u/KazuyaProta

Asura in Megaten is a really odd character.

I already mentioned how weird it is that Michael's role after SMT I was demoted from an endgame threat to merely one of the Archangels, and I still believe it.

But his Chaos counterpart, Asura, is even worse, because he simply doesn't exist in that role anymore. Yes, Both Michael and Asura were the Final Boss once, which sounds odd to everyone nowadays.

In SMT II, we discover he is Virocana, but his role is quite minor, as Lucifer takes over as the main Chaos figure.

It takes until SMT: Strange Journey for Asura to be important again, where he becomes the antagonist of the Delphinus Sector and the creator of the Delphinus Parasite, which drives people to violent madness. Later, he returns to take his true form, Ashera, revealing herself as one of the Mothers, the group behind the original game.

Asura encompasses Virocana, Dainichi Nyorai, Ashera, Ahura Mazda, and the King of the Asuras.

Asura himself is weird; he isn't a single species, but rather a category of being. That is why his actual Japanese name is Asura-O, the King of Asuras.

He is also the mainstay Ultimate Persona of the Sun Arcana in Persona 3, 4, and 5, and an unlocked fusion via the Anguished One's FATE system rank 3.

He is memorable, with an iconic, cool design and a defined ideology and personality.

But why is he here? Because he peaked early, and every game makes him even weirder due to how complex he is in theory.

Any of those roles: Virocana, Ahura Mazda, or Ashera, would be great for an SMT game's antagonist or final boss, yet he never gets the chance.

Frankly, the more I think about it, it's weird that Ashera isn't just Mem Aleph. If the intention was to create a female counterpart to YHVH on the Chaos side, using Ashera rather than inventing Mem Aleph—who is literally just two letters; yes, "MA" is iconic, but she doesn't exist mythologically—would have made more sense, especially since Ashera already showed the exact same hatred for human sapience during the Delphinus arc.

This is only the missed potential of ONE of Asura's faces.

The fact that he is Vairocana and Ahura Mazda also strikes as odd, because either of them is already perfect material for a Final Boss material representing the Buddhist cycle of rebirth (perfect as the final antagonist of a world about rejecting Enlightenment and embracing the world as it is, or rejecting the world because the just world fallacy embodified for him) or Ahura Mazda, as a equal demiurgic figure who created the world and the very same guy who is infamously the origin of the Good and Evil of Nietzsche's beyond.

...this hasn't happen, and its just really odd for a guy who was the Final Boss for the Law route in SMT I

And of course, the weird thing of SJ where Ashera exists and despite being literally Elat (aka, Literally female El, the title given to YHVH in real life Near East myth), the role of "Genderbend YHVH" is given to Mem Aleph (who doesn't exist) and Shekinah (which is widely considered to be a title for Ashera). It's incredibly weak, especially after SMT SJ already established a way to make Asura directly related to the YHVH /Abrahamic mythos by making him Ashera.

Essentially, Asura Oh is a weird character. He was explicitly stated to be Ahura Mazda forced into a demonic form rising up in SMT I. Perfect final boss material.

Then in SMT II, he is revealed to also be Vairocana, ruling the afterlife as the god of reincarnation. Not his plot, but its a huge role that means that actually, every mortal human SMT character will meet him, which is a huge thing...

In SMT SJ, Ashera's twist gives Asura a direct connection to the world of the Near East mythos. Its impressive, now its not more a East vs West rivality, he himself bridges the rivality without needing Lucifer and the demons to have a personal link with the world of demons, angels, dragons and lords.

He is still the reward for every Sun Arcana SL at the very least. Which is also genuinely odd to think, because his demonized form is actually being the ultimate embodiment of a very positive arcana, which implies Asura actually absorbs the positive aspects of all his selves (many games imply Asura is his "war mask", so its more complex than Asura being a lesser form).

This guy is actually deeply fascinating, being endgame material from multiple angles

This is something I think its pretty bad, but I feel many, not even people criticizing the series think much about, but sadly, I'm someone who just feels it.

I really dislike the Horsemen from CSM as a concept.

Conquest, War, Famine, Death. The 4 arch-villains of the CSM world.

The reason for my dislike? Simple: Why they are organized as a Christian mythological concept in a world where Christianity doesn't exist as a meaningful metaphysical force.

