Ran and Shaw

"fire"

- If you wish to learn the ways of the Sun... You must learn from the Masters, Ran and Shaw. Ran and Shaw were two ancient dragons, revered by the Sun Warriors as the original masters of Firebending. One of them was red and the other was blue, although it is not clear which was which.

Abilities and History
Ran and Shaw practiced a form of Firebending that emphasized the life-giving qualities of fire, unlike the aggressive and hatred-fueled methods employed by most modern benders from the Fire Nation. They were able to communicate the true meaning of Firebending, apparently through their breath, which appeared as multi-colored flame. Zuko described the experience as feeling as though there was a Sun inside him, a feeling which was shared by the Sun Warriors themselves. Ran and Shaw revealed this secret knowledge to Firebenders that proved themselves worthy. Many people presented themselves to Ran and Shaw over the years, but the dragons deemed worthy only a few people including Iroh, Aang, and Zuko. They were the last surviving dragons. The rest of the species was hunted almost to extinction by Firebenders after Fire Lord Sozin advocated killing dragons for glory. After Iroh encountered Ran and Shaw and was deemed worthy, he claimed that he had fought and slain the last surviving dragon, in order to preserve the secret of Ran and Shaw's existence from the rest of the world.

Their ultimate fate after the War is unknown. It is also unknown whether they ever came out of hiding.

Trivia



 * The use of the two names may have been a veiled tribute to Run Run Shaw, one of two brothers who headed the Shaw Brothers Studio company, famous for producing a number of kung fu movies throughout the fifties to mid-nineties.
 * Ran and Shaw are much larger in size than other dragons shown such as Roku's animal guide Fang.
 * Ran (燃, rán) means "burn" or "combustion" in Chinese. Shaw is similar to shao, which (燒, shāo) means "to burn" or "to cook" as well as to "barbecue," and "fever". The characters can also be used together to mean "combustion", "flaming", or "kindle". * Combined together, Ran and Shaw produce the first part of Ránshāo zhōng, 燃燒中, which means "aflame" in traditional Chinese.
 * Two similar dragons appeared in Zuko's visions while he endured his sickness. The blue dragon representing Azula was on Zuko's left, and the red dragon representing Iroh was on his right.
 * Red and blue dragons also accompanied Avatar Roku and Fire Lord Sozin respectively.