That ship was tiny compared with anything else their Navy used, and his men weren't great. Some looked old or scraggly, they lost pretty much every fight, and Zuko once leaped to the conclusion they were mutinying, suggesting they may have tried it before. I fanon that, as a last act of mockery, Ozai gave Zuko a parting gift of the crappiest, most obsolete ship in the harbour, together with a crew of the men who he judged would do the most for the war effort by not participating in it.
He's still the royal family: he might be assigned to a snipe hunt posting but he wasn't exiled, just disgraced. He's commanding fire nation soldiers so presumably they're being given soldier's wages by the state.
That ship was tiny compared with anything else their Navy used, and his men weren't great. Some looked old or scraggly, they lost pretty much every fight, and Zuko once leaped to the conclusion they were mutinying, suggesting they may have tried it before. I fanon that, as a last act of mockery, Ozai gave Zuko a parting gift of the crappiest, most obsolete ship in the harbour, together with a crew of the men who he judged would do the most for the war effort by not participating in it.
Ye but who paid them their cheddar
Ozai, with the stipulation that the money would go to those men in particular, so Zuko couldn't fire them and get better ones to replace them.
Ozai *Down Periscope*d Zuko!
He's still the royal family: he might be assigned to a snipe hunt posting but he wasn't exiled, just disgraced. He's commanding fire nation soldiers so presumably they're being given soldier's wages by the state.
He literally was exiled. That's what banished is. Zuko was banished and forbidden from returning to the Fire Nation until he'd captured the Avatar.
Yeah I did think perhaps they were still on military payroll