If you watched Avatar: The Last Airbender than you should be familiar with Zuko. Zuko was a powerful fire bender that was positioned as the primary antagonist to Aang along most of his journey. Zuko's personality and temperament are a direct result of the society of hierarchy he was raised in. Discipline and respect were the primary motives for success and failure were seen as a result that should never happen under any circumstance. Throughout the series, the viewer comes to understand Zuko and eventually are rewarded with one of the best character arcs in television history. Zuko makes the journey from stubborn prince to a respected lord. He goes from obsessing over the capture and defeat of Aang to coming to terms with who he really is and helping the Avatar succeed in bringing peace to the land. Zuko progression through the series and his trials and tribulations are a large part of what makes Avatar: The Last Airbender one of the best-animated television shows of the modern era. Fans are subsequently rewarded with Zuko reappearing in The Legend of Korra series as an older advisor to the new Avatar. He's a complicated character with a complex set of morals that's seemingly trying to learn who he is and what his life's purpose is. Zuko's journal throughout the series is said to purposely follow that of the Buddha himself. Let's take a look at 25 crazy or little-known facts you never knew about Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
25 ♔ Zuko Comes Full Circle
In the intro to this list, I discussed that Zuko has a character arc throughout the series that we rarely see come full circle in animated television shows. He starts as an unlovable and whiny brat, yet over the course of the series, he slowly transforms into a misunderstood and troubled boy with a chip on his shoulder and a remorseful understanding of his misdoings. In The Legend of Korra fans are not only treated to an old and grizzled Zuko, they're treated to a beautiful closing to an unforgettable story of a character with a lot to prove and even more to learn. It's great to see it come full circle and witness a man care for🍰 his grandson and truly wish the best for him despite seeing the opposite treatment from those he cared most about as a child. It showcases that Zuko really did learn and grow as a person.
24 💞 Zuko Means..🌳.
When we see a character's name we rarely ever assume that it has anything to d🍸o with that same character's personality or attitude. That is, of course, unless it's a right on the nose reference or word that we could easily connect the dots with ourselves. Sometimes these relations are like I just stated, but a lack of understanding and knowledge of languages other than English leave us in an unknowing predicament.
Zuko is phonetically similar to the word suko, which is a Cebuano word referring to "anger."
This makes sense considering Zuko is famous for his ill-tempered nature and fiery emotions. How do you feel about these types of character naming conventions? It seems that au🦹diences are okay with🦄 them as long as they're either comedically obvious or refer to a non-English word or reference.
23 🐻 ꧟ Cry Me A River
With a character as gifted and powerful as Zuko, you need to do some things in the creative writing process to make him a complex and interesting character to follow. We quickly learn that Zuko's weakness is his em𝕴otional instability. He has a hard time cജontrolling his emotions and often lets his passion take precedence over his reason. Even though Zuko is emotionally unstable, he also comes from a community that looks down on vulnerability and weakness.
That's why it's so surprising that we're treated to him crying on numerous occasions.
Zuko is seen crying in 5 different episodes t꧟hroughout the series. On the surface, this showcases that in many ways he's still just a child. He's learning and the pressure has taken its toll on him. Everyone deserves the right to let out a good cry now and again𓆉.
22 𝄹 Thunderbolts Of Lightning! ౠ
When you firꦛst learn that fire benders can manipulate lightning, it begins to showcase the true power of a veteran fire bender. There's a very difficult and precise technique involving the redirection of lightning that Zuko learns from his Uncle Iroh in the show. Funny enough, the two times Zuko successfully pulls off this maneuver is against two members of his⭕ immediate family. One of them is performed when Zuko is in a battle with his father. The other takes place when Zuko's sister tries to get the better of him. If we were to take into account the real physics behind lightning that would make Zuko's reaction time otherworldly. Being able to showcase a move learned from the one family member who believed in him against those who created the monster he was is a very beautiful moment.
21 ♔ Mom, Where Are You?
