whileĀ āzuko sent to find one single person who hasnt existed in 100 years and then he actually doesā can be very funny in concept, can we just talk about how fucking heartbreakingĀ it must be for iroh?Ā
like. he knows this is an impossible task. and it does happenāyes! in the first episode, so maybe we donāt even think about it that much! but when ozai tells zuko to go find the avatar, itās an impossible task. and iroh knows this. and zuko might have everything riding on this, and heās a kid and hasnāt learned whatās impossible yet, and so heās plugging his ears and sayingĀ āi can do it! i can do it and then dad will love me again!ā, but iroh knows the only reason this specific task was assigned is because ozai doesnāt want him. he doesnāt want him back. ozai didnāt want him to betray them so he gave him a little hope, a littleĀ āof course i could still love you, you can come back, thatās a possibility, just donāt disappoint meā because, you know, heās an abusive dick. but iroh knows his brother, and he knowsĀ
i think as a kid, while i loved loved iroh, it was a little hard to reconcile his silly moments with his wise moments. itās not anymoreĀ
iām just thinking of the pai sho tile, and how silly it seemed at the time that it was just in his sleeve. silly old man! so forgetfulĀ
no. no, that wasnāt it at allĀ
because every moment he stalled, every moment he mucked up the plan, every moment he just generally wasnāt helpful, that was another moment where he could still have a chance. where he might get through to zuko. where he could delay what was suddenly now a very real possibility:Ā
that ozai sent zuko away, but zuko would actually come back, expecting to be loved. and thatās what iroh didnāt want to happen. winning ozaiās love was more unrealistic than finding someone whoād been dead for 100 years, in the endĀ
While watching the show it never occurred to me that Iroh was stalling to avoid the confrontation Zuko would have with his fatherās undeniable rejection. I always thought it was to prevent Aang from actually being captured. to save the world- not to save Zuko. But this adds such a deep and beautiful layer to it.
