#Phoenix King Ozai

[swan2swan]

Someone called Ozai "temper tantrum man", and I was going to comment on that with some sort of "Yes, but"...but then I realized that there is no "yes" to that.

He's not a tantrum person.

He has a temper, yes, but the guy doesn't freak out. Ever. Not even once. And it's a trait I hadn't considered about him, but it's so terrifyingly brilliant.

-Zuko speaks out. He just drags him off to the disciplinary Agni-Kai

-Zuko tells him Azula lied and the Avatar's alive. He just snarls at Zuko and tells him to get out, then starts goading the kid to attack him with swords while he doesn't have his own firebending

-Aang blows up his airship, and he just flies down and starts gloating about how favored he is by the universe

-Aang unlocks the Avatar State and grabs Ozai's beard, and Ozai counterattacks in the blink of an eye

-Aang nearly kills him and Ozai scoffs about how Aang is weak

-Aang takes his bending and Ozai throws punches until he realizes he's exhausted

-A bunch of teenagers start making fun of him and Ozai (still exhausted) pathetically protests before falling over

-Zuko comes to see him in jail and Ozai hits him with snark

The writing on that man is insane when you think about how cold he is.

[poopiefart420]

The Phoenix represents destruction and demise, the necessary upheaval of old and crumbling systems.

[phoenix-king-ozai]

I always imagined Ozai and Iroh had a big age gap and even ignoring Azulon's favoritism it was just difficult for a relationship to be had. Like I imagine Iroh was in his late teens when Ozai showed up so it's really hard to find something in common with someone so far apart from you.

I always hated this recton of the age gap between Ozai and Iroh. Obviously, Iroh is much older than Ozai is in the show. There is roughly a fifteen year age difference between Iroh and Ozai given that Ozai is forty-five years old in the ending of ATLA and then Iroh is sixty years old during the ending of ATLA. The age gap between the two Fire Nation Royal Brothers could play an extremely important role in the relationship between them as well narratively!

Ozai could have been a planned pregnancy. Azulon knows that Sozin’s comet is returning in a couple of decades. He probably wanted a spare heir in case of an accident on the bat regarding Iroh or perhaps his infertility (Iroh had Lu Ten extremely late in life). Fire Lady Ilah probably refused to knowing the high risk involving mid-age pregnancies. Azulon ignore her refusal and forced himself on his wife through marital rape. Ilah despises Azulon after this and dies in childbirth never forgiving him. Azulon in turn despises Ozai being the cause of her death as a scapegoat because deep down he knows his wife died and blood is on his hands alone. Even Crown Prince-General Iroh resented and neglect his infant brother Ozai for their late mother death. Iroh would, later on, see the error of his and their father’s neglect and abuse on Ozai and their cyclical effects on Zuko and Azula but it’s far too late to make an effective change because of Ozai hate and resentment for Iroh for his past actions and him being their father’s favorite child.

[a-todd-illustration]

What if Ozai won the spiritual struggle and, instead of losing his bending, took the Avatar force?

[did-we-imagine]

One deep question I wonder about sometimes is whether Ozai would've been different in other conditions where he was shielded from Azulon & if there was no war (or he somehiw ended up on the other side and decided the FN was fucking up the world)? 🤡 Would he have stayed the same shitty person or would he be a much better person or somewhere in the middle?

Damn, I'd love to see a fanfic with this. I might write one someday, but I'm not too confident with my writing skills.

[phoenix-king-ozai]

Ozai's Angels + (Ozai + Zuko) relationship in a nutshell! 🔥⚡️🌋

okay i ruined your life but did you not have fun? exactly relax

[swan2swan]

"Ozai is just a shallow villain."

I see this argument far too often, so let me put this one in the ground once and for all and explain why Ozai is one of the Greatest Big Bads of All Time...and I'm going to do it with just one shot.

First, before anything else: appreciate the animation here. Not sure who the animator was, but I believe JM studios worked on this, so shout-out to that company and its fine animators!

But now...analysis!

In this moment, right here, Ozai literally burns away any genuine arguments that he is anything less than Him. Yes, just a few hours ago, he was blustering about how he is now "The Phoenix King". Yes, a month or so ago, he held a meeting just to proclaim to all of his advisors and children how he would become the Supreme Ruler of All the World. Yes, he's an egotistical, genocidal lunatic with one of the biggest god complexes ever put to screen.

But then...he sees Aang. The Avatar attacks his airship, knocking it out of the sky. And that's when Ozai snaps out of his power fantasy and becomes the Final Boss.

He doesn't hesitate for a second. The trappings he'd dreamed of wearing for so long, the fine clothes he adorned himself with for the occasion today...he pulls them from his body. The ornate cloak of the Phoenix King, the freshly made symbol of his power...he burns it. He discarded his crown, and already shed his (ridiculous) helmet when he realized that it would hinder him on his mission--so now he's just a man.

In an instant, Phoenix King Ozai has shed himself not only of his cumbersome garments, but of any pretense that he needs anything but himself to show his power.

And that is only the first part!

He does not look around for help. He does not order his crew to follow him from the ship; there is no cry of "Seize him!" He does not turn to minions, or secondary schemes, or even seize a weapon (there is none more potent than him right now). He calls fire from his own hands, and leaps down to enter the battle himself.

He does not curse the ruination of his scheme. He does not tell anyone to bear witness. In this moment, Ozai has one purpose, and that is to kill the one person in the world who can challenge him, the legend that the Fire Nation has feared since the days of Firelord Sozin: the Last Airbender.

