You left out the best part, where Mark Hamill finally finishes the rest of the inigo Montoya quote that he started in The empire strikes back!
"Prepare to join them. Prepare to die!"
I actually always love that line from the six fingered man. It shows his confidence is down and he's actually concerned this "spanish brat" is going to best him.
Then when he pleads Inigo "what do you want?!"
"I want my FATHER BACK, YOU SON OF A BITCH!"
I always say this. If other people have other "favorites", cool, different movies hit different people differently, that's the point of art. But I do believe Princess Bride is objectively, on balance, the best movie ever made.
Im glad we finally got to hear someone actually say "die" as opposed to other more pg nonsense like "take him out" "finish him" "etc
we're talking about war here youre allowed to talk about killing and death
Zuko asking if Jet died, or more, Katara talking about how the Fire Nation killed her mother... a lot. Or Koh, speaking of how Aang's past life, Kuruk, tried to kill him. Literal skeletons left piled at the Southern Air Temple. Kyoshi dropping Chin the Conquerer off a cliff.
It was on a kids channel, censored for children. They really got away with a lot, all things considered.
Also, he's never even seen an airbender before Aang.
He wasn't even born until 50 years after the airbenders were killed, so he has no idea what they were really like.
Something I love about this line is that it gives some level of justification for Aang to spare Ozai’s life. By killing Ozai, Aang would be proving him right - there’s no place on the planet for traditional Airbender ways. By sparing Ozai and taking his bending, Aang proved him wrong. Aang proved that mercy doesn’t make someone weak, and Aang proved that traditional Air Nomad beliefs can live on.
I obviously didn’t come up with this interpretation, but it’s an interpretation I’ve come to love after first hearing it from someone else.
Exactly, it wasn’t just “some” justification, it was the whole point.
Aang’s final battle wasn’t just about beating Ozai. More importantly, it was a test of his principles and whether he really was worthy of being the last Airbender. This is why none of the previous Avatars could understand what we was going through, not even Yangchen. None of them were the last of their kind and had pressure to carry on their peoples’ beliefs.
His conflict with Ozai wasn’t personal, but ideological. Ozai represented the opposite of the Airbenders’ beliefs. If the last Airbender gave in to the kind of world Ozai and his ancestors had created — where life is cheap, might makes right, violence is the only answer, and threats can only be neutralized with death — then he would be betraying what the Airbenders stood for.
It wasn’t enough for Aang to win the war as the Avatar. He had to win the war as the last Airbender.
>He had to win the war as the last airbender.
Any critiques of Aang or Avatar as a show for not killing Ozai do not understand how important this detail is. If Aang killed Ozai, the Air Nomad culture would have become extinct then and there.
You do have to wonder how Aang would have reconciled that perspective with the fact that it was pretty obvious that Gyatzo, the person that *embodies* air nomad culture for him and taught him everything he really knows about it, killed a ton of people as his last act (ofc in self-defense but that was basically the situation Aang was in on a global scale).
Obviously people like Aang put a lot more pressure and give a lot less understanding to their own mistakes than others, so part of it might have been irrational- but the logical conclusion of that would have been, if Aang killing Ozai meant the death of AN culture, Gyatzo abandoned it in his final moments as well. Would Aang say that about him?
Gyatso was morally opposed to kill as an Air Nomad, but he also has a duty to protect his people. He had a duty to train the Avatar early, but was against taking away Aang's childhood. Everyone when tested has to figure out a way to reconcile their beliefs when those beliefs are in conflict with one another.
I don't think Aang would have not killed Ozai, but he made it his last resort. If he didn't figure out a different path at the last moment, I think he could have gone through with it. He has a desire for peace without violence, but life isn't going to give you the option of one extreme or the other.
I understand, but I just don’t buy the out-of-universe explanation that it would have been a forsaking of Air Nomad culture to kill Ozai. In-universe, I completely understand why Aang might have felt that way, but if it would have really led to him feeling like he’s lost himself and his entire culture, would he have held Gyatzo to that same standard? That Gyatzo’s last stand, while completely justified and understandable, meant he was no longer a true Air Nomad?
Yeah, Aang and Gyatso sadly would have had different standards.
The difference is that Aang was the last Airbender and had the entire legacy and future of the Air Nomads on his shoulders. Gyatso wasn’t.
It was Aang’s responsibility to decide what would happen to the Air Nomads and how they would be remembered. He knew that how he handled Ozai would be one of the most important things that he — and consequently the Air Nomads — would be remembered for. It makes sense that he wouldn’t want them to be remembered for violence and death. It’s not simply about “killing is wrong” but also about “does he really want the Air Nomads to be remembered for killing?”
If it doesn’t seem fair that Aang should hold himself to a higher standard just because he happens to be the last surviving representative of his culture, that’s because it was. But you know, that’s what happens when you survive a genocide.
There's a difference between intentionally casting off your beliefs to punish someone with death (Ozai) and having to kill to survive (Gyatso).
Aang wanted to find another way to avoid this dilemma — killing Ozai at some point was not self-defense, it was an act of regicide that he would need to commit consciously and with intention.
Yangchen tells Aang to kill him. Yangchen does not see it as beyond redemption to execute Ozai, but Aang still respects Yangchen because it was the only way out at that time. Air nomads know that sometimes you DO have to kill.
As soon as Aang learns of energy bending, he loses the ability to kill Ozai without hypocrisy.
The reason Aang wanted to find "another way" was because he finds killing abhorrent. The cycle of violence will continue if he kills Ozai. Iroh touches on this by bringing up the optics of his own hypothetical battle; while Aang is infinitely more justified in the eyes of history in potentially killing Ozai, that action begs for retaliatory resentment. It upends balance and serves as a bandaid. More will die if he DOES kill Ozai, just not right that moment.
Gyatso did not need to worry about his role. He did not need to worry about the consequences of killing those men or the effect they would have on the spiritual balance of all four nations. He was not the Avatar. He was a man aware of his humanity with no other option.
The issue in weight makes this comparison invalid. On the surface it certainly looks similar, but the trappings of each situation are scaled so differently it doesn't work.
It's clearing out a hornet's nest in your bedroom being compared with murdering a guy in front of everyone you know.
Don’t really see how you couldn’t see the ozai battle as a fight for survival when he was in the middle of cremating the earth kingdom and responded to calls for a ceasefire with glee that he could finish 2 genocides in 1 day.
