It is without a shadow of a doubt that one can say that Fire Lord Ozai and General Iroh are on two opposite ends of the spectrum. While Ozai is the character that most people remember and come back to again and again, Ozai is often relegated by most fans to the simple status of the big bad. However, we do not get to see these two characters have any sort of arc. Instead, the story plays out through Azula and Zuko.
Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix might attempt to explore the relationship between Ozai and Iroh, beyond what the original animated series did. Daniel Dae Kim opened up about the ideas that the show could explore, speaking to Teen Vogue.
Season 2 of Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix would explore the relationship between Ozai and Iroh
Daniel Dae Kim talked to Teen Vogue about this development for Season 2. The animated series barely explored the relationship between Iroh and Ozain, instead choosing to have them interact via their stand-ins (thematically speaking): Azula and Zuko. He said:
“What is the relationship between the two of them when the second son supersedes the first? And how does Iroh feel about all of that? We never really see that explored. I’d also like to see what happened to Zuko and Azula’s mom. These kinds of things are crucial to deepening the character, and I would love to see a little bit more of his history and how that informs who he is now.”
The idea of exploring the relationship between Ozai and Iroh directly is a novel idea for sure, but it could lead to issues with character arcs as we go along with the story. There are not many instances that allow Iroh to meet with Ozai, which would mean there would have to be scenes inserted about their youth. We do have one scene where Fire Lord Azulon scolds Ozai for suggesting that Iroh be disinherited from the throne, but that is all we get.
Netflix’s Avatar has already begun exploring Ozai and Iroh’s relationship
There are three key scenes where we see Ozai and Iroh interact, something that does not exist in the original animated series. We see Ozai offer his condolences to Iroh on the death of Lu Ten, asking the General to take comfort in knowing that Lu Ten will pass into legend in the Fire Nation. We then see Iroh trying to stop his brother from engaging his son in an Agni Kai. The third time, we see Iroh attempt to stop Ozai from talking to Zuko after the interaction.
These interactions already set the stage for a deeper exploration of the characters, something that this version of the story seems to be keen to do. There is a thesis in this adaptation of the story, which would like to focus on creating its own arcs while following the story only in broad strokes.
