That's where Azula's maddness comes into play - she banished everyone who might have stood by her and Ozai. And the people really would have actually had no choice in the matter. You forget - Aang is now a fully realized Avatar, and without Sozin's Comet to hold him off, the war was over, no matter what the FN might want. Aang being able to pull of stunts like his decimation of the Fire navy in 120 whenever he feels like it no doubt played a huge role in the FNs willingness to disarm.

I can see it too

haha...ya..ozai is like, oh sh*t!!! what the h3ll is happening???

THey would need a REALLY good reason to convert to the ZUko/Aang side, which i believe would have been the truth of Ozai and Azula's plan of Genocide and destruction, Azula dishonoring herself and (only partial, too over top in finale) madness making her unfit to rule, and Zuko's self sacrifice and refusal to finish off Azula (because i do believe he should have had a more solidified victory b4 Azula attacked Katara) showing his honor

Good post Axrendale but my problem with that (apart from above reasons) is that the FN was thus FORCED to stop against their will, meaning that they still want and believe in the war, and are basically being dictated by Zuko and Aang who they dont believe in. They need a passive reason to convince themselves to stop, that its their choice. They needed to have had the truth revealed to them about the war and their leaders, not just having them locked away and all their hands tied and told to be good "or else". Im not nieve enough to think everyone accepted ZUko at end of show, and if ever their is a direct spin-off or continuance im sure it'll be brought up, but the majority of the people needed to have been behind ZUko for him to succesfully end the war.

There was always going to have to be a bit of brow-beating to force the FN to stop fighting, whether Zuko had been Firelord or no. The original plan that the gaang had had back in B2, if you remember was an all out invasion of the Fire Nation by the Earth Kingdom, putting a stop to them that way.

The thing that probably worked best to Zuko and Aang's advantage was that the people of the Fire Nation are very, very compliant. They have, by and large, developed a natural instinct for looking to the most powerful people around for direction. Ozai has lost his Firebending, and Azula is suffering from a mental breakdown. They are no longer the most powerful people around - now everyone's looking to Iroh, Zuko, and Aang. Ironically, it was most likely the Firelords of the past who inspired this "shut up and do as you're told" attitude in the nation.

As to the first part of your post, I really don't think that it would have been enough. Ozai's plan to burn down the Earth Kingdom was already public knowledge - I seriously doubt he made any secret of where he was going, and Azula apparently had no qualms about shouting out the plan in public when he said she couldn't come with her. Also, this isn't the first time that the FN has done something like this. 100 years before, the people of the Fire nation had no problem with Firelord Sozin wiping out the Air Nomads - why should they have any more trouble with Phoenix King Ozai obliterating the Earth Kingdom?

Did you catch the post I made a few pages back about Julius Caesar? It is one of many, many examples that can be provided that when well respected rulers feel like smashing their "honor" to pieces to make more convenient winning a battle, their subordinates are usually quite willing to simply accept whatever reasoning they care to provide.

No matter how much spin they might put on it, they could not have covered up the fact that the Air Nomads had been completely exterminated. To justify themselves, they altered the story to make it sound as though the AN had been a serious threat, complete with an army that Sozin had had to defeat. In the case of the EK however, Ozai and Azula really wouldn't have had to think to hard to come up with an excuse - they already had one - the Earthbender rebellions. It would probably have been very easy to blow those rebellions out of all proportion to justify wiping them out.

I think Zuko counts as a key figure, and the majority of a population of a country doesn't necessarily need to be on the coup's leader's side in order for the coup leader to gain control of the nation.

I could go on and on, listing examples and excuses and making hypothetical scenarios that support this but that's not my point.

I'll I'm trying to get across is that it's not a plot hole that the FN citizen's now support Zuko. Sure, you need to make a few assumptions, but it's not so far out of the realm of probability that it's worthy enough to be considered a logic error.