✷Zodion app✷

[scarmarked]

✖ CHARACTER:
Name: Zuko

Canon: Avatar: The Last Airbender

PB/Image: http://images.wikia.com/paradisa/images/4/4c/Zuko1.jpg

Info links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuko

Canon Point: After Ember Island and the discovery that Avatar Roku is his grandfather, prior to the Day of Black Sun. (Season 3, Episode 6)

Gender & Sex: Male

Age: 16

Birthdate/Sign: Zuko’s birthday is never stated in canon, so I’m making it March 25th, making him an Aries.

Zuko would be an Aries first because the sign is Fire, which he was born into with the ability to fire-bend. Besides that, he has many Aries traits such as a temper, hard-headedness, and leadership qualities. He’s courageous and self-reliant, but often reckless and impulsive.
Tattoo: Zuko’s tattoo will be on the right side of his chest, about an inch in diameter.

Suitability: When Zuko was forced to fight his father, burnt by him, and banished at the age of 13, he lost any remaining childhood he had. He was forced to grow up very quickly and fight for everything he had. Searching the world for the Avatar with the hope of returning home, Zuko lived as a vagabond, helped by his crew and uncle but generally fending for himself.

He’s already gone through numerous hardships and difficult situations and managed to survive against the odds, sometimes growing and sometimes falling because of them. He had to adapt to completely new surroundings—going to living life banished by the Fire Nation, the life of a prince to that of a peasant when he and Iroh lived in Ba Sing Se.

Zuko is more or less awkward and dense when it comes to romance, relationships, and sex, but he had a girlfriend, Mai in the canon, so he’s not completely inexperienced when he comes to Zodion.

Zuko constantly struggles in his life and through it all, he keeps a fierce determination to keep going. In a world where difficult demands are put upon him to survive, he may begrudge these things but would do what was needed if it meant he could return to what was important to him.

Power: Zuko is an excellent fire-bender, so he’ll be keeping his fire-bending in Zodion.
It’s a skill he had to work hard to improve since he wasn’t as good when he was younger. Fire-bending allows him to conjure and control fire, primarily from his hands but also from his feet and mouth. He uses this in fighting, but also in practical senses too, like lighting fires, lanterns, and keeping warm in cold terrain. His fire-bending is usually blasts of fire, but he can conjure shields, walls, or whips of fire. Zuko’s fighting-style is usually centered around “punching” blasts of fire at people, but he’s also seen fairly often doing low kicks that expel fire from his feet. His uncle is more adept at spewing fire from his mouth, but Zuko is seen blasting fire out of his mouth like breath while angry over something.

In Zodion, should he need a cap on his powers, it would probably work best to just diminish the amount of fire he can conjure. For example, in canon he can create a huge blast covering several yards, but if that’s too powerful, he could be reduced to smaller areas of coverage.

Personality: Zuko’s life changed drastically after his banishment at age 13. Forced to face his father in battle and suffering a disfiguring burn at his hand was a traumatic experience that left Zuko bitter and jaded. Everything he’d ever known—palace life, status, and most importantly, honor—was stripped from him and when he was set off into the world, Zuko was forced to live by other means.

Always a bit temperamental, Zuko’s banishment exasperated his demeanor. Easily set off by little or big things, Zuko reacts impulsively and fiercely, not hesitating to implement his fire in with his anger. Whenever he’s defeated, he goes into a fury and can’t keep a cool head enough to salvage the situation, such as the times when he’s hunting Aang. Each time that he would lose Aang, he took out his anger on those around him, often turning people against him like the crew that traveled around with Iroh and him. Zuko’s anger is most always vented by yelling, but he’s violent as well when made angry, breaking furniture, lighting things on fire, or trying to pick a fight.

Zuko’s temper often causes him to take on fights that he doesn’t need to, such as that with Jett when he and Iroh are hiding out in Ba Sing Se. With Jett threatening him, he doesn’t stand back to let authorities take care of the situation but steps right up to fight him, using his duel swords instead of fire-bending. Earlier than that, he challenges Admiral Zhao to an Agni Kai duel just because Zhao made him angry with sneering comments and attempting to take on the hunt for the Avatar himself.

When he’s not angry about something, Zuko is usually brooding. He spends much of his time sulking and angsting over his own situation. Even when things aren’t as bad as they could be—such as living a life in Ba Sing Se—Zuko is so preoccupied with his failing mission that he spends much of his time there moody and complaining. He even coins the line, “I’ve never been happy,” when Sokka sarcastically quips, “Are you happy now?” Zuko becomes too lost in his own misfortune to recognize much of anything else. This perhaps is one of the reasons he and Mai are attracted to each other—they both complement each other with their shared hatred of the world.
Zuko believes that his unhappiness is rooted in the fact that he was expelled from his home and forced to chase after the Avatar, but it becomes clear to even him that it’s not as simple as that. When he returns home after it’s believed that he and Azula killed Aang, he’s still miserable and paranoid. This makes it clear to him that his peace of mind doesn’t rest on returning home but that there is something askew within himself. As he states on Ember Island, he’s angry at himself. Still, this realization doesn’t bring him much peace.

