Fans were left completely confused by the series finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender, as they attempted to understand why Azula had a mental breakdown.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is an American animated cartoon television series, produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studios.
The series follows Aang, the current and last survivor of his nation, the Air Nomads, and his friends. It also shows the story of Azula, who is the crown princess of the Fire Nation.
She attempts to capture Avatar Aang, who is considered the Fire Nation’s greatest threat to victory in the war.
In the finale of Book Three: Fire, the third and final season, fans witnessed Azula challenging Zuko to a single combat in an Agni Kai.
Azula is then seen defeated by Katara, who takes her captive through the act of waterbending. This causes Azula to have a complete nervous breakdown.
Fans were left confused as they never received an official explanation as to why Azula had the emotional breakdown. Since the episode aired on 19 July 2018, fans conceptualised various theories to explain the nervous breakdown.
A fan commented on a Fandom blog post on 28 August 2020, stating that it was a mental breakdown and not a slip into insanity.
The fan explained that Azula always tried to be the perfect version of herself, and this took a massive toll on her. Another breaking point for her was when her father left her to go burn the Earth Kingdom, which affected her severely.
The only form of love she knew at that point in the show was through fear. Thus, when her two closest friends betrayed her at the Boiling Rock, all of the ideals her life were built on came crashing down.
The fan added, “Both of these combined destroyed her mental state and was basically why she had the mental breakdown in the series finale.”
Another fan theory is that Azula developed a mental problem but she did not really go insane. It explained that Azula had a lot of tension building up inside of her.
Fans witnessed Azula hallucinating during the finale, where Ursa, Azula’s mother, told her that she is a monster and Azula believed it.
Another point is that she realized that Ozai did not actually love her, and that she was being manipulated by him. Therefore, she felt lonely and lost control of all her emotions.