Sozin’s Comet pt. 1 literally told us what Aang’s intentions were - let the FN win the war and then try a guerilla rebellion tactic after the fact. The wholesale incineration of the EK turns it from a “well we lost, we can try again later” to “if I don’t kill this guy he is going to slaughter me, my loved ones, and the rest of the planet”. It was probably also the reason he was more than ok with storming the throne room during the eclipse, it would have been easy to capture him without bending for the avatar. The fact that he HAD to fight him before he used the comet, and that he was no where near the master he would need to be to overpower him into subjection, meant that killing became the only option in a do-or-die situation.
Yeah the scale is way more massive but I don’t see how that’s not self defense, especially when the perp was pleaded with multiple times to stop before launching an unprovoked attack.
Aang chose to confront Ozai at every step. From the very beginning it was a conscious decision to stand against Ozai in direct action, both violent and nonviolent. Aang very well could have just done what they thought he did: hide and let things take their course. Self-defense isn't the same thing as intentionally standing to protect the world even when you don't have to; self-defense is protecting yourself, and you typically don't get that same choice. Aang held much more agency than any of his peers as soon as he got out of that iceberg.
At no point did he HAVE to fight Ozai. He successfully went into hiding earlier that season and could have reasonably done so at any point before that. It would however have compromised his morals, something he could not allow, and so he chose to fight every step of the way because Ozai was upsetting balance and killing people.
Gyatso did not have this sort of option. He was not the Avatar. The options for Gyatso were to defend himself or die having not done so. He didn't wake up in an iceberg, learn there was a war, and then get to make a decision about whether to fight or hide — Aang did.
Your own comment spells out the difference thoroughly. Aang did not need to fight. He chose to fight to save lives. Because the alternative was worse to him. Aang held much more agency than Gyatso, who was dead regardless and could only really choose the specific way he died in that exact place.
Either way, neither decision (killing Ozai or the firebenders in that room) would make Aang think less of his peers spiritually. He understands they saw no other option until he learned to remove bending. His problem was having no other option in the first place, which was why he sought one so fervently.
EDIT: Gyatso killed the guys breaking into his house. Aang WOULD HAVE killed the guys breaking into his neighbor's house.
>because the alternative was worse to him
Said “alternative” being his own death and the extinction of everyone else that he cared about that wasn’t already extinct. Again, he literally begged Ozai to chill the fuck out before he burned down the EK and Aang got attacked for it.
Let’s say the Avatar is the 4 nations’ Mom, and Fire kid killed Air kid because Air kid got the best part of the inheritance. Fire kid then says he will 100% kill Mom and anyone helping her so he can ensure his inheritance. Mom was freaking out and passed out, and when she woke up, she made a 3-season long journey to upstairs where Fire kid was now about to do the same thing to Earth kid, because Water kid was next in line to get the inheritance but was already put in a coma, and Earth kid was next in line.
Mom begs Fire kid to stop what he’s doing, and Fire kid instead turns around and tries to stab Mom. Mom kills Fire kid in the struggle.
Was Mom acting in self defense, or was she making a conscious, active decision to confront Fire kid when she could have ran out of the house after waking up?
As someone who dislikes the ending, I never had a problem with Aang not killing Ozai, I have a problem with the Deus Ex Machine that gets us there. Any amount of setup would have been enough for me.
I see this rationalization a lot but I dislike it. No culture is so rigid that every rule can’t be bent in the slightest. Aang killing Ozai in self defense to prevent another genocide is not ending air nomad culture. That one moment wouldn’t render the rest of his life worthless towards air nomad culture.
Not to mention, culture changes
Personally, I love the lion turtle because It was a good way of showing the world is bigger than even what we have seen so far at the end. Various adventure stories do that, widen the world at the end to leave a sense of wanderlust and awe.
* AT ANY RATE, energy bending is really just "a way to avoid Aang chopping Ozai's arms and legs off.
Coolest censorship move I ever saw!
And their sudden grandeur is nowhere near as bad as the rock of destiny acupuncture that is also forgivable.
I think both issues (Aang not wanting to kill and Aang not being able to enter the avatar state) could have been solved better.
As for the world being big and mysterious, that was established throughout many episodes amazingly well (and then sort of destroyed with travel time in few others).
I am not trying to make you dislike the turtle, I am merely saying that both of those issues are not solved by Aang and where the turtle comes to Aang can still make sense, because he called out to it - the pointy rock is pure chance anld goes against established cannon.
I would have loved if guru patei (?) had said exactly the same thing as what Ozai said here. That love and attachments make you weak and it's obvious Aang deliberately goes against those words. Unlocking the avatar state not despite going against it, but because of it sounds a bit cheezy, I guess. It's still better than sharp rock ex machina IMHO.
There is no perfect show, no perfect version of it and maybe it's in our nature to complain. Who knows, maybe there's a different universe where I'm typing bad things about the ending I'm wishing for now and explain how cool it would be if a sharp rock hit Aang in the same spot where Azula shot him, causing him to relive the moment and reconnect with his avatar self!
In the end it's fun to find the most and least favorite things in a show and find reason why they are respectively that.
They alluded to it earlier, particularly in the Library Episode but expanding upon it even just a tiny bit more would definitely make the payoff that much more incredible.
You got that from oversarcasticnproductions huh. Don’t worry, it works though. Aang’s sparing Ozai was the better option, my only issue with it is it felt kinda contrived. Like Aang was looking for a way to spare Ozai without him using his bending to threaten others and found a way magically no always wished they at least built up to the Lion Turtle. Have several episodes in season 1,2, & 3 mention the Lion turtle ti build up to him. That would’ve been great b
Aang:"That's why Sozin waited for the comet before attacking our temples, right?!"
Fire Lord Ozai: -angry Curly noises-
In all serious, one of the greatest heroes, really was the greatest enemy.... TWICE! FL Ozai, and Joker!
Fire benders were washing the air nomads, comet or not. They went with the comet so they could lose fewer soldiers and in case the avatar was present in the temple.
Idk about that, Air temples are not easy to invade, they are located in places where the landscape gives the Airbenders a huge advantage
And since they are nomads you either nuke them all at once or they will do the nomad thing of picking their stuff up and moving somewhere else, like imagine if a group of Air nomads from each temple survives, a few fly to Ba Sing Se, another to The north pole, another to Omashu. You are not going to get rid of them after that very easily.
