Line #39 Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheAvatarAndTheFireLord


1	[[quoteright:333:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avatar_avatar_and_fire_lord.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:333:The lifelong relationship between Roku and Sozin is explored for Aang to see.]]
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4	->''"Born in you, along with all this strife, is the power to restore ''balance'' to the world."''
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6	The sixth episode of the third season of the show, 'The Avatar and the Fire Lord' explores how Aang and Zuko both learn about the strong and close childhood friendship of Avatar Roku and Fire-lord Sozin. Sozin suggested to Roku that, as the pinnacle of civilization, the Fire Nation should control the destiny of the entire world to ensure universal prosperity. As Roku was the Avatar, he knew the importance of balance between all people and disagreed. When Sozin later greedily took an Earth Kingdom colony, Roku defeated him in battle and threatened to kill him if he again tried to do anything that crossed that line. When Roku's island volcano erupted years later, Sozin came to help. But, at the last moment, when Roku was overcome by volcanic gases, Sozin realized that he could rule the world if he let Roku die, and he abandoned him. Roku then died from the lava and was reincarnated as Aang. In his prison cell, Iroh tells Zuko that as the great-grandson of both Roku and Sozin, he alone has the ability to resolve their endless conflict and restore order and peace to the world.
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8	At the end of the episode, Toph asks if friendships can transcend lifetimes where both Aang and Katara acknowledge and accept Toph's intuition.
9	----
10	!!Tropes:
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12	* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Toph believes this of the Fire Nation ([[VillainousLineage or at least the Fire Lord's descendants]]) when she learns from Aang how Sozin betrayed Roku and started the 100-year war. Aang disagrees, and believes that anyone could do great evil or good, no matter where they are.
13	* BirthDeathJuxtaposition: Roku's death at the volcano is followed by a scene of Aang's birth. Justified, as the vision is directly showing the reincarnation of the Avatar Spirit from Roku to Aang.
14	* BullyingADragon: Sozin tries to order around the most powerful bender on the planet. It...doesn't go so well for him.
15	* ContinuityNod:
16	** While witnessing Aang seemingly doing his business, Sokka notes that the Spirit World does not in fact have bathrooms. [[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheWinterSolsticePart1 He'd know]].
17	** Roku mentions Water was the hardest element for him to master; makes sense, since he was a native Firebender and Water is its elemental opposite, [[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderBitterWork similar to how Aang had the greatest trouble mastering Earth bending,]] Air's opposite.
18	* CurbStompBattle: Sozin "vs" Roku...if you can even call it that. Roku effortlessly dodges the only attack Sozin gets a chance to launch, then responds by leveling half of Sozin's palace and leaving him dangling from a rock pillar by his own cape. Then again, that's what happens when you fight a fully-realized and veteran Avatar.
19	* DeadlyGas: This is how Avatar Roku died, via a faceful of toxic volcanic gas.
20	* DoubleConsciousness: Zuko is the great-grandson of ''both'' Fire Lord Sozin and Avatar Roku.
21	* DramaticIrony: Sozin's final flashback has him obsessively searching for Aang. As Sozin's narration expresses certainty that the Last Airbender is out there somewhere, viewers see his ship pass over a certain sphere of ice.
22	* EtTuBrute:
23	** When Roku coldly and firmly shuts down [[JustThinkOfThePotential Sozin's ideals for Fire Nation expansion]], Sozin clearly sees it as a personal betrayal of their life-long friendship and is left alone glaring out into the sunset. It just gets worse when years later Roku barges into his palace lambasting him for occupying Earth Kingdom territory.
24	** Despite having genuinely come with initial intent to help out, the way Sozin [[LeftForDead leaves Roku to die]] so he can begin his conquest unopposed. It's even worse when moments earlier, Roku saved Sozin from dropping into lava.
25	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
26	** Early in Roku and Sozin's shared flashback, Roku wants to talk to a girl he has a crush on but hesitates too much and she walks away before he can get a word out. This is an early indication of Roku's indecisiveness which comes back to bite the world ''hard.''
27	** Likewise, during their sparring match, Sozin catches an off-balance Roku before letting him fall, giving a hint of how their relationship will ultimately end.
28	* FourIsDeath: When Roku and Sozin make their final attempt to escape after deciding no more can be done about the volcano, they are forced to dodge geysers of toxic volcanic gas. The fourth of these is what finally kills Roku.
29	* HistoryRepeats: Zuko turned his back on Iroh and sacrificed potential friendship with the Avatar and his friends to help conquer the Earth Kingdom and expand the Fire Nation's empire for glory. And yet, he's not happy like he thought he would be. In this episode, we learn that Sozin was once in Zuko's shoes, especially towards the end of his life.
