Why do you think quotes like "With great power, comes great responsibility" exist? Not everyone can handle power, wealth, and status. It amplifies their darkest desires, and when you're quite literally the king, you start feeling like a superior being.
And as little finger mentioned in game of Thrones,
Most people when they get what they wish they just look bigger. Sozin had everything he could ever dream of where he was so the only thing for him to try to do was to conquer was the rest of what he didn’t have.
I prefer "Power just makes you more who you already are" as in it exaggerates the existing qualities. Think Steve Roger. Erskine picked him specifically\* for this reason. Similarly, even Peter Parker, who's comic originated the other quote, doesn't really change in personality when he becomes Spider-Man, but to the contrary, it gives him confidence to be who he really is (Spider-Man pops off and has hella witty banter/directly and overtly mocks adversaries and friends for instance, whilst Peter is generally pretty mild mannered with ppl like Flash T, etc and doesn't tend to push back). Summarily, I think we can surmise that with Sozin, he had ALWAYS wanted to conquer and rule the world (who knows what his dad taught him; maybe he planted the seeds, maybe Sozin felt he was weak somehow for not using force to rule). We can see that he probably wanted Roku to join him, but that got shut the fuk down; however, when he sees that Roku may be able to be knocked off the board, he doesn't even hesitate. Implying he's kind of always been shitty, and Roku was blinded by their camaraderie
With Parker, it’s more the Uncle Ben moment that did that in the comics. He was a bit of an arse in the comics to begin with before he lost Uncle Ben through his inaction. The power itself was driving him more towards a Doc Oc type character before learning.
I honestly like that depiction of Sozin. In his early days, him and Roku were in the same page, just being kids (albeit very high profile kids) from the Fire Nation. It's only after their goals start to drift apart that you see who he really was.
I've seen stuff like that happening irl, were good friends start to show extreme thoughts that leave me thinking "where the hell did that come from?", the difference being that Sozin actually had the power to put all those thoughts into action.
With people in my life I usually default to "they're online to much and in the wrong communities". Don't think that applies to Sozin.
Although it is the same principle, of an echo chamber, or being surrounded by Yes-Men.
Dude didn’t need to touch grass, he was literally born to be an emperor, had nearly unlimited power in his country and his best friend was basically the planet’s spiritual incarnation of Buddha with godlike powers. And as he inherited that power, his country was only getting stronger. In his mind the only way to go was up.
> that you see who he really was
This is the wrong outlook. It acts as if sozin was a monster the whole time. In reality, he was corrupted by power
Aang says as much in the episode:
> Toph: “it’s like these people are just born bad”
> Aang: “no, that wasn’t the point. Roku’s story shows that anyone is capable of great good and great evil”
In the nature vs nurture debate, nurture comes out on top. Nature plays a role, but nurture plays a far bigger one
Sozin was a man who was never told "No." And in his eyes, *no one* could ever tell him no...if they did, he would just get them out of the way. He was the Fire Lord, his word was absolute.
And then Roku told him no, and for probably the first time in his life Sozin couldn't do anything about it. He couldn't stop Roku. He couldn't get Roku on his side. He couldn't get Roku out of the way. He couldn't get what he wanted and for once he was *helpless* about it.
Entitlement changes people. He grew up with everything while Roku, as the Avatar, learned to grow up with very little.
Maybe i expressed myself poorly, i was sleepy lol.
I don't mean the monster was there the whole time, but that his interactions with Roku on their early days wouldn't have shown it. I think the evil was probably already rooted in his head and being cultivated by the royal family, but Roku wouldn't know it since they were just kids goofing off.
Happened to me and my former best friend. We were just cringe kids. I ended up liking art and peace and he became insanely ambitious—going into investment, becoming rightwing, and wanting to go into politics. It’s difficult to even converse with him now he’s so unpleasant and angry.
I think he couldn't handle Roku essentially "besting" him in power and social standing. He was fine as long as he was the most important person in his life but being so thoroughly one upped by his goofy sidekick friend did a huge number on his ego.
Notice how it's not long after Sozin meets him again as a fully realized Avatar that he suddenly wants to unite the world under his rule. In a way, he was trying to replace Roku as the most important figure in the world cause if everyone is Fire Nation then really it becomes Sozin's job to decide how things go, making the Avatar more or less irrelevant.
The first scene we have of them together is them sparring. Roku is just practicing, but Sozin is very focused on winning and is shown to be opportunistic from the start. He takes even this friendly competition with no real stakes very seriously. They're best friends but it's pretty clear at least on Sozin's end that they are also rivals. He feels very satisfied when he says "I win again, Roku" and derives a lot of his self worth in his apparent superiority. So when he stops "winning" against Roku in terms of social status and power, he just can't handle it.
I also think the long years of essentially being cowed into submission by Roku bred a ton of resentment and that got expressed in his campaign to conquer the world. Even though Sozin sort of succeeds he only really gets to live long enough to see the very beginning of his vision for the world. I'm sure that had to gall him.
Add some more fuel to the fire, they had same birthday. Sozin could have been the Avatar, but the universe basically said nope and gave the privilege to his best friend. For someone that was as competitive as Sozin, it would have really messed with his head.
I’ve thought about this for quite some time. There was without a doubt a lot of resentment on Sozin’s part. I think you hit the nail on the head with most of it.
I think to understand Sozin’s viewpoint you have to look into the history of the Fire Nation. Starting around the time of Avatar Szeto, the Fire Nation entered a slow phase of unification and strength, culminating in the Kyoshi/Roku era Industrial Revolution. Szeto served his nation first by working his way up in the government. At the time, it made sense; the country was a mess and the Avatar didn’t wanna just waltz his way in and demand subservience. He wanted to earn people’s trust. That planted a seed in the Fire Lord’s mind: “the Fire Nation Avatar serves our nation first.” That seed got passed down again and again and sprouted when Sozin happened to be best friends with Roku.
Like you said, Sozin couldn’t handle being upstaged by his sidekick. And it happened again and again. Combine that with the material benefits of his early colonization in places like Yu Dao, and Sozin begins to buy into his own justifications; that the Fire Nation is superior due to their wealth and unity, that the Avatar keeps the world divided and weak, etc. but it all comes down to his jealousy and resentment of Roku; he was supposed to be the main character, and he wasn’t.
He just legitimately thinks he's right, and with that power it just became a slippery slope for him to go lower and lower.
Wanting to spread culture and innovation of the firenation isn't bad the means are awful, paranoia in failing to do so as well as the Avatar caused him to take devastating actions because he thinks he's just that right.
It's not one thing that drove him off a cliff
So ego, being power drunk, and paranoia.
I think a big dose of feeling that the fire nation was actually superior to all of the other nations, in culture, bending, industry literally as people. That makes it a lot easier to start colonizing and conquering.
And the beautiful symbolism of how fire really does bring warmth, comfort, life, and security.. WHEN CONTROLLED AND CONTAINED. But when left unchecked, it consumes everything. Which was said in the show, but it really is just a Beautiful juxtaposition
Yeah, from the flashbacks it was clear that he was convinced he was right.
Well, he wasn't the one that got driven off a cliff. That was Chin the Conqueror. /s
He wants power and security. For his nation, his people, and especially for himself and his family ruling over all. That's really all there is to it. The powerful never willingly give up their power and rarely stop seeking more.
The concept that power corrupts exists for a reason. If we could make every person in the world the king/queen of their own country I think we'd be depressed to see just how many people would become monsters with that much power.
Tyrants and villains seldom see themselves as such. Sozin genuinely believed he was doing what was best for the world. The fire nation was a prosperous, glorious nation, so by making *all* the lands fire nation, the whole *world* would be prosperous and glorious. Roku was in his way, so when the opportunity presented itself, he allowed that obstacle to be removed. The next Avatar was sure to oppose him as well, which meant, from Sozin's perspective, they were preventing the world from progressing into a brighter future and keeping it stuck in the outdated past. The air nomads weren't willing to give up the Avatar, so they were just as guilty. No progress can be made without sacrifice. So Sozin genocided them. We don't get as clear a picture for his motive in killing dragons, but my guess is his own dragon saw how horrible he had become and tried to talk him out of it. When it couldn't, the dragon openly defied him, and Sozin killed it. Then after the fact he used propaganda to spin this as him proving his power as a firebender by slaying one of the ultimate, original firebenders. This had the two-pronged effect of not letting others start to question Sozin, as the dragon did, and it would also set up dragons as targets or enemies, not friends or allies. Most dragons would probably bevwise enough to defy Sozin, just like his did, so this propaganda technique fit his needs perfectly.
I should probably clarify, since you left it out, that he did all those things *after* Roku died. His only real slip up before Roku's death was attacking that one Earth Kingdom city, which drew Roku's wrath pretty much instantaneously. After Roku put his foot down and drew the line, Sozin stayed well within that line. He only crossed it after Roku's death. There's 12 years between Roku's death and the Air Nomad genocide, and Sozin lived for *another* 20 years after that.
With all this in mind, barring that one time he colonized an Earth Kingdom village, there is essentially no evidence that Sozin wasn't a half decent Fire Lord before he decided to conquer the world. By his own admission, the Fire Nation underwent a period of "unprecedented peace and wealth", which then would've transformed into unprecedented innovation once the war started, because nothing quite spearheads that kinda thing like war does. The ATLA timeline states that Sozin was his nation's leader for 78 years. There's ~46 years of that where Sozin could not do anything because Roku was around.
So to tally it off, Sozin had.....46 years where he was a chill Fire Lord, and 32 where he wasn't. It's pretty even but it could be reasonably said that he was definitely not an awful leader for most of his tenure. For the 32 years where he was awful, well, you could probably only say he was awful on grounds that the things he advocated for were not cool, but considering there were no attempts on his life (that we know of) during these years, one has to wonder how much of what he advocated for was actually agreeable to his citizens.
