Azula’s team in Avatar: The Last Airbender consisted of her, Mai, Ty Lee, and later Zuko – for a short while, that is – but that wasn’t the original plan. Throughout the series, Aang and Team Avatar were consumed with the burden of defeating Fire Lord Ozai while simultaneously evading capture by his son, Zuko, whose seemingly only route to redemption was apprehending the Avatar. While the end goal never changed for Aang and his friends, everyone’s relationship with each other became more nuanced after season 1.

Not long after General Zhao’s invasion of the Northern Water Tribe failed, which had compounded Zuko’s inability to catch the Avatar, Fire Lord Ozai tasked his daughter and heir, Azula, with cleaning up the mess. He wanted Zuko and Iroh arrested, considering the former to be a disappointment and the latter to be a traitor to the Fire Nation. Azula was certainly capable of doing that considering her power levels and mastery of firebending, but still, she needed some help. So she recruited her friends, Mai and Ty Lee, whom she grew up with at the Fire Academy.

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Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee were a force to be reckoned with, and they made quick work of Team Avatar the first time they met them. Ty Lee, specifically, was able to block their chi paths, rendering them entirely defenseless. What’s interesting, though, is that Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s original plan was to have Azula outfitted with a team of ninjas – but later it was decided that giving Azula’s companions personalities and “individual skills” was a better idea. This particular bit of information was revealed in season 2’s Avatar Extras for the episode “Return to Omashu”.

Given that Azula was princess of the Fire Nation and heir to Fire Lord Ozai’s throne, having ninjas by her side would’ve befitted someone of her stature. However, it was undoubtedly the right decision by the show’s writers and producers to create Mai and Ty Lee – and to have them be Azula’s companions throughout the series. That not only gave audiences two new characters to invest in, but the decision also opened up new story possibilities for both Azula and Zuko.

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Zuko and Mai’s relationship humanized both characters, to an extent, and provided new insights into their lives. Furthermore, the sequence in which Azula recruits Ty Lee to her team was enough to show just how controlling and ruthless Azula was. Ozai trained her to become the next Fire Lord, particularly in such a way that would enable her to maintain control of the world and the Fire Nation’s empire. While the impact of that training shone at various parts throughout the story, Mai and Ty Lee rounded out Azula as a character; that much was evident by their punishment for betraying Azula in Avatar: The Last Airbender season 3.

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About The Author


Mansoor Mithaiwala
(1888 Articles Published)

Mansoor Mithaiwala is Screen Rant’s TV Lead Editor. He originally joined the site as a freelance writer on the Lists team before moving over to News and Features, eventually becoming an editor in 2018. Over time he’s done quite a few different things, including helping launch gaming on the site, often handling news, features, and guides simultaneously. Now he sticks primarily to movies and TV, and spends way too much time looking at analytics. It sure seems like he’s put his Political Science degree to good use, huh?

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