The critically acclaimed Nickelodeon masterpiece, Avatar The Last Airbender, recently had its 15th birthday. Though the cartoon detailing the adventures of a young band of elemental benders is technically a kid’s show, Avatar exhibited some of the best screenwriting of any number of cartoons, live-action TV shows, or movies that we have seen in the last several decades.
Perhaps the most prime example of this impeccable writing comes in the form of Prince Zuko, the scarred teenage villain-turned-hero. It is not too far to say that Zuko’s character arc is one of the best character arcs of all time; here’s why.
Updated By Amanda Bruce On June 3, 2020: With Avatar: The Last Airbender finally making its way to Netflix, some fans are discovering the series - and Prince Zuko - for the first time. It’s only made more clear when watching again that the writers had an excellent plan in place for the character, so this article has been updated from its original publishing with even more reasons to celebrate Zuko’s character arc.
The Story Makes Zuko A Protagonist
From the very beginning of the series, Zuko isn’t just a villain. While he is positioned as an antagonist for Aang, he’s also battling his own villains. Zuko is up against his father and his father’s generals. The audience might not want to see Zuko capture Aang, but they want to see him beat the likes of General Zhao. That’s incredibly effective in making the audience root for him even when he’s not yet one of the most likable characters.
Uncle Iroh’s Faith
Even when Zuko is at his worst in the series, Uncle Iroh loves and believes in him. Though he’s imprisoned by the Fire Nation after Zuko sides with Azula, Iroh doesn’t take his anger out on his nephew. Instead, he allows his silence to voice his disappointment in the path his nephew takes. He never, however, gives up hope that Zuko will make the right decision. Uncle Iroh’s complete faith in Zuko goes a long way in making the audience see him as someone conflicted and trying to make a tough call.
His Relationship With Mai
Zuko’s chief emotions during the first season of the series are shame and anger. He doesn’t know what to do with all of his rage, and he channels it into his pursuit of the Avatar. When Mai is introduced, the audience gets to see a slightly softer side to him, though he is occasionally harsh with her when he becomes slighted or confused.
His feelings for Mai demonstrate to the audience that, even when he’s the bad guy, he still has a heart. Even when Zuko decides to leave the Fire Nation again, he tries to explain his feelings to Mai, attempting not to hurt her.
Azula’s Manipulation
It’s easy to see that Zuko becomes so angry and lashes out as a result of the way he’s treated by his father as a teenager. His father, however, isn’t the only person who mistreats him. Even from a young age, Azula targets her brother. She sees his need to please their parents and his empathy for others as a weakness. Azula frequently tricks her big brother into listening in on conversations she knows will upset him, she outright lies to him, and she intentionally scares him by sharing threats to his life from others. It’s Azula even more than the Fire Lord who manipulates Zuko’s emotions and toys with him.
Zuko’s Friendship With Katara
Katara is the first person in Aang’s circle to reach out to Zuko - and not just save him when he’s knocked out. His betrayal cuts her deeply and she refuses to trust him even after everyone else has welcomed him to their group. Zuko could just ignore Katara and keep working with Aang, but he doesn’t. Instead, he tries to repay her previous kindness and earn her trust again. No matter how many times she shuts him down, he reaches out again and again, and even tries to help her get justice for her mother’s death. Katara becomes the person he trusts most in the fight, and it’s Katara he asks to help him go up against his sister in their final confrontation.
He Is A Gray Character
The best stories are made up of gray characters. These characters are always better than their black and white counterparts because they are real and relatable. Zuko has always been a gray character. True, he was the main villain of the first season, and true he spent the entirety of that season ruthlessly hunting Aang and exhibiting some startling moments of cruelty, but he always had doubts and hesitations. He was always complex and full of emotion and concern. As he grew throughout the seasons, so too did his complexities. His girlfriend, his ability to show love, his penchant for helping his men (on occasion), and his inability to kill Aang even when he was most vulnerable all prove this.
Ursa
In the episode “Zuko Alone,” which followed Zuko as he traversed the Earth Kingdom, had several startling revelations about his past. The most significant of which was the introduction of his mother, whom we had not previously seen on screen.
There were several long scenes in which the two were together; she showed him love, care, and kindness. She blunted his attempts at blustery rage designed to impress his disapproving father. Her disappearance was powerful, emotional, and extremely explanatory as Zuko’s rage comes from a place of terror and grief.