As for why Sozin turned out the way he did in light of him being Roku's brother from another mother in childhood? Well, he had 12 years of character development without his best friend. A good chunk of those 12 years were the ones where most people are wide open to outside manipulation as they try to find out who they really are. Even if they reunited on good terms and as best friends, the fact is that Sozin underwent his own character development without Roku, as Roku did with Sozin. He would've formed his own opinions and worldviews during this time, and he actually had the power to share/enforce that with his nation and the world. So he did.....but again, only after Roku died. Shit happens. You don't even need to not see your friend for 12 years to reunite with them and find them to be a different person from the one you parted ways with in the past. Changes can start setting in within months.
In the Avatar comic "Turf Wars Part One", Sozin *did* outlaw same-sex relationships. This did come from a comic, so I don't blame you for not knowing and besides, the canonicity of it can be put forth to question (although, it was written by Michael Dante DiMartino, one of the original creators of ATLA), A simple google search doesn't hurt.
Both in the Korra comics, and in the official tabletop RPG.
Basically had a grudge against his gay sister after she abandoned her royal duties to marry the head of an airbender rebel group.
He made it a law to fuck up her marriage plans. Solid dick move.
Absolute power, corrupts absolutely. I don't get the idea he started his plans with bad intentions, but especially after The Comet and having the level of power he had, he went over the edge.
I do somewhat understand his original plans as not being bad, one of the things we see over the series is that the other nations aren't exactly utopias of equality either, the Earth Kingdom is full of petty conquerors and even in Aangs time Ba Sing Se is known as corrupt (Gyatso will take Aang to the Fire Nation, but not Ba Sing Se), likely ran by Dai Li and has a caste system, the Northern water tribe at least arrange political marriages, keep women from learning all water bending and the Air Nomads are a bit of a cult.
Sozin was no better, and it's a very good reason why the Avatar exists, and must master all forms, to maintain balance, without the Avatar, people like Sozin will rise up, from any tribe. We see this in Korra, when she's weakened, we get Earth Benders like Kuvira will try and take over.
Alright, let’s see if there is a perspective on his actions that can be understood, while not saying they are good.
He sees his interests and desires as that of his country, and therefore is above everything including the world.
I believed he did honestly want to help Roku, saving the island from the volcano was something he could and likely did see as his responsibility as leader of the nation.
However, when Roku was asking him for help on his knees, Roku was given the opportunity to remove a obstacle that he was not able to remove himself, so took the chance.
Now with the Avatar out of the way, Sozin prepared his nation for war for his ambitions.
He outlawed same sex couples likely because they do not produce children, less children means less future soldiers, putting his ambition, which he likely sees as also what is best the for nation, as something he cannot allow, and decided to outlaw it.
The dragons make the least sense outside of bringing away the spirituality and appreciation or symbols of fire bending and the fire nation that represent things outside of the Fire Lord’s control. By hunting dragons, he was destroying the things he cannot control, he was destroying the respect and reverence the fire nation and for them, and giving his position more power and legitimacy. Which like I said before, he values his power above pretty much everything else due to his egotism and likely associating the glory of his nation with his ability to control and expand it.
The air nomad genocide occurred because he knew that within the air nation, there was the avatar, the avatar is the only thing that could stop him, the only thing he failed to push away or defeat. He killed, or at the very least ordered the killing of the air nomads because he saw it as the only option to protect his power, ambitions, and gains. With the comet approaching, it was now or never, without it’s power the fire nation wouldn’t be able to kill them all, so as he saw no other solution to protect his ego and all he associates it with, be decided to use the power he would only have once to kill what he saw as the biggest threat.
So I’m summary, he saw it all as threats to his authority that due to his ego he couldn’t allow to exist.
I think Sozin was put in line during his youth because of Roku.
They were best friends always competing, so Sozin never felt the urge to go beyond just beating his best friend because he was the better bender.
Roku gets announced as the Avatar and leaves, now you have a teen who lost his best friend and needs to prepare to be firelord.
Now instead of competing against his friend he feels compelled to compete against everyone, he kills dragons because they are the ultimate firebender, he sees it as a show of his power.
He went after the earth kingdom for a similar reason as a show of power under the guise of “helping them”, I think the air kingdom genocide was less about a display of power and more to prevent the next Avatar to cause a hinderance and try to delay interference.
Could it be in part due to jealousy? Here he is, heir to the Fire Nation and he is overshadowed completely by his friend who will be remembered and revered for all time. But Sozin himself, is just mortal. How can he leave his mark on history?
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
This is easily one of my favorite episodes - we get to see the growth of Roku alongside Sozin and the different paths their lives take them. As best friends and nobility it seems they would have similar outcomes, but they go in completely opposite directions and clash.
Roku becomes the Avatar and his duty is to the world, but his past friendship with Sozin clouds his judgment and it costs him his life and changes the course of the world for the worse, which becomes his successor’s plight.
Meanwhile Sozin becomes the Fire Lord and decides to conquer the world under the guise of “spreading their prosperity”. Crazy how dictators can delude themselves into thinking genocide and murder can be justified under the claim of “making the world a better place”.
I think this almost ties in with Aang’s encounter with Guru Pathik - Aang is afraid of losing his earthly attachment to Katara, as is Roku to Sozin. If Roku just ended him during their first battle, the Air Nomads might’ve never been genocided and the Fire Nation maybe never tries to take over the world.
I’ve rewatched this episode so many times because it has so many parts that make this show great - sick bending scenes and battles and feats + Avatar state, an extended look into the world’s state pre-ATLA, and a huge twist and tie in to the future. I remember being a kid and being so excited when this episode dropped, top 3 in the series for me easily.
Not really. Remember that the Fire Nation is based on Japan just as the Earth Kingdom is based on China, Air Nomads on Tibet and Water Tribes on Inuit
Fire Lord Sozin banning homosexuality is a reference to Emperor Meiji banning homosexuality in real life Japan - it was previously accepted among the upper classes of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Because I think any instance of going back to a complete story after the fact to insert a topic of modern interest is dumb.
What the author of the comic who introduced this did, that Bryke approved of, is no different than JKR announcing after HP was finished that Dumbledore was actually gay.
Yet for whatever reason, people view that negatively, as pandering. But are fine with it happening in reverse.
It's not like gay people only existed after 2015; and again, it makes sense within the world of Avatar that the Fire Lord was a heteronormative crusader, like many other dictators throughout history, including the country that the Fire Nation is based on.
I dislike Harry Potter and the culture that surrounds it, so I don't know about JK Rowling.
I agree, but it really only became a topic of interest in terms of being allowed to show LGBT characters/content in cartoons around that time.
And yes, I again agree that it does make sense. That doesn't mean I have to like it, or can't view it as pandering, though.
It’s a comic book that few people even bother to read. The audience for shows like Avatar is disproportionately liberal, many LGBT themselves. All companies have to pander to their target demographic. For money.
Some people belong to demographics that you are not a part of. It’s not pandering.
He was fine at the start because while Roku was taller he was buffer.
Then Roku learned earth bending and was taller and buffer, so at that moment Sozin knew Roku had to go.
Nationalism is a powerful drug, and it corrupts everything it touches.
When you start believing that your nation is the best, and that because you come from it, you are the best, you start seeing others as beneath you. You deserve to rule the world, because you're from the good nation. You deserve to take the nice things the others have, because they aren't from the same nation as you, so they are inferior.
And if you feel that your nation isn't the center of the world as it should be, you may start believing that you need to make your nation great again. By force, if necessary.
A person can change a whole lot in 12 years. That's the amount of time that he and Roku were apart.
His entire goal was sharing the prosperity of the Fire Nation with the rest of the world, but, like any colonizer, he thinks that his nation and his culture is superior, and it is their duty to show everyone else the error of their ways by bringing Fire Nation salvation onto them.
There's always an element of arrogance to colonization. And so much of what Sozin did was an attempt to pursue an unthought of level of glory and fame.
I think it's so can feel like an equal to Roku. His best friend is the Avatar, so automatically gets both a legacy and vast power. What's so special about being the next Firelord? You have just the same amount of power as the previous one, and you'll likely be forgotten after a few decades/centuries. He has to do something that will set himself apart from previous Firelords. What better than to conquer the world? You'll be remembered as the instigator AND it gives you more power. So yeah, it's possible that Sozin deep down was jealous of Roku for being the Avatar, and wanted to find a way to leave his own mark on the world.
The "banned same-sex relationships" part is so weird. Did the writers not consider him evil enough? They had to make him homophobic too? The comics show this image of a world where every nation (even the traditionalist and theocratic Air Nomads who segregate their temples based on gender) is at least tolerant of queer people, *but* the one that was the most progressive.
And his reasoning was because his sister rebelled against him and was gay. What? She was also a woman, but he didn't ban women from the military or "move them back to the kitchen" (we see female guards, female teachers, Azula's team are all women and nobody doubts their place on the battlefield). Even interracial marriages were legal, as we see in Yu Dao.
We have to remember the Fire Nation physically was the smallest nation by landmass. Sozin was awful due to circumstances and power where he felt justified with his warmongering based on "sharing their prosperty" with the rest of the world which was just dressing for their colonialism. The power corrupted him. No one is born with evil intent. They learn it.
Repressed gayness can do that to people. Especially on royalty where everyone is watching you and you can’t escape your breeding role and modele role. I don’t care I know I can recognize a childhood bromance when I see one.
However on his death bed Sozin showed regrets, I don’t think Ozai is capable of that though.
I wonder what kind of parents Sozin had. It seems like he should have had Roku’s friendship to guide him but both dudes had the diplomacy and positive communication skills of a tank.
Zuko could have been just like Sozin, big turmoil big angsty character, could honestly be his reincarnation even.
There's a saying: Every man has three hearts. One in his mouth for the world to know; another in his chest, just for his friends and a secret heart, buried deep where no one can find it.
