火: App
Name: Lolite
LJ: psy_chedelic
E-Mail: loliteisgod@yahoo.com
IM: Diotomacenest
Character Name: Prince Zuko
Series: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Timeline: Directly after he jumps in the way of his sister's lightening to protect Katara during the finale.
Canon Resource Link: http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Zuko
Character Background:
As a child, Zuko was treated with indifference and disdain by his father, Prince Ozai. He was shown affection by Ursa, his mother, over his sister, Azula. The situation escalated when Ozai's older brother's son was killed during the war. His older brother, named Iroh, also gave up the siege attack after his son was killed on the front lines of his battle. Ozai petitioned to the current ruler to take away Iroh's birthright to the throne because of his failure. The first born, Iroh was expected to take the throne after he passed. The fire lord was infuriated by this and tried to enact the proper punishment for speaking out about such things. Ozai was to be forced to kill Zuko and was going to go through with it. Zuko found out about this from his teasing sister but believed her to be lying.
Ursa, obsessed with protecting Zuko, created a massive scheme to protect young Zuko. Thia plan resulted in the death of the fire lord. It's assumed that Ursa killed the fire lord, or hired an assassin. Ozai was then risen to the throne, and Ursa was banished from the nation. Zuko grew up without his mother. Life was difficult without his mother, but he survived. When he turned 13, he was allowed to sit in on a war meeting. A general proposed to send new recruits to their doom as a "distraction" during the meeting. Young Zuko believed this to be too cruel and spoke out against it.
His father decided to punish him for this with an Agni Kai, a duel between fire benders. Zuko didn't know until it had begun that instead of fighting the general he spoke out against, he had to fight his own father. Zuko refused to attack his father and instead groveled. Ozai burned the side of Zuko's face during the duel as punishment and banished his son. Prince Zuko was forced to leave the nation, just like his mother, but he could return if he brought back the Avatar, a legendary person who could master all of the elements.
The avatar, one person reincarnated over and over again, actually was Zuko's great-grandfather in a previous incarnation.
Iroh accompanied Zuko in his desperate search for the avatar. Others before him failed, and the avatar was missing for a hundred years. It was common knowledge that the Avatar would be reincarnated as an airbender, but all the airbenders were believed to be killed off. Lucky for Zuko, he happened to be sailing around the soul pole with his crew when he discovered a huge plume of blue light. This was the avatar being found by members of the south water tribe. A day passed without much excitement, until a flare was shot off from one of the sunk fire nation warships in the south pole. Zuko used his telescope to hone in on the wreck and found an airbender and a young water tribe girl, who he would later call Katara, running from it. Zuko watched the pair run towards a nearby village and struck it mercilessly to find him.
The prince didn't find the avatar at first, but instead fought the oldest warrior of the tribe, Sokka, and easily fought him. Just when Zuko was about to unleash a whole mess of flame on the villagers, Aang, the new avatar, showed up. Zuko attacked Aang, who defended himself, but Aang eventually willingly surrendered to spare the people around him from Zuko's fire. Once on the ship, Aang freed himself using his air abilities and orcastraed an escape. Frusterated and furious, Zuko did everything in his power to stop Aang from escaping. They both rearched the deck of the ship, but Sokka and Katara, riding the avatar's flying bison, appeared. While Aang was distracted with his friends, Zuko attacked and pushed Aang overboard.
Zuko didn't expect Aang to shift into the Avatar state, a powerful and uncontrollable state of mind that gave Aang all the abilities of his past incarnations. Aang attacked the ship in this new form and threw Zuko overboard himself. After being pulled up back onto the ship, Zuko ordered to stop them, but Aang commanded the wind to turn the attacks of Zuko's men on the glacier right next to them. This caused an avalanche and buried the ship.
Zuko managed to get the damaged ship into a fire nation occupied harbor. There he found fire nation Commander Zhao, who questioned Zuko about his ship. Zuko made up the story that his ship crashed into an earth nation vessel. Zhao invited Zuko and Iroh to have a drink with him. Zuko tried to refuse, but Iroh spoke over him. The conversation dwindled to the avatar, and while Zuko said he had never even seen the avatar, his crew was interrogated by Zhao's men. Zuko tried to leave, but was stopped, and confessed.