Fire Lord Ozai
Being the son of a powerful ruler comes with a level of pressure. But, with Fire Lord Ozai (voiced by Mark Hamill) as Zuko’s dad, it’s no wonder he so often channeled such anger and cruelty. Ozai mocked and Zuko spent his entire childhood faced with Ozai’s disappointment. This all culminated, of course, in the Agni Kai that the Fire Lord had with his 13-year old son, leaving Zuko scarred, humiliated, and more alone than ever before. Nearly everything Zuko does can be traced back to the way his parents each treated him.
His Childhood
The vast majority of great villains had moments of startling trauma in their lives. This trauma permanently altered how they view both themselves and the world around them. Zuko is no exception. He lived his entire childhood in the shadow of an abusive sister and father, and he lived in a world where cruelty was expected of him, though he was never a cruel person. All this amounted to an immense amount of internal conflict. The scar that his father branded him with further added to that complexity, leaving him to deal with feelings of grief, pain, rage, hatred, and failure. This is all the worse for him having lost his mother. He was a boy that was forced to bear a man’s burden.
Honor
The greatest consistency of Zuko’s character is his ceaseless focus on honor. Every action he took was inspired by honor. At times, that honor was misdirected, yet that does not mean it did not exist. He hunted Aang not for personal glory, nor out of hatred. Capturing Aang was the only feasible way he could restore his honor and redeem himself in the eyes of his nation and father. Later, it was honor that led him to abandon his family and seek out the Avatar to help him. Even after regaining his old life, he realized that being honorable is different than acting with honor.
He Feels So Acutely
It is rare for a villain to be quite as emotional as Zuko is. His every moment was emotional. Whether or not that emotion came in the form of rage, self-directed hatred, desperate screaming, or the occasional tear. His heart was never cold, cunning, calculating, or truly cruel. The best proof of this is his sister, Azula, who is cruel in a terrifying way. She is a cold, sinister, and manipulative monster. Despite all of his earlier flaws, Zuko was never a monster. He was simply misguided.
Zuko Alone
This was perhaps the most powerful episode in furthering Zuko’s character. Beyond the stunning glimpses it offered into his childhood, the events that he dealt with added incredible complexity to his character. Intent on hiding the fact that he hails from the Fire Nation, a family takes him in. Their son takes a strong liking to Zuko, and the two quickly develop a bond, with Zuko acting almost as an older brother to the boy. It is in an attempt to rescue the boy from local warlords that Zuko reveals who he is, in a visually stunning moment of self-identity.
“I am Zuko, son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai. Prince of the Fire Nation and heir to the throne.”
The result of this reveal is a strong level of fear, disgust, and hatred emanating from the people who had taken him in and the people he had saved. This culminated in the same boy with whom he had been so bonded to yelling “I hate you,” leading Zuko to leave the village, again, alone. This reveals what his life forces him to live with; stereotypes and hatred. His name is not who he is. And he is so much more than what people think.
He Nearly Chose Redemption Once
At the end of Season 2, Zuko is faced with a choice. After spending some time with Katara trapped in the emerald caves, he seems to be coming around. But the arrival of Azula, and the subsequent entrapment of the Avatar, presents Zuko with the option to either act with morality, or to finally regain the honor that he had been searching for so long.
He chooses to regain his honor, and, in doing so, all of his careful character development seems to crumble in one sudden moment. But this was very purposefully and artfully done.
Joining Team Avatar
This was a big moment for Zuko. After realizing that his father’s approval and old life did little more than leave him feeling cold and empty, he finally understood who he was, and sought out his old enemy to apologize and offer his help. Recognizing the wrongs he had committed is an act that takes an emotionally balanced person, something that is always a rare sight.
After being accepted (reluctantly) into their fold, several moments furthered his feelings of guilt, regret, and self-directed hatred. Never did Zuko feel greater guilt or regret than when he burned Toph’s feet and faced the same accusations and stereotypes he dealt with in “Zuko Alone.” His recurrent apology for that action, as well as his honest and true reaction, showcase a Zuko that is painfully grounded in reality, one that we pity, rather than hate.
Ultimate Redemption
This was the satisfying completion of a character’s arc that was so sorely missing in that of Ben Skywalker in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Zuko, that poor, tortured soul, had lived a life of fear, cruelty, and rage. He has never known who he was. His ultimate ability to forsake his family, his “honor,” and the approval of his father showed his ability to recognize true good and true evil, as well as the fact that true family is not equivalent to blood. The way Zuko not only fought for good, but also found inner peace and balance (The Dragon Dance) was stunning and beautiful. His road to redemption was not easy, as it was fraught with setbacks, self-doubt, and inner conflict. But his ultimate resolution is nothing more or less than a thing of preeminent storytelling.
