Zuko

"I used to think this scar marked me - the mark of the banished prince, cursed to chase the Avatar forever. But lately, I've realized I'm free to determine my own destiny, even if I'll never be free of my mark"

- Zuko to Katara

Prince Zuko is a character from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Initially recognized as the primary antagonist of the season 1, in season 2 he become an antagonistic anti-hero and in season 3 eventually redeemed himself and joined Aang and friends.

Origin
Zuko was the only son of Firelord Ozai, although he was never treated like much of a son in comparison to his sister, Azula, who was spoiled and pampered because of her natural talents in firebending and acrobatics. From the beginning, Ozai seemed to favor Azula over Zuko, though it is believed that Zuko does have some happy memories of his family, as he stated that Ember Island was "The last place we were happy, where we were a real family".

Zuko's mother, likewise, seemed to favor Zuko over Azula, claiming that something is "wrong with her". This caused Azula the same stress (If not more), than that Zuko had been suffering in terms of being loved by their parents. When Zuko's father, Ozai, had made a critical remark about his older brother, Iroh, over his dead son, Azulan, Zuko's grandfather, punished Ozai by making him suffer the same fate, by killing Zuko. Zuko's mother stood up for Zuko and decided to take his place. Zuko's mother had apperiently either got banished, killed, or escaped. Zuko, who was not aware of the cause of the expected execution, was brought on by Azula to believe that it was his fault.

When Zuko was old enough, his father invited him to take part of his military operations. However, Ozai became infuriated when Zuko protested an operation that would've claimed the lives of Fire Nation soldiers. Ozai challenged his son to Agni Kai, a special Fire Nation duel, and severely burned Zuko's left eye. Ozai then banished him from the Fire Nation, and charged him with capturing the Avatar, who had never been spotted in over one-hundred years (Appeariently doing this simply to get rid of Zuko by putting him on an "impossible mission", as stated by Zhao). Zuko also has an alter-ego known as the Blue Spirit.

Personality
Zuko starts off as having the expected attitude of a firebender; he is impatient, violent, explosive, and villianous. However, there are times where even fellow stereotypical firebenders see him as being different, be it for better or worse.

For the better, Zuko seems to have a higher conscience and can tell the difference from right and wrong at a young age, something elder firebenders were incapable of doing, which is exactly what earned Zuko good trust, as well as much woe in his life. He can also be very passive compared to others, taking it when an entire city that originally adored him, turned on him completely after realising he was a firebender.

For the worse, Zuko is quite rude, his words often offend or even hurt others. Zuko is very impulsive and has a tendency to not think things through, as shown many time in the series, ranging from before when he volunteered to show a firebending move to his grandfather without even mastering the move, or during the series, when he finally managed to kidnap Aang, but had no where to take him after being trapped in a blizzard.

After his revelation to where he defected over to Aang's side he learns to be much more calmer and relaxed, and is able to serve as Aang's firebending teacher and while he wanted Aang to kill his father to end his tyranny, he is just as satisfied when Aang strips Ozai of his firebending power in the end.

Firebending
Zuko is a very skilled firebender who controls his fire quite well, though not at the same level as his gifted sister, Azula, who can create both blue fire and lightening.

When challenged to Agni Kai by Admiral Zhao, Zuko was able to beat him fairly easily, thanks to all his training. Zuko's fire was fueled by rage and anger, which he had plenty of, but when he redeemed himself and joined Team Avatar, his rage lowered and his firebending weakened. It was later when he realised that Firebending was not feuled by anger, but determination, where his fire bending grew once again due to his determination to take his spot at the throne and help Aang defeat his father.

Lightening redirection
Zuko attempted to learn lightening bending from Iroh after his and Iroh's lives were threatened by Azula. He failed to master it at every attempt, however, as he had not faced his "inner turmoil", as a lightening bender must know precisely what they truly want, and Zuko had always been borderline between his father's expectations and his own free will. When he finally seemed to decide on free will, Zuko took a shocking turn back into his fathers expectations when he was given the ultimate chance to kill the avatar.

In the end, Zuko never learned how to bend Lightening. Instead, Iroh taught him how to absorb and redirect lightning, something neither Azula nor Ozai were knowledgable of. He later employed this technique against his father (when he left the Nation) and Azula (to protect Katara). In the latter engagement, Zuko redirected the blast in an improper stance, as he had jumped into the lightning's path, and so failed to redirect it completely and resulted in serious injury. Though he seems to have overcome his inner turmoil, he does not create lightning for the remainder of the series.

Physical Abilities
In addition to his firebending, Zuko is highly skilled in unarmed combat, able to break apart oncoming spears with his hands and legs, and disarm, subdue or defeat opponents. He is also equally masterful with his dual dao blades, the latter skill he picked up after being trained by the sword master Piandao. He would use these two skills as his primary tactics whenever he was in his Blue Spirit disguise, unable to firebend, or when he needed to fight but also needed to conceal his firebending. He was able to defeat multiple foes using only his swords. He also dueled evenly with Jet and his dual hook swords until the fight was broken up by the Dai Li and Jet was arrested. Zuko defeated several Earth Kingdom soldiers with his Dao swords and minimum effort, only resorting to firebending when faced with a powerful earthbender; even then he was able to hold off the earthbender's attacks for several moments with only his blades. His skill was such that his father, Fire Lord Ozai, opted not to face him during an eclipse, when neither of them could firebend.



Zuko is very physically capable, able to almost nonchalantly launch a person with a single hand and smash through iron shackles with a single kick. He is also quite fast and agile, able to perform great acrobatic feats, such as running across walls. doing mid-air twirls, scaling vertical faces with great efficiency and climbing speed, and jumping large distances to avoid enemy attacks with noticeable agility and free-running skills. Zuko is skilled at infiltration and stealth; able to sneak into heavily-defended fortresses and conceal himself effectively for long periods of time. All of these skills would serve him while he was disguised as the Blue Spirit. Zuko was also a skilled tracker, able to track the airborne Avatar all across the world, something that his friends later acknowledged in hopes of finding Aang when he disappeared.

While not as naturally adept at strategy and academics as his sister, Zuko is quite intelligent. Throughout the series, he demonstrated himself to be a skilled strategist, able to exploit any situation to his advantage. Zuko used his ship's damages as a smokescreen to conceal his movements from Zhao. He is also able to form alliances with people with special skills, such as June, and use them to his advantage. However, Zuko tended to have a hot-headed nature that caused him to never fully think his actions through. For example, he was able to his exploit advantages in the Northern Water Tribe, and get into the Spirit Oasis to capture Aang, but he did not figure a way back out ahead of time which caused him to almost freeze to death. Zuko began to think things out more toward the end of the series, and he started to plan things out and think ahead to solve problems more often. When he and Aang needed to get in a specific room in the Sun Warrior ruins, Zuko was able to outsmart the Celestial Calendar, as it would only allow the room to open during a solstice. Zuko is also a gifted tsungi horn player, although it is clear that it is not his favorite instrument.

The Last Airbender
Zuko is one of the two main antagonist in the Live Action film; The Last Airbender. Zuko is protrayed by Dev Patel.

Not much is established with Zuko's character in the movie except that he desperately wants to capture Aang for the sake of redeeming himself and erase any memory of his banishement. Shymalan did add a little sympathy to his character, which proved that he isn't pure evil, but misunderstood and desperate to be welcomed back home.