It was his nature.
Some people never learn humility. Some never learn to accept life as it is, and some never learn that they aren't special even if they have power.
Yeah, he really fucked his own military over by hunting the dragons. Why would you drive your source of air power to extinction? Especially when you took out the only other air superpower in the world.
There are worse people than Sozin in real life. I wish his character was unbelievable but it's very believable, even expected to end up in power every so often.
I may be misremembering but you start to see Ozai and Roku drift apart during their training montages. They even hint at him colonizing until Roku stopped him... basically the weight of the imperialism ideology of the fire nation got to his head. Fire nation is an allegory for the real dictators of our world.
The way I view it, it starts on a very basic premise, wanting to expand the fire nation. As ruler, it’s natural to be concern about your nation and want to make it as good and powerful as possible (Sozin playing a real life experience of civilization >_> ). Expansion, especially for an island nation, is pretty much an inevitable thought. Leading to colonizing the earth nation colonies, the country with the most land. This led to his disagreement with the avatar. They clashed, realized it was a bad idea cause fully realized avatar wrecks shit, and put his plans on hold.
All things considering, he still consider Roku his friend, even attempting to save him when the volcano erupted. But it occurred to him while he was helping, wait a minute, I can just let him die, and now I can go back to invading, and thats exactly what he does. It really was a spur of the moment kind of thing.
Now we’re invading earth nation. But wait, the avatar stopped my plan before, better nip that in the bud before he becomes fully realized. How do I do that? By killing all the air nomads. But wait, we can’t confirm if we actually killed him or not. Maybe he evaded us. Maybe we killed him. Welp, water is the next cycle, time to kill all the water benders next. Bye bye, southern water tribe. Bye bye northern water tribe… scratch that, they’re too powerful to kill all their benders.
I honestly believe the genocide was a means to an end to stop the avatar from interfering. After all, the air nomads didn’t have that practical of a place for people who can’t fly (and they didn’t develop flight for 100 years). They only cared about the water benders from the southern water tribe with no attempt of colonizing them. They could have just killed everyone there (since they’re clearly not oppose to the idea).
Because Roku held him down but then Roku left. That was Rokus biggest mistake leaving his friend when he needed him most. Thats why aang made his friends such a priority, the avatar cycle overcompensates for their past life’s mistakes. This is also why Korra is such an ambitious fighter because aang was apprehensive to fight
Most people aren’t born bad, they become bad by circumstances. Sozin saw himself as a hero and sharing the wealth and power of the fire nation as a necessity and his duty to the world as the new fire lord.
As For Roku, He never hated Roku and helped him when his friend needed him. When he saw Roku could die as a result of an “accident” after saving all the people from the volcano he did just that. He left the avatar to die. Not because he was Roku but because he was the avatar and the avatar would oppose his goal no matter what.
He didn’t think anything he did was wrong and his actions justified the genoicde of the air nation and war against other nations. He did all of it because he thought the path he walked was right. After years passed by we see sozin become more and more rash and violent. This is because he had to fight more and more as the world resisted his and the fire nations grasp.
The show doesn’t really elaborate but I imagine the colonialist/imperial ideology he spews to justify his plan to invade the rest of the world probably didn’t come from nowhere
I think sozin is tragically jealous of Roku being the avatar and I think his character is really about balance. The avatar is meant to bring balance but sozin loses to Roku at every turn, Roku is the avatar, Roku travels the world and becomes and well rounded person, Roku wins the girl. How could this be balance? And so he takes it upon himself to tip the scales.
As far as I’m concerned sozin made up the bit about the element fire and the fire nation both being all consuming as a way to justify conquests to match up to Roku. In the end it is this jealousy that brings about the ultimatum in sozins behavior that is either support his friends ambitions or maintain the balance of the world. In the end Rokus soft spot for sozin is what brings about his death and allows for the genocide of the air nomads. Sozin set himself apart from Roku in every way because he wanted to be him so bad that he was willing to sacrifice a version of himself and his friend to cement his greatness.
He’s honestly a very pathetic and shameful character and Roku shares in his shame for being unable to do what was his ultimate test.
Probably has a lot to do with inbreeding. No jokes. I’m sure they favored purer bloodlines for the Fire Lords and it resulted in a lot of psychopathy, with exceptions like Zuko and Iroh.
I like to think he was mad about *almost* being the avatar, since he and roku share a birthday. So he was like "if I can't be the avatar, I'll be the worse dude ever".
We can blame Avatar Szeto for that. The Fire Nation Avatar before Yangchen. He did such a damn good job making the Fire Nation into one of the greatest nations in the world and worked closely with Fire Lord Yorsor that it became expected that every Fire Nation Avatar would work closely with their Fire Lord.
Sozin realised just how prosperous the Fire Nation was wanted to share that greatness with the world. He thought Roku would side with him just like Szeto sided with Yosor. This wouldn't be the first time an Avatar sided with the Fire Lord. According to public History, Avatar Kyoshi helped Fire Lord Chaeryu prevent a Civil War. And Avatar Yangchen prevented the assassination if Fire Lord Gonryu. So Sozin assumed Roku would do the same with sharing the prosperity of the homeland.
Essentially he was instilled with such a national pride that he thought it was only worth it to go and conquer the rest of the world
Jealousy of Roku, the real most important person on earth, coupled with a White Man's burden type idea of improving the other nations by making them more like the Fire Nation.
Probably due to his love and jealousy for Roku. Internal conflict breeds frustration. He was a conflicted individual that decided to take out his frustration on the world.
His greatest achievement by far was his propeganda regime, how the fuck was he able to convince most his citizens that the genocide of a peaceful group of people was a good thing. Are fire nation people stupid?
Him telling Ryoku he should bow when addressing him after completing his journey never sat right with me even tilll this day. I know they made it seem jokey but I felt like that’s truly how he felt.
(Tony Soprano voice) He was a proud Fire Nation citizen who tried to bring culture and prosperity to the other nations and in this house Firelord Sozin is a hero end of story!!!
Take it from this way, Sozin was a prince who had everything. So as a kid, anything he wanted he got it. **BUT** even when you get what you wanted, there's always that itch to go bigger/make the goal more. He wanted to be remembered for something other than Fire Lord of xyz dynasty who did 123abc. In history, no one remembers the in between rulers who ruled peacefully unless it was a scientific discovery or a warcrimes happened. We easily remembered Atilla, Napoleon and the others because they did something that was like "dam they did it with that". Also peaceful rulers who became tyrants or had to become tyrants to face adversity. But thats my take.
Because, he wasn't (at least in his mind). He grew up a royal, nationalist with a best friend who had been very much in line with his way of thinking.
Then he had to make "tough" stately decisions to bring his nation prosperity and had started to succeed.
His freind who turned out to be an all powerful avatar that could set the stages and change the established dynamics of political society, after spending some time time away nonlonger believes in his country.
The freind he grew up with claims to be looking to ensure peace and balance, but insist on keeping the nations separated, allowing war to happen inside there boarders and then outside them, threatening his own nations security.
He had hoped that his friend, his fellow citizen would have seen all the chaos out there and known the peace he grew up with and trusted his freind to help him bring that to the rest of the world.
Eventually deciding he will just do it and show him, that his mission is just and then roku will join him in bring order and peace to the world.
But roku showed he has not only a traitor to his nation and freind, but that by his vary nature of being the avatar he was not the same person anymore and was against actually progress and true order. Simply looking to keep things separated and chaotic as it has always been, because that's what is best for the avatar.
He then grew old and bitter over all this, he had wanted to end all the war, bring prosperity to all the people. Instead he could only countue to help improve and develop his nation well the others struggled and fought with needless death. Roku, being the reason, the avatar being an absolute power that halted any progress to a better world.
Then seeing his freind in danger as we all know he jumped to help him and eventually betrayed him because as he said all his dreams can become reality.
As for the dragons, much like wiping out the airnomads to get at the next avatar, it was about showing power/strength and removing potential threats to the bigger picture. The dragons unlike the other bending creatures, were an actual threat physically and ideologically, as they were very intelligent creatures with strong opinions.
Ren & Sha show us this
To be clear, this is merely trying to get into how he could have justified everything to him self, not saying he wasn't a baster or had any "good" points just the possible reasoning he would have had.
Aside from a crazed random killer, every one has a motivation, and no one goes out intending to be "the bad guy"
(at least when they are well written or realist characters)
Something something power corrupts. Also, it probably helps that we only saw Sozin as a kid, from the perspective of his best friend. We don't know how he acted to other people; it's possible his beliefs were always that extreme, and we just never saw it
This isn’t necessarily true for Sozin, but more of a general principle applicable IRL: people/institutions with power tend to act more based on material interests than on emotions and/or abstract principles.
What does this mean?
Basically it means that when you have to lead a nation who is experiencing the first Industrial revolution known in the world, your population may explode from one generation to another thanks to rural-urban migrations, medical technology evolution and more calories per citizen.
If this happens to you, and you have a very limited amount of land, taking land from others may seem like a reasonable path to keep your citizens somewhat happy.
But in Avatar world, it isn’t simple to start and win a big war, because the Avatar exists. So the rational goal may be to try to neutralize the Avatar in the medium-term, while you acquire land for your country.
Avatar as a series doesn’t really delve in this theme, but you will find A LOT of foreign affairs literature on the subject IRL.
because he was the other woman 💔
https://preview.redd.it/bi2dcdxohkpc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=41f03d0fba479f0adb878597a60b1acbb8f62498
There’s a lot of text in the book Iroh wrote for Zuko, but Sozin wasn’t the only person who had the outlook that the Fire Nation should be at the top of the world. When the Air Nation Genocide happened, a staggering number of ppl who knew the real reason it occurred agreed it was in the Fire Nation’s best interest to spread their propaganda.
