Writers often love to write morally grey characters; seeing how far someone can go into the darkness of the world and still come back to light. This trope is often perfectly paired with redemption arcs, which allow the characters to learn the flaws in their ways. Choosing to be good rather than bad, regardless of how much it goes against what they have been taught.
Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the best examples of such a character.
A young boy who has to fight a battle against everything that he forces himself to be and every lesson he was taught as a child. Starting with a thirst for honor and the approval of his father, he slowly morphs into someone who resents the Fire Lord, and willingly chooses to be good, becoming one of the most important parts of Team Avatar.
His progression has become the blueprint for redemption arcs, being one of the best parts of the show. It would be safe to assume that the fate of the character was planned out long before the release of its first season in 2005. Despite this, fans are quite surprised to realize that his first line in the series foreshadows where his morals end up by the end.
Zuko’s First Line Wrote His Fate
Recently, a fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender posted something related to the series on X that has shocked more than a few fans. It would seem that the first line of dialogue that Zuko says in the first episode, foreshadowed his entire story progression and where he ends up by the end of the show.
“head a course for the light” says Zuko in The Boy in the Iceberg.
Much like the line, throughout his story, Zuko’s character heads slowly but steadily towards a path of light and good, walking away from all of the darkness he was born into. The subtle foreshadowing done so early has surprised more than a few fans, who love how deeply the series thought into every single detail they put in.
Aang Pulled Zuko Into The Light
When Zuko was thirteen, he was forced to participate in an Agni Kai by his father, which left him scarred and banished. He was to be exiled until he found the Avatar, who had been missing for years. Knowing this would be the only way he could win his father’s approval and outrun the shame that haunted his every waking moment, he began his quest to hunt Aang to the ends of the Earth.
“Pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source. True humility is the only antidote to shame” Iroh said to Zuko.
Their dynamic in the middle of the show was almost like a dance, with Aang coming forward with a hand of friendship and Zuko being reluctant to indulge in the weakness that comes with vulnerability. He was even the main antagonist early in the series.
Eventually, however, there is a huge shift. He decided that he no longer wanted to be like his father and fight his battles for him.
Rather, he wanted to join hands with Aang and help defeat Fire Lord Ozai for good and bring peace to his world; the peace he had been disrupting for so long. From one of the main antagonists of the first season to a protagonist of the third, his arc is truly like no other.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is available for streaming on Netflix.
