NOTE: This page is only about the TV counterpart of Ozai, as his film counterpart can be found here.
“
When the comet last came, my grandfather, Fire Lord Sozin, used it to wipe out the Air Nomads. Now, I will use its power to end the Earth Kingdom... permanently. From our airships, we will rain fire over their lands, a fire that will destroy everything and out of the ashes, a new world will be born: a world in which all the lands are Fire Nation and I am the supreme ruler of everything!
„
~ Ozai's plan to burn down the Earth Kingdom.
Ozai, formerly known as Fire Lord Ozai and the Phoenix King, is the main antagonist of the Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise. He is the arch-nemesis of Avatar Aang and Zuko.
He is the tyrannical and mysterious Fire Lord of the Fire Nation who wishes to destroy the other three elemental nations and bring the world under his control. He is also the second son of Fire Lord Azulon, the younger brother of Iroh, the father of Zuko and Azula, the ex-husband of Ursa and the grandson of the late Fire Lord Sozin.
Though it is implied that there was a time where Ozai was a better father and husband to his family and held more care for them, he is far past that and no longer holds that affection for any of his family members.
He is taken completely seriously all the time; although Aang has several dreams about him in a considerably comedic context like when he doesn’t wear pants and the way he collapses in a weakened state and is insulted by the heroes after being defeated is a bit comical, the former instance is non-existent (being essentially a story within the story) with his actual persona while the latter is more or less meant to show that he no longer poses a threat after Aang had removed his bending, which was actually played for satisfaction with most of the comedy focusing on the main comic reliefs of Sokka and Toph.
Even after his defeat and imprisonment, Ozai himself is never once played for laughs since he is still a threat on a psychological level.
While not as destructive as Vaatu, an all-powerful spirit of darkness, and Unalaq, who becomes a god-like being/Dark Avatar after merging with Vaatu, on scale, whose plans of plunging the world into darkness and suffering would've lead to the destruction of the entire world (making Ozai, despite being the ruler of an entire empire with firebending, immensely less powerful than either of them), Ozai's crimes still have come incredibly close in scale to them as his actions would have lead to the destruction of most of the world and also has personally vile crimes to still easily stand out from them.
There is also no indication he believes in the Fire Nation propaganda of his grandfather Sozin or is delusional about his intentions like Sozin was (neither did his father Azulon, yet his genuine care for Iroh and Lu Ten to an extent at least disqualifies him being Pure Evil).
In fact, everything indicates he is only keeping the propaganda going to maintain power over the Fire Nation, in addition to him knowing he's on the evil side and choosing to remain evil, and planning to burn his own citizens down to win the Hundred Year War.
He even tells Zuko in the comics that good and evil is decided by the Fire Lord, demonstrating his belief in the Fire Nation is nothing more than an excuse that just proves his selfishness.
He treats allies like pawns and doesn't care if they are defeated, killed or captured, including his own daughter, Azula.
Iroh remarked how he's never known Ozai to feel regretful over anything.
In the Legacy of the Fire Nation book, Iroh stated in one of his letters that he wrote to Zuko that when he saw his brother's eyes, he saw only "fire and ash" and in his chest, a heart of ice, and feared the day that Ozai would grow up to burn everything around him.
Background[]
While the source of Ozai's evil can be traced back to his father ignoring him in favor of Iroh, it does not excuse his actions whatsoever.
Iroh stated that his relationship with Ozai went beyond a typical competitive sibling rivalry, and that the fire in Ozai burned deep within him since they day he could crawl.
They fought like warriors over Pai Sho, and Ozai would flip the board and burn the tiles whenever he got frustrated. While many would just dismissed this as a temper tantrum, Iroh knew that something more in Ozai than just an impetuous heart.
Agreed with his father's plans of arranging a marriage between him and Ursa in order to sire children who are as powerful as Avatar Roku since she was a descendant of his, even to the point of sinisterly telling her that she was to sever all ties to her past life as she belonged to the royal family and, to a greater extent, him.
This also deeply indicates that he is a rapist since the last thing Ursa wanted was to lie with Ozai.
Attempted to have his wife's previous lover killed out of jealousy of their relationship and took sadistic glee in his supposed death.
Planned to cast Zuko out of the palace when he was born because he thought Zuko wouldn't grow up to be a firebender, only relenting when Ursa and the Fire Sages appealed to him.
Although his children stated Ozai was initially a good father in their early childhood, such as saving Zuko from drowning during a family vacation, Ozai would shed these redeeming qualities in their later years by becoming manipulative and abusive.
