#if i was aang and i needed advice on smth i don’t think i would go to zuko first……… but that’s just me i guess

[comradekatara]

old man zuko was crazy for saying to korra “i was often aang’s counsel, and i would love to be yours.” i mean i guess they’ve had several decades in between shows to establish that fact offscreen, but textually, our only instance of zuko “providing counsel” to aang is when he tried to bully him into killing his dad for him. not exactly what i would qualify as imparting sage wisdom, but ok lmfao

[aro-aizawa]

me: *lays head down to sleep*

my brain, 0.2593737 seconds later: nerdy historian zuko, being passionate at a young age to find out the most he can about his nation’s culture and how the war changed it, mostly as a fun hobby challenge but then he manages to find discrepencies between the propoganda information he finds. so at age 8 or 10 or smth he digs deep to find it. he finds out abt the air nomad complete genocide and learns abt their culture, he finds the things that the royal family weaned out of fire nation culture like traditional dances, some festivals and just general inter-nation traditions (like royal meetings of the royal family w other royals of the other nations and how those are conducted w honor and respect etc). so at a v young age he realises that the war is wrong and the only people he can talk to about this is his uncle who’s out fighting at ba sing se, and his mother. so he tells ursa all these things he learns and tries to think up ways he could maybe see if father could help reinstate some of the traditions— and ursa wants to protect zuko bc he’s such a bright shining hope for how the fire nation could be if it wasn’t for the war, so all she does it try to persuade zuko that ozai will never listen to reinstating the old ways bc ozai thinks the new ways is better. she doesn’t quite manage it, and though zuko is now crown prince, he buckles down and takes his mother’s advice to heart. after all, he’s the crown prince now and if father won’t implement change, then zuko will have to learn all he could so that he can do it instead. so he finds out as much as he can find out fire nation culture and history going back several avatar cycles back. he even digs and digs for as much information he can find about the other nations’ culture bc he doesn’t like how little he knows and doesn’t want to offend any of the leaders he meets while being crown prince. the further and further he gets into learning though the more disillusioned he gets about the war and his father, realising all the faults of his nation, and the direction ozai was taking them in. he knows that the war needs to end with anyone but the fire nation the victor because the fire nation have done nothing but destroyed the balance. when he fucks up in the war meeting, he still has to face an agni kai, and he still gets his burn, but he does not get banished, instead azula is named crown princess. with the agni kai being he last straw, he packs his things and aims to set off and see the world, helping where he can. he originally aims to go alone but uncle finds him just in time and joins him. they travel the world finding more about different cultures, with the exceptions of the water tribes due to how hostile their visits would be interpreted. though they don’t quite hide their heritage, they are discreet. by the time that the avatar is back, zuko is well and truly on the side of removing his father from the throne, so he packs his things, says a farewell to uncle (who says he’s gonna open a tea shop) and heads off to find the avatar. he makes an impression considering the gaang have all heard of the legend of the blue spirit while on their so far short journey, but enough to be impressed. they’re a little reluctant when they learn he’s a firebender but he says that the avatar has to learn fire at some point and zuko needs to play his part in ending the war. anyways, the whole au puts a heavy focus on the cultures and traditions of the various nations, showcasing them by how much respect zuko shows each of these traditions. he shows the gaang the forgotten ones of the fire nation, and when zuko is on the throne as fire lord, he’s already helped revive parts of fire nation tradition through his travels and the influence of the gaang. he still works on repairing it, and he helps aang, with all the air nomad culture zuko studied he’s almost an expert and really helps aang with his grief over his people’s genocide. also, super cute history nerd zuko. it’s 4:20am, and i demand you start to write this fic immediately—

[flameohs-blog]

Can you do a meta for Zuko on his Uncle Iroh, and the most significant lessons / pieces of wisdom that he learned from him?