One source of angst for Zuko is that he feels completely out of control of his own destiny. His honor and the loss of it became symbolic to him as the loss of the life he lived and the one he thought he wanted. He follows what he believes he must do to reclaim his honor, blinded by the desire for his father’s love and approval. Living and learning from Iroh helps him, and he states to Katara when they’re trapped in the cave in Ba Sing Se that he always believed his scar marked him and led his destiny as the one who would hunt the Avatar, but that he can choose his own destiny.

Discovering this is a step forward for Zuko, but he is one that constantly takes three steps back after one forward. When he sides with Azula in Ba Sing Se and is accepted home, she tells him he regained his own honor, but with the constant guilt of having betrayed Iroh and the knowledge that Aang is still alive, Zuko can’t be settle down.

While confused and easily led astray, Zuko has a lot of strength of character. He claims that having to fight for everything he has has made him strong. He generally has moral standards and a soft spot for children, seen when he doesn’t steal from a family with a baby, or when he helps a young Earth Kingdom boy while he travels. It’s seen that he can show mercy when he doesn’t finish off Admiral Zhao even when he beats him in Agni Kai, and while he had other motives in mind, he rescues Aang as the Blue Spirit and sets Appa free as well. Zuko is someone who has a good heart underneath it all, but the tragedy of his life set him astray. Iroh attributes the battle of good and evil within Zuko to the fact that his two great-grandfathers were Sozen, the Fire-Lord who started the 100-Years War, and Avatar Roku, who sought to keep the war from starting.

Zuko’s closest relationship is that to his uncle, who was very fond of him growing up and went with him when he was banished. Iroh and Zuko have a complicated relationship that is most like that of a father-son. After losing his own son, Iroh takes Zuko under his wing and teaches him not only fire-bending skills, but constant lessons in life, giving him advice and trying to lead him along the right path. While Zuko reacts with irritation and impatience to a lot of Iroh’s antics, such as his love for tea and relaxation, he feels often that his uncle in the only person he can trust, the one who truly has his best interests at heart. The division between them occurs when Iroh thinks Zuko should give up the hunt for the Avatar and live his own life, while Zuko remains fixed on the idea that his sole purpose is to regain his honor and birthright. This disagreement is what tears them apart in Ba Sing Se, when Zuko returns home and Iroh is thrown in prison as a traitor. Through that all, however, Zuko can’t get over his guilt over what he’s done, and still seeks advice and help from Iroh even in prison.

Zuko’s relationship with his sister Azula is incredibly complicated as well. They were rivals growing up, with Azula being the naturally-gifted child and favored by their father. As Zuko says, “My father says Azula was born lucky. He says I was lucky to be born.” This created a rift between them from the start, helped along by the fact that Azula constantly tried to manipulate her older brother through lies. They remain enemies when Zuko meets up with his sister during his hunt for the Avatar. Zuko never trusts his sister, knowing her better than anyone—that she’ll do anything to manipulate her way to the top. Even when they join forces and return home together, Zuko keeps her at arms-length, knowing that no matter what she does, she’s probably playing him. They never show affection for each other and never even argue much like typical siblings. Zuko and Azula have a fierce animosity towards each other that never goes away even when they’re on the same side.

With Team Avatar, Zuko is varied in his relationships with them. He has little contact with Sokka or Toph besides fighting them, but his relationship with Katara goes through stages. From the beginning, he fought with her, used her, and only in the cave in Ba Sing Se do they seem to reach an understanding of each other by relating the fact that the war took both their mothers. However, her trust in him is quickly destroyed when he joins Azula.

Aang claims that he and Zuko could have been friends once, but they constantly parallel each other through everything. Zuko can’t see Aang as a person, only the Avatar, because he knows he must capture him at all costs. Capturing Aang is such an obsession for Zuko that he is blinded to the fact that Aang is much like himself. They come to many crossroads together but can never seem to end up on the same side because Aang’s existence is the only thing Zuko believes in preventing him from returning to the life he had.

Zuko’s life has been hardship and struggle, which has shaped him in many ways, making him strong but also fiercely angry and sullen. Confused about what he wants in life, believing what he’s been told he wants, Zuko sets forward with a head-strong and stubborn desire to control his destiny and restore the honor he lost, not knowing that he already has the strength of heart to shape his own life.