Zhao then said that he was taking over the search for the avatar. Zuko attacked but was held back by the guards. Zhao said he'd release the pair after his ship was set sail, and teased the banished prince, but Zuko had another idea, and challenged him to an Agni Kai. Zuko then defeated Zhao in the duel.
They continued their search, but Iroh told Zuko he had no idea where Aang was. Aang's sightings were reported sporadically, and didn't make much sense to either of them. The avatar finally settled for a while on an isolated island, and news reached Zuko. Zuko attacked the town and defeated their greatest warrior, Suki. He even fought Aang himself, but the avatar managed to put out the fires and escape.
Zuko continued to pursue the avatar tirelessly, and followed the group to a prison rig. He found, among the debris, a necklace that belonged to one of the people accompanying Aang, Katara.
Later on, Iroh was taking a break in a natural pool he heated. Zuko, frustrated with his impatience, told Iroh he was leaving with or without him in a half hour. Iroh fell asleep in the spring instead, and was captured by the earth kingdom. Zuko went after the kidnappers, and found Iroh's sandal, which he cleverly left behind to mark his trail. On the trail, he saw the avatar on his bison. This was one of his reedeeming moments, as Zuko decided to leave the avatar and instead continued to follow his uncle's trail. Zuko found Iroh and rescued him. Together, they continued hunting the avatar.
They followed the avatar past another small village to the temple of Aang's previous incarnation and Zuko's great grandfather, Ruko. Zuko was required to cross fire nation waters, which wasn't permitted and was met by a blockade. The blockade was being run by Zhao. Instead of detaining Zuko when he crossed the blockade, he followed Zuko's ship. In an attempt to get Zhao off his trail, Zuko took a smaller boat and under the cover of smog continued to stalk Aang. However, Zhao was too smart for that and did end up finding out Zuko's true location. Zuko followed Aang to the temple, but was too late.
Zuko, with the help of the temple guards, tied Aang's fellows to a pillar, but the avatar went inside the sealed chamber. Zhao then showed up and placed the banished prince under arrest. However, when the doors of the chamber opened Roku's spirit was standing before them. Roku melted the chains, and Zuko fled to his ship.
Zuko was then forced to take a detour again on his trek for the avatar. His uncle lost a game piece, and the pair docked in a market to find it. They didn't find the piece, but they did find a huge amount of goods. They stopped and bought stuff from a group of pirates, and overheard that they were after the avatar, too. They joined forces, found Katara on her own, and captured her. Aang and Sokka too were eventually captured, but Sokka managed to turn the pirates on Zuko. During this, the group escaped yet again, skillfully eluding Zuko.
Next Zuko lost trail of the avatar, but soon he discovered that the Avatar was captured by Zhao's archers. Zuko decided to break Aang out of Zhao's hands, in order for him to recatch the avatar. He broke Aang out but was injured in the process. Aang discovered Zuko's identity under the mask when he was hurt. Aang then stayed watch over him, and when he regained consciousness, spoke of his old fire nation friend. Zuko attacked Aang once he regained his senses, but Aang escaped into the forest. Zuko returned to his ship.
Stressed, Zuko didn't know exactly what to do until a bounty hunter named June boarded his ship in an attempt to find a stowaway. She did find him thanks to the strange animal she was riding. The animal was a tracking expert due to its sense of smell. Zuko paid June off and they tracked Aang by using Katara's necklace. They apprehended Sokka and Katara and used a map Aang once held to track him. Of course they escaped again, June's animal was turned against the pair, and they were paralyzed by the venom from its tongue.