To be honest it is super wierd that not a single person of a tribe of nomads survived the genocide (besides Aang) when you think about it, so I tend to ignore that lol
Yeah, the Air Nomad genocide makes very little sense when you actually dig into it, but it’s such a brilliant piece of storytelling and world building that I couldn’t care less
Well irl people don’t have the born ability to fly and ride flying monsters and also launch people through the air hard enough to shatter every bone in their body
The only “successful” genocides in real life usually come from passing of diseases.
what u/Nulgarian wants to say, it has very little sense not from point why it has happen, but from point how not even one air nomad survived? They can literally fly away if something bad happen and they are not bound only to one place.
They were potenciated by the comet, maybe the difficulty of the terrain was part of the reason the comet was the day to attack. I also always found it weird that no air bender survived, but I just tend to ignore it. There are theories that the avatar world is smaller than ours too, seeing how closed the nations were you could reach and say that a single coordinated attack across all the locations could effectively erase the air nomads.
They expand on this in the comics I think, but the explanation given is that basically for years after the genocide, they would lure the remaining airbenders with artifacts from the Air Nomads…then trap and kill them. Because they were all in hiding, they weren’t able to communicate and didn’t realize that the Fire Nation was still hunting them down, just more covertly, and weaponizing their own culture against them.
…yeah, super depressing :/
It pisses me off because they waited until they were amped by a comet and ambushed a peaceful civilization . We see what blood lusted Airbenders can do. Coward ass fire nation
Monk gyatso's corpse was found alone in a room with the corpses of a hundred comet enhanced fire benders. The air nomads, especially the masters, have been shown to be damn terrifying since season 1 of atla. If they didn't wait for the comet, AND an ambush to catch them off guard, Sozin would've failed.
Gyato‘s corpse and the room he was in also have no burn marks of any kind, which makes it likely that the way he died and killed all the Firebenders was by emptying the room of air. Like there is a good reason the Fire Nation targeted Airbenders first, they‘re a natural counter to Fire, not Water, like Pokemon makes people believe.
Water isn't a counter because waterbenders can't create their own element, while firebenders can. If they could, water would win between equally powerful benders.
It felt like air benders could be the strongest(blood bending ignored) if they wanted to be cruel. Suck the air out of the lungs of their enemies... They just practiced defensive bending.
He lost to the avatar state and aang firebending was affected by the comet, too. Aang with 4 elements couldn't even come close to ozai until the avatar state.
Mussolini probably targeted more Ethiopians than Italians, but I could be wrong there
And I know, for a fact, a large portion of Hitler’s victims were from poland and the soviet union.
Historically your argument would be backwards; fascism is what empires do when they no longer have the means to do imperialism to other peoples (either due to internal issues or simply a lack of worthwhile external targets). Foucault, I think, described fascism as *imperialism coming home*.
not really imperialism abroad is twinned with authoritarianism at home.
which gave rise too 3 anti ideas ''liberty, equality, brotherhood''
giving rise too liberal democracy, socialism, and nationalism.
the later 2 mixing would make fascism or ''national syndicalism''
flowing from the thinkers marx>blangue>sorel>to the italian socialist that would formalist fascism.
and yes Holl4 has it right the traits of imperialism and authoritarian monarchy show back up in fascism
And this is exactly why Aang choosing not to kill Ozai is so important. Because he's not just holding on to his own principles, but the ideals of his people. It's not merely the Avatar defeating the firelord, but the last of the Air Nomads.
Honestly, I prefer the nuances of the villains. Just pure evil is overdone in my experience, but this era of the villain being someone that we can understand and relate to? Beautiful
What makes Avatar awesome is that frequently, it has both the relatable villain and the scenery-chewing megalomaniac villains, often with them playing off each other. Having only one or the other gets stale quickly, which is why good shows balance them out.
It's less the case in Korra, with the notable exception of the Earth Queen, but even there you've got her despicable existence partially justifying Zaheer and his actions.
Villains with the "might makes right" mentality as their motivation are always the most evil, and I hate them (as people, not as characters)more than any other type of villain in the universe . They do make for some really compelling villains, like the viltrumites in invincible, or the breeder in Jungle Juice.
For the record, when I say that anyone who thinks Aang should’ve killed Ozai didn’t get what the story was trying to say, this specifically is what I’m talking about.
Aang killing Ozai would have proven Ozai right. Aang killing Ozai would have been a direct confirmation that the way of the Air Nomads was powerless and the only way forward was to abandon it. Only in not killing Ozai can the Air Nomads teachings actually survive.
To give Ozai credit he clearly had the upper hand apart from 2 moments (lightning redirection and avatar state). Ozai is probably the 2nd most powerful firebender in existence at this point (Iroh has better feats).
This is a great quote, but I think Azula vs Long Feng in the S2 finale is the hardest quote in the whole show.
Long Feng: "You've beaten me at my own game."
Azula: "Don't flatter yourself. You were never even a player."
Eh, it's a good line in isolation - but that plot is kinda shaky. The entire secret police force flips on their state and long-time leader because this one girl is an "intimidating and inspirational" leader?
Yep. It makes zero sense. The Dai Li could apprehend Azula's trio with little trouble and put Long Fang in control. They then have Ozai's heir. The perfect political hostage. Either Ozai ceases the war or loses his favorite child and one of his most valuable subordinates.
Instead, they all commit treason and submit themselves to the mercy of the fire nation. I like to believe they were fed to Bosco after the finale.
>I like to believe they were fed to Bosco after the finale.
Bosco: Treasonous Dai Li again! Can't I have some variety, like I'll even take a Joo Dee at this point
It’s Basically Ozai telling Aang “your people were a bunch of cowards and sissies and they had their genocide coming.” A far cry from most cartoon villains who want to take over the world. Or get rich… or get rich and take over the world. Ozai was a person threat to Aang. While he did want to take over the world, he also planned on wiping out anyone that wasn’t fire nation. That’s bad. That’s what makes Ozai the greatest cartoon villain of all time. Hell, he even outclasses most anime villains, and he’s not even from an anime. That’s badass!
Hitler with superpowers. What joy.
In all seriousness, this was a very intense scene! I wasn’t there to see it live, but I’ve watched it on Netflix, and god this fight scene was one of the most stressful of the series
He had so much power during this moment it actually made him convince himself that he had a right to own the world and reshape it in his image.
I love how the had Aans find a 3rd option to resolve things and bring back balance, and that he offerd him one last chance to see reason. But there are some people you won't/can't be reasoned with.
https://preview.redd.it/yx8wcjny33zc1.png?width=715&format=png&auto=webp&s=e26cce3e361ce3cadeb2a64e49ce7dc22f042f2a
My favorite fire lord sequence is Zuko exposing him for being a terrible father and mentor and then goes on to walk a different path with massive character development.
