLAINS IN THIS ROUND ONE FIGHT WILL BE BETWEEN 3 OF THEM. YOU MAY ONLY VOTE FOR 1.
IMPORTANT: I WILL NOT COUNT VOTES FROM THOSE WHO DO NOT VOTE FOR EACH FIGHT. ALSO IF I SEE OR NOTICE SOME SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY THAT ENTRY WILL BE DISQUALIFIED.
In this round in this thread we will have 7 villains, which means 3 fights.
Vote in the poll, share your thoughts and state who you voted for.
YOU MAY VOTE FOR YOURSELF IF YOU ARE IN THIS ROUND.
Vote for each round, the winners of each fight will advance.
FIRST FIGHT
Joker from Dark Knight
Shhh, take a moment, relax, close your eyes, and imagine the Joker's portrayal you've seen in ANY and EVERY form of Batman (or Batman-related) media. Now I want you to focus specifically on the DC movie verse and name the first Joker and actor that comes to mind. You have Jack Nicholson (foh old man), Jared Leto (sure, if you want a dollar store version of the clown prince of crime), Joaquin Phoenix (yup, he delivered an award-winning performance that showcased Joker's humanity), or Heath Ledger (arguably the greatest Joker and the portrayal of one of the greatest villains of all time). The Joker is the perfect juxtaposition of Batman and, in essence, two sides of the same fucked up coin. Tragic backstory โ
, questionable sense of justice โ
, driven to insanity (albeit two different variations) โ
. Oh, what's so good about the Joker is he doesn't give a single shit about getting himself hurt or killed, and if Batman kills the Joker, guess who wins? The Joker, especially Ledger's, shows that inside, everyone is a bit of a monster, but hey, at the end of the day...why so serious?
VS
Light Yagami
VS
Griffith from Berserk
IMPORTANT: I WILL NOT COUNT VOTES FROM THOSE WHO DO NOT VOTE FOR EACH FIGHT. ALSO IF I SEE OR NOTICE SOME SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY THAT ENTRY WILL BE DISQUALIFIED.
In this round in this thread we will have 7 villains, which means 3 fights.
Vote in the poll, share your thoughts and state who you voted for.
YOU MAY VOTE FOR YOURSELF IF YOU ARE IN THIS ROUND.
Vote for each round, the winners of each fight will advance.
FIRST FIGHT
Joker from Dark Knight
VS
Light Yagami
Light Yagami is such a great villain due to how detailed and human his development is. Just like how real people will tend to justify their decisions no matter how bad, so does Light. In his head he is being heroic, despite the terror he causes. All of the characteristics that made him a model citizen, turned into assets to his evil. His intelligence allowed him to plot out the most intricate crimes, his charisma made it easy for him to deceive characters into giving up their names, and most decisively, the arrogance that can come with being a model student (perfect grades, friends, etc.), turned into the god complex that allowed him to justify so many murders. Despite this, because you follow his development so closely and his reason for committing his crimes is so consistent and thought out, it is hard not to find yourself rooting for him at times.
Couldn't find my favorite scene, but here is a good one.
One of Light's planned out crimes:
Couldn't find my favorite scene, but here is a good one.
One of Light's planned out crimes:
VS
Griffith from Berserk
Griffith is the perfect villlain:
Here's why
You start off by looking up to him
Griffith begins the series as the established leader of a mercenary band, and takes the main character (Guts/Gattsu/Gatts) under his wing.
Not only that, but he's a brilliant tactician that does not come from a noble background. Consequentially, this means that he's fighting the man (or in this case, the established system of nobility and born titles which defined the worth of many by birth in the medieval ages), and he's doing this by "pulling himself up by his own bootstraps" (I hate that phrase).
Throughout the start of the series, we not only see Griffith lead the Band of the Hawk to victory, we see him upset the established order of the world (well, Midland, in this case).
And above all else, he's extremely charismatic. We look up to him.
He quickly gains our trust
Throughout the beginning of the story, we see many references where members of the Band of the Hawk go on and on about how amazing Griffith is. Everybody fawns over him.
He's like the popular kid in school (only with a lot more tactical knowledge). Sure, the other generals in the Band are looked up to by their troops (even that little shit Corkus (video)), but none are anywhere near as well loved as Griffith, and for good reason. He organized them, lead them to victory, treated them well, and put them on a path of being recognized for their skills as opposed to their birth (or he just gave them the spoils of war as per the norm - whatever). He seems to authentically care for those that work closely with him, and even worked to save Guts from a nasty predicament or 2 (ZOD!) during their time together.
