Why Zuko Alone is a great character building episode for Prince Zuko

Zuko Alone is my fav episode of the whole show. This episode is a writing beauty that tells you that you do not need to show spectacle in your show/movie to do a good story. This episode has a basic premise to it where it shows a single character in a village helping people which is very akin to Akira Kurosowa' s Yojimbo but the direction of this episode is completely different from the movie.

This episode is a straight character-driven episode for Prince Zuko done well. His character is at the midpoint of his arc where he is no longer the angry, petulant antagonistic kid we saw in Season 1. He is grown to be more of a reflective and sad anti - hero. So this episode begins with Zuko alone riding on a horse as he is hungry and unsheaths his sword to kill a man and take his food but refrains to do it when he finds he has a pregnant wife.

At this point in the show, he is a lost, outcast prince discarded and abandoned by his family except for General Iroh. He is searching for his identity and purpose. He enters a village and makes some enemies with the pseudo earth kingdom troopers which are bandits. He meets a child who leads him to the house. At this point, he empathizes and feels sympathy for the actions of the Fire Nation and the destruction caused by the Fire Nation established in the previous episode. He finds out that the elder brother in the house has joined the war and starts getting flashbacks which are prevalent throughout the episode.

These flashbacks do a great job portraying Zuko's dynamic with his mother and Azula. The flashbacks begin with Zuko as he is established as good-natured at heart and cares deeply about his family and his love for his mother. He only wants to be in the good books of his father Ozai and wants to meet his expectations for which Azula taunts him every time for this and we get to see the tension between them. We see the defeat of General Iroh and the loss of his son and Azula is indifferent to it where Zuko sympathizes with him.

Ozai tells the Fire Lord i.e. his father to revoke Iroh's birthright and make him his successor to which his father objects and is killed by Ozai. Azula in a cold-blooded manner tells Zuko falsely that their father would have to kill Zuko for his "betrayal" to Iroh. We see Zuko's mother leaving him at dawn and Zuko is shocked by it. I noticed in these flashbacks that Azula does not do evil and despicable things just for the sake of being evil but there is an afterthought behind it. She is like Michael from Godfather who is evil but cold and calculating at the same time. She wants her father to rule as he is proud of her as he values her fighting skills whereas Prince Iroh seemingly does not which is explicitly shown when Iroh gives her a doll and Zuko is given a knife. These flashbacks if done correctly are great mediums for character and story building and this episode is a great example of this method of storytelling.

As we cut to Zuko we see him sleeping only for the little boy to intrude and take his swords to practice. We see Zuko joining him and we get a heart-touching moment where he shows how to use his swords and those 2 swords reflect Zuko's personality as one is full of pride and arrogance and his other one is a caring, kind-hearted one we see him right now. The next day Zuko is ready to move on when the bandits come to his house and tell that the household's elder son was captured in the war. They force his father to join the war efforts which he budges but accepts it tearfully.

We see Zuko moving on and give the Fire Nation knife to the child that says " Never give up hope ". This act signifies his rejection of the Fire Nation. Now after a few minutes, we see that the bandits once again come to the house to take the boy forcefully for the war efforts and are tied to ropes when he tries to defend himself using the knife. Zuko returns and confronts the bandits and we get a Spaghetti western battle where Zuko is trying not to use his firebending tactics to gain the upper hand and so at one point the leader of the bandit knocks him out unconscious and we get a flashback to his mom where she says " Never let go of your identity" .

It is at this moment where he uses his firebending powers, defeats the leader of the bandits, and declares himself as the prince of the Fire Nation and the son of the Fire Lord Ozai. This startles the villagers including the boy who looked upon him as an elder brother only to hate him because of his heritage and the place where he comes from. I love how this show does not end on a comfortable ending where people realize that maybe not all Fire Nation firebenders are evil. This show takes the extreme step and shows the harsh cruelties of life that people will judge you from where you come from and your heritage. This puts a shame in the heart of Zuko and weighs with him throughout the show setting up his redemption arc in Season 3.

Closing thoughts :-

This episode is a writing marvel and a great way on how to elevate a simple straightforward episode into complex character-building which fleshes the character and sets him up for his character arc inside 25 minutes. It uses its flashbacks cleverly which builds the story instead of slowing the pace which could have made it redundant alongside the character dynamic with other characters. This episode is my favourite episode out of the first 2 seasons of this show.