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a thread about zuko and aang’s connection in the finale:
there are a lot of parallels between aang and zuko in the show as a whole, but the way that their most fateful decisions mirror each other—and how that’s highlighted in the finale—has always been a really interesting one to me.
when speaking about his experience in his father’s war meeting, zuko states, “my whole life, i struggled to gain my father's love & acceptance, but once i had it, i realized i'd lost myself getting there. i'd forgotten who i was”
one of the most important aspects of zuko’s character arc is about not forgetting himself, and aang’s arc in the finale is much the same. when he hesitates to take out the melon lord, he says, “i’m sorry, but it just didn’t feel right. i didn’t feel like myself”
aang defeating ozai, just like zuko regaining his honor, was his initial character motivation. it was something he defined himself by, especially in the final season. yet, just like zuko, when he finally had the opportunity to meet his goal, he wasn’t himself.
the struggle wasn’t with meeting the goal. aang COULD have taken down ozai had he redirected the lightning at him, yet he chose not to—because by k*lling him, he would have lost himself (aang, the last airbender) along the way.
zuko COULD have stayed with his father, he COULD have been the “perfect prince,” yet he chose not to, because someone who stays silent when atrocities are being planned against innocents is not who zuko is.
zuko is not just his father’s successor, and aang is not just the avatar. by trying to adhere to the roles they had been forced into, they lost the parts of them that made them /them/.
zuko lost the part of himself that spoke out against injustice, that empathized, and that cared for the well-being of all people—the person he grew into over the course of the show and had been in the past.
aang nearly lost the part of himself that refused to take a life, that refused to let his values be sacrificed, and that would not abandon his people or his culture again—the person he always had been.
zuko and aang refused to let their true selves be taken away from them—they refused to let the lot that they’d been given control them. the climactic moments where they made their decisions to break the mold are even similar, with both aang and zuko redirecting lightning at ozai.
so when aang is struggling to reconcile his goal as the avatar (to defeat ozai) w/ his identity as the last airbender, it’s unsurprising that zuko is the one who best understands that it’s something that he has to do alone—as zuko himself has struggled with something similar
anyway zuko and aang have some of the coolest parallels in the show and this one in the finale is no exception!