The Devils from CSM are clearly not christian devils, or devils from any mythological source. They are personifications of fears, especifically fears on themselves. A devil is inherently a violent existence, even benevolent Devils are still fundamentally ruthless creatures with a way too high bar for violence above humans.

And they are the only supernatural thing that exists. Their power is the only metaphysical thing in the cosmos of CSM, with all other things like Contracts and Hybrids being born from them. There is not a true Holy concept here, as the Angel Devil is still a Devil, just one based on the fear towards the divine.

This is fine. But it makes the Four Horsemen as a concept existing to be extremely weird, as there is no reason for those 4 fears to be considered such high tier.

This leads to bizarre things like the weird Yoru's quote of "War didn't exist until Part 2", because trying to keep her separate from Conquest is completely absurd. Makima, a Japanese representant, fought against the Gun Devil as a WMD send for the United States of America in a battle that killed thousands of persons across Japan. Then Makima launched a coup against Public Safety, where her uniformed combatants fought uniformed combatants.

The logical issue starts here because Control is achieved under acts that are clearly War. And thus, Yoru should have been strenghtened for it , only the rules of Christian theology (which CSM doesn't follow) make her a separate fear (and not even so, as the idea is everyone is together inherently)

This is something I have been thinking more as I study both Jungian psychology and mythicism, as I have been on a trip to understand more fictional authors with those topics in other franchises.

Persona, as a franchise, is both the most overtly Jungian story. And also incredibly bizarre and contradictory to Jung's theories.

Why? Because a Persona is NOT the true self. Which already creates a conflict of interest with the Persona 1 subtitle "Be your True Self".

Persona 1 is actually a hodgepodge of ideas that also very Freudian, including Masao and Nanjo as Id and Superego, and actually, Maki's personal conflict is clearly Jungian, a literal conflict of Maki's soul being exposed to the world and having her Ideal Maki to fight the personifications of her rage and grudges, a Persona vs Shadow conflict that can only end in acceptation without being a bad ending game over like Masao or Nanjo's proposals.

And yet, we summon Persona as our superpower to fight the demons in Maki's inner abyss. The good thing to do is strenghten the Personas and keep them powerful.

Same game about how over-identifying with a ideal is bad.

...Uh?

Persona 2 then came and became a more conventional Save the World plot (not saying this a diss, please, but compared to P1 it is) where the villain was not Maki's broken psyche or Kandori's tragedy of hubris , but directly Nyarlatoteph from HP Lovecraft, the evil Trickers God that pushes humanity to anhilation.

Nyarlatotep appears in Persona 1 as well, as Kandori's Persona that takes over him. But, if you pay attention to the dialogue, what is happening is not a possesion in the classic sense. Kandori fights using Nyarlatotep, then, as he starts losing (both literally and losing himself), he gets possesed for his Persona, this is the bad ending for any Jungian journey for the Self: Ego Possesion.

But notably, there is no mention of Nyarlatotep as a external malicious being, he was evil, but he was Kandori's inner self, his Persona of a ambitious man seeking greatness being consumed after reaching it.

How we know this? Becuase a official ATLUS product, the Persona manga from Shinshu Ueda, directly has no mention to this. The manga ran from 1996 to 2000, having all its plot based on Ueda's own experience playing Persona 1 before starting the manga.

Persona 2 Innocent Sin only came in 1999, so when Ueda heard the whole "Nyarlatoteph is the shadow of humanity", she already had the plot of Nyarlatotep as Kandori's own, personal, rogue Persona/Shadow done. And she published it, its a official ATLUS signed product.

And yet, what Nyarlathotep is? He is a god trying to trick humanity to extinction, but what is his title, the source of his powers? This matters, because Nyarly's mold, a powerful god using a obviously unfair and rigged game to decide humanity's fate while being the embodiment of the game's anti value, is the base for Persona 3 , 4 and 5, its a fundamental Persona stapple.

Nyarlatotep is the Shadow of Humanity.

And this is already a huge weird thing because then, if Nyarlatotep is the shadow of humanity, then Humanity should be a near utopia by repressing all those evil instinct. But it isn't.

Nyarlatotep isn't a nuanced character, he is Pure Evil. To a extreme degree, so evil that you cannot morally condemn him because being evil IS his entire self, every single Magatsuhi particle in his body is toxic unless purified before.

