interesting that iroh says this to zuko in an episode that deals explicitly with authority brainwashing. also interesting that i’m depressed now!
also interesting that this is the angriest we’ve seen iroh yet, and the closest we’ve come to him calling his brother out.
i mean, sure, some of the anger is obviously him being afraid that his second son nephew will literally stubborn himself to death. but the crux of the argument, the emotional heart, is him pretty much explicitly telling zuko “your father did not do well by you, and it hurt you in the past, and it’s still hurting you now.”
iroh is fucking furious with his brother and at this point he’s barely even hiding it
wait god this makes it so much better when zuko asks if iroh thinks he should try to get along with azula because she’s family and iroh is like “uh no she’s the worst.” it’s like
zuko: you’re gonna tell me that family’s important and i have to love her because she’s my sister, right?
iroh, who is trying to gently help zuko realize that his brother is an absolute moral chemical fire of a human being & doesn’t deserve zuko’s devotion:
One of the many reasons i love “The Beach” episode in AtLA is it really shows us how political dysfunction/ imperialist expansion filters down into the interpersonal, like you can’t be part of an imperialist national mechanism without that shit fucking you over on a personal level: there’s Zuko and Azula with their problematic family, there’s Mai and then Ty Lee who was tired of being a carbon copy I mean these are all kids that are stifling under the narrow roles ascribed to them (which is what happens in highly industrialized, capitalist nations which prioritize efficiency, compliance and utility rather than creative expression and interconnectedness). Ofc the Gaang has family issues too – Toph and her parents, Katara and Sokka’s early loss of a parent figure etc – but you don’t get the same sense of dysfunction and trauma and pain that you do with Mai/Ty Lee/Azula/ Zuko, or at least it feels different. And I really wanna know more about these four FN kids in their childhood and how they found each other and formed these bonds through and in spite of their dysfunction and ugh feels about kids growing up during war i mean this is really one of the strongest things about the show: war and militarization affects everyone in some way, not just in terms of losing land and resources but also in how fully we can engage our own humanity
Yes, he hugged Iroh, yes, he made up with Iroh, yes, Iroh’s his family…but he always had Iroh throughout the show. His very first scene was him talking with Iroh, and his uncle always had his back; the only separation between those two happened in Book Three (and that brief portion of Book Two).
But Mai is the one there to welcome him home.
And what’s more?
It’s not just Zuko’s resolution here.
It’s also Mai finally being able to express herself, finally being able to hug Zuko, to welcome him back and to be open with him—she saved his life, she took a stand for what she believed in and what she wanted, and she gave up her safety and security…and now she’s found it again. She’s finally got the life she wanted.
Both of them are hugging here because they have both finally found what they wanted most in the world.
midnight-in-town 