i feel like when ppl argue that the only reason zuko didn’t turn out like azula is bc be had iroh it’s kinda 🥴 like what reasoning do u have for that stance?
and i know the reason this usually gets said is azula-apologism trying to defend why it was okay for her to be a cruel and manipulative person to everyone around her and still see her as an uwu widdle baby who did nothing wrong while everyone in her family was So Mean to her, but, still.
iroh does soooooo little to influence zuko one way or another. if anything he mostly acts as a bracing figure to continue supporting him wherever he is at, with usually only the occasional reprimand when he feels like zuko’s really out of line or endangering himself. personally i read this as spinelessness, but i’ve seen fics where it’s been argued that at least on zuko’s ship in s1 he outranked iroh and publicly giving him orders would’ve messed with the chain of command, whatever. none of that dynamic is ever addressed directly in the show.
zuko wants to keep chasing the avatar, follow him across the world, invade strongholds and islands and water tribes? iroh is fine with that - despite his leadership ranking in the white lotus - and will even directly support on occasion. zuko wants to follow azula home to the FN? iroh objects not on the grounds of opposing zuko becoming directly enmeshed with the FN and by extension the war/colonization effort again, but only bc he believes azula is lying.
it’s obvious iroh cares about him and is trying to help him - and he does eventually (very late imo) begin to start pushing zuko away from loyalty to the FN. but iroh mostly supports zuko by trying to make him okay with wherever he’s currently at. and when we ask who zuko would be if iroh hadn’t gone into exile with him, i think the possibilities for zuko’s life trajectory open up much more broadly because he wouldn’t have that stabilizing, normalizing factor.
and not all of those possibilities are good! he mightve decided to give up on life not long after the agni kai and never seen the avatar’s return. he might’ve thrown himself directly into the war effort in hope he could distinguish himself enough for a reprieve or conversely become a bandit blue-spirit-style and taken his anger and sense of betrayal out on his father’s forces.
or he mightve given up the obsession sooner, much as being forced onto the run without resources did in s2. might’ve spent more of his time really thinking about what happened to him or really paying attention to the reality of the war and the lives of normal people in the EK. He could’ve disappeared into the ruins of the temples, trying to understand what had been lost there when confronted with the bones and the truth that sozin’s invasion doesn’t align with the propaganda he was raised in.
it’s telling to me that the one episode where zuko is truly on his own in s2, he does make good choices. he sees himself and his own family in people about as different from him as he couldve imagined as a child and he chooses to help them in ways both small and big. and the narrative does not frame this as coming from iroh’s influence, does not rely on iroh’s voice as a stubborn little conscience poking through. as a matter of fact, zuko behaved MUCH more antisocially in the previous episodes when he was traveling the EK with iroh!
as much as iroh did for zuko, i think him remaining around all the time continued to tie zuko to his identity as prince, the hope of one day reclaiming his status, and all of the baggage and chains and honor-culture that came with it. and i think the s2 episodes of zuko at his lowest while penniless in the EK going around robbing people to give iroh nice things on the grounds that “we’re royalty, they should be giving us whatever we want” back that reading up.
iroh even says it, to the crew in The Storm and to Zuko himself right before Zuko splits from him when Iroh does finally address his banditry in s2: iroh is merely trying to give zuko hope. but something i know from painful experience is sometimes hope needs to die for you to be able to move on with your life and see all the possibilities that open up when you finally let go of the dead ends you’ve been clinging to.
no matter what happened, zuko wouldnt have become just like azula without iroh. if anything, he couldve become much, much more than he had the opportunity to with iroh around.
turnnoffyourmind
blakekathryn
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