#fatherlords

[im-okay-unless-im-not]

Ummm so Zuko's mom is named Ursa....!?! which means Bear!! She's literally a momma bear......!!!!

[toperator]

Any thoughts about who was next in line? Zuko or Azula? Did they switch status as heir to the throne? And how many times did that happen? Did Azula even want to be Firelord? And why would she bring Zuko back if it brought him back into Ozai’s favor as this “ferocious” warrior and redeemed Prince? Did she sacrifice her status as Crown Princess for Zuko by bringing him back home? Or did she think it was Zuko’s destiny after all? I have read the Earth Kingdom Chronicles of both Zuko and Azula. I believe, if I recall correctly, that Azula implied being crown princess now Zuko was banished. But when he returned, it was Zuko that earned the spot at Ozai’s right hand... I believe Ozai did want Zuko to “straighten up” and become a “worthy” son, since Ozai did see the banishment as an actual lesson so the “weight of his travels” (and jolly misadventures with Uncle Iroh) would tough him up or something. It’s also weird how Ozai even bothers trying to justify his cruel actions to Zuko with no one else around. To “teach him” respect. (using suffering as a teacher? Hard pass) I am confused with these dynamics. Azulon saw Iroh as the golden child, and Ozai sees Azula as the golden child... While Zuko was the lesser child, just like Ozai himself was the lesser one in the eyes of Azulon. Not to forget Ozai, despite claiming to be his father’s “loyal servant”, murdered his dad for the throne... And Ozai has a son, claiming to be Ozai’s “loyal son”... How does that work? What was Ozai’s plan with Zuko? Was Ozai actually installing Zuko as the next in line for the throne, and was Azula okay with that? (Translation last image: I can see you have stopped being such a pansy. You even have become a badass yourself.)

[stabbyfoxandrew]

okay, i finished my atla rewatch a couple hours ago and i've been a Lump ever since

[ask-azula]

The Day my father gifted me a pair of those glasses was one of the best days in my life.

here's some more i guess i didn't know you guys would like these so much

yeee

ye ah

[five-flavor-soup]

i think it’s very funny that we realise zuko is Handsome(™️) the moment his hair starts growing out again at the same time that other characters notice this, and zuko literally gives zero fucks. song was like man this boy’s got a scar i can emotionally connect with AND he’s cute, jet has an instant obsession because that lee guy is playing hard to get, jin frequents the teashop just to stare at the pretty refugee and snags an awkward adorable date with him to stare some more. and zuko just. does Not notice. or care.

he’s so obsessed with going home that romance or attraction simply isn’t even an option in his mind. he is leaving a trail of broken hearts behind him. he is a serial dater in that way that the dating is basically one-sided and he is entirely unaware there was any dating happening in the first place, because he’s too busy to even look at someone twice. jet stalks him bc of this. katara briefly seems to treat zuko picking azula’s side as a betrayal in the sense of Cheating On Her. this is all one-sided.

zuko is entirely unable to compute this Whirlwind Romance thing. he has no idea what these ppl are talking about. he has things to do. love is In The Way and he is slashing through it with his dual swords like sokka sliced through the vines in the swamp. in s3 we suddenly have ma|ko without any lead-up, and it ends the moment zuko has a New Goal to work towards. he breaks up with his gf through a letter. he forgets about her the moment she’s out of sight. the fact that she’s in prison completely slips his mind until he’s literally about to be crowned fire lord, and that’s only because she decides to step back into his life.

there’s no time for romance when zuko has decided to have a Purpose to work on. is he attractive? zuko wouldn’t know and he doesn’t care. zuko has a job to do and whether it’s catching the avatar or teaching the avatar firebending or breaking ppl out of prison or helping the angry watertribe girl who always entertains the idea of freezing him to a tree get closure for her mother’s murder, it’s all still a job. no time for kissing or blushing or dates when you’ve got a fatherlord to dethrone and a world to save. none of his dreamy hairflips and handsome brooding are intentionally attractive but it’s perceived as such anyway and that is HILARIOUS to me

[thatssroughbuddy]

Part 1 here :) there’s soooo many gems but here’s some of the most popular write ins from part 1!

[zuko-always-lies]

Azula is the family member Zuko cares the least about, by far [and no, it's not because she's mean to him and no, this is not a post about Zuko's morality or anything like that]

So the entire premise of Zuko's arc is he spends years and years trying to regain his father's love and appreciation, that he spent three years trying to capture the Avatar so that his father would like him again. We even see in a flashback that exiled Zuko misses his father badly.

