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Okay, the Avatar finale--so much awesome. And I haven't heard a lot of complaining about it, but right after it was over there were some issues raised about stuff being done badly that I heard. So this is my post about how I actually think those same things were done REALLY AWESOMELY!
Iroh as Mentor
Iroh has always been one of the greatest people in the Avatar-verse (one of the greatest because, you know, TOPH!), but his primary function as a character was to be Zuko's mentor. It's a cliché to say that the white-haired mentor always has to die, but that's not just some Joseph Campbell rule. The mentor has to die (either literally or figuratively) so that the hero can go on alone. It's unsatisfying to see a hero who's just a good student passing tests under the watchful eye of his teacher, and it leaves us with the impression that the hero will never be quite as good as that teacher. We need to see him show how he'll work things himself--and then grow into a mentor for someone else who is independent of his original teacher. It’s after the mentor dies that we start to see what’s unique to the hero.
The mentor doesn't have to literally die for this to happen, and Iroh didn't. But still, the moment that Zuko decides to switch sides Iroh has fulfilled this purpose for his character. Although we have hints of Iroh's own arc (more on that below), he's never been the protagonist of his own story within the narrative. He's always just been all about Zuko, and now Zuko really doesn't need him for that anymore. In fact, he would get in the way. So there really, imo, was no reason for us to see Iroh during those episodes that he was gone.
Iroh as General
We do, as I said, get some hints of Iroh's arc, and for me that's a case of the show being even better than it had to be. Because Iroh clearly does have his own really affecting story going on here dealing with his history as a warrior. There's nothing in the story's structure, imo, that demanded we see Iroh re-conquer Ba Sing Se. That original battle could have just been the thing that made Iroh become the man he became, who was focused on helping Zuko become a better Fire Lord. In that sense, Iroh leading the re-conquering of Ba Sing Se is totally extra--great, but nothing they had to give us.
Except for one moment, which is where he breaks out of prison. Once they decided to have Iroh escape to get him away from Zuko, the question was raised of what he was doing. Because of course he would never have just left for no reason. Once that happened, I concede that Iroh's function in the final battle did become necessary. I'm just saying they really didn't have to do it that way--they could have killed Iroh off or had him in prison the whole time, unable to escape until the very end or whatever. Instead they had this whole battle of the Old Guy team--there is something really wonderful the way in a show with young heroes there's no sense that youth is better than old age. Everybody works together. It’s better than it had to be.
Iroh as Family
Usually when you have a mentor/student relationship in these kinds of stories, that's the whole relationship. Obi-Wan in Star Wars is immediately connected to the battle and Luke's father and training him as a Jedi, for instance. Zuko and Iroh, though, have a rather unique relationship in this regard, because while Iroh is being a mentor he's also part of the story of a family tragedy that's just as central to the story as the battle to take down Ozai.
We start the story with a family--the Water Tribe family. Tragedy occurred when Kya was killed and Hakoda had to leave, but the other family members try to fill the holes left behind. Kana steps in as parent, Katara tries to mother Sokka, Sokka tries to be the man of the family. They don't always succeed in these specific roles, but the fact that they love each other enough to try is what makes them so healthy. Fear and anger do sometimes threaten to mess things up. For instance, Katara remembers feeling helpless and afraid when her mother was killed, and the fear leads her to anger, which makes her lash out at Sokka. She's afraid when Hakoda leaves them behind, and that leads to anger and to lashing out at Hakoda. But in the end love showed to her by others brings her back to a healthier place.
In the Fire Family fear and rage are far more of a problem. Here we've got Fear represented by Ozai and Azula, and the challenge for the family members who can love (Zuko, Iroh and Ursa) to pull it together as best they can in the face of it. In a way it sort of parallels Aang's problem in the finale where he recoils from the idea of killing Ozai, because the Fire Family sometimes faces that same issue: should they get rid of the bad elements in their family to stop their influence, or is that just becoming like them?
This is why I loved Zuko's regrets about Iroh as expressed in Ember Island Players. Toph tells him, correctly, that all Iroh wanted was for Zuko to find himself and be happy, so Zuko has redeemed himself just by doing that. And that is the correct ending to the mentor arc for Iroh and Zuko. But Zuko knows that this is also a family drama that makes it supremely important that he not just make his uncle proud but explicitly love him. That is also why I think it’s such a good choice for Iroh to just be gone, because it makes us really feel his loss—not as a strategist or plot device, but as a person. Zuko mourns his absence not just as somebody who would tell him what to do, but just as a loving, flawed, sometimes maddening presence.
