Fire Half-Child

zuko alone

Yeah, yeah, Zuko can't tell jokes. But it's time we give credit where credit's due and acknowledge "maybe a chicken flew over" as one of the funniest lines in the whole damn show. King.

prince zuko

posting this again because i genuinely really like how i drew zuko here

I love little Sokka being an ass to Zuko. He's such a lovable little turd and unintentionally makes Zukos life so much harder

Avatar: The Last Airbender + AO3 tags

What is wrong with that child?

My problem with this line isn't that Ursa says it at all, or that she's concerned about Azula, but rather HOW she says it.

Notice, that Ursa doesn't even say " What is wrong with Azula, or THIS child", but " What is wrong with THAT child", instead.

I see this as an intentional hint left by the show's creators. It may be a small hint, but it's a hint nonetheless.

"The word 'this' is used to point to a singular person or object that is close to you. On the other hand, 'that' is used to point to a singular person or an object which is farther away from you."

It seems to me that calling your child "that child" is an expression of distance. It's almost as if Azula called her mother "that woman".

We have no evidence that Ursa didn't love Azula at all, but we also cannot say that Azula and Ursa had the same close relationship that Ursa had with Zuko.

Thinking about Zuko objecting to the 41st division of new recruits being put on the front lines and the earthbender in "Zuko Alone" saying that the Fire Nation puts captured soldiers on the front lines without weapons as cannon fodder. Not only is this unbelievably cruel but it also shows that this is a tactic the FN uses repeatedly and that they'll use their own men in the same way. The connection between the fire nation nobles discarding the lives of their own men and the earthbender soldiers in the town in "Zuko Alone" bragging about the same thing happening to Li's brother because they could, because it was a show of power over someone they thought they were better than. That Zuko calls out both abuses of power in both episodes regardless of what "side" the soldiers being abused are on. Those are the kinds of things that will make Zuko a good leader, that make him the one to end the war, to end the needless and cruel deaths of young soldiers on either side.

It connects back to the story of Lu Ten and Iroh's song, the leaves from the vine who are felled because of the decisions of people abusing their power.

The Storm

Sokka accepts a job from a local fisherman to make money and the man accuses Aang of abandoning the world. In the large, ensuing storm, Aang recounts to Katara the events of his dark past. After being told he was the Avatar, Aang was ordered to be separated from his mentor, Monk Gyatso. Upset, Aang ran away from his home where he encountered a deadly storm, causing him to fall into the water, activating the Avatar State, trapping him within an iceberg. Meanwhile, Iroh tells the ship's crew Zuko's story. After speaking out of turn at a war meeting, Zuko was punished by being forced to fight an Agni Kai against his own father. His refusal resulted in him getting his scar and being banished for perceived cowardice. Meanwhile, Aang learns that Sokka and the fisherman are trapped in the storm; he rescues them, earning him the fisherman's respect. Zuko spots them, but lets them go, instead opting to escape the storm.

Zuko Alone

After deciding he would be better off on his own and leaving his uncle, Zuko continues his journey alone and ends up in an Earth Kingdom town, where a young boy named Lee brings him home for dinner and subsequently bonds with the banished prince. Zuko helps defend the family from rogue Earth Kingdom soldiers who terrorize the town and has flashbacks of his youth when his mother was still around. Zuko's identity as the banished Fire Nation Prince is revealed when he firebends, and the boy and his family reject him because of it.

Vote on more episodes here!

ATLA If they were allowed to swear

part 22/?? [suggested by anonymous] [I’d love to hear suggestions for more]

I personally think that basing your interpretation of how Ursa treated Azula on Zuko’s memories shown in ‘Zuko Alone’ is kind… incorrect. You can obviously — they’re the only real images of their childhood we get in the cartoon, other than the tiniest of snapshots in sepia — and that’s fine, but for me personally I just don’t think they’re complete enough.

These memories are from Zuko’s perspective. Not Ursa’s, not Azula’s, not Ozai’s or Iroh’s—Zuko’s perspective, his memories. And they’re all about him and Ursa together: every one of these memories have Ursa at their centre. We see her protect him and be kind to him, see her be physically affectionate and gentle, see her encourage him to be kind to himself and to Azula.

They essentially tell us that Zuko is Ursa’s son first, Ozai’s son second. Ozai remains a hovering, intimidating shadow on the sidelines (we still don’t see his face, we don’t see him genuinely interact with his children, and we see him irritating his father while being a very hands-off kinda dad himself) but Ursa is fully present. And ‘Zuko Alone’ is about Zuko trying to figure out who he is: the memories show that he views being his mother’s son as an exceptionally important part of his identity, which means they are about Zuko and his relationship with Ursa alone.