And when Zuko decides to completely break off his relationship with his father, he decides that this merits a dramatic confrontation, since his relationship with Ozai is so important to him. Even after that, the second to last scene of the series is Zuko visiting Ozai.

Zuko often takes Iroh and his support for granted, but even in Books 1 and 2 there are plenty of moments which act to reaffirm how much Zuko values and appreciates his uncle. He goes out of his way to protect his uncle on a couple occasions. And in Book 3, after Zuko has screwed up his relationship with Iroh, one of Zuko's core motivations becomes fixing his relationship with his uncle and regaining Iroh's love, trust, and appreciation.

Ursa is someone who Zuko talks about far less, yet the series makes it very clear how much Zuko misses her, with "Zuko Alone" and "The Earth King" and "The Day of Black Sun: The Eclipse." And the second to last scene in the series is Zuko trying to find her.

That leaves Azula. Zuko never seems to miss Azula the least, even though he hasn't seen her for years when the series begins. In fact, when she unexpectedly shows up and greets him, instead of being happy to see her, he's angry and suspicious (to be fair to Zuko, she did turn out to have ulterior motives due to Ozai's orders, but if he really deeply missed her, he'd probably be at least a little happy to see her regardless. Mai and Ty Lee reacted with joy the first time they saw Azula again). And in Books 2 and 3, there is essentially nothing to suggest that Zuko misses the better relationship he had with Azula when they were younger.

For instance, in "The Beach," Zuko angsts over an old photograph of his family.

His eyes focus on Ozai

and he remembers a happy memory associated with Ozai:

and then Zuko's eyes focus on Ursa

and he remembers a happy memory associated with her

Yet Zuko never looks at younger Azula in that picture, nor does he think of her at all. The "Happy Family" that Zuko misses includes Ozai, Ursa, and even Iroh and Lu Ten (shown in a separate memory sequence at little earlier), but not little Azula.

Ultimately, what we see in the first half of Book 3 is that Zuko is willing to take advantage of Azula's kindness, when she shows it to him, but he never acknowledges it, thanks her for it, or reciprocates in the slightest.

In the end, in the DoBS Zuko leaves Azula behind without a regret or even a thought. Ozai gets a big confrontation; Azula gets nothing. And after that, we see that Zuko misses Mai, and still feels complex feelings for Ozai ("Fatherlord," anyone?), but there's nothing to suggest he misses Azula at all or feels a deep attachment to her. The penultimate scene of the show even features Zuko visiting Ozai, not Azula.

Some people might point out that Azula is a bad sister to Zuko. That's definitely true. She says and does plenty of awful things to him over the series.

Yet that doesn't explain things. Ozai is far, far worse to Zuko than Azula ever is, yet Zuko cares deeply about Ozai to the degree that Zuko's entire arc is about it. Merely talking about "look how mean Azula is" explains almost nothing. Is possible to explain why

This does bring me to my main point. The ATLA fandom tends to believe that Zuko cares about Azula a lot and that he places a lot of value in having a good relationship with her, tends to believe that Zuko is obsessed with Azula.

However, the reality is that Zuko by far cares about Azula the least of any member of his family and that he places almost no value on having a good relationship with her. She is never a priority for him and is at most only an obstacle. All of Zuko's other family members loam far higher in Zuko's priorities and headspace than Azula. And if he is obsessed with her, it's not in a loving way. Maybe "Azula the enemy" and "Azula my advisor and emotional caretaker" are significant to him, but "Azula my sister" never seems to be.

Again, this isn't a moral judgement, merely a fact.

[ask-azula]

This is pro-Zuzu propaganda. Zuko is trying to besmirch my image. I only had a bad day and was very a little agitated and paranoid. This is totally normal behavior after being betrayed by people you thought were your friends with, I'm a people person which makes me very good at topics like these, also even an amazing princess like me has a day days when she doesn't get enough sleep. Maybe I'll tell Ty Lee if she is out of her fan girl phase by then to harass Zuko every night so he lacks sleep and I bring my own water bender peasant to our duel.

"My way of showing Azula acceptation has always been putting her in charge of military strategies and she turned out alright"

Actually, about that...

Azula is fine. I was exactly like her when I was young and there was nothing wrong with me either. Zuko has manipulated the population into believing she is insane because how else is he going to keep the throne? Zuko is the kind of person that has to sabotage everyone else to feel better about his own incompetence.