That's what's resolved in the finale. Iroh, as well as being a general who failed to take his city, is a father who lost his son. He doesn't have any issues left over regarding that--we see that he knows that he and Lu Ten will be together again after death. But he has lost the love of a son in this life, and that's what Zuko brings him in TOM. That's really the moment Zuko becomes his son in that sense. Before he was a son in that Iroh cared for him and taught him and put up with his nonsense. This is Zuko turning around and saying he will now be a son in the sense of loving and respecting Iroh, being his legacy, and proudly working in his tea shop because if Iroh loves it, Zuko supports and is proud of it too. (Seriously, how great is that?) Zuko even loves Iroh’s strong scent.
That's where I get to Ursa, btw. I know some were disappointed that Zuko and Ursa weren't reunited in the finale, but this actually works for me. We see Zuko ask where she is so it's clear he's going to go off and find her, but I think their reunion is a little too complicated to just stick in as a narrative prize. If Ursa were an innocent, benevolent figure sent away by Ozai, she could just be brought back as the same pure, innocent figure for Zuko. But Ursa isn't innocent. She put Ozai on the throne, and murdered Azulon to do so. I'm not suggesting Zuko would hold that against her at all, but I think Ursa herself would probably be conflicted about doing that even while she didn't regret it. Kya's the mother who sacrificed herself to save her child; Ursa killed to save hers and supported Ozai in his ambition by doing it (even if she was forced into it by the threat to Zuko). I think it's right to just tell us this is a reunion that's going to happen without either trying to get all that into the last episode or ignoring it to get a less complicated happy symbol with Ursa. Zuko and his mother have both done some things they're not proud of here.
So I think the ultimate lesson of that family drama was a dearly bought: Love beats fear. To the point where, totally unexpectedly, the true victim of the family is, sadly, Azula. The very things that protected her and not Zuko growing up turn out to be her downfall. Like her fire bending, her methods gave her quicker success but couldn’t take her as far. Faced with the idea that her mother loves her rather than fears her, she just feels more threatened. In her final defeat she tries to use love as a weakness (as she did in Ba Sing Se) by attacking Katara and causing Zuko's injury, but love wins again when Katara saves him.
Which is why in the end I think it's really only Ozai who will be frozen out by the family. Not hated, but let go. While I think Azula will probably be cared for kindly by her brother and later her mother. (I woke up this morning with this vision of every year on Azula's birthday Zuko having her favorite kind of cake from when she was little made for her.)
Hey, I just realized there's another parallel there. All the Avatars seem to be telling Aang that Ozai has to go down, but Aang's instincts tell him that's not right. Zuko and Iroh have that funny conversation where Zuko says that he knows he should "try to get along" with Azula and Iroh says no, she's crazy, she has to go down. In both cases the one side is correct that the person has to be defeated decisively (and in the case of Azula, she is crazy), but what makes Aang and Zuko better is their instinct to get along with the other person instead.
Iroh as Mentor
Iroh has always been one of the greatest people in the Avatar-verse (one of the greatest because, you know, TOPH!), but his primary function as a character was to be Zuko's mentor. It's a cliché to say that the white-haired mentor always has to die, but that's not just some Joseph Campbell rule. The mentor has to die (either literally or figuratively) so that the hero can go on alone. It's unsatisfying to see a hero who's just a good student passing tests under the watchful eye of his teacher, and it leaves us with the impression that the hero will never be quite as good as that teacher. We need to see him show how he'll work things himself--and then grow into a mentor for someone else who is independent of his original teacher. It’s after the mentor dies that we start to see what’s unique to the hero.
The mentor doesn't have to literally die for this to happen, and Iroh didn't. But still, the moment that Zuko decides to switch sides Iroh has fulfilled this purpose for his character. Although we have hints of Iroh's own arc (more on that below), he's never been the protagonist of his own story within the narrative. He's always just been all about Zuko, and now Zuko really doesn't need him for that anymore. In fact, he would get in the way. So there really, imo, was no reason for us to see Iroh during those episodes that he was gone.