Cool villain concept, except that by calling him a Shadow...then Philemon is wrong, we truly are doomed, because what the fuck goes on that the flawed humanity we are is the very best self we are and our Shadow is so ridiculously monstruous.

A shadow, for its very nature, also contains good thing. Hidden bravery, boldness, creativity. This is not a posterior developement, its on Jung's own writings, which Marie Louise von Franz (a huge influential figure that helped countless artists map Jungian concepts in their storytelling, so in many ways she is more influential to Persona than Jung himself) named "The Golden Shadow".

In the end of Persona 2, Eternal Punishment, Nyarly is beaten and exiled to the depths of the Collective Unconsciousness. This is portrayed and explicitly named for Philemon as a victory of the human spirit.

But if Nyarlatoteph is the grand shadow, banishing him is probably putting a giant tickling bomb in all the human psyche that would force a worldwide psychotic break eventually, someday.

Its the following near apocalypses of Persona 3, 4 and 5 (and their spin offs, so we have to all Persona Q 1 and 2, Strikers, and Dancing All Night, Arena, etc) to it, the result of Nyarly's existence causing a collapse of the gods of ALL concepts and thus forcing humanity to always fight for itself?

The answer is no, the SMT multiverse already creates disasters because otherwise there is no plot.

But Erebus, Nyx, Izanami, Yaldabaoth and Demiurge all operate into the narrative template of Nyarlatotep. A powerful god who judges humanity as unworthy of living freely under a ridiculous biased standard that they sabotage and represents the Anti Value criticizing for the storyline. So, they are all, the Shadow of Humanity in at least their Token Aspect (ie: Yaldabaoth as the embodiment of Sloth and following of order over justice, Erebus as the malicious suicidal impulse of humanity).

And yet, Izanami from Persona 4 was redeemed rather than sealed or slain, which means that a proper Jungian integration is possible even with those cosmic gods.

...Which makes everything much more grim because then.... are the heroes of the other games NOT fixing the issue?

Obviously they aren't bad, it was the right thing in the rules of Persona, which makes Izanami really unique in that she is, since Maki's storyline in Persona 1 with her own powers (especially Pandora), the first succesful case of integration of a shadow that has reached apocalyptic threat levels in years.

And then in Persona 5 we reach the peak of the absurd here.

Suguru Kamoshida is a rapist, abusive teacher who constantly uses his past as a Olympic winner to justify abusing his students and leeching over the female ones. Shadow Kamoshida is a rapist, abusive teacher who constantly uses his past as a Olympic winner to justify abusing his students and leeching over the female ones.

How this is a shadow?

More on, the game continues to use Persona as the representation of the character's powers, rebellion, rage at injustice, when their entire narrative symbolism, especially with Futaba's arc, makes clear that their Persona are the Marie Von Franz's Golden Shadow.

At this point, especially with the endgame of Satanael using Sinful Shell (Literally the Qliphot, the Shells of Sin) as his ultimate attack, its very clear they made a Golden Shadow, but ATLUS is now so trapped into the semantic confusion that started in Persona 1 that they cannot step away.

However, because Futaba's arc is such a blatant Golden Shadow arc, it makes all the other shadow selves look really weird. Especially on the villains of Persona 5, where she stands as a sore thumb. Futaba's shadow is her good side, the part of herself that wants to live and be free.

So why then everyone else has such a evil shadow?

The reality is that King Kamoshida/Asmodeus is a jungian persona and Kamoshida is suffering from Ego inflation,so with Shido, Madarame and all Palace rulers but Futaba. They over identify with their public self and made it their entire self to proyect power. But then it means Kamoshida would be further away in his Self Actualization journey than early game Joker with no Persona, which is offensive to think about.

The fact we call Shadow Kamoshida, to be Shadow Kamoshida, instead of Persona Kamoshida, is such a strange thing.

Except that no, a person with a strong Persona is a mess, the very fact that we think "Persona= Closer to the Self/Divinity" is such a bizarre idea.

EDIT: Oh, and of course, the utter bizarre choice of Atlus to made everyone to only use a single Persona except for the MC. This is , genuinely bizarre, Akechi summoning Robin Hood and Loki is meant to be his "he is so broken mentally" card, but realistically, he having both a Persona and a Shadow, it only means he has a basic cognitive self awareness of his self, that should be common with everyone!!