We root for him
He's also not someone to be screwed with. Griffith knows how to plan on and off of the battlefield. All of his moves are calculated. This is already admirable on its own, but the execution of his plans are what really make us want to root for him. We see how the nobility plans against him, and we want Griffith to succeed. We want him to shove it in their stupid, cake-eating noble faces that a common-born man is better than they are. We want to see his goals realized, in the beginning of this story.
We admire him for everything that he does, and for his dream.
He ruins everything
...but then we figure out how far he'll really go to achieve this dream.
Griffith betrays our trust, and not in any lighthearted way. This is why he's such a well written villain. He doesn't just forget to show up to our party, or stop responding to our texts. All those people that look up to him? He literally lets all but 2 of them get eaten alive. Eaten alive, or torn apart in horrific ways.
Of the 2 that don't die, one is mutilated (Guts), and one is raped into a near-catatonic state (Casca).
In this one action, for many fans Griffith goes from a Christ-like figure to a character akin go the Devil himself.
Why does this matter?
No matter how good of a reputation you have, your actions define you. One misdeed, regardless of the reasoning behind it, can mar your reputation beyond repair.
In Dante's Inferno, the center of hell is reserved for traitors. Right next to Satan are several of them, including Judas and Cain (two characters who are forever remembered by one key decision they made).
Being a traitor doesn't put you in anyone's good graces, and many people see Griffith as a traitor.
So what? There are plenty of traitors in manga/anime, right? Why should Griffith get more hate than them for betraying everyone?
Here's why
You start off by looking up to him
Griffith begins the series as the established leader of a mercenary band, and takes the main character (Guts/Gattsu/Gatts) under his wing.
Not only that, but he's a brilliant tactician that does not come from a noble background. Consequentially, this means that he's fighting the man (or in this case, the established system of nobility and born titles which defined the worth of many by birth in the medieval ages), and he's doing this by "pulling himself up by his own bootstraps" (I hate that phrase).
Throughout the start of the series, we not only see Griffith lead the Band of the Hawk to victory, we see him upset the established order of the world (well, Midland, in this case).
And above all else, he's extremely charismatic. We look up to him.
He quickly gains our trust
Throughout the beginning of the story, we see many references where members of the Band of the Hawk go on and on about how amazing Griffith is. Everybody fawns over him.
He's like the popular kid in school (only with a lot more tactical knowledge). Sure, the other generals in the Band are looked up to by their troops (even that little shit Corkus (video)), but none are anywhere near as well loved as Griffith, and for good reason. He organized them, lead them to victory, treated them well, and put them on a path of being recognized for their skills as opposed to their birth (or he just gave them the spoils of war as per the norm - whatever). He seems to authentically care for those that work closely with him, and even worked to save Guts from a nasty predicament or 2 (ZOD!) during their time together.
We root for him
He's also not someone to be screwed with. Griffith knows how to plan on and off of the battlefield. All of his moves are calculated. This is already admirable on its own, but the execution of his plans are what really make us want to root for him. We see how the nobility plans against him, and we want Griffith to succeed. We want him to shove it in their stupid, cake-eating noble faces that a common-born man is better than they are. We want to see his goals realized, in the beginning of this story.
We admire him for everything that he does, and for his dream.
He ruins everything
...but then we figure out how far he'll really go to achieve this dream.
Griffith betrays our trust, and not in any lighthearted way. This is why he's such a well written villain. He doesn't just forget to show up to our party, or stop responding to our texts. All those people that look up to him? He literally lets all but 2 of them get eaten alive. Eaten alive, or torn apart in horrific ways.
Of the 2 that don't die, one is mutilated (Guts), and one is raped into a near-catatonic state (Casca).
In this one action, for many fans Griffith goes from a Christ-like figure to a character akin go the Devil himself.
Why does this matter?
No matter how good of a reputation you have, your actions define you. One misdeed, regardless of the reasoning behind it, can mar your reputation beyond repair.
In Dante's Inferno, the center of hell is reserved for traitors. Right next to Satan are several of them, including Judas and Cain (two characters who are forever remembered by one key decision they made).
Being a traitor doesn't put you in anyone's good graces, and many people see Griffith as a traitor.
So what? There are plenty of traitors in manga/anime, right? Why should Griffith get more hate than them for betraying everyone?
