Whenever I look back on the early episodes of Avatar: the Last Airbender, I realize that Iroh was probably acting a little ridiculous on purpose. He knows that Zuko still has fresh emotional wounds from his cruel, uncompromising father and sadistic sister, and the one source of softness and warmth in his life, his mother, is long gone. Iroh always tried to be a friend to Zuko, but now that his nephew has been scarred and banished, he tries to be goofy and funny and carefree so desperately hard because all he wants is for Zuko to smile and relax again. If making a fool out of himself is what he has to do, he’d do it a hundred times over.
how dare you give me iroh feels all these years later
that, and it gives him cover to slow things down.
he doesn’t want to capture the Avatar, but he can’t tell Zuko that; he needs time to help his nephew get out of the mindset Ozai’s abuse taught him.
nobody’s going to listen to him if he just tells them to stop - it’s too blatant a betrayal of the Fire Lord’s wishes - but he can play the buffoon; when they get too close, he can lose a piece of his pai sho set and delay the entire operation to replace it.
because he’s a loving uncle, and this is what Zuko needs on that level; but he’s also a genius strategist and an experienced conspirator, and this serves his purposes on a few levels
there’s even a pretty damn direct implication that he’s doing this deliberately. it’s easy to miss at the time, because you don’t have the context, but that first time we see Iroh delay Zuko and the soldiers chasing Aang? it is, as I mentioned, when he loses a piece of his pai sho set, only to realise he’d been carrying it all along
specifically, it’s the White Lotus tile - the one that gave its name to the order of benevolent meddlers he’s secretly been a member of this whole time. there’s no way that’s a coincidence.
Pretty sure I’ve said this before, but Uncle Iroh is possibly the most brilliantly sophomoric character ever written.
INVITES ARE OPEN FOR A LIMITED AMOUNT OF TIME! (Finally)
Who are we?
We are just an ordinary art
server dedicated to Homestuck, and making friends with one another. Our
goal is to spark the life back into our beloved community with art and writing! We
are able to accomplish this in many ways, such as weekly acitivities as well as our drawpiles!
How do I join?
Make sure to read the RULES and FAQ,
and then send an ask our way. For artists, a link or mention of your
art tag/blog is sufficient, and for writers, a link to your writing
tag/AO3/Fanfiction/etc will be fine! We do not judge you based on your skill level, we just simply need to be sure you are a creator!
Another way to join is if you already have a friend in the server. You may ask them to contact a mod (particularly a social media mod or admin/owner) so they can send us your url.
Will the events be catered to writers/traditional artists?
As
we are (still) new to having writer’s join us, we have tried to insert writer
events as well as involve them in as many of our current events as
possible! Traditional artists are able to do all events.
Some quick things to note:
This
server allows members from the age of 13 onwards. As long as you’re 13
or above, you’re allowed to join! No age limit otherwise!
Everyone’s
pretty easy to talk to so making friends shouldn’t be too hard! We have over 300 members so finding someone to click with will hopefully be
easier for you!
The server can be overwhelming when you
join. It dies down after the invite session has ended. They usually get
very hyped over new people!
That’s it! If there’s anything
more I need to add, I’ll make a new post stating it. It’ll be tagged
#update in case you need to make sure!
