r/ATLA • u/JustAPerson_YesOrNo "Hello, it's Zuko here" • May 25 '25

Question What ATLA take make you like this?

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Posting here bc mods are (not) mean

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u/Xerinic May 25 '25

The people unironically saying Zuko didn’t do anything THAT bad when comparing him to Azula.

Like, my man outright burns Kyoshi Island, outright declares his crew doesn’t matter, and threatens Gran Gran when attacking the Souther Water Tribe.

And those are just the first few episodes.

3

u/Formal_Illustrator96 May 26 '25

You say “and those are just the first few episodes” as if he does way worse stuff later on when he really doesn’t.

Zuko burned a bunch of houses down during the fight and left once Aang did. He declared his crew didn’t matter but proved he didn’t actually think that when he risked his own life to save his crew. He “threatened” Gran Gran(he really just aggressively asked where the Avatar was), then left without doing harm when Aang surrendered.

Azula literally murdered Aang while smiling. She attempted to murder Zuko multiple times. She attempted to murder the Gaang multiple times. She is the one to suggest burning the entire earth kingdom to the ground, potentially killing… thousand? Millions? I don’t know how many people are in the ATLA world.

The only thing that Zuko did that comes close to what Azula did was hiring the assassin.

3

u/No_Persimmons May 26 '25

Yeah, this is pretty spot on. Rewatching, when zuko is confronting the gaang, he almost never is actually looking to kill them. Subdue, capture, injure so they can't get away- yeah, but never kill. The only time that I can recall zuko actually wishing death on someone was when he hired Sparky Sparky Boom Man- to cover his butt to "keep" the avatar dead. Plus, he was back around the influence of his crazy family and was now constantly being manipulated by azula. But even when Zuko was away from his family and used his own judgement , and Combustion Man actually had a shot at killing him, Zuko ordered him to stop.

Azula, straight out of the gate, was out for blood. It didn't matter who got in the way either. Her status of power both through royalty and physical ability justified any loss of life in the pursuit of getting what she (thinks and believes) wants.

2

u/ciri_grayskull May 29 '25

Zuko was tasked with capturing and bringing the avatar to the fire nation, not killing him. If Ozai had told him to kill the avatar to return home then it would be a different story.