I’ve been thinking a lot about thematic progression in ATLA, one of My favorite stories ever, and one thing I love is the progression of Zuko’s bending.
In Bitter Work, Iroh tells him that drawing wisdom from only one source of bending is a path to staleness, even among those who can only bend one element. He shows him a technique he learned by studying waterbenders.
But Zuko rejects the teachings that underlie everything Iroh says, and breaks with him for several episodes. Water is his opposite, and air the element of his nemesis. He can’t draw wisdom from those.
So he ends up doing the Avatar Cycle, but in reverse.
The Avatar always learns bending in the order of water —> earth —> fire —> air, starting from their native element and moving along that progression. This is because each element in the cycle has philosophical strengths that help you temper the main philosophical flaws of the previous one. Water’s main flaws are codependence and reactivity, so earth’s self-sufficiency and confrontation help with that. Earth’s main flaws are rigidity (lack of innovation) and stubbornness (refusal to budge), so fire’s unending drive helps it break out of its ruts. Fire’s main flaws are its shortsightedness and its propensity for uncontrollable consequences, so air’s thoughtfulness and creativity help it learn to plan and problem-solve. And air’s main flaws are its passivity and fear of commitment, so water helps it learn to intertwine itself with the very world around it.
That’s the process Aang follows. And the thing about ATLA is that it is, at every step, the story of Aang and Zuko as foils to one another—a mirrored pair. You see this in how often a scene will transition directly from one of them to the other. Or most obviously in episodes like The Storm or The Avatar and the Firelord, which feature stories that switch perspectives between Aang and Zuko with every parallel. It’s even obvious in their initial appearances: Aang has a blue tattoo, Zuko a red scar; Aang dresses in relaxed monk’s clothing, Zuko in severe military attire; Aang is bald, and Zuko has a distinctive and painstakingly animated hairstyle. It’s all really well done!
So of course, Zuko’s journey to draw wisdom from the other elements is the reverse of the Avatar Cycle.
In Zuko Alone, he’s in an Earth Kingdom town that’s holding out against the Fire Nation, so he tries fighting in disguise, without firebending. It’s ostensibly for his own safety, but if you think about it, that becomes a pretty obviously flimsy excuse when he’s getting boulders thrown at him. If he were prioritizing his safety, he’d have firebent. What’s actually happening is that he’s feeling shame at being a Fire Nation prince, because he sees the horrors his country has visited upon towns like this. And in the end, it’s a flashback to his mother saying, “Remember who you are,” that has him firebend. That’s not ambition or drive; that’s a refusal to be anything but what he is. That is earth in philosophy, and it shows in his bending during that fight. It’s one of the only times he stands his ground for as long as possible, no matter what’s thrown at him. His preferred style is usually a steady march forward to press his advantage (see also: his Agni Kai with Zhao in early book 1, and his duel with Katara at the spirit oasis in the book 1 finale). But in this fight, he uses firebending entirely to hold his ground, and in that way completely overwhelm his opponents. So he learns from earth first.
Much later in Book 2, during the Ba Sing Se arc, he experiences a “metamorphosis” that makes him happy with his new life with Iroh. He starts wanting to integrate into the simple, communal life Iroh’s been trying to build with his tea shop. Then, Azula attacks them, and Zuko fights differently yet again. During his fight with the Dai Li, his palms are open, his movements are fluid, and he uses his fire to redirect attacks—he’s bending fire like a waterbender, because he’s started to think a bit more like one.
In The Crossroads of Destiny, Zuko turns his back on all the progress he’s made so far. But as we quickly see in Book 3, it’s not leaving him as easily as he hoped it would. He’s not the perfect son he’s been trying to be, because he’s become too many other things that conflict with that.
