Atla Ozai - Tumblr Posts
Atla AU where during the Eclipse, Zuko confronts his father, and Ozai is shocked when he discovers that his son can redirect lightning.
… that is to say, when Zuko receives the lightning thrown at him and is momentarily overwhelmed by the sheer amount of power rushing through his body, he’s not thinking as much about where he’s aiming his redirection than he maybe should have been, and his father receives a shot-to-kill lightning bolt directly to the chest. Fatally.
Zuko comes to his senses and is left alone in a room with a body, and a terrible feeling in his stomach.
To his surprise, when the eclipse ends, the doors open, and the guards rush in, he’s not immediately exiled, or executed, or even imprisoned. He’s simply met with mouths agape and the sort of silence you’d expect when the fate of a nation hangs in the balance. He’s taken to a quiet room while the Fire Sages examine the crime scene to determine what the will of the spirits is, and then brought out again to face them when they’ve made their decision.
Any member of the Royal Family can challenge for the right to rule via Agni Kai. Zuko challenged his father, and although it was not a match in the traditional sense, it was only fair for him to do so after his father’s disrespect of the ‘traditional sense’ in enacting Agni Kai three years ago; and won. The Fire Sages announce that by the Spirits’ decree, he is the rightful Firelord.
Zuko does not tell them what happened, nor correct them when they make the assumption that he has mastered the cold-blooded fire and shot lighting as an attack on his father and an attempt to gain the throne for himself. He stays silent, he does not speak up when they talk politics, he does not protest in the slightest. All he feels is a numbed fear of what this means, what this means for him, but more importantly, what this means for the war. It was not his destiny to defeat the Fire Lord. His father taken down by another member the royal family is expected at best, a cause for martyrdom at the worst- but it is not a victory for the Avatar. It is not in itself something that will bring the end of the Fire Nation’s conquest, and Zuko knows enough politics to know that he is trapped. If the Avatar had taken out the Fire Lord, there would be hope in the other nations, and there would be doubt within his own nation, enough so that altogether they could be steered back onto the right path, but that didn’t happen. With him on the throne now, he is trapped in rooms with admirals and generals and bloodthirsty tyrants who would be more than happy to figurehead him while they carry out their own sick ideas, or who would see him fall for what he did to their old and more respected head of state. They do not respect him, for his age, for his inexperience, for his disrespect. He cannot speak out, he is in no position to instigate real change.
He knows he cannot abdicate the throne either, because however bad he has it, his sister in his position would solve nothing. Even if she thinks she is, she’s not ready to be the Fire Lord, and obviously she has wildly different ideas of what makes a good leader to him. He can’t find his uncle, let alone face him this way.
And also because for the war to end, the Avatar has to defeat the Fire Lord. If Azula were on the throne, Zuko has no doubt that this ‘defeat’ would be in the same vein as what would have been Ozai’s.
He doesn’t know what it means for him. He has an idea, and it’s not like it’s much better, but if he can spare anyone else from what’s coming, it’s the least he can do, maybe the only thing he can do to try, right?
.
A funeral is held for his father. The Fire Sages announce to the nation what the spirits have made of his death, and proudly crown Zuko the new Fire Lord. They proclaim that it is a good omen for their nation, a sign of their just cause to have such a strong leader come and enact justice in order to claim the throne and lead their nation to victory.
Agni guided his hand, they say, and with it, the start of a prosperous new era. Long live Fire Lord Zuko!
The citizens of his nation accept him readily, and there is a terrible feeling in his stomach.
.
“Why is everyone wearing white?”
Sokka poked a finger at one of the locals, less inconspicuously than he might have thought. “I thought red was supposed to be these people’s colour. We look out of place.”
“Haven’t you heard?” The merchant at the stall over thumbed out a pamphlet, and handed it, unfortunately enough, to the one of them that couldn’t read. “We’re in mourning. You two should be in mourning too.”
Sokka tried not to be too indignant at the man’s eavesdropping, but he supposed information was information. And this seemed like pretty important information. “Okay, well, who died?”
“Who died? Have you been under a rock?” At that, Toph smirked, but Sokka was too concerned with this sudden news to bring up the semantics of the Western Air Temple.
“Just tell me!” Sokka felt a piece of paper in his hand, as Toph had finally decided to relinquish her useless bounty. Sokka whipped it up to read, and his eyes caught on the words the exact moment the merchant clarified-
“Fire Lord Ozai?!”
