Considering that the main conflict involving Ozai is whether Aang should kill him or not, I think the less we understand his evil the better. The more Aang understands Ozai the easier it is to make the call to spare him. But that's the thing; Aang decides that all life is sacred and absolutely nothing can justify killing anyone, not even Ozai. That's not an easy call to make, especially when he has little to no context when facing down the most evil character in his world.
I just want to add an additional thought: the show does everything in its power to dehumanize Ozai, which makes it all the more baffling to a lot of viewers when Aang goes out of his way to humanize him. But I think that’s precisely the point: you shouldn’t need a good story to treat living things with dignity. This act actually elevates Aang’s moral character and ends up working to the shows benefit (albeit not so much in a narrative sense but more so in a thematic sense).
Good point, however, the problem is most people do not believe in never killing another person. What about self-defense? What if someone is trying to take your child's life? What about when an invading army attacks your country *cough* Russia-Ukraine *cough* Majority of viewers are not going to identify with Aang. They might even get a bit annoyed and impatient with Aang while he is going through his never-take-a-life-spirit-journey. But, if we add a backstory to Ozai. Make him appear more relatable, human, then we can understand Aang's inner conflict better and look forward to how he is going to stop Ozai without betraying his conscience. Either way, Avatar: Last Airbender was still a pretty darn good show.
@@SeaCow1g plus, as stated by Red of Overly Sarcastic Productions, the introduction of Energy Bending as a third option pulls double duty as good world building
my head cannon was that he was always an inferior bender to Iroh and because he was younger he was always in the shadow of his legendary older brother and that over decades made him hate his brother. He hates Zuko because he sees himself in his sons weakness and identifies with Azula because she's the bad ass younger sibling he always saw himself as. not too dissimilar to your idea but it explains his dynamic with both of his kids better
@@davidfrancisco3502 I believe Iro was also discraced by his defeat at the seig of Bha Sing Seh (or however it's spelled). Its also where he lost his son, so maybe not having a heir made the title pass on to Ozi. Just a fan theory
Love it. Maybe it would be even better if Ozai was not saved by Iroh and his men, but instead a fire reached him that he could bend to escape his bonds. Ozai wouldn't know the origin of this fire and would see it as a sign of being chosen as well as the superiority of Fire.
i must say i really liked zhao´s death and think it is different from the typical disney villain ending, since he stood true to his ideas and in a sense he died with dignity something he would have lost had he taken the help it also ended his character development from his agni kai with suko were he was not able to accept defeat.
I personally think Ozai does have complexity. He's a narcissistic consumate manipulator, who's also an authoritarian parent and textbook control centric abuser. These qualities actually make him seem quite human because there are plenty of abusive spouses and parents who have these qualities in real life
Zuko's story I relate to on such a personal level because I was raised by a 'one-dimensional' abuser similar to Ozai. It took me a really long time to actually address any of my trauma because for most of my life when you would bring up the messed up shit that my step dad would do, you would inevitably be met with something about "Well, this happened in his childhood" or "His dad did the same to him" - which to a child with little world experience, was a conversation killer because the adults just justified the abuse I received instead of confronting him about it, or if they did they would get one of his sob stories which would be enough to pacify any further action. After a while a kid gets the message that it's okay to do bad things if bad was done to you as a kid, or at the very least people wont care because everyone deserves sympathy. The development of Zuko and Azula I feel is the point of Ozai's story. You see their childhood traumas, how they were raised to cope with them and think of themselves and others - it's really easy to see how those same dynamics played out between Azulon and his sons Iroh and Ozai - it's an intergenerational affair. The specifics as to *why* Ozai did the heinous actions he's done aren't important, I feel the point was always more about how you handle and cope, which was self growth like Zuko or Iroh, or mental collapse like Ozai or Azula.
I don't even think there's much need to change Ozai's backstory all that much, merely expand on it a bit. This is my theory: I've figured for a long time now that Ozai is particularly harsh toward Zuko because he subconsciously sees himself in Zuko-or at least, his _former_ self. I think Ozai is seriously projecting his inadequacies onto his son, like being disliked by his father (Azulon seemed to have favored Iroh). So Ozai instead tries to project his image of ideal strength onto Azula, but in actuality, she resembles Iroh in terms of skill and success more than she does him. Ozai wants to be seen as competent as his older brother was during Iroh's military career, but likely just lacks the experience and doesn't naturally possess the prodigious, strategic military mind that Iroh and Azula do (I mean, he tried razing the entirety of the Earth Kingdom-that's not exactly the pinnacle of tactical prowess). This is just my headcanon, of course, but I do think it could be a reasonable explanation. Another point of interest: Ozai was seen loitering near the fountain after Ursa left... like, _very shortly_ after she left, the day after, if I'm not mistaken. Why is this significant, you may ask? Well, because Ozai is never really seen caring about anything other than himself. It's rather telling that he's hanging around one of his wife's spots in the palace; there's a scene before Ursa leaves where she's sitting in front of the running fountain and someone online pointed this out and juxtaposed it with the scene of Ozai in front of the fountain-which was then turned off. Curious. This is actually what allowed me to start seeing him as more than a boring, cardboard cutout-that is, before the terrible comics ruined everything-but I digress. And later, when Zuko ascends, he goes to visit Ozai in his cell-and the man just looks so _bitter,_ and talks to his son in this angry, defeated tone. He sounded childish to me. You see, I think in Ozai's mind, Zuko's rejection of his ideals in favor of Iroh's was by extent a rejection of him as a person, and therefore, he could now justify doing whatever he wanted to Zuko, even committing filicide, because Zuko can no longer be his son if he doesn't have the same worldview. I think Ozai was maybe even confused that his views proved to be wrong-because after all, his "weak" son Zuko ended up getting the better of him. Something that also stands out to me is how Ozai associates his image with that of a pheonix, instead of a dragon (unlike Iroh, who is called 'the Dragon of the West'). Is this perhaps a way to disassociate himself with those in his family he perceives to have hurt him? Could it be his way of distinguishing himself in the public eye? But that's not even the most interesting part: in Chinese culture (which Fire Nation customs borrow a lot from), the pheonix represents the feminine and the dragon represents the masculine. Now, I don't know if this was intentional on the writers' part, or if it's just a happy accident (because they've made writing blunders before) and they didn't know this, but let's entertain the idea that it was a deliberate creative choice; if it's on purpose, then perhaps Ozai really used to be like Zuko, in that he was more 'soft-hearted,' so to speak. They both started off as more feminine men (which doesn't mean they're not masculine, only that they're more in touch with their feminine side), and perhaps Ozai felt self-conscious about this because his brother, who is more traditionally masculine, receives much more praise from Azulon, while all he gets is derision. So then maybe Ozai is trying to over-compensate by adopting the most negative, superficial traits of masculinity, mistaking these for "strength." It's also implied that he's rather cunning, but in a more underhanded way than Iroh, like a snake; he plays people. This particular aspect of his personality gives off a lot of feminine energy to me, although not on the same level as Azula. And before anyone cries "sextism!!!1!1!!" 1. I'm not a man. 2. This is drawn from me personally observing this kind of behavior occur naturally in females more often than in males. I think Ozai was deeply insecure, but it was buried so far beneath this veneer of arrogance that he didn't possess the self-awareness required to realize that and thought the problem was external instead of internal. Unlike Azula, who _did_ become self-aware, which is part of why she had her meltdown. The bigger the ego, the more everything seems like a personal affront.
Sometimes people are just terrible, they don't always need or even have a meaningful reason for their evil actions. They just enjoy hurting and manipulating others, or alternatively don't care what harm they might cause so long as they get what they want. Not everyone has a tragic backstory, just a tragic mindset.
This honestly really undermines Zuko's character growth and the purpose of Ozai. I also always found it to be a very uplifting story that despite your parent being abusive and unable to love, it doesn't mean it is justified or makes sense. Some people are born into abusive families and I think it cheapens it to give Ozai an anime tragic backstory instead of letting him be what he was, which is just an abusive and powerful man.
I think the issue is more the obsession with basically 'justifying' many villians, when the reality is no matter the excuses people make, a lot of people *act* one dimensional and do cruel things. The desire for nuance has become so warped you see these weird family arcs with villians like Homelander and think "right, so the lunatic rapist having a son/relatives I'm meant to care about, at the expense of the good guys basically catering to him to bring down the system 'one day'. Fantastic, that's not a message about accepting the status quo at all". It's also a means to creating the balance in the Avatar world: you get the wandering companions and connections because of his devastation. I get the need for detail in fiction; but looking at history and reality there are many individuals who simply are their acts and many people confuse and fool themselves expecting some grandiose reasoning or change of character that never happens (abuse, tyranny etc).
I agree that this trend of trying to find humanity within villain characters is getting out of hand. However, I also disagree that we should be looking at another human being as one dimensional either because no human really is. And when we talk about celebrities, internet drama and people who are monsters, at the very least, the psychology and nuance needs to be laid out on the table at least to try to recognize patterns for future cases. But we are wrong on the Internet about other people all the time because the person that put themselves out there is only sharing a slice of life. I recall one "Karen" story that tells about how OP actually ended up finding out how his Karen moved on in life and he became really chill with Karen and her NEW family. Gold Shaw Farm, a new UA-camr and new farmer, just put up a video about learning from his haters. He actually became friends with another farmer because he made his way to meet up and talk to one another face to face. And then Reddit got wrong pretty badly when it came to sleuthing. After the Marathon Bombings in Boston, they thought they got their lead from a missing kid that actually just killed himself. And then there are countless "reports" that smear another human and other people fall for it because they look at the smear and never question that maybe it is part of the job to smear or that the person writing it really just has unexplained hate that is trying to pass on to another person. My problem is less on the fact we are giving nuance to villain characters (although part of it is leading to bad writing I think) and it is more of the fact that we are giving nuance to fictional characters when there are actual people that DO need "benefit of the doubt" or even an understanding to see how a person ticks to find out how they got there and try to prevent others from getting there in the future.
Real human beings don't always have clear and understandable motivations for their evil deeds, but they do have an internal logic that justifies and even mandates those acts. Sometimes, we do evil things for petty reasons, but that doesn't make us any less complex.
I do agree, but only partially. I think as a story, Ozai needs to be more understood. He does actions, but there doesn't seem to even be internal reasoning beyond "kill, kill, kill, power, power, power." Like dude, we don't need to humanize him, I just want actual reasons beyond kill, death, murder, power. Very few leaders have ever truly been about that route, most have other goals, reasons they will wield kill, death, murder, power for. Even Stalin, Hitler, and Mao did. So, where is Ozai's?
@@The_WatchListI think everyone in the Avatar world wants to end the war not for the same reasons obviously and differently. Ozai probably just wanted to finish what his grandfather Sozin started, I believe Ozai like other Fire Nation supremacists like his father Azulon and people like Zhao thought that that Fire was the superior element and should rule over the rest of the world. Anyone who would threaten this would be disposed of. Sozin did talk to Roku about spreading the Fire Nation influence over the world.
The closest thing to depht we get with Ozai in the show is that Azulon might be abusive to him and favours Iroh. Since it seems that Ozai genuenly though that burning Zuko and banishing him on a impossible misson would be for his own good. After he basically wont start one of his meetings without Zuko and when he asks Zuko what the earth kingdom plebs would do against a incasion and Zuko doesent sugarcote it Ozai doesent go into a rage and tries to burn him he just admits that Zuko probably is right since he has been spending time with them and just changes his tactics. It seems that when he burned Zuko he wasen't mad that he went against the plans but that he was talking mad shit to the general but when facing his dad he started to beg like a little bitch. He tries to goad Zuko into killing him and calls him a coward when he refuses.
Honestly, the part that always confused me is why Aang violating and permanently mutilating a man's soul is more merciful than simply sending him to the afterlife to be sorted out by them. Smacks of modern materialistic sensibilities to me. But it's true, Ozai seems like he's in the wrong story. Although the timeframe wouldn't work, Sozin would have been a better main villain, a guilty former visionary who heaps up new tragedies on the old because he thinks he can't back down after all he's done.
On the other hand though, Ozai, and really the entire fire nation royal family, represent the apex of generational violence. Sozin may have started the war truly believing he was helping the world in the long run, but as the war spanned generations and the atrocities mounted Sozin's vision became nothing more than a propaganda tool to excuse Ozai's desire for destruction and domination.
Bv4n, this is how I think as well, nothing is more tragic then a sinner dying in sin but then again this is Christian philosophy not sure if it is any type of eastern philosophy.
@@MrSophire Eastern philosophy largely believes in reincarnation and that sin perpetuates across lives until redeemed, and in many, the entire cycle of reincarnation transcended. Dying in sin would leave their karma unresolved (while mortals can be reborn as denizens of Hell, they are lesser beings than the divine asuras and will eventually die and be reborn), yet addressable in their next incarnation; the permanent mutilation of a soul would be lasting across lives unless there was some additional healing factor.
it's weird that ozai listened to azula's suggestion of burning the earth kingdom down. azula sounded like she was just spitballing ideas and came up with that one on a whim. even azula herself didn't sound like she took that one seriously. it honestly sounded like she was just using that to start the conversation of what they should do as their plan. burning down the earth kingdom would just destroy a huge area of fertile land for a very long time. this would make it hard to build in the earth kingdom and start new fire nation settlements since food would need to constantly be imported.
I think Ozai being flat serves Aang’s arc. All the other villains we can see at least a glimmer of redeemability. Ozai doesn’t have that. He’s just bad. So Aang’s decision to spare him in the end is really not about Ozai at all; it’s about Aang himself. Is he strong enough to follow his convictions and honor his lost people’s beliefs, even when he is isolated in those beliefs? Can he be the Avatar AND the last Airbender? I think they purposely made Ozai just bad, in the same way that they show Yon Rah is a horrible person-because not killing them was what Aang (and Katara) deserved. Who cares what Ozai/Yon Rah deserved?! These kids deserved NOT to kill them, and by choosing to end the cycle of violence, they brought peace to the world.