META    ↪ ACCEPTING / @proditeur​​

ohh boyyy… i’m gonna have to do yet another rewatch to answer this to the fullest. i honestly don’t have the time to do that right now but i do want to answer this question since my muse for atla seems to be really strong these days. i’m gonna start by splitting this into different sections because i feel like there’s A Lot i could say. i hope everything flows and ya’ll can understand my ramblings lol

zuko & uncle iroh’s relationship

obviously when we’re introduced to the series, one of the first relationships we see is the one between zuko and iroh. u can tell right off the bat that they care about one another a lot, mostly u can tell from iroh more than zuko in the beginning until that changes later on. it’s def one of the strongest relationships we see throughout the series. i don’t rmr if the series explained why iroh had left with zuko after his banishment like whether that was thru iroh’s own volition or if he was driven out by ozai as well. either way, we all know that iroh thinks of zuko as a son after his own died.

i think that’s because zuko and iroh share similarities and iroh sees that. iroh sees the potential zuko has. in the beginning, zuko is an angry individual. he gets mad easily. he gets upset easily. he gets frustrated. we do see other parts of his personality and eventually we do see him change and he becomes more like iroh in a way. here’s the thing, though. while i do believe that zuko learned a lot from his uncle…

i’m going to argue that zuko learned a lot from everyone he ever interacted with as well. not saying that his relationship with his uncle isn’t important because, i mean, it IS. their relationship was introduced to us from the very beginning so of course it’s important. the thing i’m trying to get at is that although it was iroh who was there to guide zuko in a way on his journey, it was actually zuko who helped himself. iroh never rlly told zuko what to do with his life, it was zuko who figured it out on his own. it was zuko who realized his mistakes and learned from them and grew as a person.

zuko as an individual

i’ve written this on my other blog and i’ll say it again: zuko’s redemption arc works because he was never truly a bad guy despite his mistakes with the gaang in s1-2. zuko is written as the initial villain but that’s only cos he’s hunting the avatar who has been established as the protagonist of our series. he treats aang & co as his enemies BUT he treats other people just fine for the most part. and we see that from the very beginning like in the very first episode where he promises to leave the water tribe alone if aang goes with him or in a few episodes later where he foregoes chasing appa (+ aang) bc the most important  task at hand is getting his ship and his crew out of the bad weather and into safety. 

the only reason he’s chasing the avatar is bc in his mind that’s what’s gonna gain his father’s approval. and zuko in the first 2 seasons wants nothing more than his father’s love & acceptance & approval esp since his mother is no longer in the picture. and, you know, i’m sure zuko knows from an early age that his father isn’t the best person and nor is he the best parent but… all that is put aside simply bc of the fact that ozai is his father. they are blood related. and ppl can pretend like that doesn’t matter but when you’re young, when that’s all you have, it fucking matters. i can’t explain it well atm but children want the love & acceptance & approval from their parents. it’s normal. toph is another example of this, she wants those things but doesn’t have them. their situations in a way are similar yet manifests in different outcomes.

zuko’s drive to find the avatar and take him to the fire nation is only because of his desire for his father’s approval. but the thing is that zuko was always torn between his allegiance to his father and, idk, his allegiance to be himself. zuko is not like ozai or sozin or azulon. he isn’t like azula either. he doesn’t rlly share the same ideals they do in regards to the fire nation being #1 in the world or superior to other nations or however u wanna describe it. even if he didn’t get banished, i rlly don’t believe he’d turn into the type of person the previous generations of firelords were. i think ozai saw this in zuko and that’s why he favored azula over him. it was azula who possessed the traits ozai thought was important, not zuko. but what ozai considers weakness in zuko turns out to be his greatest strengths.

underneath all that anger in the beginning, zuko was always… kind in his own ways. and he learns to be open to change and growth. in season 2 when we see him free appa from underground and throw away his blue spirit mask, it’s supposed to symbolize this awakening/change in him. but in the end of season 2, he chooses to side with azula again because like i’ve said before his desire for his father’s approval is greater than his desire for… idk… whatever else. he’s still confused. as much as i wanted zuko to join the gaang earlier, it wasn’t time for him to. we had to wait until literally halfway thru book 3 to see that and it was a lil annoying cos i would have loved to see him join earlier so they could have all had more interactions but!!!!!! i truly don’t believe that zuko throwing away the blue spirit mask was enough, hence the betrayal at the end of s2. someone could be there to guide you or influence you but ultimately your decisions in life are your own. 