- Because of what he represents.
- Because of who he betrays.
- Because of what this means.
What Griffith represents, originally, is something that a lot of us can identify with. His ideals and his dreams contrast greatly with the chaos and horror of Berserk's world. Griffith doesn't want a castle - he wants to break society's limitations, cast away entitlement, and achieve greatness through actions, not through a station in life. Many of us want this as well.
During the actions of the eclipse, Griffith betrays what he represents to many of us. He also betrays several characters that we've grown to love.
That really pisses off a lot of fans, especially because it was Griffith's conscious choice to do this.
What does this mean?
This means we have to come face to face with watching one of our heroes fall short.
What if it was Corkus that betrayed everyone? Or one of the noblemen? Maybe the king, or some secondary character that they were allied with? Yeah, we'd hate them, but that hate would be nowhere near the level of that reserved for Griffith. We could make peace with the other characters being traitors.
Not Griffith, though. Watching Griffith betray us stings. Griffith was never supposed to be a traitor.
That's why we hate Griffith so much: because we loved him, and he turned out to be something else than what we thought, in terrible fashion.
But hey, who knows. Perhaps Griffith is really playing 4D chess, and this is all just a long game to save the world from the God Hand?
Would that really matter?
Scene:
During the actions of the eclipse, Griffith betrays what he represents to many of us. He also betrays several characters that we've grown to love.
That really pisses off a lot of fans, especially because it was Griffith's conscious choice to do this.
What does this mean?
This means we have to come face to face with watching one of our heroes fall short.
What if it was Corkus that betrayed everyone? Or one of the noblemen? Maybe the king, or some secondary character that they were allied with? Yeah, we'd hate them, but that hate would be nowhere near the level of that reserved for Griffith. We could make peace with the other characters being traitors.
Not Griffith, though. Watching Griffith betray us stings. Griffith was never supposed to be a traitor.
That's why we hate Griffith so much: because we loved him, and he turned out to be something else than what we thought, in terrible fashion.
But hey, who knows. Perhaps Griffith is really playing 4D chess, and this is all just a long game to save the world from the God Hand?
Would that really matter?
Scene:
SECOND FIGHT
Johan Liebert from Monster
Johan Liebert is the titular monster of the series. He is the main antagonist of the entire manga.
At first glance, one would describe Johan as a well-mannered, charismatic, and compassionate yet somewhat reserved young man who possesses a plethora of favourable traits and can easily overwhelm individuals with his seemingly flawless nature, as seen with Hans, who describes him as being not of this world. This meticulously crafted facade makes it easy for him to make new allies and manipulate them into doing various deeds for him through the influence of his supposed friendship and good will. With such skill in creating this sense of perfection and pureness, Johan hides his true motives with ease.
Within this contrived exterior, however, Johan callously delivers destruction and suffering to those who happen to fall prey to his schemes. Even before his tenure at Kinderheim 511, Johan still exhibits psychopathic tendencies. For instance, most of his murders, both in childhood and adulthood, have been premeditated and calculated.
Johan often shows a complete disregard for life by pointing to his forehead, inviting Dr. Kenzo Tenma to shoot him.
Many of Johan's beliefs run consistent with nihilism, as he does not see any meaning to life. He claims, "Most of this universe is 'death' anyway," and that to the universe, "most lives are just specks in a corner of the earth, gone in a flash.
Johan also has a tendency to make his victims experience the worst possible loss and suffering rather than actually killing them himself; this experience often leads to the victims killing themselves, however. Helmut Wolf is a prime example of this; instead of simply being killed, Wolf is forced to watch as all of his close relatives and acquaintances die, one after another, all so he can feel what Johan felt, solitude.
What is so frightening about Johan is that he possesses this terrifying ability to turn people into monsters using just his words. For instance, he could turn them into serial killers without even lifting a finger. The usage of his manipulative tactics exposes the true nature of humans and using this, he corrupts their souls. In a way, he exposes humanity in its worst image, portraying them as nothing but psychotic killers. Furthermore, these tactics were displayed from an early age, where he was the cause of a tragic massacre at his orphanage, 511 Kinderheim. On that occasion he used stories in order to convince the children that were there with him to murder the staff and then murder each other whilst he was sitting on his throne and observing all of it. During the massacre in Kinderheim 511 fifty children and instructors were in a chaotic battle, all of them fighting and killing. Whilst all of this is happening, Johan just sits on a throne and watches as the chaos unfolds and the whole orphanage becomes engulfed in flames .
