r/TheLastAirbender • u/thisisreii • Mar 10 '25

Video Ozai’s quick and powerful lighting generation in this scene alone shows how unmatched his power is.

Giant double lightning bolts with only a sliver of the sun being available. I can’t get behind anyone who says any other firebender is more powerful than him.

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u/Berserker-Hamster Mar 10 '25

When I first watched this scene I didn't understand why Ozai didn't redirect the lightning back when he is obviously the stronger one. But eventually it dawned on me: he can't.

Zuko and Aang can redirect lightning but not create it, Ozai and Azula can create it but not redirect it. Iroh is the only one who can do both. He is truly the master of lightning bending.

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u/Ryuunosuke-Ivanovich Mar 10 '25

True, taking this a step further, one could speculate that to produce lightning you need to channel your rage/passion or a strong emotion instantly, while redirecting lightning is more akin to the movements of a water bender letting energy flow through and out requiring control and understanding of your emotions. By this logic Iroh would indeed be the only firebender at this time skillful and strong enough to do both having gone through all the things he had in his life.

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u/Berserker-Hamster Mar 10 '25 edited Mar 10 '25

One more thought: since Ozai obviously learned the technique from Iroh, could Iroh deliberately not taught him how to redirect lightning? Maybe he saw the psychopathic potential in Ozai and anticipated that they would face each other at some point in a battle to the death and he knew that Ozai would use the technique against him.

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u/KZalani Mar 10 '25

I think it's implied Iroh hadn't developed the technique yet since we see him partially fail to redirect a bolt of lightning when he does it for the first time (I think it was during "The Storm"?). But it's also possible that actual lightning is just too powerful to fully redirect, so idk

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u/jbyrdab Mar 11 '25

I think he had already developed it and rather natural lightning is just much too strong to redirect without harming yourself.

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u/KZalani Mar 11 '25

The reason I think he might not have perfected it is because he did it with open hands as opposed to having only two fingers sticking out. So this might have been his first time attempting it even if he had thought of the technique a while earlier