Zhao

"fire"

- I am a legend now! The Fire Nation will for generations tell stories about the great Zhao who darkened the moon! They will call me Zhao the Conqueror! Zhao the Moon Slayer! Zhao... the invincible!

Zhao was a Captain, then Commander and later, being promoted by Fire Lord Ozai personally, an Admiral in the Fire Nation Navy. He was a master Firebender, and a rival to the banished Prince Zuko. One of the most powerful men in the Fire Nation, Zhao took it upon himself to capture the Avatar, Aang, and nearly succeeded at least once. Other than Prince Zuko, Admiral Zhao was the main antagonist of Book One, being responsible for besieging the Northern Water Tribe and temporarily killing the Moon Spirit, subsequent to his own death.

Background


In his youth, Zhao studied under the now-renegade Firebending master, Jeong Jeong, but stayed under his tutelage only as long as necessary to learn destructive maneuvers, rejecting Jeong Jeong's attempts to teach him discipline. This lack of self-control, combined with a fiery temper, resulted in a tendency to make foolish mistakes when provoked. Any endeavor Zhao took was in the name of his own ego and self-gratification.

As a junior Lieutenant serving under General Shu in the Earth Kingdom, Zhao discovered a vast hidden underground library, later revealed to be the library of the spirit Wan Shi Tong. Interested to learn the information it held, he searched through scroll after scroll until he came across a detailed illustration with the words "moon" and "ocean". It was there that he learned about the Moon and Ocean Spirits of the Water Tribe and where their mortal incarnations could be found. He is also quite possibly the one to have burned information about the Fire Nation that was recorded in the Spirit Library. After this incident, he became obsessed with his supposed destiny: to destroy the Ocean and Moon Spirits.

In spite of his temper, Zhao rose through the ranks over the years, from Lieutenant to Captain to Commander, and then finally to Admiral. This last promotion was granted by Fire Lord Ozai himself.

Zhao was one of the witnesses to the Agni Kai between Zuko and his father, Fire Lord Ozai, during which Ozai burned Zuko's face and banished him from the Fire Nation. Relishing in seeing Zuko suffer showed just how cruel Zhao really was.

A Bitter Rivalry
One day, he was commanding a Fire Nation naval base when Zuko docked his ship and asked for repairs to the damage caused by his battle with the Avatar. Zuko initially told Zhao that the damage was caused by crashing into an Earth Kingdom ship, but Zhao sensed that he was hiding something. He invited a reluctant Zuko and a jolly Iroh to drink tea in his office. However, he secretly had the banished prince's crew interrogated. After the questioning revealed Zuko's encounter with the Avatar, Zhao had Zuko and Iroh confined in his office. He said that the task of capturing the Avatar is too important to entrust to a teenager, and announced his own intentions to capture the young Avatar. The ambitious Commander and the wayward Prince began a verbal argument, which ended in Zuko challenging Zhao to an Agni Kai.

During the battle, Zhao initially had the upper hand, easily parrying the youngster's attacks and launching powerful attacks of his own. However, just as the Commander seemed on the verge of victory, Zuko managed to break his stance. Pressing his advantage, the young prince aggressively attacked Zhao, until he had the older man laying on his back. Zuko struggled for a moment with the idea of killing him. Zhao urged Zuko to attack, but Zuko fired a small fire blast at the ground beside his head as a warning, an act which caused Zhao to label him a coward.



As Zuko was walking away from the battle, an enraged Zhao attempted to attack with Zuko's back turned, but was stopped by Iroh. Iroh said that Zhao's behavior in defeat was disgraceful and dishonorable. This event sparked a bitter rivalry between Zuko and Zhao ("The Southern Air Temple").

Shortly after the Avatar's return to the world, Zhao was commanding a number of Fire Nation ships forming a blockade between Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom waters. During this time, the Avatar tried to cross into Fire Nation territory to reach Avatar Roku's Temple. Zhao ordered his ships to open fire upon the Avatar with no concern for hitting Prince Zuko's ship, which was in pursuit of the Avatar at the time. Aang managed to pass the blockade, and presuming Zuko to know Aang's destination, Zhao allowed Zuko to pass the blockade and continue pursuing the Avatar. He tracked Zuko's boat to Avatar Roku's temple and, because he had been forbidden to re-enter Fire Nation territory, arrested Zuko along with the Avatar's companions. Aang was within a sealed chamber at the time, and Zhao waited for the Avatar to leave the main chamber to arrest him as well. However, due to Aang's contact with Avatar Roku, Zhao is instead face to face with Avatar Roku himself ; Roku freed the prisoners and began destroying the island. Zhao managed to escape, but with no Prince or Avatar he attempted to save face by declaring all of the Fire Sages traitors, despite their protests that only Fire Sage Shyu helped the Avatar.

