#djillustration

You’re talking about the guy who planned his father’s murder, burned his son’s face, then attempted to kill the same son later on. The guy who raised Azula. That kind of evil can’t be fixed. Its technically not even evil. It’s certifiable insanity

All true facts. I never said he would have been an angel. Quite contrary - I specifically said that he would have been a horrible person ANYWAY; just perhaps slightly less horrible. But not every sociopath actually goes on to commit murder and genocide, and abuse their children. In fact, most sociopaths don't do those things. I'm just musing about what did or didn't happen in Ozai's life to cause him to spin out of control SO violently, instead of just being an average sociopath (or is psychopath the term I should be using? Fuck if I know.)

There are a few things to consider:

Ozai, to the best of our knowledge, didn't have any nurturing figures in his life. I mean, Azulon obviously wasn't a big fan of him. The implied dynamic between them sort of makes me think that Azulon treated Ozai similarly to how Ozai treated Zuko.

Ozai, unlike most sociopaths, actually had the means to carry out his sociopathic desires. He had power, money, influence... hell, he had a whole freaking military at his disposal.

I'm comparing him to Zuko and Iroh, both of whom showed that they were very capable of horrible things. Iroh, who waged war against Ba Sing Se for nearly two years and killed who knows how many people in the process (because for real, you KNOW there had to have been innumerable casualties by his orders), and Zuko, who burned down an entire village. And I get the sense that if Iroh hadn't suffered the tragedy of losing his son, and if Zuko hadn't suffered his various tragedies and if he didn't have Iroh to guide him, then I can imagine that both of them would have continued down the same hateful path that the Fire Nation had forged for them.