30	* ImpliedDeathThreat: Roku allows Sozin to live after liberating a colony from him, and because of their past friendship. Roku then warns that he will put a "permanent end" to Sozin if he steps out of line again.
31	* IntergenerationalFriendship: In a sense. Much like Aang was, Avatar Roku was great friends with Monk Gyatso. He even brings up that some friendships can be so strong they can even transcend lifetimes, so it's no wonder Aang and Gyatso got along so well.
32	* InvisibleWriting: Zuko received a note with a secret message written in invisible ink which was revealed with heat.
33	* IShouldHaveDoneThisYearsAgo: Roku has come to have this sort of attitude about killing Sozin. Roku admits that being too hesitant to do so resulted in the current situation the Gaang is in.
34	* JustThinkOfThePotential: Sozin tells Roku that he wants to share the Fire Nation's prosperity with the rest of the world via expansion. When Roku tries to talk him out of such ambitions, Sozin responds that Roku should consider the possibilities of it, to which Roku states that there are none.
35	* KarmaHoudini: Downplayed. As Azula points out, Sozin officially died peacefully as "a very old and successful man," facing no apparent consequences for betraying Roku or for his genocide of the Air Nomads. However, as revealed in his last will and testament, Sozin ultimately felt personal guilt over his betrayal, even if he was too stubborn to admit it, and wasted his remaining years in vain trying to find Aang, the actual target of his genocide.
36	* KneelBeforeFrodo: When Roku is revealed to be the new Avatar, the entire hall of people bows down to him.
37	* LonelyAtTheTop: Regardless of how he was the ruler of the Fire Nation's growing empire, and lauded as a war hero by his people for generations to come, Sozin found himself miserably alone, now that his friend Roku was dead (even if it was by his own hand).
38	* LukeIAmYourFather: Iroh sends a note to Zuko telling him to learn about his great-grandfather's death to learn more about himself. Zuko looks up how Fire Lord Sozin died and learns nothing new from it. When he comes and complains about that to Iroh, Iroh tells Zuko that he meant Avatar Roku, whom he now reveals was Zuko's maternal great-grandfather!
39	* MissedHimByThatMuch: At one point while he's on a ship searching for the Avatar, Sozin's ship passes ''directly over'' the sphere of ice that Aang bent himself and Appa into.
40	* MotiveDecay: It's revealed that Fire Lord Sozin began the Hundred Year War because he wanted to share the Fire Nation's prosperity with the other nations of the world by uniting them under one banner. At the end of his life [[HeelRealization he realized he was in the wrong]], but by then it was too late, and his descendants dropped any pretence of benevolence in favour of just ruling over the world with an iron fist, but continued to peddle Sozin's motives as propaganda to the masses.
41	* {{Mundanger}}: Fire Lord Sozin and his fire-bending army were helpless against Avatar Roku but in the end what killed him was asphyxiation from breathing toxic fumes.
42	* MurderByInaction: Sozin decides not to rescue Roku from the volcano which equals to killing him.
43	* MyCountryRightOrWrong: Sozin expects, and even demands Roku to have this worldview as a citizen of the Fire Nation. He forgets that Roku is the Avatar, whose job is to maintain a balance between ''all four'' nations, which will involve working against the Fire Nation.
44	* NiceJobBreakingItHerod: Sozin knew the next Avatar would be an Airbender and ordered them all wiped out. Much to his irritation, everyone but Aang was killed, so he spent the rest of his life searching for him.
45	* NobodyPoops: Averted, it looks as if Aang is doing this while in the spirit world, much to everyone else's discomfort. Thankfully he's just getting on Roku's dragon.
46	* NotSoAboveItAll: The sage and dignified Roku admits that being the Avatar doesn't hurt a young man on the dating scene.
47	* OddFriendship:
48	** Aang is stunned that Roku and Sozin were once best friends.
49	** Roku describes his Earthbending teacher as an uncompromising, stubborn man that he was nonetheless very close to.
50	* OnceMoreWithClarity: Every episode opens with "...Everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished." This episode goes into detail about when and why the Fire Nation attacked, and how the old Avatar vanished.
51	* OriginsEpisode: Roku's backstory is finally explored in depth -- and with it, the backstory of Firelord Sozin and the origins of the Hundred Year War.
52	* PersonOfMassDestruction: Roku destroyed a fair lot of the Fire Nation's royal palace just to deliver a message to Sozin. It didn't seem to require much effort of him.
53	* ThePowerOfFriendship: Though warning him to behave, Roku chose to spare Sozin out of respect for their friendship. This came back to bite him hard, as well as numerous innocent lives.
54	* RedHerring: When Zuko read the note mentioning the history of his Great-Grandfather, he figured it would be about Sozin. It was really about Avatar Roku.