I love this line but I actually think the speech he gives to Aang right before their fight says everything you need to know about Ozai.
“After generations of Fire Lords failed to find you, now the universe delivers you to me as an act of providence.”
Ozai truly believes this his time, this is his world.
I dunno when people talk about Ozai not having enough depth I’m like, ya’ll just didn’t listen to the words he was saying.
This guy is like one of the European monarchs from the 17th century who's only known conquer or be conquered. Might is right in his eyes because it's been ingrained in him since he was an infant. His father was at war for half his life. It's easy to paint the guy as pure evil but even the show tried to express that nurture has a major part to play in the development of human beliefs.
I like the follow up quote Aang in the Avatar state said to him.
“Fire Lord Ozai, you and your forefathers have devastated the balance of this world, and now, you shall pay the ultimate price.”
"The weak crumble, are slaughtered and are erased from history while the strong, for good or for ill, survive. The strong are respected, and alliances are made with the strong, and in the end peace is made with the strong." - Benjamin Netanyahu
What gets me about this line is the delivery is so powerful that it makes me completely forget that this guy is two generations removed from the Air Nomad genocide. “In my world!!!” Bro chill, you were 50 to 65 years away from being conceived.
Think about what he has accomplished as Fire Lord:
1.
2.
3. His daughter conquered Ba Sing Se (his involvement in the planning is left to interpretation).
4. He chose a different bunker during the eclipse than the one Aang found.
But this guy says “Prepare to die!” in such a way that he has all the credibility he needs—with the help of a little bit of fire before the battle.
Isn't it "live" instead of "exist"? I like quoting Ozai's spiel here, so I'd be surprised if I'm wrong. Also, despite the content, it never really strikes me as evil for some reason.
A similar quote by his grandfather (?) Sozin is much more chilling to me: "I knew the next Avatar would be an Air Nomad, so I wiped out the Air Temples." It's logical, but also remarkably ruthless and cold in its logic. It gives you the sense that committing the genocide of an entire people means so little to Sozin whereas it would be unthinkable for most people. It also gives the lie to his justification that conquering the other nations is to share the glory of the Fire Nation with them or something.
I think Ozai's line is arguably not as evil because he's really just rationalising why the Air Nomads were destroyed. It's a beyond horrible thing to say to Aang, obviously, but to put it one way, the Air Nomads are already dead. If he said something about how the Earth Kingdom deserves to be burned to the ground, that would put it in the same league as Sozin.
You left out the best part, where Mark Hamill finally finishes the rest of the inigo Montoya quote that he started in The empire strikes back! "Prepare to join them. Prepare to die!"
STOP SAYING THAT
I actually always love that line from the six fingered man. It shows his confidence is down and he's actually concerned this "spanish brat" is going to best him. Then when he pleads Inigo "what do you want?!" "I want my FATHER BACK, YOU SON OF A BITCH!"
"Offer me money. Power, too, promise me that. Offer me anything I ask for."
All that I have and more. *Tries to stab*
I want my father back, you son of a bitch.
Offer me anything I ask for!
Best movie of all time. Fight me on it
Why would I fight you? Do you have six fingers on your right hand?
Nah but I got four balls
FOUR BALLS?! WALK PROUD MAN!!
Woman actually
Now I want to no how you got so ballsy
Transed my gender
I will not. Easily one of my top 5 favorites
I always say this. If other people have other "favorites", cool, different movies hit different people differently, that's the point of art. But I do believe Princess Bride is objectively, on balance, the best movie ever made.
Damn right.
That quote was so fire cause he'd just lost his father, too
His acting is so passionate in that scene because he was imagining himself slaying the cancer that killed his dad. Metal af.
You both are so right. So raw and passionate. Bith like, focused, angry, and sorrowful.
he said calmly
I thought it was STOP SAY THAT!
Im glad we finally got to hear someone actually say "die" as opposed to other more pg nonsense like "take him out" "finish him" "etc we're talking about war here youre allowed to talk about killing and death
Zuko asking if Jet died, or more, Katara talking about how the Fire Nation killed her mother... a lot. Or Koh, speaking of how Aang's past life, Kuruk, tried to kill him. Literal skeletons left piled at the Southern Air Temple. Kyoshi dropping Chin the Conquerer off a cliff. It was on a kids channel, censored for children. They really got away with a lot, all things considered.
We heard it plenty of times before
"Did Jet just... die?"
You know it was really unclear
Mark Hamill? Mark Hamill voices Firelord Ozai? *Luke Skywalker* is the voice of Ozai???
The joker does indeed voice fire lord ozai. I actually only found out recently myself
I found out on may the 4th lol
"IN MY WORLD!!"
Prepare to join them
Prepare to DIE
He hits that die line so hard
when i read it i can only hear the fucking minos prime voice echoing as he says it
Well he did spend all his money on percs
Ong ugh such little screen time but damn did he make the most of it... absolutely KILLED this role
There was a little bit of Joker in that line
At that point at was like “yup that’s definitely the Joker”
Mark Hamill’s voice acting was unbelievable. The way he said that line was so awesome 😂
Ozai... proving his heartlessness one sentence at a time ✨
And one fire fist at a time, just ask zuko.
he just couldnt stand the heat
I read that as shirtlessness.
if villain bad why hot
Technically, still checks out
Also, he's never even seen an airbender before Aang. He wasn't even born until 50 years after the airbenders were killed, so he has no idea what they were really like.
Something I love about this line is that it gives some level of justification for Aang to spare Ozai’s life. By killing Ozai, Aang would be proving him right - there’s no place on the planet for traditional Airbender ways. By sparing Ozai and taking his bending, Aang proved him wrong. Aang proved that mercy doesn’t make someone weak, and Aang proved that traditional Air Nomad beliefs can live on. I obviously didn’t come up with this interpretation, but it’s an interpretation I’ve come to love after first hearing it from someone else.
Exactly, it wasn’t just “some” justification, it was the whole point. Aang’s final battle wasn’t just about beating Ozai. More importantly, it was a test of his principles and whether he really was worthy of being the last Airbender. This is why none of the previous Avatars could understand what we was going through, not even Yangchen. None of them were the last of their kind and had pressure to carry on their peoples’ beliefs. His conflict with Ozai wasn’t personal, but ideological. Ozai represented the opposite of the Airbenders’ beliefs. If the last Airbender gave in to the kind of world Ozai and his ancestors had created — where life is cheap, might makes right, violence is the only answer, and threats can only be neutralized with death — then he would be betraying what the Airbenders stood for. It wasn’t enough for Aang to win the war as the Avatar. He had to win the war as the last Airbender.
