Everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked... but why exactly did the Fire Nation attack? Avatar: The Last Airbender begins in a world already worn down by the Hundred Year War, and only the return of Avatar Aang - frozen inside an iceberg for a century - can drive the Fire Nation back. It wasn't until the final season of the beloved Nickelodeon fantasy show, however, that Avatar revealed the story behind Fire Lord Sozin's campaign to take control of all Four Nations.
When Aang awakened from the iceberg and returned to the Southern Air Temple, he was devastated to find that he was truly the last airbender. The rest of the Air Nomads, including Aang's mentor Monk Gyatso, had been wiped out at the very start of the Hundred Year War, when the Fire Nation drew upon the power of Sozin's comet to command unstoppable strength. There was a good reason why Fire Lord Sozin targeted the remote nation of peace-loving monks before taking on bigger enemies like the Earth Kingdom or the Water Tribes: he was determined to find the next Avatar, and destroy them before they could thwart his plans.
In Avatar: The Last Airbender season 3, episode 6, "The Avatar and the Fire Lord," both Aang and Zuko seek out the story of their predecessors. Aang is shown the memories of Avatar Roku, and Zuko reads the memoirs of his great-grandfather, Fire Lord Sozin. Most fans will remember this episode for the dramatic reveal at the end: that Zuko is descended from both Sozin and Roku, since his mother was Roku's granddaughter. However, "The Avatar and the Fire Lord" was packed with other fascinating reveals, including the reason why Aang became the last airbender.
In their youth, Sozin and Roku were best friends. There was no sign of resentment or jealousy from Sozin when the Fire Sages revealed that Roku was the new Avatar. In fact, when Roku left the Fire Nation to embark on his training in the other elements, Sozin gave him the parting gift of his own headpiece, a royal artefact meant to be worn only by the Crown Prince. The two remained firm friends even after Roku returned to find that Sozin had become the new Fire Lord, and Sozin was the best man at Roku's wedding. It was on this day, however, that the relationship between them began to sour. Calling Roku away from his new wife to talk privately, Sozin revealed his secret ambition.
Even before the start of the Hundred Year War, the Fire Nation had reached the height of its power - rivalled only in size and military strength by the Earth Kingdom. Fire Lord Sozin saw his childhood friendship with a man who was later revealed to be the Avatar as not mere coincidence, but a sign from the universe that the two of them had a grand destiny. Citing the prosperity of their country, Sozin told Roku that they should "share" the success of the Fire Nation with the rest of the world by expanding the empire into other territories. Like most villains, Sozin thought of himself as the hero of the story - the great leader who would turn the Four Nations into a single united Empire.
Roku was repulsed by this plan. The Avatar's role is to maintain balance between the mortal and spirit worlds, and among the Four Nations. No matter which one of the Four Nations the Avatar is born into, they are not supposed to take sides in politics or war (something that Korra struggled with), and are certainly not supposed to use their powers for conquest. Roku refused to help Sozin and warned him against attempting to execute his plan. When he discovered that Sozin had gone ahead and established Fire Nation colonies in the Earth Kingdom anyway, Roku soundly defeated Sozin in battle - sparing his life, but warning him never to try anything like it again.
Fire Lord Sozin did not return the favor when he had Toku at his mercy. After a volcano on Roku's home island erupted, he stayed behind as his wife and the other inhabitants of the island escaped, using all of his bending abilities to try and hold back the lava. Sozin arrived to help, but after Roku was hit by a blast of poisonous volcanic gases, Sozin left him where he was - telling Roku that so long as he lived, he would be a barrier to Sozin's plans for the Fire Nation's expansion. Roku and his dragon, Fang, were consumed by the volcano, and Sozin was finally free to pursue his ambitions. However, he still lived in fear of the Avatar's return.
Sozin bided his time for 12 years after Roku's death, until a unique opportunity presented itself: a comet, which would later come to be known as Sozin's Comet, was set to pass by. The presence of the comet greatly amplified the powers of all firebenders, giving them a window in which they would be unstoppable. But rather than using this window to focus on launching a devastating first volley against the powerful Earth Kingdom, Fire Lord Sozin used it to carry out an act of genocide against the Air Nomads.
The Avatar reincarnates in a cycle among the Four Nations. Avatar Roku was preceded by the Earth Kingdom Avatar Kyoshi, who was preceded by Avatar Kuruk of the Northern Water Tribe, who was preceded by the Air Nomad Avatar Yangchen. Sozin knew that after Roku's death the Avatar would have been reincarnated among the Air Nomads, and that - at 12 years old - it wouldn't be long before the Avatar became a threat to his plans for conquest. Indeed, the Air Nomads had planned to accelerate Aang's training due to the signs of a coming war.
It's unclear whether or not Roku knew that it's possible to break the Avatar's cycle of reincarnation by killing them in the Avatar state, but at the very least he hoped to buy some time by killing the young Air Nomad Avatar. Aang, however, had already fled the Southern Air Temple when the attack came. The Fire Lord spent the rest of his life searching for the Avatar, perhaps out of a deep-seated fear that his old friend would return one day to punish Sozin for his betrayal. This is one of the reasons why the Fire Nation had a program of rounding up and imprisoning or killing waterbenders and earthbenders; it was all part of a continued search for the Avatar.
Ultimately, Sozin's anxiety about the Avatar proved to be justified when, a hundred years later, Aang put a stop to the Hundred Year War, ending the Fire Nation's conquest and defeating Sozin's grandson, Fire Lord Ozai, in combat. But just as Roku once had, Aang showed mercy to Ozai and let him live - stripped of his firebending powers. Just as the Avatar is always destined to do, Aang brought balance back to the Four Nations.
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