For a person as troubled as Zuko was during his childhood, it is truly ast💦ounding that he turned into what he did at the end of the series. A lot of love should be given to his Uncle Iroh who was a fundamental piece in forging the new person Zuko had grown into. Uncle Iroh was the only person in his immediate family who believed in what Zuko truly was. Team Avatar played a huge role in terms of forgiveness and acceptance as well. When Zuko became Fire Lord his first major act was to search for his long-lost mother. The backstory behind her disappearance is oddly mysterious and explains the many emotional issues Zuko had as a youth.
20 🧜 Zuko + Katara = True L𒀰ove?
A lot of times when a show is being developed, the writing team likes to throw numerous amount⛎s of ideas out and see what sticks. Many times decisions that are made late in the creation process can be forgotten, mishandled, or put on the back-burner for a multitude of reasons. In the extras commentary for one of the episodes, it is stated that it was originally intended for Katara to be Zuko's main love interest in the series.
We never see this happen in the show which is a huge bummer.
In hindsight, it doesn💧't feel like this relationship💖 would have filled a void we needed to be fixed, but it could have added another layer to Zuko's complex character arc. The showrunners have stated numerous times that a relationship between Zuko and Katara was never planned or implied despite what the extras might state.
19 Slappin' The Tsungi Horn!🧸
One of the many running gags in the Avatar series is that e🍬ven though Aang iꦍs supremely talented and extremely powerful he struggles with many simple tasks. Though it may not be seen as a simple task a specific gag is that Aang can't play an instrument known as the tsungi horn. This is pretty ironic considering Aang, someone who can move air with his might, can't play an instrument predicated on the user inputting air into it.
Musically instruments can be quite hard for certain types of people so that shouldn't be too shocking.
What is shocking is that in some behind the scenes commentary 🎉it is revealed that Zuko can actually play the tsungi horn. You would think Zuko would take any opportunity he can to embrace the Avatar, but unfortunately, we weren't treated to such a performance.
18 𒀰 What A Physi🔜que!
When you're watching a show a lot of times the subtle details a team excruciates over nailing are the ones that go unnoticed because they're so well integrated into the narrative. Small detail viewers may have missed is as Zuko's health and diet change throughout the show, his body, muscular build, and overall physique change accordingly. At the beginning of the show, we see him as a toned and stout leader of an immense force with great wealth and access to any food they'd want. When Zuko becomes an outcast and is living as a refugee near the Earth tribes we see his stature become slimmer and resemble that of a leaner more com𝐆pact individual. This has to do with the fact he was mostly eating vegetables and lacked the carbs he was used to consuming back with the Fire Nation.
17 That's Not His Name𝓰 ♎
When Zuko is outcast and is wanted for his crimes and misfortunes we're treated to wanted signs looking for the lost prince/lord that was. Those wanted posters had a different alias for him and when translated showcased different titles for who he was exactly. This titles, once translated, read as the following: ancestor's robber, awaken rank, and vertical high. Only one of these titles has an easy to understand and digestible relation to Zuko. The others seem to be lost in translation and lose any connection to the original character that's wanted. With these types of subtle details, it's understandable that the localization team tends to purposefully leave them as is or try their hardest to come ꦚup with a solution but run into numerous hurdles along the way.
16 ♛ Don't Dao🌊 Me!
The fire nation is one full of anger and fury. It's built on honor and pride, which if toyed with💖 or disrespected, could result in some serious punishment. Every nation has a select number of specialized weapons and tools they come to grow fond of due to their synergy with that nation's specific element of choice when it comes to bending. Zuko, the lord of the fire nation, is the only fire bender in his entire nation that uses dao swords. Dao swords are single-edged swords primarily known to be u🌸sed for actions needed a slicing or chopping motion. They're also known as Chinese sabers and are often seen dual-wielded. Throughout the series, we come to understand that Zuko is unique and one-of-a-kind in many ways, so being the sole wielder of a specific weapon should come as no surprise.