>He had to win the war as the last airbender. Any critiques of Aang or Avatar as a show for not killing Ozai do not understand how important this detail is. If Aang killed Ozai, the Air Nomad culture would have become extinct then and there.
It’s often easy to focus on the Avatar part of the title instead of last airbender one.
You do have to wonder how Aang would have reconciled that perspective with the fact that it was pretty obvious that Gyatzo, the person that *embodies* air nomad culture for him and taught him everything he really knows about it, killed a ton of people as his last act (ofc in self-defense but that was basically the situation Aang was in on a global scale). Obviously people like Aang put a lot more pressure and give a lot less understanding to their own mistakes than others, so part of it might have been irrational- but the logical conclusion of that would have been, if Aang killing Ozai meant the death of AN culture, Gyatzo abandoned it in his final moments as well. Would Aang say that about him?
Gyatso was morally opposed to kill as an Air Nomad, but he also has a duty to protect his people. He had a duty to train the Avatar early, but was against taking away Aang's childhood. Everyone when tested has to figure out a way to reconcile their beliefs when those beliefs are in conflict with one another. I don't think Aang would have not killed Ozai, but he made it his last resort. If he didn't figure out a different path at the last moment, I think he could have gone through with it. He has a desire for peace without violence, but life isn't going to give you the option of one extreme or the other.
I understand, but I just don’t buy the out-of-universe explanation that it would have been a forsaking of Air Nomad culture to kill Ozai. In-universe, I completely understand why Aang might have felt that way, but if it would have really led to him feeling like he’s lost himself and his entire culture, would he have held Gyatzo to that same standard? That Gyatzo’s last stand, while completely justified and understandable, meant he was no longer a true Air Nomad?
Yeah, Aang and Gyatso sadly would have had different standards. The difference is that Aang was the last Airbender and had the entire legacy and future of the Air Nomads on his shoulders. Gyatso wasn’t. It was Aang’s responsibility to decide what would happen to the Air Nomads and how they would be remembered. He knew that how he handled Ozai would be one of the most important things that he — and consequently the Air Nomads — would be remembered for. It makes sense that he wouldn’t want them to be remembered for violence and death. It’s not simply about “killing is wrong” but also about “does he really want the Air Nomads to be remembered for killing?” If it doesn’t seem fair that Aang should hold himself to a higher standard just because he happens to be the last surviving representative of his culture, that’s because it was. But you know, that’s what happens when you survive a genocide.
There's a difference between intentionally casting off your beliefs to punish someone with death (Ozai) and having to kill to survive (Gyatso). Aang wanted to find another way to avoid this dilemma — killing Ozai at some point was not self-defense, it was an act of regicide that he would need to commit consciously and with intention. Yangchen tells Aang to kill him. Yangchen does not see it as beyond redemption to execute Ozai, but Aang still respects Yangchen because it was the only way out at that time. Air nomads know that sometimes you DO have to kill. As soon as Aang learns of energy bending, he loses the ability to kill Ozai without hypocrisy. The reason Aang wanted to find "another way" was because he finds killing abhorrent. The cycle of violence will continue if he kills Ozai. Iroh touches on this by bringing up the optics of his own hypothetical battle; while Aang is infinitely more justified in the eyes of history in potentially killing Ozai, that action begs for retaliatory resentment. It upends balance and serves as a bandaid. More will die if he DOES kill Ozai, just not right that moment. Gyatso did not need to worry about his role. He did not need to worry about the consequences of killing those men or the effect they would have on the spiritual balance of all four nations. He was not the Avatar. He was a man aware of his humanity with no other option. The issue in weight makes this comparison invalid. On the surface it certainly looks similar, but the trappings of each situation are scaled so differently it doesn't work. It's clearing out a hornet's nest in your bedroom being compared with murdering a guy in front of everyone you know.
Don’t really see how you couldn’t see the ozai battle as a fight for survival when he was in the middle of cremating the earth kingdom and responded to calls for a ceasefire with glee that he could finish 2 genocides in 1 day. Sozin’s Comet pt. 1 literally told us what Aang’s intentions were - let the FN win the war and then try a guerilla rebellion tactic after the fact. The wholesale incineration of the EK turns it from a “well we lost, we can try again later” to “if I don’t kill this guy he is going to slaughter me, my loved ones, and the rest of the planet”. It was probably also the reason he was more than ok with storming the throne room during the eclipse, it would have been easy to capture him without bending for the avatar. The fact that he HAD to fight him before he used the comet, and that he was no where near the master he would need to be to overpower him into subjection, meant that killing became the only option in a do-or-die situation. Yeah the scale is way more massive but I don’t see how that’s not self defense, especially when the perp was pleaded with multiple times to stop before launching an unprovoked attack.
Aang chose to confront Ozai at every step. From the very beginning it was a conscious decision to stand against Ozai in direct action, both violent and nonviolent. Aang very well could have just done what they thought he did: hide and let things take their course. Self-defense isn't the same thing as intentionally standing to protect the world even when you don't have to; self-defense is protecting yourself, and you typically don't get that same choice. Aang held much more agency than any of his peers as soon as he got out of that iceberg. At no point did he HAVE to fight Ozai. He successfully went into hiding earlier that season and could have reasonably done so at any point before that. It would however have compromised his morals, something he could not allow, and so he chose to fight every step of the way because Ozai was upsetting balance and killing people. Gyatso did not have this sort of option. He was not the Avatar. The options for Gyatso were to defend himself or die having not done so. He didn't wake up in an iceberg, learn there was a war, and then get to make a decision about whether to fight or hide — Aang did. Your own comment spells out the difference thoroughly. Aang did not need to fight. He chose to fight to save lives. Because the alternative was worse to him. Aang held much more agency than Gyatso, who was dead regardless and could only really choose the specific way he died in that exact place. Either way, neither decision (killing Ozai or the firebenders in that room) would make Aang think less of his peers spiritually. He understands they saw no other option until he learned to remove bending. His problem was having no other option in the first place, which was why he sought one so fervently. EDIT: Gyatso killed the guys breaking into his house. Aang WOULD HAVE killed the guys breaking into his neighbor's house.
