Ozai

Ozai was the tyrannical ruler of the Fire Nation and the main antagonist of the Avatar series. Ozai had been the Fire Lord for five years at the beginning of the series. He is the final obstacle that Aang must face in order to bring balance back to the world.

Ozai is the second born son of Fire Lord Azulon and Fire Lady Ilah, after his older brother Iroh. He was the husband of Ursa, and by her had two children: Zuko and Azula.

Ozai, like his father Azulon and his grandfather Sozin, continued the War with the other nations,  striving for the Fire Nation to encompass the entire world in its grasp. Like every Fire Lord, Ozai is a Firebending Master, and prior to the ending of the series, believed to have been the most powerful firebender in the Avatar world. Unlike his father, grandfather, and brother, Ozai was never a general, and so he has no known great military accomplishments aside from being leader of the Fire Nation.

History


Little is known of Ozai's early history except he was a cute baby. It is possible that he shared a rivalry with his older brother, Iroh, as the two have little love for each other. At some point, like his father and grandfather before him, Ozai attempted to find and capture the Avatar, but failed as they all did. Ozai married Ursa and through her fathered two children: first-born Zuko and second-born Azula.

Around six years before the start of the series, Iroh began the two-year Siege of Ba Sing Se, the Earth Kingdom capital, which ended when his son, Lu Ten, died in battle. This led Ozai to request that his father, Fire Lord Azulon, change the rules so that he rather than Iroh would inherit the throne. Ozai explains that without a son the line of Fire Lords would end with Iroh, while Ozai still has two childen. Azulon became furious, refusing to betray his first-born son's right to the throne. As punishment, Azulon ordered Ozai to kill his own son, Zuko, so he would understand Iroh's pain. Princess Ursa found this out through her daughter Azula, and pleaded with Ozai to spare Zuko's life. Knowing that Ozai would do anything, even kill his own son to become Fire Lord, she offered him a plan that would ensure his rise to the throne and spare the life of Zuko. The details of this plan are never revealed in full, but Ozai states that Ursa did "vicious, treasonous things that night," resulting in the death of Azulon, her banishment from the Fire Nation, Ozai's rise to power, and ultimately the prevention of Zuko's death.



Despite familial ties, Zuko bore the brunt of his father's cruelty. Two years before the series began, the then 13 year-old Zuko, his eldest and least favored, spoke out in Ozai's war room against a general's plan to sacrifice novice troops in pursuit of victory. Angered by his impudence, Ozai demanded Zuko duel in an Agni Kai, not with the general who Zuko disrespected, but with Ozai himself. Seeing the Fire Lord in the arena, Zuko fell to his knees, pleading for forgiveness and refusing to duel his own father. For this perceived cowardice and disrespect, Ozai badly burned Zuko's face, permanently scarring him. He then exiled Zuko from the Fire Nation, under orders not to return until he had done the impossible: capture the long-lost Avatar, missing for a hundred years. This was meant to be an easy way of getting rid of Zuko, as all previous Fire Lords failed to find the Avatar. With the Avatar's sudden reappearance as the twelve-year-old Airbender Aang, Ozai became more aggressive in his pursuit of victory. Distrusting his son's competence, he promoted Zuko's rival Zhao from Commander to Admiral to increase his chances of capturing the Avatar. Unfortunately, Admiral Zhao was thwarted in his mission by Ozai's brother Iroh, who turned traitor in an effort to stop Zhao from killing the Water Tribe's patron Moon Spirit. Ozai expressed distaste at what he saw as his brother's treachery and son's failure by giving his daughter, Azula, the task of capturing both Zuko and Iroh.

Before season three, Ozai's only appearance was a shadow in the throne of the Fire Nation Palace. In the season premiere of the third season of the show, his full face was finally revealed when speaking with his son Zuko, who had regained his honor by supposedly "killing" the Avatar, and helping Azula to conquer Ba Sing Se.

In a war meeting with his generals, the day before the eclipse, Ozai learns from Zuko that even though the Earth Kingdom had been officially conquered, its citizens would not accept defeat as long as they had hope. Ozai concluded that the only way to end Earth Kingdom resistance was to use the power of Sozin's Comet to burn the entire Earth Kingdom to the ground, and completely eradicate their "hope".