lessons zuko has learned on his journey 

a) episode 2x09 - bitter work

there’s a scene where iroh is explaining all four elements to zuko and how each element contributes to different nations’ idk personalities or culture or whatever. and i always thought that scene was beautiful bc iroh isn’t insulting other nations, he’s describing their strengths. and then iroh says: 

“it is important to draw wisdom from many different places. if you take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale. understand others–the other elements–and the other nations will help you become whole.”

like i honestly think zuko kinda already knew that but it was never worded to him that way. we see him also learn it on his own when he parts ways with his uncle and he’s off traveling on his own. zuko has also traveled the world for years after his banishment. there’s no way he’s out there thinking the fire nation’s beliefs are the only ones that matter. he’s learned a lot from his travels imo. about himself and about others. 

this is also the episode where iroh teaches zuko how to redirect lightning so, yanno, there’s that. in one of the earlier episodes, iroh reminds zuko about the breath and how that could save his life in the cold and also another time where he instructs zuko to break zhao’s root during a duel or whatever. so def iroh not only offers advice/wisdom thru words but also thru teaching zuko firebending.

b) episode 2x17 - lake laogai

imo this episode was Wild to me mostly cos of the confrontation between zuko and his uncle. zuko’s still thinking of capturing the avatar even though at this point he and iroh are fire nation fugitives and on the wanted list. zuko is still confused and torn between being true to himself and being the son his father wants him to be. it’s iroh’s words that honestly hit a lil too close to home for me too lmao. zuko says smth about how he knows his destiny and iroh says:

“is it your own destiny or is it a destiny someone else has tried to force on you? it is time for you to look inward and begin asking yourself the big questions: WHO are you and what do YOU want?”

like i’ve said before, zuko isn’t thinking about what he wants. or maybe he has but it’s not rlly a priority for him. his priority is still pleasing his father and the only way he knows how is to capture aang. he thinks that’s what’s gonna make him happy but…

c) episode 3x06 - the avatar and the firelord

obviously zuko isn’t happy. at this point he’s returned to the fire nation and finally has what he’s wanted for years: ozai’s approval. i’m not gonna say love cos i don’t believe for one second that ozai loved his son lmfao! and nor did he love azula but that’s another story for another day. anyways, zuko thought that “killing” the avatar would make him happy and being back home would make him happy but uh. he’s changed over the years. he’s still confused about what he wants vs what his father wants. 

it’s hard for people to break away from their families, man. it rlly truly is. we as the audience know that that’s what zuko has to do but honestlyyy how many of us irl are kind of in similar positions???? it’s hard to breakaway from family (the ppl who r supposed to support u) when you don’t have other strong connections and lbr zuko doesn’t. he had his uncle and he fucked it up. but anyway this entire episode was WILD and i loved every moment of it. it goes thru the story of avatar roku and his friend sozin. but the plot twist is that roku is zuko’s great grandfather which, tbh, i was not expecting at all LMFAO. maybe it was obvious to every1 else but, man, was i in shock lol. 

the lesson in this episode is that everyone is capable of being good or evil (as aang learns) but the other lesson is that this is kind of what finally pushes zuko to change. i mean he was never truly evil as we’ve seen in the past and he’s made bad decisions but it’s this moment that drives him to come to the goddamn epiphany that, no, he isn’t happy in the fire nation. 

d) episodes 3x10 & 3x11 - the day of black sun

zuko isn’t happy in the fire nation.his father needs to be stopped cos what he’s doing is wrong. and it’s a big fckn risk to defy the firelord and leave the comfort of your home behind… like what if the avatar & co don’t accept zuko into the group? it’s a risk but zuko knows what he has to do and has probably known it for a long time. it’s hard to BREAK AWAY BUT ZUKO FINALLY DID IT. and you know what!!!!!! when zuko stood up to his father and told ozai that now it’s his (ozai’s) turn to listen to zuko……… it was literally the BEST thing ever lmfao. here’s a part of what zuko says:

