The side characters in Avatar: The Last Airbender are so fleshed out that you can’t separate them from the main characters sometimes. That’s how well written the show is. One of such characters is Ty Lee, one of Azula’s closest friends, if we can call her that. Most of the time, the scenes she is in are focused mainly on fights, so we don’t get to dwell on her other traits. But in this article, we’ll talk about facts you should know about Ty Lee Avatar.
Ty Lee Avatar: Appeared In A Few Episodes
Eleven. Yep, that’s the number of times Ty Lee appears in Avatar: The Last Airbender. We know, it sounds crazy, considering how it feels like Ty Lee was such a big part of the show. While that’s not wrong, we are made to believe this mostly because of her rather large personality.
In fact, she didn’t make her first appearance until the third episode of Book Two. Furthermore, she only appeared in 11 episodes after that, and even one of those episodes involved her saying no lines. She didn’t even appear in the Legend of Korra series.
Ty Lee Avatar Was The Only Person Azula Apologised To
It’s an impressive feat to note, almost as impressive as the fact that Azula never apologized to anybody in three seasons on that show. But Ty Lee was the exception, and perhaps it highlights just how serious the friendship between the two girls is. The apology comes after Azula makes her feel bad about her attention-seeking behavior.
The character is often used to show how insane and manipulating Azula was. In the end, it was as if Ty Lee knew all along that she was not really a good friend. Being with Azula meant being around power and that seemed to be the only attractive trait.
She is One of Seven Sisters
When she reveals the fact that she is one of seven sisters in “The Beach”, we don’t quite understand the gravity of that statement. In truth, Ty Lee is one of seven daughters – all of whom look shockingly alike. That really explains a lot about her personality. Her sisters even have similar names to hers. They are named Ty Lin, Ty Lat, Ty Lao, Ty Liu, Ty Lum, and Ty Woo. This totally explains the need for her to constantly seek attention from others, seeing as she does not have an identity when surrounded by her sisters.
Ty Lee Avatar Was A Circus Girl
When she became frustrated at the lack of attention and further lack of identity that came from having six sisters that looked exactly like her, Ty Lee had to do something. So, she ran off to join the circus, and we really cannot blame her for that. Running off was likely the only option she had, the only chance she would ever have at getting what she wanted. Of course, that was cut short by Azula, who ended up pulling the poor Ty Lee back into her evil schemes.
She is a chi blocking expert
Besides being an incredibly flexible person, Ty Lee also had the distinct ability to chi block. This would in turn block a bender’s access to their bending, and rendered most of them useless in a fight. It was an impressive ability, and she turned out to be a formidable foe. Even when she was faced with a large number of bending opponents, she would simply just take away their bending; tipping the scales back to her favor.
Her Chi Blocking is widely used in the Legend of Korra. All the credit goes to Ty Lee because she was a character who was not a bender but used her Chi Blocking and athletic ability to win fights anyway. She gave real hope to all of the little people.
Ty Lee Avatar: The Kyoshi Warrior
When Ty Lee resisted the will of Azula, she found herself hanging out in a Fire Nation prison alongside the Kyoshi warriors. Eventually, she became friends with this fierce group of ladies, and later even became a member of their team. It was a team-up ordained by the heavens because Ty Lee already showed the skills that the Kyoshi Warriors had always embodied.
Ty Lee never felt like a fully fleshed out bad guy. Azula was a crazy person, and Mai was just down to do whatever would not leave her bored. But Ty Lee never felt evil, she just felt misguided. Her joining the Kyoshi Warriors made a lot of sense.
First Outsider Kyoshi Warrior
You might not know it, but Kyoshi warriors do not take in members, not from their Island. However, Ty Lee was the first-ever non-member of Kyoshi Island to become a Kyoshi Warrior.
Ty Lee Became Friends With Toph
Though the two didn’t interact much since they were on opposite sides of the conflict for most of the animated series, Toph Beifong and Ty Lee did form an unlikely friendship after the events of the series.
In the comics that picked up where the show left off, Ty Lee found herself discontented with her time post-war. She and Toph went to a circus performance to remind the former of her old life. To her surprise, her sisters were doing an acrobatic act together, following in her footsteps. Toph then took her around to more exhibits so she wouldn’t feel so out of sorts.
She Picked the Side of Good
Mai eventually betrayed Azula to save Zuko’s life. This meant that Ty Lee was forced to pick aside. We never really know the lengths that Azula could have gone to, so it really could have ended in death for Mai. Ty Lee could have easily stayed out of the whole business, but instead, she chose to side with Mai, believing Azula to have taken things too far. Ty Lee had to choose to save her friends, so she picked Mai.
Of course, because of this, Ty Lee was sent to prison. It automatically meant her friendship with Azula was over. The interesting thing is that this betrayal seemed to hurt Azula more than anyone else, even leading her to a mental breakdown complete with paranoia. But for Ty Lee, it ended up being a good thing in the long run. She probably would have never met the imprisoned Kyoshi Warrior and become a part of them.
Ty Lee Avatar Wanted To Be An Individual
Remember we mentioned that Ty Lee had six sisters that looked exactly like she did? This was also why she joined the circus. Having so many faces around that look exactly like yours can be crazy, so we assume Ty Lee was always feeling like a part of a group and not really an individual. Through the series, we see she is on a constant quest to find her own identity, and it worked for a while.