During the eclipse on the Day of Black Sun, Ozai evacuates the Capital City in preparation for the invasion and hides in a heavily guarded underground bunker. Zuko shows up and demands permission to speak to his father. Ozai grants his request, amused at his son's daring. Zuko reveals that Azula shot down the Avatar and that she said that he did it because the Avatar was in fact still alive. Ozai is infuriated and attempts to attack Zuko, but is stopped when Zuko pulls out his twin dao swords against his father's disabled firebending. Zuko tells him that he is done trying to earn his love, knowing that the very man who banished him and scarred him was not worthy of his love. Ozai said that it was to teach him respect. Zuko denies this, having had to learn everything on his own, and now realizes that the Fire Nation is unfit to rule the world and needs to return to harmony with the other nations. Ozai laughs at this declaration. Zuko goes on to say that he will free Uncle Iroh from jail and help the Avatar to defeat him, moving Ozai to declare Zuko a traitor once again. Zuko refuses to fight him since fighting his father is the Avatar's destiny, not his, so Ozai distracts him by telling Zuko what really happened to his mother.



Ozai reveals to Zuko that his father, Fire Lord Azulon, did indeed order Ozai to kill him, and that he would have done it had Zuko's mother not found out and interfered. She decided to have Ozai spare Zuko's life by giving the throne over to Ozai through Azulon's downfall. However, Ursa "committed treasonous things that night" and was not killed, but banished as a result, making Zuko realize that she may still be alive. Ozai decides that banishment is not a fitting punishment for traitors, and sensing the eclipse outside had ended, tries to kill Zuko with a powerful display of lightning generation. However, Zuko did not back down and redirected the lightning back at Ozai, slamming him against the wall and leaving him to seethe in anger as Zuko fled the Fire Nation to join the Avatar.

When Sozin's Comet arrives, Ozai crowns himself Phoenix King, the ruler of the world, and leaves Azula as his successor as Fire Lord. He then departs with his fleet of Fire Nation Airships for the Earth Kingdom to carry out his plans. When he reaches the Earth Kingdom, he begins his attack but is quickly repelled by Avatar Aang, who destroys his airship.

He then prepares to battle the Avatar for control of the world. Ozai declares that the universe has delivered Aang to him while his father, grandfather, and son all failed to capture the Avatar. Aang asks Ozai to stop the war, but instead Ozai begins his attack. For much of the battle, Ozai has an advantage due to the power of Sozin's Comit enhancing his already powerful Firebending. Aang was at a great disadvantage due to his unwillingness to harm or kill the Fire Lord. Eventually Ozai overwhelms and corners the Avatar, whom he proceeds to mock for having such a peaceful nature.



Determined to finish off the Avatar, Ozai accidentally unblocks Aang's seventh and final chakra, prompting him to enter the Avatar State. While in this state, Aang easily begins to counter Ozai and take him down with all four elements at his disposal. Completely overpowered, Ozai tried to defend himself and escape, but is finally captured and detained by Aang, who prepares the killing blow. Before it can be delivered, Aang regains control and leaves the Avatar State, still not willing to kill Ozai to win. Instead, Aang uses an ancient type of bending power, Energybending, to strip Ozai of his firebending forever, ending the fight peacefully. Sokka, Toph and Suki later arrive and taunt Ozai, powerless and weary from Aang's new ability, calling him the "Loser Lord", "Phoenix King of Getting Your Butt Whooped", and "King of the... Guys... Who Don't Win?."

With the war over and Zuko crowned the new Fire Lord, Ozai is put in the Fire Nation prison near the Royal Palace where Iroh was once held. Zuko later visits him, saying that the banishment his father gave him set Zuko on the right path, and that perhaps jail time will give Ozai a chance to find the right path too. He then demands to know Ursa's whereabouts, but his answer is never revealed.

Personality


Ozai is extremely cruel, easily angered, aggressive and domineering. It is implied that Ozai's deep-seated anger stems from a failed relationship with his own father, Fire Lord Azulon, possibly because Iroh was favored over Ozai. Iroh notes several times that his brother is "not the understanding type", and that he has never known Ozai to regret, forgive or change his mind about anything. He believes in harsh and brutal discipline, and no one is safe from his anger and aggression when he is displeased, not even his own children. When his son, Zuko, was thirteen, Ozai burned his face and banished him from his country when he thought the boy was disrespecting him. Although Ozai seems to think of this as a lesson in respect, Zuko later condemns the action as simple cruelty. He tortures Zuko with his perceived inferiority, saying that Azula was "born lucky", while he was "lucky to be born". He only acknowledged Zuko when he helped his sister conquer Ba Sing Se, and when he "killed" the Avatar.

