Was Ozai a Good Villain? | Avatar the Last Airbender
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 เม.ย. 2020
- Avatar the Last Airbender is one of the greatest cartoons of all time. Or actually, one of the greatest television shows of all time. Following the cast of Aang, Zuko, Sokka, Katara, and Toph, the show presents mature themes and emotionally evoking writing. On top of that, the world of bending gives a rich sense of unique fantasy unable to be found outside of the Avatar universe.
But two things stand out when considering how good AtLA is. The first is the often critiqued episode titled, "The Great Divide". And the second would be the major villain of the series, Ozai. Many fans are outspoken about Avatar the Last Airbender's ending, saying that Aang vs Ozai was underwhelming and expressing disappointment with the deus ex machina allowing Aang to not kill Ozai. Here to tackle question of, "Was Ozai a good villain" is Hoodie.
Consider supporting us on / katoyt
Thank you to our patrons:
Sadman Ahmed
Kira Robinson
Ethan Fecker
Jean La Fontaine
Kamimun
Jeffy Bee
Paige Mulder
Kreacher
djg
If you enjoyed the video, leave a like and subscribe!
-------------------------------------------------------------
Kato is a team of two best friends, Zero and Hoodie, who both share
If you enjoyed the video, leave a like and subscribe!
-------------------------------------------------------------
Kato is a team of two best friends, Zero and Hoodie, who both share a passion for anime, comic books, and movies. On the first of every month, you can find one of our newest uploads on this channel.
We want to use Kato as a platform to speak about all kinds of things. Whether it be our favorite anime, our least favorite movie, philosophy, writing, economics, you name it. We have a deep love for the arts and hope to share it with you guys through our videos. Subscribe to Kato to catch our newest uploads on the first of every month.
Follow Us:
Twitter - / zeroandhoodie
Reddit - / katohz
Patreon - / katoyt
Second Channel - / @zeroandhoodie760
For business inquiries - ContentCreatorsKato@gmail.com
Hoodie's personal email address - REDACTED - ภาพยนตร์และแอนิเมชัน
Hey, a lot of you guys will probably recognize this video as a reupload. It originally came out over a year and a half ago and has undergone several copyright battles concerning some clips and music I used. For a long time, the video was blocked in every country except Canada. As such, I've decided to re-record and edit the video with only still images and a different soundtrack.
If you're one of the people who has already seen it, please consider letting it play out in the background or something to help it get back some of the views it once had. Thank you for your patience with reuploads, we really appreciate the support.
-Hoodie
I have to say, I think season 1 real villain is general Zhao with Zuko being a minor villain because of the final 2 episodes mostly, but also because some Chapters are from the perspective of Zuko and Zhao is also the villain in those episodes, those episodes show Zuko on a more neutral position (and arguably foreshadowed the 3rd season choice)
Zuko has always been more of an anti-villain in my eyes, with Zhao and Azula filling the roles of the main villain for Season 1 and 2 respectively.
Thank you so much for reuploading this, I really missed it :)
I disagree with your final statements. The fight between Aang and Ozai was everything *but* stale.
Aang was struggling with how to preserve life while also having the almost "duty" to kill Ozai. He didn't even find an answer to it yet so I was just on the edge of my seat.
If not for the fact that I wasn't even sure if Aang could take him, or the *beautiful* animation that still holds up today. Or the music going on while the event of what the entire show was building to happened.. Then it's for the fact that I had no clue how Aang was gonna win in a fair way. Holding true to his ideals and morals.
The character Ozai himself was pretty black and white. But it had to be to give us the kick of defeating the evil and define the story especially for the kids we were back then.
Ozai could have been more flashed out but if the *MAIN VILLAIN* was a problem for the show I'm sure the fight scene (that nickelodeon finally uploaded on youtube about a 2 weeks ago *after 9 years* ) would've gotte 10 million views within 2 weeks.
You're talking alot of sense but the fact remains that it was epic. Because we all love it.
(Fun video though!)
worst video of avatar I watched... And read the comic books (the 4° season of ATLA) to understand more stuff.
He’s not a main character, so he doesn’t NEED to be a great villain. But his INFLUENCE on the main characters (Zuko, Azula, Iroh, etc) IS interesting.
I'm confused by this comment. It makes sense to say that because of the context of the story, he can be a great villain without being complicated or having a character arc. However, the idea that he doesn't have to be a good villain because he's not a main character strikes me as wrong. He is crucial to the plot, and not having him be a good villain would lead to a very unsatisfying resolution of the show. Don't argue that he doesn't need to be great. Argue that he is great, not needing to be complex or understandable in the process.
@@richardwestfall6050 I think a better way to say it is that a good villian doesn't need to be a great character, but a great character can be an amazing villain. The key to a good villain is understanding.
Their influence on the world and the characters are a logical result of their actions, and their actions/beliefs can be explained logically too (or are also a result of another thing)
Tldr: if the audience understands the villains motives and the villain has a lasting influence on the world, then it's a good villain
The way I see it from Avatar is that Ozai doesn't need to be a character per say but an amalgamation of what causes the protagonist(s) to act and through that action evolve as a person. That amalgamation is the true villain of the series. Ozai is a parent, ruler of the fire nation, and a master of propoganda and control over the world. Aang and company fights against corruption, fights against a dictator who is hell bent on destroying the world, fights to unite the world and every single one of them struggles against the impact their parents left on them. While we don't see Ozai show these things, his effect is what leads our characters get called into action and suffer and once all of these things have been dealt with Ozai is in a good position to strike even at his peak.
???what
Villans are never maine characters
@@rock_slayer-2398 what he means is Villians usually have their own story arc so it feels like they are one of the main characters. Kinda like how in Initial D the Akagi Red Suns are the Villains early on but we get to know them as individuals. Ozai was really just the big boss at the end but his impact on the other Characters was good enough for him to fit the Role.
Ozai didn't *need* to be a morally complicated bad guy. Team Avatar and Azula more then made up for Ozai's lack of character. Especially Azula, her mental breakdown was.......chilling and saddening.
Edit: Wow. I'm the top comment so far!
Azula's fate saddened me... She was failed by day one. Verbally abused and alienated by a mother who favoured her son (calling her "monster" and alienating her by saying "what is wrong with that child, all while favouring Zuko, not bothering to wake her up unlike him!) she had to run into the arms of her father, arms that would drop her in a heartbeat if she didn't live up to his expectations. She was rejected and alienated by everyone. I'd even argue she's a more tragic character that Zuko.
No one was there for her, no mother who truly accepted and loved her (I don't believe Ursas "goodbye" nonsense, that does not redeem her in anyway, she was an abusive parent in her own way) no Iroh to guide her in her later years, no Gaang to give her true friendship and encouragement... Only a horribly power hungry father who would discard her in an instant if she didn't match up to what he wanted and become a new version of him.
People call her a psychopath, but the truth is she's just a 14year old girl who wanted the validation of her parents who was used and abused so much she went mad by not even getting into that far into adolescence. She is truly a tragic and misunderstood character.
@@fawnieee excuse me,what? Abused and alienated by her mother? No,Ursa reprimanding Azula for her dark train of thought or actions is not abuse. It's everything a responsible parent would do. Ursa never called Azula a monster,that was entirely Azula's interpretation. Also,how do you know Ursa didn't say farewell to her daughter? That scene was from Zuko's perspective,of course we wouldn't see her with Azula. Ursa didn't necessarily neglect Azula for Zuko. It's just that she couldn't spend more time with her as Ozai took her under his wing and Ursa was helpless.
@@fawnieee Also,Zuko had no friends in his childhood. Azula had friends and spent her childhood bullying and tormenting Zuko. Zuko's character was true and pure and that led him to having friends thaat would actually have his back and not people who followed her out of fear. You have to admit, Azula was kinda crazy from birth and her with her father's constant mental abuse and her thirst for power led her to being completely unhinged.
Not to mention Ozai's horrible parental guidance is the main reason why Azula and Zuko were at each others throat. His straight forward and off scene wickedness created awesome character development for others including Ursa.
@@fawnieee It's because of the way how Azula acts. Duh.
I think what scares me about Ozai is...there’s a lot of people like him. A lot of higher ups who think in black and white, who value power, who believe in their own righteousness no matter how extreme, and who keep behind the scenes unless necessary. Ozai’s complexity doesn’t come from his appearances. He doesn’t have to be present. You just have to look at every other character and the world itself and how it’s been affected by him as he makes choices.
I agree. Ozai is a good villain because ultimately, there are real people who are just like him. He's realistic and it's important for us to realize that pure evil villains exist just as much as our more complex villains.
Like Hitler was a real person and could galvanize the world into a World War will his militarism, racial superiority, and egomania. He was a historical fact. If he was real, then similar characters can work in fiction. There's a reason so many modern villains are inspired by Hitler, it's because they are inspired by realism and by history.
Yeah, I see Ozai as a character that may not have much depth, but he certainly provides depth to the story and it’s characters. Particularly his children.
I find taking bending to me a more fitting punishment for Ozai than death. By taking his bending he loses what he cares about most, power. In death he could have power by being seen as a martyr for the country by many. Here he doesn’t get that, instead he watches as the only thing he ever cared about, his power, crumbles before him.
@@emwk3qdmmfm The writers missed out on an opportunity to not have iroh & ozai meet and discuss their ideology
I think it's so easy to assume real-life people think in black and white because unlike fictional characters, we're not following them and seeing their perspective.
