| rdfs:comment | - Ozai seemed very prepared for the occasion. Also, if he would readily kill his own son, killing his own nephew shouldn't be that hard. Also, Ozai presumably green-lighted the plan to kill off an entire battalion of new solders, so he probably doesn’t care who is killed in battle. Maybe he had Zhao kill Lu Ten. Zhao, being as close to Ozai as he was, must have known of Lu Ten and Zuko's close friendship. He could have done it only to spite Zuko.
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| abstract | - Ozai seemed very prepared for the occasion. Also, if he would readily kill his own son, killing his own nephew shouldn't be that hard. Also, Ozai presumably green-lighted the plan to kill off an entire battalion of new solders, so he probably doesn’t care who is killed in battle. Maybe he had Zhao kill Lu Ten. Zhao, being as close to Ozai as he was, must have known of Lu Ten and Zuko's close friendship. He could have done it only to spite Zuko.
* Kinda hard for Ozai to have that kind of control over a battle happening on the other side of the world.
* It would not be too difficult for Ozai to arrange a covert assassin to kill Lu Ten in the middle of some heated battle. Everyone would then assume he was killed by enemy forces.
* He's prince of the Fire Nation which is winning the war. Also, Zhao's been known to go to such lengths for the sake of making some kid's life hell.
* If Ozai did arrange Lu Ten to die, it was probably for a better reason than to "spite Zuko": he did it to ensure that the coup where he claimed the title of the Fire Lord would succeed. Ozai knew how important Lu Ten was to Iroh, so he realized that by arranging Lu Ten's death he could emotionally crush Iroh. Ozai presumed that Iroh would become so depressed he'd start acting in ways not fitting to a future Fire Lord, and the depression would also ensure he wouldn't oppose Ozai's coup. Also, as pointed out in the series, Lu Ten's death meant Iroh would have no legitimate heir once he became Fire Lord. As we see, Ozai's plan works almost as he thought it would: Iroh becomes depressed by his son's death and abandons the siege of Ba Sing Se. Most likely Ozai couldn't have foreseen this specific development, but it certainly fits his plan, as it undermines Iroh's capability as a military leader, a capability that is extremely important to a Fire Lord. What Ozai didn't foresee, however, was Azulon's unshakable loyalty to Iroh. Even after Ozai presented his case why Iroh should be passed over for the throne, Azulon refused to do so, which forced Ozai to arrange for his death. Ozai's original plan worked in one aspect, though: Iroh never challenged his claim for the throne. At this point Iroh was probably a better fighter than Ozai, so if he had opposed Ozai's claim things probably would have lead to an Agni Kai, which Ozai knew he would have lost. So by arranging Lu Ten's death Ozai ensured Iroh would not stand in the way of him becoming the new Fire Lord.
* Of course one could ask why Ozai didn't arrange for Iroh to be killed in the siege of Ba Sing Se instead of Lu Ten, but there could be many reasons for that. First of all, Iroh was undoubtedly a better fighter than Lu Ten, and as a general he would have stayed behind the battle lines, so arranging his death in a way that wouldn't look extremely suspicious would have been much more difficult. And it's perfectly possible there was still some remnant of love and loyalty for his brother left in Ozai's twisted mind, so he simply couldn't bring himself to have Iroh killed, even if he could do that to his son.
* If Iroh was killed, then Lu Ten would be the next Fire Lord. Even if Iroh didn't become super depressed and give up the throne, he is now heir-less, making his 20-years-younger or so brother next in line after him. This is sort of the angle Ozai was trying to pitch to Azulon, but Azulon didn't react how he expected. Anyway, maybe Ozai was planning on killing Iroh next, though probably at a time when it would be less suspicious. Instead, Iroh gave up the throne so Ozai didn't need too.
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