[earfgoddesss]

defeat the fatherlord? at a rap battle? yessir.

[zukkaart]

YAY YOU LIKED MY IDEA ☺️☺️☺️ you’re so right about Zuko too I can totally see it. Azula slipping back into her scary persona when Zuko arrives because he’s from her old life and everyone in the tribe going ??? Azula what’s wrong 🥺 and Zuko being madhappy that Azula got to get away (and he didn’t). I think Sokka and Azula would have become friends (maybe he reminds her of Ty Lee) and when Zuko comes to visit he gets super protective of Azula and it’s a Zuko/Sokka standoff while Azula’s in the middle trying to convince both of them that she’s the mastermind in control (she’s not and her ocean kumquats are burning). Eventually Sokka and Zuko realize they want the same thing and then zukka obviously because of course.

Also I go feral for the hair symbolism in Atla and it’s canon that Azula doesn’t know how to tie her topknot and the water tribe doesn’t wear their hair like that so she would Have to wear it another way. Perhaps a symbolism for forced vulnerability. Maybe Hakoda walks in on her trying to tie her topknot and he offers to help her. She begrudgingly says yes and he ends up tying her hair like his because it’s closest to what Azula is trying to do. His hair is sort of half down half up which I think symbolizes how he’s offering to her an out from vulnerability but it like only half works because he’s so kind to his children and children in general and she’s so disoriented by the new customs and kindness that she does let her guard down a little bit. (Also I think Azula would refer to hakoda as “my husband” when she feels threatened because he’s the chief and being his wife implies protection even though they don’t act (or think) married at all. And maybe eventually this turns into just a joke when Azula realizes she’s not actually being threatened in the SWT). Cue Sokka seeing Azula’s wolf tail for the first time:

Sokka: hey! You’re stealing my hairstyle! Get your own!

Azula: MY HUSBAND DID THIS >:/

(Also because I love when Zuko says “the fatherlord” so much I think Azula absolutely has to refer to hakoda as hakodad or my husdad at least once.)

So late responding to this but i genuinely couldn’t think of a good enough thing to say or add so I’m just gonna leave it here for the people to enjoy x

[fulltimecatwitch]

you think Nezha ever called his father the Fatherlord instead of the Dragonlord like Zuko in ATLA ?!?!?! i think he most definitely did at some point 🤣

[discordiansamba]

"prince zu-"

zuko clamps a hand over the avatar's mouth. thankfully, no one else seems to have noticed.

"don't," he says, "-say that name here."

here being the middle of an earth kingdom base, where they were currently surrounded by earth kingdom soldiers. earth kingdom soldiers who thought he was one of them. which he kind of was. he'd trained and fought alongside these men- and he'd just stuck his neck out as the blue spirit to rescue a captured battalion.

...which was how he found out his commanders had known about his blue spirit activities for awhile now. which was a thing. but what they didn't need to find out was that cadet akiyoshi, who came from the small village of si jun, was actually prince zuko of the fire nation.

he slowly lets go of the avatar's mouth. he asks what he's doing here. which is a fair question. he'd gotten drafted.

the avatar just stares at him incredulously. which again. fair. zuko quickly explains about grandpa kenzo and how he'd mistaken him for his grandson. and how he'd just kind of... started living that life after awhile. it just seemed easier to go along with being drafted than risk sticking out by deserting.

he finds out his uncle's looking for him.

that takes zuko by surprise. it sounds like uncle wants to find him because he's worried about him, and not. you know. because he wants to kill him like the rest of his family. maybe he shouldn't be so surprised- his father had declared uncle a traitor recently. something about helping to thwart a fire nation invasion of the north pole?

the avatar asks zuko to come with him. he's eager to reunite them, but zuko just glances over his shoulder at his fellow soldiers. it doesn't feel right to abandon them in the middle of a war. he turns the avatar down. you can tell my uncle i'm alive, but don't tell him where i am. i'll... find him after the war is over. i promise.

the avatar makes a face, but he accepts.

he starts to regret his choice when he hears his sister killed the avatar in ba sing se- and captured his uncle. the once unconquerable city falls to fire nation control, and all of a sudden, the tide of the war has shifted entirely in the fire nation's favor. but if there's one thing he's learned while living in the earth kingdom, it's that its people are stubborn.