He is a genius-level mastermind with the goal of being the only one standing, although that changes later in the series.
Johan uses his wits to commit his evil with no help from supernatural elements at all. Just with his manipulative tactics, intelligence and the knowledge of how the human mind can be corrupted. Then he executes his plan, creating monsters out of nothing except carefully chosen words. That's what makes him genuinely horrifying. The scary thing about the way this character is portrayed is that a person like this could actually exist in real life, there could be someone out there like Johan in this world. The realism this character expresses throughout the anime really makes you think about the possibility that there could be a person like this out there, which is what makes him that much scarier.
Johan's experiences as a child could make one wonder if Johan is truly THE monster or was he shaped that way by the people around him. In order not to spoil much, I will briefly go through them. Johan was experimented upon and was being raised as the new Hitler by the government. . Kinderheim 511, where Johan was sent, was a horrid place where children were treated like criminals and experimented on in an attempt by the government to create perfect soldiers. Johan's mentors had always nurtured Johan's skill for manipulating others with no conscience. However, when confronted, they claimed that Johan was already a "monster" when he first came to the orphanage.
At first glance, one would describe Johan as a well-mannered, charismatic, and compassionate yet somewhat reserved young man who possesses a plethora of favourable traits and can easily overwhelm individuals with his seemingly flawless nature, as seen with Hans, who describes him as being not of this world. This meticulously crafted facade makes it easy for him to make new allies and manipulate them into doing various deeds for him through the influence of his supposed friendship and good will. With such skill in creating this sense of perfection and pureness, Johan hides his true motives with ease.
Within this contrived exterior, however, Johan callously delivers destruction and suffering to those who happen to fall prey to his schemes. Even before his tenure at Kinderheim 511, Johan still exhibits psychopathic tendencies. For instance, most of his murders, both in childhood and adulthood, have been premeditated and calculated.
Johan often shows a complete disregard for life by pointing to his forehead, inviting Dr. Kenzo Tenma to shoot him.
Many of Johan's beliefs run consistent with nihilism, as he does not see any meaning to life. He claims, "Most of this universe is 'death' anyway," and that to the universe, "most lives are just specks in a corner of the earth, gone in a flash.
Johan also has a tendency to make his victims experience the worst possible loss and suffering rather than actually killing them himself; this experience often leads to the victims killing themselves, however. Helmut Wolf is a prime example of this; instead of simply being killed, Wolf is forced to watch as all of his close relatives and acquaintances die, one after another, all so he can feel what Johan felt, solitude.
What is so frightening about Johan is that he possesses this terrifying ability to turn people into monsters using just his words. For instance, he could turn them into serial killers without even lifting a finger. The usage of his manipulative tactics exposes the true nature of humans and using this, he corrupts their souls. In a way, he exposes humanity in its worst image, portraying them as nothing but psychotic killers. Furthermore, these tactics were displayed from an early age, where he was the cause of a tragic massacre at his orphanage, 511 Kinderheim. On that occasion he used stories in order to convince the children that were there with him to murder the staff and then murder each other whilst he was sitting on his throne and observing all of it. During the massacre in Kinderheim 511 fifty children and instructors were in a chaotic battle, all of them fighting and killing. Whilst all of this is happening, Johan just sits on a throne and watches as the chaos unfolds and the whole orphanage becomes engulfed in flames .
He is a genius-level mastermind with the goal of being the only one standing, although that changes later in the series.
Johan uses his wits to commit his evil with no help from supernatural elements at all. Just with his manipulative tactics, intelligence and the knowledge of how the human mind can be corrupted. Then he executes his plan, creating monsters out of nothing except carefully chosen words. That's what makes him genuinely horrifying. The scary thing about the way this character is portrayed is that a person like this could actually exist in real life, there could be someone out there like Johan in this world. The realism this character expresses throughout the anime really makes you think about the possibility that there could be a person like this out there, which is what makes him that much scarier.
Johan's experiences as a child could make one wonder if Johan is truly THE monster or was he shaped that way by the people around him. In order not to spoil much, I will briefly go through them. Johan was experimented upon and was being raised as the new Hitler by the government. . Kinderheim 511, where Johan was sent, was a horrid place where children were treated like criminals and experimented on in an attempt by the government to create perfect soldiers. Johan's mentors had always nurtured Johan's skill for manipulating others with no conscience. However, when confronted, they claimed that Johan was already a "monster" when he first came to the orphanage.
