Iroh Editorial
The first thing that I want to say about Iroh is that, despite the fact that he is Fire Nation, and for most of his life was what you could call “evil”, he always seems to have had reasonably high moral values, especially when compared to the rest of the Fire Nation. Back in the days when he was laying seige to Ba Sing Se, I think he still had these values, but he upheld them in a different way. Instead of being how he is now, he conquered and did stuff for the Fire Nation, but, for example, if he captured a soldier, he’d probably treat him with dignity and respect. Now, we see the kind of person we is; when someone tries to rob him, he teaches him how to do it better, and then tries to get him not to do it. He sings a song for a baby, and other stuff like that. And now, we hear him talking about “starting a new life”, and how he “believes in second chances”. This ties in to the theory that Zuko or Iroh will teach Aang firebending, at this point, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine at least Iroh coming over to “the good side”. If Iroh were to go over to the good side, I couldn’t necessarily him joining the BoomerAANG Squad, but he could definitely be the one to teach Aang firebending (I don’t think Jeong Jeong is coming back, unless he shows up in the final battle). I personally am surprised that most people seem to think that Zuko will teach Aang firebending. While I do think that he will go to the good side, frankly, he isn’t that strong of a firebender. What has gotten him as far as he is has been mostly determination, and occasionally brute force. The kind of firebending that Aang will need to learn is the kind that only Iroh could (or would be willing to) teach him, the finer, more refined moves of firebending, and lightning-bending (whatever it is). Zuko couldn’t teach Aang that, he can’t even use it himself.
As I say above, I think Zuko will come over to the good side, but what I haven’t seen most people talking about is how and why it will happen. We’ve seen the first step on that path in Lake Laogai, the impression is clearly given that Zuko freed Aapa, and just let him go. That could form the groundwork of a possible firendship between Aang and Zuko, Aang would definitely be grateful to Zuko if he found out about that. But before that is even possible, Zuko has to make that one decision to abandon his Fire Nation roots, so to speak. I think that Iroh will be the one to sort of, push/pull him along. The difference between the two would be if Iroh “pushes” Zuko along, he’ll be, in his Irohy way, suggesting Zuko do things a truly good person would do, giving him opportunities to make the right decision. If he “pulls” him along, he’d basically say “This is the decision I’m making, trust me, it’s the right one, if you want to come with me, you can”. (If that sounds corny, it’s because I’m sitting on a couch by a TV, and a really, really, really corny video is playing right now.) Whether or not the difference between the push and the pull is important, I still think people are over looking the reason why Zuko would switch sides. (This was written before the Book 2 Finale, see a more updated version here)
Now, taking into account the Earth King has agreed to help with an invasion of the Fire Nation, Iroh’s help in that could be invaluavle. I don’t know what exact kind of help he could offer, but he obviously at least knows the country, and probably has a map of the Fire Nation, whether on paper or in his head. Also, as a very powerful firebender, with the help of Zuko, possibly Aang, and maybe Jeong Jeong, I bet the group would be able to defend the Earth Kingdom’s troops from a large amount of Fire Nation attacks. And the earthbenders themselves would be able to block the boulders the Fire Nation seems so fond of launching. This is all assuming that the BoomerAANG Squad takes back Ba Sing Se, which I think they will have to at some point.
Moving on to Iroh’s actual character/personality, his ability to transfer from “happy-go-lucky” one moment, to very serious the next could be a very good influence on Aang, who, while he’s very good at being happy go lucky, still lacks that serious, hard work qualitiy, to a certain degree. I recognize (and am glad) that he’s been “working his arrow off”, mastering earth and waterbending, but he can lose focus real quick, as we’ve seen with Aapa. Iroh would be the perfect person to keep him focused, teach him firebending, let him be happy go lucky, but make sure he knows when he has to get serious.
I wanted to briefly address the Iroh/Insert-Random-Character-Here shipping. Looking at Iroh as a character, and female characters in Avatar, I don’t see any match for him, as of yet, except perhaps the lady with the cat Miyuki. Other than that, I find shipping Iroh with other characters not only probably irrelevant to the plot of Avatar as a whole, but entirely unlikely to happen.
Finally, every main character in Avatar seems to have a rival, Katara and Ty Lee, Aang and Azula, Toph and the earthbenders her dad hired, etc. Iroh, however, seems to be an exception. In the Final Battle, I could see the possibility of Iroh fighting Ozai. Not defeating him, but confronting him brifely. This would seem even more likely if Iroh were to find out that he was robbed of his chance to be the Fire Lord by Ozai, if he found out that Ozai was (presumedly) behind Azulon’s murder. Regardless of the fact that Azulon was evil, he was still Iroh’s father, and if Iroh found out Ozai killed him, he’d probably be more than a little ticked off.