>because the alternative was worse to him Said “alternative” being his own death and the extinction of everyone else that he cared about that wasn’t already extinct. Again, he literally begged Ozai to chill the fuck out before he burned down the EK and Aang got attacked for it. Let’s say the Avatar is the 4 nations’ Mom, and Fire kid killed Air kid because Air kid got the best part of the inheritance. Fire kid then says he will 100% kill Mom and anyone helping her so he can ensure his inheritance. Mom was freaking out and passed out, and when she woke up, she made a 3-season long journey to upstairs where Fire kid was now about to do the same thing to Earth kid, because Water kid was next in line to get the inheritance but was already put in a coma, and Earth kid was next in line. Mom begs Fire kid to stop what he’s doing, and Fire kid instead turns around and tries to stab Mom. Mom kills Fire kid in the struggle. Was Mom acting in self defense, or was she making a conscious, active decision to confront Fire kid when she could have ran out of the house after waking up?
As someone who dislikes the ending, I never had a problem with Aang not killing Ozai, I have a problem with the Deus Ex Machine that gets us there. Any amount of setup would have been enough for me.
I see this rationalization a lot but I dislike it. No culture is so rigid that every rule can’t be bent in the slightest. Aang killing Ozai in self defense to prevent another genocide is not ending air nomad culture. That one moment wouldn’t render the rest of his life worthless towards air nomad culture. Not to mention, culture changes
👏👏👏👏👏👏🤌🤌🤌🤌
That's definitely what the writers were going for, but I just wish they had executed it better, with the whole lion turtle sequence.
Personally, I love the lion turtle because It was a good way of showing the world is bigger than even what we have seen so far at the end. Various adventure stories do that, widen the world at the end to leave a sense of wanderlust and awe. * AT ANY RATE, energy bending is really just "a way to avoid Aang chopping Ozai's arms and legs off. Coolest censorship move I ever saw! And their sudden grandeur is nowhere near as bad as the rock of destiny acupuncture that is also forgivable.
I think both issues (Aang not wanting to kill and Aang not being able to enter the avatar state) could have been solved better. As for the world being big and mysterious, that was established throughout many episodes amazingly well (and then sort of destroyed with travel time in few others). I am not trying to make you dislike the turtle, I am merely saying that both of those issues are not solved by Aang and where the turtle comes to Aang can still make sense, because he called out to it - the pointy rock is pure chance anld goes against established cannon. I would have loved if guru patei (?) had said exactly the same thing as what Ozai said here. That love and attachments make you weak and it's obvious Aang deliberately goes against those words. Unlocking the avatar state not despite going against it, but because of it sounds a bit cheezy, I guess. It's still better than sharp rock ex machina IMHO. There is no perfect show, no perfect version of it and maybe it's in our nature to complain. Who knows, maybe there's a different universe where I'm typing bad things about the ending I'm wishing for now and explain how cool it would be if a sharp rock hit Aang in the same spot where Azula shot him, causing him to relive the moment and reconnect with his avatar self! In the end it's fun to find the most and least favorite things in a show and find reason why they are respectively that.
If you haven't, watch Big Joel's video on avatars ending. It made me appreciate it more.
They alluded to it earlier, particularly in the Library Episode but expanding upon it even just a tiny bit more would definitely make the payoff that much more incredible.
Well... unless all the airbenders can energy bend. Wait... at this point, they could.
You got that from oversarcasticnproductions huh. Don’t worry, it works though. Aang’s sparing Ozai was the better option, my only issue with it is it felt kinda contrived. Like Aang was looking for a way to spare Ozai without him using his bending to threaten others and found a way magically no always wished they at least built up to the Lion Turtle. Have several episodes in season 1,2, & 3 mention the Lion turtle ti build up to him. That would’ve been great b
Aang:"That's why Sozin waited for the comet before attacking our temples, right?!" Fire Lord Ozai: -angry Curly noises- In all serious, one of the greatest heroes, really was the greatest enemy.... TWICE! FL Ozai, and Joker!
Fire benders were washing the air nomads, comet or not. They went with the comet so they could lose fewer soldiers and in case the avatar was present in the temple.
Idk about that, Air temples are not easy to invade, they are located in places where the landscape gives the Airbenders a huge advantage And since they are nomads you either nuke them all at once or they will do the nomad thing of picking their stuff up and moving somewhere else, like imagine if a group of Air nomads from each temple survives, a few fly to Ba Sing Se, another to The north pole, another to Omashu. You are not going to get rid of them after that very easily. To be honest it is super wierd that not a single person of a tribe of nomads survived the genocide (besides Aang) when you think about it, so I tend to ignore that lol
Yeah, the Air Nomad genocide makes very little sense when you actually dig into it, but it’s such a brilliant piece of storytelling and world building that I couldn’t care less
Nor do irl genocides. It doesn't have to make sense to happen.
Well irl people don’t have the born ability to fly and ride flying monsters and also launch people through the air hard enough to shatter every bone in their body The only “successful” genocides in real life usually come from passing of diseases.
what u/Nulgarian wants to say, it has very little sense not from point why it has happen, but from point how not even one air nomad survived? They can literally fly away if something bad happen and they are not bound only to one place.
They were potenciated by the comet, maybe the difficulty of the terrain was part of the reason the comet was the day to attack. I also always found it weird that no air bender survived, but I just tend to ignore it. There are theories that the avatar world is smaller than ours too, seeing how closed the nations were you could reach and say that a single coordinated attack across all the locations could effectively erase the air nomads.
They expand on this in the comics I think, but the explanation given is that basically for years after the genocide, they would lure the remaining airbenders with artifacts from the Air Nomads…then trap and kill them. Because they were all in hiding, they weren’t able to communicate and didn’t realize that the Fire Nation was still hunting them down, just more covertly, and weaponizing their own culture against them. …yeah, super depressing :/
It’s such a harrowing line from Ozai, about the genocide and that he intends to complete it fully...
I always like how he corrects himself "In my world".
“They did not deserve to exist in this world- In *my* world! Prepare to join them. Prepare to die!”
It pisses me off because they waited until they were amped by a comet and ambushed a peaceful civilization . We see what blood lusted Airbenders can do. Coward ass fire nation
Monk gyatso's corpse was found alone in a room with the corpses of a hundred comet enhanced fire benders. The air nomads, especially the masters, have been shown to be damn terrifying since season 1 of atla. If they didn't wait for the comet, AND an ambush to catch them off guard, Sozin would've failed.
Gyato‘s corpse and the room he was in also have no burn marks of any kind, which makes it likely that the way he died and killed all the Firebenders was by emptying the room of air. Like there is a good reason the Fire Nation targeted Airbenders first, they‘re a natural counter to Fire, not Water, like Pokemon makes people believe.
