At certain points, Azulon, Iroh, and Lu Ten all say things that sound too colloquial or overly casual for their characterizations - but that's the only thing that detracts from the immersion of this otherwise wonderful piece. Having Lu Ten and Ozai being so close in age and both competing for Ursa - that's a twist, but it's fitting with this messed up family. Imagine if Zuko actually was Lu Ten's and Azula was Ozai's - Azula would be both Zuko's half-sister AND cousin once removed. It's making me almost wish that was actually the case - Zuko would then truly be the rightful Firelord, being the grandson of Azulon's intended heir (Iroh).

Actually azulon was only born that year

Lu Ten x Ursa...no just no.

I love what you did with the Ozai-Azulon confrontation! Really clever and more realistic having Azulon order Zuko killed as a test, then be horrified that Ozai actually wants to go through will it.
I felt sorry for poor Azula too.

I love this theory on what happened that night when Azulon asked Ozai to kill Zuko. That order always did seem a little too twisted to be real to me-especially since it seemed Azulon was doing it to prove a point.
And comparing Ozai to a kid with his hand in the cookie jar was hilarious.

Recommended from tvtropes, it was worth every word ;)

That was amazing. You show considerable talent. I consider this to be in my headcannon.

This was just...AMAZING! Secretly I had always believed that Azulon ordering Ozai to kill Zuko WAS just a test to see how he would react rather than an actual order. And having Lu Ten and Ursa be old flames (no pun intended) seemed genius to me. Brilliantly done!

A haunting story. But wonderful. I liked it.

Very nice story, I really think these are believable directions for the characters and would explain a lot.

And it never hurts to have more fics were Lu Ten and Azulon get time.

This was very interesting and on the part of the private being Jeong Jeong, I don't see that working, now the private being lieutenant Jee...

Thank you for writing this. I have now officially added your version of events to my headcanon. This now, as far as I'm concerned, How It All Happened back before the show started.

Well done!

Just wanted to say that i think making that private Jeong-Jeong makes sense, and doesn't seem all that contrived- after all, he needed to begin his mental journey somewhere.

i think you did really well. i like to imagine this is howit was... i mean, it seems like ozai was the only really messed up one ( mean, really sick and twisted) , until azula. i like this very much, you did a wonderful job. i'm kinda glad that Ozai got firelord...i mean, we wouldn't even have the show if iroh had, right, iroh would have made it all better.

Wow.

I never gave much thought to how Sozin must have felt after he burned all the Air Nomads, and for naught.

It's also interesting how you give Ozai a possible explanation for his own issues and still make him the least sympathetic of characters! And Lu Ten and Ursa... well, there's a whole other can of worms.

Amazing!