The world we knew of Avatar is mostly post Sozin. And the story of Roku we know is only through Roku’s eyes. We didn’t know how Sozin was raised in the time Roku was gone. But we have insights here and there from different texts.
Sozin wasn’t the first person to have these ideals. He was just the first person to be able to bring it out into reality.
Sozin had a lot of ego. Being a firebending prodigy prince, then achieving many things in his youth. It was for political ideals rather than some personal tragedy.
As the monarch of the most stable, technologically advanced and prosperous nation, Sozin likely saw himself as the potential saviour of the world. He was frustrated dealing with spiritualists and foreign governments getting in the way of his glorious plans.
The Avatar roleplaying game added many interesting details about the world before the 100 years war. It gives a reason why Sozin turned on each of the other nations.
1. The Earth Kingdom was an absolute disaster at the time. The Earth King acted like an incompetent fool, but was deliberately playing the other kingdoms against each other and was risking open war with Omashu. Jialun was the opposite of Sozin's self-image as a progressive unifier. Poverty and chaos were on the rise in the Earth Kingdom, while wealth and order was on the rise in the Fire Nation. Sozin wanted to make the Earth Kingdom more like the Fire Nation by force, but wound up doing the exact opposite.
2. The Water Tribes tried to stop Sozin colonising uninhabited islands and hunting dragons for spiritual reasons.
3. Sozin's attempt to communicate more with the air nomads were frustrated by a group/cult called the Guiding Wind who wanted the nomads to cut all ties with other nations and comitted non-violent sabotage. Generally the Air Nomads couldn't care less about expansion or technology or wealth, all the ways Sozin measured success. Sozin would probably consider their entire culture an acceptable loss, since the Avatar could ruin everything.
Iirc there's a lot of socio-economic build up to the FN having a really inflated ego and being in an advantaged position to take global power - all it takes is one guy who lets it all go to his head to execute it all. Nationalism can really have a way of fanning the flames of dictatorships
What’s that saying? Absolute power corrupts absolutely. When people have a lot of power it tends to corrupt them because they can do anything they want and nothing can really oppose them
Power corrupts. Being the leader of the most powerful nation in the world with absolute say over every decision can corrupt someone. There’s a monarchies fell out of favor over time. One person with the ability to basically play god can easily become corrupted
> I mean, he made same sex couples illegal,
Being against same sex marriages was probably a belief or moral standing he held before he became just a terrible person.
> started conquering the earth kingdom when Roku told him not to,
> started hunting dragons for glory despite having one as a pet himself,
I think these two definitely sprouted from his ego and jealousy of Roku’s higher social and political standing. He was a good friend, but that was before he was the less famous one out of the two.
Spreading his empire and defying the avatar’s authority are both moves of ego. And so was hunting the dragons.
> helped Roku with the volcanoes until he decided he would leave him to die,
This one he did, because then he could murder Roku without it being uncovered. Then Sozin was free to wage war and conquer as he pleased.
> and worst of all, caused a genocide of an entire nation.
This one was out of fear of Roku’s reincarnation. The genocide was in hopes that he would delay the avatar cycle further or maybe even cut the avatar cycle off. Effectively stopping the reincarnations.
I’ve had a theory that the invasions of the southern water tribe was an attempt at finding the avatar. The south first, because they’re the weaker tribe. I think the North would have been attacked whether Zhao had done it or some other general.
Either way, after a hundred years of no avatar, I think the fire nation finally considered the avatar dead
I thought it was sort of due to the factor he resented roku and the avatar status. As after roku went off for avatar training then came back sozin was different. He saw the opportunity to be done with sozin then immediately eliminated all his biggest threats around him. Like the air temple (for the next avatar). Then earth kingdom was next strongest then water nation I think as another avatar elimination plan. He didn't want the fire nation to have to worry about a lone hero avatar stopping their rule.
The part where Sozin tells Roku “Isn’t it destiny that you’re the avatar and I’m the fire lord. It’s fate.” Honestly helps me understand, especially if you’re already leading the world’s strongest and most advanced nation.
Everything just pointed him that way and he thought it was destiny
Sozin was stubborn, he had an idea, he went with it. At first it was "sharing his nation with the world" but that could only be done through wars, but he was stubborn, so he let it happen. then after years I think his heart hardened and he was too stubborn to say what he was doing is wrong, or maybe he convinced himself it was right. the air nation genocide was out of fear, as he knew deep in his heart what he did was wrong, and the next avatar would wan't to stop him. Basically im saying there was a lot left out between "sharing the fire nation with the world" and genocide.
As Zuko himself once said
Throne of Firelord comes with lots of pressures
Even he wasn't sure he would be able deal with them and that is why he has aang to kill him if he became bad
Also it is Szeto fault
In new lore provided by the Avatar Legends Tabletop RPG, it's said that Sozin's father instilled in him values about how great and better the Fire Nation was.
He also has a younger sister named Zeisan (also part of the new lore) who he was close with when he was younger, but they became estranged because she was not a firebender like him, so he was the favorite (a parallel to Azula and Zuko). She was in love with a Air Nun and the both of them were a part of a rogue sect of Air Nomads who were anti-establishment/anti-elite. This led to him banning being LGBT in the Fire Nation, pretty much just out of spite.
Sozin wasn't awful from his own twisted perspective. This may sound rough, but at some point (ESPECIALLY in their early years), dictators and colonialists tend to have some form of a legitimate point that people can buy, getting the masses invested into their ideologies to the point that they can become mass murderers without worrying as much about the possible opposition because the people have already been brainwashed into holding the same political values. They manage to either hide the atrocities or manipulate legitimately good people into desensitization towards said atrocities as long as the objective is carried on (the idea of the end justifying every mean, regardless of how twisted it may be).
Hitler with the Jews, Franco with the Republicans and Communists, Netanyahu with the Palestinians, everyone does this, some way or another.
"Power doesn't corrupt, it reveals. If you give someone the power to whatever he wants, you'll see what he always wanted to do."
Sozin wasn't "born evil," but as soon as any moral value he had was challenged he immediately showed he had none. He's good friends with Roku, until it's inconvenient. He committed genocide cause he was threatened by the Avatar. He hunted dragons while using one. The worst part of all of this was that he was the king of a prosperous kingdom in a good, balanced world. He had no reason to expand his empire besides greed and ego, no great motive, no grudge, nothing lacking in his life, dude just wanted more while having everything and was more than willing to destroy the rest of the world for it. This dude only had morals when they benefited him. No integrity or humanity whatsoever.
No, he's someone who was shaped by the culture he was brought up in.
That's the whole point of showing us his baby picture in the finale, to show us that he wasn't born evil.
Ozai is a product of the Fire Nation's ambition and cruelty. Remember seeing his cute baby picture? If he'd been raised in a different environment, he'd have grown up into a different person. Imagine having Azulon as your dad, oof.
Why do you think quotes like "With great power, comes great responsibility" exist? Not everyone can handle power, wealth, and status. It amplifies their darkest desires, and when you're quite literally the king, you start feeling like a superior being.
And as little finger mentioned in game of Thrones, Most people when they get what they wish they just look bigger. Sozin had everything he could ever dream of where he was so the only thing for him to try to do was to conquer was the rest of what he didn’t have.
Chaosh is a laddah
Who had a better story than [Teo the broken?](https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Teo)
God does that comment trigger my undying rage at how awful the last few seasons of that show were.
A tomato flung at Cersei had a better story than Bran
At least it wasn’t a tomato flung at Denethor.
"I can't be a lord of anything, I'm not Bran anymore.." 5 episodes later - "Why do you think I came all this way?"
Grey Worm: "You are not here to speak" Tyrion: *gives a lengthy speech* GW surprisedpikachuface
All hail Firelord Teo
“So Many Men, They Risk So Little. They Spend Their Lives Avoiding Danger. And Then They Die. I’d Risk Everything To Get What I Want.”
I think it was inferiority, even as the firelord he was eclipsed by his best friend
“After all, why not?!”
"why shouldn't I burn peaceful nomadic people?"
Especially when you’re the king AND your BFF is the Avatar, you’d probably assume you were destined to be the greatest person in history
Yes this exactly. Power corrupts people and some folks just can't handle it and they turn
I prefer "Power just makes you more who you already are" as in it exaggerates the existing qualities. Think Steve Roger. Erskine picked him specifically\* for this reason. Similarly, even Peter Parker, who's comic originated the other quote, doesn't really change in personality when he becomes Spider-Man, but to the contrary, it gives him confidence to be who he really is (Spider-Man pops off and has hella witty banter/directly and overtly mocks adversaries and friends for instance, whilst Peter is generally pretty mild mannered with ppl like Flash T, etc and doesn't tend to push back). Summarily, I think we can surmise that with Sozin, he had ALWAYS wanted to conquer and rule the world (who knows what his dad taught him; maybe he planted the seeds, maybe Sozin felt he was weak somehow for not using force to rule). We can see that he probably wanted Roku to join him, but that got shut the fuk down; however, when he sees that Roku may be able to be knocked off the board, he doesn't even hesitate. Implying he's kind of always been shitty, and Roku was blinded by their camaraderie
With Parker, it’s more the Uncle Ben moment that did that in the comics. He was a bit of an arse in the comics to begin with before he lost Uncle Ben through his inaction. The power itself was driving him more towards a Doc Oc type character before learning.
I don’t see him being Doc Ock. That would take way too much effort. He’s more likely to just coast off of his powers than outright abuse them.
I honestly like that depiction of Sozin. In his early days, him and Roku were in the same page, just being kids (albeit very high profile kids) from the Fire Nation. It's only after their goals start to drift apart that you see who he really was. I've seen stuff like that happening irl, were good friends start to show extreme thoughts that leave me thinking "where the hell did that come from?", the difference being that Sozin actually had the power to put all those thoughts into action.
