Since I focused on a character (Uncle Iroh, if you remember) last week, I figured, why not keep up with the trend? After all, we’re supposed to be wrapping this blog up, so it may be beneficial to wrap up an analysis of a character we’ve looked at before.
Hopefully you guys remember Zuko (banished prince who struggles to find his path throughout the series, and fights to regain his honor and restore his place next to his father in the Fire Nation)
sums up most of Zuko’s character development…
Well Zuko is yet another key character in Avatar: The Last Airbender, mostly because of his extraordinary character development. He starts of with a goal of capturing the long lost Avatar, in order to regain his honor. Uncle Iroh is there the whole time to support him, and he hopes to eventually help him find his own way and break away from the habit trying to please his father. Zuko struggles greatly with his identity throughout the whole show, and the audience starts off hating him, but once we see his humanity at the end of season one (he lets the Avatar go after having captured him), we know he’s destined for “good”. 
Kind of a recurring theme with zuko….
We all love Zuko by the end, because he finally realizes that he has the capability of choosing his own destiny, and restoring honor within himself. He’s really an inspiring character for anyone who has trouble with self-identity; It takes him 3 years and a whole lot of troubling (albeit life changing) experiences in order to finally figure out who he is, and what his purpose is. His character and story reminds the average human that it’s okay to be lost; no one expects you to know exactly who you are, that’s what life is all about, as well as the experiences that go along with it.
Of course there are other characters that are inspiring and unique in the show, but Zuko specifically stands out to me because I feel that a lot of people can relate to the feeling of being lost, or confused, and the writers of this show do an amazing job of incorporating real life problems and concerns into a deep and meaningful piece of art, to show that we can all be special, too. Yet another reason why I absolutely love everything about this show.
Nice, Zuko
Absolutely brilliant post about his character development. I love all of the things Avatar incorporated that many shows wouldn’t even think of bringing in, it’s one of the reasons I can always rewatch the show.
[I totally expected a GIF of the play they watched to be at the end of this.]
Excellent way to end the blog. I can’t say Zuko was ever my favorite character, but I like how you brought up how his character pretty much revolves around “honor.” Come to think of it, do you think that the writers maybe had the inspiration for Zuko’s character from the whole samurai code? I don’t know what that would say about the perspectives of the writers, or their opinion on Japanese culture, but it’s just a thought. 🙂
I felt after the second or third book, Zuko’s “confusion” was comparable to Bella Swan’s indecision between Edward and Jacob. He kept going back and forth and continued to ramble on about regaining his honor. I guess you could say that he is all confused because of his childhood but I think being indecisive is mostly the writers’ fault who want to have a conflict for Zuko to deal with. All in all, I loved this blog and the weekly posts about Avatar.
Zuko’s character development was one of my favorite parts of the series… my favorite part within this favorite part was when Zuko tries to join Team Avatar, and they reject him at first. It just points out the blurriness of the line between right and wrong, or good and bad, in this series. I also lol’d.