11.09
And that is how Zuko found his mother. Stupid, isn't it?
I’m pretty sure somebody at Nickelodeon took a peek at my mind to see what I would want in an episode. This week’s was packed with non-sexual fanservice splattered all over. I knew Wan Shi Tong would appear somewhere in the season, but Iroh’s return instantly brings this episode several levels higher than the rest of this season. It even surpasses the Wan two-parter. Yeah, Iroh’s my favorite character, so this is too heavily biased. For people who couldn’t care less about Iroh or never saw the first show, his appearance seems odd than anything. To a newcomer, he’s just some random spirit mentor who invites Korra to a tea party. This ties the show too much to Avatar the Last Airbender rather than being its own story. But seeing him after all this time just makes me want to forgive any hurdles this episode might have hit.
And if anyone can balance Korra’s emotions out, there’s no one better than Iroh. Her situation—dealing with rogue family members while struggling with her emotions—mirrors Zuko so much that having Iroh appear seems fitting. While she had the supportive friends Zuko lacked, being the Avatar means she can seldom find someone to look up and talk to. As much as Tenzin tries, Korra’s began to outgrow him. Tenzin can look wise by being the leading Air Nomad (out of four), but he can’t test Korra on the level Iroh could with Zuko. Iroh always played with Zuko’s expectations, shifting from a bumbling uncle who sat back and drank tea to an esteemed Firebending master.
And he achieves that by having been on the wrong moral side. Losing the Battle of Ba Sing Se and his son brought Iroh to perspective, realizing if what he’s fought for all this time might not be right. Tenzin hasn’t achieved that yet. He’s shown a few glimpses, like when Kya and Bumi complained about Aang’s favoritism. Then there’s how Jinora’s abduction might bring Tenzin down a few pegs. But so far, Tenzin’s always shown as someone who can do no wrong, while Iroh is someone who has committed mistakes and tries to be a good man in spite of that past. It goes back to that scene in “Zuko Alone”, where Iroh lovingly wrote a letter to his relatives with a joke about burning a city to the ground. Then soon after, he loses his son and throws away his desire for conquest to mourn and realize he’s done the same thing to countless Earth Kingdom civilians, heading the Order of the White Lotus as a form of penance.
But we haven’t gotten that development in Tenzin. He’s always been the good man, raised from birth with Aang’s teachings in mind and very few allusions to any thorns in his past. Tenzin is the source of wisdom because the show says so, with little to establish why we should listen to him other than being Aang’s son. That could be a good character arc for him, where he has to fight from the shadow of his father while having to go through the darkness that requires true astuteness. After a few years of having his messages be unheeded by Korra, as well as having his father’s legacy thrown upon him, perhaps it would be interesting to see how all that works into Tenzin’s psyche.