If we follow the Akechi's rule (1 Persona, 1 Shadow), then a pretty cognitively aware person who has reached the peak of mortal potential (which is supposed to be the Persona casts at their endgame) should have, at least, 4 Persona per person.

Persona, Shadow, Anima/Animus (their gendered opposite) and Ego (a Super Persona, let's say their Ultimate Persona go here, but distinct rather than being a upgrade replacing the Persona)

You heard it a lot. "Why shonen mangas have such bad endings" popping out in constant discussion, singling the demographic (Genre actually, as the term refers to Fighting Shonen series, but I will keep using Shonen here)

I'm using the wikipedia list to have a list to use: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_manga

The goal isn't really "who sells more", but to have a base to work with, I cannot grab random series with no economical parity at all.

The main source here is the list of the Top 100 most sold Manga in History, which I find a pretty solid list because most of it is, well, the Top 100. If you are into Manganime, you will experience those, even if you try to be a "I read less known series", there are huge chances that those are still in the list because if its big enough to be recommended in the Western world, it sells pretty well in the original Japanese market.

And what I realized is that Fighting Shonen mangas are the majority of the list that has genuinely finished.

Most importantly, the list of long running mangas of other demographics that HAVE ended, aren't exactly cases of mangas that have been celebrated inmediately. See: Gantz, Tokyo Ghoul, Oshi no Ko, etc

Going to wikipedia, let's see the list of Over 100 millions, the upper top of the industry:

The finished series include Doraemon, a children's series with no serial storytelling which ended in a regular chapter. I mean the manga in particular, from Fujiko F Fujio.

NOTE: Why? because Hiroshi Fujimoto died in 1996 and Motoo Abiko didn't continue it, because Fujio is a pseunonym for a duo (even if Fujimoto is the one most associated with in pop talk, if anyone gets confused)

Then, a row of Shonen mangas, seriously. Most of them finished, with exceptions like Baki and One Piece.

But of the finished ones in the list? The overwhelming are shonen series, while the Seinen series are still ongoing like Shin-chan, Golgo 13 or cancelled for insulting the Japanese goverment like Oishimbo, one of the few finished ones is that list.

Yeah.

Now, moving to the 50-99 Millions list?

In a amusing play, hunter x hunter and Vagabond are both side to side in sales, few people has faith Togashi will finish HxH, while Vagabond is considered abandoned.

The other famous Seinen manga in the list? Berserk, which is still ongoing at the pen of Koji Mori.

Boys over Flowers, a best selling Shojo actually finished, so there is that.

Basically, if you are a Seinen fan, you wouldn't have bad endings. Because you just don't have endings :P

Of course, there are plenty of finished Seinen manga. Initial D and Bad Boys finished. Same with Shojo series

Hiatus and never finishing a story is a constant threat for every manga, but from the list in general, turns out Shonen series are the ones that are most likely to actually reach the finish line.

Across the 30-50 Millions range, the numbers become more equal, the seinen there became more finished relatively.

But the thing is... you can find plenty of those who are NOT beloved. Tokyo Ghoul Re: has heavy criticism, the Oshi no Ko's ending was widely mocked, etc. A lot of the series in the list are NOT mainstream series that dominate discourse in western otaku spaces at all.

There is no guarantee that other genres have beloved endings while Shonen do not, and because the overwhelming list of popular Shonen endings at the planetary level are post 2000s, you are seeing the fan discussions happen in real time.

On its time, people actually disliked the Dragon Ball manga ending, for example. It felt a sudden abandonement at the time.

There is a common take, that the Starters are a difficulty setting for at least the Early game, backed by a guide recommending Bulbasaur to newbies.

I'm adding the "relative to the game" because its not a "If you know how to play, Pokemon RBG isn't hard at all" post, no, its based on things that a kid playing the game naturally does.

And…how true is this?

My argument is based on the following, Charmander actually has plenty of Early game advantages, while Bulbasaur has struggles in the early game. I’m going to also count Wild Pokemon in this analysis, because your catches are a core mechanic. Nobody is forcing the player to fight Onix with a Pikachu, because Mankey and Nidoran are there, one forest and two routes away from Capture. So is Pidgey, who can go slaying the Viridian Forest’s wildlife while Bulbasaur rests.

But first of all. What is “the Early game”. Past a point, everyone agrees that your Starter is irrelevant because your team already would be balanced enough to match the game roughly equally. But what point is that?