I think there’s a parallel scene in The Storm and Zuko Alone that implies Ozai (and the royal family for that matter) is just perpetrating the same values but with different, personal interpretations. In The Storm, we saw Zuko suggest that using newbies as a distraction is a bad idea, for moral reasons or smth. For this, he ends up kneeling before his father while the latter gave him an impossible task of finding the chosen one who’s been MIA for a century. This effectively humiliates the compassionate firstborn to elevate the meritocratic secondborn, Azula. It’s the same with Ozai in Zuko Alone. Ozai suggests that Iroh isn’t the best fit to rule after losing his son and his Siege. He kneeled before Azulon who gave him the “impossible” task of slaying his own son. Ursa devised a plan to bypass all of this for Ozai to “dethrone” his own father...either scenario (Zuko killed or spared) would effectively humiliate the compassionate firstborn to elevate the meritocratic secondborn, Ozai. Zuko had his own plan in “dethroning” Ozai, and also hadn’t used his own hands to do it. Aang was to Zuko’s ascent to power what Ursa was to Ozai’s. The narrative was like “firstborn + headpiece = rightful heir to the throne”...Ozai was a madlad for practically saying “F*ck that tradition, I’ma be the Fire Lord as the secondborn, and I’ma prop up my secondborn to succeed me because merit!”
He only makes one outlandish move in the entire series, which was to use scorched earth policy against ba sing se. Other than that he’s actually extremely tactical and manipulative, look how he manipulates Zuko in the Day of Black sun or manipulates Azula out of being part of his plan in the finale. Plus he covers up murdering his father while using wife by having her take the fall. Also I know Azula told Ozai but he was still behind the idea of leading Aang and the invasion into a bait and switch type trap during the eclipse.
I don't even think Ozai- by himself, is meant to be seen as the villain of ATLA, more of a vessel for other things. He almost serves as the personification of ideologies such as Imperialism etc, rather than just being a big bad. The real villain of the show is the ideas and actions of the Fire Nation, and to a lesser extent Azula and for a large portion of the show, Zuko. Probably proved by them having drawn out arcs and backstories as opposed to the rather bland Ozai in comparison.
Ozai is a sociopath. Pure and simple. He does things that are needlessly evil, to the extent that they undermine his plan. His utter incompetence is the main reason the Fire Nation is when defeatable.
But was he always a sociopath? Are you born that way?? I think not dude. Every child is born pure. It is only after they've experienced some sort of pain, terror or suffering that they turn into who they are. Usually starts at young age.
@@tahimwaicij Even then, you can't prove that someone is born with psychopathy. You can't exactly psychoanalyze a baby. It seems to me that that's more of an educated guess than a rule.
@@edenmckinley3472 well yeah it's not 100% correct, that's not what I was saying. I'm just saying psychopathy is born and sociopathy is learned, that's all.
There are sociopaths walking among us who don't end up doing reprehensible things, though. In fact, most of them probably don't. I'm not a fan of people throwing labels like this and "monster" around whenever they arbitrarily decide it's too inconvenient to humanize someone. I find it intellectually and morally lazy.
I think the backstory you gave is interesting, but still doesn't seem quite right for Ozai to me personally. I keep going back to when Zuko confronts Ozai and asks how he could justify dueling a child, and he responds, "It was to teach you respect!" He said something similar during the Agni Kai, where he says "You will learn respect and suffering will be your teacher." But that could have potentially just been a show put on for the audience to make Ozai seem justified while actually just enjoying an excuse to torture Zuko. But then, he says the same thing to Zuko when there is no audience, and by the tone of his voice, he actually sounds like he really believes his reasons were "just" or at least reasonable. And he even adds later, "Then you've learned nothing!" and the tone of his voice almost sounds like he's actually disappointed that Zuko didn't learn what he wanted Zuko to learn. I think whatever Ozai's trauma was had to do with his own family, not with foreigners. I think he probably grew up learning that "love" was always conditional and/or transactional. And often, the only way to obtain it was through skill/strength/cunning/etc. Any sign of "weakness" would bring shame, humiliation, and rejection. Ozai mainly seems to value deep respect for his authority and unquestioning obedience from those around him. It does almost sound like he has a hang up about being disrespected in his youth. If I had to guess, I would suppose he was routinely humiliated and demeaned by his father and possibly others, potentially even by Iroh (before Iroh got his head on straight). Or rather, perhaps Iroh's ability to accept insults and disrespect gracefully made Ozai jealous of him or simply made him view Iroh as a fool. And so Ozai became a bit obsessed with putting himself in a position where no one could ever disrespect him again--aka, obtaining more and more power. To me, that would explain his feelings towards Zuko, because he sees Zuko as yet another vector of humiliation. For example, seeing Zuko perform fire bending poorly in front of Azulon perhaps bothered him so much because he viewed the situation as Zuko embarrassing Ozai in front of his own father. Seems to make the Agni Kai and banishment thing make more sense to me, as well. It was an attempt to take back control after Zuko humiliated him in front of his subjects. It also explains why he's so bent on destroying the other nations, cause he's more interested in punishing them for their disrespect and rebellion than getting their money/resources/etc. Plus, this sort of motivation would line up with people similar to him in real life. The "burn it all down" / "everyone deserves to die" crowd are often people who experienced severe and chronic social rejection and humiliation in their youth. (Ex. classic school shooters / etc) But anyway, these are just some loose thoughts I have on this.
Your analysis of the themes at work at the end of the series lines up exactly with what I've always thought: there isn't really a practical reason for Aang to spare Ozai and it is actually a dereliction of duty, which is a shame because the idea is beautiful. Aang doesn't just beat him up, he debunks his whole Might-makes-right worldview by showing mercy, while exercising a unique power, one derived from his unique spiritual authority, to revoke the brute-force power that Ozai had misused so terribly. I personally think your backstory is a bit too rushed though-I would want something that's a bit more drawn out rather than a single traumatic event, if he's going to get a backstory. Also, you make a really good point about how him humiliating Zuko is pissing away the prestige of the royal household, that isn't an observation I've seen before but it's absolutely true. He's basically writing a 'depose me' sign anyone could stick to his own back.
Never had issues with Ozai being evil "for the evulz buahah": I've always seen him more of a plot device than not a full-fledge character, a Sauron-like Dark Lord who happens to be a man with a family, and he fulfills his role in the story. Also, since the tough choice that Aang has to made in the end was to spare his life, the moral dilemma was made even harder by Ozai being unredeemably evil to the core. It would be easier to show mercy to someone like Azula whose evil is somehow explainable through her upbringing in an abusive environment, than to a complete monster like Ozai.
Brakus from "Di-Gata Defenders" actually accomplishes what "Avatar: The Last Airbender" did not with Ozai. Brakus still plans to conquer the Realm, but in the second season we catch glimpses of his past as a hero as well as hints that made him the villain that he became.
Your proposed backstory for Ozai is a really good one. It's basically the backstory of another fictional villain character from the comic book series called Seven to Eternity. The initial main villain is called the Mud King and his power is to psychically read people's minds and hearts to learn their deep desires and help make them real but in exchange, they are bound to him. He started off as a child born between and human father and goblin mother. His father died and his mother was killed in rage by her father for mating with a human and he was chased out of his goblin village. As a child, he was discriminated against and feared getting close to people, especially since he could read their minds and discover their hatred for him. He became a villain in order to create a world where he would not be victimized or abandoned ever again.
Ozai's backstory could even be something as simple as the cyclical nature of abuse. Maybe hes parenting in a slightly more extreme wayThat his father parented and he he dislikes zuko so much because he was the zuko of his family or as ozai put it the lucky to have been born one.
The idea of having a pure evil villain in a world were most are morally ambiguous and have said pure evil villain be manipulating them all the whole time is a fairly effective and some what realistic direction to take your main big bad.
Before I watch this video, I want to say that I kinda think that he is one dimensional but that's not really a problem in the conflict because the conflict isn't exactly between him and Aang in which one person represents one idea and the person they're going up against represents the opposing idea (like Gaara vs. Lee from Naruto) because the real concflict is Aang having to decide whether or not to kill him. But that being said, I'm super interested to see this video because you always have such interesting takes.
Beautiful backstory with Ozai! Another idea I would have for Ozai's backstory could be how he used to exhibit a more beta-version of Iroh's perceived alpha persona. He viewed Iroh as a 'strong, masculine man' by the standards of his father and much of society at the time, while Ozai was pushed to the back and often disregarded, constantly seen as a disappointment by others. So, after years of being in his brother's shadow, he decides to learn the negative qualities of what he believes makes one a 'tough, confident leader', until Iroh suffers his son's loss. Ozai sees this as an opportunity to ascend the throne and project this persona of a 'strong, confident ruler', lashing out at his wife & zuko for being seen as 'weak' but basically just him projecting his own insecurities onto them because deep down he really doesn't 'have it all together'. He is not this powerful, confident king that he expects himself, and society to adore; he's too overcome with the burden of expectations and a sense of perfection that he feels trapped and doesn't have a proper outlet to let out his frustrations. Therefore, fast-forward when Azula sarcastically mentions to "burn down the Earth kingdom," it's in that moment Ozai's mind finally cracked and went mad, which let him agree with Azula's proposal. Ozai doesn't know how to escape/deal with his insecurities and weight of expectations so he gives into his despair, "LET THE WHOLE WORLD BURN."
Ozai is what I call the Frieza of Avatar. He does the most evil things possible and is the driving force of change to some beloved characters like Zuko. What makes Freiza, such a intimidating villain is because of his role for causing so much suffering for some of the characters in Dragon Ball. Ozai in a way is a villain that is the face of war, tyranny, and family abuse. Though his character is not much developed personally, you can certainly understand how much of f'ed up individual he is for simply how he treated Zuko nevermind the entire world. Sometimes people don't need excuses to be evil, they just want show their greatness.
I believe Ozai is a massive blemish on the show. Why? Basically the same reasons you gave. He’s one of the only characters that are extremely cartoony. Absolutely 0 redeeming qualities about him whatsoever, which is quite unbelievable. Hell some of the worst people in human history at least had one redeeming quality. I also thought that the creators really should’ve at least made him care for his son in a similar way that you said. Now of course fans enjoy the idea of him being a psychopath, but again absolutely 0 redeeming qualities isn’t realistic. To be perfectly honest something being this unrealistic/underdeveloped I call bad writing.
I kind of like the idea of this flashback happening during the bending removal scene. It could also include scenes of Ozai being physically weak, you know, to explain why he got so jacked.
I like your idea for a backround story for Ozai. It's often kind boys and young men that get taken advantage of and then think they need to be tougher and over compensate. It would also add a dimension if intergenerational trauma for Zuko, something that is very real in dysfunctional families.
Even though I think your backstory is incredibly well written, I don't think it fits for Ozai. The reason is that it has the concept that the only reason someone is bad, is because they were pushed there by circumstance. I think Avatar already has too many such backgrounds for villains. I would prefer something to do with being consumed by a particular sin. Maybe he always admired strength as a concept and always tried to gain more of it. However, it didn't start out as something bad, just something he was fascinated by. He then starts thinking that strength isn't just something physical, but something mental. He starts thinking that if he could control his emotions, then he would truly have strength because that would mean he would not be weak before his own emotions. From this, he comes to despise weakness. People who cry for small reasons or say "I cannot do this!" It reminds him of a former version of himself and he thinks that the only way to truly overcome weakness is by hardship. He seeks to transform the world with this concept, which is why he acts the way he does in the show. Think about it, it would explain all his actions. He treats Zuko badly because he wants him to become stronger. Zuko refusing to fight against him disgusts him because he sees weakness and he thinks the only reason his son will ever learn is by hardship. Zuko, thinks his quest is about honour, but his father cares about strength and sends him on an impossible task in order for Zuko to grow stronger. The reason he burns the Earth Kingdom is to weed out the weak and only through strength and hardship could they recover. Aang's confrontation with Ozai would then also be a confrontation of visions. Aang would argue there is more to life than strength and that virtue is part of that. Ozai is only concerned with strength, but the strong exists to help and defend the weak, not root them out. I don't know, I think it could have been a cool motivation.
The bit about conduct between members of the nobility reminds me of what Saladin says toward the end of Kingdom of heaven when speaking to Guy de Lusignon: "a king does not kill another king."
Greatly enjoyed the backstory. I think it would have worked very well for the story. Edit: I feel too many people are commenting without actually watching the video.
To be fair Aang is still a child, so while it’s silly to us to him the peaceful option is all he knows. He has a completely different perspective than us.
I dunno, man. I was never bothered by Ozai being a simple, pure evil villain. What i do think is a problem in the final fight(apart from the fact Aang should have had an episode training and mastering energybending in turtle island), is that Ozai should have been more of a threat. He should have been builded up as the strongest, most powerful and most cruelest firebender of all time, or something like that. I think the show should have made even Zuko and Iroh afraid of him, and even give him some OP form of firebending to make him seem like an ultimate boss that even Aang does not have a chance of defeating.
Looking at the comments I can't say I'm suprised that I did expect anything less, the good thing is that most of the people who are on youtube aren't thankfully really involved in the fandom. Only Judging the comments I've seen so far.
