Talk:Iroh/@comment-4662143-20111210061907/@comment-67.185.23.156-20120312010837

I'm not sure about the "changing Zuko" thing. It's true he never really tries to fight the Avatar:
 * He's asleep when Aang is originally captured (though he does later launch the fire ball with Zuko)
 * He doesn't even show up when Zuko goes to Kyoshi Island to attack
 * When Zuko and June are attacking Aang at the nun's abbey he just walks around and ignores the fight entirely.

Yet he aids Zuko in trying to find the Avatar (he does chuck a fireball at him after all, and provide cover for Zuko when he goes to Avatar Roku's temple). If he really thought it was wrong the entire time he could have just been waiting for Zuko to change (by an Act of God, apparently, because he never tried to do it himself). But that means he thought Zuko was entirely incompetent and incapable of capturing and holding Aang. Which could be true, but seems like an incredibly dangerous course of action to me.

I tend to favor the idea Iroh was uncertain of what he wanted for the world, or maybe he thought a world under Fire Nation rule could still be balanced, with the right Firelord, just as well as one with independent three/four nations. (Since he learned his lighting redirection before the series started we can assume from the beginning he believed in some kind of balance and respect for the three/four nations)

Honestly, I find Iroh a confusing character because it's hard to reconcile his beliefs, or to be entirely sure what those were early on, with his actions.

[And what he thought, and when he thought it, before the series started is even more of a crap shoot]