VS
Aizen from Bleach
- Aizen is the embodiment of charisma, and a full time troll who casually deceived the entirety of the spiritual world and his own people, while parading around with a kind-hearted persona. He lead a double life for hundreds of years, biding his time until he finally had the necessary preparation required to fuck them all over. A very patient, hardworking and a driven man.
- He's an extremely meticulous individual who ohestrated the downfall of an ancient natural order, planned the entire life out of the mc just so he could one day meet him in battle for a few moments of amusement, and decided to shake the very foundation of the world he resides in because "A winner has to speak not of the world as it is, but of the world as it should be" Has a God complex as with most villains but with a "noble end goal"
- His character is probably the only shining light within the bleach verse, which is especially true once you get to the end game where his presence alone makes the clusterfuck of story bearable. (This is after he's been defeated by mc plot amour. Still never gets fully "redeemed" or turned into a good guy cliche. Still has his own goals even at the end).
- In short, he's the ๐.
- He's an extremely meticulous individual who ohestrated the downfall of an ancient natural order, planned the entire life out of the mc just so he could one day meet him in battle for a few moments of amusement, and decided to shake the very foundation of the world he resides in because "A winner has to speak not of the world as it is, but of the world as it should be" Has a God complex as with most villains but with a "noble end goal"
- His character is probably the only shining light within the bleach verse, which is especially true once you get to the end game where his presence alone makes the clusterfuck of story bearable. (This is after he's been defeated by mc plot amour. Still never gets fully "redeemed" or turned into a good guy cliche. Still has his own goals even at the end).
- In short, he's the ๐.
Out of the countless troll moments we're given for Aizen in the Bleach series, this one definitely hits the hardest, and is by far the most mentally scarring.
While his peers are trying their hardest to stop Aizen from releasing his op ass powers in the form of complete hypnosis, he allows them enjoy a brief moment of respite and happiness (landing a "critical hit") before he brutally shuts them all down by revealing to them that it was just a fantasy in thier heads, and the one they had just beat down on and impaled, was in-fact one of their very own, all the while the hypnosis that they've hoped to shut down or deny activating was in effect right from the start.
While his peers are trying their hardest to stop Aizen from releasing his op ass powers in the form of complete hypnosis, he allows them enjoy a brief moment of respite and happiness (landing a "critical hit") before he brutally shuts them all down by revealing to them that it was just a fantasy in thier heads, and the one they had just beat down on and impaled, was in-fact one of their very own, all the while the hypnosis that they've hoped to shut down or deny activating was in effect right from the start.
This moment is then swiftly followed by a demonstration of absolute monstrous power.
In the end, he doesn't really require the op powers of hypnosis that they're all so extremely wary of to strike them all down in one simple blow.
For all his craftiness, all his planning, and all his powers of manipulation and deception, at the end of the day he's just monstrously strong.
He trolls the protagonists and good guys at every turn, while also trolling the entire fandom.
For all his craftiness, all his planning, and all his powers of manipulation and deception, at the end of the day he's just monstrously strong.
He trolls the protagonists and good guys at every turn, while also trolling the entire fandom.
THIRD FIGHT
Meruem
Meruem is the most powerful offspring of the Queen and is also known as the King of the Chimera Ants. In the beginning, he is a cold-blooded tyrant whose motives are world domination and the eradication of humans, but later he meets a little human girl, Kumogi, who slowly starts changing him to the point where he becomes humanized. He goes from a merciless monster to a person who tries to compromise with his human enemies in order to find a balance between humans and Ants.
VS
Azula from Avatar
Character
: Azula
From: Avatar The Last Airbender (Animated Series that primered on Nickleodeon in the late 2000s to early 2010s/ Lowkey could pass as an anime tbh...has all the markers of one just without some of the tropes common with anime coming out of Japan.)
A Very Brief Synopsis on Who Azula was:
Azula was the princess of the Fire Nation who served as the primary antagonistic force in the Series. She was the daughter of the Fire Nationโs leader; Ozai and was the younger sister of the Prince Zuko who later defected. Her personality in brief words: sadistic, manipulative, strategic, cunning, ruthless and ambitious. Throw all of that in a blender and you got the most enjoyable villian of the series by a mile. Azulaโs personality dominated the screen whenever she was present and practically carried the antagonistic side against the main cast. While these characteristics are the markings of a cold, caculated perfectionist...she was instead forced to put that up as a mask to harbor her biggest instability: fear of rejection. You see Azulaโs upbringing as a child basically made her turn into what she eventually became and in her eventual fall that instability is brought up to the surface. Put in order to understand this, I would have to talk about her upbringing briefly and how both her parents shaped her personality.