It seems like they got more interested in Asula like she was the main villian, and almost shoehorned in Ozai at the end. Yeah they mentioned defeating him as the goal for a long time, but Asula clearly had more time and motivated more things. That's probably why his motivation isn't spelled out well. My explaination for Ozai would be as king he's always gotten his way, and believes any obedience to him comes from two things: fear of him, and also from his people seeing the nation and people he rules as superior to all others. Over time that idea turns him into a truly sadistic control freak who believes punishment must be doled out to any one defying him. Maybe he believes it's the only way one can rule a nation. In his case I would go for a makes twisted sense motivation, not what I'd consider a sympathetic one. How exactly does taking away the Ozai's bending power permanently solve things if he's a ruler that a country of fire benders who might still be loyal to. All he and Asula have to do is escape from prison and they could cause another war, maybe a civil war. Does everyone in the whole Fire Nation all realize he's bad now? Do benders have some rule about nonbenders not being allowed to rule? We sure know sending the Joker to prison doesn't solve the problem. Sparing him could have made more sense if we had some reason to believe he couldn't do it all again.
I believe even the idea of Loyalist to Ozai was addressed in the Comics after Avatar. Though the reason why is due to the fact of Zuko taking control of the reigns of the nation keeping Ozai and Azula locked up tightly.
I like to think that Ozai, Azulon and Sozin have had reasons to start and continue the invasion. If you look at the map, Fire Nation has islands, while Earth Nation has a continent. Not very fair, right?.. A couple of natural disasters to destroy crops and damage metal mining, a few bad economic decisions are all what is needed for hunger in the Fire Nation to start. And hunger leads to emigration, social revolutions, increase in violence and crimes... it is a good fertile soil for the idea of invasion to fest. Aang and his crew are young teens. Also Aang was not taught economy and politics in the temple, so it is natural that he thinks of the conflict in the more simple terms... and this makes his decision even harder and better, because he did not knew the details of the conflict, but he still stayed true to his principles and chose a more difficult solution.
well said. The same could apply to the Watertribe which could have gone the world conquering route as well for similar reasons. And they have a natural proclivity to dominate the world's oceans which is essential for Global Empires. The fire nation just did it because of tech. I've been thinking about a video on an alternate world where the Watertribe initiates the global invasion if the Fire nation never unified or industrialized.
@@PilgrimsPass What would you have thought if there were more reasons given for the fire nation's imperialism? What if Sozin wanted to colonize other countries because he feared the active volcanoes within the fire nation could take lives and destroy crops?
@@williamfinch9858 the idea that the firenation needed an explanation for its imperialism was one of my orginial video ideas instead of this one. I might do that one anyway since many seem interested in it.
"Madness has many forms, Rage, Sorrow, obsession, detachment, but none are as dangerous as madness theru the pursuit of power. All who come into power fall victim to it, until they find the peace of mind to let that power go. Otherwise, that madness will persist. In the end, it will consume them. This is the nature of the fifth finger of chaos, the nature of Arachk the Tyrants bane."
As somebody who is trying to work their own world of fiction, I have my own plan for the mythical character of Pandora. It will not be pretty, and I will not end well for anyone. More power to you and I’m looking forward to seeing what you have, mate
Vigins Ozai: lets burn the earth kingdom with the most impractical and time consuming method that will hardly cause too much damage but recover after some time. Chad Admiral Zhao: I killed the moon fish, ending water bending.
Though is only head cannon (and its "sadistic" connotations sounded a bit off to me) I enjoyed your back story for Ozai. Waiting already your upcoming video!
I just thought the royal family had a genetic tendency towards mental illness which makes fertile ground for extremist, violent ideas to fester into insanity when unchecked. With royals, their egos are easily hyper inflated by their surroundings. Sprinkle in generational trauma and you have a helluva pit for an already sick person to wallow in and become as evil as someone like Ozai. I think Sozin was affected to an extent especially as he was more isolated from a true friend like Azulon and likely surrounded by sycophantic yes men. Ozai's position ensured a feedback loop of escalating violence and national supremacy. Azula was tipped over the edge more suddenly because of her friends' betrayal. Zuko's the only one to come out of it and manage thanks to his mother, Iroh, and his own emotional labor. As much as I don't like Mei, it's definitely the case that they share a similar pessimistic attitude that's likely linked to shared mental illness that they have each learned to manage. I find their family tragic and peppered with "mad royals". It's a miracle Iroh and Zuko made it out the way they did. I also super like the Phoenix earth and fire alliance idea. Your vids aren't boring. I think you have a unique outlook that adds a lot to the discourse.
Your backstory is cool. I always considered him more of a psychopath, because Azulon saw in him a different kind of fire, a less tamable one. But i like your backstory better
Ozai has become way underappreciated, both by the fandom and in the show. He had this build-up of being this nigh-unstoppable force of nature, like Thanos, but by the time he shows his face, the narrative and the fandom treat him, almost like a joke character who, at least makes almost look like, critically relied on Azula and his bending. I can’t help but feel like this is a complete disservice of his character and his role of the story. I think dark avatar Ozai has a way better ring to it then Pheonix king. If Vaatu was the one who orchestrated Sozin’s rise to wage his war and that Ozai and Vaatu were the same person due to Iroh’s mother, Ilah, helping him escape, and only needs harmonic convergence to regain his depleted dark power after his escape, then the concept of Ozai being this, source of evil, god of war and dark counterpart to Aang would be executed a lot better. It was said that he’s the superior firebender in existence, even more so then Azula and Iroh combined. Imagine him as the most superior firebender, airbender, waterbender, earthbender, energybender and non-bender in existence, and he pulls all of this off on his own, in contrast to Aang who had to rely on a team and became more of a jack-of-all-stats/traits. Pretty insane, right? How this is done is by Aang's first use of energybending, by removing firebending, he accidently replaces it with airbending first, the rest of the skills appear one by one. Ozaatu even slays the same lion turtle and absorbs its soul. The dark avatar's motives could be that after Raava is destroyed, he’ll use energybending and spiritbending to make himself become stronger towards Raava’s power instead of weaker, and he makes Raava become weak to her own power. Ergo, after 10,000 years of pure darkness and chaos. Vaatu will evolve into the avatar spirit of balance itself. But Azula comes up with a plan that's a reversal of Ozaatu's plan, after Vaatu has been purified and Aang is about to re-merge with Raava, it's Raava who's the spirit of balance and the eternal conflict ends. Plus, wouldn’t it have made more sense if the lion turtle taught Aang the ways of spiritbending? A bending technique that utilizes knowledge in both healing and spirituality to alter and change negative energy into positive energy, restoring internal balance in the process? Perhaps be given energybending to help give spiritbending a boost. Because Aang, as the avatar, is tasked to restore balance to the world and everyone on it, and Aang, as an air nomad, doesn’t just cherish life, he wants to redeem those who are lost and make sure everyone goes in peace. What Ozai has is a brutal fate worse then death and I highly doubt Aang would want to carry out that sentence anymore then actually killing people, regardless if it was during a desperate situation.
I personally find your idea pretty cool. It's great. I think the concepts of Vaatu and Rava were developed long after Atla was finished, but your idea is i think the best iteration of the "Dark Avatar" concept I've seen.
He is meant to be the foil character, to see others changing around him, to contrast with others, to be a stubborn unmoving rock. Even when he is beaten, his bending taken he keeps trying to fight for a bit longer and tormenting his family.
The only criticism I have of your channel is your voice is a little mundane. Always good content and good thought. I’ll keep coming back for years to come. I personally believe The Last Airbender is one of, if not, thee greatest children’s show ever made. The wisdom in this series is so wonderfully portrayed with charisma and relevancy. Any child without a father can find a fathers wisdom in this series. Any child without a mother can find a mothers comfort in this series.
Madness doesn't need explaining. It's easy to see the royal family are genetically flawed with "purism" and taking in Zuko & Azula's mother was a way to help the genetics get "not too f-ed up". That's another great way to see the children as two sides of a coin, madness or genetic normality. Azula got the madness of their flawed genes along with her upbringing after Mother fled greatly influenced her maliciously calculated character. Zuko was raised more by his Uncle who was also lucky to be spared the madness in their royal genetics. Ila (Iroh & Ozai's mother) was probably brought into the royal family as well, and so Ozai followed his father's way of choosing a bride from outside the family instead of a relative cousin.
A slight improvement to your story - Ozai as a kid could never firebend. In all of his attempts he could not produce more than smoke, while all his peers outclass him dramatically. That's why he preferred to stick to his books and fell in love with the earth nation. Also, maybe he liked knives and swords, same as zuko. This time he is captured not for being a fire bender, but because he said that he was fire nation royalty. Also It'd make more sense that the earth benders decide to mark him with the phoenix but anyways - He is left alone, and as the days go by the fear for his life starts to fade, and a different emotion starts taking it's place. Pure blind rage at this injustice that he has suffered. Finally, with an intense glare is on his face, looking straight at the camera, moke starts coming out of his nose, he just starts roaring at the air, still tied up. And on his third attempt (each road more rageful than the last), he roars with fire and burns down the tree, and escapes on his own, and finds Iroh.
Ok, I’ve never really liked ATLA fans attempt to make a sympathetic origin for Ozai but I had to comment because yours is good. It would’ve been mind-blowing if Ozai as a child was weak at bending and he wanted to be reborn as the greatest bender by eliminating all other superior benders including the Avatar.
4:27 Counter argument, the show is increasing its complexity by showing a character contrary to its message. As such, its says "this is how the world works, but there are exceptions(Ozai)"
I don't think Ozai needed to be characterized or humanized. Sometimes people just ARE that violent, cruel and evil. We already had a humanized villain in Zuko. And the story is about Team Avatar growing as people and benders ((or fighters in general in Sokka's case)). THEY are the focus of the story. it's a Hero's Journey and Ozai is merely the obstacle on their journey.
I'm going to mentally picture Ozai with a twirled mustache after seeing the thumbnail. Would've been interesting to see how Ozai came up with the idea that no mercy nor kindness should be the approach to life; wartime trauma as you describe would definitely be a believable reason. Or at the very least, perhaps those outside his group (Fire Nation) showed no mercy nor kindness to him, perhaps with no one choosing to help him, so he may think his attitude is justified (The term "Seph Ursini Theorem" came to mind, named after a character who explained pretty much this). Also nice to see the phoenix idea tie in, since Ozai canonically called himself Phoenix King after making Azula firelord in his place.
Good back story. I would make the abuse from the Earth Benders push him to being so taken by rage that he uses his fire to burn through his restraints then slaughters the Earth Benders completing his transformation into this monster
we just have to decipher with the fact that some people are just evil, no strings attached or whatever, some people don't care for others, its not bad neither is it good, it is what it is, and that is the comedy of life, lets not play the devils advocate
The problem, is Azulon. It's the inverse of Zuko and Azula. Iroh's mother, who we never meet, is like Ursa. Ozai just took after his father's negative traits. Including his ruthlessness.
I love these videos you make, my favorites are about Aragorn, and Avatar vs Princess Mononoke. About Ozai and trauma, I'd like to share how I found trauma can be taken in two different ways, by going on to commit evil things as you said, but also in developing wisdom from it, but still being a broken man nonetheless. >Aragorn, to the ancient Anglo-Saxon poem "the wanderer", which is about trauma, wisdom, and asking broken questions as a broken man. >And the origin of Aragorn, in reacting to childhood difficulty, developing his intuition towards people, which is present in all humans as a survival mechanism. To quote these videos: THE WANDERER: Ancient Anglo-Saxon poem. ua-cam.com/video/tSJ7Sl-Q-HE/v-deo.html -by Empire of The Mind. "Even as the poem draws to a conclusion, even as the wanderer's spirit becomes dark and wise, -- he is filled with as many questions as answers." "Grief is a twisted emotion, twisted into the shape of a question..." "To grieve is to search. To grieve is to want something that's gone, regardless of whether it's death, or divorce or a breakup that takes someone away. To grieve is to look for those things out of purely emotional need, or habit, but not to find them. They are gone. But where have they gone?" (Darth Insidious 1y ago (edited): "The Dunedain were wanderers of the destroyed kingdom of Arnor.") "It is a question to which there is no emotional answer. Through these questions, the wanderer tells us more about the state of being a broken person than any declarative statement of fact ever could." "A man cannot become wise before he has a portion of winters in the kingdom of the world." "Both the Norse and Anglo-Saxons measured age not just in terms of years, but specifically in terms of winters." ("That is how Aragorn was described by Tolkien, as "wise with many winters.") "The pain is so deep that he dares not speak. Even if he wanted to tell us he could not. Kierkegaard pointed out centuries later, that true suffering makes us mute." "He cannot stop the memories and dreams of his past life from flooding back, whether they be welcome or unwelcome, they only aggravate." "How that time has passed away, dark under as if it had never been." T Ando 1y ago: "I always imagined that Tolkien found his own journey after the war in this work." [["Rebuilding a life is no easy thing, you are forever trying to fill a hole in you that you never can. When I read his works, I can feel that he has suffered and truly knows what the bottom of the well is." ]] "I feel that is what is missing from most authors of the genre, they just don't have the lived experience to fully grasp what in their writing is truly genuine." (I write about becoming timeless): There is a time when men will become old, and become outdated for the time of the world, but those who choose to become timeless, for their children, will be worthy until the end of their days, and the end of their ages. Those who live as passing fads will die as passing fads. Instead of calling someone humble, call them humbled. THE CHILDHOOD OF ARAGORN: (Edited from a video.) Hypothetical Theory #1: Intuition As A Survival Skill. Everyone has intuitive abilities on some level, and it's a natural human trait. In fact, almost anyone can strengthen their intuitive abilities if they set their mind to it, because like a muscle, intuition only gets stronger with practice. [Is it that early trauma provided a playing ground of scenarios that challenged this natural instinct? Being able to feel the energies of people around them, being able to tell if something is coming, to see through other's ulterior motives. Is it possible that it's all rooted from a survival mechanism that developed early on?] Is this ability just a survival mechanism that has gotten familiar with use in childhood? Could unavoidable encounters such as unstable parental love, poverty, bullying, and insecurity, result in increased intuition and awareness? Is it born or made? Hypothetical Theory #3: Independence Vs. Unavoidable Self-Reliance. Are they innately independent or were they challenged to become self-reliant at an early age? [Whether that means a lack of parental responsibility during childhood, or even lack of friendships, making school and socializing more difficult than it needed to be.] Of course, almost every one of them can agree that they've felt like the blacksheep in most scenarios, choosing to take their own route voluntarily... but was it really their choice in the beginning, or is this independence a result of settling for the road of solitude early on? [[Choosing to be completely independent can be a great trait, but only if it's rooted from self-empowerment and not fear of vulnerability.]] *But Aragorn has grown older. He is 80 years old.* Hypothetical Theory #4: Closed Off From Meeting New People Due To Fear Of Vulnerability. [Speaking of vulnerability, it's not exactly a word most of them are comfortable with.] [They love to see the vulnerable side in other people, in fact they live for it.] But when it comes to being vulnerable themselves, it can take a long time for them to step outside. [[Is it all based on a fear of vulnerability due to being shut down in the past? Maybe some have experienced memorable moments in childhood or adolescence that made them coil inward, teaching them to never open up until full trust is engaged. So, while they so desperately crave human connection, past traumas have made it unbearable to exercise that desire.]] Hypothetical Theory #5: Being an "Old Soul" Vs. Growing Up Too Fast. [They are filled with wisdoms of all sorts, some they can't even quite recall how they've learned.] The level of intellect and maturity that they carry themselves with gives the impression of having wisdom beyond their years. But is this subconscious mechanism a natural ability, or a result of having to know things in order to manage certain childhood crises? Hypothetical Theory # 6: Imagination & Idealism As An Escape From Reality. Deeply imaginative and generally idealistic, they are known for their elaborate inner worlds. Using their vivid dream-like inner thoughts, they are able to do anything from fantasizing about potential partnerships, dreaming up their most ideal life-journey, and even experience fabricated conversations that have never (and most likely will never) happen. The inner mind is like no other, and the world they're able to create internally almost always tops their current reality. *Aragorn has progressed as man, and has found a way to avoid living in fantasy.* "And this is where introverted intuition is interesting, because it can easily be a disguise for an escape from reality." *But it is never best to escape reality. Only use it to make a plan of action to get out of the tough times.* For example, if a child witnessed their parents fighting constantly throughout childhood, they would quickly learn mechanisms that allow them to disconnect. So, is it possible that this imagination and idealistic outlooks is as a coping mechanism? Hypothetical Theory # 7: Deep Conversations In Hopes To Better Understand Themselves. When it comes to their love for deep conversations, it's almost impossible to get them to open up without consistent attempts. This is because they are much more interested in trying to understand the other person rather than share things about themselves. Maybe some grew up in a household where they weren't able to express themselves, and so they learned to only offer emotional support, rather than to seek it. It's possible that they crave these conversations in order to feel more intune with themselves. Hypothetical Theory # 8: A Need For Helping Others Vs. People-Pleasing. Is it solely based on the fact that they are a peace-keeper? Or have they experienced past traumas? Do they really want to help other people, or are they just avoiding helping themselves? "So, what do you think? Is it born, or is it created?" *I think both.* I just wanted to share my thoughts, I hope it wasn't' bad. I am a recent highschool grad, and I've been watching your videos over the summer. That was an excellent backstory for Ozai you wrote, that image of a little boy hanging for days in the rain. It ties it up really well. You have understanding and the takeaways are great. You have wisdom you hold and display. I've been having fun, "thanks and bye-bye".
