I tend to see Ozai's role as giving her a free hand for her cruelty while providing approval for what he considered to be strength, achievement and success. At the same time his treatment of Zuko showed the price of what he defined as weakness and failure.
I agree. I also don't think he ever treated her with any real love, because I don't think he's capable of it. As far as I'm concerned, those two things add up to some pretty horrible emotional abuse right there, but he didn't make her evil as much as he delighted in what was already there. I do think his treatment of Zuko contributed greatly to the paranoia that would later fuel Azula's psychotic break.
As an aside, I think she had an episode of brief reactive psychosis, of, as it looks like from "The Search" previews, longer than usual duration, which means her prognosis is good.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2012-09-09 03:37 pm (UTC)I agree. I also don't think he ever treated her with any real love, because I don't think he's capable of it. As far as I'm concerned, those two things add up to some pretty horrible emotional abuse right there, but he didn't make her evil as much as he delighted in what was already there. I do think his treatment of Zuko contributed greatly to the paranoia that would later fuel Azula's psychotic break.
As an aside, I think she had an episode of brief reactive psychosis, of, as it looks like from "The Search" previews, longer than usual duration, which means her prognosis is good.