They are not supposed to tell us that Ursa neglected or abused Azula emotionally—that she only focused on protecting Zuko, while leaving Azula to suffer in Ozai’s incapable hands. Sure, we see Ursa scold Zuko for acting like Azula and cuddle him right after, and we see her scold Azula for acting mean and not cuddle her right after, but the key differences here are that Zuko shows guilt after frightening the turtleducks and Azula doubles down on trying to scare Zuko. The behaviour is different and will be, by any halfway decent parent, treated differently. 

I’m absolutely not saying that Azula wasn’t abused, because she 100% was. She was absolutely abused by Ozai, and I’m not ruling out that Ursa didn’t have a hand in how Azula ultimately turned out. But my point here is: these memories are far too limited and narrow for the viewer to properly determine whether Azula was treated incorrectly by Ursa. 

Zuko isn’t going to remember an intimate, lovely moment between Ursa and Azula when all that’s on his mind is his identity, and how it’s entangled with his mother and what she may have sacrificed for him. Additionally, he’s not particularly fond of Azula at this moment in the show (she did kind of kickstart his being a refugee, disregarding how the audience sees this sequence of events having begun), so he’s not going to remember her fondly either. Why would Zuko try to remember Ursa’s relationship with Azula at that point, instead of his own?

(Small tidbit: we also... don't know if Ursa's last words to Azula were 'what is wrong with that child', disregarding the comics which completely ruin azula anyway. Again, the memories are from Zuko's perspective and therefore won't show any private moments between Ursa and Azula. We're not even certain whether Azulon actually ordered Ozai to kill Zuko, or if that is simply what Azula interpreted it as/thought would be funny to say--causing the sequence of events that ultimately put Ozai on the throne. But whatever)

In The Boy in the Iceberg, Zuko rejects the true firebending for the Fire Nation's distorted version of it. Their version of firebending is pure destruction, because the Fire Nation values aggression.

In Zuko Alone, Zuko is faced with the reality that something was wrong with his upringing. He was given a knife as a child, and that's wrong. A child shouldn't be involved in violence and agression.

In The Day of Black Sun Pt 2, Zuko recognizes the Fire Nation's indoctrination and that this ideology is wrong. No violence involving children is justified. And the Fire Nation's agression wasn't justified as well.

In The Firebending Masters, Zuko is blessed with a vision about the meaning of firebending, thus unlearning the Fire Nation's destructive firebending, and replaces it with firebending based on life.

In The Southern Raiders, Zuko sees first hand that those who can be deserving of vioelnce aren't boogeymen. Thus, he can see that at times, even violence towards people who deserve it, isn't a solution to heartache.

In Sozin's Comet, Zuko is confronted by the truth that the ultimate boogeyman, Azula, is human too. Now, he can fully release black and white notions and view the world from objective lenses, not from aggression.

avatar text posts part 5

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Lord Zuko of The Fire Nation 🔥

Another thing I have to say.

I really liked that Iroh and Ozai never shared a scene together in the original show. Those two characters represented the two paths for Zuko. His choices would lead up to him becoming like Ozai or Iroh. They were the complete opposite destination for Zuko. By choosing anger and hate and giving into his family expectations Zuko would’ve become Ozai. Instead he chooses to follow his heart, learn about the world around him, better himself which leads him to the path of becoming like Iroh. Also it left this mystery in the air, because these two power houses never met on screen so we’re left wondering what their dynamic was like. It’s ok not to show everything, sometimes it’s even good! Fans are still wondering to this day if Iroh could’ve taken Ozai down.

In the Netflix adaptation, Ozai and Iroh share the screen a lot. Does it add anything to their relationship or the conflict within Zuko? Nope, not really. In my opinion it kind of takes away from the suffering Zuko endured. Iroh is there to speak for him every single time, advocating for him, fighting with Ozai. And that’s fine, but, there’s a reason why Iroh was a minor character in book 1, supporting Zuko from afar, advising him but still letting him make his own decision, because he knew, if Zuko were to become a better man, he had to get there by himself. Iroh would never tell Zuko his father didn’t love him, or that he was a monster, he knew that’s something Zuko had to see himself. And he had to make mistakes and chose the wrong path to see who he truly was.

So that’s another thing they added that I fee just cheapens the dynamics between the characters.