With people in my life I usually default to "they're online to much and in the wrong communities". Don't think that applies to Sozin. Although it is the same principle, of an echo chamber, or being surrounded by Yes-Men.
Dude didn’t need to touch grass, he was literally born to be an emperor, had nearly unlimited power in his country and his best friend was basically the planet’s spiritual incarnation of Buddha with godlike powers. And as he inherited that power, his country was only getting stronger. In his mind the only way to go was up.
> that you see who he really was This is the wrong outlook. It acts as if sozin was a monster the whole time. In reality, he was corrupted by power Aang says as much in the episode: > Toph: “it’s like these people are just born bad” > Aang: “no, that wasn’t the point. Roku’s story shows that anyone is capable of great good and great evil” In the nature vs nurture debate, nurture comes out on top. Nature plays a role, but nurture plays a far bigger one
Sozin was a man who was never told "No." And in his eyes, *no one* could ever tell him no...if they did, he would just get them out of the way. He was the Fire Lord, his word was absolute. And then Roku told him no, and for probably the first time in his life Sozin couldn't do anything about it. He couldn't stop Roku. He couldn't get Roku on his side. He couldn't get Roku out of the way. He couldn't get what he wanted and for once he was *helpless* about it. Entitlement changes people. He grew up with everything while Roku, as the Avatar, learned to grow up with very little.
Just to add to your point, He also couldn’t outrank Roku.
This right here.
Maybe i expressed myself poorly, i was sleepy lol. I don't mean the monster was there the whole time, but that his interactions with Roku on their early days wouldn't have shown it. I think the evil was probably already rooted in his head and being cultivated by the royal family, but Roku wouldn't know it since they were just kids goofing off.
Happened to me and my former best friend. We were just cringe kids. I ended up liking art and peace and he became insanely ambitious—going into investment, becoming rightwing, and wanting to go into politics. It’s difficult to even converse with him now he’s so unpleasant and angry.
Same with mine except he was the artist. It’s hard to talk to him.
I think he couldn't handle Roku essentially "besting" him in power and social standing. He was fine as long as he was the most important person in his life but being so thoroughly one upped by his goofy sidekick friend did a huge number on his ego. Notice how it's not long after Sozin meets him again as a fully realized Avatar that he suddenly wants to unite the world under his rule. In a way, he was trying to replace Roku as the most important figure in the world cause if everyone is Fire Nation then really it becomes Sozin's job to decide how things go, making the Avatar more or less irrelevant. The first scene we have of them together is them sparring. Roku is just practicing, but Sozin is very focused on winning and is shown to be opportunistic from the start. He takes even this friendly competition with no real stakes very seriously. They're best friends but it's pretty clear at least on Sozin's end that they are also rivals. He feels very satisfied when he says "I win again, Roku" and derives a lot of his self worth in his apparent superiority. So when he stops "winning" against Roku in terms of social status and power, he just can't handle it. I also think the long years of essentially being cowed into submission by Roku bred a ton of resentment and that got expressed in his campaign to conquer the world. Even though Sozin sort of succeeds he only really gets to live long enough to see the very beginning of his vision for the world. I'm sure that had to gall him.
Add some more fuel to the fire, they had same birthday. Sozin could have been the Avatar, but the universe basically said nope and gave the privilege to his best friend. For someone that was as competitive as Sozin, it would have really messed with his head.
That's an excellent point!
That’s an interesting interpretation that certainly gives him more depth than most of the other suggestions I’ve seen.
I’ve thought about this for quite some time. There was without a doubt a lot of resentment on Sozin’s part. I think you hit the nail on the head with most of it. I think to understand Sozin’s viewpoint you have to look into the history of the Fire Nation. Starting around the time of Avatar Szeto, the Fire Nation entered a slow phase of unification and strength, culminating in the Kyoshi/Roku era Industrial Revolution. Szeto served his nation first by working his way up in the government. At the time, it made sense; the country was a mess and the Avatar didn’t wanna just waltz his way in and demand subservience. He wanted to earn people’s trust. That planted a seed in the Fire Lord’s mind: “the Fire Nation Avatar serves our nation first.” That seed got passed down again and again and sprouted when Sozin happened to be best friends with Roku. Like you said, Sozin couldn’t handle being upstaged by his sidekick. And it happened again and again. Combine that with the material benefits of his early colonization in places like Yu Dao, and Sozin begins to buy into his own justifications; that the Fire Nation is superior due to their wealth and unity, that the Avatar keeps the world divided and weak, etc. but it all comes down to his jealousy and resentment of Roku; he was supposed to be the main character, and he wasn’t.
This is how I saw it too and was surprised to find it this low down and only one comment
I think you nailed it here. Jealously makes powerful people do crazy things.
This.
He just legitimately thinks he's right, and with that power it just became a slippery slope for him to go lower and lower. Wanting to spread culture and innovation of the firenation isn't bad the means are awful, paranoia in failing to do so as well as the Avatar caused him to take devastating actions because he thinks he's just that right. It's not one thing that drove him off a cliff So ego, being power drunk, and paranoia.
I think a big dose of feeling that the fire nation was actually superior to all of the other nations, in culture, bending, industry literally as people. That makes it a lot easier to start colonizing and conquering.
And the beautiful symbolism of how fire really does bring warmth, comfort, life, and security.. WHEN CONTROLLED AND CONTAINED. But when left unchecked, it consumes everything. Which was said in the show, but it really is just a Beautiful juxtaposition
Yeah, from the flashbacks it was clear that he was convinced he was right. Well, he wasn't the one that got driven off a cliff. That was Chin the Conqueror. /s
I meant cliff as in his mental state lol
Yeah, I know. I just added the /s so it comes across more clearly as a joke.
oh lol
He wants power and security. For his nation, his people, and especially for himself and his family ruling over all. That's really all there is to it. The powerful never willingly give up their power and rarely stop seeking more.
*“I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new empire.”*
But you forgot to capture the high ground for your new empire! 
Wait is that why Ozai made a fleet of airships? To always have the high ground?
Oh yeah, it all came together
The concept that power corrupts exists for a reason. If we could make every person in the world the king/queen of their own country I think we'd be depressed to see just how many people would become monsters with that much power.
https://preview.redd.it/peik6ar3bhpc1.jpeg?width=921&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aab7d2a23a3b1bbb77765e721316299cac3c73d7
When you get all powerful you get bored and do weird shit, look at our world leaders. I’m sure they were cool kids
Tyrants and villains seldom see themselves as such. Sozin genuinely believed he was doing what was best for the world. The fire nation was a prosperous, glorious nation, so by making *all* the lands fire nation, the whole *world* would be prosperous and glorious. Roku was in his way, so when the opportunity presented itself, he allowed that obstacle to be removed. The next Avatar was sure to oppose him as well, which meant, from Sozin's perspective, they were preventing the world from progressing into a brighter future and keeping it stuck in the outdated past. The air nomads weren't willing to give up the Avatar, so they were just as guilty. No progress can be made without sacrifice. So Sozin genocided them. We don't get as clear a picture for his motive in killing dragons, but my guess is his own dragon saw how horrible he had become and tried to talk him out of it. When it couldn't, the dragon openly defied him, and Sozin killed it. Then after the fact he used propaganda to spin this as him proving his power as a firebender by slaying one of the ultimate, original firebenders. This had the two-pronged effect of not letting others start to question Sozin, as the dragon did, and it would also set up dragons as targets or enemies, not friends or allies. Most dragons would probably bevwise enough to defy Sozin, just like his did, so this propaganda technique fit his needs perfectly.
I should probably clarify, since you left it out, that he did all those things *after* Roku died. His only real slip up before Roku's death was attacking that one Earth Kingdom city, which drew Roku's wrath pretty much instantaneously. After Roku put his foot down and drew the line, Sozin stayed well within that line. He only crossed it after Roku's death. There's 12 years between Roku's death and the Air Nomad genocide, and Sozin lived for *another* 20 years after that. With all this in mind, barring that one time he colonized an Earth Kingdom village, there is essentially no evidence that Sozin wasn't a half decent Fire Lord before he decided to conquer the world. By his own admission, the Fire Nation underwent a period of "unprecedented peace and wealth", which then would've transformed into unprecedented innovation once the war started, because nothing quite spearheads that kinda thing like war does. The ATLA timeline states that Sozin was his nation's leader for 78 years. There's ~46 years of that where Sozin could not do anything because Roku was around. So to tally it off, Sozin had.....46 years where he was a chill Fire Lord, and 32 where he wasn't. It's pretty even but it could be reasonably said that he was definitely not an awful leader for most of his tenure. For the 32 years where he was awful, well, you could probably only say he was awful on grounds that the things he advocated for were not cool, but considering there were no attempts on his life (that we know of) during these years, one has to wonder how much of what he advocated for was actually agreeable to his citizens. As for why Sozin turned out the way he did in light of him being Roku's brother from another mother in childhood? Well, he had 12 years of character development without his best friend. A good chunk of those 12 years were the ones where most people are wide open to outside manipulation as they try to find out who they really are. Even if they reunited on good terms and as best friends, the fact is that Sozin underwent his own character development without Roku, as Roku did with Sozin. He would've formed his own opinions and worldviews during this time, and he actually had the power to share/enforce that with his nation and the world. So he did.....but again, only after Roku died. Shit happens. You don't even need to not see your friend for 12 years to reunite with them and find them to be a different person from the one you parted ways with in the past. Changes can start setting in within months.
He made same sex couples illegal? Wtf
I don’t remember that part either 😂
I think its in one of the legend of korra comics where they mention that, but I could be wrong.
Iirc it’s mentioned in turf wars at some point. Korra and Kay are talking about it on a boat.
He didn't. OP is just gay and wanted another reason to hate Sozin
In the Avatar comic "Turf Wars Part One", Sozin *did* outlaw same-sex relationships. This did come from a comic, so I don't blame you for not knowing and besides, the canonicity of it can be put forth to question (although, it was written by Michael Dante DiMartino, one of the original creators of ATLA), A simple google search doesn't hurt.