That’s it for Iroh, leave whatever you want in the comments, suggestions/feedback, etc. Thanks for reading!
23 Comments »
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we never hear what happened to Zuko’s mother. I think she is in Ba Sing Se, and will probably be the one to tell Iroh what really happened to his father. He will teach Aang expertly, and eventually fight his brother but lose. If the comet has arrived for the final battle, than both Iroh and Ozai will be really sweet to watch… anyway, Iroh must lose to his brother. Its interesting to note that he has no ‘match’ in the series, which says to me that he will follow Zuko and either
1) become the new Fire King when his nation loses the war, or
2) be killed by his brother, gathering sympathy from all.
Comment made by sonnet on December 2, 2006 at 5:52 am
I think Zuko’s mother is dead, Zuko knows it, and we just haven’t found out. In the finale, when Katara said the Fire Nation took her mother, he said they had that in common. It could be she just left, but I think Ursa is dead. And I think Iroh is going to die very soon too, he’s a traitor in the eyes of the Fire Nation, and, sadly, he’ll probably be executed. I think Aang will go back and learn firebending from Jeong Jeong, seeing as how Zuko certainly won’t be teaching him now.
Comment made by James on December 3, 2006 at 4:55 pm
hey who do u think will happen in season 3 review please and when do you think it will start hey do you think azula will turn on her bro
Comment made by ANTHONY on December 6, 2006 at 8:21 pm
No, I don’t think Azula will turn on Zuko. And the season 3 air date has not been announced, but I’d guess Spring 2007
Comment made by James on December 11, 2006 at 1:15 pm
The new season will come on the 16th of March. I read that, but I’m not sure it’s true.
I think Zuko’s mother is dead. Ozai has kill Azulon, than she tried to kill Ozai, but Ozai kills her before she kills him.
Comment made by MiniMe on January 4, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Hmmmm….That’s an interesting theory. But I don’t think Ursa would be able to stand up to Ozai’s power.
However, you have raised a new question. Do you think Zuko’s mother was a firebender? We never saw any indication that she was….But would Ozai have married her if she wasn’t?
Comment made by James on January 5, 2007 at 9:38 pm
I think that Ozai wouldn’t marry with her if she wasn’t a firebender. So yes, I think Ursa was a firebender.
Comment made by MiniMe on January 6, 2007 at 3:05 am
It didn’t seem like a ‘love marriage’. It seemed forced, because of family orders, royal bloodlines, or something similar between Ozai and Ursa -_-
Kataang forever
Comment made by SilentSpeculator on January 28, 2007 at 3:45 am
I think that Iroh will teach Aang basic Firebending, and the more technical aspect of it. But, if Zuko turns good (which is unlikely), he will teach Aang the fighting aspects of it. Iroh is a bit soft, and would probably be much like Gyatso: an valuable teacher, but very playful and easy-going. Zuko would be better at keeping Aang down to Earth and simulating a real fight.
I would love to see a confrontation between Iroh and Ozai. That’d be great. And it’d be cool to see Ursa come back, though she’s probably dead.
Comment made by medianoche on March 14, 2007 at 6:04 pm
I think Iroh dies personally. Then i really don’t know who will teach him firebending
Comment made by BAD SPELLERS OF THE WORLD.......UNTIE on May 7, 2007 at 7:36 pm
i think either Iroh or Azula will teach Aang. the reason that i think Azula would, is because the Fire Lord is treterous and would disown anyone (he proved it when he did it to Zuko). and that is all of my input on this subject
Comment made by Kreg on May 28, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Zuko seems to plan ahead, despite his hotheaded apearance. Zuko might know that the only way to get to his father is through Azula, and he wants to repay what his father did to his grandfather, and his mother. Zuko is also quite skilled in swordsmanship let’s take that into consideration. This could all be a plan by Zuko, because he knows about the solar exclipse so he could be planning on using his swordsmanship to defeat his father during the eclipse.
Zuko could have only tryed to capture Aang in the end of season 2 to get the avatar more determined, towards getting to the fire nation, because Zuko is away that he is not able to defeat the fire lord by himself. He does not show fondness to the avatar, but knows he will need him to detroy the fire lord. Zuko COULD use this plan.
Comment made by Brandon on August 2, 2007 at 1:34 pm
It’s interesting to see the point of views from before the new season aired and we see what happens after the loss of Ba Sing Se. I agree with Medianoche. I would love to see Ozai and Iroh duke it out. Who do you think would win? I think Iroh would because he has more heart, but Ozai can bend white lightening, as we saw in Book 3 Chapter 11. So, the battle would be tough. If Ozai defeats Iroh by killing him or seriously wounding him, then Ozai would have to deal with the BoomerAANG gang, which now has Zuko as a memeber too, and I don’t think the Fire Lord could win against them. Oh, and I think Zuko can bend lightening now because he sent the bolts that Ozai shot at him back to Ozai, which was totally cool, whether it was on purpose or not.
Comment made by Sunnyhoney0406 on December 16, 2007 at 12:14 am
I think Zuko’s shooting Ozai’s own lightning back at him was a good way for Zuko to express himself. :-)} Certainly Zuko stands on his own two feet now.
Iroh’s a wonderful character. I was so sad to hear that Mako, the man who voiced him first, had passed away last year. Mako gave Iroh so much life, warmth, edge, and everything that makes Iroh the great guy he is. The one who voices him now has a lot to live up to. Or voice up to, anyway. :-)}
If anyone were a fit Fire Master for Aang, it would be Iroh, given his knowledge, wisdom, and temperament. He’s Zuko’s sensei, and it makes sense that he would be Aang’s too–except for one thing. It doesn’t fit the pattern. Aang learns his Water-bending from Katara, not Paku. He learns his Earth-bending from Toph, not King Bumie (sp?). The pattern would then follow that Aang learns his Fire-bending not from the older, wiser Iroh, but from ZUKO. And boy, that classroom had better be a large, well-padded, fire-retardant one, given the past history of those two! Or maybe not, since Aang wondered before if, in another time, they might have been friends.
Comment made by Rob M. on December 17, 2007 at 8:07 pm
i also think it makes mor sense that zuko might be the one to help aang fire bend as in the past the one to help aang achieve his potential also had much to learn from the airbender as well; as we can see zuko already has. in the end however we must see aang recover from his fear of fire bending after he vowed never to do it again. i’ll be exited to see how
Comment made by misty bay on February 9, 2008 at 11:45 am
I think Iroh & Ozai are on even grounds when it comes to firebending (maybe Iroh is better)….It’s just that Iroh hasn’t shown much of his prowess, nor has he needed to do so..In the end Iroh will teach Aang & also help in killing Ozai…. IROH IS THE BEST!!!
Comment made by SD on April 14, 2008 at 5:48 am
Okay news flash to people zukos mom is not dead.just to get that out in the open second
so anyways if you need more info look me up in myspace or youtube,
everyone knows that iroh is hidding in the earth kingdom or looking for zuko.
azula is going crzy
and aang kisses katara twice!
and the rest of the season is coing in july 2008
also sokka saves suki.
toph gets a weird feeling tward suki and hates her in a way but suki dosnt know
and in one of the episodes they go to see a make fun of play of them selves and thy see it is nothing like them.but only a make fun of and this is for all you “Zutara”Fans…i hate to say but katara hugs zuko.
have a nice day!
Comment made by Elly on April 23, 2008 at 6:02 am
True what is ubove me. Also, I just saw blown up screen shots of the finale trailer, and Azula sees her mom in the mirror (real or thought unknown), gets pissed and throws a hairbrush at it, shattering it. Also, Iroh, contrary to popular belief, is not in the trailer whatsoever.
Comment made by Dougie Fresh on May 9, 2008 at 8:36 pm
iroh is so cool. nothing more to be said. the end
Comment made by katerina on May 27, 2008 at 8:19 am
I think Iroh is an older/wiser Zuko, and Ozai is an older/more sadistic/powerful Ozula.. Both Iroh and Zuko have many and no rivals.. their rivals shift. Iroh lived what Zuko is living now– trying to find himself after dealing with immense pain and loss..
Question– is Thai Lee the daughter of Iroh? They both seem serious yet happy-go-lucky??
Comment made by deera on May 27, 2008 at 8:28 am
they have got up to episode 16 already so why the countdown for episode 11????
Comment made by elkajo on June 19, 2008 at 11:52 am
Poor Iroh! I do think that Mako passing away may have had an affect on the original thought of the outcome of his character. Last I saw, he had gotten himself all buff and broke out of prison on the day of black sun. Surely they would’nt end him there. I look for him to step in somewhere and save Zuko because he’s always got his back. Or maybe just Zuko’s memories of past words of wisdom”flashbacks”. Zuko’s mom is not dead. I too believe she is living quietly in the city in the earth kingdom and will be found, probably by her son. I want more information on the game Pi-Shew or however it’s spelled. It’s more than just a game and when Sokka trained with the White Lotus He Gave Sokka the white lotus tile and i’ve always looked for him to need it on down the road.
What is the order of the white lotus?
Comment made by Nan on July 3, 2008 at 3:58 pm
It was mentioned in the ” legend of the avatar” page that the only other person to enter the spirit world other than the avatar was Iroh. Can i haVE that explaines a little further?
Comment made by gabriel on July 21, 2008 at 5:09 pm