| “ | I finally have you, but I can't get you home because of this blizzard. There's always something. Not that you would understand. You're like my sister. Everything always came easy to her. She's a Firebending prodigy, and everyone adores her. My father says she was born lucky. He says I was lucky to be born. I don't need luck, though. I don't want it. I've always had to struggle and fight and that's made me strong. It's made me who I am. | „ |
| ~ Zuko to an unconscious Aang. |
| “ | You've always thrown everything you could at me! Well, I can take it, and now I can give it back! Come on, strike me! You've never held back before! | „ |
| ~ Zuko's breakdown as he face the storm. |
| “ | 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's inner turmoil to Katara. |
Prince Zuko is one of the two deuteragonists (alongside Katara) of the 2005 Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender and a supporting character in its 2012 sequel series The Legend of Korra.
He is the son of Fire Lord Ozai and Ursa, older brother of Princess Azula, nephew of Iroh, grandson of Fire Lord Azulon and Ilah, great-grandson of Fire Lord Sozin and Avatar Roku, the father of Fire Lord Izumi, and the grandfather of General Iroh II.
He was the prince of the Fire Nation banished by his father and sought to capture Avatar Aang to redeem himself, serving as one of the main enemies of Team Avatar. He gradually became good and eventually joined Aang and his companions. He became Fire Lord after he defeated his sister Azula, with the help of Katara, on the day that would have marked the coronation of her as Fire Lord.
He is voiced by Dante Basco (who also played Scorpion in the second season of Ultimate Spider-Man) and Elijah Runcorn (as a child) in the original series, Bruce Davison and General Iroh II in The Legend of Korra, Stephen Fu in Smite, and Vincent Tong.
Personality[]
| “ | My name is Zuko, son of Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai, prince of the Fire Nation, and heir to the throne. | „ |
| ~ Zuko announcing his identity to the Earth Kingdom village. |
Zuko beginning to witness his inner turmoil.
Zuko starts off as having the expected attitude of a firebender, being is a violent, impatient, short-tempered, domineering, and destructive individual.
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 between 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 realizing he was a firebender.
For the worse, Zuko is quite rude and argumentative, his words often offend or even hurt others. Zuko is also very impulsive and headstrong, so he has a tendency to not think things through, as shown many times 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 place 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 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.
In his older age, Zuko came to peace with his inner demons, not showing any of his previous anger issues and remaining calm and respectful most of the time. His social skills, however, did not improve much, as he still makes awkward remarks such as casually mentioning that he once hired an assassin to kill the Avatar before then replying that his plan didn't work followed by an awkward silence. However, overtime, his social skills improved once he redeemed himself.
Powers and Abilities[]
Zuko's firebending limit, enhanced by Sozin's comet
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 lightning.
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 realized that Firebending was not fueled 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.
Lightning redirection[]
Zuko redirects Ozai's lightning
Zuko attempted to learn lightning 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 lightning 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 father's expectations when he was given the ultimate chance to kill the avatar.
In the end, Zuko never learned how to bend lightning. Instead, Iroh taught him how to absorb and redirect lightning, something neither Azula nor Ozai was knowledgeable of. He later employed this technique against his father (when he left the Fire 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[]
Zuko's swordsmanship
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 swordmaster 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 as the Blue Spirit
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 around 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 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 mentioned twice to be a gifted tsungi horn player, although it is clear that it is not his favorite instrument.
Trivia[]
- Zuko's name written in Chinese characters translates to "ancestors robbers".
- In the unaired pilot episode, Zuko had a messenger hawk who had a rivalry with Momo.
- "The Runaway" pays homage to this by revealing that the Fire Nation has lots of messenger hawks. Sokka bought one and named it Hawky, he had a rivalry with Momo just like Zuko's hawk in the unaired pilot.
- Zuko's first act as Fire Lord was to send search parties for his mother.
External Links[]
- Zuko on the Heroes Wiki.
- Zuko on the Avatar Wiki.
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