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Zuko's speech to his dad hits me right in the feels:
It's rare to see an abusive parent-child relationship portrayed so well in pop culture. Tangled did a terrible job by just killing the problematic parent rather than addressing the dysfunction of the relationship or the trauma that comes with it. I appreciate how Avatar did it.
Ozai is a classic Narcissist (in the clinical sense): he sees his children as extensions of himself and brutally punishes them for small infractions (Zuko's duel) or goes over the top in rewarding them for making him look good (Azula). He's not above killing them.
But in spite of this, Zuko LOVES his father and have been trying to get his needs for love met by doing some pretty awful things (like chasing the Avatar). Exile was actually the best thing for him because he got to get outside his father's bubble and see how healthy people work.
That's the thing about abusive parents: their kids still love them and often have no idea how they're being treated is wrong until much later in life. Figuring it out is often a lonely, isolated process that can't be shared with family or friends.
If you've ever had an abusive parent like this, Zuko's confronting his father means a lot.
Zuko opts for a hard path rather than his father's "love." He opts to be disowned rather than to be abused or used like a tool.
His father is too broken to appreciate it. But we can.
Zuko opts for a hard path rather than his father's "love." He opts to be disowned rather than to be abused or used like a tool.
His father is too broken to appreciate it. But we can.
I hope I get to be Uncle Iroh when I grow up