The usual framing puts Brock as the end of the tutorial, but I’d argue the true Early Game Test is Cerulean City and Misty. All the game up to leaving Cerulean is the Act I of Pokemon RBG.

Why? Because just like how the game prevents you from leaving after Brock, the game prevents you from leaving after Misty. But the thing that makes Misty unique, is that Mt Moon’s end, entering the route that leads to Cerulean, has a bizarrely placed tile that makes returning back to home by foot impossible until you get Cut later in game.

Just one tile and you cannot go back to catch old Pokemon for a large part of the game. Goodbye Geodude, Sandsdrew , Paras, Zubat, Mankey, Nidoran and especially, Pikachu, the only Electric type you can get at that point, I think its obvious.

But the game is merciful and despite this being a massive hurdle which Charmeleon cannot beat, the area right next to Misty’s gym after crossing the bridge has Oddish or Weepingbell, two grass types which are, effectively, a back-up Bulbasaur to fight Misty in equal conditions. There is even the path to Bill's house, filled with Hikers, so your newly captured Oddish/Weepingbell can level up and master grass type moves

“But Kazuya, nobody says passing the game with Charmander is hard, the fact you have to team build to include Mankey, Nidoran, Pikachu or Oddish is exactly what we mean with hard mode, the illusion of your starter as the solo start ends quickly”

I agree. But actually, for Bulbasaur’s players, the illusion ends up earlier, much earlier that it doesn’t even start.

Blue already shatters it. How? Because Blue has two Aces, first his Starter, and then his canonical Ace that remains his symbol as a Gym leader in the GSC games. His Pidgey that would become a Pidgeot (or Fearrow in Yellow, but you don’t choose starter in Yellow). Bulbasaur’s STAB is weak against it, and Pidgey’s STAB hurts.
And then you go to Viridian Forest and its even worse, because its a place where every trainer, every wild pokemon, resists your attacks. If you want to cross the area without breaking your mind in tedium, you need to delegate the job to Pidgey or Spearrow.

And then, Bulbasaur faced a second Martyrdom. Mt. Moon. "But Kazuya, it's a place of Geodudes and Sandshrew!! Its his place" And it's the place where Zubat appears at rates of 79% in the most extreme areas, and 54% in the LEAST Zubat centric areas. Zubat, which resists x4 to Bulbasaur's stats. Notice I said "Bulbausaur" and not Ivysaur, because Charmander and Squirtle would be send enough to reach Level 16 here, if you team build with Bulbasaur, you will be sending Pikachu to zap the Zubats and only switch to fight the Geodudes, Sandshrew and Clefairies, preventing Bulbasaur from reaching level 16. Especially once Team Rocket appears, with their armies of Zubat and Ekans.

Yes, Pikachu is actually a massive helper for both Charmander and Bulbasaur. Impressive, right? The small rat was put as a 5% rate precisely to do this job, it seems useless against Brock, then you realize flying is a common enemy and Pikachu comes to Zap your flying enemies with ease.

And about Squirtle? That turtle-squirrel has neutral STAB for Viridian forest, super effective on Brock, then either Neutral or SE on Mt Moon and finally gets walled for Misty, who in turns who walls her and turns the battle into a battle of endurance where the deal breaker is the rest of your team.

In many ways, Squirtle is the easy mode.

Now, if you were stubborn and overleveled Warturtle by overpowering it, Lt Surge comes to tell you “TEAM BUILD IDIOT, I PUT MY GYM NEXT TO A DIGGLET'S CAVE THAT COME WITH A FREE DUGTRIO SO YOU DON’T EVEN NEED TO LEVEL UP”.

Its this also part of the Early game? I don’t know, The cave is a vital moment where you finally break the illusion of no-return that Cerulean city left, you passed the trial. But well, what I mean is, Squirtle’s trial is actually the one happening when the player has been psychologically freed of their worst worry in-game

I feel lowkey bad for Sandshrew, Digglet basically takes away every worry a Fire or Grass played felt about the Ground type. Its a machine of Digs, a move so useful even outside of combat that it was a mini arc when leaving Cerulean

Charmander's team only struggles if your team is Charmander, Butterfree, Pidgey and Pikachu, a popular team choice...and why your team HAS to be the combination of the guys who fare it worse against the Rock type and depend on using their Special Attacks to use the low Special stat of Brock's team (which leads to a epic challenging fight where its Fast and Strong vs Endurance..only because you picked the absolute worst ones for the task)

I get this team is literally Ash's team plus The Starter. And they all pass in the mandatory zones while Mankey and Nidoran are on the road to the Victory Road. But at the same time, it doesn't even feel like an optional path because , if its truly your first time playing, you have to reason to rush to Viridian forest instead of going to the other path with the lake to find out what is the actual goal of the player and finally have people telling you "Why my ID card has this "medals" section"?