I kinda like it bc it parallels zuko 's story and zuko alone episode but also it's the opposite of iroh but I would make it iroh's decision to bring him to the battlefield at 13 yo and all of this would basically be his fault and iroh refusing to defeat the evil he partially created
Interesting backstory, and I do think the philosophical payoff you describe works better. However, Ozai's backstory in canon is all about subtext. He identifies with Azula, the second born , talented, and traditionally banned from taking the throne, just like him. At least with Ozai there's a significant age gap between him and Iroh, so the older brother and heir was already eatablished and skilled by the time Ozai realized that his own talent and skill was never going to let him reach the pinnacle. Maybe not from the beginning, but Ozai was looking for a way to depose Zuko so Azula, the one who was completely on the same page with him and was also the second born, could become the heir he really wanted. There's more, but the bottom line is that all his motivations are there, they're just in the subtext.
In a show that tries to humanize every single character we see, you have to give the writers the benefit of the doubt and ask instead why they didn't do it with Ozai.
I think it would have been interesting if not humanising if Ozai's commitment to psychopathic evil stemmed from a warped reading of Air Nomad philosophy, that family was a wordly burden that he would have to emotionally detach himself from to achieve his goals, why he didn't hesitate to kill Zuko or indeed his Father, so that when Ozai yells at Aang that his people were weak and didn't deserve to live in his world, he might have thought in his head that he was an even better "Air Nomad" than they were. ...But that's just food for thought. 23:48 I see... So it's an Alternative history where Otto Skorzeny was a villain?
There’s something to the fact that Ozai killed his father rather than Zhuko when that was supposed to be his punishment for greed and lack of sympathy for his own brother.
Azulon giving a lesson on sympathy. This coming from the guy who ordered the murder of every water bender in the Southern Water tribe (Except Katara and Hama), created more colonies in the Earth kingdom and lead most of the war for over 70 years. 😂
One thing that did bother me is Azula. The show tried to make her appear more human but it went no where. I liked her admitting she is a monster instead of the usual justification gymnastics. However, that too went no where as she was not affected at all by k1lling a twelve year old and had zero issues burning earth kingdom. One thing that REALLY p1ssed me off is hearing she eventually got her "redemption". You can't magically turn a psychopath into "good".
I can agree he isn't as conples as the rest of the cast but I think you can gather enough clues about him via all the other characters. Banishing Ursa, why he burns zuko and banishes him, hate for Iroh, his favoritism for azula, obedient to his father, ruthless, etc
This is something I always have had mixed thoughts on. On one hand I keep seeing really 1-Dimensional depictions of certain groups or types of people as villains that seem to me really unfair and tend to just reveal the biases of those who wrote the characters. On the other hand, revisionist takes on classic villains (that often end up just making the original hero an even more 1D villain) also always irk me the wrong way. When that is taken to an extreme, I see no reason why we won't just end up in an endless pit of re-evaluations where we keep inverting the morality of a story over and over again. A lot of this I suppose comes down to how human a villain is meant to be, and how seriously one can take notions like non-human or metaphysical evils (you mentioned Sauron, for instance, the fact that he is explicitly said to be a primordial spirit aligned with Morgoth lets him be literally inhuman, and even then he was not evil in the beginning). It does make me wonder what kind of antagonists you all think are done the best. Favorites of mine are Dark Knight (2008)'s Joker, Silco from Arcane, The Shadow from Phantastes, Lilith from George MacDonald's Lilith, Hector from the Iliad, and of course the lord of evil himself from Paradise Lost.
I totally get where you're coming from, I've noticed the same pattern in a lot of modern writing. As for my favorite villains: Palpatine, Johan Liebert, the Major (Hellsing: Ultimate), Envy from FMA (but especially Brotherhood), and President Snow (Hunger Games). Eren has never been one of my favorite characters in Attack on Titan, but I do think he's well written. All these characters are humanized to some extent while still being unrepentantly evil. It makes them more fascinating. Of course, that doesn't mean I can't like more archetypal villains, like what we see in folktales (Eris from Sinbad being one of my favorites in this category), just that the ones I've listed here are the gold standard to me. I'd include Anakin/Darth Vader, but I don't think he was unrepentant.
Aww. But some of the most lovable antagonists in movies are one-dimensional. The Xenomorph, The Predator, The Thing, Frieza, zombies, The Blob, Jaws, The Terminator etc.
With the exception of Frieza and maybe the predator, all the antagonists you listed are more akin to animals, they are not purely one dimensional they are just acting on their instincts which in a way does give them dimension. Even the predator is established to have a code of honer and is known to spare unarmed victims.
Ozhoi is the ambitious second son who usurped his older brother. Forsaking family duty in favor of power and ambition, he likely experienced neglect from his father during his upbringing because he wasn't the heir. His sole desire was to gain attention, so he strived to become perfect and powerful in the hope that his father would acknowledge him. However, Irhoh was always the designated heir, and perhaps this is why he never tolerated Zuko's flaws, as they reminded him of his own imperfections from his past.
I think he works great as a pure evil villain as he serves as the face of all the evil in the Fire Nation; the industry, colonialism, abuse, war crimes, and corruption, where Zuko and Iroh shows that it can change into a nation of peace, love, generosity, and kindness. He’s a monster who made the characters who they are. He shows what Azula will be and is becoming today and Zuko was close to becoming that.
I don't believe Ozai being one dimensional takes away from series. I never felt while watching the show that I dying to know more about Ozai. I was more invested in seeing how Aang will end the 100 year war. Having said that Ozai isn't particularly "good" and that is fine. He served his purpose as the goal post
Great video and your backstory to ozai is awesome. But random tangent here.. if you believe in the death penalty what do you think about criminals who are wrongly convicted then proven innocent after many years? Wouldn't the death penalty be wrong in these cases since sometimes verdicts are overturned?
I view Ozai as just having been a huge Narcissist from birth who now that he's emperor doesn't have to hide it anymore, which to me actually adds more since that surely happened in the past.
Oh my gosh! That backstory would have been amazing. It also would have made me feel less impatient with Aang while he was going through his "I can't take a life" issue. They also never really answered what happened to Zuko's mother. I was waiting for the story but they never showed it. BTW, I really liked the knight wiping away the laugh tear.
They actually do tell you what happened to Zuko's mother...in the comics. *Spoilers ahead*: after basically being forced to marry Ozai and killing Azulon to save her son (whom Ozai hates incidentally because she lied that he was in fact the son of her former lover), she runs away with a man from her village, changes her face and has a firebeinding prodigy daughter who is basically Azula, if Azula were sane, right down to calling her brother Zuzu. I don't know about you, but I prefer the original story where Ozai and Ursa actually did love one another.
I have a small complaint about the starting quote against Nietzsche, it more or less seems in context to Thycides(?) a ancient writer he admired who is quoted as ‘the strong so what they can and the weak suffer what they want’ His writings helped Victor Frankel in his concentration camps and work there in the book ‘man’s search for meaning’ Nietzsche often seemed to write stuff specifically to dismay certain people around him- same people would falsify letters, pages and so on for their political beliefs. But Nietzsche never saw himself as strong- in fact he often did admit to his own weakness in his books such as Ec… (beep) hopefully you can find the book on the wiki with that much to go off of. But how he viewed weakness was in a odd sense- there is a article on the Medium ‘how weakness corrupt’ I also suggest Emerson’s work as it is in a similar vein of Nietzsche. Nietzsche believed we could live past ascetic ideas- Doveysky(?) believed they were needed- Nietzsche seemed to believe a similar idea in his later works such as the anti-Christ and twilight of the idols.
Azula is a sociopath, Ozai is a psychopath that’s why he’s “bare minimum” Also him saying “now the universe delivers you to me as an act of providence” meaning he believes he’s meant to rule perhaps by divine intervention, and the baby pictures was there to say he once was good(maybe)but now he is a monster that needs to go down
Good job me, did not even notice that I watched this video a year ago Also I think Ozai flaw is his prideful ignorance of his “right to rule” and that all other life besides his, those who serve him and those who can be useful to those who serve him. Ignorant to what he truly is and is doing and will be remembered for, no trauma just his upbringing of him being above others, that is why he disliked/didn’t care for his brother and father because they were above him and were more of a hindrance than useful to him as they were
I don't think such a dramatic story is good for Ozai. It's much more satisfying to me that he has a relatively normal, evil, royal family life. The events in his life would be relatively mundane but his reactions to things becomes increasingly extreme as he pursues the fire kingdom's dream of conquest. All the messed up ideology can be formed without a super tramatic event. Basically, Ozai should be the opposite of "one bad day" where it was a serious of actions he purposefully took that eventually drove him to stuff like burning Zuko. It starts with, not the desire to do evil, but the willfull rejection to do good.
![The Complete Story of Destiny! From origins to Shadowkeep [Timeline and Lore explained]](/img/n.gif)
Considering that the main conflict involving Ozai is whether Aang should kill him or not, I think the less we understand his evil the better. The more Aang understands Ozai the easier it is to make the call to spare him. But that's the thing; Aang decides that all life is sacred and absolutely nothing can justify killing anyone, not even Ozai. That's not an easy call to make, especially when he has little to no context when facing down the most evil character in his world.
I just want to add an additional thought: the show does everything in its power to dehumanize Ozai, which makes it all the more baffling to a lot of viewers when Aang goes out of his way to humanize him. But I think that’s precisely the point: you shouldn’t need a good story to treat living things with dignity. This act actually elevates Aang’s moral character and ends up working to the shows benefit (albeit not so much in a narrative sense but more so in a thematic sense).
@@SeaCow1g You sir get a gold star, because you get it.
Good point, however, the problem is most people do not believe in never killing another person. What about self-defense? What if someone is trying to take your child's life? What about when an invading army attacks your country *cough* Russia-Ukraine *cough* Majority of viewers are not going to identify with Aang. They might even get a bit annoyed and impatient with Aang while he is going through his never-take-a-life-spirit-journey. But, if we add a backstory to Ozai. Make him appear more relatable, human, then we can understand Aang's inner conflict better and look forward to how he is going to stop Ozai without betraying his conscience.
Either way, Avatar: Last Airbender was still a pretty darn good show.
@@SeaCow1g plus, as stated by Red of Overly Sarcastic Productions, the introduction of Energy Bending as a third option pulls double duty as good world building
@@Kaijugan How was it good exactly?
my head cannon was that he was always an inferior bender to Iroh and because he was younger he was always in the shadow of his legendary older brother and that over decades made him hate his brother. He hates Zuko because he sees himself in his sons weakness and identifies with Azula because she's the bad ass younger sibling he always saw himself as. not too dissimilar to your idea but it explains his dynamic with both of his kids better
Why Iroh looks way older than Ozai in Aavatar TLOA? They were half brothers from different mothers?