“i’ve come to an even more important decision. i’m going to join the avatar and i’m going to help him defeat you.”

zuko says “I’VE come to the decision” and i think that’s important cos he came to the decision on his own. like ya his uncle was there for him but honestly like… no one told him to do any of that!!!!! underneath that anger, this is who he is: a kind, compassionate person????? now i don’t even know what i’m trying to get at anymore but i guess just the way he says “but i’ve come to an even more important decision” just gets to me like. it’s important that he made his own choice and wasn’t coerced into it bc that makes his choices more real and genuine. if zuko wasn’t a good person underneath all that anger and bitterness then would he have done this? no, lol. the audience loves zuko’s redemption arc because he never truly bad on the inside, he made mistakes, realized them, made the active decision to do better and be better for others, and does that continuously thru s3 and we can assume after the series ends as well. zuko in s3 isn’t the zuko in s1 and we SEE that and that’s what we love abt his arc.

e) tea

isn’t zuko seen serving tea to every1 in the finale at the very end. like i’m sure iroh taught him how to brew the right cup of tea lmfao!!!!! idk much about diff types of tea but uh there’s diff temperatures u heat the water and how long u steep it and idk guess it’s an art huh

[a-halfblood-named-coin]

With Korra coming to Netflix, there’s been this whole WAVE of “no more korra hate!” And I’m gonna be honest here, I do, I do hate the legend of korra. Not because it’s more sexual or because Korras a headstrong women but I feel like they tried to be so different from ATLA, more mature and realistic that it lost a lot of the charm. It has other charms but I just don’t like them as much. So to prove I don’t hate the show without reason here are 3 things I liked in concept that they handled poorly in my opinion.

1. Korra herself

Having a headstrong, egotistical, women waterbender with lots of muscles and bravado was AN AMAZING choice to constrast from Aangs pacifist, peaceful and calmer mindset. I loved that part of Korra. But my problem is in her character development, or how I don’t think the writers remember what development means, development =\= pain porn. A lot of Korras ‘development’ was her getting beat to a pulp, having her bending removed, being wheelchair bound, etc. and by the end of the show she becomes more wary and scared of everything around her. Instead of what I personally wanted, which was for her to be underestimating the effort and work it takes to be a good avatar, get knocked down a few pegs by Tenzin or someone and come back stronger and more grounded. Still cocky but now she has the power AND understanding to back up her claims. I never wanted her to lose her ego entirely, or to fall so far she never comes back the same. Speaking of avatar stuff...

2. The removal of an avatars journey

This one is hard, because I understand why they did this but also removing it took a lot away from what made avatar so good. I think they removed the journey as to not just repeat the structure of the OG show, they didn’t want to seem like it was just Ctrl+ v with a new lead. But a big part of ATLA’s charm came from the world building , expescially since it drew so much from different parts of Asia and other groups, making a fantasy world with that backing and exploring it was SO cool. In Korra most of the show is set in Republic city, they leave a couple times to visit the various bending nations but they always go back to that damn city. I don’t hate the idea of modernizing bending, I wouldn’t place a show there but the thoughts are cool. Stuff like electric benders being 9-5 workers is funny and pro bending is an interesting thought but I think the overall setting is...tired. I have read/seen so many pieces of media set in either 1920s America or INSPIRED by 1920s America it isn’t even funny. It was an aesthetic time that’s for sure but I have seen it before and I’ll see it another million times. I don’t know why they would take a fairly unique setting and make a mainstream, Americanized version of it that is arguably more boring and less compelling. But this point is supposed to be about the avatar journey I hear you say and yourre right. The lack of a journey adds to the boredom, in ATLA they could continually have new locations and new people to keep the interest of that episode because they were almost always on the move. In Korra everything comes back to republic city, I got bored of looking at those city streets after the first season! Plus I think Korra as a character could have really benefited from a journey of her own, less focused on bending and more on connecting with the people she’s supposed to protect. In my dream version of this show, Korra gets knocked down but tenzin or smth and as a last ditch effort he sends her on a shorter version of the avatars journey to help her connect with the people and the spiritual realm. She could bring her merry band of idiots (except you bolin) and they could bond over their travels, learn about each other and actually have some meaningful conversations outside the parameters of the weird love thing they all have going on. We could see an updated but familiar world space, run into some familiar places and get into plenty of trouble and Korra could really bond with her people. Learn that understanding and listening are important skills for the avatar to have just as much as bending all four elements. It could all culminate in a trip to an air temple, she could speak her piece in a cool but honest rant about herself and her life and maybe as she leaves the wind could pick up and it would just...click. She would get her air bending in a hopefully more satisfying way than what was shown in the show,speaking of...