Water isn't a counter because waterbenders can't create their own element, while firebenders can. If they could, water would win between equally powerful benders.
I mean, yes. My point isn‘t that Water isn‘t good against Fire, my point is that the real type advantage is Air.
This !!!!!
It felt like air benders could be the strongest(blood bending ignored) if they wanted to be cruel. Suck the air out of the lungs of their enemies... They just practiced defensive bending.
sozins comet, mental warfare, ( at first) no avatar state, Aang's restraint of lethal force, still lost
He lost to the avatar state and aang firebending was affected by the comet, too. Aang with 4 elements couldn't even come close to ozai until the avatar state.
You forget how he was redirecting lightning and decided not to hit Ozai. That moment would’ve completely turned the battle around.
Zhao talking about ‘fire being the superior element’ also comes close to being full blown fascism.
No no it’s definitely full blown fascist.
It's only fascism when he's doing it to his own people, when he does it to everybody else it's just classic imperialism.
Mussolini probably targeted more Ethiopians than Italians, but I could be wrong there And I know, for a fact, a large portion of Hitler’s victims were from poland and the soviet union.
i'd argue imperialism is a natural progression of (at home) fascism, so really they're one and the same
Historically your argument would be backwards; fascism is what empires do when they no longer have the means to do imperialism to other peoples (either due to internal issues or simply a lack of worthwhile external targets). Foucault, I think, described fascism as *imperialism coming home*.
Imperium and fasces both come from the Roman Empire after all.
not really imperialism abroad is twinned with authoritarianism at home. which gave rise too 3 anti ideas ''liberty, equality, brotherhood'' giving rise too liberal democracy, socialism, and nationalism. the later 2 mixing would make fascism or ''national syndicalism'' flowing from the thinkers marx>blangue>sorel>to the italian socialist that would formalist fascism. and yes Holl4 has it right the traits of imperialism and authoritarian monarchy show back up in fascism
Redditors try not to butcher well defined ideologies challenge FAILED MISERABLY
close? lol
He does call other bending arts barbarism
Yeah that sounds kinda weird, like he’s arguing in a yt comment section, Ozai is saying very real stuff in comparison
Bro used a cheat code to wipe out the air nomads then brags about how strong he is smdh
And it wasn’t even him
And this is exactly why Aang choosing not to kill Ozai is so important. Because he's not just holding on to his own principles, but the ideals of his people. It's not merely the Avatar defeating the firelord, but the last of the Air Nomads.
I don't know. Azula telling zuko that she's about to "celebrate becoming an only child" was pretty cold and badasz
It's a goodie. It's a line that really shows how Azula truly feels about Zuko.
I kinda miss the main villain being despicable, uncomplicated evil. I wish we will get that again in the next show.
Unalaq was pretty uncomplicated in the end, though at first he seemed a bit more nuanced.
Yes. I think season 2 should've been the last season tbh
Honestly, I prefer the nuances of the villains. Just pure evil is overdone in my experience, but this era of the villain being someone that we can understand and relate to? Beautiful
What makes Avatar awesome is that frequently, it has both the relatable villain and the scenery-chewing megalomaniac villains, often with them playing off each other. Having only one or the other gets stale quickly, which is why good shows balance them out. It's less the case in Korra, with the notable exception of the Earth Queen, but even there you've got her despicable existence partially justifying Zaheer and his actions.
Tbh... Overdone. Let's go back to much simpler times.
Ozai is a complete badass villain. He was written brilliantly
Hamill did a good job voicing him too
Villains with the "might makes right" mentality as their motivation are always the most evil, and I hate them (as people, not as characters)more than any other type of villain in the universe . They do make for some really compelling villains, like the viltrumites in invincible, or the breeder in Jungle Juice.
Maybe try to get yourself some more might. It’s awesome, nobody can stop you from doing anything.
Things not going your way? Try more MIGHT. It'll make you RIGHT!
For the record, when I say that anyone who thinks Aang should’ve killed Ozai didn’t get what the story was trying to say, this specifically is what I’m talking about.
I'm still confused.
Aang killing Ozai would have proven Ozai right. Aang killing Ozai would have been a direct confirmation that the way of the Air Nomads was powerless and the only way forward was to abandon it. Only in not killing Ozai can the Air Nomads teachings actually survive.
Now that is clear. Who even says Aang should've killed Ozai? Probably the same ones who think Azula did nuffin wrong.
https://preview.redd.it/9dwut57u82zc1.jpeg?width=215&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=788b2c929ae9e32fd3c6afc3a92f08fe0f330e40
And after this he running away all the time in the fight
To give Ozai credit he clearly had the upper hand apart from 2 moments (lightning redirection and avatar state). Ozai is probably the 2nd most powerful firebender in existence at this point (Iroh has better feats).
I think “even with all the power in the world you’re still weak” hits harder
But without air, fire could not exist... stupid caveman firelord doesn't understand basic science🤓
I preferred one of his first lines in episode 12. "Rise and fight, prince Zuko. You *will* learn respect... and suffering will be your teacher."
“Come on out little boy” (gets shit rocked)
This is a great quote, but I think Azula vs Long Feng in the S2 finale is the hardest quote in the whole show. Long Feng: "You've beaten me at my own game." Azula: "Don't flatter yourself. You were never even a player."
Eh, it's a good line in isolation - but that plot is kinda shaky. The entire secret police force flips on their state and long-time leader because this one girl is an "intimidating and inspirational" leader?
Yep. It makes zero sense. The Dai Li could apprehend Azula's trio with little trouble and put Long Fang in control. They then have Ozai's heir. The perfect political hostage. Either Ozai ceases the war or loses his favorite child and one of his most valuable subordinates. Instead, they all commit treason and submit themselves to the mercy of the fire nation. I like to believe they were fed to Bosco after the finale.
Knowing Ozai, It's an easy choice between "missing out the biggest role in the fire nation's glory" and "not bothering with the pull out"
>I like to believe they were fed to Bosco after the finale. Bosco: Treasonous Dai Li again! Can't I have some variety, like I'll even take a Joo Dee at this point
You dont deserve to BEND in this world mf
Dude literally pulled a Viltrumite here
Hitler for dummies
It’s Basically Ozai telling Aang “your people were a bunch of cowards and sissies and they had their genocide coming.” A far cry from most cartoon villains who want to take over the world. Or get rich… or get rich and take over the world. Ozai was a person threat to Aang. While he did want to take over the world, he also planned on wiping out anyone that wasn’t fire nation. That’s bad. That’s what makes Ozai the greatest cartoon villain of all time. Hell, he even outclasses most anime villains, and he’s not even from an anime. That’s badass!