@@davidfrancisco3502 i mean, rulers do often have harems or multiple wives so it's not infeasible
@@davidfrancisco3502 I believe Iro was also discraced by his defeat at the seig of Bha Sing Seh (or however it's spelled). Its also where he lost his son, so maybe not having a heir made the title pass on to Ozi.
Just a fan theory
Interesting headcanon, doesnt paint him as morally good either its simple yet effective
@@soffren It's not really a theory it's what was established in the Zuko alone episode.
You're backstory really gives a new meaning to Ozai's line "Suffering will be your teacher"
Love it. Maybe it would be even better if Ozai was not saved by Iroh and his men, but instead a fire reached him that he could bend to escape his bonds. Ozai wouldn't know the origin of this fire and would see it as a sign of being chosen as well as the superiority of Fire.
I was going to comment something similar lol. I thought perhaps Ozai becomes so enraged that he ends up burning the chains off with his bending.
i must say i really liked zhao´s death and think it is different from the typical disney villain ending, since he stood true to his ideas and in a sense he died with dignity something he would have lost had he taken the help it also ended his character development from his agni kai with suko were he was not able to accept defeat.
I personally think Ozai does have complexity. He's a narcissistic consumate manipulator, who's also an authoritarian parent and textbook control centric abuser.
These qualities actually make him seem quite human because there are plenty of abusive spouses and parents who have these qualities in real life
Zuko's story I relate to on such a personal level because I was raised by a 'one-dimensional' abuser similar to Ozai. It took me a really long time to actually address any of my trauma because for most of my life when you would bring up the messed up shit that my step dad would do, you would inevitably be met with something about "Well, this happened in his childhood" or "His dad did the same to him" - which to a child with little world experience, was a conversation killer because the adults just justified the abuse I received instead of confronting him about it, or if they did they would get one of his sob stories which would be enough to pacify any further action. After a while a kid gets the message that it's okay to do bad things if bad was done to you as a kid, or at the very least people wont care because everyone deserves sympathy.
The development of Zuko and Azula I feel is the point of Ozai's story. You see their childhood traumas, how they were raised to cope with them and think of themselves and others - it's really easy to see how those same dynamics played out between Azulon and his sons Iroh and Ozai - it's an intergenerational affair. The specifics as to *why* Ozai did the heinous actions he's done aren't important, I feel the point was always more about how you handle and cope, which was self growth like Zuko or Iroh, or mental collapse like Ozai or Azula.
@@Crithosceleg exactly
I don't even think there's much need to change Ozai's backstory all that much, merely expand on it a bit. This is my theory:
I've figured for a long time now that Ozai is particularly harsh toward Zuko because he subconsciously sees himself in Zuko-or at least, his _former_ self. I think Ozai is seriously projecting his inadequacies onto his son, like being disliked by his father (Azulon seemed to have favored Iroh). So Ozai instead tries to project his image of ideal strength onto Azula, but in actuality, she resembles Iroh in terms of skill and success more than she does him. Ozai wants to be seen as competent as his older brother was during Iroh's military career, but likely just lacks the experience and doesn't naturally possess the prodigious, strategic military mind that Iroh and Azula do (I mean, he tried razing the entirety of the Earth Kingdom-that's not exactly the pinnacle of tactical prowess). This is just my headcanon, of course, but I do think it could be a reasonable explanation.
Another point of interest: Ozai was seen loitering near the fountain after Ursa left... like, _very shortly_ after she left, the day after, if I'm not mistaken. Why is this significant, you may ask? Well, because Ozai is never really seen caring about anything other than himself. It's rather telling that he's hanging around one of his wife's spots in the palace; there's a scene before Ursa leaves where she's sitting in front of the running fountain and someone online pointed this out and juxtaposed it with the scene of Ozai in front of the fountain-which was then turned off. Curious. This is actually what allowed me to start seeing him as more than a boring, cardboard cutout-that is, before the terrible comics ruined everything-but I digress.
And later, when Zuko ascends, he goes to visit Ozai in his cell-and the man just looks so _bitter,_ and talks to his son in this angry, defeated tone. He sounded childish to me. You see, I think in Ozai's mind, Zuko's rejection of his ideals in favor of Iroh's was by extent a rejection of him as a person, and therefore, he could now justify doing whatever he wanted to Zuko, even committing filicide, because Zuko can no longer be his son if he doesn't have the same worldview. I think Ozai was maybe even confused that his views proved to be wrong-because after all, his "weak" son Zuko ended up getting the better of him.
Something that also stands out to me is how Ozai associates his image with that of a pheonix, instead of a dragon (unlike Iroh, who is called 'the Dragon of the West'). Is this perhaps a way to disassociate himself with those in his family he perceives to have hurt him? Could it be his way of distinguishing himself in the public eye? But that's not even the most interesting part: in Chinese culture (which Fire Nation customs borrow a lot from), the pheonix represents the feminine and the dragon represents the masculine. Now, I don't know if this was intentional on the writers' part, or if it's just a happy accident (because they've made writing blunders before) and they didn't know this, but let's entertain the idea that it was a deliberate creative choice; if it's on purpose, then perhaps Ozai really used to be like Zuko, in that he was more 'soft-hearted,' so to speak. They both started off as more feminine men (which doesn't mean they're not masculine, only that they're more in touch with their feminine side), and perhaps Ozai felt self-conscious about this because his brother, who is more traditionally masculine, receives much more praise from Azulon, while all he gets is derision. So then maybe Ozai is trying to over-compensate by adopting the most negative, superficial traits of masculinity, mistaking these for "strength." It's also implied that he's rather cunning, but in a more underhanded way than Iroh, like a snake; he plays people. This particular aspect of his personality gives off a lot of feminine energy to me, although not on the same level as Azula. And before anyone cries "sextism!!!1!1!!"
1. I'm not a man.
2. This is drawn from me personally observing this kind of behavior occur naturally in females more often than in males.
I think Ozai was deeply insecure, but it was buried so far beneath this veneer of arrogance that he didn't possess the self-awareness required to realize that and thought the problem was external instead of internal. Unlike Azula, who _did_ become self-aware, which is part of why she had her meltdown. The bigger the ego, the more everything seems like a personal affront.
That’s also pretty good. Also thanks for the fact about phoenixes, I’m adding that to my list of goofy facts
Sometimes people are just terrible, they don't always need or even have a meaningful reason for their evil actions. They just enjoy hurting and manipulating others, or alternatively don't care what harm they might cause so long as they get what they want.
Not everyone has a tragic backstory, just a tragic mindset.
This honestly really undermines Zuko's character growth and the purpose of Ozai. I also always found it to be a very uplifting story that despite your parent being abusive and unable to love, it doesn't mean it is justified or makes sense. Some people are born into abusive families and I think it cheapens it to give Ozai an anime tragic backstory instead of letting him be what he was, which is just an abusive and powerful man.
I think the issue is more the obsession with basically 'justifying' many villians, when the reality is no matter the excuses people make, a lot of people *act* one dimensional and do cruel things.
The desire for nuance has become so warped you see these weird family arcs with villians like Homelander and think "right, so the lunatic rapist having a son/relatives I'm meant to care about, at the expense of the good guys basically catering to him to bring down the system 'one day'. Fantastic, that's not a message about accepting the status quo at all".
It's also a means to creating the balance in the Avatar world: you get the wandering companions and connections because of his devastation. I get the need for detail in fiction; but looking at history and reality there are many individuals who simply are their acts and many people confuse and fool themselves expecting some grandiose reasoning or change of character that never happens (abuse, tyranny etc).
I agree that this trend of trying to find humanity within villain characters is getting out of hand. However, I also disagree that we should be looking at another human being as one dimensional either because no human really is. And when we talk about celebrities, internet drama and people who are monsters, at the very least, the psychology and nuance needs to be laid out on the table at least to try to recognize patterns for future cases. But we are wrong on the Internet about other people all the time because the person that put themselves out there is only sharing a slice of life. I recall one "Karen" story that tells about how OP actually ended up finding out how his Karen moved on in life and he became really chill with Karen and her NEW family. Gold Shaw Farm, a new UA-camr and new farmer, just put up a video about learning from his haters. He actually became friends with another farmer because he made his way to meet up and talk to one another face to face. And then Reddit got wrong pretty badly when it came to sleuthing. After the Marathon Bombings in Boston, they thought they got their lead from a missing kid that actually just killed himself. And then there are countless "reports" that smear another human and other people fall for it because they look at the smear and never question that maybe it is part of the job to smear or that the person writing it really just has unexplained hate that is trying to pass on to another person. My problem is less on the fact we are giving nuance to villain characters (although part of it is leading to bad writing I think) and it is more of the fact that we are giving nuance to fictional characters when there are actual people that DO need "benefit of the doubt" or even an understanding to see how a person ticks to find out how they got there and try to prevent others from getting there in the future.
Real human beings don't always have clear and understandable motivations for their evil deeds, but they do have an internal logic that justifies and even mandates those acts. Sometimes, we do evil things for petty reasons, but that doesn't make us any less complex.
I do agree, but only partially. I think as a story, Ozai needs to be more understood. He does actions, but there doesn't seem to even be internal reasoning beyond "kill, kill, kill, power, power, power." Like dude, we don't need to humanize him, I just want actual reasons beyond kill, death, murder, power. Very few leaders have ever truly been about that route, most have other goals, reasons they will wield kill, death, murder, power for. Even Stalin, Hitler, and Mao did. So, where is Ozai's?
@@The_WatchListI think everyone in the Avatar world wants to end the war not for the same reasons obviously and differently. Ozai probably just wanted to finish what his grandfather Sozin started, I believe Ozai like other Fire Nation supremacists like his father Azulon and people like Zhao thought that that Fire was the superior element and should rule over the rest of the world. Anyone who would threaten this would be disposed of. Sozin did talk to Roku about spreading the Fire Nation influence over the world.
The closest thing to depht we get with Ozai in the show is that Azulon might be abusive to him and favours Iroh. Since it seems that Ozai genuenly though that burning Zuko and banishing him on a impossible misson would be for his own good. After he basically wont start one of his meetings without Zuko and when he asks Zuko what the earth kingdom plebs would do against a incasion and Zuko doesent sugarcote it Ozai doesent go into a rage and tries to burn him he just admits that Zuko probably is right since he has been spending time with them and just changes his tactics. It seems that when he burned Zuko he wasen't mad that he went against the plans but that he was talking mad shit to the general but when facing his dad he started to beg like a little bitch. He tries to goad Zuko into killing him and calls him a coward when he refuses.
And banishes his own wife despite doing things for his favor.
Honestly, the part that always confused me is why Aang violating and permanently mutilating a man's soul is more merciful than simply sending him to the afterlife to be sorted out by them. Smacks of modern materialistic sensibilities to me.
But it's true, Ozai seems like he's in the wrong story. Although the timeframe wouldn't work, Sozin would have been a better main villain, a guilty former visionary who heaps up new tragedies on the old because he thinks he can't back down after all he's done.
On the other hand though, Ozai, and really the entire fire nation royal family, represent the apex of generational violence. Sozin may have started the war truly believing he was helping the world in the long run, but as the war spanned generations and the atrocities mounted Sozin's vision became nothing more than a propaganda tool to excuse Ozai's desire for destruction and domination.
Goku would be horrified by the mere idea of taking another man's ability to fight.
Bv4n, this is how I think as well, nothing is more tragic then a sinner dying in sin but then again this is Christian philosophy not sure if it is any type of eastern philosophy.
@@MrSophire Eastern philosophy largely believes in reincarnation and that sin perpetuates across lives until redeemed, and in many, the entire cycle of reincarnation transcended. Dying in sin would leave their karma unresolved (while mortals can be reborn as denizens of Hell, they are lesser beings than the divine asuras and will eventually die and be reborn), yet addressable in their next incarnation; the permanent mutilation of a soul would be lasting across lives unless there was some additional healing factor.
it's weird that ozai listened to azula's suggestion of burning the earth kingdom down. azula sounded like she was just spitballing ideas and came up with that one on a whim. even azula herself didn't sound like she took that one seriously. it honestly sounded like she was just using that to start the conversation of what they should do as their plan. burning down the earth kingdom would just destroy a huge area of fertile land for a very long time. this would make it hard to build in the earth kingdom and start new fire nation settlements since food would need to constantly be imported.
A better story than what anyone at netflix is capable of creating.
I think Ozai being flat serves Aang’s arc. All the other villains we can see at least a glimmer of redeemability. Ozai doesn’t have that. He’s just bad. So Aang’s decision to spare him in the end is really not about Ozai at all; it’s about Aang himself. Is he strong enough to follow his convictions and honor his lost people’s beliefs, even when he is isolated in those beliefs? Can he be the Avatar AND the last Airbender? I think they purposely made Ozai just bad, in the same way that they show Yon Rah is a horrible person-because not killing them was what Aang (and Katara) deserved. Who cares what Ozai/Yon Rah deserved?! These kids deserved NOT to kill them, and by choosing to end the cycle of violence, they brought peace to the world.
I think there’s a parallel scene in The Storm and Zuko Alone that implies Ozai (and the royal family for that matter) is just perpetrating the same values but with different, personal interpretations.
In The Storm, we saw Zuko suggest that using newbies as a distraction is a bad idea, for moral reasons or smth. For this, he ends up kneeling before his father while the latter gave him an impossible task of finding the chosen one who’s been MIA for a century. This effectively humiliates the compassionate firstborn to elevate the meritocratic secondborn, Azula.