Ozai is mentally and sometimes even physically abusive to his children. While he may have tried to be a good husband and father at one point (this shows there might be good in Ozai and his time in prison might put him on the right path as Fire Lord Zuko implied), his anger and lust for power degraded his relationship with his family. He believes skill and accomplishment determine worth. This allowed the naturally cunning and talented Azula to rise to the position of his favorite child. He expects nothing less than the best from her, thinking her a firebending prodigy. This expectation put a great amount of stress over Azula, forcing her to become a perfectionist. Ultimately it was the environment that Ozai raised Azula in, without a mother-figure, where fear, power and perfection are the only reliable truths, that led to her total mental collapse.

Abilities
Fire Lord Ozai was an extremely powerful and skilled Firebender, if not the most powerful in the entire series. It is believed that his older brother Iroh is the only other Firebender to rival him, and even Iroh himself has shown some doubts about that claim. Ozai is able to quickly generate extremely powerful lightning without having to slowly move his arms in a circular direction (he instead moves both arms quickly in a circular direction, performing the same movements, just much faster) and sustaining it.

In the series finale, Ozai's furious prowess with Firebending is finally witnessed in full. He uses the power of Sozin's Comet to enhance his already deadly bending, easily matching Aang before overwhelming and almost killing him after gaining the upper hand because of Aang's unwillingness to fight to kill. His lightning generation was also displayed numerous times, not only was he capable of performing while in midair, but it was also vastly more forked than his previously seen lightning generation and much stronger, though still vulnerable to lightning redirection.

Much like his daughter Azula, Ozai has the ability to propel himself through the air like a jet. He seems to have had much more control over this ability than Azula did, being capable of keeping himself in the air for longer periods of time and maneuvering at great speeds, although this might also be credited to the enhancing power of the comet.

By the end of the series, Ozai is no longer a Firebender, as Aang used Energybending to remove his abilities forever.

Trivia

 * In "The Deserter", the Fire Lord's whole face (or a merely speculative mock-up of it) is shown in puppet-form at the Fire Nation Fire Days cultural festival that the Avatar gang attended.
 * In "Zuko Alone", Ozai is seen sans his trademark shadow for the very first time. Every portion of his body was illuminated except the area around his eyes.
 * The modern way to write down the official red seal that is placed on all the wanted posters is 烈火國王敖載印寶 (liè huǒ guó wáng áo zǎi yìn bǎo), which translates as "Fire Lord Ozai's official seal." Ozai is written as 敖載 (áo zǎi) which translates as "leisurely year."
 * Some fans have speculated that Ozai's name might be a reference to the poem "Ozymandias" by P. Shelley. Appropriatley so, since in the poem, a line describes the type of person Ozymandias is: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Ozai also had a bloated ego and a fiery temper, with his self-image and need of a bigger and golden zeppelin than the others during the Finale.
 * Ozai is voiced by Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars Trilogy, and has since made a highly successful career out of voicing villainous characters, such as The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, Colonel Muska in Disney's dub of Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and one of the Haydonites in Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles. Dante Basco, who voices Zuko has said working next to Hamill was a surreal experience.
 * In Ozai's official portrait, the flames over his hands are black.
 * In Nightmares and Daydreams, each time Aang envisions Ozai in his nightmares, the latter is shown to be a giant figure who keeps undermining Aang about things like forgetting his pants and his mathematics test. In another nightmare, Ozai is shown to be a large, human ball of fire. Also, he is shown as his normal self in the nightmare where he tells Aang that he missed the invasion, then his flying cow burns him; until he wakes up anyway. During Aang's final dream, he confronts Ozai again, this time looking much like the regular Ozai but somewhat different. He mocks Aang for forgetting his pants, however, Aang retorts that Ozai had forgotten his pants, in which he has, while screaming that "[his] Royal Parts are showing!".
 * Ozai ruled as Fire Lord for the shortest period of time of any of the known Fire Lords; only six years.

Relatives
See Fire Nation Royal Family Tree
 * Sozin (paternal grandfather, deceased)
 * Azulon (father, deceased)
 * Ilah (mother, deceased)
 * Ursa (former wife, banished)
 * Zuko (elder son, now Fire Lord)
 * Azula (younger daughter)
 * Iroh (older brother, now disowned)
 * Lu Ten (nephew, deceased)