Avatar: The Last Airbender

The moon thing is different though. It actually empowers their bending.

That doesn't really detract from my point.

The point is that the moon is not just an inspirational model like the animals. It and the sun seem to be fundamentally tied to the Benders.

Earth and Airbenders meanwhile don't have a celestial—

...

Earthbenders are empowered in a similar fashion whenever the planet is nearby. Which is always.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jul 1st 2020 at 7:57:36 AM

It is also pointed out that suspending them in the air denying them contact with the Earth is an effective way to render most Earthbenders defenseless. Bumi's pretty much the only Earthbender who can bend Earth just with visual contact alone.

Edited by M84 on Jul 1st 2020 at 10:34:31 PM

The skill discrepancy between bumbling Book 1 Zuko and the Blue Spirit is always something that amused me. Maybe Zuko would've had better luck trying to catch the avatar if he just stuck to broadswords and ninja skillz the entire season instead of doing the direct firebendy approach.

When did Zuko become a master firebender, actually? He was struggling with the basics at the start of the series, he was still fairly unimpressive at the end of book 1, and he had very few firebending training scenes or live combats through books 2 and 3 before he joined up with Aang. I think the only time we ever see him training post-Book 1 was for the lightning redirection technique, and the show never suggests that he offscreens his firebending practice.

Zuko wasn't necessarily struggling with his basics. Iroh said he hadn't mastered them. Big difference there. And let's face it, he did go head-up with Aang a lot and even took down a decently-ranking military officer early on in the series. He was always pretty good, but just consistently outclassed.

Zuko was efficient against Zhao because that guy is a Smug Snake who would idiotically burn his own ships just to hit Aang (and the only reason he's a threat is because Ozai gave him resources to compensate for his incompetence, though I don't think it'll last that long if Zhao survived the Siege of the North). And even then, he needed Aang's help to actually escape considering that he was knocked out cold by a Yuyan Archer.

He was also losing against Zhao until Iroh told him to remember the basics. Something Zhao ignored in favor of just throwing as much unrestrained fire as he could.

Also, it should be noted that Zuko's difficulty in overcoming Aang isn't a mark against him. There's no shame in having trouble combatting a foe who uses a martial art that hasn't existed in a century, for which the arts you've been taught have no counters.

Even setting aside the Avatar thing, airbending is kinda game-breaking at this point in time.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jul 1st 2020 at 1:36:45 PM

And I do believe that in his first training session, he did end up overpowering his two sparring partners after which Iroh agreed to teach him something new (after drinking his tea of course ).

Zuko did manage to win most of his encounters against mooks (e.g. when he was supposed to be arrested by Azula's guards, he did manage to defeat a few of them before facing her).

In short, he was shown to be a pretty good firebender early on, but as stated above, fighting Aang would have been difficult regardless of how skilled of a firebender one was.

It might be an image problem. I feel like Book 1 in particular was really quick to clown on Zuko whenever the opportunity presented itself. In retrospect, he did have some pretty alright feats and his last fight with Aang was pretty even, but the way he's presented throughout the season made it hard to take him seriously.

Meanwhile, the Blue Spirit was shown to be hypercompetent and treated mostly humorlessly. That made it really stand out.

I'd say it's a deliberate writing choice. Zuko is good but he's not good in the same way Aang, Katara, Toph, and Azula are. They're all exceptional prodigies whereas the story notes more than once that Zuko himself isn't particularly naturally talented. He gets as good as he is through pure gumption.

Edited by LSBK on Jul 1st 2020 at 9:32:39 AM

But it is kind of interesting that his broadswords are definitely his best strength, yet he only uses them alongside his bending once.

The future Fire Lord is the weakest of Team Avatar's benders, and both of the non-benders show him up in military strategy and inspirational leadership. But, honor isn't about being the strongest, or even the best, so just because he has some areas he's not the best at, doesn't mean he's bad.

While I'm not one to praise Zuko usually, I will say that not only did he come far in terms of repentance, by the time of Korra, he'd brought the Fire Nation far, too.

Edited by wanderlustwarrior on Jul 1st 2020 at 6:50:53 AM

Of note, even after Zuko gets his whole true firebending upgrade, the show still makes a point of asserting that Azula's breakdown has impacted her fighting skills for the worse in order to justify Zuko's performance against her.

An edge he had in that regard is that he didn't actually have much to make penance for. His actual offenses were strictly personal; he's guilty of having tried to apprehend the Avatar, of personally betraying Katara, of betraying Iroh, etc.

From an ideological perspective, Zuko's greatest crime was being too much of a decent human being for his father's liking. It's the central irony of his character; Zuko doesn't need to regain his honor. The people wallowing in dishonor are the Fire Nation themselves. Zuko, the guy who said, "Those soldiers love and defend our nation! How can you betray them?!" is only one among them who actually has any honor to speak of.

Zuko's been on a snipe hunt to atone for having a properly wound moral compass. The only things he actually has to atone for are the crimes he committed after becoming The Atoner in the first place.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jul 1st 2020 at 6:19:21 AM

But no, it's shown that he was an arrogant jerk, even to his own crew, at the start of the series. But part of the fault is that he was raised that way.

It was literally burned into Zuko that speaking out for the sake of subordinates is dishonorable. It's little wonder he treats his crew like crap at first.

He also did a lot of thieving while he and Iroh were on the run. I imagine part of his atonement involves going up to everyone he ever stole from, apologizing, and then offering to be their prisoner if they don't forgive him.

He did set Kyoshi Island on fire, something that Suki makes a point of bringing up. It wasn’t all that bad know (albeit somewhat due to Aang’s intervention) and as far as I know know no one died, so I imagine it wouldn’t be too hard to pay restitution.

Honestly though, that’s probably the worst thing he ever did. Zuko’s never been interested in wanton destruction or pushing around random villagers - he’s usually just single-mindedly focused on capturing Aang.

Well... he did also attack some other places, tried to have Aang killed solely to ease his conscience (which he at least admitted part of...)

Also helping Azula overthrow the Earth Kingdom.

The Kyoshi novel mentions that most of the nations let kids discover their bending at their own pace, and they're not dangerous. The Fire Nation is the exception, because even weak child firebender can be extremely dangerous if you're not prepared for them to randomly set things on fire. Children are usually tested before they can walk.

I mean. That just sounds like some "fire is the dangerous element" shit to me. Earthbending babies don't exactly seem harmless.

Unless your kid is a freak of nature, they're not going to be making earthquakes at four. At most they'll make tiny but unfortunately placed bumps and potholes.

If you are not prepared, even a few random sparks can cause a big disaster. Jeong Jeong said it, fire is alive.