Yeah, it was made obvious from the get go that Zuko is definitely nowhere near Zhaoās level of nasty, which in turn means heās nowhere near Azulaās and nowhere in the scope of Ozaiās.
He made a deal with Aang to leave the Southern Water Tribe alone if Aang went with him. When Aang escaped with help from two of those tribe members, Zuko didnāt demand they go back and destroy what was left of the tribe as revenge. He didnāt even think of it as an option. There was no split second where he went, should I/shouldnāt I?
This is repeated. He corners the Avatar somewhere, causes some damage to the area in the ensuing fight, but does not stick around to raze the village/monastery to the ground and kill the people when he doesnāt get what he wants. Doesnāt consider this a necessary action even once.
The Iroh&Zuko relationship is juxtaposed with the Zhao&Zuko relationship. Both older men have more power over him. Iroh is a retired War General and Prince who is not banished. Zhao is a Commander in favor of the Firelord, who is also not banished. We could tell early on that Iroh is wise and despite being on the bad side, seems to be pretty chill. We took a liking to him immediately. Zhao is the opposite. He is very much like early!Zuko. Impulsive, rude, loud, cocky, etcā¦ But why is he more annoying? Why do we root for Zuko as opposed to him?Ā
Because we see what Zuko is like with his Uncle Iroh. Iroh does not rub in the fact that heās banished. He doesnāt use that when reprimanding him for his attitude or his failings. That is a hot iron and he knows it. Itās to the point where Iroh can bend fire in Zukoās face and Zuko is perfectly relaxed over it and doesnāt once believe his uncle will hurt him. There is a lot of faith in Iroh, from this angsty teenager, and itās very obvious with their interactions.
Zhao is not trustworthy from the start. Weāre shown this by how both Zuko and Iroh are hesitant to interact with him and donāt want to linger in areas he has control over, for too long. They even lie to him despite him obviously having more favor in the Firelordās eyes than either of them do. Zhaoās personality opposes both Zuko and Iroh. And as we like Iroh, we want him to win and have nice things, as stated above. But Zuko&Iroh is a package deal. And as Zhao reveals himself more and more to be nasty even if itās subtle, we want Zuko to win even harder.
And even when Zuko wins and heās in the prime position to do to Zhao what Ozai did to Zuko for also āspeaking out of turnāā¦ he doesnāt do it. He walks away. He is the bigger man in that scenario. And Iroh further puts shame onto Zhao when he goes against the sacred rules of the Agni Kai because he canāt handle a loss to a banished teen. We are shown that Zuko follows rules and has honor, which is reinforced by Irohās, āeven in exile, my nephew is more honorable than youā. Irohās Word is basically Law at this point. Sf he says it is so, then he must be right and the audience accepts that. He knows Zuko better than us and hopefully weāll get to understand more as the story progresses.
Already by the 3rd episode, weāre shown that Zuko is in no way the worst person from the Fire Nation. In fact, weāre given a sort of scale now from the four major Fire Nation people we know of. IrohāZukoāā-ZhaoāFirelord.
Weāre also hoping that Iroh rubs off on Zuko enough for him to also become wise and learn to chill out.
WhenĀ āThe Stormā finally rolls around, weāre pretty invested by then in the Iroh&Zuko relationship and that episode gives us so much more info into Zukoās character and we are shown that Iroh is right. He has honor and he cares for others. And yet itās obvious the Firelord doesnāt because we see Zuko do the right thing(protesting the plan to treat new recruits as cannon fodder) in the wrong place, and then his face gets burned off by his father because of it. And further, heās banished for refusing to fight his own father. What sane parent wants to do battle with their own child? What sane parent banishes their child for speaking out of turn at the defense of their own peoplesā lives? What the fuck is wrong with the Firelord?
Zuko was punished severely for showing compassion and having a kind heart. And Iroh(and the ship crew even) is properly mortified by the punishments his nephew received for it, which in turn affects the audienceās perception of this situation. Iroh doesnāt like it, itās especially bad then.
Now we start wondering why does Zuko wants to go back to the guy who burned his face off?! Iroh, talk some sense into him! PLEASE!
Halfway through S1, they got us to the point of wanting Zuko to have a redemption arc.Ā
Making the audience want a character to be redeemed is also very important in this. We were shown he has redeemable qualities. We want that pay off! Do it justice!