This is how a kid back in the day, playing Pokemon RBG saw the world, they didn't knew that they had to go North inmediately after the rival fight, or that they couldn't capture the guys in the other route.

And if someone says "Its about the starter rushing everything", then...yeah, that's my point, Charmander would struggle on Brock, but Bulbasaur rushing the Viridian Forest would made you capture a Pidgey or Pikachu out of sheer frustration. Squirtle is the one who can reliably rush and solo everything until Misty, for Charmander and Bulbasaur, their wake-up call is ealier.

I am doing historical revisionism for a fictional character because its just fun to me, and because it leads to me to discovering lesser known historical events by searching similar situations.

“Ha, the fire nation won 100 years and then under Ozai, they actually folded in 1 year”.

Well, besides the fact that Ozai actually lasted in power around 5 years, so it wasn’t one year=total failure, the reality is…he actually didn’t lose anything for the Fire Nation as an empire building project.

Yes, the Phoenix Lord’s expansion failed, but it was because the Avatar himself beat him. It wasn’t a failure of political guile or miscalculation, it was the Avatar Aang coming to defeat him personally to take him down.

In fact, Ozai actually was pretty direct and left his daughter as the Fire Lord to rule in his name, so Ozai being taken down for Aang…actually did not end the Hundred Years Wars. Because if Azula was left alone, then the war would continue under the former Princess who took Ba Sing Se.

A great military achievement which she fulfilled using Ozai’s political training, by the way. All attempts to separate Azula from Ozai are extremely flawed because, every manipulative trick Azula does? Ozai is the master, she is the student.

Azula may be an excellent student who surpassed the master in that aspect? We don’t see Ozai’s politicking enough to see so, but I incline myself to say yes.

And that’s actually a point for Ozai, because a Lord always has to train his heir.

Which means that once Azula conquered Ba Sing Se, the Fire Nation reached its apex of power under the reign of Fire Lord Ozai.

Azula’s psychotic breakdown is a direct result of Ozai’s training, but the grim reality is that she did that because she was matched in the Agni Kai, and in her despair at facing a legally accepted Fire Nation traditionShe attacked Katara. Azula lost the Fire Lord position then at the hands of Zuko.

Zuko, a Fire Nation prince and Ozai’s other son, his failure son… who had to orchestrate this breakout to challenge Azula and use the convenient Dueling methodology for direct succession. Zuko had to do all that infiltration to simply reach Azula.

It's only with Azula down that you can say Ozai has been defeated… directly.

Because it means only a Fire Nation heir could decide the fate of the world, with Zuko formally announcing the end of the war the next day. Fire Lord Sozin smiles happily in the sky.

The Phoenix Lord’s planned punitive expedition failed, this can’t be denied. Even if Ozai reached Ba Sing Se at full health, he would have to face King Bumi from Omashu. But this is a much winnable fight that the Avatar himself, and his soldiers would have punitively burn and sacked the city.

Ozai’s ideology was punitive, between Sozin (Airbender genocide) and Azulon (Waterbender raids), all the Fire Lords carried their own act of punitive foreign expeditions to cement their power. The plan to burn the Earth Kingdom was Ozai’s attempt to do it to the largest nation.

Because it means only a Fire Nation heir could decide the fate of the world, with Zuko formally announcing the end of the war the next day. Fire Lord Sozin smiles happily in the sky.

The Phoenix Lord’s planned punitive expedition failed, this can’t be denied. Even if Ozai reached Ba Sing Se at full health, he would have to face King Bumi from Omashu. But this is a much winnable fight that the Avatar himself, and his soldiers would have punitively burn and sacked the city.

Ozai’s ideology was punitive, between Sozin (Airbender genocide) and Azulon (Waterbender raids), all the Fire Lords carried their own act of punitive foreign expeditions to cement their power. The plan to burn the Earth Kingdom was Ozai’s attempt to do it to the largest nation.

