Ran and Shaw

"fire"

- If you wish to learn the ways of the Sun... You must learn from the Masters, Ran and Shao.

Ran and Shao are two ancient dragons, revered by the Sun Warriors as the original masters of Firebending. One of them is red and the other is blue, although it is not clear which is which. They appeared together in "The Firebending Masters".

Abilities and History


They are apparently 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.

Ran and Shao practice a form of Firebending that emphasizes the life-giving qualities of fire, unlike the aggression and hatred-fueled methods employed by most benders from the Fire Nation. They are able to communicate the true meaning of Firebending, apparently through their breath, which appears as multi-colored flame. Zuko described the experience as feeling as though there was a Sun inside him, a feeling which is shared by the Sun Warriors themselves. Ran and Shao reveal this secret knowledge to Firebenders that prove themselves worthy - it is known that Iroh, Aang and Zuko have all witnessed this.

After Iroh encountered Ran and Shao, he claimed that he had fought and slain the last surviving dragon, in order to preserve the secret of Ran and Shao's existence from the rest of the world.

Trivia

 * Ran (燃, rán) means "burn" or "combustion" in Chinese. Shao (燒, shāo) means "to burn" or "to cook" as well as to "barbecue," as well as "fever". The characters can also be used together to mean "combustion", "flaming", or "kindle".

Speculation



 * Due to Iroh learning the secrets of Firebending from them, fans speculate that they taught him his fire breath.
 * Seeing that their genders aren't clarified, some speculate whether Ran and Shao are mates. It is also possible that they are siblings.
 * While closed caption name one of the dragons "Shao", the Nickelodeon website spells it "Shaw".
 * Many fans believe that the Sunstone Zuko found is really a dragon egg from Ran and Shao. He states that it feels "almost alive." If so, it would give hope that the dragon species could recover.
 * Ran and Shao seem to be a different species of dragon, as they are much larger than any previous seen dragon as well as having different facial features, or their physical characteristics might just be different because they are older than the other dragons shown.