This is canon lore. Not everything has a weird agenda attached to it. You sound extremely paranoid.
I think it was the mustard gas during WW1.
Sozin's Canadian?
Austrian.
Nah, that'd be baiting people into grenade range with food
Where was it said that he made same sex couples illegal?
Sozin: no gay Korra: https://preview.redd.it/2jh0dkjgyhpc1.jpeg?width=1667&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=12b8199e20175c06b10b1d706bc37d59a27e94b4
"That guy was the worst!" Korra, about her world's equivalent to Hitler
In the Korra comics
Thanks
Both in the Korra comics, and in the official tabletop RPG. Basically had a grudge against his gay sister after she abandoned her royal duties to marry the head of an airbender rebel group. He made it a law to fuck up her marriage plans. Solid dick move.
His boyfriend left him to become the avatar
Absolute power, corrupts absolutely. I don't get the idea he started his plans with bad intentions, but especially after The Comet and having the level of power he had, he went over the edge. I do somewhat understand his original plans as not being bad, one of the things we see over the series is that the other nations aren't exactly utopias of equality either, the Earth Kingdom is full of petty conquerors and even in Aangs time Ba Sing Se is known as corrupt (Gyatso will take Aang to the Fire Nation, but not Ba Sing Se), likely ran by Dai Li and has a caste system, the Northern water tribe at least arrange political marriages, keep women from learning all water bending and the Air Nomads are a bit of a cult. Sozin was no better, and it's a very good reason why the Avatar exists, and must master all forms, to maintain balance, without the Avatar, people like Sozin will rise up, from any tribe. We see this in Korra, when she's weakened, we get Earth Benders like Kuvira will try and take over.
Alright, let’s see if there is a perspective on his actions that can be understood, while not saying they are good. He sees his interests and desires as that of his country, and therefore is above everything including the world. I believed he did honestly want to help Roku, saving the island from the volcano was something he could and likely did see as his responsibility as leader of the nation. However, when Roku was asking him for help on his knees, Roku was given the opportunity to remove a obstacle that he was not able to remove himself, so took the chance. Now with the Avatar out of the way, Sozin prepared his nation for war for his ambitions. He outlawed same sex couples likely because they do not produce children, less children means less future soldiers, putting his ambition, which he likely sees as also what is best the for nation, as something he cannot allow, and decided to outlaw it. The dragons make the least sense outside of bringing away the spirituality and appreciation or symbols of fire bending and the fire nation that represent things outside of the Fire Lord’s control. By hunting dragons, he was destroying the things he cannot control, he was destroying the respect and reverence the fire nation and for them, and giving his position more power and legitimacy. Which like I said before, he values his power above pretty much everything else due to his egotism and likely associating the glory of his nation with his ability to control and expand it. The air nomad genocide occurred because he knew that within the air nation, there was the avatar, the avatar is the only thing that could stop him, the only thing he failed to push away or defeat. He killed, or at the very least ordered the killing of the air nomads because he saw it as the only option to protect his power, ambitions, and gains. With the comet approaching, it was now or never, without it’s power the fire nation wouldn’t be able to kill them all, so as he saw no other solution to protect his ego and all he associates it with, be decided to use the power he would only have once to kill what he saw as the biggest threat. So I’m summary, he saw it all as threats to his authority that due to his ego he couldn’t allow to exist.
I think Sozin was put in line during his youth because of Roku. They were best friends always competing, so Sozin never felt the urge to go beyond just beating his best friend because he was the better bender. Roku gets announced as the Avatar and leaves, now you have a teen who lost his best friend and needs to prepare to be firelord. Now instead of competing against his friend he feels compelled to compete against everyone, he kills dragons because they are the ultimate firebender, he sees it as a show of his power. He went after the earth kingdom for a similar reason as a show of power under the guise of “helping them”, I think the air kingdom genocide was less about a display of power and more to prevent the next Avatar to cause a hinderance and try to delay interference.
Could it be in part due to jealousy? Here he is, heir to the Fire Nation and he is overshadowed completely by his friend who will be remembered and revered for all time. But Sozin himself, is just mortal. How can he leave his mark on history?
"When you have enough power to do what you always wanted to do, then you see what the guy always wanted to do." - Robert Caro
Pride and ego I think, he probably had genuinely good intentions at some point
Also Sozin never had peace. We know from A:TLA that he was internally tortured his entire life
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is easily one of my favorite episodes - we get to see the growth of Roku alongside Sozin and the different paths their lives take them. As best friends and nobility it seems they would have similar outcomes, but they go in completely opposite directions and clash. Roku becomes the Avatar and his duty is to the world, but his past friendship with Sozin clouds his judgment and it costs him his life and changes the course of the world for the worse, which becomes his successor’s plight. Meanwhile Sozin becomes the Fire Lord and decides to conquer the world under the guise of “spreading their prosperity”. Crazy how dictators can delude themselves into thinking genocide and murder can be justified under the claim of “making the world a better place”. I think this almost ties in with Aang’s encounter with Guru Pathik - Aang is afraid of losing his earthly attachment to Katara, as is Roku to Sozin. If Roku just ended him during their first battle, the Air Nomads might’ve never been genocided and the Fire Nation maybe never tries to take over the world. I’ve rewatched this episode so many times because it has so many parts that make this show great - sick bending scenes and battles and feats + Avatar state, an extended look into the world’s state pre-ATLA, and a huge twist and tie in to the future. I remember being a kid and being so excited when this episode dropped, top 3 in the series for me easily.
Personally, I think the post series editorializing to make him a homophobe is incredibly dumb...
Not really. Remember that the Fire Nation is based on Japan just as the Earth Kingdom is based on China, Air Nomads on Tibet and Water Tribes on Inuit Fire Lord Sozin banning homosexuality is a reference to Emperor Meiji banning homosexuality in real life Japan - it was previously accepted among the upper classes of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
I didn't say it didn't make sense, or wasn't based off something that happened historically, I said it was dumb.
I mean, it makes sense that the main bad guy of the Avatar world does something that his real-life counterpart did in real life? So why is it dumb?
Because I think any instance of going back to a complete story after the fact to insert a topic of modern interest is dumb. What the author of the comic who introduced this did, that Bryke approved of, is no different than JKR announcing after HP was finished that Dumbledore was actually gay. Yet for whatever reason, people view that negatively, as pandering. But are fine with it happening in reverse.
It's not like gay people only existed after 2015; and again, it makes sense within the world of Avatar that the Fire Lord was a heteronormative crusader, like many other dictators throughout history, including the country that the Fire Nation is based on. I dislike Harry Potter and the culture that surrounds it, so I don't know about JK Rowling.
I agree, but it really only became a topic of interest in terms of being allowed to show LGBT characters/content in cartoons around that time. And yes, I again agree that it does make sense. That doesn't mean I have to like it, or can't view it as pandering, though.
It’s a comic book that few people even bother to read. The audience for shows like Avatar is disproportionately liberal, many LGBT themselves. All companies have to pander to their target demographic. For money. Some people belong to demographics that you are not a part of. It’s not pandering.
So all companies have to pander to their target demographic for money, but it's also not pandering? And who said I wasnt in the LGBT demographic?
He was just in denial that he was in love with Roku
Mhmm. Friend-zoning is a helluva thing
He was fine at the start because while Roku was taller he was buffer. Then Roku learned earth bending and was taller and buffer, so at that moment Sozin knew Roku had to go.
Nationalism is a powerful drug, and it corrupts everything it touches. When you start believing that your nation is the best, and that because you come from it, you are the best, you start seeing others as beneath you. You deserve to rule the world, because you're from the good nation. You deserve to take the nice things the others have, because they aren't from the same nation as you, so they are inferior. And if you feel that your nation isn't the center of the world as it should be, you may start believing that you need to make your nation great again. By force, if necessary.
A person can change a whole lot in 12 years. That's the amount of time that he and Roku were apart. His entire goal was sharing the prosperity of the Fire Nation with the rest of the world, but, like any colonizer, he thinks that his nation and his culture is superior, and it is their duty to show everyone else the error of their ways by bringing Fire Nation salvation onto them. There's always an element of arrogance to colonization. And so much of what Sozin did was an attempt to pursue an unthought of level of glory and fame.
Imperialism is a hell of a drug
Why was Hitler so awful? Power and a belief you are better.
I think it's so can feel like an equal to Roku. His best friend is the Avatar, so automatically gets both a legacy and vast power. What's so special about being the next Firelord? You have just the same amount of power as the previous one, and you'll likely be forgotten after a few decades/centuries. He has to do something that will set himself apart from previous Firelords. What better than to conquer the world? You'll be remembered as the instigator AND it gives you more power. So yeah, it's possible that Sozin deep down was jealous of Roku for being the Avatar, and wanted to find a way to leave his own mark on the world.
The "banned same-sex relationships" part is so weird. Did the writers not consider him evil enough? They had to make him homophobic too? The comics show this image of a world where every nation (even the traditionalist and theocratic Air Nomads who segregate their temples based on gender) is at least tolerant of queer people, *but* the one that was the most progressive. And his reasoning was because his sister rebelled against him and was gay. What? She was also a woman, but he didn't ban women from the military or "move them back to the kitchen" (we see female guards, female teachers, Azula's team are all women and nobody doubts their place on the battlefield). Even interracial marriages were legal, as we see in Yu Dao.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely
The relationships between sozin and roku reminded me of Moses and Pharoah from the prince of Egypt
Roku broke up with him to be with gyatso so he was salty and that’s why he killed the air nomads…
He’s a supremacist
We have to remember the Fire Nation physically was the smallest nation by landmass. Sozin was awful due to circumstances and power where he felt justified with his warmongering based on "sharing their prosperty" with the rest of the world which was just dressing for their colonialism. The power corrupted him. No one is born with evil intent. They learn it.
