#iroh-critical

[zuko-always-lies]

It’s interesting to note that Azula makes a very serious effort to reconcile with her brother, to show kindness to him, and to fix her broken relationship with him. It’s futile. It doesn’t work, in the end. Likely it never could have worked, with the shadow of Ozai hanging over the siblings.  She doesn’t manage to repair her relationship with her brother, and by the end of the series it’s worse than ever. Her efforts to show kindness to Zuko (see “The Beach”) never lead to Zuko attempting to show kindness to her or to him even slightly reevaluating his perception of her. In fact, her attempts at reconciliation lead to her losing everything: her friends, her father’s favor, her favored position, her freedom, even her sanity.  It’s worse than futile.

Yet her attempt says volumes about who she is as a character, about who she wants to be a person, just like Zuko’s attempt to save Zhao at the Siege of the North says volumes about who he is as a person, even though it was futile and likely impossible(odds are the spirit of the ocean could pull an awful lot stronger than a 16 year old).

Could Zuko, Ursa, and/or Iroh have “saved” Azula within the confines of the story of Avatar: The Last Airbender? Could they have caused her to take a different path, caused her to avoid her canon sad fate? Perhaps, but likely not, especially considering that Ursa and Iroh barely understood even “saving Zuko” as an objective. Does the fact that they combine for zero on screen acts of kindness toward Azula still speak volumes about their characters, about who they are as people?* Does the fact that Ursa and Iroh show no empathy toward Azula still say a lot about who they are as people? Does that fact that Iroh demonizes his abused 14 year old niece while giving his abusive, imperialist asshole of a brother a pass still speak volumes about who he is as a person? Yes.

The manner with which Azula’s “good” family members treat her is far more about them than it about her.

*Note: I mostly give Zuko a pass on this, for obvious reasons, but it still says important things about his character and his relationship with his family.

[azulas-daddy-kink]

[asocial-inkblot]

Another Quick Fire Fam Parallel

Iroh: Constantly traveled the world on a violent, aggressive mission for glory, leaving his younger sibling behind to be vulnerable to his harsh, high standard father.

Zuko: Constantly traveled the world on a violent, aggressive mission for glory, leaving his younger sibling behind to be vulnerable to his harsh, high standard father.

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Zuko was forcefully pushed out, but the effects on himself and Azula were almost the same in their awfulness as they were on Iroh and Ozai.

Iroh has admitted before that Zuko reminds him of Ozai, I believe in-show and outside it. Iroh didn’t just turn Zuko into his ‘new and improved’ son, he also wanted to ‘undo’ his mistakes with his own sibling through Zuko. Of course he actually only continued the hex of violence and familial/self-destruction by pinning brother against sister, just as much if not more than Ozai did. 

Zuko and Azula can be the end of not just Fire Imperialism, but Fire Royal Family Animosity. However, both of them need to realize this first. Azula already began to in-series (before being given evidence that being nice was futile), so when do you think Zuko will? Assuming he’s a changed boy/man by the end?

[prodogg]

Iroh

 I think I have to cut Iroh some slack somtimes because I forget that he is utterly alone, like he doesnt have a wife and his son is gone. Fortunately I dont know the pain of losing a child but I can already tell it isnt pleasant. So I can understand why he hyperfixates on Zuko, it doesnt mean I have to like his actions or think it they are defendable. What mostly bothers me is the hypocrisy and what the fandom makes out of him, like granting him sainthood or making him into atla jesus.

[zuko-always-lies]

A Point of Clarity

Characters who don’t sexually assault anyone in ATLA: Aang, Hahn, Ozai, Azula, Chan.

Characters who commit sexual assault on screen in ATLA, in a children’s show: Iroh. 

[zuko-always-lies]

I just can't take Iroh seriously as a parental figure anymore. He did nothing but LOOK AWAY as Ozai burned Zuko. What kind of (good) parental figure does that? (This also implies very bad things about Iroh's parenting of Lu Ten.)

Yeah, there's no evidence he really did anything to protect Zuko from Ozai's abuse. The real kicker for me, though, is that he told Zuko that his father, his abuser, still loved him and that Zuko should keep trying to go back to him in order to "give Zuko hope." The many, many complex issues that surround Iroh's treatment of Zuko suggest that he wasn't a great father to Lu Ten. To be fair to Iroh, he grew up in a very toxic environment and probably had no good parental role-models.

[zuko-always-lies]

Honestly, I just want to read one story where Zuko and/or Iroh try to put Azula on trial for her “crimes,” only to have it blow up in their face because it’s clear that they’re defining as criminal actions they themselves took. Bonus points if it’s a show trial but still leads to the disintegration of Zuko’s regime. 

[zuko-always-lies]

Iroh’s bastard children don’t show up nearly enough in ATLA fiction(in fact I don’t think I’ve seen any stories where they do appear). Come on: he was a hedonistic horndog with dubious ideas about consent and near unlimited wealth and power, there’s no way he didn’t father a few bastards(and probably abandon them). And they just might have some sort of claim to the throne...