Yet More Zuko Meta

Yet more Zuko meta

In which I tackle Season 2 Zuko! (My S1 Zuko meta can be found here and here, for those who are interested.) I'm starting S2 with another episode that's been subject to its fair share of meta by other people, because as usual I have Opinions about it that I want to share.

Season 2 - Zuko Alone: In which Zuko, having tried doing the right thing by his crew (keeping them safe) and losing them all to Zhao's plan and the Avatar/La's vengeance at the North; having tried doing the right thing by his father/Fire Lord (capturing the Avatar) and wound up not only with no Avatar, but also labeled a traitor by his father and hunted by Azula; having (kind of) tried to at least do right by his Uncle (stealing to provide for them, now that they are penniless refugees) and gotten only more lectures on who he's supposed to be couched in "questions" about who he wants to be (questions that always come with a clear "right" answer in Iroh's mind), has finally had enough and decides to set out on his own and find out for himself who he is, when he's lost everything that he used to think defined him.

(also, uh, this one got... long?)

We'll go ahead and get this out of the way first: Zuko starts off Season 2 in a pretty low place, and his behavior reflects that. He's rude and dismissive to Iroh while lacking much of the subtle fondness he used to bury under a gruff exterior, he displays some of his most verbally/outwardly entitled behavior, he steals shamelessly from anyone who has more than he does and takes things he and Iroh don't even need but which might make their lives a bit easier. One of his lowest points comes just before Zuko Alone, when he steals Song's ostrich horse right after she and her mother have offered medical aid, food, and shelter to Zuko.

Zuko has just had a series of harsh lessons on how little ability he has to care for "his" people - his crew were taken from him and now they're all likely dead, he feels like he dragged his Uncle down with him as a traitor after his Uncle already spent 3 years traveling with Zuko in his banishment when he likely didn't have to, and then Iroh poisons himself while trying to make tea and would have died without the help of a kind stranger. So when he gets that help from Song, and then gets further generosity from Song and her mother in the form of food and pleasant company that his Uncle clearly enjoys, he lashes out. In spite of the fact that she is also poor, in spite of the fact that she's been hurt by the Fire Nation already (Zuko's people, who hurt her even though she is kind and compassionate and good; Zuko's people, who hurt Zuko because he lost his honor and apparently does not deserve his father's compassion or care), Zuko adds to that harm by stealing her ostrich horse.

It's a low point for him, there's no denying that! Even Iroh gets frustrated by Zuko's behavior. It's selfish, it's reckless, it's disrespectful, and at points like with the ostrich horse it's outright cruel. Through the early episodes of Season 2, we also see a rift growing between Iroh and Zuko that hasn't really been there before. This rift eventually builds to the point where, in response to Iroh's growing frustration, Zuko chooses to part from his Uncle entirely and sets out on his own.

Ultimately, this parting does wind up being a healing and positive journey for Zuko, if not a very pleasant one for most of it.

Instead of stealing his way across the Earth Kingdom for most of Zuko Alone, he starts taking odd jobs from residents of the small towns he's passing through and begins to work his way across the Earth Kingdom to survive. Finally, he winds up in a small town that's been ravaged by the war and is, at the time Zuko shows up, being effectively run by Earth Kingdom army bullies. This town provides Zuko with an opportunity to reaffirm for himself who he is and what he values, though it winds up not being sufficient in the end to break him away from his goal to one day return home with Ozai's approval.

I see discussions sometimes that question why this journey was not enough for Zuko to choose the Avatar's side by the time he and Katara talk under Ba Sing Se. What I think is important, even if we don't really hear Zuko verbalize it until later in Season 3, is that Zuko still has years of propaganda to unlearn. Propaganda that was taught to him throughout his childhood, about the greatness of his nation and the honorable intentions of his people in the war. He has been taught that the Fire Nation is trying to help the other nations by spreading "civilization" to people who lack the same innovations and resources as the Fire Nation, spreading their "glory" to the hapless ignorant hoards that populate the rest of the world.

It's an ugly narrative for sure, and most viewers (with the benefit of narrative framing and other characters' stories that Zuko doesn't have) rightfully recognize it for the imperialist nonsense that it is. Zuko, however, is still fairly young and until very recently was still very immersed in the Fire Nation rhetoric. During the three years he spent on his ship, his crew consisted entirely of Fire Nation soldiers. Even when he would have stopped at ports, there is little evidence or reason to believe that he would not have chosen primarily neutral ports, colony ports, or other ports dominated by Fire Nation peoples.