So, in my humble opinion, I always felt like the true antagonist of the series was not Ozai, but Sozin. Sozin lives through Ozai, Azula, the many countless soldiers who serve the royal family, the scars and pains of our main characters, and finally, through the comet. The Comet is Sozin returning to finish what he started a long time ago, and through all the many parts that complete the whole that is his empire, his ghost is enacting violence upon the world. The Avatar and The Firelord used to be my least favorite episode. Because while I enjoyed it, after I had seen it once it became a bit of a chore to me, because it was all just backstory. But now I have come to understand it under a very different lens, where we see the development not of singular evils, but larger, systemic ones, that grind individuals beneath them down, further, and further. So to me, whether aang kills Ozai or not is not really the biggest question to me. It's really along the lines of something else; can systemic evils that have been in circulation longer than we've been alive be torn down? Can they be stopped? Can Firelord Sozin's ghost be purged from this world?
I agree with you because when we compare Ozai to Sozin at least Sozin mentioned he wanted to share the good things about the Fire Nation to the rest of the world, while Ozai doesn't seem to care about that. Thismakes sense as he was born and raised in a world where the Fire Nation was always superior over others and violence towards other nations was ok. As you said Sozin lives through Ozai which is 100% true but basically down to his most sinister form.
Sozin is also just a far more interesting character than Ozai. Ozai is a direct result of Sozin’s megalomania, but Sozin is the one that actually had a motivation that was fascinating. His friendship with Avatar Roku is also one of the most interesting dynamics in the Avatar mythology.
Sozin was wonderfully written. Most of my favorite episodes were the ones that revealed the past: The Storm, Zuko Alone, The Avatar and the Firelord, and even the Southern Raiders (though I have some gripes with that one).
Sozin truly did start it all, and his betrayal caused family issues as well...thus creating grandchildren like Ozai.
@@XiaoFury the problem I used to have with the southern raiders was the pacing. the attack at the beginning really sets the entire episode's structure off. This makes the real meat of the episode feel really rushed to me.
But when I thought about it more and more, it kind of made sense given the parallels with the raid on the temple and the raid on the village in the past. We have an attack in real time, at the hands of Azula, and then we have the past raid, and we also have Zuko's past tossed up in there. It becomes an exploration of trauma and stress, and how interwoven they are. In all three scenarios Katara is rendered helpless, before azula, before zuko when he first attacked her tribe, and before the killer as a child. It frames her anger towards Zuko as part of something bigger, an anger towards her situation, the state of affairs at large, and maybe even towards herself. "I'm not the helpless little girl I was when they came". It almost becomes a rite of passage for her to attack the ship, taking the entire crew out single handed, freezing the rain in place before the guilty man, and demonstrating exactly what Kya died to preserve.
I still think that structural problem is a big deal. Perhaps it could have also been its own two part like Boiling Rock. There'd have been more time to really go deeper into exploring the past and what's in their heads. I wonder what Toph thinks about the issue for example. She's never had to deal with loss on that scale. It's completely foreign to her.
just as the avatar is reborn again and again, so was sozin in the fire nation.
The point of taking Ozai's bending is not to avoid the moral question, it's actually the opposite. The show is trying to say "there is always another way"
I had commented this on the other version so hi again
It's not avoiding it but given the circumstances in which we and aang learn what energy bending is, it seems kind of weak, at least to me. I still completely love the finale, I really don't know how to make it better but I know that some things of it were a little dissatisfying, it's still great, specially after watching so many awful endings in other shows
I agree, I loved the moral and the idea of taking away his bending, but I wish we had a bit more build up to the ability. Perhaps Aang in the library randomly reads something and a throwaway like akin to "what's energy bending?" before getting immediately whisked back off to the plot
and then again a little later on when perhaps it's mentioned by the dragon-fire-benders or somewhere around that time, and aang is reminded of it, but while he gets a little information, he still does not know what it is - perhaps it's something an avatar has done in the past, but aang does not know what it is and he's too focused on fire bending training to remember to ask or even think about what it could be, again we're whisked back off to the plot
then we finally get to the turtle scene where it's explained fully, aang asks questions and the turtle recounts the one time an ancient avatar he's never spoken or heard of before needed to use it, but the recount is still as riddle-like as what the turtle actually brings to us so the moral dilemma still remains in the audience and it's still a somewhat unexpected final blow
I agree too. Thank you for adding this. And it doesn’t come out of nowhere. Aang struggles with the idea of taking a life almost the whole show. At the end, he doesn’t go against his beliefs. This should be the message of the show. That because he deserves his life to be taken, doesn’t mean Aang should kill him.
@@jorgedazablancasacadamy2090 Energybending kinda does come out of nowhere, it was never hinted at previously before Aang received it from the lion turtle and it was put in so Aang wouldn't have to kill Ozai. I haven't seen anybody critique the show for Aang struggling with the idea taking a life, but I have seen people critique the implementation of energybending, which in the grand scheme of the show really feels like a deus ex machina for Aang.
Eric dont try yo defend a shitty deus ex machina
I think people tend to get hung up on the point of character's like Ozai. He isn't supposed to be as deep as Zuko or Azula. He's the narrative equivalent of a boss fight. Not every character needs depth if they serve their purpose in the story. Disney villains was this mindset perfected. Scar, Malefecient, Ursala, Frollo, ect all of them were beauty in simplicity and the story was focused on the protagonist.
Frollo is a complex character though.
He didn’t need to be deep but he needed to be something. My problem with Ozai is that we just don’t get anything. Even someone like Scar’s personality in described. Ozai doesn’t have any real character traits other than being power hungry. In addition, even if Ozai didn’t NEED to have much character, which I would mostly agree with, giving character traits to him would’ve added to his character. For example, I was incredibly surprised that Ozai and Iroh never talked in the series. Currently, Ozai isn’t a bad villain but he has nothing that makes him a good villain
Arjuna Bazaz I think they could’ve had a bitter rivalry between him and Iroh, something to mirror Azula and Zuko. That may have given some reason why Ozai turned out the way he did as his pursuits to pass Iroh were never successful.
Arjuna Bazaz Well he's power hungry, abusive and possibly manipulative, cruel, strict, ambitious in being the Firelord who wins the war, sure none of his character traits are good, however he doesn't need any of them to be good.
@@DanierCZ bro obviously he/she is talking about a "good villain" as a good character...not as a moral value...wtf if he was "good" he wouldn't be a "villain"
Ozai is like Palpatine in the OT, he's only mentioned in first two movies and we finally see him in Episode 6, he doesn't need all the depth, because Vader has all depth
Tbh maybe Ozai is missing his prequels ;)
U N L I M I T E D
@@Luey_Luey P O W E R
Андрей Шурочка whaT Have I DoNe?
I'd argue his prequels were not about him specifically, but Sozin. Ozai is as much a product of the war and propoganda surrounding it as his children. Sure, you could show how each subsequent generation got to be how they were, but that would be somewhat redundant, given how well explored that was in Zuko and Azula.
Plus, both are lightning-happy emperors
Azula was definitely more terrifying though lol
Eh was she though? Seems like you could get under her skin if you had some dirt on her while Ozai would just be like "Yeah I really don't care about that lmao. Time to burn down the Earth Kingdom."
Azula had power only in her mind while Ozai had true power.
ik i am most likely wrong but wouldn't azula fire be more powerful then ozai cause her fire is blue and ozais is orange-red and blue fire is hotter then orange-red
Azula had a lots of scenes and showed how intelligent and manipulative every single time
She also has more achievements
Ozai's prescence isn't as strong as azula's either
@Millennial Falcon Yeah, we know Ozai is firelord and powerful than Azula, but what he mean is, Azula has more episode that she APPEARED though. It is proved that how manipulative and powerful she is by chasing the Avatar all around. So that she is exceptionally terrifying than Ozai. I guess you don't fully watch the entire episode.
That’s a sharp comment skyeb. Careful. You could puncture the hull of an empire class fire ship, leaving thousands to drown at sea... because it’s so sharp.
I thought he was a pretty ok villan. Not every antagonist has to have a complex personality. He was someone Aang needed to defeat and for Zuko to overcome.
Yeah I mean his character is one dimensional but making it complex wouldn't have added anything. We don't need to know about how he was a dog lover and his days as a amateur painter. That was basically the point of the baby Ozai picture. It doesn't matter that he was once maybe a decent guy. He's evil now and needs to be stopped.
I've always viewed Ozai as more the product of the war itself which is why he's such a great opponent at the end for me. He's that Divine Right to rule that like Sozin leaving Roku to die and later genociding the Air Nomads perverts whatever good intentions he may have had, in a lot of ways the villain of the series is actually just the war itself. I think if Aang did kill him, it sort of gives a definitive answer to the question which I don't think was the intent, do you have to kill Hitler or can you just stop him and I think the removing of his bending works as the middle ground answer and going by the recent ATLA graphic shows that taking away someone's bending is as big a deal as killing someone but that what it means for the future is kind of irrelevant. I think it's always a matter of something like Batman killing, the question for me has never been "can/should Batman kill?" but rather "can Bruce handle killing?" and with Aang I don't think he can as it's just not in his nature. I dunno, I've always liked Aang as a character more than Zuko honestly, he's definitely one of my top favs but seeing Aang go through his lessons and the pressure he goes through (people trying to convince a 12-year-old to kill a man or even just his firebending story) was more fun to me. But I do think that the three stories going on in the finale are necessary as if one of them fails it doesn't end the war.
I really like this interpretation. Do you think that Aang ever realized he likely killed tons of people in the Siege of the North? How would he feel realizing that?