To better exemplify Zuko’s thoughts/motivations during his struggle and eventual decision to join the Avatar, I’ll run through key moments in his canon history when these things are shown best.

The first instance we have that shows Zuko’s character and a precursor to what how he eventually decides to lead his life, is the past when Zuko is 13. Allowed into the war meeting, Zuko ignores Iroh’s warning not to speak and argues about the morality of using Fire Nation soldiers more or less and decoys that will most certainly be killed. He immediately recognizes how wrong it is to simply use one’s life for the purpose of war, and the unfairness when these soldiers are fighting for the Fire Nation. This shows Zuko’s compassion for life and his strong sense of justice and morality. Even at 13, he already recognizes that the leaders of a country shouldn’t carelessly send their troops off to die. While he’s too young to make any real judgments about the war other than what he’s been taught, this foreshadows Zuko’s desire to see all the countries end the war (the killing) and be at peace with each other.

Throughout his initial hunt of the Avatar, when he still remains part of the Fire Nation, Zuko is at his most ruthless. This can be traced back to the trauma of being burnt and banished by his father, which filled him with hatred. Zuko had a brighter outlook before that event, but having his own father take such actions on him scarred him emotionally as well. Living 3 years away from home, Zuko centered on the fact that he couldn’t return to all the things he believed he wanted, letting the fact that they were taken from him drive him into bitterness and cruelty. He has no problem during this period with taking ruthless action, such as invading and burning not only Katara and Sokka’s village but also an Earth Kingdom village that Aang and his group travel to. He goes after Aang using any method he can, even using Katara to bait him.

The problem with taking these actions is that Zuko has such tunnel-vision for his mission to capture Aang that he doesn’t care who he tramples on during the process. Later, he does feel a certain guilt, when he joins Team Avatar and they list all the things he’s done to them. Early on, things are very black and white for Zuko: he must capture the Avatar, and then his life will be exactly as he wants it.

When Iroh and he become refugees, Zuko goes through many different changes, mostly with or due to Iroh. He continues to hold to the belief that he must capture the Avatar, saying “There’s no honor for me without the Avatar” but he struggles to nail down exactly which direction his life must go in. Iroh constantly tries to lead him in the right direction, trying to teach him that honor doesn’t come from gaining something, but from within one’s self—granting inner strength. While Zuko fights this initially, travelling alone from Iroh, he rejoins his uncle, goes to Ba Sing Se with him, and for a brief moment finds a type of inner peace while they work at the tea shop. This was prompted from what Iroh calls “acting in conflict with the image of himself” when he decided to let the Avatar go at Lake Lagkshksh. Zuko may not have completely understood what he wanted or who he was at that point, but he was beginning to go in the right direction.

All this was brought to a head in Ba Sing Se when he’s confronted with Azula and the choice of joining her and going home or going ahead with what Iroh had started. Still not any closer to reaching a conclusion on his “destiny,” Zuko made the choice to join Azula. His motivation for this comes from his motivation that he held throughout his entire journey—to regain his honor and earn his father’s love and acceptance.

Zuko, raised with teachings of how great the Fire Nation was and how much he should revere his father, let his life be led by the desire to please his father. To him, finding his honor and gaining his father’s love were synonymous things. When Azula offers him these things, his will and inner strength is too weak to discern the truth, and he grabs up the chance to return home, fighting alongside Azula and betraying Iroh.

His inner turmoil comes to a head while he is home and it becomes clear to him that hearing his father tell him he’s proud of him does nothing for his inner peace. Zuko has gained enough character at this point, helped along by all the changes he went through during his banishment and travels, to recognize that living as the Fire Nation’s prince while the war is going on isn’t necessarily what he wanted. It doesn’t occur to him until the day of Black Sun that he wants more for the world. This is prompted by his discovery of Avatar Roku being his maternal great-grandfather. In his lineage, he had both the man who started the 100 Years War, Sozen, and the bringer of great peace, the Avatar. Iroh urges him, like he always had, to look within himself and realize what he truly wants for himself.

This leads Zuko back to his true self—someone who truly wants peace for the world, an end the killing. While Azula follows her father and great-grandfather Sozen’s ideals of bringing the world under the power of the Fire Nation, Zuko follows Roku’s destiny of wanting to bring an era of peace. When he confronts his father on the Day of Black Sun, Zuko for the first time tells Ozai that he’s the one in control of his destiny and stands up to him to tell him that he disagrees with the war.

Zuko let his motives be led by what he’d been told and raised to believe, that he should follow his father and Fire Nation, but through the help of Iroh and his own searching within himself, he regains the integrity he always had and can make the decision to help the Avatar save the world. The canon point I’ll be taking him from is when he is teetering on the edge of this decision, becoming more convinced of who he is and what he wants, but before he actually takes the steps to defect.