Sozin and Roku were basically brothers. This is why "The Avatar and the Fire Lord" hurts so much and why it's so effective, particularly in how it finally, after three seasons, gives us all of the context we need for our conflict and why it happened the way it happened. As we saw earlier in the show with Kyoshi, Avatars inherit the decisions of their prior incarnations, and Roku's own failures are, in essence, the entire reason for the conflict itself. Even Sozin, as iredeemable he ends up being, makes very human decisions here and it feels less like a tale of good vs. evil and more of a tale of conflicting ideologies. Sozin simply wanted to expand the Nation and spread prosperity - but power corrupts, and that clearly turned him on the side of a conqueror. Meanwhile Roku failed to stop Sozin, but also was convinced the Nations had to be separate, something that was clearly a mistake on his part.
And just like "The Storm" from Book 1, the episode works not because of the info dump, but what it means for the cast at large. Aang realizes that the Fire Nation itself is a victim, and by stopping the Fire Lord he will also be saving the people of the Fire Nation and bringing them back from the brink. As for Zuko, this is his turning point - the moment he realizes that, no matter what he does, his destiny is not what his father wants. It's what he wants.
Review by LegionWrexBlockedParent2021-01-13T07:27:17Z
Sozin and Roku were basically brothers. This is why "The Avatar and the Fire Lord" hurts so much and why it's so effective, particularly in how it finally, after three seasons, gives us all of the context we need for our conflict and why it happened the way it happened. As we saw earlier in the show with Kyoshi, Avatars inherit the decisions of their prior incarnations, and Roku's own failures are, in essence, the entire reason for the conflict itself. Even Sozin, as iredeemable he ends up being, makes very human decisions here and it feels less like a tale of good vs. evil and more of a tale of conflicting ideologies. Sozin simply wanted to expand the Nation and spread prosperity - but power corrupts, and that clearly turned him on the side of a conqueror. Meanwhile Roku failed to stop Sozin, but also was convinced the Nations had to be separate, something that was clearly a mistake on his part.
And just like "The Storm" from Book 1, the episode works not because of the info dump, but what it means for the cast at large. Aang realizes that the Fire Nation itself is a victim, and by stopping the Fire Lord he will also be saving the people of the Fire Nation and bringing them back from the brink. As for Zuko, this is his turning point - the moment he realizes that, no matter what he does, his destiny is not what his father wants. It's what he wants.