Seems to be the real deal to me, and it strikes me as exactly something Ozai would do, from what little I know of him.

One of the themes I see over again is the notion that Ozai consistently fails to account for the changes in Azula since he's seen her last--a mistake Akio made when facing Utena. The dead don't grow, after all. I think he may have had her reverted to 14-16 years old partly because that's just how he still envisions her--as someone whom he, as her father, has genuine authority over. Azula, of course, is a free-thinking adult who has long since concluded she hates her father and everything he stands for, and the story itself points out he is trying to take advantage of faults she had in her psyche decades ago--faults she has long since corrected for.

--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu