I Can't Believe Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, The Sequal To A Spin-off Movie Based On A Secondary Character

I can't believe Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, the sequal to a spin-off movie based on a secondary character from the now 22-year-old Shrek franchise, was a genuinely good movie. Not even just good-for-a-sequel, or better-than-expected. Just good.

The animation was gorgeous and well suited to the loosely Zorro-inspired homage vibe they were going for; the major characters felt fleshed out, with interesting/compelling motivations for their parts in the narrative; the plot was fun and silly while also managing to be heartfelt and centered around a relatable theme of appreciating what you have instead of always chasing after what you don't, without straying too far into trite and overdone; and the movie managed to have both a sympathetic female antagonist who switched sides to team up with the protagonists by the end & a villain whose hubris and greed walked him straight into his own narratively cathartic and well deserved downfall.

I went into this movie with low expectations, and I came out with a new favorite movie.

Aang and Zuko carrying the first flame to the dragons

Seeing, "Zuko is canonically bad at firebending," takes on my dash, so...

Zuko is canonically not bad at firebending. He may not be the natural prodigy that Azula or Iroh are, but skills don't work on a basis of either "extreme prodigy" or "not good at all."

Zuko works hard throughout the series to grow and improve in his firebending, and he does.

He defeats Zhao, an adult firebending master, in an Agni Kai when he's 16 and ostensibly still stuck on the basics, because mastering the fundamentals is a huge part of getting "good" at any skill.

He learns lightning redirection in about a day and later successfully uses it against Ozai, who is meant to be an extremely powerful firebender.

He learns to understand and appreciate his fire on a fundamental level from the dragons, who were the original firebenders, and in so doing he becomes a firebending master just as much as Katara (who had a few days/weeks at most of formal training) or Toph (who declared herself an earthbending master after learning from badgermoles) are masters of their elements.

And then he took everything he had learned about fire and put it together to help Aang master firebending over the course of a few weeks.

None of that says, "canonically bad firebender." It says that Zuko didn't start out as a major natural prodigy like his sister, but he worked hard, never stopped learning and growing, and developed into a very strong and capable firebending master in his own right by the end of the show.

zuko has a customer service voice that he got from working food service and he does in fact use it during his reign as firelord when important people are getting on his nerves but he cant afford to lose his temper. it terrifies anyone that actually knows him bc its completely different from how he usually talks. i dont who that cheerful helpful-sounding man is but that is not our boy

What’s heartbreaking about Toph’s field trip with Zuko to me is she genuinely tried to connect with him.

The first thing she does is talk about growing up with financial and material privilege but without parental love, with abusive parents. Something she knows Zuko experienced and thinks he will bond with her over.

Aang and Suki have no parents. Katara and Sokka grieve one parent and have one loving one. But Zuko? Zuko is someone who can understand what Toph went through growing up. How wealth means nothing when you lack parental love.

And that? Is adorable— especially for a character people characterize as being tough and typically unbothered my emotions.