This was unbelievable. This was completely insane. This was…
Sokka knew that this should have been good news, but all he felt was a horrible, terrible, growing sense of dread in his stomach. Beside him, Toph had stopped moving, and Sokka knew she was listening very intently for something.
“It’s true,” she helpfully confirmed. Even she couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice.
“He was killed during the Day of the Black Sun,” the merchant went on. “Not by the invading forces, but within the sanctity of the palace walls themselves.”
The pit in Sokka’s stomach grew larger.
“It was lightning that defeated him. He was struck down, they say, in Agni Kai. Defeated by his son, and successor.”
This was bad. This was very bad.
“So that means…” Sokka’s gut had figured it out, but his brain was still putting the pieces together.
“We have a new Fire Lord, one who inspires us, one who gives us hope that we will end this war victorious.”
“Zuko.” Toph stated bluntly, without a hint of readable emotion in her voice.
Sokka corrected her. “Fire Lord Zuko.”
I took my stance
And paid a glance;
I brought my hand down,
And fire danced around.
I brough him flames,
And they marred his face;
I am aware of the cruelty,
And the tragic beauty.
A tragic tale,
Told by people that wail;
Though, I will not regret,
Lest I fall to my death.
Honestly Ozai’s treatment of zuko and Azula was probably less about who they were and more about him projecting what he wishes his father would have done for him with Iroh.
He is after all a second born child himself and he’s always just wanted his father to see that he was the better child.
Azula was never a person to Ozai not really she was just his self insert in the fanfiction he was writing himself. It’s why she stops mattering the moment he finds something bigger than being fire lord.
Problems with "The Search" Comic
The Implausible Secrecy of Ursa's Backstory
I found this little gem from the commentary of the Search Comic (Part One). (Long rant ahead!)
Mike - We added this detail of Ozai forbidding Ursa from speaking of her old life again as a way to explain why Ursa's hometown and relation to Avatar Roku was not common knowledge. (In "The Avatar and the Fire Lord," Iroh tells Zuko that Avatar Roku was his great-grandfather on his mother's side.) It also parallels the present story in a cool way: When Ursa married Ozai, she had to forget her past. Later, she makes a similar choice.
Essentially, the scene of Ozai telling Ursa to bid her parents farewell mainly/somewhat serves to narratively establish that "Ursa's hometown and relation to Avatar Roku was not common knowledge" despite her marrying into royalty.
This comic suggests that the general population of the Fire Nation never knew Ursa's backstory even though she and Ozai were together for 10+ years. And somehow, no new information about her came out during her time in the Capital. Even if the royal family bothered to concoct a backstory for her, anyone could have realised it didn't add up and/or gotten information from at least one of the 100+ royal servants. Heck, her parents attended the wedding and sat a few feet away from her, surely they would have interacted with someone (I mean how else does Iroh have Roku's headpiece).
Then there's "the fire nation town of Hira'a", described as a "small town - on the outskirts of the Fire Nation." The townsfolk know her, aren't supposed to talk about her, but can't help but speculate. Apparently, the town’s (official yet laughable) story is that "she was - taken to - Capital City on some sort of official business" accompanied by "rumours" of her "supposedly" marrying into the royal family. And "rumours" of her returning to town, and entering Forgetful Valley.
I can't believe I haven't seen any posts addressing how absurd and farfetched this is. This isn't even mentioning how the Search retconned Ursa's noble upbringing, which is evident on her Avatar Lore page (I could make another post for that).
Here are some more photos and info:
"No one's seen or heard from Ursa since she was taken to - Capital City!" said almost two years after Zuko's coronation.
Gee, no wonder Azula was tempted to burn the place down. Somehow a Fire Nation town (seemingly) doesn't know that Ursa married Ozai. Though I’m certain that wasn’t what the writers intended, and am certain that Azula mostly acts out-of-character throughout the comics (I could make another post for that).
Please note that in the Avatar Lore Pages, "royalty" is (seemingly) sometimes used synonymously with "nobility" (see Mai and Onji).
i be drawing all this dragon art to avoid do the work for my finals coming up 😭🙏
TRAID ART WITH @trashfactorysstuff One of them canon, another headcanon
Idk I might make more of these tbh also boomer ozai canon (idk that he's in his 40s) ᕙ(＠°▽°＠)ᕗ
The support zuko can only dream of having 😹
if i was in zuko’s place in ATLA i would be so scared of fire like he got half his face burned but also by his father i would imagine that the first few months or years he’s hunting down aang he doesn’t even use his bending power because of his fear.
and like imagine if he physically couldn’t use the most fundamental part of himself and iroh had to like reteach him how to fire bend.