(he is too. he's an earthbender, like them.)

zuko's commander assigns them a new mission. they're going to help a small ragtag team invade the caldera on the day of the black sun. it's a crazy plan- and one that zuko finds himself wanting to take part in. he's seen firsthand the damage his family and the fire nation have done to the earth kingdom. he's lived off their kindness for three years- he has to pay them back somehow.

he knows the risks.

(when the avatar sees him step off that ship, he does a double take. zuko glares him into submission. not a word, avatar.

...also, is that toph? huh. guess he'd better go greet his old master.)

earthbender zuko would just be shun zuko getting mistaken by a blind potter for his dead grandson and then just. never leaving. he can't break this old man's heart. he ends up learning not only his craft but also a lot of other earthbending tips and tricks from the old man whom he genuinely starts to think of as his grandpa at some point.

(spoiler alert: the old man knows full well zuko isn't his grandson. in fact he doesn't even have a grandson. but the scrawny, clearly starving and definitely abused refugee kid will definitely stick around if he pretends to think otherwise.)

...and then he gets drafted into the earth king's army. well. isn't this ironic.

[sharlmbracta]

watching atla in my "first" language really hit different to me.

fiction and storytelling, even for ones that were originally made here, especially for ones that weren't originally made here, all of them were always more natural for me in english.

for atla, when i watched and rewatched, read and reread the series, the comic, the fanfictions all in english, the characters felt like characters more than the representations that they hold. when i turned on the series in korean, out of curiosity, the entire dynamic felt shifted in this intricate way that are both personal yet distant yet i felt like i was yanked up by this unfamiliarity i was supposed to be familiar with. if that makes any sense.

like. the characters were more the representatives and statuses such as the wordings and cultural tones but the parts where the translators failed to catch the tone of the characters themselves but rather they have compartmentlized and integrated into the labels of the statuses, those that we were more familiar with what we were relayed on the history classes. especially the words that dealt with royals. the words that referred to "father", the words that referred to "king". the words that referred to "high priests", "physicians", and "my lord". when in english (at least to me) it felt like the statuses were first and foremost used as tools to add up flavor to the character, in korean (at least to me) it felt like the statuses were first and foremost used to establish the solid grounds and frames what they would play out into in terms of the fictional politicary, and the characters added second to just slightly differentiate the framework between the royals.

(high chance that i may be rather heavily biased in this since i did only watch (made to watch) most movies and animations in english since i was at a very young age, and that habit turned into a purposeful one as i grew older, so i have a very limited range of feel of how "scripts in korean" could vary in terms of The Feel. when i watch a fiction in korean that i have already digested through thoroughly in english, the foremost automatic reflex is "wait that's not right" and more than often my brain tunes the rest out as if it was a fight or flight situation. i always thought the translations were poor, a lot of them may actually are, but even when they might be decent.)

in korean i suddenly felt the weight shifting onto the race of the characters, as if they had suddenly turned "asian" in terms that i felt (or thought i felt) more "familiar" with, in a way that reasonated way too personally- not on the "me" level but on the "national" level. especially the ones- the titles of the statuses- around the imperialism words.

(to be blunt, it felt weird and uncanny in this very specific way that the real life history drilled into you(me) to memorize (and failed to) was suddenly yanking you by the collar and making itself known the fabricated imperialism and the actual imperialism that had happened in the personal-not personal-national way at the same time shoved in your face and the titles of not only said imperialism but also the status pyramid in general which you now barely acknowledged reeked out of the mere words that the characters used.

for example, resulting in the brain functioning from

"this person is azula"

to

"this person is an imperialist(political) princess(raw) loyal(in patriarchy) to the(her) fatherlord(as in the actual term used by the children of the high king, who was referred and (made) reverred as the "father" of the nation via confucianism (patriarchy + family, organizations == family at its core == therefore any organization especially enforced by the nation == loyalty to the king(lord) == loyalty to your father >>> individuality))"

and suddenly you(i) feel the characters like formatted boxes and yes the characters are still there but the tone is just not there anymore, and this may be just me after only watching the last 3 episodes in this language, but i felt like aang became(as in framed into a mere box of) a {kid}, sokka became a {kid}, toph became a {sister}, katara and suki became {companions}, zuko became a {guy}, azula became an {enemy the crazy}, and ozai became an {enemy the fatherlord}. and nothing else. no lingering spices of the characters. the weight of all the statuses and namesakes clouding over (all) the flavor.)

