"My Name is Zuko"

WARNING: lots of spoilers ahead.

In any story, my favorite character is usually the "bishounen" (the cool-guy type), the "darksider" (good-turned-bad, or bad-turned-good), or the rebel. Despite being all three, Zuko, from the cartoon series Avatar, barely makes it into my favorites list.

In the beginning

The first time I saw Zuko, I knew immediately that he was going to become one of the protagonists soon. It was a big flaw in his character's design because it takes away the drama from something that's supposed to be one of the most dramatic points in the antagonist's life: his conversion.

He was meant to be introduced as a villain but his characterization as a villain is just very weak. The first time he is shown, he's already showing an expression that's very unbecoming of a villain: shock. And he is shown with no army to do his evil bidding, not even a secret lair or hideout. He's just standing there, on board a lone ship in the middle of nowhere, with a funny-looking uncle who doesn't even encourage Zuko's ambition. The presence of Iroh there also contributes to the failure of the villain image; what kind of notorious bad guy brings his uncle around?

In Zuko's succeeding appearances, he is given background. Still, none of them helped establish the image of a villain. You find out that he is in exile, and that he is doing his task to redeem his honor. And now, prince as he may be, the only things under his command are one ship and a few crewmen who just seem to be part of the setting, without names and all. Zuko is clearly the underdog here. What part of all this is supposed to make him look like a villain?

Plus, he is shown to be learning firebending basics! Come on! You're supposed to be the threat to the protagonists' much-coveted victory, and you're just learning BASICS?!

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy

Another problem is that Zuko shares the spotlight with other more accomplished villains.

First off, there's Zhao. Ambitious, cruel, and has the Fire Nation Navy under his command. Hmm, now there's a villain - as opposed to Zuko, whose ambition is brought about by "honor" (that's so good-guy), who has no cruelty beyond a short temper, and who only has for resources a single ship and a crew so pathetic that he actually has to do his own fighting!

Come season 2, enter Azula. She picks up where Zhao left off and takes villainy to a whole new level. She effortlessly eclipses Zuko's evil because even as kids, she had always been superior both intellectually and physically. Given this friction between the two, they never had much of a sibling rivalry. I'd say it was more of a subjugation. And now that they're both grown-up, the gap is bigger, especially since Zuko had been exiled for three years. Also, Zuko's whining about how his sister was "born lucky" and how he, on the other hand, was told he was "lucky to be born" contributed to the towering advantage of Azula as the greater evil.

In addition to the comparison between the two siblings, Azula makes use of her resources in a way that really makes her look like a villain. During her first few appearances, her army escort did for her all kinds of evil tasks, from trying to take Zuko and Iroh captive to invading Omashu. And when she decided she wanted to be more mobile, bringing only a small group with her, this small group was composed of personal friends with names and in-depth characterization, unlike Zuko's crew.

And now I'm good...wupdeedoo.

By season 3, Zuko gets more emo and finally crosses over to the good side. This would've been a very dramatic move, if only it was unexpected.

And now that he's a good guy, you can barely find any trace of him being the former antagonist. Maybe it's because he wasn't much of an antagonist in the first place. He gets along okay with the Avatar now, the very person he used to hunt down to the ends of the world. The only trace of him being the former villain is Katara's cold attitude towards him. But what is his reaction to this? He lets Katara bully him around! And again, he still has no cruelty beyond a short temper (except when it's Katara trying to get his temper up).

So, now what?

As unforgivable as my butchering of Zuko's reputation may seem, I DID mention that he was in my favorite characters list, right? He's just feeding off the dust at the bottom, but he's on that list. That's why I bothered making this entire entry about him. I like him because he could've been so much, but he just didn't pull it off.

Oh, well. The show's not over yet. Let's see if he redeems his honor.