Promotion to Admiral
Later, Zhao requested that Colonel Shinu, commander of a Fire Nation fortress in the Earth Kingdom, use the legendary Yu Yan Archers to help capture the Avatar. Zhao insisted Shinu was wasting their talents in using them as security guards, but Shinu scoffed that Zhao's hunt for the Avatar was nothing more than a vanity project. However, a message arrived from the Fire Lord Ozai; promoting Zhao to Admiral, who made his request an order.



Zhao began to use his position to hinder his rival, Zuko, by blockading the port they anchored. Zuko's desperation to return home grew as Zhao's far greater resources gave him a great advantage in capturing the Avatar. The Yu Yan Archers successfully captured Aang and brought him to the fortress. Zhao, confident that the Avatar was defeated, gave a speech to the soldiers of the fortress forecasting the ultimate Fire Nation victory. Unbeknownst to him, a blue-masked warrior infiltrated the fortress and freed the Avatar. Together, they fought past the guards and escaped to the last gate, where the soldiers managed to corner the two combatants. Zhao ordered the Avatar captured alive, as otherwise he would simply reincarnate and trouble the Fire Nation in a new life, when the Blue Spirit (as he was later known) held Aang hostage at sword point. Zhao was forced to give the order to let them pass through the gate. However, he had a Yu Yan Archer knock out the thief from long range. Unfortunately for him, the Avatar escapes, taking the masked warrior with him. ("The Blue Spirit")

Reunion


After hearing intellegence reports of the Avatar being seen in a Fire Nation town during a festival, he began searching the nearby rivers. There he confronted his old Firebending master, Jeong Jeong, and proclaimed that living in the wild had reduced his old master to a savage. Jeong Jeong retorted saying that it was Zhao who had embraced savagery, representing the unrestrained destructiveness of Firebending. Jeong Jeong warned Zhao not to confront the Avatar, but Zhao ignored these warnings, arrogantly stating that he could defeat a child. Aang was surprised to learn that Zhao was the enlightened Jeong Jeong's student, and he used what he learned about Zhao's temper to continually egg the Admiral on until a raging Zhao was tricked into destroying a convoy of his own ships, proving his own lack of restraint and focus was against him. Again Aang escaped, leaving a humiliated Zhao brooding over his failings.

Siege of the North and Death
Still chafing from his Agni Kai defeat, Zhao discovered that Zuko was the vigilante thief, the Blue Spirit. Determined to eliminate further interference, he ordered a group of pirates to engineer a (failed) assassination attempt on Prince Zuko. Afterward, he led a large invasion force in a siege of the North Pole, for the dual purposes of capturing the Avatar and destroying the Northern Water Tribe. Fully aware that the Waterbenders draw their powers from the moon at night, Zhao attacked during the day, capitalizing on the weakened state of the Waterbenders.

On the second day of the siege, Zhao's forces managed to penetrate the city's walls. Having previously come across Wan Shi Tong's library, he discovered an ancient scroll which detailed the mortal forms of the Moon (Tui) and Ocean (La) Spirits. Knowing that they could be killed, Zhao used the assault of his troops as a diversion while he and a small team made their way to the Spirit Oasis on the second night of the siege. Upon arriving, he bagged the Moon Spirit koi fish, causing the moon to turn blood red. This event therefore negated all waterbending abilities.



Confronted by Aang's group and Iroh, he released the Moon Spirit, but then killed the koi fish out of anger. This causes the moon to disappear completely. Zhao then flees from the scene. The slaying of the Moon aroused the anger of La, the Ocean Spirit. Merging with Aang's Avatar State, the Ocean Spirit and Aang proceeded to vanquish his entire fleet. He made an attempt to escape, but was confronted by Zuko, who sought revenge for Zhao's attempt to murder him. Zhao fought the prince until the Moon Spirit was restored by Princess Yue's sacrifice. Seeing the return of its ally, the Ocean Spirit left Aang and returned to the Spirit Oasis. As he was defeated by Zuko, Zhao stared in disbelief at the restored moon. At that moment, La, who hadn't yet reached the Oasis, reached from one of the canals, grabbed Zhao from the surface and began to pull him into the water. When Zuko saw this, he offered help by reaching out to him and telling him to take his hand. But while Zhao at first made an attempt to reach, he decided he'd rather die than accept help from Zuko. La pulled him underwater, where he died most likely from being drowned. Zuko was the only one who witnessed Zhao's death. Or possibly La took Zhao's spirit as prisoner for eternal torment.

Zhao's forces, meanwhile, were almost, if not completely, eradicated by Aang and La. Fire Lord Ozai was furious at this turn of events.

Personality


Zhao is portrayed as a highly ambitious, power-hungry narcissist, noted for his arrogance and temper. His more straightforward villainous nature stands in sharp contrast to that of the conflicted Prince Zuko. While Zuko desires to capture the Avatar for personal reasons, i.e. the restoration of his honor and love of his father, Zhao is not motivated by higher ideals and seems to act only in his own interest; in this way, he is similar to Princess Azula.

Although repeatedly deceptive and cunning, Zhao is rather egotistical and selfish, bordering on narcissistic, implying at a deep-seated self-worship, as all of his actions seem to fulfill purposes of grandiosity or overwhelming display: his hate-driven, uncontrollable Firebending, his explosive temper, his betrayal of Fire Nation comrades, his disproportionate attack on the Northern Water Tribe, and most starkly, his unquenchable obsession with the removal of the Moon Spirit. In particular, Zhao rationalizes his theft - and later, murder - of the Moon Spirit as "destiny", and relishes over stealing it, ecstatically proclaiming himself as a "legend", even suggesting several epithets that the people would call him in the future for his accomplishment: "Zhao the Conqueror", "Zhao the Moonslayer", "Zhao the Invincible".

This arrogance is ultimately realized in his final act; his refusal of acceptance of Zuko's helping hand led to Zhao's own death. This is, however, subject to some interpretation: Zhao may have realized that, by accepting Zuko's hand, the both of them would have died simultaneously. A more likely outcome was that, in his arrogance, Zhao refused to recieve help from his teenaged rival, as he felt that being saved from (what he viewed as) an impatient, talentless, hot-headed and overconfident "child", on top of losing the battle at the Northern Water Tribe, would have disgraced his reputation to the public and his peers, damaged his authority over the Fire Nation military, and prompted a demotion. If this second possibility is true, then through death, as well as the Fire Lord holding the blame for the defeat on the Dragon of the West, Zhao managed to gain a slightly more 'merciful' final fate.

Another interpretation is that, through Zuko's rescue of the Admiral, Zhao felt that he would have owed his life to his rival out of obligation for being saved and may have perceived that as an act of submission. Finally, the last interpretation is that, once the Moon rose again, Zhao realized that his supposed destiny was indeed false, and without this crutch to explain his own misdeeds, the purpose for his existence fell apart before his eyes.

Firebending


Zhao was a skilled Firebending master. In his youth, he studied under Jeong Jeong. He was one of the master's best students, but ultimately his greatest failure. Jeong Jeong tried to teach Zhao the danger and destruction that is at the heart of Firebending, but Zhao did not listen and only focused on learning more powerful techniques. While this led him to develop very strong moves, he is easily overcome by his emotions and loses control. This is seen in "The Deserter" when, while facing the Avatar, he burns three of his own riverboats while Aang avoids his blasts with agility. In "The Southern Air Temple" he duels with Prince Zuko where he easily blocks Zuko's relatively strong attacks and then responds with his own, Zhao is clearly on the verge of victory until Zuko breaks his footing (upon Uncle's advice) and then finishes. In The Deserter he fires many large blasts of fire at Aang without tiring, these blasts seemed larger than normal and he was not shown to charge before firing them. Shortly before his death, he is able to fight evenly with Zuko until their battle is interrupted by La.

Other Skills
Zhao was a gifted military strategist, enough so that he managed to secure a promotion to Admiral. He demonstrates his cunning ability to tap human resources on many occasions, such as allying himself with pirates to try and kill Zuko or making patriotic speeches to engender support toward him among Fire Nation soldiers (as seen in "The Blue Spirit"). His Siege of the North demonstrated his ability to muster large forces and use deceptive means to overtake the enemy. His knowledge of common tactics also benefits him greatly; in "Winter Solstice Part 2: Avatar Roku", Zhao discerns Zuko's strategy to use a smoke-screen to throw him off his trail. In "The Blue Spirit", Zhao makes use of the highly skilled Yu Yan Archers to capture the Avatar, demonstrating his mastery of allocative efficiency. He has also demonstrated strength and unarmed fighting skill, he is able to deflect spears thrown at him by Lin Yee, and when he parrys Hahn's assassination attempt with seemingly no effort.

Behind the Scenes

 * In an interview on IGN, Michael Dante DiMartino said that the character of Zhao was originally inspired by Jason Isaacs' performance as a villain in The Patriot. DiMartino asked his casting director to get "someone like" Isaacs for the role, and he managed to get the actual person.
 * In another IGN interview, Isaacs said that he was told when recording the role to "be yourself, but be your American self".
 * "The Siege of the North, Part 2" with "Avatar Extras" bonus commentary stated that, "Zhao has a pretty messed up destiny," namely killing the Moon Spirit.



Trivia

 * Zhao is one of the two antagonists to die on screen (Combustion Man being the other).
 * Zhao's series of promotions, from Captain to Commander to Admiral, is somewhat backwards. In traditional naval ranking, it should go from Commander to Captain to Admiral. Zhao's progression from Captain, to Commander, to Admiral can be taken, in the broadest sense, to mean that he began with authority over a single smaller ship, then a larger ship, and finally a fleet of ships.
 * "Avatar Extras" claim that Zhao is well known for his bad balance.
 * "Avatar Extras" state that when Zhao received his promotion to Admiral, he stayed up all night celebrating it.
 * Even after he was promoted to Admiral, the credits still listed him as "Commander Zhao".

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