I didn't think he's insistant that Aang has to kill Ozai, actually. I mean, Sokka is just as impatient with Aang's holding back when he (Sokka) kills the Melon Lord for him. With Zuko he brings up Ozai after he's just admitted to Aang that violence wasn't the answer for Katara and him in SR, and I took it as a real, genuine question: so then what are you going to do about my father?
It is a geniune question. It's also a question that Zuko believes he knows the answer to. Sokka is impatient with Aang: everyone is, even the old Avatars. No one gives Aang any other advice than to kill Ozzai, not even Zuko. Zuko actually teaches Aang how to deflect lightning and tells him plainly that when Aang deflects Ozzai's lightning, he has to redirect it back at his father. The whole reason why Aang ends up running away, spiritually at least, is because he's surrounded by people who don't understand that he has a problem with ending anybody's life and who are reminding him that yes, you are running out of time.
With Katara I didn't think he was pushing her so much as agreeing with her. She was angry about what happened to her mother, and Zuko saw how to resolve it.
Zuko is the one who actually creates the situation where Katara can find her revenge. When Aang and Sokka try to talk her out of it, he counter-acts them. At no time is he the passive, silent supporter. Katara doesn't approach him for information on her mother's killers. It is Zuko that actively presents her with the possibility for revenge (and it's made clear that this is revenge not justice: Aang forces Katara to admit this). Zuko is cast as the "evil conscience" to Sokka's and Aang's "good conscience" and when the duo do find the Southern Raiders, Zuko plays an active role in isolating Kya's murdererer; and then disarming him later with Firebending for Katara to take her revenge.
Neither of them could really understand the concept of forgiving the way Aang did at that point, imo, maybe because of all the ways they're alike.
Firstly, at the end of the episode, neither have understood the concept of forgiveness because Katara hasn't forgiven her mother's murderer. She just wasn't able to become a murderer herself. Zuko understood that Katara didn't need violence. He also hasn't reached the level of enlightnment that Aang had over the Air Nomad genocide.
And this is where I get the OOC vibe. The distinction between vengeance and justice is something that Zuko - up until Southern Raiders - had always appeared to understand. When Zuko confronts his father, it's not about revenge. It is about a larger sense of honour, this time extending to the whole of the Fire Nation. He's not calling the old man out to pay him back for his scar or his abused childhood. He's calling the old man out because he has to side against Ozzai and the Fire Nation's reign of terror in the world. He could have killed Ozzai then - first with his swords, and later when he redirects lightning but he doesn't. It's not because Zuko forgives Ozzai. It's because to kill him was not his job. Ozzai needed to be handed over to a higher form of justice - the Avatar. When Zuko is in a position to harm other personal enemies - Zhao and Azula - he stays his hand.
They're both idealists who seem much more bothered about the world not being perfect than Aang is. Aang and his "can't we just kiss and make up with Ozzai" approach to confrontation is more of an idealist than any other person in the show. Zuko is the hard-headed realist, who literally says "I know you're afraid, but this is something you have to do."
Re: I left off a lot of discussions just after the finale, so I'm trying to get back on to them...
It is a geniune question. It's also a question that Zuko believes he knows the answer to. Sokka is impatient with Aang: everyone is, even the old Avatars. No one gives Aang any other advice than to kill Ozzai, not even Zuko. Zuko actually teaches Aang how to deflect lightning and tells him plainly that when Aang deflects Ozzai's lightning, he has to redirect it back at his father. The whole reason why Aang ends up running away, spiritually at least, is because he's surrounded by people who don't understand that he has a problem with ending anybody's life and who are reminding him that yes, you are running out of time.
Zuko is the one who actually creates the situation where Katara can find her revenge. When Aang and Sokka try to talk her out of it, he counter-acts them. At no time is he the passive, silent supporter. Katara doesn't approach him for information on her mother's killers. It is Zuko that actively presents her with the possibility for revenge (and it's made clear that this is revenge not justice: Aang forces Katara to admit this). Zuko is cast as the "evil conscience" to Sokka's and Aang's "good conscience" and when the duo do find the Southern Raiders, Zuko plays an active role in isolating Kya's murdererer; and then disarming him later with Firebending for Katara to take her revenge.
Firstly, at the end of the episode, neither have understood the concept of forgiveness because Katara hasn't forgiven her mother's murderer. She just wasn't able to become a murderer herself. Zuko understood that Katara didn't need violence. He also hasn't reached the level of enlightnment that Aang had over the Air Nomad genocide.
And this is where I get the OOC vibe. The distinction between vengeance and justice is something that Zuko - up until Southern Raiders - had always appeared to understand. When Zuko confronts his father, it's not about revenge. It is about a larger sense of honour, this time extending to the whole of the Fire Nation. He's not calling the old man out to pay him back for his scar or his abused childhood. He's calling the old man out because he has to side against Ozzai and the Fire Nation's reign of terror in the world. He could have killed Ozzai then - first with his swords, and later when he redirects lightning but he doesn't. It's not because Zuko forgives Ozzai. It's because to kill him was not his job. Ozzai needed to be handed over to a higher form of justice - the Avatar. When Zuko is in a position to harm other personal enemies - Zhao and Azula - he stays his hand.
Aang and his "can't we just kiss and make up with Ozzai" approach to confrontation is more of an idealist than any other person in the show. Zuko is the hard-headed realist, who literally says "I know you're afraid, but this is something you have to do."