It’s the same with Ozai in Zuko Alone. Ozai suggests that Iroh isn’t the best fit to rule after losing his son and his Siege. He kneeled before Azulon who gave him the “impossible” task of slaying his own son. Ursa devised a plan to bypass all of this for Ozai to “dethrone” his own father...either scenario (Zuko killed or spared) would effectively humiliate the compassionate firstborn to elevate the meritocratic secondborn, Ozai.
Zuko had his own plan in “dethroning” Ozai, and also hadn’t used his own hands to do it. Aang was to Zuko’s ascent to power what Ursa was to Ozai’s.
The narrative was like “firstborn + headpiece = rightful heir to the throne”...Ozai was a madlad for practically saying “F*ck that tradition, I’ma be the Fire Lord as the secondborn, and I’ma prop up my secondborn to succeed me because merit!”
He only makes one outlandish move in the entire series, which was to use scorched earth policy against ba sing se. Other than that he’s actually extremely tactical and manipulative, look how he manipulates Zuko in the Day of Black sun or manipulates Azula out of being part of his plan in the finale. Plus he covers up murdering his father while using wife by having her take the fall. Also I know Azula told Ozai but he was still behind the idea of leading Aang and the invasion into a bait and switch type trap during the eclipse.
standing ovation for that back story
I don't even think Ozai- by himself, is meant to be seen as the villain of ATLA, more of a vessel for other things. He almost serves as the personification of ideologies such as Imperialism etc, rather than just being a big bad. The real villain of the show is the ideas and actions of the Fire Nation, and to a lesser extent Azula and for a large portion of the show, Zuko. Probably proved by them having drawn out arcs and backstories as opposed to the rather bland Ozai in comparison.
Ozai is a sociopath. Pure and simple. He does things that are needlessly evil, to the extent that they undermine his plan. His utter incompetence is the main reason the Fire Nation is when defeatable.
But was he always a sociopath? Are you born that way?? I think not dude. Every child is born pure. It is only after they've experienced some sort of pain, terror or suffering that they turn into who they are. Usually starts at young age.
@@ReveredDead you can be born a psychopath but you can't be born a sociopath
@@tahimwaicij Even then, you can't prove that someone is born with psychopathy. You can't exactly psychoanalyze a baby. It seems to me that that's more of an educated guess than a rule.
@@edenmckinley3472 well yeah it's not 100% correct, that's not what I was saying. I'm just saying psychopathy is born and sociopathy is learned, that's all.
There are sociopaths walking among us who don't end up doing reprehensible things, though. In fact, most of them probably don't. I'm not a fan of people throwing labels like this and "monster" around whenever they arbitrarily decide it's too inconvenient to humanize someone. I find it intellectually and morally lazy.
I don't know how I managed to stumble onto your work but this is some seriously mind-expanding stuff.
Meanwhile Maleficent is a conceptual failure because its trying to humanize a villain that isnt human, but the manifestation of Winter and Death.
Your backstory is my headcannon now. Good job.
I think the backstory you gave is interesting, but still doesn't seem quite right for Ozai to me personally.
I keep going back to when Zuko confronts Ozai and asks how he could justify dueling a child, and he responds, "It was to teach you respect!" He said something similar during the Agni Kai, where he says "You will learn respect and suffering will be your teacher." But that could have potentially just been a show put on for the audience to make Ozai seem justified while actually just enjoying an excuse to torture Zuko. But then, he says the same thing to Zuko when there is no audience, and by the tone of his voice, he actually sounds like he really believes his reasons were "just" or at least reasonable. And he even adds later, "Then you've learned nothing!" and the tone of his voice almost sounds like he's actually disappointed that Zuko didn't learn what he wanted Zuko to learn.
I think whatever Ozai's trauma was had to do with his own family, not with foreigners. I think he probably grew up learning that "love" was always conditional and/or transactional. And often, the only way to obtain it was through skill/strength/cunning/etc. Any sign of "weakness" would bring shame, humiliation, and rejection. Ozai mainly seems to value deep respect for his authority and unquestioning obedience from those around him. It does almost sound like he has a hang up about being disrespected in his youth. If I had to guess, I would suppose he was routinely humiliated and demeaned by his father and possibly others, potentially even by Iroh (before Iroh got his head on straight). Or rather, perhaps Iroh's ability to accept insults and disrespect gracefully made Ozai jealous of him or simply made him view Iroh as a fool. And so Ozai became a bit obsessed with putting himself in a position where no one could ever disrespect him again--aka, obtaining more and more power.
To me, that would explain his feelings towards Zuko, because he sees Zuko as yet another vector of humiliation. For example, seeing Zuko perform fire bending poorly in front of Azulon perhaps bothered him so much because he viewed the situation as Zuko embarrassing Ozai in front of his own father. Seems to make the Agni Kai and banishment thing make more sense to me, as well. It was an attempt to take back control after Zuko humiliated him in front of his subjects. It also explains why he's so bent on destroying the other nations, cause he's more interested in punishing them for their disrespect and rebellion than getting their money/resources/etc.
Plus, this sort of motivation would line up with people similar to him in real life. The "burn it all down" / "everyone deserves to die" crowd are often people who experienced severe and chronic social rejection and humiliation in their youth. (Ex. classic school shooters / etc)
But anyway, these are just some loose thoughts I have on this.
Aang may not kill, but he is ok helping those who will. I always wondered why no one volunteered to kill Ozai for Aang after he defeats the Fire Lord.
You've got absolutely no idea how much your videos have influenced my writing over the last year or two.
Your analysis of the themes at work at the end of the series lines up exactly with what I've always thought: there isn't really a practical reason for Aang to spare Ozai and it is actually a dereliction of duty, which is a shame because the idea is beautiful. Aang doesn't just beat him up, he debunks his whole Might-makes-right worldview by showing mercy, while exercising a unique power, one derived from his unique spiritual authority, to revoke the brute-force power that Ozai had misused so terribly.
I personally think your backstory is a bit too rushed though-I would want something that's a bit more drawn out rather than a single traumatic event, if he's going to get a backstory.
Also, you make a really good point about how him humiliating Zuko is pissing away the prestige of the royal household, that isn't an observation I've seen before but it's absolutely true. He's basically writing a 'depose me' sign anyone could stick to his own back.
Never had issues with Ozai being evil "for the evulz buahah": I've always seen him more of a plot device than not a full-fledge character, a Sauron-like Dark Lord who happens to be a man with a family, and he fulfills his role in the story.
Also, since the tough choice that Aang has to made in the end was to spare his life, the moral dilemma was made even harder by Ozai being unredeemably evil to the core. It would be easier to show mercy to someone like Azula whose evil is somehow explainable through her upbringing in an abusive environment, than to a complete monster like Ozai.
Brakus from "Di-Gata Defenders" actually accomplishes what "Avatar: The Last Airbender" did not with Ozai. Brakus still plans to conquer the Realm, but in the second season we catch glimpses of his past as a hero as well as hints that made him the villain that he became.
Your proposed backstory for Ozai is a really good one. It's basically the backstory of another fictional villain character from the comic book series called Seven to Eternity. The initial main villain is called the Mud King and his power is to psychically read people's minds and hearts to learn their deep desires and help make them real but in exchange, they are bound to him. He started off as a child born between and human father and goblin mother. His father died and his mother was killed in rage by her father for mating with a human and he was chased out of his goblin village. As a child, he was discriminated against and feared getting close to people, especially since he could read their minds and discover their hatred for him. He became a villain in order to create a world where he would not be victimized or abandoned ever again.
Ozai's backstory could even be something as simple as the cyclical nature of abuse. Maybe hes parenting in a slightly more extreme wayThat his father parented and he he dislikes zuko so much because he was the zuko of his family or as ozai put it the lucky to have been born one.
The idea of having a pure evil villain in a world were most are morally ambiguous and have said pure evil villain be manipulating them all the whole time is a fairly effective and some what realistic direction to take your main big bad.
Not gonna lie. It does make the Big villain stand out as the biggest baddie.
I always believe Ozai is more Zuko’s villain than Aang.
Before I watch this video, I want to say that I kinda think that he is one dimensional but that's not really a problem in the conflict because the conflict isn't exactly between him and Aang in which one person represents one idea and the person they're going up against represents the opposing idea (like Gaara vs. Lee from Naruto) because the real concflict is Aang having to decide whether or not to kill him.
But that being said, I'm super interested to see this video because you always have such interesting takes.
that's a very good argument :)
Beautiful backstory with Ozai! Another idea I would have for Ozai's backstory could be how he used to exhibit a more beta-version of Iroh's perceived alpha persona. He viewed Iroh as a 'strong, masculine man' by the standards of his father and much of society at the time, while Ozai was pushed to the back and often disregarded, constantly seen as a disappointment by others. So, after years of being in his brother's shadow, he decides to learn the negative qualities of what he believes makes one a 'tough, confident leader', until Iroh suffers his son's loss. Ozai sees this as an opportunity to ascend the throne and project this persona of a 'strong, confident ruler', lashing out at his wife & zuko for being seen as 'weak' but basically just him projecting his own insecurities onto them because deep down he really doesn't 'have it all together'. He is not this powerful, confident king that he expects himself, and society to adore; he's too overcome with the burden of expectations and a sense of perfection that he feels trapped and doesn't have a proper outlet to let out his frustrations. Therefore, fast-forward when Azula sarcastically mentions to "burn down the Earth kingdom," it's in that moment Ozai's mind finally cracked and went mad, which let him agree with Azula's proposal. Ozai doesn't know how to escape/deal with his insecurities and weight of expectations so he gives into his despair, "LET THE WHOLE WORLD BURN."
Ozai is what I call the Frieza of Avatar. He does the most evil things possible and is the driving force of change to some beloved characters like Zuko. What makes Freiza, such a intimidating villain is because of his role for causing so much suffering for some of the characters in Dragon Ball. Ozai in a way is a villain that is the face of war, tyranny, and family abuse. Though his character is not much developed personally, you can certainly understand how much of f'ed up individual he is for simply how he treated Zuko nevermind the entire world. Sometimes people don't need excuses to be evil, they just want show their greatness.
I believe Ozai is a massive blemish on the show. Why? Basically the same reasons you gave. He’s one of the only characters that are extremely cartoony. Absolutely 0 redeeming qualities about him whatsoever, which is quite unbelievable. Hell some of the worst people in human history at least had one redeeming quality.
I also thought that the creators really should’ve at least made him care for his son in a similar way that you said.
Now of course fans enjoy the idea of him being a psychopath, but again absolutely 0 redeeming qualities isn’t realistic. To be perfectly honest something being this unrealistic/underdeveloped I call bad writing.
I kind of like the idea of this flashback happening during the bending removal scene. It could also include scenes of Ozai being physically weak, you know, to explain why he got so jacked.
I don't see why he needs to be humanized. This wasn't a problem until recent years when every villain had to be sympathetic or whatever.
I like your idea for a backround story for Ozai. It's often kind boys and young men that get taken advantage of and then think they need to be tougher and over compensate. It would also add a dimension if intergenerational trauma for Zuko, something that is very real in dysfunctional families.
Even though I think your backstory is incredibly well written, I don't think it fits for Ozai.
The reason is that it has the concept that the only reason someone is bad, is because they were pushed there by circumstance.
I think Avatar already has too many such backgrounds for villains. I would prefer something to do with being consumed by a particular sin. Maybe he always admired strength as a concept and always tried to gain more of it. However, it didn't start out as something bad, just something he was fascinated by. He then starts thinking that strength isn't just something physical, but something mental.
He starts thinking that if he could control his emotions, then he would truly have strength because that would mean he would not be weak before his own emotions.
From this, he comes to despise weakness. People who cry for small reasons or say "I cannot do this!" It reminds him of a former version of himself and he thinks that the only way to truly overcome weakness is by hardship. He seeks to transform the world with this concept, which is why he acts the way he does in the show.
Think about it, it would explain all his actions. He treats Zuko badly because he wants him to become stronger. Zuko refusing to fight against him disgusts him because he sees weakness and he thinks the only reason his son will ever learn is by hardship. Zuko, thinks his quest is about honour, but his father cares about strength and sends him on an impossible task in order for Zuko to grow stronger.
The reason he burns the Earth Kingdom is to weed out the weak and only through strength and hardship could they recover.
Aang's confrontation with Ozai would then also be a confrontation of visions. Aang would argue there is more to life than strength and that virtue is part of that. Ozai is only concerned with strength, but the strong exists to help and defend the weak, not root them out.
I don't know, I think it could have been a cool motivation.
The bit about conduct between members of the nobility reminds me of what Saladin says toward the end of Kingdom of heaven when speaking to Guy de Lusignon: "a king does not kill another king."
Greatly enjoyed the backstory. I think it would have worked very well for the story.
Edit: I feel too many people are commenting without actually watching the video.
To be fair Aang is still a child, so while it’s silly to us to him the peaceful option is all he knows. He has a completely different perspective than us.
I dunno, man. I was never bothered by Ozai being a simple, pure evil villain. What i do think is a problem in the final fight(apart from the fact Aang should have had an episode training and mastering energybending in turtle island), is that Ozai should have been more of a threat. He should have been builded up as the strongest, most powerful and most cruelest firebender of all time, or something like that. I think the show should have made even Zuko and Iroh afraid of him, and even give him some OP form of firebending to make him seem like an ultimate boss that even Aang does not have a chance of defeating.
Looking at the comments I can't say I'm suprised that I did expect anything less, the good thing is that most of the people who are on youtube aren't thankfully really involved in the fandom. Only Judging the comments I've seen so far.
It seems like they got more interested in Asula like she was the main villian, and almost shoehorned in Ozai at the end. Yeah they mentioned defeating him as the goal for a long time, but Asula clearly had more time and motivated more things. That's probably why his motivation isn't spelled out well.
