#hidden characterization

Hi, how’s it going? Pardon me if this gets tedious, I was in the mood to use repetition as a tool.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, do you remember that time the cruel, heartless, born-evil, doesn’t give a damn about anything and anyone Fire Lord Ozai, of all people (while he implicitly planned the worst war strategy in human history), sent his two brats on vacation? 

Remember when he sent them away with friends on vacation to Ember Island? That place he and his family used to visit all the time for bonding?

Remember when he sent them to a barn-sized hut, instead of their mansion-sized beach house that he and the kids-he-currently-likes would clearly be more accustomed to and look more like royalty inside?

Remember how his doing so basically implied, at the least, that said beach house held some sentimental value to him? That it was a sacred part of their past that he didn’t want anyone to unearth and sully by walking inside and bringing the past to the present?

Remember when Zuko went on to do exactly what Ozai probably didn’t want anyone, including his children, to do and walked inside their old beach house anyway? And touched their (the whole family’s) past?

Remember when during yet another one of his angst and mope fests, he decided to grab one of the last remnants of their shared past—a painting, probably one of the few the family has where they’re together—and proceeded to burn it? Right in front of Azula’s, his younger sibling’s, eyes? Without any concern over how that would appear to her and others, or how those with a connection to the image besides him, would feel about that?

Remember when Ty Lee rightfully pointed out that that rare piece of history from their past quite obviously meant a lot to him, and him pulling his overdramatic stunt did the opposite of prove he didn’t care?

Remember when he then verbally degraded her for stating what’s obvious to everyone who has a 5 minute conversation with him?

Remember when no one acknowledged that Azula was in the painting/picture too? Or that she has a right to feel something about Zuko’s actions too? Remember when none of them even asked her how she felt about that? 

Remember when he did all that, in the episode that Azula was at one of her most civil toward him and others, and was being very protective and supportive of him?

Remember how he seemingly never returned the favor or even apologized for his obnoxious behavior? 

Remember how he probably never stopped to think about how poorly he treated all three girls that night?

Remember that? 🙂

I remember. 🙂

I wonder what Ozai would have thought, had he known what Zuko did to that image of their loved ones. Do you think that deep down he’d be pleased, apathetic or pissed?