Coconut Pal I would actually pose that he probably didn’t kill anyone because the series had been set on next to no one dying. When the team goes to meet the Earth King they mentioned that they had to make it so the soldiers Toph had trapped were moving so they didn’t look like they had died. Either way I think it is worth noting that has never consciously killed anyone and that’s a big distinction. In terms of restoring balance I kind of wonder if that was the key. What is “balance” and why was the idea of balance being restored killing the Fire Lord?
@Coconut Pal Very true. A martyr that required something as powerful as the Avatar to kill as an absolute. But by taking his bending away, it shows that there is another way, and that he isn't special.
RaginDXDemon by taking away his bending it is the symbolic death of Ozai because that image of the Phoenix King is ruined and that divine right just falls apart.
The graphic novels sucks anyway
I think that the fact that the Fire Lords get less and less complex as characters is significant. Sozin started out as a good man, a devoted friend to Roku, but was corrupted by his ambition to the point that he damned himself by betraying Roku and genociding the Air Nomads, and ended up regretting it, which would make him something of an anti-villain with a tragic backstory for whom we could wonder if things could have been different. Sozin's personal tragedy is reflected in the fate of his nation - the Fire Nation in Sozin's time was not yet wholly corrupted and could have gone "either way". However, Sozin disrupted the balance of the world and carried out a cultural "purge" of the Fire Nation (he falsified their history, started hunting dragons, made the people forget their folklore, and even changed the nature of firebending itself.) By doing this, as well as committing war crimes, Sozin set his nation on a path that could only have led to militarism and spiritual emptiness. This is reflected in his son, Azulon, who is much less complex than Sozin, and as much of an abuser and warmonger as Ozai. However, Azulon still maintains a shred of goodness within him, which manifests as genuine affection for Iroh.
Lastly, Ozai was the final product of the evil that corrupted Sozin and the Fire Nation. As such, he could not have had any redeeming qualities, and could only have been imperialistic, abusive, power-hungry and constantly angry. In that sense, Ozai is a great villain, as he represents the spiritual degradation of the Fire Nation, which was stopped by the Avatar and reversed by Zuko and his bloodline.
TL;DR - Ozai is a great villain because he represents the spiritual degradation of the Fire Nation which Aang has to stop in order to re-establish balance, which is the goal of the Avatar and the point of the series.
He's not really a character, though. Just a symbol.
I really appreciate that you didn’t definitively say he’s a “good” or “bad” character. You approached it from multiple angles and left it to us to decide for ourselves. Great video, sorry it got taken down in the first place
When they were first planning Avatar, the character of Zuko was only actually made because they didn't have a villain for Season One. Ozai was no where near the South, instead staying in the Fire Palace, so they had to make a character who would consistently interact with Aang. Interestingly, Zuko was never even meant to be a main character until they planned out S2 and S3.
But Zuko wasn't really the main villain in S1 though, it was Zhao.
@@nobblkpraetorian5623 Zhao was a secondary antagonist. Way less screentime than Zuko.
@@ThePreciseClimber He was the big bad to defeat at the season finale and he was Zuko's antagonist.
@@ThePreciseClimber Zhao takes over as the main antagonist of season 1 really from the Blue spirit episode to his defeat. As it is in that episode that he truly becomes an enemy of both Aang and Zuko.
Screentime doesn't equal whether a character is the main villain or not in a story. The evil entity in Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated is the main villain of the show, yet he only shows up from the 2nd half of season 2 to the end of season 2 for example.
@@ThePreciseClimber It's like Thanos is still the main antagonist of Avengers Endgame but he had way less screentime than in Infinity War.
Complex villains aren't always needed, in this show we already had the characters to add to that. Ozai fulfilled what was required of his character, to be an unlikeable guy and with that I say he was a good villain.
Ozai isn't a bad villain, he actually serves the plot well enough to where he isn't too one-dimensional or cliched, but he isn't that interesting. There is some depth to him, like his need to feel big and powerful, something attributed to being the youngest son and never receiving his father's love like Iroh did. I'll even say he actually knows how to get what he wants through manipulation and is a rather good leader since he appears to have the respect of his generals.
Aside from that, he has nothing else going for him. But at the same time, he doesn't need to be three-dimensional because Zuko and Azula are for that. They make up what Ozai can't be in the series.
In my opinion, Ozai represents a generation that has lost a sense of morality, which started with Sozin. Sozin gave up his friendship with Avatar Roku because he believed in a dream to see the world united under one nation and committed genocide. Then Azulon took it a step further in how he treated his family. And now there was Ozai, who cares very little about his family. It's almost like the family is losing its sense of sanity due to their desire to keep their power and to gain more. And that brings us to Azula, who not only cares about no one but has zero trust in anyone. Ozai maybe corrupt but he does have trust in others, though strictly so.
That is what Ozai represents to the show and to Zuko's family, including as a villain. He is a representation of how far the family has fallen, how far the Fire Nation has fallen, and why he is a threat that needs to be dealt with.
Indeed
TJ Jordan two things that I think really helps with Ozai is the buildup to ozai and his presence, which being voiced by mark hamill aka the joker from Batman tas really helps. The buildup to ozai was actually pretty good starting off small with a mention of ozai by bumi then as the series goes on we not only get that he’ll be the big bad threat at the end but how much of a scar he left not just on Zuko but more so on each of his family members. Then there’s his presence, even with looking and sounding normal there is still something to him that feels like he’s just waiting for the right time to strike, guess kind of like what he did with zuko.
Don't you think ozai deserve a second chance for me it's all politics and powerplay which made him look so evil even ursa didn't supported him all he did hated him
@@callmecraze no, he deserves no second chance. He was horribly abusive to both his children, even scaring and banishing his son, he killed his own father, attempted to murder his son, tried to have his wife’s lover killed, was generally horrible to her, orchestrated thousands of deaths during his time as Fire Lord, and attempted to burn down an entire continent.
@@anatoldenevers237 yet a bitch like azula deserves that chance
I had absolutely no problem with Ozai- TLA had so many nuanced villains like Azula and Zuko and the Earthbending KGB that the terrifying FIRE HITLER guy was just *fun*. He had some good emotional scenes with Zuko and was a good moral foil to Aang which connected him to the protagonists in a meaningful way which was nice but the sheer power that this Luke Skywalker sounding guy put on the screen cannot be overstated
Tbh, Ozai is such an uninteresting character that he ends up undermining Zuko's and Azula's stories a bit.
@@MrShadowThief How does he undermine their stories?
Giulio Guilherme no not really.
@@nxrth9463 It makes their family issues less relatable.
@@MrShadowThief But how? Ozai not being a flushed out nuanced character didnt take away from Azula and Zuko's arc because it never really mattered for him to be. I always felt they represented different outcomes of people who grow up in toxic/abusive environments, azula being the one who adapts to it and becomes like the abuser, and zuko the one who actively tries to change from it and end the cycle, which I always related to his character for.
Ozai wasn't bad he just had nothing about him that made him interesting. He was definitely one of the weakest character in the last airbender writing wise. He wasn't fun and entertaining like azula or complex like zuko he wasn't really even a character he was an idea, a representation of what the fire nation had become.
I think that’s somewhat fair, Ozai is most interesting based on his impact on other characters arcs’ especially Zuko and Azula.
He was far better then Unalaq. Now that was a crap villain.
Given more context, like backstory or something like that, he would probably be a great villain due to the great character writing that is already in avatar
DELETED ACCOUNT I mean no not really.
@@eem2wavy133 I'm just stating my opinion, if you disagree you disagree
what makes ozai a good villain is that even though he isn't seen in the first 2 seasons his "villainous" presence is felt through characters like zuko and azula he is the reason why zuko and azula are the way that they are
To me Aang's decision to find a way around killing Ozai and instead taking away his bending makes perfect sense for his character. Aang is the avatar, but hes a twelve maybe thirteen year old boy when he faces Ozai, hardly older than a child. Not only that, but he always valued life in animals, in people, and even in his enemy (through most encounters, i'm not speaking to when he's defended himself or team avatar). The idea of his own hands taking life was something that haunted him the moment he seriously thought about what facing Ozai would look like. He was raised in the Air Nomads, the most peaceful nation and the nation most connected to the spirituality of life, why would a boy who gladly champions these principals turn on them because everyone else told him too?
I understand that a final showdown concluding a permanent end of Ozai might be more satisfying end to the story in the eyes of most fans, but I find the aspect of taking away Ozais bending, and his reaction of telling Aang, "Even when you're the most powerful in the world, you're still weak" opens up a depth to Ozai that fans say he lacked. Because if Ozai had died he would never need to face the consequence of his actions. He wouldn't see the world correct itself by removing his corruption, and he wouldnt have to face the pain of having his bending, his most valuable form of control, power and nobility, be taken away from him. Granted this isnt fleshed out but its fascinating to think about.
In the end though, I think Ozai was mostly a means to an end, and quite frankly? I'm fine with that. I'm happy with the depth put into the other characters that make their confrontation with Ozai so rewarding and meaningful, and even though hes mainly a linear plot point I never found him flat. The way they handled his character made me terrified of him and his power as a kid, and still freaks me out when I watched it. And I mean, to add to his first meeting is to look back at all the destruction his reign has caused brought so much weight to all of his evil. It was everywhere, and he was the source of it
sassy sap deus ex machinca’s are not satisfying ways to conclude an arc even if it’s “in character”. It was lazy writing and ruined an otherwise perfect show.
@@mohamadmahmoud6926lol this energy bending u talking about was already explained in such satisfying and great way at season 2 of korra which make all of it connected except for one thing which is that the lion turtle himself knew of aang's place and approach to him out of nowhere which is the real problem i have but overall somebody even other then aang would've got energy bending from him and it even makes sense that he wasnt hinted cuz we're watching a certain age in the avatar universe where nobody knew or even heard of them
@@mohamadmahmoud6926 The ending was not too bad, great character development, it could have been worse, all endings to great shows are sad, it was not that bad.