Iroh as General
We do, as I said, get some hints of Iroh's arc, and for me that's a case of the show being even better than it had to be. Because Iroh clearly does have his own really affecting story going on here dealing with his history as a warrior. There's nothing in the story's structure, imo, that demanded we see Iroh re-conquer Ba Sing Se. That original battle could have just been the thing that made Iroh become the man he became, who was focused on helping Zuko become a better Fire Lord. In that sense, Iroh leading the re-conquering of Ba Sing Se is totally extra--great, but nothing they had to give us.
Except for one moment, which is where he breaks out of prison. Once they decided to have Iroh escape to get him away from Zuko, the question was raised of what he was doing. Because of course he would never have just left for no reason. Once that happened, I concede that Iroh's function in the final battle did become necessary. I'm just saying they really didn't have to do it that way--they could have killed Iroh off or had him in prison the whole time, unable to escape until the very end or whatever. Instead they had this whole battle of the Old Guy team--there is something really wonderful the way in a show with young heroes there's no sense that youth is better than old age. Everybody works together. It’s better than it had to be.
Iroh as Family
Usually when you have a mentor/student relationship in these kinds of stories, that's the whole relationship. Obi-Wan in Star Wars is immediately connected to the battle and Luke's father and training him as a Jedi, for instance. Zuko and Iroh, though, have a rather unique relationship in this regard, because while Iroh is being a mentor he's also part of the story of a family tragedy that's just as central to the story as the battle to take down Ozai.
We start the story with a family--the Water Tribe family. Tragedy occurred when Kya was killed and Hakoda had to leave, but the other family members try to fill the holes left behind. Kana steps in as parent, Katara tries to mother Sokka, Sokka tries to be the man of the family. They don't always succeed in these specific roles, but the fact that they love each other enough to try is what makes them so healthy. Fear and anger do sometimes threaten to mess things up. For instance, Katara remembers feeling helpless and afraid when her mother was killed, and the fear leads her to anger, which makes her lash out at Sokka. She's afraid when Hakoda leaves them behind, and that leads to anger and to lashing out at Hakoda. But in the end love showed to her by others brings her back to a healthier place.
In the Fire Family fear and rage are far more of a problem. Here we've got Fear represented by Ozai and Azula, and the challenge for the family members who can love (Zuko, Iroh and Ursa) to pull it together as best they can in the face of it. In a way it sort of parallels Aang's problem in the finale where he recoils from the idea of killing Ozai, because the Fire Family sometimes faces that same issue: should they get rid of the bad elements in their family to stop their influence, or is that just becoming like them?
This is why I loved Zuko's regrets about Iroh as expressed in Ember Island Players. Toph tells him, correctly, that all Iroh wanted was for Zuko to find himself and be happy, so Zuko has redeemed himself just by doing that. And that is the correct ending to the mentor arc for Iroh and Zuko. But Zuko knows that this is also a family drama that makes it supremely important that he not just make his uncle proud but explicitly love him. That is also why I think it’s such a good choice for Iroh to just be gone, because it makes us really feel his loss—not as a strategist or plot device, but as a person. Zuko mourns his absence not just as somebody who would tell him what to do, but just as a loving, flawed, sometimes maddening presence.
That's what's resolved in the finale. Iroh, as well as being a general who failed to take his city, is a father who lost his son. He doesn't have any issues left over regarding that--we see that he knows that he and Lu Ten will be together again after death. But he has lost the love of a son in this life, and that's what Zuko brings him in TOM. That's really the moment Zuko becomes his son in that sense. Before he was a son in that Iroh cared for him and taught him and put up with his nonsense. This is Zuko turning around and saying he will now be a son in the sense of loving and respecting Iroh, being his legacy, and proudly working in his tea shop because if Iroh loves it, Zuko supports and is proud of it too. (Seriously, how great is that?) Zuko even loves Iroh’s strong scent.