As previously said Azula was born into royalty. She had a mother called Ursa who was compassionate and caring. Her father was the complete opposite, cruel, and looking to conquer the rest of the world whether they liked it or not and he shot down anyone who opposed. Because of this he basically saw Zuko and Azula as essentially war tools to be taken advantage of to use for his end goal. They were both born firebenders like him so his expectations were naturally very high for them to play a big role in this world takeover he had planned. From the get go it was established in the flashback that Zuko was closer to his mother and subsequently Azula was closer to her father. This was the result of Ozai favoring Azula over Zuko because of the vast difference in talent and power when it came to firebending. As a result Zuko was practically neglected by Ozai for most of his childhood so Ursa always cared for him more. Azula became jealous of this and because she was already so close to her father, some of his negative traits rubbed off on her even as a child. She viewed Ozai as the only person who acknowledged her and her mother Ursa scolded many times for being unnecessarily cruel. Perhaps the best example was when Iroh(Ozaiโs brother who was the Fire Nation ruler at the time) found himself in a potentially deadly situation in battle. Zuko and Ursa reacted how any of us would, Azula on the otherhand was already elated about how he would be replaced by her father. This was the ambitious nature of Azula just a child.
In short the reason why she became such a sadistic and cruel person was because of the expectations set of being a perfect child to her father; who was just as cruel and longed for world domination. Zuko couldnโt meet these overbearing expectations, he was neglected and Ursa cared for him more. Her perception of Ursa and what she thought she lacked; her motherโs love is when Azulaโs instability is born. Azula always thought her mother feared her and took that as rejection. As a result Azula basically tries to discard part of what makes us human; empathy and used fear to manipulate others for personal gain. This fires back at her and contributes towards her eventual fall when her closest friends leave her.
Whatโs really amazing to me about this is that even though Azula only respected her father and wanted to meet his favor, when it became evident that she was only a means to an end she basically unraveled. It really shows that even an almost perfect prodigy like Azula still was a human deep down and had actual insecurties/vulnerabilities.
This couldnโt be more evident in this scene:
I could go on but I feel like this is enough lol, Azula has a deep psychological make up...so deep you find numerous articles and videos on Youtube doing rounds on and from different angles. To me what makes her a damn good villian was how well written her story was and she wasnโt just a cold and calculative perfectionist just because the plot called for it, not even close. It was the result of her complicated upbringing and her fatherโs cut throat expectations that turned her into a monster but when she realized that she basically traded in her empathy for it was too late. So basically in conclusion what I like about Azula is that despite the fact that she had these quality characertistics that made her an awesome and enjoyable villian had behind it she had a complicated past and a lost touch of what makes part of one human. The writers portrayed and executed this in excellent fashion througout the series and anyone who hasnโt seen ATLA would just have to watch it to see what Iโm talking about.
Briefly going through the remaining category;
Achievements: As you may already have picked up...she was a prodigy in firebending and vastly better than her brother Zuko. As Ozai put it; Azula was โborn luckyโ and Zuko was โlucky that he was bornโ. While that was harsh af lmao you couldnโt really argue Zuko was close to Azula in terms of sheer talent. She was one of few who also achieved mastery of lightning bending, a technique that was only acessible with the complete mastery of firebending. She naturally had many feats in the show, almost killed the MC (Aang) at one point and outclassed Zuko many times. Perhaps my favorite scene that emphasized the raw difference between the two was in this fight;
Tho admittedly very early in the series, you can see how she doesnโt even bother to use firebending and trash talks Zuko (to throw him off his game, thatโs her strategic and manipulative nature on full display right there) throughout the entire way, only until heโs pretty much down for the count is when she goes for the knockout using lightning bending.
And I guess I can stop here lol. Could definitely say and show more but hopefully this ainโt too long. A few sentences just wouldnโt do this character justice.
From: Avatar The Last Airbender (Animated Series that primered on Nickleodeon in the late 2000s to early 2010s/ Lowkey could pass as an anime tbh...has all the markers of one just without some of the tropes common with anime coming out of Japan.)