(though the added weight is kind of interesting when considering the characters derived from the feel of both languages i guess)

-

below is a rambling thought of how i think this would've turned out if atla was published in here, perhaps, in the form of kdrama which seems to be the most popular medium on broadcast tv lately, especially if it was pushed for nationwide publishment.

this may be biased since this post is coming from me only, so you may ignore the rest of this post if you don't want to read a wall of condemnation of what i personally (therefore not an exact official fact) think of kdramas (regarding sexism) + how the characters would've turned out if atla was one. i won't fight you if you decide to fight me or engage in Formatted Discourse because i'm a cowardly little shit who throws up a wall of rant when braindump is required and runs away irresponsibly

-

i'm not someone who had watched that many kdramas, but kdramas are the thing that turns up everywhere whenever the tv on the house is on (on the few times it is actually on) and this is from my viewpoint from all the glimpses i got from the kdramas. kdramas, which seem to love so much the gender roles and how the plot "tears them apart" when ironically, the established grounds themselves are made to very heavily, both blatantly and subtly rotate around the gender stereotypes and the set of the power positions- man on high position, woman on the hardworking helping side at best. and there's always some type of "romance" going on. the arrogant male tries to get the girl, but the girl eventually makes him learn his place.

oh and let's not forget the age gaps. i am not saying that age gap relationships are inherently bad but the notion of the "age gap where the man is much older than the woman" in itself seems to be a very popular trope in kdrama in the majority. especially especially those of which the background is set in the past like the chosun dynasty where the patriarchy was domineering its highest, when the man was always older and of higher-status than the "court receiving" woman with no exceptions, where the man always protect the woman in the end when it came down to drama-typically life-threatening on either side. i get that the "man status" is one of the things that the drama made as "that's just how history is" but (for me) it always felt like the setting deliberately focuses on the gender split and runs with it while having the effect of romanticizing and glossing over the entirety of it. man always "helping out" the woman via his status that the woman is inherently made impossible to reach, the label never quite really being approached in contrast to the advances that men always had.

so back to the subject. if atla was to be created first in here, similar to a kdrama, therefore having more parts to be glossed over by the media producer, the executives, the broadcast approvers, and their enforcements for "mass media taste" on top of the traces of patriarchy seeped everywhere that never really went away.

azula would have more limitations of what she could do, such as not really having full control of her ship or her army, somehow being distanced in some way she knows but cannot grasp, having a second in command that does all the actual command-in-power- even if the show lets her do all the fighting- due to the inhibitions as a female that she never had in the series. most importantly, scenes of her would no longer have that iconic "fear aura" she always had and controlled, entirely by herself, while still wearing the label of evil. her preciseness and manipulation closely nurtured and delicately yet forcefully groomed by her father, the entirety of her complex character, would be watered down to an overbearing snotty control freak who can't really do anything. and when she duels zuko, she would be fighting for the power she never was really given. zuko's win would be cloaked a heavy shade of patriarchal win.

katara would be framed as a righteous lecturing damsel in distress. she would show skill, she would be taking down dozens, but her selfless passion and enthusiasm would be made thwarted to "catch" the attention of stereotypical prying males. she would be pinned down by a manhandle and there would be a dramatic, perhaps romanticized, male rescue. she would be fighting more stereotypical men targetting her than doing her actual part of saving the goddamn world. in the series, the one "blatantly patriarchal" society she had to face in the northern water tribe overturned in quick succession due to a usage of a plot ticket of acknowledgement of personal loss of a high master due to the patriarchal norm as well as an acknowledgement of katara's skill and resilence. i can't even start to imagine how it would've turned out if atla were to be produced in here.

toph would be framed a "loudmouthed little brat", as a guy who captured her in a metal box had said it. she would be strong, she would be vigilant, but she would be ignored, she would be babied more, and she would be made to either simply shrug them off, or be condescended as if she was nothing but a child when she does show her anger. her rightful anger would be treated as nothing but a simple child's fit. either that or her gender would have been replaced entirely, as she was made in the ember island play scene, but with more region-typical stereotypes laced along the way.

all of them would be made to wear some lipstick and makeup.

all of them would be made to wear tightly fitted clothing on their higher torso, in some way.

all of them would be regularly commented of their appearances in some way.

all of them would abruptly find themselves in the face of blatant sexism as if it was an obvious topic in a conversation.

i would continue to scrutinize over how suki, aang, sokka, hakoda, and ozai would have been, but i'm not sure i honestly could, at least in terms of accuracy, with my current state of experience and knowledge on kdramas and korean media culture as well as the limited time i have. (and i really don't want to compartmentalize my time further watching tv dramas for "culture studying" sake)

-

so uh. thanks for reading? i guess. if you did. through the entire wall of ramble text. which i doubt. congratulations. i wouldn't read it too

[eponastory]

Let's talk about Ozai in the Netflix Adaptation vs The Original

Let's go with the OG for right now...