That's where I get to Ursa, btw. I know some were disappointed that Zuko and Ursa weren't reunited in the finale, but this actually works for me. We see Zuko ask where she is so it's clear he's going to go off and find her, but I think their reunion is a little too complicated to just stick in as a narrative prize. If Ursa were an innocent, benevolent figure sent away by Ozai, she could just be brought back as the same pure, innocent figure for Zuko. But Ursa isn't innocent. She put Ozai on the throne, and murdered Azulon to do so. I'm not suggesting Zuko would hold that against her at all, but I think Ursa herself would probably be conflicted about doing that even while she didn't regret it. Kya's the mother who sacrificed herself to save her child; Ursa killed to save hers and supported Ozai in his ambition by doing it (even if she was forced into it by the threat to Zuko). I think it's right to just tell us this is a reunion that's going to happen without either trying to get all that into the last episode or ignoring it to get a less complicated happy symbol with Ursa. Zuko and his mother have both done some things they're not proud of here.
So I think the ultimate lesson of that family drama was a dearly bought: Love beats fear. To the point where, totally unexpectedly, the true victim of the family is, sadly, Azula. The very things that protected her and not Zuko growing up turn out to be her downfall. Like her fire bending, her methods gave her quicker success but couldn’t take her as far. Faced with the idea that her mother loves her rather than fears her, she just feels more threatened. In her final defeat she tries to use love as a weakness (as she did in Ba Sing Se) by attacking Katara and causing Zuko's injury, but love wins again when Katara saves him.
Which is why in the end I think it's really only Ozai who will be frozen out by the family. Not hated, but let go. While I think Azula will probably be cared for kindly by her brother and later her mother. (I woke up this morning with this vision of every year on Azula's birthday Zuko having her favorite kind of cake from when she was little made for her.)
Hey, I just realized there's another parallel there. All the Avatars seem to be telling Aang that Ozai has to go down, but Aang's instincts tell him that's not right. Zuko and Iroh have that funny conversation where Zuko says that he knows he should "try to get along" with Azula and Iroh says no, she's crazy, she has to go down. In both cases the one side is correct that the person has to be defeated decisively (and in the case of Azula, she is crazy), but what makes Aang and Zuko better is their instinct to get along with the other person instead.
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I also liked the open end, regarding Ursa. I think the search for her, just like the re-building of the world, are the projects of the future. They wanted to end this show on a lighter tone, but it is already hinted that the hardest things are still laying ahead.
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And also, they had to hug more. There can never be too many hugs.
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When I imagine where Ursa might be right now, my mind jumped to imagining her with Song, helping heal people.
Azula preferring fear is also because it's something that she can control; and control - perfectionism - has been since the beginning one of Azula's big issue. Zuko's always known how to fight even when he wasn't in control, and that's also why Zuko survives everything he goes through and eventually comes through all of it stronger where Azula breaks at the first betrayal. Azula can't control love, whether it's Mai's love or Ursa's love, or even her father's (who in a way was the person who let her down the worse in the finale).
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Also agree about Azula. Zuko himself says it early on to Aang, when he says that his struggles have made him stronger, but at that point we can't see it yet. Even he doesn't really understand how strong it's made him yet.
Sad that in the end Azula was really brought down most by the thing that tripped up Zuko, that it turned out her being perfect didn't make her father think all that differently about her than he did Zuko.
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Hear! Hear!
I really liked your analysis and I found myself nodding at every other sentence. You are completely right that Ursa & Zuko's reunion would have been too complicated and just too much for the story. Perhaps this is where the movie might have some potential, eh? :p
Only it is Katara that shows mercy, not Zuko.* Zuko was all for commiting the necessary evil (he won't have hesitated to redirect Azula's lightning back at her). But at the end, he was clearly relived that he didn't have to kill his sister and he - and the audience - really came to see Azula was, as you've described in this meta, as the ultimate victim of this story.
*(It was actually this moment that reconcilled me with the Southern Raiders. I still have some issues with that episode but generally, every aspect of the episodes in Season 3 fit into the finale.)
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Zuko was all for commiting the necessary evil (he won't have hesitated to redirect Azula's lightning back at her)
Zuko might have talked big in Southern Raiders, but he doesn't have a good history of killing people off. Remember when he even tired to save Zhao's life, someone he had no reason to do anything but hate? And he didn't look like he would have been happy of Azula's death in the Southern Raiders beginning either. So I'm doubtful he would have gone through with it even given the chance.