A Very Brief Synopsis on Who Azula was:
Azula was the princess of the Fire Nation who served as the primary antagonistic force in the Series. She was the daughter of the Fire Nationโs leader; Ozai and was the younger sister of the Prince Zuko who later defected. Her personality in brief words: sadistic, manipulative, strategic, cunning, ruthless and ambitious. Throw all of that in a blender and you got the most enjoyable villian of the series by a mile. Azulaโs personality dominated the screen whenever she was present and practically carried the antagonistic side against the main cast. While these characteristics are the markings of a cold, caculated perfectionist...she was instead forced to put that up as a mask to harbor her biggest instability: fear of rejection. You see Azulaโs upbringing as a child basically made her turn into what she eventually became and in her eventual fall that instability is brought up to the surface. Put in order to understand this, I would have to talk about her upbringing briefly and how both her parents shaped her personality.
As previously said Azula was born into royalty. She had a mother called Ursa who was compassionate and caring. Her father was the complete opposite, cruel, and looking to conquer the rest of the world whether they liked it or not and he shot down anyone who opposed. Because of this he basically saw Zuko and Azula as essentially war tools to be taken advantage of to use for his end goal. They were both born firebenders like him so his expectations were naturally very high for them to play a big role in this world takeover he had planned. From the get go it was established in the flashback that Zuko was closer to his mother and subsequently Azula was closer to her father. This was the result of Ozai favoring Azula over Zuko because of the vast difference in talent and power when it came to firebending. As a result Zuko was practically neglected by Ozai for most of his childhood so Ursa always cared for him more. Azula became jealous of this and because she was already so close to her father, some of his negative traits rubbed off on her even as a child. She viewed Ozai as the only person who acknowledged her and her mother Ursa scolded many times for being unnecessarily cruel. Perhaps the best example was when Iroh(Ozaiโs brother who was the Fire Nation ruler at the time) found himself in a potentially deadly situation in battle. Zuko and Ursa reacted how any of us would, Azula on the otherhand was already elated about how he would be replaced by her father. This was the ambitious nature of Azula just a child.
In short the reason why she became such a sadistic and cruel person was because of the expectations set of being a perfect child to her father; who was just as cruel and longed for world domination. Zuko couldnโt meet these overbearing expectations, he was neglected and Ursa cared for him more. Her perception of Ursa and what she thought she lacked; her motherโs love is when Azulaโs instability is born. Azula always thought her mother feared her and took that as rejection. As a result Azula basically tries to discard part of what makes us human; empathy and used fear to manipulate others for personal gain. This fires back at her and contributes towards her eventual fall when her closest friends leave her.
Whatโs really amazing to me about this is that even though Azula only respected her father and wanted to meet his favor, when it became evident that she was only a means to an end she basically unraveled. It really shows that even an almost perfect prodigy like Azula still was a human deep down and had actual insecurties/vulnerabilities.
This couldnโt be more evident in this scene:
I could go on but I feel like this is enough lol, Azula has a deep psychological make up...so deep you find numerous articles and videos on Youtube doing rounds on and from different angles. To me what makes her a damn good villian was how well written her story was and she wasnโt just a cold and calculative perfectionist just because the plot called for it, not even close. It was the result of her complicated upbringing and her fatherโs cut throat expectations that turned her into a monster but when she realized that she basically traded in her empathy for it was too late. So basically in conclusion what I like about Azula is that despite the fact that she had these quality characertistics that made her an awesome and enjoyable villian had behind it she had a complicated past and a lost touch of what makes part of one human. The writers portrayed and executed this in excellent fashion througout the series and anyone who hasnโt seen ATLA would just have to watch it to see what Iโm talking about.
Briefly going through the remaining category;
Achievements: As you may already have picked up...she was a prodigy in firebending and vastly better than her brother Zuko. As Ozai put it; Azula was โborn luckyโ and Zuko was โlucky that he was bornโ. While that was harsh af lmao you couldnโt really argue Zuko was close to Azula in terms of sheer talent. She was one of few who also achieved mastery of lightning bending, a technique that was only acessible with the complete mastery of firebending. She naturally had many feats in the show, almost killed the MC (Aang) at one point and outclassed Zuko many times. Perhaps my favorite scene that emphasized the raw difference between the two was in this fight;
And I guess I can stop here lol. Could definitely say and show more but hopefully this ainโt too long. A few sentences just wouldnโt do this character justice.
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