Ozai

Fire Lord 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 has two children: Zuko and Azula.

Ozai, like his father Azulon and his grandfather Sozin, continues 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, as he demonstrated in "The Day of Black Sun, Part 2: The Eclipse". Unlike his father, grandfather, and brother, Ozai was never a general, and so he has no great military accomplishments to speak of. However, he is believed to have been the most powerful firebender in the series.

History


Little is known of Ozai's early history. 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 he failed. Ozai married Ursa, and through her, fathered two children: Zuko and Azula.

Several 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, could inherit the throne. Ozai presents his children before his father, and argues that without Lu Ten, the throne would have no heir after Iroh's death. Azulon became furious with his ambitious son, and refuses to betray his first-born. Azulon also states that Ozai is to be punished for his request, and according to Azula, Ozai was ordered to kill his son Zuko. Instead, Zuko's mother mysteriously disappeared. Fire Lord Azulon dies soon afterwards, and Ozai took the throne, which at the funeral, is said to have been Azulon's wish. Ozai's cruelty and aggression seems to stem from his own failed relationship with his father. In season three's first hour-long episode, "The Invasion/The Eclipse", Ozai reveals to Zuko how he truly rose to power. He had planned to go through with Azulon's order to kill his son but his wife, Princess Ursa, prevented him from doing so. Instead, she devised a plan in which Ozai would become Fire Lord, and Zuko's life would be spared. Details of this plan are unknown, but Ozai states that Ursa did "vicious, treasonous things that night". This resulted in her banishment from the Fire Nation, Ozai's rise to power, and ultimately, the prevention of Zuko's death at his father's hand.



Despite familial ties, even Ozai's son has borne the brunt of his 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 popular 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: capturing the long-lost Avatar, missing for a hundred years. This was meant to be an easy way of getting rid of Zuko, seeing as at the time of Zuko's banishment, the Avatar was still missing. With the Avatar's sudden reappearance as the twelve-year-old Airbender Aang, Ozai has become more aggressive in his pursuit of victory. Distrusting his son's competence, he sent Zuko's rival Zhao to hunt for the Avatar, even promoting him from Commander to Admiral. 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 recently 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. This latest betrayal has caused Zuko and Iroh to cut off their top-knots as a symbol of renunciation of their past and their connection to Ozai.

Before, 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 "killing" the Avatar, and helping Azula to conquer Ba Sing Se.



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 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 says that it was to teach him respect, but apparently Zuko learned nothing. However, Zuko denies this, stating that he now knows that the Fire Nation is unworthy to rule the world and must return to peace and 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 during the eclipse by telling Zuko what 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, Ursa, not found interfered. She decided to have Ozai spare Zuko's life by giving the throne over to Ozai through Azulon's overthrow. 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 chooses to kill Zuko now. Ozai, being such a powerful Firebender, senses that the solar eclipse is over and reveals his prowess at bending lightning, almost pinning Zuko down. However, Zuko did not back down and redirected the lightning at Ozai, slamming him against the wall and leaving him to seethe in anger as Zuko fled the Fire Nation.

In a war meeting with his generals, Ozai learns from Zuko that even though the Earth Kingdom had been officially conquered, it's 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.



When Sozin's Comet arrives, Ozai crowns himself Phoenix King 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 Aang, who destroys his airship.

He then prepares to battle the Avatar. Though Aang begs for him to stop the war, Ozai attacks him instead. For much of the battle, Ozai has an advantage due to the power of Sozin's Comit enhancing his already powerful Firebending. Aang was also at a great disadvantage due to his unwillingness to kill anyone because of his peaceful nature. Ozai eventually corners Aang as he hides in a cocoon of rock overwhelmed, while the Phoenix King mocks him and the Air Nomads.

When Ozai launches a powerful firebending and blasts Aang out of his rock cocoon, the Phoenix King accidentally unblocks Aang's seventh chakra, allowing him to enter the Avatar State. While in this state, Aang easily begins to counter Ozai and take him down. But before he can deliver the finishing blow, Aang regains control and leaves the Avatar State. Instead, Aang uses a new type of bending power, Spiritbending, to strip Ozai of his Firebending, ending the fight peacefully. Sokka, Toph and Suki later taunt Ozai, who is weary from Aang's new ability, calling him the "Loser Lord", "Phoenix King of Getting Your Butt Whooped", and "''King of people...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. It is unknown if he told him.

Personality
Ozai is extremely cruel, easily angered, aggressive and domineering. 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. It is implied that Ozai's deep-seated anger stems from a failed relationship with his own father, Fire Lord Azulon.

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, (as implied by Zuko's flashbacks to family vacations on Ember Island), his anger and lust for power may have degraded his relationship with his family. He has raised his children in an environment where skill and accomplishment determine worth. This allowed the naturally cunning and talented Azula to rise to the position of his favorite child. He tortures Zuko with his perceived inferiority, saying that Azula was "born lucky", while he was "lucky to be born". As mentioned before, he later burned and banished Zuko for disrespecting him. He only acknowledged Zuko when he helped his sister conquer Ba Sing Se, and when he "killed" the Avatar.

Abilities


Fire Lord Ozai was an extremely powerful and skilled Firebender, if not the most powerful in the entire series. His older brother Iroh was the only other Firebender to rival him, though Iroh wasn't entirely sure of that. He burned his own son's face while taking a casual, relaxed, stroll during their Agni Kai. In the episode "The Day of Black Sun, Part 2: The Eclipse", Ozai quickly generates an 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 overwhelming and almost killing Aang. His lightning generation was also displayed numerous times, with vastly more forks than his previously seen lightning generation and much stronger, though it was not unredirectible.

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 Spiritbending 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.
 * 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.
 * In Ozai's official portrait, the flames over his hands are black, possibly referencing his firebending.
 * 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. Lastly, 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.
 * 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)