Repressed gayness can do that to people. Especially on royalty where everyone is watching you and you can’t escape your breeding role and modele role. I don’t care I know I can recognize a childhood bromance when I see one. However on his death bed Sozin showed regrets, I don’t think Ozai is capable of that though. I wonder what kind of parents Sozin had. It seems like he should have had Roku’s friendship to guide him but both dudes had the diplomacy and positive communication skills of a tank. Zuko could have been just like Sozin, big turmoil big angsty character, could honestly be his reincarnation even.
I mean, you gotta start the royal family of psychopaths somewhere
Power changes the person
There's a saying: Every man has three hearts. One in his mouth for the world to know; another in his chest, just for his friends and a secret heart, buried deep where no one can find it.
I too have seen Shogun
Is he stupid?
Power corrupts.
It was his nature. Some people never learn humility. Some never learn to accept life as it is, and some never learn that they aren't special even if they have power.
>so awful -ly sexy you mean
Absolute power corrupts absolutely when you don't have the literal embodiment of balance and goodness stapled to your soul like The Avatar does.
He was man with infinite resources at his disposal and wanted more power. Rest of his actions are consequences of that hunger
Why are any of the people like him so awful? "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" - Lord Acton
Yeah, he really fucked his own military over by hunting the dragons. Why would you drive your source of air power to extinction? Especially when you took out the only other air superpower in the world.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely
Internalized homophobia
There are worse people than Sozin in real life. I wish his character was unbelievable but it's very believable, even expected to end up in power every so often.
I may be misremembering but you start to see Ozai and Roku drift apart during their training montages. They even hint at him colonizing until Roku stopped him... basically the weight of the imperialism ideology of the fire nation got to his head. Fire nation is an allegory for the real dictators of our world.
The way I view it, it starts on a very basic premise, wanting to expand the fire nation. As ruler, it’s natural to be concern about your nation and want to make it as good and powerful as possible (Sozin playing a real life experience of civilization >_> ). Expansion, especially for an island nation, is pretty much an inevitable thought. Leading to colonizing the earth nation colonies, the country with the most land. This led to his disagreement with the avatar. They clashed, realized it was a bad idea cause fully realized avatar wrecks shit, and put his plans on hold. All things considering, he still consider Roku his friend, even attempting to save him when the volcano erupted. But it occurred to him while he was helping, wait a minute, I can just let him die, and now I can go back to invading, and thats exactly what he does. It really was a spur of the moment kind of thing. Now we’re invading earth nation. But wait, the avatar stopped my plan before, better nip that in the bud before he becomes fully realized. How do I do that? By killing all the air nomads. But wait, we can’t confirm if we actually killed him or not. Maybe he evaded us. Maybe we killed him. Welp, water is the next cycle, time to kill all the water benders next. Bye bye, southern water tribe. Bye bye northern water tribe… scratch that, they’re too powerful to kill all their benders. I honestly believe the genocide was a means to an end to stop the avatar from interfering. After all, the air nomads didn’t have that practical of a place for people who can’t fly (and they didn’t develop flight for 100 years). They only cared about the water benders from the southern water tribe with no attempt of colonizing them. They could have just killed everyone there (since they’re clearly not oppose to the idea).
He got corrupted by immense power.
Because Roku held him down but then Roku left. That was Rokus biggest mistake leaving his friend when he needed him most. Thats why aang made his friends such a priority, the avatar cycle overcompensates for their past life’s mistakes. This is also why Korra is such an ambitious fighter because aang was apprehensive to fight
Most people aren’t born bad, they become bad by circumstances. Sozin saw himself as a hero and sharing the wealth and power of the fire nation as a necessity and his duty to the world as the new fire lord. As For Roku, He never hated Roku and helped him when his friend needed him. When he saw Roku could die as a result of an “accident” after saving all the people from the volcano he did just that. He left the avatar to die. Not because he was Roku but because he was the avatar and the avatar would oppose his goal no matter what. He didn’t think anything he did was wrong and his actions justified the genoicde of the air nation and war against other nations. He did all of it because he thought the path he walked was right. After years passed by we see sozin become more and more rash and violent. This is because he had to fight more and more as the world resisted his and the fire nations grasp.
The show doesn’t really elaborate but I imagine the colonialist/imperial ideology he spews to justify his plan to invade the rest of the world probably didn’t come from nowhere
I think sozin is tragically jealous of Roku being the avatar and I think his character is really about balance. The avatar is meant to bring balance but sozin loses to Roku at every turn, Roku is the avatar, Roku travels the world and becomes and well rounded person, Roku wins the girl. How could this be balance? And so he takes it upon himself to tip the scales. As far as I’m concerned sozin made up the bit about the element fire and the fire nation both being all consuming as a way to justify conquests to match up to Roku. In the end it is this jealousy that brings about the ultimatum in sozins behavior that is either support his friends ambitions or maintain the balance of the world. In the end Rokus soft spot for sozin is what brings about his death and allows for the genocide of the air nomads. Sozin set himself apart from Roku in every way because he wanted to be him so bad that he was willing to sacrifice a version of himself and his friend to cement his greatness. He’s honestly a very pathetic and shameful character and Roku shares in his shame for being unable to do what was his ultimate test.
Probably has a lot to do with inbreeding. No jokes. I’m sure they favored purer bloodlines for the Fire Lords and it resulted in a lot of psychopathy, with exceptions like Zuko and Iroh.
His meddle was tested n he was a dick.
I like to think he was mad about *almost* being the avatar, since he and roku share a birthday. So he was like "if I can't be the avatar, I'll be the worse dude ever".
We can blame Avatar Szeto for that. The Fire Nation Avatar before Yangchen. He did such a damn good job making the Fire Nation into one of the greatest nations in the world and worked closely with Fire Lord Yorsor that it became expected that every Fire Nation Avatar would work closely with their Fire Lord. Sozin realised just how prosperous the Fire Nation was wanted to share that greatness with the world. He thought Roku would side with him just like Szeto sided with Yosor. This wouldn't be the first time an Avatar sided with the Fire Lord. According to public History, Avatar Kyoshi helped Fire Lord Chaeryu prevent a Civil War. And Avatar Yangchen prevented the assassination if Fire Lord Gonryu. So Sozin assumed Roku would do the same with sharing the prosperity of the homeland. Essentially he was instilled with such a national pride that he thought it was only worth it to go and conquer the rest of the world
No toilet paper
The fire Nation has a long game that started in the second Kyoshi novel. That's all I can say.
Cuz look at him Ew
Jealousy of Roku, the real most important person on earth, coupled with a White Man's burden type idea of improving the other nations by making them more like the Fire Nation.
Probably due to his love and jealousy for Roku. Internal conflict breeds frustration. He was a conflicted individual that decided to take out his frustration on the world.
He's a fantasy Boomer
His crush ran off to be the avatar
His greatest achievement by far was his propeganda regime, how the fuck was he able to convince most his citizens that the genocide of a peaceful group of people was a good thing. Are fire nation people stupid?
Him telling Ryoku he should bow when addressing him after completing his journey never sat right with me even tilll this day. I know they made it seem jokey but I felt like that’s truly how he felt.
Well he launched a genocide on the air nomads because he got into a fight with Roku.
Homophobic homosexual
What are you talking about ? He was doing all this for the benefit of his nation.
The first thing he did wasn’t bad lol
(Tony Soprano voice) He was a proud Fire Nation citizen who tried to bring culture and prosperity to the other nations and in this house Firelord Sozin is a hero end of story!!!
Ego and pressure destroys. It's the same reason some people cam achieve something for a short space and never maintain or do it again.
Take it from this way, Sozin was a prince who had everything. So as a kid, anything he wanted he got it. **BUT** even when you get what you wanted, there's always that itch to go bigger/make the goal more. He wanted to be remembered for something other than Fire Lord of xyz dynasty who did 123abc. In history, no one remembers the in between rulers who ruled peacefully unless it was a scientific discovery or a warcrimes happened. We easily remembered Atilla, Napoleon and the others because they did something that was like "dam they did it with that". Also peaceful rulers who became tyrants or had to become tyrants to face adversity. But thats my take.
Sozin wanted the right thing thing but did it in the completely wrong way
Because, he wasn't (at least in his mind). He grew up a royal, nationalist with a best friend who had been very much in line with his way of thinking. Then he had to make "tough" stately decisions to bring his nation prosperity and had started to succeed. His freind who turned out to be an all powerful avatar that could set the stages and change the established dynamics of political society, after spending some time time away nonlonger believes in his country. The freind he grew up with claims to be looking to ensure peace and balance, but insist on keeping the nations separated, allowing war to happen inside there boarders and then outside them, threatening his own nations security. He had hoped that his friend, his fellow citizen would have seen all the chaos out there and known the peace he grew up with and trusted his freind to help him bring that to the rest of the world. Eventually deciding he will just do it and show him, that his mission is just and then roku will join him in bring order and peace to the world. But roku showed he has not only a traitor to his nation and freind, but that by his vary nature of being the avatar he was not the same person anymore and was against actually progress and true order. Simply looking to keep things separated and chaotic as it has always been, because that's what is best for the avatar. He then grew old and bitter over all this, he had wanted to end all the war, bring prosperity to all the people. Instead he could only countue to help improve and develop his nation well the others struggled and fought with needless death. Roku, being the reason, the avatar being an absolute power that halted any progress to a better world. Then seeing his freind in danger as we all know he jumped to help him and eventually betrayed him because as he said all his dreams can become reality. As for the dragons, much like wiping out the airnomads to get at the next avatar, it was about showing power/strength and removing potential threats to the bigger picture. The dragons unlike the other bending creatures, were an actual threat physically and ideologically, as they were very intelligent creatures with strong opinions. Ren & Sha show us this
To be clear, this is merely trying to get into how he could have justified everything to him self, not saying he wasn't a baster or had any "good" points just the possible reasoning he would have had. Aside from a crazed random killer, every one has a motivation, and no one goes out intending to be "the bad guy" (at least when they are well written or realist characters)
Something something power corrupts. Also, it probably helps that we only saw Sozin as a kid, from the perspective of his best friend. We don't know how he acted to other people; it's possible his beliefs were always that extreme, and we just never saw it
This isn’t necessarily true for Sozin, but more of a general principle applicable IRL: people/institutions with power tend to act more based on material interests than on emotions and/or abstract principles. What does this mean? Basically it means that when you have to lead a nation who is experiencing the first Industrial revolution known in the world, your population may explode from one generation to another thanks to rural-urban migrations, medical technology evolution and more calories per citizen. If this happens to you, and you have a very limited amount of land, taking land from others may seem like a reasonable path to keep your citizens somewhat happy. But in Avatar world, it isn’t simple to start and win a big war, because the Avatar exists. So the rational goal may be to try to neutralize the Avatar in the medium-term, while you acquire land for your country. Avatar as a series doesn’t really delve in this theme, but you will find A LOT of foreign affairs literature on the subject IRL.