And only the Avatar could stop him. I actually trust Bumi to be able to fight him, but without Aang, the death toll of the battle would have been apocalyptic. The White Lotus vs Ozai would have probably ended with Ozai dying in Ba Sing Se.

And the city would be reduced to ashes, with a death toll comparable to the old genocides, breaking the connectivity of the Earth Kingdom and forcing them to retreat to Omashu because that city would be standing, which with Azula in power as Ozai intended, it means the war continues and the Earth Kingdom is deeply, deeply weakened.

This is if Ozai lost. His worst personal failure scenario without the Avatar.

“But the bulk of the conquests happened under his ancestors”

Ok, how is that relevant here? Ozai cannot reconquest land he already holds. All the recent additions (and loses, let’s be fair) like New Ozai (Omashu) were lands he didn’t already hold or pacified, what do you expect him to do? Suppress the rebellions? His military was already doing that, holding the Slave camps for Earthbenders (who posed a structurally different challenge than Waterbenders and Airbenders, because they are a minority within their own Kingdom) and crushing revolts.

Ozai’s answer to all the minor revolts and fights across the episode chapters was the Scorched Earth plan of the Season 3 finale.

Yes, Ozai’s plan is literally the result of the ending of Imprisioned. This sounds weird, but the thing is, Ozai was always the main villain, the racist sadistic Warden that burned the feet of Earthbender captives was his enforcer in the ground.

And his answer to Katara and Haru beating the Warden and throwing him to the sea was precisely the Phoenix Lord. Ok, not literally to avenge that Individual Warden, but Ozai already knew the occupation would be a constant militia war. So he just moved to Scorched Earth.

He planned to personally lead the assault, but he didn’t leave the home front, he left Azula there.

And ultimately, the things that actually beat them were the Avatar himself coming at for him, in an evenly matched fight where Aang had to use the Avatar State to beat him. And Zuko does an Agni Kai to take over and surrender.

But I want to think a bit about the fun part.

Legally, this is a funny thing. For some brief moments, the Phoenix Lord existed as a independent military leader outside the Fire Nation military because Zuko was the winner.

Zuko’s only legitimacy was given to Ozai, because if Azula wasn’t named Fire Lord, then Zuko wouldn’t be anywhere, as his only legitimacy comes from Azula. He would be asking Agni Kai to Ozai and then the fight of the S1 flashbacks would happen again.

This sounds like a failure to Ozai, “He created his own seed of his defeat”.

No, he spared the Fire Nation from a chaotic transition, he didn’t left his people to depend exclusively on him, the Phoenix Lord was meant to rule the remains of the Earth Kingdom crushing and fighting the insurgency, the Fire Lord would rule domestic policy.

Now, the main thing to criticize about Ozai? That he mishandled the roles and gave Azula the domestic office and himself the Foreign affairs office, when Azula, as the conqueror of Ba Sing Se and the actual ideological author of the Scorched Earth plan, should be the one in charge of the genocidal suppression while Ozai remained in domestic police. The issue is, of course, the Avatar and the White Lotus, two powerful enemies that only Ozai, as the strongest Firebender per the lore (I'm not going to get into scaling now) could fight, while Azula was weaker and, as we see, terrible under pressure. It would be better for Ozai if Azula got captured by Aang while Ozai gave Zuko a second scar? Maybe.

But the whole final battle would be different if Azula was leading the invasion and Ozai in the Throne. Maybe Aang goes to the Throne and Azula is left to fight the heroes? They would NEED Aang’s bison. The battle without Aang vs an army of elite Firebenders lead by Azula could end terribly bittersweet, because the Agni Kai provided a way to ensure it didn’t become “One Fire Nation liberal teen vs 100 Fire Nation elite guards, ft. his Waterbender friend. He gets CRISPED”.

But again…Ozai has to go to burn the Earth Kingdom, he also had to face the Avatar (enough that his people made propaganda plays about him beating Aang). So he blended the two jobs because that’s the maximum damage, preventing the actual military force capable of damaging the mainland as he saw when Aang sunk the Fire nation fleet in the North Water tribe.

Aang’s ability to trigger Tsunamies is a nightmare for a coastal island nation like the Fire Nation.