3.Changing up the bending/AS . Listen the way the treat bending in Korra is so fucking weird. 1st of all I cannot come up with any reason why a 5 year old Korra would be able to bend 3/4 elements. The thing about bending is that it is a lot harder than some of the characters make it seem (because they are all using their skills at an extremely high level) part of bending is innate skill, that’s true but you would be awful at it if you only relied on instinct. Take Katara from season 1 of ATLA, she can bend of course but it’s shaky and poorly balanced, she can’t do it for long and can barely move any water. This is because she has never been properly taught, once she gets some teaching she becomes one of the best waterbenders in existence, it took training to get her there. So I could buy (kind of) baby Korra bending them innatly when she is found by the white lotus, but a 5 year old who has only ever interacted with water benders should be bending all the elements as if they were water. Bending is all very different, each form is based on a different form of martial arts. The styles are different and require different points of concentration and movements to execute properly. Our little tyke is seemingly doing actually fire/earth moves...now where the hell did she learn those?? Anyway continuing into probably my biggest gripe with Korra is the treatment of Air bending. I like the fact that it is emphasized how much of air bending is about spirituality, more so than other bending forms. I like the struggle there for Korra. But I feel like she never actually listens to Tenzin, never admits he is right and takes on his teachings properly. She ignores his advice and fucks of during training (which is very Korra behavior) but there is never a point when she has to listen to him. She gets all her bending taken in another form of pain porn and when she gets it back, instead of having her realize how much her bending means to her and finally fucking listening to Tenzin and learning air bending the real way, she just goes into the avatar state (which is the least satisfying version of that display) and just...has airbending. And now for my last point, wtf was up with the avatar state?? In ATLA the AS was a dangerous state to be in for Aang and everyone around him, it caused him to lose control, kick ass yes, but lose his sense of self and him struggling with those complicated feelings about his biggest trump card was amazing. Korra however uses hers to beat children in racing games...I am not joking. They toned down its abilities so that Korra could use it more often but not beat the crap out of everyone... you could have just not had her use it for stupid reasons and kept it a power level at 3000?? Like why? Why does the fucking avatar need to have weakened avatar state so she can use it more often, should she be powerful enough on her own?? Maybe it could be harder for her to activate (because Korra does seem like the type to use it too often) maybe she has to talk to her past lives to figure out why she’s having such a hard time using it and it’s revealed that Aang in specific locked it away because she couldn’t be trusted. It could be a whole thing!! But no she just uses for stupid shit and never learns...

So that’s the end of my rant, 3 things I could get behind in theory that, in my opinion, they handled pretty horribly. If you like Korra, that’s great! Tbh I’m kinda jealous, I wish I could enjoy it more because I love ATLA it was a huge part of my childhood and I’d love to have more of that world. I have so many other feelings on Korra if anyone cares. Like the romance fucking with the show, the half assed rep, explaining the magic, side characters being wet paper towels with 1 character trait or Bolin being highkey romantically abused and no one caring but that’s for a different extremely long tumblr post.