Everyone knows that a good villain can truly make a series, and what really needs to be said about the "big bad" of Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender? Not since Star Wars' Emperor Palpatine h🦄as the phrase "cackling embodiment of evil" been so apt to describe a character. Fire Lord Ozai is the ultimate antagonist of the series, controlling the Fire Nation with an iron fist and being the father of Zuko and Azula. The tyrant is driven by pure ambition and cares little for family, friends, or human life in general. He sought to bring about his father and grandfather's ambition to conquer the world to fruition, and he nearly succeeded in doing so. In many ways, the crazy and militaristic Ozai was thꦐe perfect arch-nemesis for the peaceful and fun-loving Avatar Aang.
With his high intelligence, mastery of firebending, ability to produce lightning, ambition, cunning, and ruthlessness, there's no doubt Ozai is a compelling villain. He is mentioned many times throughout the show, but rarely appears, which only increases the mystery and mystique of the character. Ozai's main goal in Avatar is to conquer all the other nations and place them under Fire ไNation rule, becoming supreme ruler of the world, and defeating the Avatar, who will doubtlessly try t🌌o stop him. Ozai was domineering, oppressive, and insatiably power-hungry. Iroh once described his brother as "not the understanding type," and noted he had never known Ozai to regret, forgive, or change his mind.
H♌ere are 23 dark facts about Fire Lord Ozai, one of the greatest villains in recent memory.
23 ♑ Dark Origins ♑
Little is known about Ozai's childhood, but it's known that he was born in 53 A.G. as the second son of Fire Lord Azulon and Ilah. He was Iroh's younger brother and Lu Ten's uncle. In a rare tender moment, when Ozai was a baby, someone painted a portrait of 🍌him while he was playing on the beach. Wཧhen he was older, Ozai, much like his father and grandfather before him, attempted to find and capture the Avatar to prevent any possible threat to the Fire Nation's conquests. Like them, he failed.
His father Azulon endorsed the scheme
Ozai showed a concern for lineage early onꦉ and sought to add Avatar Roku's bloodline to his own after the Fire Sages predicted this would yield more powerful firebending in his heirs. His father Azulon endorsed the scheme, and this is what led them to track down Ursa, granddaughter of the past Avatar.
22 Hiding In Theꦰ Shadows
Avatar's creators really knew how to build up mystique surrounding the character of Ozai. For the💮 first two ent👍ire seasons of the show, he was frequently talked about but rarely appeared, and when he did it was always in shadow and usually surrounded by bright flames. It wasn't until "The Awakening," the premiere episode of the third season, that we finally saw Ozai's face. When we finally did get to see him, instead of a monster or some kind of fire demon, we saw a normal human being.
The revelation that the dreaded Fire Lord was only a man, however, didn't make him any less intimidating. In fact, it only made Ozai and the enormous power he wielded all the more upsetting. His face was shown from the beginning in The Last Airbender movie, but the less said about that, the better.
21 𝓀 Wait, I Know That Voice ♒
One of the most memorable things about Ozai is his chilling, sinister voice. He has the kind that sends shivers down your spine. But did you know that Ozai is voiced by none other than Mark Hamill? That's right: the actor who played galactic Jedi hero Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy (1977-1983) also voiced the main villain of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
He's also voiced other villains
Though perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised, since Ozai is far from the first villain Hamill has voiced: he also provided the voice of the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, as well as the Arkham series of video games and other DC Comics media. He's also voiced other villains like Niju, Malefor, Colonel Muska, Hobgoblin, Ferris Boyle, Alvin the Treacherous, and Dr. Stankfoot. Hamill was credited for voicing Ozai in ten episodes of Avatar.
20 🍒 Buꦰrn Them All
Like his grandfather Sozin and his father Azulon before him, Ozai's ultimatꦆe goal was to conquer the other nations and become ruler of the world. To achieve this, he was willing to go even further than his ancestors, culminating in his plan to use the power of Soz🦄in's Comet to incinerate the entire Earth Kingdom.
In Zuko's flashback to a war meeting with his gen𒊎erals in the episode "Sozin's Comet, Part 1," Ozai noted that though the Earth Kingdom had officially been conquered following the takeover of Ba Sing Se, its citizens would never submit to Fire Nation rule. At Azula's suggestion, Ozai decided the only way to deal with them was to use the power given to firebenders bꦺy Sozin's Comet to burn the Earth Kingdom to the ground, as his grandfather had done with the Air Nomads a century before.