Began psychologically abusing his son, Zuko, purely out of spite for the fact that Ursa wished Zuko was the son of her true love.
Encouraged Azula to become violent and cruel, only to spite Ursa and to have a useful pawn in his future plans, leaving Azula with a basic lack of societal manners.
Showed open favoritism for Azula over Zuko, telling Zuko that Azula was born lucky and he was lucky to be born, words that would deeply hurt Zuko for many years.
Took advantage of the death of his nephew, Lu Ten, in order to strip his older brother Iroh of his birthright, which outraged his father Azulon to the point of him ordering him to sacrifice his own son Zuko as a punishment for his selfish intent.
Knowing Ursa wanted Zuko to be spared, Ozai took advantage of this by forcing her to conspire with him to kill Azulon so he could take over his position as the Fire Lord before promptly banishing her, and showing no remorse for any of it (though Azulon deserved this fate for sustaining the Hundred Year War for decades and trying to kill his own grandson).
When Ursa wanted to take their children with her, Ozai refused telling her he needed them as leverage to ensure she keeps her end of the bargain that she never returns. He then threatens Ursa telling her that if she tried taking their children, he would hunt them all down and kill them like he did with her lover.
He hypocritically called Ursa a traitor and forced her into banishment even though he agreed to this plan and was thus a traitor as well having killed his own father.
Ozai will later reveal to Zuko he was fully planning to kill him that day, not out of his father's orders but more to get rid of a weakling in his eyes with justification.
As soon as he began his five-year tenure as Fire Lord, he began exploiting a village near the Mo Ce Sea shoreline, using their coal mines to fuel his airships.
He demanded unreasonable taxes from them.
He outlawed Earthbending, which people like Haru despised him for. His mother even confirmed it was five years of suffering and that it was specifically on Ozai's behalf that this heinous oppression was being done. To make matters worse, he even did far worse things to his fellow firebenders who believed in the Painted Lady to accomplish a comparable end, or in the very least allowed the latter situation to continue after Azulon's reign of terror.
He personally commissioned the Boiling Rock Prison, where prisoners were unfairly treated as traitors with no rights.
He treats his own son like absolute trash and endeavors to get rid of him for good:
Forced his own son to fight him in an Agni Kai simply for speaking out of turn (against Bujing's plan to use newly-recruited Fire Nation soldiers as an expendable distraction), then, in his most infamous Moral Event Horizon, he burned and disfigured half of Zuko's face for refusing to fight him, something which Zuko would have for the rest of his life.
While he was called out for doing such thing to Zuko, Ozai simply cited he "would learn respect, and suffering would be his teacher" as an excuse, though it was actually cruel and wrong as Zuko indeed affirmed.
Banished Zuko from the Fire Nation for refusing to fight and only allowed him to return if he captured the Avatar. Since the Avatar had not been seen for nearly a century at that time, Ozai was essentially putting Zuko on a fool's errand to prevent him from ever returning to the Fire Nation.
Because of this, Ozai is solely the primary reason why Zuko turned out into what he has become, from a shy and kind-hearted young boy into a cold, aloof and short-tempered person in the present, even after his redemption little changed in his hardened behavior.
Book One: Water[]
He is directly responsible for several horrible events throughout the season, such as Prince Zuko attacking Kyoshi Island, Haru getting arrested just for earthbending or Zhao killing the Moon Spirit, which led Princess Yue to sacrifice her soul to ascend into spirithood.
Despite Zuko successfully finding the Avatar, Ozai immediately sent Zhao after the Avatar and relieved Zuko of the order, showing he really didn't want him at the Fire Nation.
Sent Azula to capture Iroh due to being a traitor (despite him only acting so to stop Zhao from destroying the world's balance) and Zuko due to being a failure; she stated Ozai wanted Zuko back so he could be detained and no longer embarrass him. Hence, most of the bad things that happen in the second season can be tied right back to the Fire Lord.
Book Three: Fire[]
Despite proudly praising Zuko after believing he had finally take down the Avatar, it's clearly out of pragmatism because he still saw over how useful it is for him to do so while showing no happiness over his "accomplishment". Later during the Day of the Black Sun, he threatened to kill Zuko after he revealed that the Avatar was still alive simply out of anger for this sudden revelation, then he tricked Zuko into staying until the eclipse was about to end by telling him the truth about his mother and almost killed him with his lightning once he regained his firebending for standing up to him without any hint of remorse, showing that he refused to take responsibility for everything he did.