All it took was for Ozai to see this challenger, and he descended onto the field of battle himself. He had no interest in backup, no need for witnesses to his glory: he had one task in mind, and he was going to do it.

[kacievvbbbb]

Honestly Ozai’s treatment of zuko and Azula was probably less about who they were and more about him projecting what he wishes his father would have done for him with Iroh.

He is after all a second born child himself and he’s always just wanted his father to see that he was the better child.

Azula was never a person to Ozai not really she was just his self insert in the fanfiction he was writing himself. It’s why she stops mattering the moment he finds something bigger than being fire lord.

[demonqueenbeee]

[phoenix-king-ozai]

I'm under the impression that Azula's belief that Ursa “hates” Azula is due to Ursa’s criticism of Azula’s mean-spirited words and behavior such as when she mentioned Azulon and said that “he's not the all-powerful fire lord like he used to be” and Iroh when she stated “dad would be a much better Firelord than his royal-tea-loving-cookiness”. Ursa responded that “Azula! We don't speak that way!” Along with coldness compared to her relationship with Zuko. Ursa tends to seem to spend more time with Zuko than Azula. Also, Azula getting criticized by her mom and praised by her dad would lead her to believe that her mother “hated” her.

Sometimes I wonder if Ursa was every really afraid of Azula, or if she was just afraid for her. Surely she could tell that being the golden child was no safer than being the black sheep where Ozai was concerned.

I don't think she feared her, I think she saw her aptitude and knew Ozai would make her a weapon. As for where Azula gets the impression that her mother hated her, feared her, thought she was a "monster". I think that came from Ozai not only to distance Azula from her mother but from Zuko, after all he was always too soft, weak and his loyalty was to the wrong people.

This is why Azula's hatred of her mother and by extension her own appearance is so sad, it's just another example of how Ozai manipulated his children. Azula never looks at her reflection because when she does she sees a face she believed hated her.

When she finally breaks beneath the pressure from her father the face staring back at her as she frantically alters her appearance is the very person who feared what she would become, what Ozai made her into.

[sharlmbracta]

here's some more i guess i didn't know you guys would like these so much

yeee

ye ah

[4rtbyl33]

Can we talk about how Ozai wanted to be known as the phoenix king, but the one who resurrected from his own ashes and came back stronger and wiser after "death", just like a phoenix, was Zuko

[sh3nlong-promakh0s]

yo i was so keen for this endgame i might just watch it again for the 4th time this year damn

The time has come, why am I so nervous 😬

[unfriendlyamazon]

the thing about azula is she's also a victim of abuse she bought into her father's ideology because she was rewarded for doing so (and she has some funny thoughts about divine right to rule) and explicitly gains power both in the context of her society and mentally by torturing her brother ("you can't treat me like this you can't treat me like zuko")

which is to say the show depicts azula and zuko has fundamentally different from a young age (and zuko's inherent goodness is his main source of conflict for most of the show) and i appreciate that the show doesn't go out of its way to show sympathy or explain its abusers, even when azula is given her moments, it's not to make her more sympathetic, and i think the show is aware that azula has benefited from being a natural prodigy who aligns herself with fire nation ideology, but it's clear by the end that ozai treats her as no less a tool or extension of himself than he does zuko

which is also to say her final battle between katara and zuko is my favorite part of the show hands down i find it beautiful and the music makes me tear up and when she is defeated and sobbing and completely undone, it's my favorite part of the show. azula has spent so much of her time and energy into currying favor with her abusive father, putting herself into a position of power, and to be undone by her brother who she views as inferior to her in every way and some waterbending peasant i think it must just break her worldview. everything she's done up to that moment, it was the wrong move, and zuko is now the one on top

anyway i think the show has a lot of interesting things to say about power and those who wield it, and i think azula's relationship with power, both under it and exerting it herself, is a really interesting one, and as a foil to zuko, she works really well in showing that even aligning oneself with power despite or because of circumstances is ultimately a fruitless task, and those in power will keep moving the goal posts as you try to get ahead

[stardust948]

If ATLA ever became a musical, Ozai would definitely have a scene like this.

[phoenix-king-ozai]

Ozai's scheme of destroying the Earth Kingdom and possibly the world had he succeeded is essentially a rehash of what Azulon did against the Water Tribe, only on a much larger scale.

Ozai doesn't want to merely hurt Iroh and Azulon, he wants to prove that he is superior in every way, which makes sense if you consider that all his life was spent being constantly compared with Iroh every time, especially by Azulon. (Even though Azulon with this behaviour was being abusive towards Iroh as well, as in: "This is what is going to happen to you if you step out of line.")

In other words: Ozai attempted that scheme to try to escape his father's and older brother's shadow.

I think Ozai's plan of eradicating the Earth Kingdom resistance and spreading terrorizing fear of the Fire Nation Military supremacy mostly follows Sozin's Genocide of the Air Nomads. However, I doubt it would be a complete genocide like the Air Nomads but a mass massacre of the mostly rebellious territories. Most if not all of the Fire Nation's Earth Kingdom colonies would be spared unless there was a massive rebellion present. Think of how the Mongols did a massive slaughter of resistance Imperial Chinese Kingdoms but eventually took over and created the Yuan Dynasty. Ozai probably had a similar plan for his Fire Nation Phoenix Empire. Ozai did ask Zuko if the Earth Kingdomers would submit to Fire Nation's rule during the war meeting. Azula also suggested burning down all the rebelling Earth Kingdom land as well.