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I thought today that one of the reasons why Zuko talked so big in The Southern Raiders and even why he seemed to put so much pressure on Aang might have been fuelled by his own insecurities about the whole thing. I mean, he could not kill his father in DOBS, and I doubt he could have killed Azula.
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I left off a lot of discussions just after the finale, so I'm trying to get back on to them...
I actually realized this a few thoughts later. ::face palm:: My problem with this is that as much as I agree with it, it then flies in the face of every action he makes in Southern Raiders and his insistence of Aang that Ozzai needs to be killed. I can agree that Southern Raiders was supposed to show that Zuko had a "do whatever it takes" streak and won't hesitate if push comes to shove, and he was trying to pass on that streak first to Katara, then to Aang. But if he doesn't have that streak, then why does he try to incite Katara, and then Aang to do what he already knows he is incapable of doing? ::flails:: It's kind of funny, and kind of sad really, how much that episode fails in the awesomeness that is Avatar.
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Re: I left off a lot of discussions just after the finale, so I'm trying to get back on to them...
With Katara I didn't think he was pushing her so much as agreeing with her. She was angry about what happened to her mother, and Zuko saw how to resolve it. Both of them saw "forgiving" as just letting justice go undone. Neither of them could really understand the concept of forgiving the way Aang did at that point, imo, maybe because of all the ways they're alike. They're both idealists who seem much more bothered about the world not being perfect than Aang is.
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Re: I left off a lot of discussions just after the finale, so I'm trying to get back on to them...
It is a geniune question. It's also a question that Zuko believes he knows the answer to. Sokka is impatient with Aang: everyone is, even the old Avatars. No one gives Aang any other advice than to kill Ozzai, not even Zuko. Zuko actually teaches Aang how to deflect lightning and tells him plainly that when Aang deflects Ozzai's lightning, he has to redirect it back at his father. The whole reason why Aang ends up running away, spiritually at least, is because he's surrounded by people who don't understand that he has a problem with ending anybody's life and who are reminding him that yes, you are running out of time.
Zuko is the one who actually creates the situation where Katara can find her revenge. When Aang and Sokka try to talk her out of it, he counter-acts them. At no time is he the passive, silent supporter. Katara doesn't approach him for information on her mother's killers. It is Zuko that actively presents her with the possibility for revenge (and it's made clear that this is revenge not justice: Aang forces Katara to admit this). Zuko is cast as the "evil conscience" to Sokka's and Aang's "good conscience" and when the duo do find the Southern Raiders, Zuko plays an active role in isolating Kya's murdererer; and then disarming him later with Firebending for Katara to take her revenge.
Firstly, at the end of the episode, neither have understood the concept of forgiveness because Katara hasn't forgiven her mother's murderer. She just wasn't able to become a murderer herself. Zuko understood that Katara didn't need violence. He also hasn't reached the level of enlightnment that Aang had over the Air Nomad genocide.
And this is where I get the OOC vibe. The distinction between vengeance and justice is something that Zuko - up until Southern Raiders - had always appeared to understand. When Zuko confronts his father, it's not about revenge. It is about a larger sense of honour, this time extending to the whole of the Fire Nation. He's not calling the old man out to pay him back for his scar or his abused childhood. He's calling the old man out because he has to side against Ozzai and the Fire Nation's reign of terror in the world. He could have killed Ozzai then - first with his swords, and later when he redirects lightning but he doesn't. It's not because Zuko forgives Ozzai. It's because to kill him was not his job. Ozzai needed to be handed over to a higher form of justice - the Avatar. When Zuko is in a position to harm other personal enemies - Zhao and Azula - he stays his hand.
Aang and his "can't we just kiss and make up with Ozzai" approach to confrontation is more of an idealist than any other person in the show. Zuko is the hard-headed realist, who literally says "I know you're afraid, but this is something you have to do."
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Re: I left off a lot of discussions just after the finale, so I'm trying to get back on to them...
Yes, he does do that, and he counter-acts the other people. But what I mean is, there's no scene where Katara herself is hesitatnt and Zuko is pushing her. The two of them seem to just be on the same page to begin with. When he learns what happened he thinks finding the guy who did it is the solution and when he presents it to her she seems to think the same thing. I just didn't think it was a case of Zuko pushing Katara at all. Of the two of them, Zuko is totally on board with what she's doing, but she's even more gung-ho than he is. Zuko is there to enable her and helps get her to where she's got the guy in her power, but even his bringing the information to her isn't presented as Zuko pressuring her or telling her this is what she must do. So when she backs off the guy Zuko sees that as fine too. Making this better for Katara is his goal more than needing to see her get revenge.
