The Avatar Episode That Makes Villains Relatable 

Thanks so much for watching! Question of the day: Who is your favorite character from Avatar the Last Airbender and why? Hope you guys have an awesome day and I'll see you next time! =)

This is like my favorite episode! I love that they huminaze Azula

This might sound crazy, but I actually relate to Azula more. Not in terms of parents or lying. But the narcisism, the perfectionism...

i love this episode so much. my favourite character is azula as well. she says her own mother thought she was a monster. she even nonchalantly agrees, so this means that she thinks that no one truly loves her or can love her, because if her own mother doesn't, then who can? and her cool demeanor about the matter displays that she feels this is normal for her to experience and a sort of acceptance that no one can love her. whether she realizes this consciously or subconsciously is up for discussion. she must realise on some level that her relationship with her father is she provides her service in fighting and he provides praise (not unconditional love). this is why she controls everyone around her with fear, even her closest friends mai and ty lee. this fear-worship from others is some sort of substitute for love. in her mind, she is forced to rely on fear because love won't work as no one is able to love her. she also must see love as unreliable, since in zuko alone, she has a pretty solid relationship with her mother, but her mother is very close to zuko and she hears her mom say "what am i going to do with that child" which is detrimental for a young child to hear, and when ursa leaves, she never says goodbye to azula like she does to zuko. we see this mental framework of hers with her interactions with characters in the beach. she treats the beach guys who invite mai and ty lee to their party like they are soldiers that she commands (evident by her tone of voice and direct demanding speech) rather than speaking to them like regular people. with chan, the guy she talks to at the party, she doesn't really love him. she's trying to get attention and adoration like ty lee is getting from the group of boys surrounding her (remember that azula isn't in the fire nation palace where everyone knows her name and cowers before her, something that azula interprets as adoration) and chan is one of the first guys she sees at the party, plus he's the strongest. when azula comments on his strength and says "together, you and i will be the strongest couple in the entire world! WE WILL DOMINATE THE EARTH!", that's actually a really heartbreaking moment if you analyse it, even though it is played for comedy (and one of my favourite azula moments and quotes). it demonstrates that azula only wants and bothers to form meaningful relationships with people who will benefit her. it shows that she has been conditioned by ozai to not see people as people with personalities and human qualities, but as mere tools that she can use to benefit her and the fire nation (chan's strength would be useful for the fire army, after all). this also links to mai and ty lee. she controls them with fear and bosses them around, like she is their commander and not their equals; this is another example of how she has been conditioned by the fire nation, where they have rendered her incapable of forming proper equal relationships with those around her and has been trained to always put herself above others, but not ozai of course (evidence is ozai praising azula over zuko). this makes sense because it's easier to use people to her advantage, so it's easier for azula to do ozai's missions and serve the fire nation, if she sees the people around her as disposable pawns or valuable pieces that she can play rather than forming a deeper emotional connection with them. the other factor in this is that her need to be worshipped out of fear precludes her from ever being equal in a relationship, even with her closest friends (especially with her friends). anyway, azula chose mai and ty lee for their skills and their loyalty. she met them at the royal fire academy for girls, which is basically female military school. when azula meets ty lee at the circus, she looks at ty lee with disdain for choosing this lifestyle because she thinks it is beneath what the daughter of a fire nation noble should do, rather than supporting her friend. this is evidence that azula doesn't really care about ty lee's happiness. in the beach episode she tells the group "well, those were wonderful performances, everyone" after everyone in the group has poured their heart out. she cannot think of her friends' deepest troubles and insecurities as anything but a form of entertainment and fake and barely supports them. when mai and ty lee betray her at the boiling rock, she sees them no longer as useful or reliable. she quickly snaps at them and leaves them to "rot" in the prison. despite all this, i think that the beach episode shows us what could have been of azula, had she been raised in a far better environment with people who truly love her. she wants to play volleyball with people she deems below her, even if it is to prove her superiority. she tries to talk to chan, even if she just does it for attention and more strength on her side. she brings zuko down to the beach and saves him from the painful memories of their old beach house and helps him to figure out his mental troubles, even if she ends up scoffing at him and seeing his breakdown as entertainment. she has a moment of emotional vulnerability, admitting her greatest insecurity about her mother, even though she does brush this off as a joke. this shows us that even though azula has been heavily indoctrinated by the fire nation, and it is heartbreaking to see it affect her so much even when she is removed from that toxic environment and given a chance at being a normal teenager, there is still hope for her that she can recover from what she has experienced in the fire nation palace and can learn to grow into a person capable of genuinely loving others and earning and accepting others' unconditional love for her. the beach episode is a glimpse at what azula could be and the tantalizing prospect that if she was able to escape the fire nation's poisonous roots in her mind then she could finally be happy. anyway, this is just my take on my favourite atla character and one of my all time favourites and i would love to hear your reply. :) edit: another thing i noticed about azula that relates to if she could be redeemed if she spent enough time away from the fire nation is in zuko alone. young azula was more comically mean and snarky than present azula. she spoke like a stereotypical cartoon villain. she presented a lot less nuance and smoothness in her calculating callousness and cruelty. i believe this shows how azula's cruelty was majorly learned from ozai and emulating him. in the flashback azula is seen playing tag with zuko, the person ozai is conditioning her to hate and be better than. ozai probably played on azula's competitiveness and the fact that ursa focused on zuko to be able to manipulate azula to be the next version of him to rule the fire nation. so i think this is a major piece of evidence that azula could eventually be redeemed.