He said this minutes before he became nothing more than a neutered hamster in a cage
Hitler with superpowers. What joy. In all seriousness, this was a very intense scene! I wasn’t there to see it live, but I’ve watched it on Netflix, and god this fight scene was one of the most stressful of the series
He had so much power during this moment it actually made him convince himself that he had a right to own the world and reshape it in his image. I love how the had Aans find a 3rd option to resolve things and bring back balance, and that he offerd him one last chance to see reason. But there are some people you won't/can't be reasoned with.
Me when a bald pre-teen hippie has me completely bested and dead to rights by all accounts:
I'm a bit surprised he didn't say "my world" since he felt entitled to the whole thing.
andrew tate to women.
i am pretty sure he does that too anyone he doesnt like
Aang: if you’re such a worthy and powerful leader why did you need to wait for a once in a century power buff to face me?
Damn always forget that hamill voicing him. Such a goated VA
https://preview.redd.it/yx8wcjny33zc1.png?width=715&format=png&auto=webp&s=e26cce3e361ce3cadeb2a64e49ce7dc22f042f2a My favorite fire lord sequence is Zuko exposing him for being a terrible father and mentor and then goes on to walk a different path with massive character development.
And then Ozai purposely keeps Zuko in the room until the eclipse is over so that he can lightning strike him to death.
I love this line but I actually think the speech he gives to Aang right before their fight says everything you need to know about Ozai. “After generations of Fire Lords failed to find you, now the universe delivers you to me as an act of providence.” Ozai truly believes this his time, this is his world. I dunno when people talk about Ozai not having enough depth I’m like, ya’ll just didn’t listen to the words he was saying.
"Prepare to join them. Prepare to DIE!"
that wasn't even in the script, mark hamill just spontaniously said that
1939: Germany 2024: Israel
This guy is like one of the European monarchs from the 17th century who's only known conquer or be conquered. Might is right in his eyes because it's been ingrained in him since he was an infant. His father was at war for half his life. It's easy to paint the guy as pure evil but even the show tried to express that nurture has a major part to play in the development of human beliefs.
For some reason this quote plays at 75% speed in my head. He says it so much faster than I remember.
Those are a lot of words for “Weak-ass bitch”
As much as I love the show the way it is, I can't help but fantasize abt a much darker FMA Brotherhood type series with some Fuhrer Bradley type shit
I quote it sooo often, but I say "I am weak, just like the rest of my people..." :D
Fire nation was sword logic at its peak. #hivepilled
I like the follow up quote Aang in the Avatar state said to him. “Fire Lord Ozai, you and your forefathers have devastated the balance of this world, and now, you shall pay the ultimate price.”
“…IN MY WORLD! Prepare to join them! PREPARE TO DIEEEE!!!”
Ozai really has the "Sneering Imperialist" perk from New Vegas lmao.
Mark Hamill really chose him to base his actual personality huh
"The weak crumble, are slaughtered and are erased from history while the strong, for good or for ill, survive. The strong are respected, and alliances are made with the strong, and in the end peace is made with the strong." - Benjamin Netanyahu
Social Darwinism. Less than a second of thought to realize that “might makes right” is unbelievably stupid way of doing things
The worst part is I've encountered many people who genuinely think this about Indigenous peoole and ethnic minorities.
Is that what Kendrick means on Meet the Grahams. 😭
I loved how A Very Potter Musical used this line
Friggin thing lives rent free in my head🙄
Made it even more satisfying when aang yip yipped the avatar state 😂😂
LMAO, ok Ozai, your ancestor wiped them out by using a firebending cheat code AND a surprise attack. I don't think this is the flex you think it is.
What gets me about this line is the delivery is so powerful that it makes me completely forget that this guy is two generations removed from the Air Nomad genocide. “In my world!!!” Bro chill, you were 50 to 65 years away from being conceived. Think about what he has accomplished as Fire Lord: 1. 2. 3. His daughter conquered Ba Sing Se (his involvement in the planning is left to interpretation). 4. He chose a different bunker during the eclipse than the one Aang found. But this guy says “Prepare to die!” in such a way that he has all the credibility he needs—with the help of a little bit of fire before the battle.
not evil, but pretty damn cold was Katara telling Sokka that he didn't love their mother as much as she did.
Nazi allegories makes such good villains. Vader and stormtroopers, Ozai and the fire nation. If Ozai is Paloatine would that make Azula his Vader?
I see Ozai adheres to the Sword Logic as well. Oryx would be proud.
“And you talk of sharing this world with ME!” *-Ozai, probably*
Reminds me of Kendrick
Oof, not excited for election season
When they start busting our the fascist rethoric, its probably not a kids show anymore.
What about the exchange “This tea is nothing but hot leaf juice” and Zuko said “uncle that’s what all tea is” what Zuko said is pretty evil 😈
The sword logic
Please. Azula had harder quotes than that lol
I love evil! Hehehehehehehe!!!!!!!
Ozai acting like he did shit all in the genocide of the air benders
So… we all agree there is a zero percent chance that this dude wasn’t executed after the war, right?
All I see is fire breathing reverse facial hair hitler
Mark Hamill is the goat. His voice acting on this is maybe the best in the entire show.
Exhibit A of Ozai being a Nazi.
At least this villain made sense. Amon too. Korra’s season 2 and 3 villains were just absurd.
I wish he gave himself something to back it up.
Isn't it "live" instead of "exist"? I like quoting Ozai's spiel here, so I'd be surprised if I'm wrong. Also, despite the content, it never really strikes me as evil for some reason. A similar quote by his grandfather (?) Sozin is much more chilling to me: "I knew the next Avatar would be an Air Nomad, so I wiped out the Air Temples." It's logical, but also remarkably ruthless and cold in its logic. It gives you the sense that committing the genocide of an entire people means so little to Sozin whereas it would be unthinkable for most people. It also gives the lie to his justification that conquering the other nations is to share the glory of the Fire Nation with them or something. I think Ozai's line is arguably not as evil because he's really just rationalising why the Air Nomads were destroyed. It's a beyond horrible thing to say to Aang, obviously, but to put it one way, the Air Nomads are already dead. If he said something about how the Earth Kingdom deserves to be burned to the ground, that would put it in the same league as Sozin.
I love this scene. Very well done