Avatar:Joo Dee

 

This article is about the Joo Dee assigned to Team Avatar. For the overall program, see Cultural Ambassadors.

"You're in Ba Sing Se now. Everyone is safe here."

— Joo Dee to Team Avatar.

Joo Dee

Joo Dee.png

Nationality	Ba Sing Se, Earth Kingdom
Ethnicity	Earth Kingdom
Pronouns	She/her
Hair color	Black
Eye color	Grey
Skin color	Light tan
Position	* Cultural Ambassador (formerly) Supreme Bureaucratic Administrator (formerly)
Affiliation	* Dai Li Fire Nation
Profession	Government official (formerly)
Allies	Azula, Dai Li, Fire Nation
Enemies	Team Avatar, Earth Kingdom
First appearance	"City of Walls and Secrets"
Last appearance	City of Echoes
Voiced by	* Lauren Tom (in Avatar: The Last Airbender) Suzie Yeung (in Quest for Balance)

"Joo Dee" was one of Ba Sing Se's Cultural Ambassadors. She worked as a guide for important visitors to help the Dai Li neutralize unwanted outside influences. Her robotic, cheery demeanor, mechanical mannerisms, and tendency to hold the party line when talking about the official political practices of Ba Sing Se were all the result of brainwashing by the Dai Li. Even her name was recycled and used by all Cultural Ambassadors.

Joo Dee once served as a caretaker and tour guide for Aang and his companions after their arrival in the city. After the Fire Nation conquest of Ba Sing Se, she was appointed as Supreme Bureaucratic Administrator to the new Fire Nation puppet government of the city. She effectively shared this role with several other ex-Cultural Ambassadors.

History

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"Joo Dee" was one of many brainwashed Cultural Ambassadors.

This Joo Dee was one of many women brainwashed to become Cultural Ambassadors. Her true name was unknown; Dai Li agents tended to reuse the name Joo Dee for all of the Cultural Ambassadors as "they had a hard time telling them apart".

Joo Dee first appeared to be a stereotypically vapid and ignorant tour guide. Despite the fact that Team Avatar had information regarding the war against the Fire Nation, she constantly "handled" the entire group into following her tour, promising them an audience with the Earth King within six to eight weeks. She showed no change in personality when Team Avatar responded negatively to her bad news and was constantly smiling, giving her a somewhat eerie demeanor. When Aang and the group went searching for Appa and information about the war, Joo Dee hung back from the others, ever-smiling. When Sokka asked a question that got close to the truth, Joo Dee would smile broadly and shake her head at whoever was under interrogation, eliciting a withdrawn and scared reaction from the person. When Team Avatar crashed the Earth King's party, Joo Dee urged them to leave lest they all be in trouble. She attempted to usher them out, but by doing so, she inadvertently caused Aang to spill the contents of the jug he was carrying over one of the noble women and subsequently expose himself as the Avatar. When all the party guests became aware of Aang's presence, Joo Dee's perpetual smile melted into something closer to despair and fear.

After meeting with Long Feng, Aang and company were to be escorted home by Joo Dee, but they were shocked to see a different woman with the same name and eerie smile who claimed to be Joo Dee in place of the guide they had initially met. The original Joo Dee reappeared later, claiming her disappearance was because she took a vacation to Lake Laogai. When her efforts to prevent Aang and his friends from searching for Appa failed, a distraught Joo Dee appeared before Long Feng, one of the few times she showed any emotion other than happiness. She was promptly rehypnotized by Long Feng. Later, Team Avatar discovered that the Dai Li brainwashed many women into becoming Joo Dees, and may have considered them interchangeable.

Azula chose Joo Dee to lead the Supreme Bureaucratic Administrator's government.

Following the Coup of Ba Sing Se and Azula's imminent return to the Fire Nation, she placed Joo Dee in charge of Ba Sing Se as Supreme Bureaucratic Administrator. According to the princess, she was the "perfect" person for the job, though Joo Dee held no power and was merely a figurehead. She commonly signed forms, met individuals, and was displayed in front of the populace to show all was running smoothly, while actual decisions were made somewhere else. As Administrator, she held residence in a wing of the Earth Kingdom Royal Palace and was given more elaborate robes and a new headdress with dangling jewels. Many other Joo Dees lived and worked alongside her as doubles. This was considered necessary due to absences whenever their brainwashing needed to be recalibrated.

There was talk of replacing the Joo Dees after Jin and Xuan infiltrated the palace on the Day of Black Sun in an attempt to rescue Susu, one of the doubles to the main Supreme Bureaucratic Administrator. After Susu escaped the palace, the Supreme Bureaucratic Administrator continued to make pronouncements from the palace, but a rumor spread that the Joo Dees had been replaced by an Earth Kingdom noble who was willing to collaborate with the Fire Nation without the need for brainwashing.

Appearances

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Book Two: Earth (土)

Appearances: 1

Avatar comics

Book Two: Earth (土)

Appearances: c

Avatar games

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Quest for Balance

Avatar Legends novels

• City of Echoes

Trivia

• Joo Dee's design and personality was based on Miken Wong, the line producer for the show.
• Joo Dee's name sounds like 주둥이
  (Joo Dung Yi), a Korean term to call someone who has a big mouth or someone who does not shut up.
• Joo Dee did once show signs of free will when talking to Long Feng regarding her failure to handle Team Avatar. She attempted to explain that she could not work well under the conditions, meaning that she possibly took the job of her own free will, though it was revealed that she had been brainwashed like the other Joo Dees, as Long Feng was able to convince her to continue taking charge of Team Avatar, utilizing the code phrase "the Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai".