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 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 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 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," and "fever". The characters can also be used together to mean "combustion", "flaming", or "kindle".
 * Combined together, Ran and Shao produce the first part of Ránshāo zhōng, 燃燒中, which means "aflame" in traditional Chinese.

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. If they are of opposite genders and mate, it could also save the dragon race from extinction.
 * While closed caption name one of the dragons "Shao", the Nickelodeon website spells it "Shaw". During one of the Extras, it is revealed that it is spelled 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 ( Such as immense size, boar like teeth, have mammalian like ears ) their physical characteristics might just be different because they are older than the other dragons shown.
 * As it is unknown what age dragons can reach, it is possible that just as Ran and Shao are the last dragons, they may have been the first. It may have been from these same dragons that the Sun Warriors first learned Firebending aeons ago. If dragons keep growing their entire lives as for example snakes do, extreme age would well explain Ran and Shao's massive size.
 * It's possible the Blue dragon may be a female because in the episode, Earth King, the blue dragon was represented and voiced Azula.
 * Ran and Shao probably take counterpart towards Sozin's dragon and Roku's dragon.
 * If Ran and Shao do mate with each other, they may not only bring back the dragon species but a whole new breed of dragon.