Akdiwi1 Jkssk beginnings was horrible. Avatar wan is a selfish psychopath that has no problem killing people, the spirits are evil and are willing to kill humans for no reason forcing said humans to live on the backs of lion turtles. The lion turtles giving the power to the humans is terrible and disrespects everything avatar was about previously. Rava and Bauta are the most fucking lame carpet characters on the show and when it was revealed rava is apart of all previous avatars, I contemplated suicide. Also, korra is an idiot for opening up the portal for the spirits. They do not deserve to live on earth since they were immigrants into the earth to begin with and yet the treated humans as if they were evil. The spirits were so entitled I fucking hated the story. Korra is so terrible and beginnings is a good example as to why it is.
Akdiwi1 Jkssk The fact that you used that episode to defend the energy bending scene makes me want to die. Anything the show korra has tried to tackle is automatically terrible and should be disregarded as bad fan fiction.
I think the whole point of the show wasn’t Ozai, it’s Aang moral compass - It doesn’t matter Ozai reasons for doing anything , his backstory doesn’t matter either- to Aang, Ozai is a human and therefore none of that matters - he cannot be killed. He doesn’t need to know who Ozai is as a person or whether Ozai is a good villain or not.
Simply put, Ozai doesn't need to be complicated because he is a foil for other villains.
I believe he is just a product of imperialism and war. He believes he, and only he can be fit enough to rule. We see a lot of Azula in him, a spoiled brat who only wanted to be loved by his father, picking up the most ruthless parts of him.
It will always be so interesting to me how Azula and Zuko’s positions of power mirror Ozai and Iroh’s. They both sought power from their fathers, had the idea to overthrow their oldest siblings, and both end up broken and lost once the series is over. Maybe we didn’t get to see scenes with Ozai’s own actions to make him scary, but we got to see Azula, and he lives through her actions. The only difference is Ursa because Azula seems to care for her mother, while Ozai didn’t, and that was the point that split their characters. Even though we didn’t get to see him a lot, I feel like Azula’s cruelty and Zuko’s insecurities left enough for the imagination to truly create a terrifying image for the Fire Lord.
I personally friggen loved Ozai. The idea of just being terrified of his physical presence is amazing. That's my opinion.
I think that the Zuko/Azulka/Ozai conflict was much more satisfying.
And while I do have issues with Energy bending magically popping up, I actually like that the Ozai/Aang conflict was so black and white. It showed that, despite how irredeemable Ozai was, the mere fact that he was an individual person is enough to give his life value and even make the debate happen; does *anyone*, even someone as bad as Ozai, deserve the ultimate judgment and punishment.
Yeah, I definitely agree. When I was a kid watching this, I was more concerned with the moral question presented before Aang than the details of Ozai's character. The story at its heart was meant to appeal to children, and I think kids are more concerned with the hero more than the villain. The show did this very well, particularly in the final episodes.
I agree with you on the moral question, and even the people who answer yes to it, the question then becomes who is worthy to judge? 🤔
@@erikstrickland96 Aang has 1000s of years of knowledge within him. I feel he has the right to judge. But he didn't think that ozai deserved to die, only to hinder him so that he's weak and pathetic while also taking many years to undo everything ozai did
Avatar is, at its core, a "coming of age" story amidst high stakes. All the young characters are learning and evolving, even Azula has a mental breakdown towards the end of the series. Ozai is completely sure of himself, and knows how to get what he wants out of life, as he's a fully-fledged adult. Development for him wouldn't fit the series' vision, and considering who his character is and what he rules and represents, he effortlessly serves well as a representation of a real-world type, ruthless, dictatorship - A larger than life entity of imperialist evil which needs to be overcome.
In my opinion, Ozai had very very very small hints of backstory. In the episode "Zuko alone" I always felt like Iroh was clearly Azulon's favourite. That's probably why he prefered Azula over Zuko(One of the reasons). And I was always curious how things were in Azulon's family. They somehow raised Iroh and Ozai(who can think of something more opposite). I'm pretty sure that even before his sons death Iroh was a decent guy for a Fire nation royalty. What happened with Ozai?
But I agree that he was a very pale character in the show. Probably because he more of an idea. A kind of personification of war.
Great video btw.
P.s. Sorry for my English, I'm not native speaker.
Hey, your english is great!
And good point. Iroh is the older, more accomplished brother, he was a famed General (minus Ba Sing Se), had the dragon killer myth about him, and was clearly respected, even after he got old and fat. Ozai... I don't really remember anything remarkable about him. I'd imagine he was already a royal spoiled brat, and just grew jealous if Iroh's accomplishments and adoration from Azulon. Hence why he would take advantage of Iroh's depression after his brother's death, kill Azulon his dad, and take over.
It was also shown in the comics that Ozai began to shit on Zuko due to Ursa fighting against the strains of being forced into marrying someone in the royal family. Not to mention, Ozai was probably a narcisst with extremely high standards, so his eldest born son not being a decent firebender was already enough to make Zuko a target, because Ozai probably wanted the perfect image of the all powerful firelord. I bet it also helped Azula was like her dad, a schemer, and was also a prodigy at firebending.
@@sayogalo421 Ozai comes across a man who has everything and yet has nothing at the same time. He lives a life of luxury but always finds himself being unloved. Azulon favored Iroh over Ozai. Ursa favored Ikem over Ozai. In many ways, he is Zuko. A Zuko who never had an Uncle Iroh to guide him and who allowed his resentment to fester and consume him.
Perhaps that's why he hated Zuko so much. Zuko reminds Ozai of himself when he was younger. Always inferior to his sibling no matter how hard he tried. And having the concept of mercy and compassion being taught to him by his mother. Note that Ozai only praised Zuko when he thought that his son killed the Avatar without mercy. He could only "love" his son when his son is an exact clone of himself.
I Méan, Sozin was evil but he showed that he had simpathy for Roku before dying in his sleep. And Azula had Heart for understanding Iroh losing His son. But Ozai was the asshole of the fire nation, hé Never showed any Heart at all. So i think Azulon sensed that which is why Iroh was his favorite
@@Berserk_96 umm azula had no heart for iroh losing his son. she made fun of him
Azula sounds genuine concerned, because she aims at making Zuko doubt his own perception (about her ). It´s called gaslighting and is often used by manipulative/abusive people, which would fit to Azulas portrayal. Because if you doubt your own perception, it is easier for other people to exert influence. It also creates mental stress , which is key to manipulate people further. She probably learned that from Ozai, to get back to topic.
Was Ozai a good villain? Depends on the view. For the series he was a good invention, but if you compare him to other more colorful, fictious villains, like say the Joker, he appears more "drab"/boring/one-dimensional, in the eyes of others.
Nobody does anything for just a single reason. Even if manipulation was one of her goals with that conversation, that doesn't entirely dismiss her concerned tone. I'd argue she has dozens of reasons to genuinely be concerned for her brother, in her own twisted way. Despite her clear sociopathic tendencies, she clearly enjoys her brother being a part of her life, and she expresses this by continually engaging him with the same dynamic they had as children. That familiarity is comforting. She teases him and emotionally manipulates him because that's always been their dynamic... to her mind, that is how they're supposed to be, that's the particular bond she has with her brother. And she does go out of her way at multiple points to reinforce that, and make sure it can continue, in her own messed up ways. It's not that she doesn't care for Zuko, she absolutely does... it's that she doesn't understand how to form a healthy relationship with anybody, in any way.
You're right though... the root of those issues is precisely what she learned from her father. But I do think it's a bit overly simplistic to dismiss one of the three most important social connections in her life as a purely predatory affair.
@@dontmisunderstand6041 „I‘m about to celebrate becoming an only child“
I'd argue that totalitarianism and taking wisdom from only one source was the main villain, Ozai was just the representation of that. The firelord and the firenation itself glorified strength above all else, the ability to take life being the greatest expression of that. If Aang had defeated Ozai that way it wouldn't have done anything to discredit that world view.
7:36 YES! She IS a sociopath, but she is ALSO a _sister._
No. She's crazy, and she needs to go down.
@@dennisnguyen2847 You would be too in her situation, and she's even in rehab after book 3.
@@dennisnguyen2847 when Iroh said that I couldn't stop laughing
Correct!! People should remember that Azula was a human as well.. not a good one, but a human that has the potential to change and have her redemption arc and hell I need that shit
As the best are
Before watching the video, Imma say: *Yes,* Ozai is a good, but mainly functioning villain.
He's not a good character, and it's a good thing he's not in the show much because he'd be boring to watch since he has no dimension. As a character, Ozai is stupid simple: evil, egotistical imperialist - _not much else;_ this would be bad if he was a main character, but as a villain, it's great for Aang and the group, who are all basically written as a Foil. Ozai's simplicity and well-established power is a great motivator for growth in the Aang Gang, and that's mainly the goal of a villain - to bring about change. Also, not having to see him 90% of the time let's him really explode in the final confrontation where he can show his big, evil, veiny -DICK- muscles.
I think villains can easily be deep and still be villains at the same time, especially when they bring conflict to the heroes' ideals, or generally have an interesting and story-driven basis behind their actions. With that said, I appreciate that Ozai is at least a symbol more so than a cardboard character, and fulfills his purpose quite well in that aspect. The same can be said of Palpatine and Darkseid, who are great and menacing villains that drive the story forward without being multi-layered and complex.
Black Reign how would you make ozai a deep villain?
