"When the comet last came, my grandfather, Fire Lord Sozin, used it to wipe out the Air Nomads. Now, I will use its power to end the Earth Kingdom... permanently. From our airships, we will rain fire over their lands, a fire that will destroy everything and out of the ashes, a new world will be born: a world in which all the lands are Fire Nation and I am the supreme ruler of everything!"
Only the Avatar can master all four elements and bring balance to the world. These are the worst of those who try to upset that balance.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Original canon
- Original animated series:
- Fire Lord Ozai is the power-hungry tyrant of the Fire Nation seeking to wipe out all resistance to his rule, even children. Ozai obtains the throne through manipulating his wife Ursa to help murder his father Azulon, and then banishing her, on the pain of death, without letting her see her children again. Ozai controls all aspects of his family's life, limiting their freedoms and encouraging their worst traits just to please him: he punishes his son Prince Zuko whenever the latter shows kindness or mercy, going as far as burning his face and banishing him for speaking out of turn; he encourages his daughter Princess Azula to be a perfect, merciless weapon for the Fire Nation, only to cast her aside when he no longer needs her. When faced with open rebellion in the Earth Kingdom, Ozai plans to use Sozin's Comet to incinerate the entire continent and rule from the ashes as Phoenix King. A horrible father and a brutal dictator, Ozai represents the very worst of Fire Nation imperialism and Avatar Aang's ultimate test to stay true to his pacifist ideals.
- "Imprisoned": The Warden is the cruel overseer of the Fire Nation prison rig on the Mo Ce Sea, who is dedicated to crushing the spirits of his captives. Rounding up any Earthbenders among various villages, the Warden imprisons and enslaves them, forcing them to build Fire Nation warships while keeping them in miserable conditions to destroy any hope they have. The Warden is so temperamental and petty that he throws a prisoner into solitary confinement for a week as punishment for coughing in his presence; in another case, the Warden flings his own Captain overboard just for not answering a question clearly enough. When Katara manages to convince the prisoners to fight their oppressors, the Warden tries to kill them all with no mercy.
- The Legend of Korra:
- Season 2—Book Two: Spirits: Unalaq, Korra's Evil Uncle, framed his brother Tonraq for angering vicious spirits to force his exile. Also having attempted to kidnap Korra when she was a child, Unalaq later assists the returned Dark Spirits, using them to take control of the Water Tribe and trigger a war while disposing of any who oppose him. Threatening to destroy Jinora's soul to force Korra to open the spirit portal, Unalaq attempts to kill Korra once she does so anyways. Assaulting the Southern Water Tribe, Unalaq beats down Tonraq, leaving him alive to rub in his victory. Unalaq summons the spirit of darkness, Vaatu, to fuse with him and become the Dark Avatar, attacking Republic City to kill any who can stop him and force all of humanity through ten thousand years of darkness under his draconian rule.
- Turf Wars: Tokuga is a young, viciously ambitious, up-and-coming mobster who kills the Triple Threat Triad leader, Viper, along with anyone else who might think of challenging him. While selling his services as a mercenary, Tokuga is injured by a dragon-eel spirit and becomes a monstrous blend between human and reptile. In the wake of this transformation, Tokuga uses his new physiology to inflict more pain and strives for bigger targets. Seeking to conquer Republic City, Tokuga seizes containers of nerve gas and plots to unleash it on Republic City's civilians so he may seize control.
- The Rise of Kyoshi: Xu Ping An is a Firebender warlord with a finely-honed, superficial sense of charisma he uses to reign in a loyal gathering of marauders with which he pledges to overthrow the law and let anarchy reign. Xu put entire villages of "abiders" to the sword, leaving countless corpses stacked behind him until his rampage was finally stopped by Jianzhu. When inadvertently broken out eight years later by the Avatar, Kyoshi, Xu muses that the land has forgotten his name and pledges to scar his name into history in a way they will never forget. To begin his new wave of bloodshed, Xu captures a family and forces them to watch as he dunks the father in and out of a pot of boiling water, gleefully intending to move on to slaughter the nearest town. Xu even uses his rare ability to bend lightning to savagely torture Kyoshi, proclaiming himself absolute and that all anyone can ever hope to do against him is obey.
Related works
- Non-canon video games (Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Burning Earth & Into the Inferno): Fire Lord Ozai is the tyrannical overlord of the Fire Nation. Ozai is an abuser who burned his own son's face and banished him for speaking out of turn. Through his reign, entire cities are invaded and subjugated by the Fire Nation; villages are poisoned to the point of lethal sickness by his weapons factories; and the kingdom of Ba Sing Se is almost decimated by a massive drill. In his ultimate move of malicious ambition, Ozai plans to use the power instilled upon the Fire Nation by Sozin's Comet to burn the entire population of the Earth Kingdom to ash. When confronted on his reasoning for this atrocity, Ozai simply notes that "the people did nothing to me, they're just in my way".
- Original film:
- Fire Lord Ozai leads the Fire Nation in endless conquest and war. A brutal tyrant who stifles all dissent, Ozai causes countless deaths in his attempts of conquest, and even sacrifices his own troops without any hint of regret to achieve victory. A horribly abusive father who brutalized, scarred, and exiled his son Zuko for speaking out against such an action, Ozai intends to mold Zuko into a heartless killer like Ozai's other child, Azula.
- Commander Zhao is an ambitious Fire Nation militant who seeks the utter annihilation of the Northern Water Tribe. After failing in his plan to imprison the young Avatar, Aang, for the rest of his life, Zhao uses knowledge gleamed from the Great Library to scheme an affront against the Spirit World itself. Zhao goes behind Fire Lord Ozai's back and tries to assassinate Zuko to eliminate him as a rival, before invading the Northern Water Tribe with intent to kill the entire population. To further his goals, Zhao ruthlessly murders the Moon Spirit—lethally wounding Princess Yue in the process—and is uncaring to the broader effects of destruction that such an outrage against the spirits would cause, so long as it weakens the Water Tribe enough for his genocide to be carried out.
- Video game:
- Commander Zhao, the Fire Nation's ambitious general, seeks to kill Zuko after he rescues Aang from his prison. Choosing to blow up an entire ship of his own Fire Nation soldiers in order to make Zuko's death look like an accident, which kills everyone onboard, Zhao later leads the invasion of the Northern Water Moon Tribe and murders their Moon Spirit, hoping to wipe out everybody and allow Ozai to take control.
- DS version only: Fire Lord Ozai is the tyrannical ruler of the Fire Nation and Zuko's abusive father. Ruling the land with an iron fist, Ozai has Earthbenders imprisoned and Airbenders killed when he hears of the Avatar's return. Previously willing to allow an entire battalion of his own troops to be sacrificed to take out some Earthbenders, Ozai challenged Zuko to a fight as punishment for speaking out, scarring the boy to teach him respect. Ordering the invasion of the Northern Water Tribe and all the deaths that follow, Ozai seeks to have Zuko killed when he rescues Aang from Zhao's prison, viewing him as a traitor.