55	* {{Retcon}}: Not as clumsy as some, since very little had been revealed about Sozin up to his point, but reading between the lines, it's clear his and Roku's childhood friendship is this. ''[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderZukoAlone Zuko Alone]]'' stated that Fire Lord Azulon, Sozin's son, had ruled for 23 years, implying that Sozin started the war as a young man and ruled for the majority of its duration. In order to account for him and Roku being contemporaries of each other, the writers had to push back his birth date and expand Azulon's reign to ''75'' years, resulting in some [[WritersCannotDoMath discrepancies with the timeline.]]
56	* TheReveal:
57	** Roku and Fire Lord Sozin were contemporaries (both born on the exact same day, even) and best friends in their youth.
58	** Roku is Zuko's maternal Great-Grandfather [[note]] by extension, he's Azula's as well, though that's less relevant to the narrative [[/note]].
59	* ShootTheDog: Averted. Because of their past history, Roku doesn't kill Sozin after his first invasion of the Earth Kingdom. This act of mercy later results in Roku's death, the extermination of the Air Nomads bar Aang, the genocide of the Southern Water Tribe's benders, untold deaths, and a century of carnage and war.
60	* SingleLineOfDescent: Subverted and lampshaded; Zuko has more than one great-grandfather.
61	* TheyCallMeMisterTibbs: When Roku meets Sozin after he becomes Fire Lord, he says that he would expect to be shown respect befitting a Fire Lord, but will make an exception for his friend. When Roku arrives and attacks Sozin, Sozin angrily demands respect after Roku addresses him without his title.
62	* TitleDrop: The end of Sozin's will, describing his failed quest to find and end the Avatar.
63	-->'''Sozin:''' I know he's hiding out there, somewhere... The Fire Nation's greatest threat: ''The Last Airbender''.
64	* TogetherInDeath: As the volcano on Roku's island fully erupts, his dragon Fang comes down and wraps himself around Roku right before the pyroclastic flow consumes them both.
65	* TookALevelInBadass: Roku was TheKlutz in his early years, but after mastering all four elements, he became a OneManArmy / PersonOfMassDestruction. This is cemented by the fact that he was able to overwhelm Sozin, who always managed to {{Curb Stomp\|Battle}} him when they were young.
66	* TotalitarianUtilitarian: Sozin's entire motive for his expansion is to spread the Fire Nation's advanced technology and enlightened values to the rest of the world, for the benefit of all. However, he will need to conquer everyone else to make them agree that his way is better. Roku demands he drop this way of thinking for the sake of balance but Sozin's mind was already made up.
67	* TragicVillain: Though he is ultimately a villain, Sozin is humanized through his friends, and shown to have good (if perhaps [[WellIntentionedExtremist misguided]]) intentions behind his country's expansionism. His final fate is also tragic: while he is successful in attaining many of his political aims, he becomes in the end a lonely and disillusioned old man, who sacrificed his friends and personal happiness for the great cause he championed.
68	* UndyingLoyalty: Fang to Roku. He never left his master, even after he attempted to ShooTheDog from the island's destruction. What solidifies this is Fang's willingness to die with Roku.
69	* UsedToBeASweetKid: Roku and Sozin, [[EvilOverlord the latter especially]].
70	* WasItReallyWorthIt: Sozin asks himself this at the end of his life. He finds himself filled with regret and decides it wasn't worth it.
71	* WeCanRuleTogether: At first, Sozin asks Roku to help him spread the Fire Nation's advanced civilization to other countries. However, he refuses to even listen to him beyond the first sentence.
72	* WellIntentionedExtremist: Sozin wanted to spread the greatness and advances of the Fire Nation throughout the entire world. He just unfortunately went about it in the worst way possible. The well-intentioned part was more or less dropped by his successors, who are now simply on an imperialistic war of conquest.
73	* WeUsedToBeFriends: Roku and Sozin had been friends since childhood, but their respective destinies as they grew had eventually put their ideals and responsibilities at odds with each other.
74	* WhamLine: "You have more than one great grandfather, Prince Zuko. Sozin was your father's grandfather. Your ''mother's'' grandfather was Avatar Roku."
75	* WhatYouAreInTheDark: As the volcano gets out of control, Sozin sincerely tried to help Roku, but then he saw the Avatar felled by some volcanic gas and left completely helpless. Sozin came to the conclusion that all his problems would go away if his best friend was left to die.
76	* WhiteMansBurden: Sozin's reason for starting the war.
77	* WholeEpisodeFlashback: Not ''quite'' whole episode, but a very large portion of the episode is a flashback dedicated to showing the bond that once existed between Roku and Sozin, and how it was shattered.
78	* WritersCannotDoMath: Sozin being the same age as Avatar Roku would make the age gap between himself and his descendants quite large--officially roughly 82 when his son Azulon was born. Granted, this is technically possible, but it is still quite strange.

Context Recap / AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheAvatarAndTheFireLord