Ghazan

"If I'm going down today, you're coming with me."

- Ghazan choosing death over prison

Ghazan is the secondary antagonist in Book 3 of The Legend of Korra. He is one of the four most dangerous criminals in the world, along with Zaheer, P'Li, and Ming-Hua. He acts as Zaheer's second-in-command among the group and archenemies to Bolin. He possesses the rare ability to Lavabend.

History
Years ago, Ghazan was dangerous Earthbending criminal and a member of the Order of the Red Lotus. He and his gang, led by Zaheer, attempted to kidnap the Avatar, Korra, when she was a little girl, but all of them were defeated by Tonraq, Sokka, Firelord Zuko, and Tenzin. Ghazan, like all his compatriots, was deemed extremely dangerous and was placed in a specialized prison cell exclusively for him. To prevent Ghazan from escaping, the Order placed Ghazan in a wooden cell in a water vessel, virtually cutting Ghazan off from any earth to Earthbend with and making escape impossible. Also like his Red Lotus allies, he was brutally interrogated about his motives for kidnapping Korra, none of the criminals revealed anything.

After escaping, Zaheer, the Red Lotus leader who recently acquired the ability to Airbend, arrived to bust him out of prison. While Zaheer was fending off the guards, he managed to toss Ghazan three rocks, which he Lavabender into a blazing shuriken. He then used this to cut out of his cell and murder his captors by slicing them with his magma weapon.

After successfully escaping from his holdup, Ghazan joined sides Zaheer once again to break another criminal named Ming-Hua out of her cell. The two traveled to a prison hidden inside a volcano, where Ming-Hua was being held. The two engaged her captors in battle and tossed Ming-Hua a barrel of water, which allowed her to escape from her containment. After Ghazan and Zaheer successfully broke Ming-Hua out from her cell, Ming-Hua joined the two so they can break out P'Li, Zaheer's girlfriend, from her containment in the Northern Water Tribe. At P'li's cell, they are confronted by Tonraq, Zuko, Eska, and Desna who hope to stop them. Ghazan does battle with Zuko who he defeats. The team, now reunited, escapes from the Northern Water tribe.

Following their reunion, Ghazan becomes the muscle of the team. After Zaheer infiltrates Air Temple Island, the group escapes Republic City aboard a delivery truck. When they are discovered by the police, they give chase. Ghazan turns a section of the bridge into lava, trapping the police cars and allowing their escape.

When Zaheer discovers Korra's location, he brings Ghazan and the Red Lotus to kidnap her. After tranquilizing her, Ghazan is seen carrying the Avatar over his shoulder until Lin intervenes and saves her. Surrounded by Team Avatar and a legion of Metalbending soldiers, Ghazan creates a lake of lava around him and his allies. He then cascades lava on his enemies until Zaheer creates cover fro their escape.

Later Ghazan is then tasked with capturing Korra when she is staying at the Misty Palms Inn along with Ming-Hua, and Mako and Bolin attempt to stop them. He easily overpowers Bolin, who says he's basically "giving him ammo", because he can just turn any earth thrown at him into magma to counterattack with. Ming-Hua send him after the Avatar, but the Earth Queen's forces capture her before he can. He returns with Mako and Bolin, and Zaheer resolves to go to Ba Sing Se.

En route to Ba Sing Se, Ghazan strikes up a casual conversation with Bolin, displaying his affable side. He reveals how he kept his sanity in his cell by naming and renaming constellations. He also hints at a veiled affection for Ming-Hua.

Ghazan follows Zaheer to Ba Sing Se and disguises himself as a bounty hunter. After Zaheer betrays and kills Hou-Ting and announces her death on the radio, Ghazan brings down the outer wall with his Lavabending, causing many riots to start. Ghazan later accompanies Zaheer, Ming-Hua, and P'Li to the Northern Air Temple to capture and, if necessary, kill the Air Nomads who lived there. Ghazan duels with Bumi, whom he nearly kills with his Lavabending. Bumi then gnaws on his shoulder until he detaches him with his Earthbending.

Ghazan later meets with Bolin, whom he briefly duels with before trapping him and Mako inside a chamber by surrounding them with a pool of lava. He nearly destroys the entire Air Temple by melting the mountain side it is built on.

Later Ghazan is present in the Red Lotus' cavernous headquarters when Zaheer chains up Korra in attempt to kill her. When Avatar Korra goes into the Avatar State, Ghazan and Ming-Hua attempt to kill her, but are no match for the Avatar's attacks. When Korra chases Zaheer out of the cave, he and Ming-Hua stay behind to battle Bolin and Mako respectively, where he learns that Bolin has now learned to bend lava like himself. While Bolin proves an equal to Ghazan in ability, Ghazan is eventually able to get the upper hand. After Mako kills Ming-Hua, he and Bolin combine their attacks, overpowering Ghazan. Faced with inevitable defeat, Ghazan chooses death over reprising captivity. In a last ditch attempt to kill his opponents, Ghazan turns the walls of the cavern to magma and screams as he brings it down onto his enemies, killing himself in the process. In the end his attack was in vain as Bolin Earthbended himself and his brother to safety.

Powers
Ghazan is a powerful Earthbender. He's able to increase the heat and liquefy the material which allows him to bend lava. Ghazan as an Earthbender alone, able to overpower the vulnerable but powerful Zuko in combat. He is also show to be very agile and strong, dodging attacks and performing difficult jumps and flips in combat. He is shown to be able to quickly redirect a bombardment of attacks by Dai Li agents with relative ease.

His ability to Lavabend is his most dangerous ability. He is able to create small precise attacks like a blade or stream of lava or generate enough lava to melt a whole mountain side. Ghazan's lava is instantly lethal, and is not able to be redirected by anyone except an Avatar or another Lavabender, both of which are extremely rare opponents. Other than Zaheer, Ghazan is shown to be the most powerful and dangerous Red Lotus member due to his unblockable attacks and by the sheer collateral damage he creates.

Trivia

 * Ghazan is the first known non-Avatar capable of Lavabending, the second being Bolin.


 * Ghazan is the second character to commit suicide, the first one being Tarrlok.
 * He is the eighth character to be killed onscreen, the others being, in chronological order are; Wan, Amon, Tarrlok, Unalaq, Hou-Ting, P'Li, and Ming-Hua.