19 🐈 Never Served In 💜The Military
You'd think for a country as aggressive, militaristic, and expansionist, as the Fire Nation, serving in the military would be a given for most of its elite. The children of nobles and most of the Fire Nation's ruling class seem to be soldiers or affiliated with the military in some way. But curiously, unlike his grandfather, father, or older brother, Ozai was never a general, nor is he known to have served in the milit🔜ary. Unlike Iroh, he also had no known great military accomplishments, though as leader of the Fire Nation he did oversee the Coup of Ba Sing Se.
Ozai is shown to ౠhave someܫ respect for the Fire Nation's military, but only in that it serves as an extension of himself and served him and his forefathers. In military meetings, he's shown to have little regard for soldier's lives and uses them solely to his advantage.
18 Shortest Reign ✱
As Fire Lord, Ozai's reign was the shortest of all the known sovereigns of the Fire Nation, ruling for only five years from 95 A.G. to 100 A.G. This is in contrast to an impressive 78 years of rule by his grandfather Sozin, and a further 75 by his father, Azulon. Ozai's lack of time on the throne is because he was defeated and imprisone🅷d by the Avatar following the Battle of Wulong Forest.
Ozai was the most powerful leader
Despite his relatively short reign, Ozai was the most powerful leader in the history of the Avatar Universe, being the abso🧸lute ruler of the entirety of the Fire Nation, overseeing colonies throughout the Earth Kingdom peninsula, eventually controlling both its capital city and provincial capitals, and controlling the former Air Nomad territories, such as Whitetail Island, that were used as military bases for his troops.
17 Had A City Nam𒉰ed After Him
Omashu was the second largest city in the Earth Kingdom, second in importance only to Ba Sing Se. It was a regional capital ruled by King Bumi, until it was conquered by the Fire Nation during the Hundred Year War and was rechristened"New Ozai" by Princess Azula in ඣhonor of her father. Ukano, the father of Mai and Tom-Tom, was appointed Governor of the city, appointed by Fire Lord Ozai himself.
After the conquest, New Ozai underwent massive industrial construction to suit the needs of the Fire Nation, with many ordinary buildings being turned into smog-belching factories to make weapons, armor, and tanks, for the war. They also leveled the old palace and built a new one in Fire Nation architectural style, and just to make it clear who the new ruler of the city was, 𝐆built a massive statue of Ozai (with exaggerated muscles) on the mountain peak.
16 🍌 Arranged Marriage
In Ozai's early life, his father Fire Lord Azulon sought to add the lineage of Avatar Roku to his own, in order to ensure a more powerful firebending bloodline. Motivated by a prophecy that such a union would bring great power to Azulon's lineage, they tracked down Ursa, the granddau💃ghter of Roku, and Ursa was forced by Azulon to marry Prince Ozai in an arranged marriage, in spite of the fact that she was in love with another man named Ikem.
After Ozai and Ursa were married, Ozai revealed to her at a banquet that she would be expected to b💜reak all ties with her friends and family in order to devote herself entirely to her new duties to the Royal ไFamily, and to him. Ozai then kissed his new bride, telling her she now belonged to him. This would set the stage for Ozai's deteriorating relationship with Ursa.
15 𒁃 Nearly Cast Out His Son At ❀Birth
After their wedding, Ursa gave birth to Zuko two years later. However, when Zuko was born, his parents were not sure at first if he was a firebender. Ozai remarked🧔 that he "lacked that spark in his eyes." Considering that it would bring greatꩲ shame upon him and his family if a firstborn son of the Royal Family of the Fire Nation turned out to be a nonbender, Ozai originally planned to cast his infant son over the palace walls.
He would continue to treat his son with disdain
However, both Ursa and the Fire Sages pleaded with the cold-hearted Prince to abandon this idea and give Zuko a chance. Ozai eventually gave in, though he would continue to treat his son with disdain throughout this life, and this wouldn't be the last time his pr♋ide and lust for ꩲpower damaged his relationship with his family.
14 Daddy's Girl 𒁏
It's no secret Ozai always favored his daughter Azula over her older brother, Zuko. From the time they were children, Oz💝ai showered praise on his cruel and 🅺sadistic daughter and acted as though Zuko could do nothing right. The rift in the Royal Family is central to the character development of Ozai, Ursa, Zuko, and Azula, and defined the course of all their lives.
In Ozai's brutal worldview, skill and accomplishment determined a person's worth, which led the𓂃♍ cunning firebending prodigy Azula to become his favorite child, while he ignored and abused Zuko. Ozai frequently tortured Zuko by portraying him as inferior to Azula, once remarking that she was "born lucky," while Zuko was "lucky to be born."