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I wanted to compare the lighting and the shadows.

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Notes:

We have some left-right symbolism with Iroh being on the right and Zuko on the left.

While Iroh is the one literally behind bars, we only see him actually behind bars in a couple of shots, the rest of the time it’s Zuko who appears to be behind bars, symbolizing how he’s the real prisoner between the two of them.

We also get these nice shots where Iroh’s side of the shot has a lot more space and freedom than Zuko’s side, again helping us with that narrative prisoner thing we have going.

Iroh is in the light while Zuko is the dark.This speaks for itself. Iroh is free, and in the right, while Zuko is not.

I keep thinking the last frame might be symbolic somehow too. While Zuko kneeling on the ground isn’t itself symbolic, there’s something interesting about the shot’s composition–Zuko behind the bars in his darkens, a large hand offering him a crown…an offer at redemption, maybe? A way to escape his prison? It helps that the next sequence of shots is about Iroh telling Zuko about his struggle and how he can resolve it.

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Some notes:

We have some left-right symbolism with Iroh on Zuko’s right and Ozai on Zuko’s right.

Note Zuko’s demeanor when he goes to confront Iroh versus when he goes to confront his father. Furthermore, we actually see his face when he goes to confront Ozai (which parallels how we saw his face when he first goes to confront his father in “The Awakening”).

It’s shot a little differently too, though that could just be to preserve the flow of the following sequence of shots.

We generally see the bars in front of Zuko and Ozai respectively, making it clear who the true narrative prisoner is in each episode (though Ozai doesn’t get any of that visual symbolism. Instead, the prisoner symbolism belongs solely to Zuko, who is now free of the prison he forced himself into.

While they are both disheveled and imprisoned, I’d argue that Iroh looks like he has a shred more dignity than his brother, who is slumped over and defeated.

Where once Zuko was shrouded in the shadows of his prison, that symbolic position now belongs to Ozai, who is both a literal and figurative prisoner.

Likewise, just like Iroh in “The Avatar and the Firelord,” Zuko in “Sozin’s Comet” is in the light, and completely free of his self-imposed prison.

It should also be noted that, in the third set of gifs, Iroh/Zuko have more space than Zuko/Ozai, thus helping with that narrative prison/freedom idea. Iroh and finale Zuko have freedom and space, while early Book 3 Zuko and finale Ozai do not.

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Some nice mood , lighting, and weather symbolism with it being all bright and vibrant when Lu Ten is still alive before it gets all dark and stormy.

It’s also a lot colder without Lu Ten too, and the tree has lost all of its leaves.

It actually kind of reminds me of what they did with “Zuko Alone.”

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So, here we get yet another brilliantly done scene in the Ba SIng Se arc of Book 2. Again, we have some real nice lighting with everything having an eerie green glow to it, the creepy Dai Li music, as well as one final element: camera framing, In every single frame, Long Feng is larger and far more imposing than Joo Dee, consequently making him appear more powerful than her.

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In these two gifs, Zuko and Joo Dee kneel before someone far more powerful than them.

In both scenes, the person opposite the kneeling figure casts a long shadow that makes them seem larger-than-life and far more imposing and and threatening than the person opposite to them. However, the effect of those two scenes is very different.

With Ozai, we see him approaching Zuko (thus making him seem like a more aggressive, and imminent threat). His shadow, however, is approximately the same size as him, but it’s still very threatening as the shadow comes closer and closer to Zuko, revealing to the audience Ozai’s immense intimidating stature.

The scene with Joo Dee and Long Feng in contrast is somewhat different. We open up with a much more calm scene as Long Feng and Joo Dee are sitting down. However, we still get a sense of danger, and a strange, eerie atmosphere which isn’t helped at all by the lighting.

In this scene, Long Feng and Joo Dee appear to be equal in height, with both characters being seated (although Joo Dee is kneeling since Long Feng is higher up in the chain of command).

However, what really makes this scene is the shadow cast by Long Feng–it’s much larger than both Joo Dee and Long Feng, but it’s being created by Long Feng, thus making him appear larger and more sinister than he appears, and consequently making Joo Dee appear even smaller.