Even in his jail, he actually doesn’t resent Zuko for taking over the throne, he resents him for being weak despite being strong. A philosophical disagreement. He even is willing to give him his own unhinged murderous tips in politics, because why wouldn’t he? The Fire Lord is the Fire Lord. The institution survived.

And the best, best part?

The colonies survived, the settler project succeeded. Why? Because Ozai’s delegation made the entire White Lotus’ strategy to be build around Zuko’s choices of geopolitics.

We now enter the comics, which have to be canon because Korra exists: The Earth Kingdom, under a radical movement named the Harmony Restoration Group, demanded the Fire Nation settlers to return to the Nation under threat of violence.

Because the Fire Nation is now at peace, the Settlers, the actual active agents who were the material base of the slave camps and would have been effectively the main agents carrying the oppression during the Phoenix Lord’s rule, were finally vulnerable at the wrath of the Earth Kingdom.

Yu Dao, by being a Fire Nation colony providing the ships and material for the slave camps, and benefitting from it by building itself with the forced labour of the Earth Kingdom, already was iffy. But once Ozai became the Phoenix Lord and launched his invasion, then the Colonies became infinitely worse than just mass enslavement. They actively were designed as the agents who would carry the Genocide of Ba Sing Se after the main event was over. All of this exactly during ATLA final chapter

And Fire Lord Zuko couldn’t abandon his people too, he was raised as a gentle kid for his mother, and also a loyal Fire Nation idealist for his father. Remember, their initial conflict was Zuko not wanting to sacrifice soldiers needlessly by sending them to losing fights.

And that idealism, paradoxically, led Zuko to threaten war on the Earth Kingdom to, again, protect his people. Because Zuko is a fire nation citizen above everything.

Which means Ozai’s heir and son carried the same campaign of conquest by formalizing the Settlements and giving them independence alongside Aang.

Republic City isn’t the Fire Nation’s state, but it's the project of Fire Lord Sozin to “spread our prosperity”, as Sozin is their actual literal founder. And it exists only because Zuko kept the full might of the Fire Nation to ensure its ethnic interests weren’t affected.

Who kept Zuko’s power intact for him to hold and threaten the Earth Kingdom?

Fire Lord Ozai, having his son threaten to burn the Earth King Kuei if they dare to touch his settlers. Exactly the goal of the Phoenix Lord, because he proved it was a threat the army was willing to use. Fire Lord Ozai won the Hundred Years' War with his two children holding two different roles.

By naming himself Phoenix Lord and planning to rule over the ashes of the Earth Kingdom, Ozai already made an administrative division where "The Frontier" would be a different administrative area than "The Core", a classical colonial division seen in ancient empires and modern ones. See: The Ober Ost of Imperial Germany.

The interesting thing is that because the Fire Nation is a pure, complete Absolute Monarchy, the Princess Azula was officially named Fire Lord (Monarch) while the Emperor himself named himself the leader of the conquered territories. A inversion of the usual set-up where Princes go to the frontlines and colonies (like Azula, Iroh and Lu Ten did), but Ozai did it because he took the role of the Military Governor while Azula was meant to start her rule as a mainlander Fire Lord (which she would have to do eventually in a victory scenario).

In hindsight, someone like Admiral Zhao already tried to be like that during the S1 finale, as he ambitioned ruling the devastated Northern Water Tribe, being a new de-facto Colonial Governor there, which of course, its obviously being "The King of the Colonies", a position that Ozai simply made a actual legal position as the Phoenix Lord.

The Phoenix King was the King of the Colonies, including Yu Dao, while the Fire Lord ruled the mainland. Zuko beating Azula took over the throne, but the colonies were effectively meant to be Ozai’s actual seat of power as he carried the continued repression of the Earth Kingdom. Ozai’s dramatic flair would likely demand to sit in the burned ruins of Ba Sing Se, but even if he does that, his actual industrial base would be…Yu Dao.

Yes, Yu Dao (the future Republic City) literally attempted genocide in the Earth Kingdom in ATLAs finale.

What the United Republic of Nations did was , effectively, turn the Frontier into its own nation still ruled for Settlers and assimilated collaborators who supported the enslavement of the rest of their compatriots. Exactly Ozai's proposed administrative division.

With all of this, I want to say: Damn, Ozai is actually more competent than the fanbase credits. He actually took his defeat pretty well, becoming a de-facto advisor for his own son, because to Ozai, power is power, even if its from the son he himself despised.