My explaination for Ozai would be as king he's always gotten his way, and believes any obedience to him comes from two things: fear of him, and also from his people seeing the nation and people he rules as superior to all others. Over time that idea turns him into a truly sadistic control freak who believes punishment must be doled out to any one defying him. Maybe he believes it's the only way one can rule a nation. In his case I would go for a makes twisted sense motivation, not what I'd consider a sympathetic one.
How exactly does taking away the Ozai's bending power permanently solve things if he's a ruler that a country of fire benders who might still be loyal to. All he and Asula have to do is escape from prison and they could cause another war, maybe a civil war. Does everyone in the whole Fire Nation all realize he's bad now? Do benders have some rule about nonbenders not being allowed to rule? We sure know sending the Joker to prison doesn't solve the problem. Sparing him could have made more sense if we had some reason to believe he couldn't do it all again.
I believe even the idea of Loyalist to Ozai was addressed in the Comics after Avatar.
Though the reason why is due to the fact of Zuko taking control of the reigns of the nation keeping Ozai and Azula locked up tightly.
Didn’t expect a vid on this topic…a surprise for sure but a welcome one.
I like to think that Ozai, Azulon and Sozin have had reasons to start and continue the invasion. If you look at the map, Fire Nation has islands, while Earth Nation has a continent. Not very fair, right?.. A couple of natural disasters to destroy crops and damage metal mining, a few bad economic decisions are all what is needed for hunger in the Fire Nation to start. And hunger leads to emigration, social revolutions, increase in violence and crimes... it is a good fertile soil for the idea of invasion to fest. Aang and his crew are young teens. Also Aang was not taught economy and politics in the temple, so it is natural that he thinks of the conflict in the more simple terms... and this makes his decision even harder and better, because he did not knew the details of the conflict, but he still stayed true to his principles and chose a more difficult solution.
well said. The same could apply to the Watertribe which could have gone the world conquering route as well for similar reasons. And they have a natural proclivity to dominate the world's oceans which is essential for Global Empires. The fire nation just did it because of tech. I've been thinking about a video on an alternate world where the Watertribe initiates the global invasion if the Fire nation never unified or industrialized.
@@PilgrimsPass What would you have thought if there were more reasons given for the fire nation's imperialism? What if Sozin wanted to colonize other countries because he feared the active volcanoes within the fire nation could take lives and destroy crops?
@@williamfinch9858 the idea that the firenation needed an explanation for its imperialism was one of my orginial video ideas instead of this one. I might do that one anyway since many seem interested in it.
"Madness has many forms, Rage, Sorrow, obsession, detachment, but none are as dangerous as madness theru the pursuit of power. All who come into power fall victim to it, until they find the peace of mind to let that power go. Otherwise, that madness will persist. In the end, it will consume them. This is the nature of the fifth finger of chaos, the nature of Arachk the Tyrants bane."
As somebody who is trying to work their own world of fiction, I have my own plan for the mythical character of Pandora. It will not be pretty, and I will not end well for anyone. More power to you and I’m looking forward to seeing what you have, mate
Vigins Ozai: lets burn the earth kingdom with the most impractical and time consuming method that will hardly cause too much damage but recover after some time.
Chad Admiral Zhao: I killed the moon fish, ending water bending.
Based and Zhaopilled
That Nitzche reference was grand
Though is only head cannon (and its "sadistic" connotations sounded a bit off to me) I enjoyed your back story for Ozai. Waiting already your upcoming video!
I just thought the royal family had a genetic tendency towards mental illness which makes fertile ground for extremist, violent ideas to fester into insanity when unchecked. With royals, their egos are easily hyper inflated by their surroundings. Sprinkle in generational trauma and you have a helluva pit for an already sick person to wallow in and become as evil as someone like Ozai.
I think Sozin was affected to an extent especially as he was more isolated from a true friend like Azulon and likely surrounded by sycophantic yes men. Ozai's position ensured a feedback loop of escalating violence and national supremacy. Azula was tipped over the edge more suddenly because of her friends' betrayal.
Zuko's the only one to come out of it and manage thanks to his mother, Iroh, and his own emotional labor. As much as I don't like Mei, it's definitely the case that they share a similar pessimistic attitude that's likely linked to shared mental illness that they have each learned to manage.
I find their family tragic and peppered with "mad royals". It's a miracle Iroh and Zuko made it out the way they did. I also super like the Phoenix earth and fire alliance idea.
Your vids aren't boring. I think you have a unique outlook that adds a lot to the discourse.
Ozai on thumbnail is like
-Why did you make me do this?! You are fighting, so you can watch everyone around you die. THINK, AANG!
Your backstory is cool. I always considered him more of a psychopath, because Azulon saw in him a different kind of fire, a less tamable one. But i like your backstory better
Really like your Osai back story. Fits really really well
Ozai has become way underappreciated, both by the fandom and in the show.
He had this build-up of being this nigh-unstoppable force of nature, like Thanos, but by the time he shows his face, the narrative and the fandom treat him, almost like a joke character who, at least makes almost look like, critically relied on Azula and his bending. I can’t help but feel like this is a complete disservice of his character and his role of the story.
I think dark avatar Ozai has a way better ring to it then Pheonix king. If Vaatu was the one who orchestrated Sozin’s rise to wage his war and that Ozai and Vaatu were the same person due to Iroh’s mother, Ilah, helping him escape, and only needs harmonic convergence to regain his depleted dark power after his escape, then the concept of Ozai being this, source of evil, god of war and dark counterpart to Aang would be executed a lot better. It was said that he’s the superior firebender in existence, even more so then Azula and Iroh combined. Imagine him as the most superior firebender, airbender, waterbender, earthbender, energybender and non-bender in existence, and he pulls all of this off on his own, in contrast to Aang who had to rely on a team and became more of a jack-of-all-stats/traits. Pretty insane, right? How this is done is by Aang's first use of energybending, by removing firebending, he accidently replaces it with airbending first, the rest of the skills appear one by one. Ozaatu even slays the same lion turtle and absorbs its soul.
The dark avatar's motives could be that after Raava is destroyed, he’ll use energybending and spiritbending to make himself become stronger towards Raava’s power instead of weaker, and he makes Raava become weak to her own power. Ergo, after 10,000 years of pure darkness and chaos. Vaatu will evolve into the avatar spirit of balance itself. But Azula comes up with a plan that's a reversal of Ozaatu's plan, after Vaatu has been purified and Aang is about to re-merge with Raava, it's Raava who's the spirit of balance and the eternal conflict ends.
Plus, wouldn’t it have made more sense if the lion turtle taught Aang the ways of spiritbending? A bending technique that utilizes knowledge in both healing and spirituality to alter and change negative energy into positive energy, restoring internal balance in the process? Perhaps be given energybending to help give spiritbending a boost. Because Aang, as the avatar, is tasked to restore balance to the world and everyone on it, and Aang, as an air nomad, doesn’t just cherish life, he wants to redeem those who are lost and make sure everyone goes in peace. What Ozai has is a brutal fate worse then death and I highly doubt Aang would want to carry out that sentence anymore then actually killing people, regardless if it was during a desperate situation.
I personally find your idea pretty cool. It's great. I think the concepts of Vaatu and Rava were developed long after Atla was finished, but your idea is i think the best iteration of the "Dark Avatar" concept I've seen.
He is meant to be the foil character, to see others changing around him, to contrast with others, to be a stubborn unmoving rock. Even when he is beaten, his bending taken he keeps trying to fight for a bit longer and tormenting his family.
Your back story was AMAZING
The only criticism I have of your channel is your voice is a little mundane. Always good content and good thought. I’ll keep coming back for years to come. I personally believe The Last Airbender is one of, if not, thee greatest children’s show ever made. The wisdom in this series is so wonderfully portrayed with charisma and relevancy. Any child without a father can find a fathers wisdom in this series. Any child without a mother can find a mothers comfort in this series.
Nerds just need to read history. There are plenty of men in history like Ozai.
Madness doesn't need explaining. It's easy to see the royal family are genetically flawed with "purism" and taking in Zuko & Azula's mother was a way to help the genetics get "not too f-ed up". That's another great way to see the children as two sides of a coin, madness or genetic normality. Azula got the madness of their flawed genes along with her upbringing after Mother fled greatly influenced her maliciously calculated character. Zuko was raised more by his Uncle who was also lucky to be spared the madness in their royal genetics. Ila (Iroh & Ozai's mother) was probably brought into the royal family as well, and so Ozai followed his father's way of choosing a bride from outside the family instead of a relative cousin.
A slight improvement to your story - Ozai as a kid could never firebend. In all of his attempts he could not produce more than smoke, while all his peers outclass him dramatically. That's why he preferred to stick to his books and fell in love with the earth nation. Also, maybe he liked knives and swords, same as zuko.
This time he is captured not for being a fire bender, but because he said that he was fire nation royalty. Also It'd make more sense that the earth benders decide to mark him with the phoenix but anyways -
He is left alone, and as the days go by the fear for his life starts to fade, and a different emotion starts taking it's place. Pure blind rage at this injustice that he has suffered. Finally, with an intense glare is on his face, looking straight at the camera, moke starts coming out of his nose, he just starts roaring at the air, still tied up. And on his third attempt (each road more rageful than the last), he roars with fire and burns down the tree, and escapes on his own, and finds Iroh.
Ok, I’ve never really liked ATLA fans attempt to make a sympathetic origin for Ozai but I had to comment because yours is good. It would’ve been mind-blowing if Ozai as a child was weak at bending and he wanted to be reborn as the greatest bender by eliminating all other superior benders including the Avatar.
@@aavila1206 Thank you kind sir
4:27 Counter argument, the show is increasing its complexity by showing a character contrary to its message.
As such, its says "this is how the world works, but there are exceptions(Ozai)"
I don't think Ozai needed to be characterized or humanized. Sometimes people just ARE that violent, cruel and evil. We already had a humanized villain in Zuko. And the story is about Team Avatar growing as people and benders ((or fighters in general in Sokka's case)). THEY are the focus of the story. it's a Hero's Journey and Ozai is merely the obstacle on their journey.
This is very underrated,the developers better animate this and give you the credit.......
I'm going to mentally picture Ozai with a twirled mustache after seeing the thumbnail. Would've been interesting to see how Ozai came up with the idea that no mercy nor kindness should be the approach to life; wartime trauma as you describe would definitely be a believable reason. Or at the very least, perhaps those outside his group (Fire Nation) showed no mercy nor kindness to him, perhaps with no one choosing to help him, so he may think his attitude is justified (The term "Seph Ursini Theorem" came to mind, named after a character who explained pretty much this). Also nice to see the phoenix idea tie in, since Ozai canonically called himself Phoenix King after making Azula firelord in his place.
Good back story. I would make the abuse from the Earth Benders push him to being so taken by rage that he uses his fire to burn through his restraints then slaughters the Earth Benders completing his transformation into this monster
we just have to decipher with the fact that some people are just evil, no strings attached or whatever, some people don't care for others, its not bad neither is it good, it is what it is, and that is the comedy of life, lets not play the devils advocate
He's just azula as an adult
And male
The problem, is Azulon.
It's the inverse of Zuko and Azula.
Iroh's mother, who we never meet, is like Ursa.
Ozai just took after his father's negative traits.
Including his ruthlessness.
Ozai having a backstory is ok, bu I don't think Aang should know about it. Aang's trial is an internal one about him accepting his role as the avatar.
I love these videos you make, my favorites are about Aragorn, and Avatar vs Princess Mononoke.
About Ozai and trauma,
I'd like to share how I found trauma can be taken in two different ways, by going on to commit evil things as you said, but also in developing wisdom from it, but still being a broken man nonetheless.
>Aragorn, to the ancient Anglo-Saxon poem "the wanderer", which is about trauma, wisdom, and asking broken questions as a broken man.
>And the origin of Aragorn, in reacting to childhood difficulty, developing his intuition towards people, which is present in all humans as a survival mechanism.
To quote these videos:
THE WANDERER: Ancient Anglo-Saxon poem.
ua-cam.com/video/tSJ7Sl-Q-HE/v-deo.html -by Empire of The Mind.
"Even as the poem draws to a conclusion, even as the wanderer's spirit becomes dark and wise, -- he is filled with as many questions as answers."
"Grief is a twisted emotion, twisted into the shape of a question..."
"To grieve is to search. To grieve is to want something that's gone, regardless of whether it's death, or divorce or a breakup that takes someone away. To grieve is to look for those things out of purely emotional need, or habit, but not to find them. They are gone. But where have they gone?"
(Darth Insidious 1y ago (edited): "The Dunedain were wanderers of the destroyed kingdom of Arnor.")
"It is a question to which there is no emotional answer. Through these questions, the wanderer tells us more about the state of being a broken person than any declarative statement of fact ever could."
"A man cannot become wise before he has a portion of winters in the kingdom of the world."
"Both the Norse and Anglo-Saxons measured age not just in terms of years, but specifically in terms of winters."
("That is how Aragorn was described by Tolkien, as "wise with many winters.")
"The pain is so deep that he dares not speak. Even if he wanted to tell us he could not. Kierkegaard pointed out centuries later, that true suffering makes us mute."
"He cannot stop the memories and dreams of his past life from flooding back, whether they be welcome or unwelcome, they only aggravate."
"How that time has passed away, dark under as if it had never been."
T Ando 1y ago:
"I always imagined that Tolkien found his own journey after the war in this work."
[["Rebuilding a life is no easy thing, you are forever trying to fill a hole in you that you never can. When I read his works, I can feel that he has suffered and truly knows what the bottom of the well is." ]] "I feel that is what is missing from most authors of the genre, they just don't have the lived experience to fully grasp what in their writing is truly genuine."
(I write about becoming timeless):
There is a time when men will become old, and become outdated for the time of the world, but those who choose to become timeless, for their children, will be worthy until the end of their days, and the end of their ages. Those who live as passing fads will die as passing fads. Instead of calling someone humble, call them humbled.