I made a comment saying basically the same thing, but now I want to delete it. You said it so much better than I could’ve!
On the Agni Kai in the last episodes, I am being completely contrarian and say that the true Battle was between Katara and Azula for a lot of reasons:
1. She is the main Narrator of our story and deserves some spotlight, like beating Azula.
2. Is there to show, how Zuko has developed as a Character and how she has developed as a Character to help the man, that once broke her heart(NOT IN A ROMANTIC MANNER YOU WIERDOS), to help him beat his evil sister and show, how they became close friends.
3. She is the foil to Azula and her complete opposite: Whereas Azula rejected love as an Concept, Katara embraced it and became the symbol of love and compassion in the ground,unless Aang is around. Katara is the younger, but more gifted sibling of her clumsy and aloof Olde brother, whom she respects, unlike Azula. She bends water, Azula Lightning. She learns to regain her ability to trust people, who have broken hers, Azula completely breaks down, once Mai and Ty Lee betrayed her. They both lost their mother and Katara became the mother of Sokka(sorta, as she only remembers Katara's face, when he tries to remember his mom), Azula Is without any maternal influence in her life and became uncompassionate because of it.
Because of these factors and the fact, that Katara need to do something relevant, I think she earned her right to defeat Azula more than Zuko, who already achieved his goal in regaining his Honor.
What do you think.
Sorry, but it's difficult to call Azula vs Katara the *true battle* when it was more of a cat and mouse chase.
Though I agree with your comparisons with these characters in relation to Zuko, who actually envys the bond between Sokka and Katara. Katara is like the sister Zuko wishes Azula could've been but knows that can never happen because Azula never received the love of a mother or compassion of Iroh. Further adding to the tragedy of the Agni Kai.
I would agree had it not been for the Southern Raiders episode that made both Zuko and Katara look like hypocrites.
Zuko, who said he was going to beg for his uncle's forgiveness, mocks Aang when he tries to tell Katara about forgiving instead of hating...yet who can forget the reunion scene of Iroh and Zuko?
And of course Katara...who becomes as aggressive as Azula during the whole episode.
Digress. Since that episode, Katara isn't the loving, forgiving, compassionate type as she was being groomed to be in the earlier seasons - which makes her battle with Azula nothing too deep imo. I only agree that she did learn to trust Zuko even after he betrayed her trust, but she forgave him only because he bought her forgiveness.
@@XiaoFury But in the Southern Raiders, didn't Katara stop? She didn't actually killed the guy. She got closure for her mother's death. If it were Azula in that situation 1. She either would have pretended that she did not care about her mother or 2. Kill the guy without hesitation. That's the difference between Azula and Katara
@@mazikeensmith6558 I don't see why? The battle between Zuko vs Azula wasn't particularly long as Aang vs Ozai and in terms of length, almost the same.
@@XiaoFury If I remember correctly, Zuko wasn't exactly expecting forgiveness from his uncle. Therefore he wasn't a hypocrite in the southern raiders episode. He mocks Aang saying that forgiveness is "the same as doing nothing" during that episode, but he doesn't hold a double standard for himself when is about to reunite with his uncle. In his conversation with Katara before he enters Iroh's tent, he tells her that he is certain Iroh hates him; he expects hatred in return for his betrayal, not forgiveness. This is an example of Zuko accepting full responsibility for his actions and his decision to accept the consequences of his betrayal. Also, I don't think that Zuko ever asked his uncle for forgiveness in that scene. He did say that he was incredibly sorry and he felt that he could never make it up to Iroh, which possibly indicates he believed he was beyond forgiveness. I see your point, but I don't think its completely accurate to consider Zuko a hypocrite in regard to forgiveness.
Ozai was less of an actual villain as he was a figure head for the fire nation, a goal for Aang and his friends and motivation for Zuko's actions.
He’s a symbol of everything the protagonists were fighting against, and a foil to Zuko and Azula, the *true* interesting antagonists of the series (Zuko being one that was never truly a villain and ends up changing sides, and Azula being one who stays a villain to the end).
He’s the “villain” who gets the big apocalyptic fight in the finale, but I would argue that he’s not the primary villain of the series. Like you said, he represents the true antagonist that is Sozin’s legacy as a whole, both the world-conquering part and the terrible family part. People that can’t see past Ozai himself are missing the bigger picture; they’ll praise the show for its depth while also thinking that Ozai is supposed to be the main villain, which isn’t true if you look any deeper than the surface.
It’s basically how before the SW prequels, Palpatine was barely seen or referenced for two movies, then showed up as a depth-less, shallow, comically evil cackling villain. He didn’t need any depth at all, because his purpose was how he affected Luke and Vader. Palpatine wasn’t his own fleshed-out character, he *was* the dark side embodied in a man that Luke and Vader could physically interact with. Ozai isn’t his own fleshed-out character, he’s the imperialist ideals of the Fire Nation and the cruelty of the royal family in a form that Team Avatar can physically interact with and defeat/overcome. Being shallow doesn’t make him a bad villain, it’s an intentional choice that works well.
No he’s a villains
just not character per say
He's a lot like Sephiroth really.
Both had weak motivations, but an extremely strong presence.
Good comparison, but at least Sephiroth's motivation was a plot point. It was a reveal. Ozai's motivations are left almost entirely implicit.
Ozai wasn’t a main character but he influenced the main characters. He would plan all the attacks and lead the fire nation
You don't always need a complex villain. Ozai is a good villain becasue his actions are partly what progress the story and that makes him extremely important. Like frieza from DBZ, he was in the background manipulating events from the beginning. Making him all the more important. And with so many other complex villains and heros in the show, having ozai just bejng the bad guy works pretty well here.
But frieza has a personality
@@DivineZenkai Yeah that's true. However he isn't really a complex villain. And that's ok, as he's still one of my favorites.
@@fermitthekrog6318 f
Frieza didnt need to be complex. In Z at least. Hes was great cause he was able to bounce off and act as a natural foil to the people fighting him on namek. Ozai sucks in that regard because he may be a foil but a horrible one who is very bland and boring to watch with his only semi entertaining moment being his fight with aang. Ozai also feels very forced by the end whereas frieza flows as a villain and is likable in a sense. And he's actually complex in super tho
@@DivineZenkai I never thought ozai was that bland because we didn't see him very often. And he wasn't ment to be a complex character, he's ment to be the driving force behind the plot and he did that very well. Some of the other characters turn out so well because of him. He's more of a plot device to drive the story forward rather than be his own complex character and fills that role well. At least in my opinion. And frieza did become a more complex character, but not a more complex villain. He still just wants to be emperor of the universe. But he's still my favorite character lol.
Interestingly enough, the actual introduction of energy-bending might actually have been the best for Aang himself - at the end of the day, The Last Airbender is still technically HIS story, and him learning the right lessons from each of his elements really would have ended with him resolving to find his own path in life, independent of what everyone else said he should.
And I don't think that's such a bad thing. In a way, Aang choosing not to kill Ozai actually made for the perfect rebuttal to the entire ethos of the Fire Nation at the time - violence is the same as power, and power thrown around is respect earned. Except no, that's not really how the world works, and Aang is so much better as a person because he's able to balance the passion that defines Fire with the virtues of the other elements- Water's flexibility to any changes in life, Air's detachment to find one's own path and be free, and Earth's own stubborn, steadfast convictions.
In that regard, Ozai actually IS a damned good villain - he's the best challenge for both characters that the show focuses on, and he highlights the personal development Aang and Zuko need to truly earn a happy ending.
And for how much of a scumbag he was, Ozai at least managed to affirm that as a leader, EVERY decision he makes counts, so Zuko gets more points there, too.
I don't have a problem with ozai because not every villain needs to be complex to actually serve the narrative but I have a problem with how the show ended, the energy bending stuff come out of the blue and it didn't seem earned, heck, not even the avatar state seem earned, but I still don't really know how to make it better, I wouldn't erased the final agni kai because that's my favorite fight in avatar is so beautiful I cant imagine avatar without it. I still want to say that I liked the finale, a lot and with a time were every series I see doesnt end or has a fucking mess of a finale, I can really appreciate the avatar finale, I still find it satisfying and love it
Ozai is more of an idea than an actual character. A representation of what the fire nation had become (and what people in real life CAN and have become) it’s why his appearance isn’t revealed by book 3 IMO. The idea of him can now become an actual person, it’s taking this idea of pure evil and power hunger we’ve had throughout the show and attributing it to an actual seeable character. Ozai is interesting not because of the man himself but because of how the idea of him has influenced the characters around him. That, and he is pretty badass.
Ozai is like Palpatine, a simple yet menacing ultimate bad guy. Zuko would be like Darth Vader,
I think that Ozai is actually quite believable in the context of the story. His value system is built on what he learned from his father, who in turn learned it from Sozin. Each generation was taught that power was highly important, and each took that value to more and more of an extreme, until power became the end-all-and-be-all of existence. All other values became subservient to the value of Power, and by Ozai's generation, all other values disappeared entirely. Only Power was important.
@Greg Elchert this somewhat applies to Sozin himself too, funnily enough. He didn’t have to do anything, the world was already at peace and the Fire nation more prosperous than ever when he came to power. He took these thing for granted and because of that, foolishly destroyed everything for the pursuit of power, even if he (unlike his descendants) did start out with a motive other than pure conquest.