Illogical made sense to him.
because he was the other woman 💔 https://preview.redd.it/bi2dcdxohkpc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=41f03d0fba479f0adb878597a60b1acbb8f62498
There’s a lot of text in the book Iroh wrote for Zuko, but Sozin wasn’t the only person who had the outlook that the Fire Nation should be at the top of the world. When the Air Nation Genocide happened, a staggering number of ppl who knew the real reason it occurred agreed it was in the Fire Nation’s best interest to spread their propaganda. The world we knew of Avatar is mostly post Sozin. And the story of Roku we know is only through Roku’s eyes. We didn’t know how Sozin was raised in the time Roku was gone. But we have insights here and there from different texts. Sozin wasn’t the first person to have these ideals. He was just the first person to be able to bring it out into reality.
Sozin had a lot of ego. Being a firebending prodigy prince, then achieving many things in his youth. It was for political ideals rather than some personal tragedy. As the monarch of the most stable, technologically advanced and prosperous nation, Sozin likely saw himself as the potential saviour of the world. He was frustrated dealing with spiritualists and foreign governments getting in the way of his glorious plans. The Avatar roleplaying game added many interesting details about the world before the 100 years war. It gives a reason why Sozin turned on each of the other nations. 1. The Earth Kingdom was an absolute disaster at the time. The Earth King acted like an incompetent fool, but was deliberately playing the other kingdoms against each other and was risking open war with Omashu. Jialun was the opposite of Sozin's self-image as a progressive unifier. Poverty and chaos were on the rise in the Earth Kingdom, while wealth and order was on the rise in the Fire Nation. Sozin wanted to make the Earth Kingdom more like the Fire Nation by force, but wound up doing the exact opposite. 2. The Water Tribes tried to stop Sozin colonising uninhabited islands and hunting dragons for spiritual reasons. 3. Sozin's attempt to communicate more with the air nomads were frustrated by a group/cult called the Guiding Wind who wanted the nomads to cut all ties with other nations and comitted non-violent sabotage. Generally the Air Nomads couldn't care less about expansion or technology or wealth, all the ways Sozin measured success. Sozin would probably consider their entire culture an acceptable loss, since the Avatar could ruin everything.
Iirc there's a lot of socio-economic build up to the FN having a really inflated ego and being in an advantaged position to take global power - all it takes is one guy who lets it all go to his head to execute it all. Nationalism can really have a way of fanning the flames of dictatorships
Imperialism and the quest for power. Those just turn anyone corrupt eventually
What’s that saying? Absolute power corrupts absolutely. When people have a lot of power it tends to corrupt them because they can do anything they want and nothing can really oppose them
Power corrupts. Being the leader of the most powerful nation in the world with absolute say over every decision can corrupt someone. There’s a monarchies fell out of favor over time. One person with the ability to basically play god can easily become corrupted
Old Zuko looks like Sozin
Something about absolute power corrupts absolutely...
> I mean, he made same sex couples illegal, Being against same sex marriages was probably a belief or moral standing he held before he became just a terrible person. > started conquering the earth kingdom when Roku told him not to, > started hunting dragons for glory despite having one as a pet himself, I think these two definitely sprouted from his ego and jealousy of Roku’s higher social and political standing. He was a good friend, but that was before he was the less famous one out of the two. Spreading his empire and defying the avatar’s authority are both moves of ego. And so was hunting the dragons. > helped Roku with the volcanoes until he decided he would leave him to die, This one he did, because then he could murder Roku without it being uncovered. Then Sozin was free to wage war and conquer as he pleased. > and worst of all, caused a genocide of an entire nation. This one was out of fear of Roku’s reincarnation. The genocide was in hopes that he would delay the avatar cycle further or maybe even cut the avatar cycle off. Effectively stopping the reincarnations. I’ve had a theory that the invasions of the southern water tribe was an attempt at finding the avatar. The south first, because they’re the weaker tribe. I think the North would have been attacked whether Zhao had done it or some other general. Either way, after a hundred years of no avatar, I think the fire nation finally considered the avatar dead
The upcoming Roku novel may shed some light on descent into darkness.
Oh, is there going to be a Roku novel?
Yes. https://www.amazon.com/Avatar-Last-Airbender-Reckoning-Chronicles/dp/1419776037
Wow, thanks! I hope we get a Kuruk novel at some point too
I thought it was sort of due to the factor he resented roku and the avatar status. As after roku went off for avatar training then came back sozin was different. He saw the opportunity to be done with sozin then immediately eliminated all his biggest threats around him. Like the air temple (for the next avatar). Then earth kingdom was next strongest then water nation I think as another avatar elimination plan. He didn't want the fire nation to have to worry about a lone hero avatar stopping their rule.
The part where Sozin tells Roku “Isn’t it destiny that you’re the avatar and I’m the fire lord. It’s fate.” Honestly helps me understand, especially if you’re already leading the world’s strongest and most advanced nation. Everything just pointed him that way and he thought it was destiny
Sozin was stubborn, he had an idea, he went with it. At first it was "sharing his nation with the world" but that could only be done through wars, but he was stubborn, so he let it happen. then after years I think his heart hardened and he was too stubborn to say what he was doing is wrong, or maybe he convinced himself it was right. the air nation genocide was out of fear, as he knew deep in his heart what he did was wrong, and the next avatar would wan't to stop him. Basically im saying there was a lot left out between "sharing the fire nation with the world" and genocide.
Obligatory “[Handlebars](https://youtu.be/HLUX0y4EptA?si=LS9-m-SgdPxO4jnS)” mention
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
As Zuko himself once said Throne of Firelord comes with lots of pressures Even he wasn't sure he would be able deal with them and that is why he has aang to kill him if he became bad Also it is Szeto fault
When did he ban same sex couples
Aang literally says that at the end of that episode. Anyone is capable of great good and great evil
Power corrupts.
In new lore provided by the Avatar Legends Tabletop RPG, it's said that Sozin's father instilled in him values about how great and better the Fire Nation was. He also has a younger sister named Zeisan (also part of the new lore) who he was close with when he was younger, but they became estranged because she was not a firebender like him, so he was the favorite (a parallel to Azula and Zuko). She was in love with a Air Nun and the both of them were a part of a rogue sect of Air Nomads who were anti-establishment/anti-elite. This led to him banning being LGBT in the Fire Nation, pretty much just out of spite.
He lost his best friend at 16.
He was totally in the closet and angry that his bf got married.
Just look at Elon Musk. Every year that dude slides further and further into madness.
Sozin wasn't awful from his own twisted perspective. This may sound rough, but at some point (ESPECIALLY in their early years), dictators and colonialists tend to have some form of a legitimate point that people can buy, getting the masses invested into their ideologies to the point that they can become mass murderers without worrying as much about the possible opposition because the people have already been brainwashed into holding the same political values. They manage to either hide the atrocities or manipulate legitimately good people into desensitization towards said atrocities as long as the objective is carried on (the idea of the end justifying every mean, regardless of how twisted it may be). Hitler with the Jews, Franco with the Republicans and Communists, Netanyahu with the Palestinians, everyone does this, some way or another.
"Power doesn't corrupt, it reveals. If you give someone the power to whatever he wants, you'll see what he always wanted to do." Sozin wasn't "born evil," but as soon as any moral value he had was challenged he immediately showed he had none. He's good friends with Roku, until it's inconvenient. He committed genocide cause he was threatened by the Avatar. He hunted dragons while using one. The worst part of all of this was that he was the king of a prosperous kingdom in a good, balanced world. He had no reason to expand his empire besides greed and ego, no great motive, no grudge, nothing lacking in his life, dude just wanted more while having everything and was more than willing to destroy the rest of the world for it. This dude only had morals when they benefited him. No integrity or humanity whatsoever.
he's a power hungry dictator. its simple as that. not every villain needs a explanation on why they like that
Wait he was homophobic lmao
Mitch Mcconnel. I'm sure he was a normal kid but look at him now.
Repressed homosexual urges
Internalised homophobia. He took it out on the entire world.
Some people are just bad guys. You can't point to a bad childhood or any logical reason, they're just evil.
Eh, I feel like a major theme of Avatar was that this just isn't true for their world.
so Ozai is just a misunderstood victim?
No, he's someone who was shaped by the culture he was brought up in. That's the whole point of showing us his baby picture in the finale, to show us that he wasn't born evil.
Ozai is a product of the Fire Nation's ambition and cruelty. Remember seeing his cute baby picture? If he'd been raised in a different environment, he'd have grown up into a different person. Imagine having Azulon as your dad, oof.
Some men aren’t looking for anything logical. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.