Awesome / Towards the Sun

• From the get go, Zuko actually does an excellent job as Fire Lord. After hearing how badly things went during Sozin's Comet, he outright tells his generals and admirals there is no need to continue waging the war...because they had already won it. Decades ago, as they already hold the most valuable territory as their colonies, and Ba Sing Se is just full of hungry refugees. Their focus therefore must be on securing said colonies and the Fire Nation islands proper. His subordinates go along with his orders without a protest, and are shown to be highly loyal to him. In fact he is such a good Fire Lord, the only complaint people have is that he is working himself to death.
  "And why does he trust us at all? We're his father's advisors, not his. Waido and Kwang-su and I were on that council that got him challenged to the Koh-forsaken Agni Kai, but he just sits across the table every day and doesn't execute any of us."
  The General had quite a bit of venting saved up, Iroh inferred.
  "If he's smart, he'll clear court before we turn on him. Install his own advisors. People he can actually trust, not—not us."
  "Would you turn on him, General?" Iroh asked, as mildly as such a question could be asked.
  Daichi blinked like he'd been slapped. "Fuck no."
• Azula takes on Captain Izumi, twenty of the royal fire benders, and Fire Lord Iroh, the Dragon of the West, all at once, and is for all intents and purposes fighting equally to them up to the point the sleeping drug in the tea she had earlier hits her.
• Zuko's Calling the Old Man Out during his attempted coronation as Crown Prince in chapter 18. After all the suffering Zuko has been through, it is cathartic.
  • First it starts off with Zuko refusing to be crowned, when he drops this line:
    Zuko: I've already been Fire Lord. I won't be a prince again.
  • Then his actual speech:
    Zuko: I tried for so long to please my father instead of doing what's right. This... this isn't right. And you're not my father, but if you keep working with the Avatar and the White Lotus you're going to destroy our nation as surely as he did. We can't... We can't just kneel in front of the other countries and beg for mercy. He—they won't—it's not going to work. They've hated us so long, they'll ruin us now if we let them. What we've done for the last hundred years—it hasn't been right, either. But the individual people of the Fire Nation... They didn't do this. They just didn't stop it. Our people need to—to do what's right instead of just listening to whoever's strongest. You defeated me, but that wasn't right either, that was—I've done my best, I've tried to stop the war and work with the other nations, but I will not bow to them. And I won't bow to you. I'm… I'm done bowing. The Fire Nation needs to find its honor again, but it won't find it on its knees, and it won't find it working with a child that can tear the fire from our souls. I don't know how you're going to fix this, I don't know how I would have fixed this, but I won't sit at your side and pretend to condone what you're doing.
  • Zuko shuts down Iroh's attempts to make him stop and drops yet another bombshell that not only takes back some of the power stolen from him by Iroh and the Gaang, but also pays them back for all the suffering and trauma they caused him and start a civil war. It also doubles as a moment of Funny when Sokka realizes that Zuko wasn't being sarcastic - he is literally going to visit a sick relative.
    Zuko: Find another heir, Fire Lord Iroh. I have sick relatives to visit.
• During a prison break on the Boiling Rock, Sokka notes that Zuko is dual wielding a pair of swords far better than he can wield one. Then there's a brief switch to Zuko's point of view, where he remarks on how sloppy his swordsmanship is because the swords he's using aren't identical to each other or remotely close to what he's used to working with.
• After Captain Izumi helps Zuko and Azula escape at the Boiling Rock, Iroh demands her resignation, only for the royal guard to refuse, stating that "only her Firelord can accept [her] resignation".