Zuko

Zuko, also known as Hong Lee, Junior, Sifu Hotman, The Blue Spirit and Zuzu, is a character from the Avatar: The Last Airbender series.
== Charactah Account ==
Even as the prince of the Fire Nation, Zuko has always struggled in life, particularly in matching his prodigy sister Azula and getting his father's acknowledgement. This came to a head when Ozai punished him for a perceived slight by horrifically burning his face and sending him into exile, refusing to let him return until he had captured the Avatar. (This was intended as a Snipe Hunt, since Aang had been missing for a century). Determined to prove his worth to his father, Zuko hunted Aang across the world for the first season while trying to find his own destiny. Zuko later joins Team Avatar later on.
For the worse, Zuko is quite rude and argumentative, his words often offend or even hurt others. Zuko is also very impulsive and headstrong, so he has a tendency to not think things through, as shown many time in the series, ranging from before when he volunteered to show a firebending move to his grandfather without even mastering the move, or during the series, when he finally managed to kidnap Aang, but had no place to take him after being trapped in a blizzard.
After his revelation to where Zuko defected over to Aang's side he learns to be much more calmer and relaxed, and is able to serve as Aang's firebending teacher and while he wanted Aang to kill his father to end his tyranny, he is just as satisfied when Aang strips Ozai of his firebending power in the end. 
== Appearance ==
=== Cartoons ===
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book One: Water
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book Two: Earth
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book Three: Fire
* The Legend of Korra - Book Three: Change
* The Legend of Korra - Book Four: Balance
=== Comics ===
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book Two: Earth
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book Three: Fire
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - North and South Part One
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - North and South Part Two
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - North and South Part Three
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - Smoke and Shadow
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - Suki, Alone
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Search
=== Video Games ===
* Avatar: Legends of the Arena
* Avatar: The Last Airbender
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - Into the Inferno
* Avatar: The Last Airbender – Quest for Balance
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Burning Earth
* Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway
* Nicktoons MLB
* The Legend of Korra
== Trivia ==
* At Emerald City ComiCon 2017, Gene Luen Yang implied that Zuko and Mai rekindled their relationship three years after their break-up in The Promise Part Two, though official confirmation of this happening has not yet occurred.
* Zuko's hair is black in all of his appearances in Book One: Water, differing from the dark brown used throughout the rest of the franchise.
* Zuko's first major act as Fire Lord was to send out search parties for his mother.
* Zuko is the first character to have an entire episode, "Zuko Alone", completely to himself with no other main characters appearing except in flashbacks, the second being Korra in the Book Four episode "Korra Alone".
* Zuko's name was listed on a Fire Nation wanted poster which translates as "ancestors robber". Later, in "The Tales of Ba Sing Se", his name was written on his segment's title card, which is the phonetic transcription based on the official guide for foreign names, and which can also be translated as "awaken rank". In The Search Part One, however, when Ursa writes a letter to Ikem, she writes Zuko's name with the second character variant.
** The name Zuko is phonetically similar to suko, a Cebuano word meaning "angry". This derivation corresponds to Zuko's ill-tempered personality portrayed in all three books.
* According to Iroh, Zuko is a bad tea maker, though he seemed to have gotten better by the time of "The Boiling Rock, Part 1", as he was seen serving tea to the members of Team Avatar and they drank it without any apparent disgust.
* Zuko successfully used his uncle's lightning redirection technique twice, against his father and his sister.
* Zuko had above-average abilities that helped him survive certain situations. In "The Waterbending Master" with Avatar Extras bonus commentary, when the pirates infiltrated Zuko's ship, one of the commentary bubbles said that Zuko had above average hearing abilities, waking up when he heard one of the pirates opening a rusty door. In "The Siege of the North, Part 1" with Avatar Extras bonus commentary, when swimming through the underwater tunnels, one of the commentary bubbles said that Zuko could hold his breath for an unusually long amount of time. In addition, it is stated by Uncle Iroh in "The Avatar State" that they had survived for three weeks without food or water.
* In the pilot episode, it is shown that Zuko was originally supposed to have a pet hawk, but it did not make it into the show. A pet hawk did make it into the show as Hawky, Sokka's pet, though it only appeared for one episode.
* Zuko took part in all three Agni Kais shown in the series: the first between him and Ozai, the second between him and Zhao, and the third between him and Azula.
* According to the Avatar Extras bonus in "The Cave of Two Lovers", Zuko's story throughout the series is similar to that of the Buddha.
* Zuko is the only person from the Fire Nation known to use dao swords to firebend.
* According to the Avatar Extras for "The Waterbending Master", Zuko was gifted in playing the tsungi horn, in contrast to Aang, who was terrible at it.