3:37 I always view the villain structure of Avatar as genius. Each season has a primary and secondary antagonist. Season 1 is Zuko as the primary villain, Jhou as the secondary. Season 2 is Azula as the primary, Longfang as the secondary. Season 3 is Ozai as the primary, Azula as secondary.
i feel like the final battles turned out the way they needed to. aang needed to be the one to face ozai and his moral dilemma of whether killing is ever okay. zuko needed to face azula for his rightful place on the throne, and the battle showcases azula's plummeting mental stability and even her honor (she breaks the rules of an agni kai because she was losing). sokka, toph, and suki's roles often get overlooked, but it's here we see a true culmination of sokka's cleverness and problem solving, his protectiveness of toph (and her trust in him) and suki's skill and reliability. they don't take down any specific villain, but if they hadn't stopped the blimps, ozai's wishes would have been carried out regardless of the outcome of his and aang's battle. i don't know what i'm talking about anymore lmao but great video
Ozai is a symbol more than he is a character. The Supreme Leader of a long-conquering nation that can be praised/feared/hated by just about every other person on the planet due to the impact of the 100 years war. That alone is far greater and more powerful than the individual could ever be so there's not a big need to flesh him out as much as any of the other main cast. Fair play though, Ozai does come across as someone who has earned and gladly wields the reputation he has, which works to avoid the man himself falling short of the final encounter he has been hyped up to be for the entire show.
Aang holds his own against Ozai for a good while until he's eventually backed into a corner and forced to go Judge Dredd in order to effectively win, so in either state of battle I feel it's fair to say adding Zuko and Azula here as well would very quickly result in them pairing off and fighting separately anyway as it's quite simply two different scales of combat that wouldn't cross over very well. Making that a much cleaner separation of combat where focus can be applied with the space it needs is probably for the best.
Now as for Zuko's part in this relationship and the satisfying ending you discuss, we again need to consider that reputation. Fire Hitler - who has inherited and become the lynch-pin of the 100 years war - lives. To kill him could easily be a narrative means of saying the war dies with him and now Zuko takes over to clean up in his wake without fear. To keep him alive means you keep close to home a constant reminder of what poisoned the Fire Nation. Zuko has struggled his entire life, and now it's his responsibility to lead a conquering nation out of a totalitarian state. To try and give Zuko a 'satisfying' conclusion by being directly involved with Ozai's defeat is whitewashing the fact that while the character of Ozai has been stopped, the Symbol of Ozai has not.
Zuko's battle has always been with the thought of his father anyhow; what he thinks of Zuko, what he believes and what he can offer (honour). Overcoming these is not something done through combat, it's internal and Iroh has spent years trying to teach Zuko the way to see that. The Day of Black Sun where he stands against Ozai, that IS Zuko's satisfying end that you're talking about. As Prince of the Fire Nation with the new goal of peace, denouncing Ozai's rule to his face and rejecting his attack is the culmination of his struggle that says "You are not fit to rule this nation. I am."
It was key that it didn't end as Zuko against Ozai. Zuko's arc was completed by not letting his father be the driving force of his life. Originally it seemed he accomplished this when he stopped trying to please his father, but really not until he stopped trying to defeat his father and shifted his purpose towards leading his people did his arc complete.
Aang vs Ozai and the energy bending never sat well. Perhaps Aang should have just drawn it out until the comet passed and Ozai's plan to use it would no longer work. Maybe he should have killed him. I feel like Iroh was supposed to play a large role here, but due to the death of voice actor Mako they shifted towards dragon turtles. If Iroh had shown Aang a different path a few episodes earlier a way to move forward without sacrificing who he was and his beliefs, I think it would have been a much better ending.
I already really enjoyed the series and finale, but I think that if the Final Agni Kai was between Zuko and his Father, that would have been really interesting. The main issue is that, Katara doesn't have much reason to have emotional conflict with Azula. The whole reason I think Zuko brought Katara, was due to wanting her to help keep him from killing his sister. The fact that Zuko was there for Katara's revenge mission makes their pairing up really fitting.
And I think that ultimately, Zuko didn't need to defeat his father. He beat Ozai by refusing to be a part of his sick games anymore.
It's hard to say whether Katara could have taken on Azula. Raw power, Katara doesn't stand a chance, especially with Sozin's Comet. In that situation, the best thing to beat a crazed, powered up firebender with is a SANE powered up firebender. I have to disagree that energy bending was "too convenient", for a multitude of reasons. For one, Aang was a NOMAD, who valued all life no matter who or what it was, as was the Air Nomadic way. To kill would violate everything that he was taught to value, already with the guilt of leaving the Air Benders behind, he would also be betraying every thing they stood for morally by killing Ozai. It may seem forced, but it actually makes sense that Aang would go out of his way to look for ANY other way to beat Ozai and remove him from power without killing him. If you were to consider THAT segway to Ozai's defeat as forced, by that standard, you consider almost 3/4 of LoK forced. Not to make this and ATLA vs. Korra debate, but randomly making Korra the first avatar again (?) and switching primary antagonists every 3 episodes is what I call forced. For another reason, think of the demographic watching the show when it aired in 2005 and 2006. I first watched through the series at age 9 in 2013 on the NickToons reruns, and I was hyped for that fight. It dealt with very mature situations, but the fight was suspenseful for someone of the age group. I don't think not killing Ozai was a cop-out by any stretch, because through the entire show, nobody had actually died ON screen. It showed the day Sokka and Katara's mother was killed, but it didn't show him toasting her alive; it panned the house out of frame and cut the flash back. It continually alluded to Lu Ten's death but the character never even had screen time. When Roku died, a gigantic smoke cloud covered over him and his dragon. Upon Jet's death, there was no visible damage on his face, and the show never actually confirmed he died, and in fact, openly joked about it in the Ember Island Play when Sokka said himself it was "...really unclear". Every death was gently danced around and cut away from in a way where you knew but it didn't outright show it. With the Ozai fight, there was no way to just prance around a death in that situation and cut off the adrenaline. The energy bending plot point not only made it possible to take down Ozai without going against Aang's character and morals, it did it in a way that made sense, and also brought in a mini-arc that gave a TON of clarity on the experiences of some past avatars.
I would agree that Aang going out of his way find a different way to end the conflict without killing the Fire Lord is consistent with his character and a logical choice. However, the fact is, Aang doesn't actually go out of his way to find the solution. Sure he talks about it for one episode and asks his friends what he should do but the way Aang found the solution was sheer luck. He magically got drawn to a lion turtle in his sleep. Even if he wasn't looking for a way to end the fight peacefully, the may have found the solution. Now, if the lion turtle had said something about how Aang's refusal to go against the air nomad teachings had drawn Aang to the lion turtle (who could be the turtle that the air nomads lived on in that case) then at least it would feel a bit more satisfying, although I am not a writer and for all I know that might actually be a terrible resolution for a lot of people. I will also add, for a show that was always so good at foreshadowing and introducing ideas ahead of time, just pulling energy bending out of nowhere is a little weird.
Time to like this video again :D
I feel like he was the perfect villain, he did what he had to do perfectly, he made the other villains make sense.
Is Ozai a good character? Relatively speaking to all the other characters in the show, probably not.
Is Ozai a good villain? Yes, since he served his narrative purpose in relation to our hero and didn't overstay his welcome
I think what makes the battle between Zuko and Azula more intense and emotionally charged is because we understand the two characters on a deep level. With Aang and Ozai we understand Aang at that deep level, but Ozai isn’t given that connection like Zuko has with Azula. I still love the battle between Aang and Ozai. I love the battle scenes and the animation of Aang going into the avatar state and whooping his ass is epic. (Plus when he uses seismic sense to stop him? So cool).
At the end of the battle with Aang and Ozai there is a sense of peace and conclusion. But with Azula and Zuko there is so much more sadness for what Zuko went through and what Azula was forced to become. There is that emotion because we’ve been with both of them for so long. There is a video on TH-cam that goes into depth on their fights explaining why they are both good fight scenes based on the characters relationship to each other. Pretty interesting!
Maaannnn i really liked Amon. His father's story and his desire for equality...
Amon and Tarrlok’s story is the saddest ever from beginning to end in the whole Avatar universe.
I LOVE that fight between Aang and Ozai. Every time I watch it I get Goosebumps.
Ozai became what he is because of Sozin
I find it funny that people automatically criticize black and white depictions of villains as if people like Saddam Hussein didn’t exist in the real world.
Austin Langdon
Exactly! Some people are just evil because they want to be.
"Uh no everyone has complicated reasons and no ones pure evil" yeah ok tell that to slave owners, rapists, child murderers and kidnappers etc.
alfa01spotivo I would argue a lot of the people you mentioned did those things because of their own trauma or there own indoctrination and ignorance
@@Bionicleforever And yet there comes a point where one's motivation gets so distorted that eventually they have no redeeming motivation.
Some people are pure evil.
Ikr, people get used to characters like Azula or Thanos and expect EVERY villain to be sympathetic.
The three generations of evil fire lord are basically meant to be worsening degrees of Fire Hitler.
Sozin: We’re powerful, so we should expand. We’ll have to kill all the airbenders to ensure our victory, but victory is all that matters.
Azulon: Continue the conquests, but let’s start to kill the Southern Water tribe too. They aren’t stopping us from conquering the earth kingdom, but they’re kind of annoying so let’s get rid of them. It’s not necessary, but why not do it anyway.
Ozai: T H I S W O R L D W I L L D I E I N F I R E
Bonus round - Azula: Well my father hit the max-level of being evil toward the rest of the world, so I guess to get even more evil than him I need to start being evil to my own allies. I’ll go insane with paranoia and banish everybody. (Her rule was too short to really know what she would have done, she probably would have gone full-crazy paranoid and ended up executing everyone who looked at her wrong.)