At the start of Season 2, Zuko also very likely has very recent memories of watching the Avatar, while merged with La, slaughter a significant chunk of the Fire Nation navy in vengeance for what, to Zuko, would have looked like the plot of one corrupt naval officer. As he travels through the Earth Kingdom, he sees how the war has negatively affected these towns, but he also sees cruel, petty, and dishonorable behavior from Earth Kingdom soldiers (realistic behavior, given that the Earth Kingdom is itself a major world power initially built through imperialist conquest, and given that human nature has plenty of examples of people who get a bit of power over others and immediately proceed to abuse that power for their own self interest no matter where they are from), who choose to bully and steal from their own people.

Zuko's travels do help him heal from the trauma of losing his crew, losing his ship, and the latest rejection from Ozai in the form of being declared a traitor to his own people (plus, the likely additional heavy trauma of having to raft through who knows how many days worth of the bloating corpses of Fire Nation soldiers left behind by La's rampage, as he and his Uncle starved on their tiny raft while fleeing the North Pole massacre). Up to this point, Zuko's compassion and empathy has been largely buried - by the trauma from his father in his Agni Kai, by the stress and desperation and anger he used to fuel himself during his 3-year Avatar hunt, by the slaughter he witnessed at the North Pole and the further rejection Azula delivered on Ozai's behalf afterwards (just when he thought he and his Uncle had escaped the North and made it to safety).

His travels alone through the Earth Kingdom show Zuko certain limits to his own capacity for selfishness and cruelty, however, even when he is at one of his lowest points in the series. Choosing not to steal from the young, pregnant couple marks his first major turning point, where he realizes that even if he has nothing and is nothing (nothing but a traitor, expected to act without honor) in the eyes of the Fire Nation, he still desires to act with whatever honor he can when the choice belongs to him anyway.

It is after this point that Zuko stops stealing and starts finding jobs to earn money/food/shelter each day. By the time he reaches the last small town in the episode, he is able to interact fairly kindly (if not warmly, though Zuko is frequently shown to be awkward in social situations of any kind) with the young child of the family he finds work with, when the kid starts following him around and asking him questions and making it clear that he looks up to Zuko due to an act of kindness Zuko committed earlier on the kid's behalf. Zuko even gives the kid his knife, one of the few things he has left of his old life, and something he had treasured enough to take with him from home when he was originally banished.

Spending time with the Earth Kingdom family and interacting with this young kid helps Zuko heal enough to bring back forward his innate desire towards protecting and caring for those who could reasonably be seen as "his" to care for (the same drive, arguably, that lead him to save the crew member who nearly died during The Storm in S1, and ultimately lead him to temporarily give up chasing the Avatar and prioritize his crew's safety at the end of that episode; the same drive that got him challenged to an Agni Kai, burned, and banished at 13). When the kid is directly threatened by the Earth Kingdom soldiers who have been bullying the townspeople, Zuko's core of compassion trumps the more selfish front he'd been trying to put forward in order to protect himself up to that point. He turns back to the town, fights the Earth Kingdom soldiers to save the kid who had looked up to him, the child of the family who had given him work and shelter while he was there, and eventually he reveals his true name and title as he achieves victory against the soldiers with firebending, while remembering his mother's last words to him to never forget who he was.

It is, briefly, a moment of triumph for Zuko. He has objectively done the right thing, he has acted with compassion and used his strength to help those in need rather than to cause harm, and he has owned the truth of who he is without shame.

And very rapidly, his moment of triumph turns to yet another painful lesson on how other people see him, not for what he does but for who he is. It is understandable for the townspeople to reject Zuko here! He's just admitted that he's not merely a firebender, he is also the son of the man who is currently leading the nation that started the war and is still perpetuating atrocities against their people. He is the crown prince of the nation responsible for all the loved ones whom these townspeople have lost to the war. He could not have more clearly announced himself The Enemy if he'd tried!

For Zuko, however, it still means that he tried to find acceptance outside of his home, acceptance that was not dependent on his lying and hiding who he was, acceptance through doing something good for this town of mostly strangers, and he was told that he could not both be himself and also seek acceptance in another nation. Regardless of his father's rejection, he is a Prince of the Fire Nation, and that means in the eyes of the world that he bears at least some responsibility for his nations crimes. He is rejected, here, even by the very child whose life he had just saved. A rejection that is made clear and absolute when the child refuses even to keep Zuko's knife.

The message is clear: he is not wanted here; he does not belong.

His travels have brought him to a place where he wants to be accepted again, however. He wants to have a place where he belongs, a place where his contributions and his care are both accepted and appreciated, without having to pretend that he is someone he isn't.

And so, having been rejected by these Earth Kingdom townsfolk for revealing himself, Zuko returns to something he knows, a mission that he had already spent 3 years convincing himself would earn him a way back to the place and acceptance that he most desperately craves - he returns to hunting the Avatar and, with it, the dream that he can one day earn his father's approval and go home.

Yet More Zuko Meta

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