What happened to Zuko’s mom in ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender?’

Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the best cartoons in the Western canon. The fact that its fanbase is still going strong nearly twenty years after its premiere is proof enough of that. But one unsolved mystery has plagued viewers since the show ended in 2007: what happened to Zuko’s mom?

A central mystery in the original Avatar cartoon was the whereabouts of Prince Zuko and Princess Azula’s mother, Princess Ursa. The sequel series, The Legend of Korra, teased fans in its first episode by having young Jinora ask her grandmother, Katara, for the story, only for the elderly Waterbender to be interrupted before she can recount it. It wouldn’t be until Avatar: The Last Airbender released The Search, a graphic novel trilogy, that fans actually got the answer.

Who is Zuko’s mom?

Ursa was born to a family living in secrecy. The previous Avatar before Aang, Roku, had been born into the Fire Nation and was friends with the not-yet-genocidal Fire Lord Sozin. Roku had a daughter, Rina, who went into hiding upon Roku’s death, certain that the Fire Lord would try to exploit their family. Rina married a man named Jinzuk and became an herbalist, eventually giving birth to a daughter, Ursa, later in life. This connection makes Zuko and Azula some of the few known descendants of an Avatar.

Little information was given about Princess Ursa in the cartoon itself. About five years before Aang awoke from the iceberg, Prince Zuko wasn’t banished, nor was he the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation. Zuko’s Uncle Iroh was heir to the throne, and his son, Lu Ten, was his heir in turn. When Lu Ten died during Iroh’s 600-day siege of Ba Sing Se, Iroh lost faith in the war effort and called off the attack.

Sensing vulnerability on his brother’s part, the already-power-hungry Prince Ozai plotted to usurp his eldest brother’s position as heir. However, his father, Fire Lord Azulon, favored Iroh and was enraged that Ozai would try to usurp him in such a duplicitous and traitorous manner. Azulon ordered Ozai to feel the pain of losing his own firstborn son, and the ancient Fire Lord declared that Prince Zuko had to die by Ozai’s hand.

Princess Azula had been watching this event unfold, and when she decided to tease Zuko about his fate, their mother overheard. That night, Ursa plotted with Ozai to falsify a will naming Ozai as heir; she then concocted an herb-based, untraceable poison, which Ozai used to kill his father. Ozai then banished Ursa for her ‘crimes’: he reasoned that if she had been capable of murdering one Fire Lord, she was capable of murdering another. He also threatened to hunt down and take the lives of Prince Zuko and Princess Azula should Ursa try to escape with them.

In the dead of night, Ursa kissed a sleeping Azula goodbye and woke Zuko to tell him goodbye. She was not seen again after that night, and her children were haunted by her disappearance for years to come.

Where is Zuko’s mom during Avatar: The Last Airbender?

Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s final episode infamously contains a scene in which Fire Lord Zuko confronts his imprisoned father, demanding to know where his mother is. The viewer never finds out the answer because the screen then fades to black, but The Search reveals that Ursa did have a home to return to. The comic picks up immediately after Zuko confronts his father, with Ozai unwilling to part with any information about Ursa. A year later, Zuko still doesn’t know anything, so he decides to retrieve Azula from the mental hospital where she resides, and the two go on a journey to Hira’a, their mother’s hometown.

There, it’s discovered that Ursa was once madly in love with a young man named Ikem. Ikem and Ursa were two young actors who had been childhood sweethearts. They were to be married when, one day, Ursa discovered Fire Lord Azulon and Prince Ozai calling upon her parents. The Royal Family had finally discovered Avatar Roku’s family, and Azulon desired an arranged marriage between Ursa and Ozai in order to produce a powerful lineage of Firebenders.

To appease Azulon and keep her family safe, Ursa left, bidding Ikem farewell. She and Ozai were wed, but Ozai revealed that her ceremonial duties meant she would never see her family or home again. Their relationship grew increasingly colder over the next few years, especially once Zuko was born. Ozai had wrongly sensed that Zuko was no Firebender and wanted to leave him outside to die.

Ozai would begin to recreate the parental dynamic he had toiled under, only in reverse: the eldest, Zuko, was the scapegoat, while the youngest, Azula, was the favored child. Ursa grew resentful of Ozai and constructed a fantasy world in which her children were fathered by Ikem, to whom she continued to write letters. However, She suspected those letters were being intercepted and decided to figure out the truth.

She wrote to Ikem, telling him that he was Zuko’s father. Although it was a lie, and Ozai knew that Ursa could not possibly have encountered Ikem in all those years, Ozai was so enraged that he revealed he had been reading her letters this entire time. He also declared that if she did not want him to be Zuko’s father, he would treat Zuko as though he were not his son from then on.

After her banishment, Ursa fled to Hira’a, hoping to find her family. Sadly, her parents passed away years ago, and Ursa was told Ikem had also disappeared. Luckily, the man who told her this, Noren, turned out to actually be Ikem. Years before, he had wandered into Hira’a’s Forgetful Valley, where he met a spirit known as the Mother of Faces — a spirit who also happens to be Koh the Face Stealer’s mother, by the way — who crafted identities for all of the world’s creatures and who could give him a new face.

Taking a sojourn to the Mother of Faces, Ursa pleaded with the spirit to grant her a new face. The spirit granted humans one wish a season, but she was somewhat offended that Ursa would choose to cast aside a face she had crafted so finely. She tested Ursa by offering her a new, plain face and offered to wipe her memories. Ursa agreed because she missed her children too greatly and knew she could not live a new life while still remembering them. Now known as Noriko, Ursa settled down with Noren/Ikem and had a daughter named Kiyi.

How does Zuko reunite with his mom?

Zuko eventually uncovers the truth of the story. With a bit of help from Aang as the bridge between the physical world and the spiritual plane, he’s able to restore his mother’s identity and memories. The two happily reunite, and Zuko moves Ursa, Ikem, and Kiyi into the palace with him. Ursa’s able to make peace with her past while there, and she also gets to confront her ex-husband, whom she no longer fears.

Did Azula ever make up with her mother?

Azula’s issues with her mother were present from a young age. Always certain that her mother thought she was a monster and that she favored Zuko, Azula even hallucinated Ursa during the events of Sozin’s Comet, thinking that her mom was trying to sabotage her. Unfortunately, Azula isn’t able to let go of her anger towards her mother by the end of The Search. She actually goes so far as to try and kill her mother before eventually running off, unable to face her at all. The two have not encountered each other in any other media since this reunion, but an upcoming comic titled Azula in the Spirit Temple may hold some more answers.

Will the live-action Netflix series address this storyline?

The Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action adaptation hasn’t yet premiered, so there’s no way of knowing whether Ursa’s full story will be told. Although the story wasn’t resolved in the cartoon, the Netflix adaptation may choose to close that plot point eventually. No actress has been announced to be playing Ursa yet, though her ex-husband, Ozai, is set to be played by Daniel Dae Kim.

It’s also possible that the show won’t dive into Ursa’s circumstances until later on. In the cartoon, Zuko’s backstory is revealed early on, but his mother’s disappearance isn’t even discussed until well into the second season. It’s unlikely that the series will choose to cut her out of the story altogether; she’s a vital part of Zuko and Azula’s history — her character helps explain why Zuko still has a decent head on his shoulders despite who his family is — and her lineage also provides a vital connection between Zuko and Aang.