Firstly, at the end of the episode, neither have understood the concept of forgiveness because Katara hasn't forgiven her mother's murderer.
She says she's forgiven Zuko, so it seems like she's gotten somewhere with the concept. With regards to the murderer, Katara thinks her not killing the guy may be a sign of strength, though she's not sure. She hasn't totally gotten it, but it seems like the episode is mostly about bringing her to where she can see the possibility of what Aang is saying.
I see what you're saying now about Zuko, that the OOCness comes from the fact that he's never been about revenge to begin with and just becomes so here so that he can represent the opposite of what Aang is saying? You could have a point there.
Aang and his "can't we just kiss and make up with Ozzai" approach to confrontation is more of an idealist than any other person in the show. Zuko is the hard-headed realist, who literally says "I know you're afraid, but this is something you have to do."
I think of idealists being active in trying to change the world--I'm using the word in the way I took Iroh to be using it, to refer to a leader, as opposed to just somebody who likes to see the good in things. Aang seems more about live and let live and seeing the best in people--sometimes his optimism is more about avoiding necessary action. Zuko to me seems more like an idealist in that he wants to actively change things to make them better. Maybe I'm just using the word differently, but Zuko's line to Aang doesn't necessarily make him seem less of an idealist to me. I guess I think of that attitude being the thing that would push him to shape the world into the way he thought it should be.
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And lest I forget this equally interesting discussion…
You’re forgetting one thing: On board the Southern Raiders’ ship, Katara walks away after finding out that she got the wrong man. It is only after Zuko tortures the man for information about Kya’s murderer, that Katara is now back on her path for revenge.
In fact, Zuko’s role to Katara’s revenge story is even creepier because of the passive enabling. By putting her on that path and making sure she doesn’t derail from it, it’s as if he’s living out his own issues/revenge fantasy through her because he knows he’d never be able/have the guts to kill anyone in an act of revenge.
I just wish I knew why she forgave Zuko, since other than bring out the worst in her and enable her almost commit murder, he hasn’t really done anything to counteract her fears of him.
OK, I’m interpreting idealism in the extreme sense: someone whose beliefs border on romanticism, on impracticability, on unreality. Aang’s own ideas of changing the world are – at the surface and even now to most people – very unrealistic: fight a war without killing anyone? Not take out the most dangerous man in the world even when he’s actively trying to destroy you?
But actually, none of the Gaang members could really be cynics – all of them do believe they can change the world. (Except maybe Toph, who when given the choice in Ba Sing Se, would have preferred to flee rather than try to face the King). Zuko’s own decision to stand against his father because of the invasion into the Earth Kingdom (and how I love the writers for letting us know the turning point and that it was something like that that made him turn – not love for Iroh, not guilt, but the principles he’s always had all along, the same principles that caused him to be banished in the first place) is idealistic. However, what separates Aang from the rest, is the “do whatever it takes” attitude that they lack.
I think in the end, that they are going to ply their different strengths to change the world together. One thing I maintain about the finale is that we’re not told unequivocally that what Aang did was right or wrong or even more merciful or not. What was more important was that Aang fulfilled his destiny on his own terms, and in the same way that Zuko, banished Crown Prince, also fulfilled his destiny on his own terms. That, to me, was the lesson to take from that.
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Re: And lest I forget this equally interesting discussion…
I meant a scene where Katara had the guy and didn't want to do violence to him and Zuko pushed her. Zuko wants to present the guy to her. That was what he said he could do--he could give her the guy who killed her mother. So when it's not the guy, Zuko's failed. Katara walks away not because she's not just as eager to get revenge than ever, she just thinks Zuko was wrong in thinking he could get the guy. So Zuko sees his own goal slipping away and says if you're not the guy, who is?
He's totally enabling her, of course, the same way he was when he first brought it up. But he's not pushing her to do violence to the guy, it's just important to him that he give her the guy. When she pulls back from actually killing him Zuko isn't disappointed or angry at that choice. But he can't let it go at the idea that it's impossible to find the guy at all.