It’s actually kind of interesting to see the evolution of how evil in the family. It started with Ozai wanting to “share” the Fire Nation’s technology and prosperity with the world, at the cost of conquering it and killing the air nomads to prevent the avatar, and 100 years later we’ve gotten to Ozai literally wanting to destroy the entire world and kill everybody outside the Fire Nation so that he could remake the world in his image. They went from evil in a practical, calculated way, to having a god complex and going full “destroy the world” mode.
@@TeenageMutantZuckerTurtle THANK YOU!!! someone who gets it
Aang finding a way to defeat Ozai without killing him was about Aang overcoming a challenge, which he does despite receiving advice to tell him to kill Ozai, leaving the audience to believe Aang has to challenge his morals due to the responsibilities of the Avatar. I thought the ray of lights that come out of Aang and Ozai was the only real disappointing aspect of their final fight, it wasn't visually pleasing to me. The Avatar in the Avatar state is shown to be basically unstoppable if they have mastered all 4 elements in the second half of season 3, something that felt satisfying as we believe Aang can't do it during the start of the fight that he is losing until he regains the ability to do it again but this time being able to use all elements. The way Aang slowly breaks down Ozai was very satisfying after seeing Aang struggle to stop him before Avatar State.
I think the show sets up 'The Fire Nation' to be the big threat, not just the Fire Lord. It is why Zuko and Katara beating Azula was also important from my perspective.
I think future retellings should emphasize on Ozai's cowardice and fear more when facing the Avatar State. At the lowest point of their journey does the true character unveils itself. And for Ozai, that true character is a man who couldn't live up to his own standards. He ran from the battle the moment it becomes clear he cannot win. And when the Avatar State gives out its judgement, Ozai's face betrays his true thoughts. He's afraid and is silently begging for mercy. Behind all that cruelty and firebending, he's just an insecure manchild in a Fire Nation garb, trying to be big and mighty.
I think if they could've had an immortal Dark Lord Sozin without breaking the magic system, they would've. As it is, I like the idea of the torch being passed down from Sozin to Azulon to Ozai; they're fundamentally very similar characters, and that fact reinforces the cultural identity of the Fire Nation, being very focused on respect of elder generations, and following in their footsteps. Zuko breaking from this tradition in a nation so rigid in its ways is one of the things that makes Zuko so fascinating as a character.
To me, Ozai is a symbolic villain- which explains why the details of his past and complexity and effectiveness as a villain is irrelevant. He represents broader ideas which the show is trying to tackle and criticise, such as absolute government, tyranny, war, colonialism, expansionism, a skewed/toxic masculinity and more. Delving into whether Ozai is a multifaceted villain takes away from the fact that he represents something greater than what he is, and the questions of how, what and why he is so evil are not meant to have an answer.
Ozai was good in how his character benefits his children, who are arguably the emotional core of the Fire Nation/overarching antagonist against Aang. Yes, he’s a comically evil villain with no redeeming moral qualities, no sympathetic backstory, and overall no nuance or depth, but that’s what he’s supposed to be. Him being this way creates a dynamic between him and his children that makes the kids more interesting.
Ozai is the idealized, “perfect” Fire Lord, he has Azula’s cruelty and ambition, without the mental instability. He has the determination of Zuko, without the emotional “weakness”. He serves as the opposite of Iroh.
Ozai is what Zuko is “supposed” to be. His introduction as a character in Season 3 really benefitted Zuko’s arc, because up until that point, we only had Iroh as the good of the two sides pulling on Zuko, and with Ozai’s introduction we see where the opposite path leads. By doing this, Zuko is given even more depth and we end up hoping even more that he changes, because we don’t want to see him become like Ozai. Zuko’s redemption in season 3 wouldn’t have been as amazing without Ozai’s over-the-top evil presence to give it more context.
Azula on the other hand benefits because Ozai in season 3 completes the picture of why she is the way she is. Not only was her mother scared of her, but she was scared because of what Ozai was turning her into. She absorbed all his worst traits, and also grew extremely determined and vain under the pressure to be perfect from her evil perfectionist father. And by the time we see her in season 2, after spending her whole life under pressure to be like him, we get the villainous Azula we know and love. Ozai’s appearance in season 3 adds more context to her backstory, which makes her character, and in turn the show, deeper.
The conflict in the Fire Nation royal family ended up arguably being the emotional core of the show by the end, with especially Zuko undergoing a larger arc than any other character in the show. Both Iroh and Ozai had roles to play as opposing influences on Azula and Zuko, and Ozai served his purpose well. He was exactly what he was needed to be.
He was just evil but that's still not a bad idea for a villain their plenty of purely evil characters that are still iconic and loved like the joker, freeza and cell, akume from samurai jack and and dio Brando from jojo. Ozai was just a obstacle for aang more than an actual character. He wasn't chirismating like freeza and cell from dbz or the joker he was just a symbol of tyranny but he did his job he wasn't bad he was a disappointing in a show full of exceptionally written characters.
Being iconic doesn't mean being good. DIO is a perfect example of an iconic character being a pretty lackluster villain. And I wouldn't call Cell very charismatic, though Freeza really was. He put a lot into his sadism and cruelty
Javier Hernández
DIO was not lacklustre. Him and Jonathan's duality was the best part of phantom Blood.
He had great buildup in sc and delivered by having a terrifying stand and killing Joseph and Kakyoin and stomping Jotaro for most of the fight. Jotaro had to play possum and do sneaky tricks and bluffs to even stand a chance. Yes he got time stop but it wasn't as good as DIO's and has to improve on being able to use it due to clever strategies
I think he got his role as a villain very well. He isnt a main character yet is still talked about. Without him being shown as much as azula,zuko and others, we got to see how the fire nation was so controlled under ozai , we see he successfully has the fire nation very militarized/militaristic same as his forefathers. We saw his influence over not just his nation like I said, but also zuko, azula, aang and the world. He is a great basic villain that didnt need to be shown frequently because as every episode that passed we saw more and more about ozai's rule, his cruelty and desire to want to conquer the world.
A villain I think is perfect that's a main character is azula herself because instead of simply hearing about her cruelty from zuko himself and his flashbacks, we saw her power,intelligence and influence whenever she showed up on screen. Both were good villains for me, yes I do think azula is more interesting but that's because ozai is a rather "flat and typical evil and manipulative tyrant"and that's what made him realistic but also cruel. Meanwhile azula we saw her as a character from her fights to her conversations and personality, she was definitely made a bit more complex and alluring cuz we saw hints of her as relatable like in the beach but than we see her again as the evil princess
Ozai didn't need anything extra because he wasnt. He was the same exact person we all imagined a real evil tyrant to be like. Not every villain needs an arc or story that shows more to them.
Someone commented that sozin was a great villain because of his influence and I want to say that I do agree. Sozin was more interesting than ozai, but then again we saw his different sides even if it was short clips.
The main antagonist for Aang at the end is the question whether he can fulfill his duty as the avatar while maintaining his ethical perspective. It's more of an inner conflict externalized in the fight with Ozai. It's why the avatar state itself becomes his antagonist at a certain point in that it takes away his moral agency for a time. But he is able to find a creative solution, a third way between seemingly incompatible opposites, kill or submit. It incorporates the insights and advice he received from the four previous avatars but actualizes it in a distinctly "Aang" way. In religious traditions, it's called "making a way out of no way." You may not like that conflict; I've watched some reviews where people are frustrated at Aang even having the moral dilemma. But that's the final conflict, which I feel the show does exceptionally well.
2:00, the problem with Ozai isn’t that he’s pure evil the problem is that the only interesting thing about him is his relationship with the likes of Zuko and Azula both of whom were better villains than he was
hot villain = good villain
Yes
Why Ozai feels so hollow as a villain is precisely that: He's Zuko's villain, not Aang's. But he needed to be Aang's villain in the end, and Aang needed a way to beat him without killing him for TV-Y7 and zen-in-a-blender reasons. So many things had to happen a certain way that probably the way it worked out was the only way it could: An AMAZING Azula fight for Zuko/Katara, and meh for Aang and Ozai.
It’s such a shame that the original video was taken down, but I’m so glad you re uploaded it, it’s one of my favourite video essays.
We had Zuko was the villain For most of season 1 and 2 and some of 3 and when Zuko wasn’t a villain Azulla was, Ozai did his job, he was the looming mysterious big final villain,
Am I the only one who actually liked the great divide? :(
My problem with it is the insane number of times the episode was repeated on Nickelodeon not the episode itself
Mbasa Kosani I totally agree dude it was like every time I went to watch avatar on tv it was always this episode and even played it sometimes multiple days in a row but I haven’t watched it in a while so I wouldn’t mind watching it again tho
its not bad compared to other shows but compared to other avatar episodes it's what most people believe to be the worst hence worst *avatar* episode
It should have been a little better and those character s should have been in the invasion IMO
I like it! Just watched it two days ago
You've effectively put a lot of my own issues with the end of the show into words. I'd just add that one of the problems I had with it was that Zuko felt more like the main character than Aang in a lot of ways, including his relationships to the villains. Aang had no personal or moral connections to the villains, other than the question of killing for the greater good (which, as you indicated, the show tossed out the window because it was too messy).
Zuko, however, is extremely closely tied to both Azula and Ozai by the fact that they are his family and they have a serious impact on his character arc and sense of morality, making them feel more like his villains than Aang's.
Tbh Ozai having a simple agenda doesnt make him a simple character. I always liked Ozai’s portrayal as a foil to aang, iroh, and zuko.
At that point why would they make aang kill him it would be dark and haunt aang for the rest of his life. So they also couldn't not kill him because there wouldn't be a ending to the story. So they took away his bending.