So, Ozai was never really shown fully onscreen until the end of Book Two. Which was a really great move on the writers part. We had only seen bits an pieces of him, mostly told through Zuko and Iroh, but we had an idea he was bad. We knew from the beginning that Ozai was a power hungry monarch with grand delusions of himself and of course wanting to continue the legacy that was handed down to him. His ideal of achieving peace was war and terror. Everyone under one superior rule.

As a kid, that is scary.

Come Book Three we get Ozai in all his maniacal glory, wonderfully voiced by the legendary Mark Hamill. Now, being someone who grew up with Star Wars (having been inducted into the Rebellion at age 4) and the Batman Animated series (inducted at age 8) I grew up hearing that man's voice, so I know it well.

But yes, Ozai was very well handled in the Original show.

Now...

On to Netflix.

Well, here's where I have mixed feelings.

There is no mystery to him, but I get why they took this approach. If they went with the mystery, it would be a shot for shot rehash and that's not what the show runners were trying to do. It does give us a more personal dynamic between Ozai and Iroh, which I had always been curious about. But there is more to it.

Here, we get a more manipulative, egotistical Ozai. He is manipulating his children against each other to see who comes out on top. We don't really see that in the Original. We get hints that it's happening, but here, it's shoved in our faces and it's brutal. You can already see Azula cracking from this and it's handled much better (in my opinion). I don't want to see the same thing we got with Game of Thrones (I'm talking about Dany going all mad queen all of a sudden). I want to see the strings being pulled. This actually cements Ozai as an even worse father than in the OG.

To be fair, I'm also looking at this from the point of view as a parent (or something of the sort. I can't have children, but I have a niece that is the next best thing). It's funny how as you get older you start to see things from a different point of view.

Anyway, Daniel Dae Kim does an excellent job at this portrayal of everyone's most hated Fatherlord. Although, I think in the OG Ozai is around my current age, if not a little older. Daniel is definitely a good few years older than I am, *checks notes* Yeah, he's two decades older than me.

And

His workout routine.

Anyway, moving past my lustful eyes.

Okay, back to character analysis... (get your mind out of the gutter, Story, you've got shit to write) Ozai in the live action is probably one of the better performances. I mean, you can actually see a little bit of conflict in the character when it comes to Zuko. Ultimately, narcissism wins out.

I'll probably write about Azula next.

[ask-azula]

Father, I, of course, have taken the shampoo with me. I can't have Zuko trying to decipher the recipe now, can I? Zuzu jealousy of our hair was surely nurtured by Uncle.

How easy it was for me to enter the palace and my old room, Zuzu truly needs better security than these painted fangirls. I could have also sat on the throne without anybody witnessing it. Fortunately for him, I was only there to get my favorite robe comb back. Can't have me, a princess live like a peasant now. A truly ridiculous prospect.

[discordiansamba]

avatar Zuko and the frankly kind of insane chain of rumors that he leaves behind...

someone said that the Avatar kidnapped the Beifong's only daughter. someone else said he's been scamming con artists all over the earth kingdom. someone swears that he assaulted the carriage of a rich man and made off with a fortune. there's a rumor that he can bend plants, and another rumor that his glare is so fearsome it can paralyze his foes. someone swears he called the fire lord the 'fatherlord' once. that he's on the run from the southern water tribe.

he fought in earth rumble. he got into a bar fight. he broke into an impenetrable fire nation fortress. he's earth kingdom. he's fire nation. he's a survivor of the air nomads. he was born in a swamp. he was born in the desert. he fought the dai li. he once emptied an entire container of chili pepper into his food and didn't even bat an eye. he's a long lost prince. he's of common stock. he ran away from home. he has a horrible scar. he fought a bunch of earth kingdom soldiers. he kicked the mayor of chin village in the face.

iroh collecting all of these rumors in his travels. not all of them can be true, he knows this.

(when he finds out the avatar is zuko, and that he is traveling with the daughter of the beifong family... nephew. please tell me you did not actually kidnap her.

zuko: okay. I won't tell you.

toph: if it helps, it was consensual!)