And so we eventually reach Day of Black Sun, where Zuko confronts his father during the eclipse. Ozai taunts him, asking, “Why don’t you kill me right now? You have your swords.” And Zuko says something very airbender: that it’s the Avatar’s place to defeat Ozai, not his. Have you ever known Zuko to care about whether it’s his place to do something, before this? (This is the guy who, in The Blue Spirit, opposed the nation he still fervently believed in, just to get what he wanted. He’s never cared about what it’s his place to do.) He then tries to deescalate with Ozai, hoping to reason with him. This is also not a tactic Zuko has ever practiced or even respected before now. (When he betrays Katara, he doesn’t try to get her on side. He just goes, “I have changed, :GIGACHAD:,” and tries to kill her ass.) But it’s an airbender trait, through and through, and this season tries to hammer it home even more than Book 2 – Earth did: later in Book 3, it’s the first tactic that comes to Aang’s mind during war planning. And in the finale, it’s Aang’s desperate first resort when he confronts Ozai. That’s what Zuko’s doing here. And the only bending he uses while confronting Ozai is lightning redirection. Yes, it’s a technique Iroh learned from studying waterbenders, but Zuko’s use of it is just as airbender, especially given what he does afterward—Ozai is dazed and groaning, completely at Zuko’s mercy, and Zuko chooses passivity and leaves, because of what he views as the order of things.
So now, Zuko’s gone fire —> earth —> water —> air, and incorporated lessons from each bending philosophy into his entire personality. So why is he still in so much turmoil? You’d expect some, but “some” is not what we see in the next episode, when he’s gearing up to try and join Team Avatar.
From book one, episode one, we’ve been shown that Zuko doesn’t really know how to firebend, because he doesn’t want to. That’s right! In the same way that Aang’s character arc culminates (controversially) in a reckoning with his native bending’s philosophy (“How can I be an Avatar who kills his enemies, when that’s antithetical to Air Nomad teachings?”), so too does Zuko’s culminate in a reckoning with firebending.
In Zuko’s very first scene in the show, Iroh scolds him for his firebending being too focused on aggression and being “from the muscles,” rather than passion and being “from the breath.” And Zuko doesn’t fully outgrow this, even as he learns to temper his firebending with other types of wisdom. He’s still driven by shame and anger. Across the various seasons, we see multiple examples of firebenders reckoning with their element’s destructive ceaselessness: Jeong Jeong, Zhao, Iroh, Azula, and Zuko himself (like his aforementioned refusal to bend in Zuko Alone). Jeong Jeong handles his pride-turned-shame by becoming a pacifist hermit. Azula handles her ambition-turned-insecurity by becoming an embodiment of precision and perfection. Zhao handles his chauvinism-turned-rage by embracing it to the bitter end. Iroh is the only one who handles the ceaseless push and drive of his culture, his arrogance-turned-guilt, by learning to love the world—and thus, himself, as a part of it. As for Zuko, he’s…mostly just handled it very messily so far, by either ignoring it or trying to temper it with other types of wisdom. Which is good, but not if you’re avoiding the central issue.
So just like Aang, Zuko’s culminating character moment is learning how to properly be a bender of his own element. I’m talking, of course, about The Firebending Masters, where Zuko and Aang meet two dragons who teach them the transcendent truth of firebending: that it is energy and life, above all else. That it confers a ceaseless drive to change and impact everything you can, because that’s what it means to be alive.
It’s only after learning this that Zuko finds peace. Just like when Aang finally reckons with what it truly means to have an Avatar’s duty while being the last airbender, Zuko has undergone his own reverse Avatar Cycle, and is now complete as a person and a prince rather than a set of unthinking impulses engrained into him by his nation.
And it’s not the end; it’s not perfection. It’s the beginning. Those final hurdles are how they both learn to be who they are, and live in the present. Only now can they begin to be themselves.
Aang can stop passively clinging to the past (his native flaw, air), and start building a world that honors his people (his allied goal, water) as he’s always been wanting to do. What’s stopped him before is gone, now that he’s harnessed the determination to do his duty while remaining himself, no matter the hardship (his opposite, earth). It is this which lets him release his guilt-shame, and embrace the drive (his foil, fire) he’s been lacking this whole time.
Zuko can stop ceaselessly chasing a glory that’ll never come (his native flaw, fire), and be secure in his identity as a Fire Nation royal (his allied goal, earth) as he’s always been wanting to do. What’s stopped him before is gone, now that he’s harnessed the joy of being who and where he is (his opposite, water). It is this which lets him release his pride-shame, and embrace the humility (his foil, air) needed to begin building a world that atones for the past.
It’s really good, is what I’m saying.
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