I just wish I knew why she forgave Zuko, since other than bring out the worst in her and enable her almost commit murder, he hasn’t really done anything to counteract her fears of him.
I think in the writers' eyes she doesn't have fears about him that haven't been already counteracted by his behavior since he joined the group. It looks more like she was most suspicious of him, but that over time he hasn't given her reason to think she was right about those suspicions. Only instead of that making her feel better, it just disappointed her that he wasn't going away and giving her good reason to kick his arse out of there. I would guess that's why her attitude is most obvious when Zuko has just proven himself fighting Azula.
OK, I’m interpreting idealism in the extreme sense: someone whose beliefs border on romanticism, on impracticability, on unreality.
Yes, once you said it I saw that would totally fit Aang. It's probably not the right word for me to use to describe the difference between Aang and the other two. Maybe it's more that justice is more important to them. Aang is just, of course, but justice as a concept doesn't seem as important to him as it is to the other two. He's more likely to say "the poor will always be with us" where Katara is more like "It's not fair that some people should go without when others have more than enough."
not love for Iroh, not guilt, but the principles he’s always had all along, the same principles that caused him to be banished in the first place
Just had to agree with this. It can't be that Zuko turns because he wants to make Iroh happy or whatever. He has to realize something about right and wrong. Once he does that he won't ever go back. (I thought there was something like this going on with Snape in HP, but he didn't get that kind of turning point.)
One thing I maintain about the finale is that we’re not told unequivocally that what Aang did was right or wrong or even more merciful or not.
Totally agree. It's not like it would just be "wrong" to kill the Fire Lord and this was the "correct" solution.
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I feel Zuko does hold out the possibility of killing someone as an idea--so did the rest of the GAang besides Aang. If he'd been given the job of killing the Fire Lord in the way Aang was I don't think he'd have tried to find other options. But when actually faced with the moment it seems like both he and Katara go for something else, no matter how angry they were before that.
I wonder if the connection is that Zuko and Katara are both very emotional characters so can get carried away with anger while Aang is very much not that? That's why they make good foils for him.
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I always thought that Katara and Zuko have much things in common, especially by being more idealistic than the other members of the gaang, and by following their emotions. That's also why they both need someone like Aang, as a friend or as a partner, who laughs at gravity.
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Really, this just made me feel a million times better. About Iroh and Ursa and the handling of their arcs at the end of the season, and various related narrative decisions that were made.
You should absolutely crosspost this around! <3
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The more I think about it, I think the emotional arcs (which were most important and thematic) were all handled really confidently. I've seen some complaints that they weren't sometimes as detailed as they would be in fanfic, but the broad strokes are what's important to show us what's going on. (And there's at least one instance where minor characters were said to be left dangling when I thought they got one of the best endings in the series so OMG, don't touch them!)
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A giant YES to everything you said here. A lot of these things have been floating around in my mind, and I've been trying and failing to find a way to express them. I think you said it all far better than I ever could have. Adding this to my memories. :)
Which is why in the end I think it's really only Ozai who will be frozen out by the family. Not hated, but let go. While I think Azula will probably be cared for kindly by her brother and later her mother. (I woke up this morning with this vision of every year on Azula's birthday Zuko having her favorite kind of cake from when she was little made for her.)
I really agree with this part especially. I haven't seen a lot of people saying this, but something about the tragic end with Azula made me think that there's a chance everything will change. She's hit rock bottom, just like Zuko did, and now I think there's a very real possibility that she will rise out of that. Ursa will no doubt be a huge component in any sort of Azula redemption, but I think Zuko would be important too. And Mai and Ty Lee, as well.
All the Avatars seem to be telling Aang that Ozai has to go down, but Aang's instincts tell him that's not right. Zuko and Iroh have that funny conversation where Zuko says that he knows he should "try to get along" with Azula and Iroh says no, she's crazy, she has to go down. In both cases the one side is correct that the person has to be defeated decisively (and in the case of Azula, she is crazy), but what makes Aang and Zuko better is their instinct to get along with the other person instead.
Agreed again. :) And I'm so glad to see that someone else saw that!
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I'm so happy you liked it!
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And it could turn out that she's really is dead, and the search may ultimately be for Zuko--and Azula--getting closure. But they don't have closure as of now.
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