In the series finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aang found a way to spare the life of his greatest enemy, Fire Lord Ozai - but what happened to the former tyrant next? Tie-in comics for the show reveal some of Ozai's life in prison, and how he continued to try manipulating his son even from behind bars.
Though he may have been the series' big bad, Ozai didn't actually appear much until the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender. The show was primarily about Aang training in all the four elements, in order to be able to defeat Ozai before he used the arrival of Sozin's Comet to scorch the defiant Earth Kingdom into submission. By not showing the Fire Lord much on-screen, Avatar: The Last Airbender built him up as an enemy so unstoppable that he could not even be approached. His presence was felt most through his children: Zuko's fear of him and desperate hope to regain Ozai's faith, and Azula's gleeful embrace of her father's conquering spirit.
In the four-part season finale, "Sozin's Comet," Aang struggles to find a way to defeat Ozai in the upcoming battle without killing him, since killing violates Aang's core principle of pacifism. He finally finds a way when a lion turtle teaches him the art of energybending, which can be used to take away a person's bending abilities. The fight ends when Ozai is stripped of his firebending, which in turn ends the assault on the Earth Kingdom and puts Zuko on the throne as the new Fire Lord. Here's what happened to Ozai next.
Zuko Asks Ozai For Advice
The Avatar: The Last Airbender sequel comics begin with a trilogy called "The Promise," in which Zuko struggles with the responsibilities of Fire Lord, torn between making amends to the world for the Hundred Year War and advocating for his own people. Since he only knows one person who has dealt with the same responsibilities, he visits Ozai in prison and asks him for advice. Pleased by the opportunity to get his hooks into his son once again, Ozai tells Zuko that he personally never struggled with the question of which side to take, because as Fire Lord he believed, "There is no right and wrong apart from what you decide... You are the Fire Lord. What you choose is, by definition, right." After almost going to war with Aang and the Earth Kingdom, Zuko ultimately decides against becoming the same kind of Fire Lord that his father was. However, Avatar fans hadn't seen the last of Ozai.
Ozai Is Reunited With Zuko's Mother
The next Avatar: The Last Airbender comic trilogy, "The Search," followed Zuko's quest to find out what happened to his mother, and in the process revealed some major insights into Ozai as a character. Due to a letter written by Zuko's mother, Ursa, Ozai came to believe that Zuko was not his biological son (it's later revealed that he was wrong about this). That is why Ozai favored Azula and treated Zuko so harshly, banishing him from the Fire Nation with a seemingly impossible mission. Zuko is eventually successful in tracking down Ursa, and invites her to return to the Fire Nation palace with him in another story, "Smoke and Shadow."
Ursa still struggles with the trauma of her marriage to Ozai, which she had erased from her memories for many years. She is particularly fearful of something happening to her daughter (and Zuko's half-sister), Kiyi - fears that are realized when Azula kidnaps Kiyi and other Fire Nation children. After Zuko stops Azula and Kiyi is rescued, Ursa finally summons the courage to go and visit her ex-husband in prison. When she arrives, Ozai is initially gleeful but quickly loses control, impotently screaming threats and demanding that Ursa beg him for mercy. Seeing him powerless and behind bars allows Ursa to finally see him for what he really is: "just a small, small man trying with all your might to be big." She turns and leaves, ignoring Ozai as he stammers that she should come back and grovel before him.
This is the last time that Ozai is seen in the comics, and a fitting final appearance for the former Fire Lord. Since there's no indication otherwise, it's safe to assume that he lived out the rest of his life in a prison cell, kept alive but gradually forgotten by both his family and his people.