Ozai was fairly one dimensional but his psychology was certainly crafted with care. He isn't "pure evil" in the classic sense and is a sociopath plagued by delusional world views and an inability to empathize, even with his own family.
Despite his lack of screen time his character had such a huge impact on many of the important characters in the show so I got to give him great job right there
thanks for the re-upload! I really wanted to watch it when you mentioned it in another video, but I couldn’t find it because it was banned. you’re the best dudes honestly
I find it interesting that Zuko has a lightning scar on his belly while Aang has one on his back.
Like they're two sides of the same thing.
Well worth the rewatch!
You should do an episode on One Outs or Liar Game sometime. I hardly ever see Kaitani's manga recommended, and it would be good to give them some attention.
There is a Kato video about Tokuchi
I think both of those series are some of Zero's favorite manga.
I was happy with the final battle, especially before knowing Energy Bending was a thing. But I’m also still happy with Energy Bending being brought out at the same time. 🤷🏼♂️
3:47, good point. Ozai (as a character) is understood primarily in relation to Zuko
I've always seen the reveal of ozai's face as a way to humanize him. In season 1 and 2 he always was this larger than life evil monster but in season three he turns out to just be powerhungry ruler. It's easy to kill a monster with nothing human to it, it's something completely different to kill a human being, even if it is bending hitler with no real depth.
I think Ozai is great villain. It's totally okay to have your villain be pure evil, doing so serves as a powerful reminder for the ultimate depths a human being can fall to.
The fact is, some people are bad to the bone and have no if very few redeemable qualities. Like I'm not going to call Hitler a "complex" character. He wanted to take over the world and he tried to kill millions of people do so in some of the most brutal ways knowns to human history. And he was a real person that the world ultimately had to rally up against. If it can work in the real word, it can work in fiction.
I think the problem so many people have is when all their villains become pure evil. But that's not the characters' fault themselves, it's just a symptom of a lack of creativity. So I don't think Ozai is a bad villain at all. He did some truly despicable things but he always felt realistic.
And sometimes, it's not just the character itself but what they represent. Ozai represented the entire Fire Nation that Aang had to stop. He was all the power, corruption, and brutality of a war mongering nation. Aang stopping him was symbolically the Avatar defatting the Fire Nation and restoring balance
And in the end, his opposition to Aang and Zoku was perfect. He bred the entire conflict and was hyped up as the scariest, baddest man on the planet. I for one was not disappointed by his fight with Aang and all the awesomeness it represented. But I would be remiss if I call that fight pure spectacle. The fact that I was actively afraid, engaged, and rooting for Aang the entire time has legitimize Ozai as a truly impactful and well written villain.
My only statement is, I’ve consumed a lot of media. Cartoons, books, indie comics, etc. Most of the time in those stories, there are more than three foil characters, and it’s more than okay to recognize Aang, Zuko, and Ozai as a set
For me he didn’t need to be complex as he was a symbolic representation of taking down the entire fire nation. So therefore he encapsulates all the villains of the show.
I was LITERALLY just thinking about this.
3:36, that’s true though it’s worth noting that despite Zuko being Aang’s nemesis for most of Season One the ultimate villain was Zhao and that even though Azula was the primary villain of Season Two Aang still faced other major antagonists like Long Feng.
Loved your take on this and I'm totally down for seeing Zuko as the main character of the series honestly. It makes sense how you explained it, and honestly, yea the framing was super well done for it too. Ozai was the over arching bad guy through the whole series, like he was always endgame. But I like how they left him in shadows until Zuko sees him again. Now that you've said it though, I don't think I'll be able to look at this series as anything other then Zuko and Aang's story (rather than Aang and the GAang's story, lol).
The thing about the end for me is that while I didn't see it coming exactly, it's not as out of nowhere as many think either. There's a reference to the lion turtle in the Library episode and some other TH-camr also pointed out there is references to energy bending in other episodes (though I can't remember which or who the TH-camr was, sorry :c perhaps something to do with Ty Lee being kind of a teaser? I mean, pressure points blocking chi pathways paralyzing people and bending is essentially a temporary form of energy bending, but I feel there was more).
However, the thing about keeping Ozai alive, I think there was no way they could have given the end of the series a "happy ending" by killing Ozai. First off, because it's a Nick show originally geared towards children. Like characters dying off screen is allowed but having your main character kill the antagonist, even if they didn't show the act would have been a lot for a kids show that I don't think they could have been able to then touch on and give the right message to. It is an amazing show, but I think it's important to remember that while it is near perfect and can be enjoyed by all ages it was a show that was originally created and aimed for kids and teenagers, they needed to be able to have a message that they could properly explain towards kids. And by having him fight to not kill Ozai was a good message to kids, as someone in here pointed out it's essentially "there's always another way." But also I think a more direct message being "just because someone is being evil, doesn't mean the punishment should automatically be death." Yea, maybe in Ozai's case it should have been, but giving one person the power of "judge, jury, and executioner" isn't the way things work (or should work) so having Aang not kill him works for getting across these different messages for kids. Yea, if this was a show on a channel for more adult cartoons, we might have been given a show where Aang killed Ozai or something because it was his only option for stopping Ozai and then all the messiness that comes with a pacifist child killing "bender Hitler" (as you put it) and what implications and consequences this might have.
Second, though, in the context of the show even if given the option and the inclination it's probably a good thing Aang didn't kill Ozai. Now if anyone has read the comics, you know that there were still those who supported Ozai and wanted to put him back in power. Even without reading the comics I'm sure that's just a natural assumption that there would still be those in the Fire Nation who supported the war and would want Ozai back on the throne. It went on for a hundred years and the propaganda for it had to be ridiculously well planned to keep most Fire Nation citizens believing it, or at least willing to sit down and not "rock the boat." So Ozai is a figurehead for these people, but if Aang had killed him would that have stopped any future potential rebellions? Possibly, but possibly not. By killing Ozai, Aang would have made a martyr out of him, more of one then he already would be by his followers and could have possibly made more people follow Ozai's followers. Aang says it himself "I'm the Avatar I can't just go around killing people I don't like." This is paraphrased but it gets the gist of it, and he's right. As I said above, having someone be "judge, jury, and executioner" isn't how any civilized or good society should work. Going around killing people, even arguably bad people, would scare people, even those who weren't followers of Ozai. If you think of it from the point of view of someone inside the world of Avatar who has never met Aang, what you'd see is a person with all the power in the world and the ability and desire to kill anyone who stepped out of line. Again, arguably Ozai is a terrible person and maybe he should have been killed, but in the context of the show, even without energy bending I think Aang should have and would have still found a way to defeat Ozai without killing him.
This is of course all my own personal opinion, so no hard feelings if y'all disagree. Either way, loved the series, yea I wish there had been more hints to energy bending earlier on and maybe it would have felt like less of a cop out but I still thoroughly enjoyed it and even with these kinds of hiccups it's still the greatest series out there.
Ozai was never the show's villain he was their challenge they needed to overcome.
I like how Aang didn’t kill Ozai. I want Ozai to rot. You can disagree with me but those are my personal views
8:44, based on the fact that in The Day of The Black Sun, Azula said she had a hunch Aang was alive and based on the fact that she comments that if “the Avatar somehow survived” then his killer’s glory would turn to shame it actually does appear to be malicious intent.
9:46, the confrontation between Zuko and Ozai worked (and quite well) because it built on the prior connection between the two of them
i never saw ozai as a character. i saw him as a human manifestation of the evil of the fire nation. he’s the perfect representation of everything wrong in that series and even the real world. his character as an individual person is boring af, but what he represents is what i truly find fascinating in him.
I have to say he is great villain and loved the ending it just seemed more like what aang character would have done he is a lover not fighter unless he has to.
Zuko redirecting Ozai’s lightning back at Ozai was hands down the most hype part of the show arguably close behind the final Agni Kai
How I interpreted the Zuko helped by his sister was showing a sense of not trusting his words to his sister. She gave him the potential honor because it could be nice to have a better relationship with her brother. Azula had a trickle of doubt in what he claimed, so she presented him with that to say "for you if it't true, because of you if it's a lie."
In my opinion, I think Ozai is a good villain. The one thing he had going for him was hype and mystery and the show used that to their best ability. We never saw his face or had many scenes with Ozai in the show until the last season, but whatever scene he's in was always dark/terrifying. You felt like Ozai was the final boss in a video game. Azula did a good job being the villain for the other books, but you always knew Ozai was the last hurdle. It's like Azula was the mini-boss. If Ozai had better character insight in the show he would have been on par with Amon (until his whole water tribe backstory got revealed) & Zaheer/Red Lotus.
He’s a static and simplistic villain. He doesn’t change in any way, and only wants supremacy. Azula is one of my favorite villains of all time.
Near 7:45 here is a quote that shows she might not be so sincere "I assure you I'm a pretty good liar; I am a 400 foot tall platypus bear with pink horns and silver wings"
Toph: "okay I admit your good"
One thing that this show did amazingly well is that every character was their own worst enemy, they all overcame themselves by the fights they've had. There was this shift of power dynamics between Ozai and Aang in their final showdown, when Aang entered the Avatar state and for a short period became the villain, only to overcome and resolve the conflict without bloodshed. Similarly Zuko didn't beat Azula in their fight, Katara did, Zuko's victory was his sacrafice to save Katara. It was tragic enough that siblings were fighting against eachother, while Katara vs Azula wasn't personal, it was representing the larger theme of the firenation against the world. Katara finally had the fight she was so eager to have from the very first episode. These were great subversions of expectations while still reaining in line with the character motivations and everything the show was building towards.
He's not even a good father.
Ozai is written surprisingly well in the final battle.