While he was clearly being honest of what happened to Ursa, he still doing it to manipulate Zuko into staying by bringing it up, in order to wait for the right moment to kill him.
His pride in Zuko could be spite toward Ursa, who hoped Zuko would never become Ozai and the previous Avatar being her grandfather.
Laughed when Zuko told him that the Fire Nation should bring about an era of peace and kindness.
He neglected his daughter Azula despite her being his favorite child and praised her for being a firebending prodigy, viewing her as a tool for his own power and dominance.
This was proven when he chose to lead the fleet of airships to Ba Sing Se alone instead of taking Azula with him like initially planned and showed that he did not love his daughter or view her as an equal in spite of everything she had done for him, rewarding her efforts by giving her the meaningless position of Fire Lord since he would become Phoenix King. This would serve as the final straw for Azula that caused her to have a complete mental breakdown and descend into insanity, as her father was the one person she thought she could trust and rely on, ever since the betrayal of her former friends, Mai and Ty Lee.
Knowing that Sozin's comet was coming and would increase the firebender's powers, he decided to use it to burn the Earth Kingdom to the ground, incinerating thousands of civilians in the Earth Kingdom. While Azula did suggest the idea, the fact remains that she only suggested it to him, which Ozai accepted, so the blame for the near genocide of the Earth Kingdom would still primarily be on his hands.
Ozai was very much willing to burn down his own soldiers and colonists in the attempt to destroy Earth Kingdom, thus his posturing for the greatness of the Fire Nation is revealed to be a lie in this case.
This plan isn't just a mere genocide as the Earth Kingdom clearly holds most of the world's landmass and contains most of the human population, so destroying it will not only lead to the destruction of most of the world but also most of all life on the planet, so this is a plan of nigh-omnicide as well.
When Aang gave Ozai the chance to end things peacefully, he refused the offer and chose to fight. As they traded blows with their bending, he tortured Aang both physically and psychologically, attempting to burn him alive while mocking his weakness and the genocide of his people.
After having been spared by Aang, Ozai mocked him for his weakness and attempted to attack him from behind.
After being stripped of his firebending, Ozai still attempted to attack Aang, Toph, Sokka and Suki, fully intending to kill them only to discover he can't firebend anymore.
While his ultimate defeat was somewhat comedic as he faints when he tries to attack Aang's group and being insulted by Sokka, Toph, and Suki, it was arguably the only true laughably moment he had in the entire show and it, in absolute terms, doesn't detract him from his overall heinousness nor take off the weight of his crimes in any way, with him being taken deadly seriously in virtually all of his moments.
When Zuko visited him, he refused to show remorse or acknowledge the authority of the new Fire Lord, indicating he will never change his evil ways. He even ungratefully scoffed when Zuko reminded him that he should be considered lucky that the Avatar spared him.
Sequel Comics[]
Tried to corrupt Zuko into becoming a tyrant like him, thus attempting to subvert all of Zuko's efforts to redeem himself and the Fire Nation and showing he will never change, no matter how much Zuko tried.
His impact in the comics is so great that the "New Ozai Society", made of loyalists wishing for his re-ascension to the throne, was founded, indirectly causing the many atrocities the society committed, including attempting to forcefully indoctrinate Tom-Tom, a young child.
Though being stripped of his firebending and title coupled with his subsequent imprisonment caused him to become calmer and more logical, he still retained his domineering personality, mocking his son for his insecurity when he visited him and later with his ex-wife, Ursa, he smiled and screamed that he will do something worse than killing her loved ones like he promised so she would fear him again, but she just pointed out his very small heart that has no room for anyone, his brother, his son, his daughter, or even himself. Instead of realizing and accepting her words, he just furiously ordered her to grovel as she walks away.
The Legend of Korra[]
Has gained a legacy so bad that, except for the New Ozai Society members, everyone in the post-Hundred Year War era demonizes and hates him for his actions, including anarchists such as Zaheer, as well as his own granddaughter Izumi. Only Unalaq may have had a legacy worse than him due to his aforementioned secret society.
Trivia[]
It is not yet known whether his Netflix version will qualify, as the series and his role is still continuing.
His Netflix version voiced both General Fong in the original series and Hiroshi Sato in the Legend of Korra series.
His counterpart in the DS version of Into the Inferno cannot qualify for being too comedic.
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Pure Evils