* Zuko was shown to cry five times, in "The Storm", "Zuko Alone", "Bitter Work", "The Day of Black Sun, Part Two: The Eclipse", and finally, in "Sozin's Comet: Part 2, The Old Masters".
* Zuko was the first of only two characters to bleed in the series. He bled for the first time in "The Avatar State" when Azula scratched his forehead with her nails. The second character to bleed was Appa in "Appa's Lost Days".
* According to the Avatar Extras for "The Avatar Returns" and the Avatar Extras for "The Ember Island Players" respectively, "Zuko was originally going to be the love interest for Katara" and "The writers and creators toyed with the idea of Zuko and Katara falling in love". Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko deny that there was ever any intention for Zuko and Katara to become a couple. However, this statement is contradicted by writer John O'Bryan, who said that the topic of Katara ending up with Zuko instead of Aang came up a lot in the writer's room. This is corroborated by writer Joshua Hamilton who said that the staff argued about whether Katara should end up with Zuko or Aang. M. Night Shyamalan has also recalled that during the production of Book Three: Fire, DiMartino and Konietzko were undecided, "At that time they hadn't even decided where things were going to end, even like who Katara was going to end up with."
* Throughout Book Two: Earth, Zuko visibly started losing muscle as he was forced to live off the land of the Earth Kingdom as a refugee. This changed in Book Three: Fire, when he was reaffirmed as a prince; as seen in "The Beach" and "The Ember Island Players", his body was much fitter than it was in Book Two.
* Taking the throne at the age of sixteen years, Zuko is the youngest known Fire Lord.
** Additionally, Zuko is the second youngest known person to become the ruler of a state, the first being Earth King Kuei.
* Zuko is the first of two known rulers in the Avatar franchise to willingly abdicate his throne, the other being Earth King Wu.
** Zuko is also the second known Fire Lord, after his father, not to have died prior to their successor taking the throne.
* Zuko's voice actor, Dante Basco, also voiced General Iroh, Zuko's grandson.
* Zuko is the second of three characters to have joined a Team Avatar and to have a father who is antagonistic toward them and their allies. The other two are Toph Beifong and Asami Sato.
* There are many parallels between Zuko and Asami Sato.
** Both were born to upper-class families and lived under the influence of their ambitious fathers.
** Both characters eventually spoke out against their fathers after realizing that they had little regard for righteousness and could no longer feel actual affection toward anyone.
** Their reactions to this acknowledgment were also similar, as both Zuko and Asami had to make a choice between joining the Avatar to stop their fathers or serving their fathers, and both characters made the former choice, turning against their parents with quick lightning-based attacks.
** Lastly, both characters were temporarily reduced to greater poverty and isolation as a result of following their beliefs.
** Both Ozai and Hiroshi were ultimately imprisoned for their actions.
* Although the Blue Spirit was Zuko's disguise, the character was depicted as a different person altogether in the play The Boy in the Iceberg and the non-canon short "School Time Shipping".
* The Blue Spirit mask used by Zuko was among the collection of masks from the play Love amongst the Dragons that Ursa kept hidden in her quarters behind a painting of her and Ozai. She had them secretly made to remind her of Ikem and Hira'a Acting Troupe.
* Zuko has a close relationship with his grandson, General Iroh.
* In his old age, Zuko holds the title of "Lord".
* When describing Zuko in his old age, the creators likened him to the archetypically tough characters played by Clint Eastwood.
* Zuko is the first character in the entire Avatar universe known to have been scarred by a close relative, the second being Lin Beifong in The Legend of Korra. However, he was scarred deliberately, whereas Lin accidentally.
* Zuko is the last surviving male member of the original Team Avatar.
* Despite the extent of the burn scar inflicted by his father, Zuko retained full functionality in his left tear duct.
* In July 2020, the game SMITE launched a battle pass that featured two skins with which the player could alter the appearance of the Japanese storm god Susano to look like Zuko in Book Three or his appearance as the Blue Spirit.
* Zuko's addition to the plot of Avatar came from executive producer Eric Coleman; during production, when Ozai was planned to be the main villain, Coleman suggested that they needed a character who would follow Team Avatar.
** Additionally, Zuko was initially to be portrayed as an adult. Coleman, however, suggested that the character be portrayed as a really driven kid chasing Aang. It was followed by Konietzko asking whether he can have a scar, to which Coleman agreed. As a result, Coleman was dubbed "the godfather of Zuko".
== Gallery ==
File:Zuko Render 01.png
File:Zuko 01.png
File:Zuko 02.png
File:Zuko 03.png
File:Zuko 04.png
File:Zuko Fan Art 01.png
File:Zuko Wallpaper 01.png
== External Links ==
* Zuko at Avatar Wiki
Category:Characters
Category:Males
Category:Avatar: The Last Airbender