#I could barely stand Ursa I don't see why I would waste my time in uninteresting (and worse possibly spies) women when I had a war to win

[ask-ozai]

I have heard some people say that you had a harem ? Did you ?

Iroh being a lazy womanizer damaged the family's public image irremediably, I see. Some of us have honor. I was busy ruling a country and trying to expand our Empire to finally fulfill the dream of my ancestors. I definitely had no time to pursue women (like Iroh). I was also not only a proper Prince, but a married man too. You should be asking Ursa if she didn't have more playthings hidden somewhere apart from Ikea.

[royaltealovingkookiness]

I know a lot of people don't like comic!Ursa but I also don't like comic!Ozai. In the comics, he's just your typical abusive husband and father. In the show, when Ursa was banished, we saw him standing near the small lake, which was Ursa's favorite spot. When Zuko asked 'where is she?' and Ozai said nothing, it gave you the picture of him possibly feeling some sort of remorse; Ozai did banish his wife instead of executing her when it'd be a lot safer to kill her to protect his secret. (1/2)

Zuko also did say their family was happy once, meaning once upon a time, Ozai did genuinely love his family. Maybe he blamed Zuko for Ursa’s banishment, hence, why he was cruel to his own son. And as years passed, power and wealth just corrupted him completely, rendering him from feelings any love for anyone but himself. Ozai wasn’t a good man but I love it when the villains are humanized because the greatest of monsters are people, too. (2/ 2)

We’ve had a discussion a while ago, based on a similar ask that Zuko remembering his “family being happy once” doesn’t necessarily mean that they were actually happy at any point. 

But I agree with you that the relationship between Ozai and Ursa in the comics feels dissonant with what we’ve been shown in the series. 

The fact that they chose to show Ozai at the end of Zuko Alone next to the same fountain Ursa liked to hang out by felt significant, meant to imply that despite everything, he felt remorse about losing Ursa.

I don’t know if the marriage was ever happy. My personal HC is that it was an arranged marriage that was never particularly passionate, but that both side tried to make work at the start. Ursa being pragmatic and smart was probably a good influence for Ozai and he liked that she projected this strong royal presence and was politically savvy (at least show!Ursa seemed like that to me). I think their marriage started to crack badly when Zuko was born - Ozai was deeply disappointed that he was a weak baby with barely a spark (this reflected bad on him), while Ursa was determined to protect her baby at any cost, choosing Zuko over Ozai’s image of power.

I don’t necessarily see Ozai being physically abusive to Ursa as it’s often depicted in fics - just because she never seemed particularly afraid of him in the show. But I think his behavior in the family became more and more toxic, constantly belittling Zuko, poisoning Azula’s mind and Ursa put most of her effort into sheltering the children from him as much as she could, increasing the distance between them. 

I also see him getting worse and worse after becoming Fire Lord. I think power would have made him more paranoid - after all he was willing to kill for it - so probably someone else would too. 

But I agree that comic!Ozai’s characterization and the depiction of the relationship with comic!Ursa was really ham-fisted, lacking all the nuances that the show seemed to imply. It’s such a pity that so many pages were wasted on it.