In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Fire Lord Ozai proves that he's not a true firebender by misusing his bending as well as the ritual duel, Agni Kai.
In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Fire Lord Ozai exhibits traits and takes actions that prove he’s not a true firebender. Fire Lord Ozai (Mark Hamill) is the primary villain of the entire Avatar series, with the show’s three seasons slowly but constantly building to the climactic battle between protagonist Aang and Ozai in the series finale. The battle is intense and Ozai nearly defeats Aang, proving that he’s extremely powerful. But throughout his life, Ozai misused and abused his bending power as well as his power on the throne. Ozai attempted to conquer and destroy each of the other nations, killing all the Air Nomads and nearly wiping out the Water Tribes.
His misuse of the Agni Kai was also appalling. In ancient firebending tradition, Agni Kai is a formal firebending duel and can occur when one firebender challenges another and the other bender accepts. When his son, Zuko, voiced his disagreement with one of Ozai’s generals, Ozai believed his own honor had been insulted and he challenged Zuko to an Agni Kai duel. Zuko accepted, believing he would fight the general he'd disagreed with. When Zuko learned that he would duel his own father, he refused to fight. Ozai saw his son’s actions as weak and dishonorable. To punish Zuko, Ozai burned his face and then banished him from the Fire Nation. Zuko was only thirteen years old at the time. When he later became Fire Lord, he ended the practice of Agni Kai.
Originally, the Agni Kai was only used as a last resort to resolve conflicts and the duel ended when one person burned the other. The one who was burned would lose the duel and thus the conflict was resolved. By using Agni Kai as a punishment for Zuko rather than its intended purpose of resolving an otherwise irresolvable conflict, Ozai betrayed the original code of honor that was so important to the ancient firebenders. Ozai never realized the full purpose of firebending because he focused only on fire’s destructive power and completely neglected the creative and, thanks to this, so did his people.
In Avatar Season 3, Episode 12, “The First Firebenders,” Aang and Zuko travel to find the first firebenders: dragons. They hope to learn the origins of firebending and reconnect with its intended purpose because Zuko has lost his bending and Aang needs to complete his training as Avatar. Aang and Zuko meet the sun warriors who tell them, “Fire is life, not just destruction.” After meeting the dragons, Ren and Shaw, Aang says, “All this time, I thought fire bending was destruction… Now I know what it is. It’s energy and life.” Zuko adds, “Like the sun.” By the time that Ozai rose to power, he and much of the Fire Nation had completely lost sight of firebending’s true purpose and only used it for its powerful and violent potential.
Blinded by power, Ozai became an incomplete firebender, never using his firebending abilities to their true potential. Ozai could only see things in a way that brought him power – the Agni Kai was used to punish and control; firebending was used to hurt and manipulate. While Ozai indeed has strong firebending abilities often displayed in Avatar: The Last Airbender, his style of bending and his definition of honor betray the very core of the first firebenders' beliefs and mean that Fire Lord Ozai is not a true firebender.
