I love seeing your in depth views on Azula, how about we hear on Ozai and make him a bit more complicated then raw bad person
Ozai is not flat evil when you dig into the source material.
Do you know he used to come to the Fire Lords' Gallery in the Palace when he was a Prince?
"The gallery in the Firelord’s palace includes family portraits of many past Firelords including Ozai, Azulon, and Sozin. Firelord Ozai used to come to the gallery when he needed time to think. He would walk down the hallway and stare at the portraits of his forefathers, hoping they would give him some guidance." ATLA lore/offical site
BK: "Ozai is not like some kind of palace dweller. We will say that. I'm not sure how much he's ventured out into the world, but he's not like the Earth King where he's isolated. The Fire Nation is a little more 'hands on'. It's not uncommon that you will have to fight or duel for political or military positions or purposes. There's a big difference. I think in the Fire Nation, unlike in Ba Sing Se, if there's a prince who's 30 years old, he's probably fought pretty intensely a few times. Had to prove his worth. Not unlike Japanese Samurai in their day. They had to make a name for themselves, they had to have some fame. Fire Nation, like a lot of other militaristic cultures throughout history, has warriors who have to prove themselves either through some battle, test of martial skill, or duel. Fire Nation's a little more aggressive like that. Ozai's not sitting around eating Bon Bon's in the palace, he's working out." -interview
So he's basically was a result of the Fire Nation and Sozin's ideology.
It said that Sozin didn't born bad, and neither Roku was born good. But everyone is capable of being good or bad when they choose their path in life. This is what ATLA told us.
Ozai didn't born bad either, this is what I take from when they showed us baby Ozai picture. He was innocent and playing by the beach.
The fire is the element of power, firebenders have will and desire to achieve what they want. And the fire in Ozai was so strong.
Do you see what his name means?
So, I believe Ozai characterized to be personalizing fire in at most destructive form. It's perfect for the Big Bad of the Fire Nation, the Fire Lord.
But there's more surprising level of depth:
"For what it's worth, had there been a season 4, I wanted Aang to bear consequences from this -- taking away Ozai's bending he would have also taken in a lot of evil and anger and pain that he would have needed to process somehow." -Aaron Ehasz on Reddit.
Ozai simply isn't anger and evil, he's pain too.
Considering the age gap between Iroh and Ozai (15-20 years old assumingly), Ozai's existence was probably an accident. This is why Azulon never take him seriously and doesn't treat him properly. In his wiki, it said that Ozai is motive so much by anger and hatred because of his relationship with his father. He's someone who let his anger and bitterness define him, in Azula's Tale it said that "since Iroh's failure [Ozai] was obsessed with taking Ba Sing Se".
Superiority and inferiority complex go hand on hand.
He's very proud too, his ego and pride probably the core of his character.
Despite this all, it said in ATLA official site that Ursa was his "perfect match", she was raised for the Royal Family, so Ozai and Ursa probably used to meet before they married. Ozai even shown mourning her her favorite spot by the turtleduck pond after she disappeared.
According to an interview prior to the comics, Urzai started better than it how ended. In the Beach episode, we saw Ozai placing his hand on 7 years old Zuko's shoulder in the old picture, implying he didn't always hate his son. There was another scene when they both were watching the sea, Ozai puts a hand on Zuko's shoulder again and Zuko was smiling.
I think Ursa and his new family brought side of him Iroh wasn't familiar with, but we discovered it's there.
Urzai family started good. Then turned bad. That's its tragedy.
If I were to guess, it was probably after Azula was born, because she's so talented and second born which made her the kind of person Ozai values more and project on.
I like to think Ozai had a chance for redemption when he had his family, but then he has chosen his path in life.
I personally don't think he's a monster, but a terrible human being that can be viewed sorta as a tragic figure because he led to his own destruction.