THE CHILDHOOD OF ARAGORN:
(Edited from a video.)
Hypothetical Theory #1: Intuition As A Survival Skill.
Everyone has intuitive abilities on some level, and it's a natural human trait. In fact, almost anyone can strengthen their intuitive abilities if they set their mind to it, because like a muscle, intuition only gets stronger with practice.
[Is it that early trauma provided a playing ground of scenarios that challenged this natural instinct? Being able to feel the energies of people around them, being able to tell if something is coming, to see through other's ulterior motives. Is it possible that it's all rooted from a survival mechanism that developed early on?]
Is this ability just a survival mechanism that has gotten familiar with use in childhood?
Could unavoidable encounters such as unstable parental love, poverty, bullying, and insecurity, result in increased intuition and awareness? Is it born or made?
Hypothetical Theory #3: Independence Vs. Unavoidable Self-Reliance.
Are they innately independent or were they challenged to become self-reliant at an early age?
[Whether that means a lack of parental responsibility during childhood, or even lack of friendships, making school and socializing more difficult than it needed to be.]
Of course, almost every one of them can agree that they've felt like the blacksheep in most scenarios, choosing to take their own route voluntarily... but was it really their choice in the beginning, or is this independence a result of settling for the road of solitude early on?
[[Choosing to be completely independent can be a great trait, but only if it's rooted from self-empowerment and not fear of vulnerability.]]
*But Aragorn has grown older. He is 80 years old.*
Hypothetical Theory #4: Closed Off From Meeting New People Due To Fear Of Vulnerability.
[Speaking of vulnerability, it's not exactly a word most of them are comfortable with.] [They love to see the vulnerable side in other people, in fact they live for it.] But when it comes to being vulnerable themselves, it can take a long time for them to step outside.
[[Is it all based on a fear of vulnerability due to being shut down in the past? Maybe some have experienced memorable moments in childhood or adolescence that made them coil inward, teaching them to never open up until full trust is engaged. So, while they so desperately crave human connection, past traumas have made it unbearable to exercise that desire.]]
Hypothetical Theory #5: Being an "Old Soul" Vs. Growing Up Too Fast.
[They are filled with wisdoms of all sorts, some they can't even quite recall how they've learned.] The level of intellect and maturity that they carry themselves with gives the impression of having wisdom beyond their years. But is this subconscious mechanism a natural ability, or a result of having to know things in order to manage certain childhood crises?
Hypothetical Theory # 6: Imagination & Idealism As An Escape From Reality.
Deeply imaginative and generally idealistic, they are known for their elaborate inner worlds. Using their vivid dream-like inner thoughts, they are able to do anything from fantasizing about potential partnerships, dreaming up their most ideal life-journey, and even experience fabricated conversations that have never (and most likely will never) happen. The inner mind is like no other, and the world they're able to create internally almost always tops their current reality.
*Aragorn has progressed as man, and has found a way to avoid living in fantasy.*
"And this is where introverted intuition is interesting, because it can easily be a disguise for an escape from reality."
*But it is never best to escape reality. Only use it to make a plan of action to get out of the tough times.*
For example, if a child witnessed their parents fighting constantly throughout childhood, they would quickly learn mechanisms that allow them to disconnect. So, is it possible that this imagination and idealistic outlooks is as a coping mechanism?
Hypothetical Theory # 7: Deep Conversations In Hopes To Better Understand Themselves.
When it comes to their love for deep conversations, it's almost impossible to get them to open up without consistent attempts. This is because they are much more interested in trying to understand the other person rather than share things about themselves.
Maybe some grew up in a household where they weren't able to express themselves, and so they learned to only offer emotional support, rather than to seek it. It's possible that they crave these conversations in order to feel more intune with themselves.
Hypothetical Theory # 8: A Need For Helping Others Vs. People-Pleasing.
Is it solely based on the fact that they are a peace-keeper? Or have they experienced past traumas? Do they really want to help other people, or are they just avoiding helping themselves?
"So, what do you think? Is it born, or is it created?" *I think both.*
I just wanted to share my thoughts, I hope it wasn't' bad.
I am a recent highschool grad, and I've been watching your videos over the summer.
That was an excellent backstory for Ozai you wrote, that image of a little boy hanging for days in the rain. It ties it up really well. You have understanding and the takeaways are great. You have wisdom you hold and display.
I've been having fun, "thanks and bye-bye".
I kinda like it bc it parallels zuko 's story and zuko alone episode but also it's the opposite of iroh but I would make it iroh's decision to bring him to the battlefield at 13 yo and all of this would basically be his fault and iroh refusing to defeat the evil he partially created
Interesting backstory, and I do think the philosophical payoff you describe works better. However, Ozai's backstory in canon is all about subtext. He identifies with Azula, the second born , talented, and traditionally banned from taking the throne, just like him. At least with Ozai there's a significant age gap between him and Iroh, so the older brother and heir was already eatablished and skilled by the time Ozai realized that his own talent and skill was never going to let him reach the pinnacle. Maybe not from the beginning, but Ozai was looking for a way to depose Zuko so Azula, the one who was completely on the same page with him and was also the second born, could become the heir he really wanted. There's more, but the bottom line is that all his motivations are there, they're just in the subtext.
In a show that tries to humanize every single character we see, you have to give the writers the benefit of the doubt and ask instead why they didn't do it with Ozai.
Good to see you again good sir. Hey with this topic in mind what do you think about Black Lagoon.
I haven't seen it lol. The youtuber Cultured Crusader did an entertaining video on it though. Good to see you too bro
I think it would have been interesting if not humanising if Ozai's commitment to psychopathic evil stemmed from a warped reading of Air Nomad philosophy, that family was a wordly burden that he would have to emotionally detach himself from to achieve his goals, why he didn't hesitate to kill Zuko or indeed his Father, so that when Ozai yells at Aang that his people were weak and didn't deserve to live in his world, he might have thought in his head that he was an even better "Air Nomad" than they were. ...But that's just food for thought.
23:48 I see... So it's an Alternative history where Otto Skorzeny was a villain?
There’s something to the fact that Ozai killed his father rather than Zhuko when that was supposed to be his punishment for greed and lack of sympathy for his own brother.
Azulon giving a lesson on sympathy. This coming from the guy who ordered the murder of every water bender in the Southern Water tribe (Except Katara and Hama), created more colonies in the Earth kingdom and lead most of the war for over 70 years. 😂
One thing that did bother me is Azula.
The show tried to make her appear more human but it went no where.
I liked her admitting she is a monster instead of the usual justification gymnastics.
However, that too went no where as she was not affected at all by k1lling a twelve year old and had zero issues burning earth kingdom.
One thing that REALLY p1ssed me off is hearing she eventually got her "redemption".
You can't magically turn a psychopath into "good".
I can agree he isn't as conples as the rest of the cast but I think you can gather enough clues about him via all the other characters. Banishing Ursa, why he burns zuko and banishes him, hate for Iroh, his favoritism for azula, obedient to his father, ruthless, etc
Love the Neitzsche slander
This is something I always have had mixed thoughts on. On one hand I keep seeing really 1-Dimensional depictions of certain groups or types of people as villains that seem to me really unfair and tend to just reveal the biases of those who wrote the characters. On the other hand, revisionist takes on classic villains (that often end up just making the original hero an even more 1D villain) also always irk me the wrong way. When that is taken to an extreme, I see no reason why we won't just end up in an endless pit of re-evaluations where we keep inverting the morality of a story over and over again. A lot of this I suppose comes down to how human a villain is meant to be, and how seriously one can take notions like non-human or metaphysical evils (you mentioned Sauron, for instance, the fact that he is explicitly said to be a primordial spirit aligned with Morgoth lets him be literally inhuman, and even then he was not evil in the beginning). It does make me wonder what kind of antagonists you all think are done the best. Favorites of mine are Dark Knight (2008)'s Joker, Silco from Arcane, The Shadow from Phantastes, Lilith from George MacDonald's Lilith, Hector from the Iliad, and of course the lord of evil himself from Paradise Lost.
I totally get where you're coming from, I've noticed the same pattern in a lot of modern writing. As for my favorite villains: Palpatine, Johan Liebert, the Major (Hellsing: Ultimate), Envy from FMA (but especially Brotherhood), and President Snow (Hunger Games). Eren has never been one of my favorite characters in Attack on Titan, but I do think he's well written. All these characters are humanized to some extent while still being unrepentantly evil. It makes them more fascinating.
Of course, that doesn't mean I can't like more archetypal villains, like what we see in folktales (Eris from Sinbad being one of my favorites in this category), just that the ones I've listed here are the gold standard to me. I'd include Anakin/Darth Vader, but I don't think he was unrepentant.
Dam, that backstory is so good it might just slip into my headcannon.
I may be a year late. But he was voiced by Mark Hamil, and that's pretty good character development.
I think you would enjoy Transformers Prime for many reasons, but in part the Megatron/Optimus and killing dynamic.
Aww. But some of the most lovable antagonists in movies are one-dimensional.
The Xenomorph, The Predator, The Thing, Frieza, zombies, The Blob, Jaws, The Terminator etc.
Does the Terminator really count?
With the exception of Frieza and maybe the predator, all the antagonists you listed are more akin to animals, they are not purely one dimensional they are just acting on their instincts which in a way does give them dimension. Even the predator is established to have a code of honer and is known to spare unarmed victims.
Ozhoi is the ambitious second son who usurped his older brother. Forsaking family duty in favor of power and ambition, he likely experienced neglect from his father during his upbringing because he wasn't the heir. His sole desire was to gain attention, so he strived to become perfect and powerful in the hope that his father would acknowledge him. However, Irhoh was always the designated heir, and perhaps this is why he never tolerated Zuko's flaws, as they reminded him of his own imperfections from his past.
This is what I think could explain. All you need is one episode of Iroh and Ozhoi, talking about the back story. Him talking too Azula or something.
Also, your backstory is really good. I wrote my comment before seeing the full video.
I think he works great as a pure evil villain as he serves as the face of all the evil in the Fire Nation; the industry, colonialism, abuse, war crimes, and corruption, where Zuko and Iroh shows that it can change into a nation of peace, love, generosity, and kindness. He’s a monster who made the characters who they are. He shows what Azula will be and is becoming today and Zuko was close to becoming that.
We just didnt know enough about his backstory!
You’d be amazed how many real world monarchs have done to their sons the “really stupid thing for a monarch”
true
I don't believe Ozai being one dimensional takes away from series. I never felt while watching the show that I dying to know more about Ozai. I was more invested in seeing how Aang will end the 100 year war. Having said that Ozai isn't particularly "good" and that is fine. He served his purpose as the goal post
Great video and your backstory to ozai is awesome. But random tangent here.. if you believe in the death penalty what do you think about criminals who are wrongly convicted then proven innocent after many years? Wouldn't the death penalty be wrong in these cases since sometimes verdicts are overturned?
I view Ozai as just having been a huge Narcissist from birth who now that he's emperor doesn't have to hide it anymore, which to me actually adds more since that surely happened in the past.
Oh my gosh! That backstory would have been amazing. It also would have made me feel less impatient with Aang while he was going through his "I can't take a life" issue.
They also never really answered what happened to Zuko's mother. I was waiting for the story but they never showed it.
BTW, I really liked the knight wiping away the laugh tear.
They actually do tell you what happened to Zuko's mother...in the comics. *Spoilers ahead*: after basically being forced to marry Ozai and killing Azulon to save her son (whom Ozai hates incidentally because she lied that he was in fact the son of her former lover), she runs away with a man from her village, changes her face and has a firebeinding prodigy daughter who is basically Azula, if Azula were sane, right down to calling her brother Zuzu. I don't know about you, but I prefer the original story where Ozai and Ursa actually did love one another.
I have a small complaint about the starting quote against Nietzsche, it more or less seems in context to Thycides(?) a ancient writer he admired who is quoted as ‘the strong so what they can and the weak suffer what they want’
His writings helped Victor Frankel in his concentration camps and work there in the book ‘man’s search for meaning’
Nietzsche often seemed to write stuff specifically to dismay certain people around him- same people would falsify letters, pages and so on for their political beliefs.
But Nietzsche never saw himself as strong- in fact he often did admit to his own weakness in his books such as Ec… (beep) hopefully you can find the book on the wiki with that much to go off of.
But how he viewed weakness was in a odd sense- there is a article on the Medium ‘how weakness corrupt’
I also suggest Emerson’s work as it is in a similar vein of Nietzsche.
Nietzsche believed we could live past ascetic ideas- Doveysky(?) believed they were needed- Nietzsche seemed to believe a similar idea in his later works such as the anti-Christ and twilight of the idols.
Azula is a sociopath, Ozai is a psychopath that’s why he’s “bare minimum”
Also him saying “now the universe delivers you to me as an act of providence” meaning he believes he’s meant to rule perhaps by divine intervention, and the baby pictures was there to say he once was good(maybe)but now he is a monster that needs to go down
Good job me, did not even notice that I watched this video a year ago
Also I think Ozai flaw is his prideful ignorance of his “right to rule” and that all other life besides his, those who serve him and those who can be useful to those who serve him. Ignorant to what he truly is and is doing and will be remembered for, no trauma just his upbringing of him being above others, that is why he disliked/didn’t care for his brother and father because they were above him and were more of a hindrance than useful to him as they were
I don't think such a dramatic story is good for Ozai. It's much more satisfying to me that he has a relatively normal, evil, royal family life. The events in his life would be relatively mundane but his reactions to things becomes increasingly extreme as he pursues the fire kingdom's dream of conquest. All the messed up ideology can be formed without a super tramatic event.
Basically, Ozai should be the opposite of "one bad day" where it was a serious of actions he purposefully took that eventually drove him to stuff like burning Zuko. It starts with, not the desire to do evil, but the willfull rejection to do good.