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Iroh is a major character in the Nickelodeon cartoon, Avatar: The Last Airbender, as well as a minor supporting character in The Legend of Korra. He was a retired Fire Nation General, a former Crown Prince of the nation, a Grand Lotus of the Order of the White Lotus, a firebending master, and a wise mentor to his nephew Zuko. He was the elder son of Fire Lord Azulon and Ilah and the older brother of Ozai. Iroh's well-known ability to breathe fire, and his claims of "slaying" the last dragon, earned him the honorary title "The Dragon of the West."
Unlike many other individuals from the Fire Nation, particularly those within his own family, Iroh was a wise, easy-going, and spiritual man. He appreciated and admired the balance of the four elements, and even incorporated aspects of the other elements into his own firebending techniques. Iroh aided Avatar Aang and his companions on several occasions and was consequently branded as a traitor. An extremely conscious person, it was claimed that he journeyed to the Spirit World in search of his deceased son Lu Ten. His knowledge and respect for the four elements allowed him to provide advice to others; he assisted many close associates and friends.
After the traumatic death of his son, Iroh saw Zuko as his own son rather than his nephew and encouraged him to choose his own destiny, rather than a fate member of the royal family expected of him. Upon Zuko's coronation as Fire Lord after Ozai's defeat and the conflict's conclusion, he reopened the Jasmine Dragon tea shop and served tea for the rest of his retirement. When he deemed his business in the mortal world finished, Iroh chose to leave his body behind and travel to the Spirit World, where he continued serving tea to various spirits.
What has He Done Heroic?[]
Background[]
Iroh was the firstborn son of Fire Lord Azulon, but Azulon was succeeded by his second son, Ozai, following Iroh's retreat from public affairs, after his son Lu Ten died in the siege of the Earth Kingdom's capital Ba Sing Se, which had held against numerous successive Fire Nation efforts at capture during the duration of the Hundred Years War. Iroh had a vision early in life that he would be the one to capture the city, but the death of his only son broke his desire to continue in the effort; having always been driven more by a sense of duty than personal ambition, Iroh abandoned the siege.
Ozai, the far more opportunistic and ambitious of the brothers, attempted to convince their father that, owing to Iroh's shameful defeat, decreased standing in the nation, and lack of heirs, Ozai ought to be made heir to the leadership of the Fire Nation. However, Azulon was incensed at this lack of respect for Iroh's position and his loss and ordered Ozai to kill his own son, Prince Zuko, as an act of atonement. Instead, Ozai conspired with his wife, Princess Ursa, to assassinate Azulon and seize the leadership while Iroh was in mourning and disinterested in state affairs; with the life of her son on the line, Ursa did not feel she could refuse and assisted Ozai in a successful poisoning of Azulon. Ozai ascended to the position of Fire Lord: although the events immediately following Azulon's secret murder are never depicted in flashbacks, it seems that his death was explained as the result of natural causes and that the still-mourning Iroh had no interest in challenging his brother for control of the nation, instead acquiescing to Ozai's investiture as Fire Lord and entering a permanent semi-retirement from state affairs.
Iroh was believed to have killed off the last of the world's dragons, earning him the title "Dragon of the West"; but in actuality he was secretly the pupil of the last two dragons, and thus learned from them to drive his firebending powers from vitality rather than from rage as most of his contemporary firebenders did; Iroh lied about killing the last of the dragons to bring an end to the Fire Nation tradition of dragon hunts. He was a high-ranking member of the international secret society known as the Order of the White Lotus.
Storyline[]
Iroh is accompanying the banished Prince Zuko in his quest to capture the Avatar, a superhuman whose task to maintain world order makes him a threat to the Fire Nation's campaign of conquest. Having learnt that Zhao, a Fire National admiral, planned kill the moon spirit to take away the Water Tribes' power of waterbending, disrupting the natural order, Iroh attacks him and is named a traitor.
During Book Two, he and his nephew are now fugitives from the Fire Nation. After being gravely wounded by his niece Azula and cared for by his nephew, Iroh teaches Zuko a Waterbending-inspired technique of redirecting lightning, which can be generated by an advanced form of firebending which Zuko, with his unfocused mind, has been unable to master, but which his sister and competitor to the throne, easily commands, being a firebending prodigy. Iroh eventually takes refuge in Ba Sing Se, where he and Zuko operate a teahouse. Iroh is dismayed when Azula convinces her brother to betray them and is arrested while covering Aang and his friends' escape from the conquered city.
Held in a Fire Nation prison, Iroh fakes despair while preparing himself for the solar eclipse, during which Firebending does not work. Once the eclipse begins, Iroh escapes his cell, being a formidable opponent even without the use of firebending. In the series finale, Iroh has called the White Lotus to liberate Ba Sing Se, and advises Zuko to become the new Firelord rather then taking the title himself. After Ozai's defeat in the hands Avatar Aang, Zuko's is coronated as Firelord, Iroh returns to Ba Sing Se to operate his tea shop; the final scenes of the series take place in that shop.
Aftermath of The Last Airbender and Beginning of Korra's Story[]
In the comic book sequel The Promise, Iroh offers Aang and Zuko advice on dealing with the Harmony Restoration Movement, a movement that aims to expel members of the Fire Nation ethnic group from Earth Kingdom territory; he also invents bubble tea. In the comic book The Search, Iroh becomes acting Firelord while Zuko travels to locate his mother Ursa. Bored with his new title, he uses his authority to declare a National Tea Appreciation Day.
The Legend of Korra[]
In the sequel series The Legend of Korra, Iroh is revealed to have used a form of astral projection at the time of his death to become a resident of the Spirit World. In the episode "Darkness Falls", having known them in life, Iroh encounters Aang's children Tenzin, Kya, and Bumi when they enter the Spirit World and provides them with hints as to the location of the spirit of Tenzin's daughter Jinora. Korra again encounters Iroh in "The Ultimatum," when she enters the Spirit World in search of the anarchist terrorist Zaheer. Korra explains to Iroh that she is confused and doesn't know how to deal with the threat Zaheer poses to both the newly reformed Air Nation and the world. Iroh suggests that Korra seek Zuko's counsel, as Aang once did.
Zuko's grandson is named Iroh in honour of his great-granduncle, and is a general of the United Forces, the armed services of the United Republic of Nations, a multi-ethnic nation founded by Aang and Zuko out of territories that were disputed between the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom after the end of the Hundred Years War.
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