them: thanos is the most built up villain of all time
me, an intellectual:
Honestly, no one can ever deign to assert that Azula is not the single most iconic female villain in the western animated canon if not the entire global literary canon.
most iconic villain period. the day of black sun? siege of ba sing se? military genius.
she wasnt even in ba sing se to seize control, she was there to retrieve zuko and the avatar. Seizing control was something that she did while she was there like going to the store to pick up bread and getting eggs while youre there.