Azula is fear of being lonely, failure, and losing someone.

"most iconic scene from the episode" I thought you were going to say the "that's a sharp outfit, Chan". But for real, book two had the best plot/story, but book three had the best character development. Thank you for the nostalgia hit!

This is still one of my favorite shows to this date. I always loved The Beach episode because of the rearons you described, but you gave more depth to this episodes and to these characters. Therefore making this show more beautiful for me than I already thought it was. Thank you.

I couldn't help noticing Zuko was one of the only people in the episode without a topknot in his hair, but wearing it in his usual "emo teen" style. While some might argue this is fanservice, considering how closely hair is tied to honor in the Fire Nation, it could mean he doesn't truly feel he's redeemed himself.

Azula is my favorite person in the show and i am probably going to watch avatar again

The Beach is hands down one of my top 5 episodes of the entire series

Has anybody here read this crossover between "Youjo Senki" and "Avatar" ? It's only at the begining, but so far, it's really good. The characters are very accurate with their canon counterparts. The name of this fanfic is "Tanya the Firebender".

A truly great episode. One of the big things missing from korra. (Which i still like)

There's probably only one reason I can never forget this episode and why it's my favorite 5:09 maybe 2

I've watched this show so many times and this video is the first time I saw Lo and Lee as a stand in for Iroh. It makes perfect sense. Makes me question the argument that Azula was more messed up because she didn't have an Iroh in her life.

this entire episode was like a breakfeast bunch type episode

3:52 Let's be real here though, they were probably nobility in their own right, just drawing upon the fact that Chan's dad is an Admiral.

it sounded like you said avatar and the last airbender in the beggining. Good video!

Not even Ozai, Zhao and Long Feng were evil just for the sake of it, I see in Ozai an older version of Azula, sadic and with a lack of empathy, we see him as a child in that painting and he is actually cute, Zhao had illusions of grandor, he wanted to leave his mark on the world, and who wouldn't after all, every one wants to be remembered in a certain way, and I think Long Feng actually cared for the people of Ba Sing Se (up to an extent of course), yeah he had all the strings of power but he never did that to hurt or command the people of the city

Love love your take on this episode! Also you have a lovely voice to listen to, I hope your channel grows more! It definitely deserves to 😊

7:12 where did that come from? Mai is really confident about her abilities and the only reason she is not shown to be effective is the nature of her abilities and lack of motivation (her ability is really scary for a kid show) and people always take her seriously, no one doubts her capabilities ever! Azula takes her seriously, Zuko does... She is more like Toph backstory and personality wise. Also, you said that her "not caring" does not change, well it does actually. She ended up caring so much that she went against everything that she feared and was told to do. Good Video otherwise. She has one of the strongest minds and personalities, but I guess difficult to understand.

I love how grey the morals of the fire kids group was. Azula was the most evil out of the four and even she had her own shit. She had evil plans with grey motives, and her ambition rubbed off on the other three. Ty lee mostly stayed out of fear of Azula, her morals were messy but she wasn't technically a bad person, just around bad people. Mai honestly didn't really care, if she was friends wit the avatar kids she would help them too. It's still not a good way to live your life, but she wasn't as driven as Azula. She did whatever helped her friends. And Zuko, Zuko was very misguided. He was constantly fighting inner turmoils and he ended up suceeding in becoming a good person. He was never a bad person, he was just affected by his surroundings and he ended up choosing the right path. Villains that have real reasons to do bad things are so much more interesting than black and white villains. I like it more when they are in the grey zone and their morals aren't horrible. Most of the fire nation teenagers weren't bad people, they just grew up in a bad enviorment and did what they needed to survive.

Avatar: the last Airbender should be a case study on how to write characters. Excellent video, loved it. Subbed 🙂

at 4:44 after Azula kissed and scared off Chan she looked mad then looks away and looks sad for scaring him off alot of people seem to miss this Azula really does want to connect with people but has a hard time doing so because of her upbringing her and Zuko truly are socially awkward hopefully if she does heal or get redeemed in some way she can talk to a boy without scaring him off lol

I agree for the most part but why do you show an image of Darth Vader when you talk about villains who are black and white and evil to be evil? He redeems himself by saving his son and the prequels explain that his fall to the Dark Side was caused by his desire to save Padme because he was traumatized by his mother's death and his hunger for power was caused by his childhood of living as a slave. The Clone Wars TV show and other Star Wars media, set both before and after his fall to the Dark Side, expand even more on his character.

I love how the planned EVERY SINGLE episode not just came out of ideas that doesnt makes sence

I alweys related with Zuko specialy with emo hair same kind i had in hi schooll

Imagine if the Last Airbender never existed and we got a new series that was just entirely Zukos side of the story. That’d be crazy

Even if Mai is the weakest of them she is still my favorite

❤️

I can tell you’re a Korra hater lmao