Zuko then lost basically all his assets. His crew was taken from him and given to Zhao to bolster his numbers during their attack on the north water tribe. Zuko was restrained by Iroh when he tried to attach Zhao, who noticed the conspicuous dao swords on Zuko's wall. Zuko used these swords when dressed as the blue spirit, and Zhao recognized that. Zuko denied he ever used them, but Zhao still hired the pirates Zuko fought with previously to assassinate him by planting explosives on his ship. Zuko shielded himself from the explosion and lived.
Zuko then disguised himself as one of Zhao's men and snuck aboard his ship. Iroh didn't need to disguise himself, he simply accepted the offer to be Zhao's advisor. Zuko snuck out of the battleship at nightfall during the siege to try and capture Aang in the city by himself. He found Aang meditating and unaware of his surroundings. Zuko and Katara fought over the avatar, and while Zuko was frozen at first because of Katara's hightened abilities during the full moon, he was victorious when the sun rose. He stole Aang and got lost in a great blizzard afterwards. Zuko took shelter in a cave, but Aang woke up and was joined by his friends who followed his trail. Zuko was then defeated by Katara, and at first, left for dead in the snow.
Aang had mercy on Zuko, though, and took him with them. Zuko escaped soon after in the turmoil of the siege. Zhao was then killed by Aang taking on the form of the sea spirit, even when Zuko offered his hand to save him from drowning.
Zuko then left the north pole by drifting on a raft with his uncle for three weeks until they hit land. Eventually they made their way to a colony. However, they ran into Azula, Zuko's grown up sister. Azula asked Zuko and Iroh come home, and Zuko decided to go with her. Iroh came along as well. However, when they were accidentally referred to as prisoners before boarding the ship. Iroh defended his nephew and the two of them managed to fight them off and escape. Once they did, they both cut off the topknots as a symbol of their disconnection to the fire nation.
The two of them were forced to live as fugitives. Iroh was poisoned from eating the wrong plant, so Zuko found a herbalist to help them. Zuko stole the family's ostrich-horse out of desperation. They even panhandled. Desperate, Zuko took up the guise of the blue spirit again and began to steal food. He spoke to Iroh, and then decided to split off from his uncle and find his own way. On his seperate travels Zuko became extremely hungry, but refused to steal from a young couple who had a pregnant woman, showing his sense of compassion.
Zuko eventually came upon a small town and ordered feed from a merchant. Kids next to him threw eggs at a group of soldiers, who stole Zuko's food. He didn't rat the kid out. The child then invited him to their family farm. He sort of replaced the boy's brother who had left in the war for a short time. Zuko was then leaving town, but the boy's tearful mother found him and said her son had been captured by the soldiers for threatening them with the dagger Zuko gave him. Zuko rescued the boy, but had to firebend to beat their leader. He tried to give the dagger back to the kid, but the child renounced him as a firebender along with the rest of the village.
Zuko, alone, then found the treads of his sister's tank. He followed her to where she and Aang were about to battle. Zuko turned it into a three way fight. Azula was eventually cornered by Aang, his friends, and Iroh, who had been secretly following Zuko. However, Azula fired a cheapshot and attacked Iroh, severely wounding him. Katara tried to help, but Zuko would have none of that. Zuko and Iroh were reunited, and Zuko badgered Iroh into training him further. Iroh tried to teach Zuko how to master lightening, but Zuko was in too much turmoil to control it. Instead, he instructed Zuko how to redirect lightning. When Iroh refused to let him try this with real lightning, he chased a thunder storm defiantly.
The pair soon moved on to the earth city capital, Ba Sing Se, but not without first getting fake documentation from the members of a secret society to which Iroh was a part of called the White Lotus. On the boat ride to the capital, Zuko befriended a freedom fighter named Jet, but Jet saw Iroh firebending his tea to make it warm again. Jet then became determined to expose them as frauds.
Zuko and Iroh found a new home and a new job. They became tea servers. Meanwhile, Jet stalked and tried to gather evidence that the pair were firebenders, but he found none. Finally, Jet tried to get one of them to firebend in self defense by attacking them in the teashop, spouting accusations. Zuko defended himself fine without fire until Jet was arrested by the secret police of the capital. While there, Zuko went on a really awkward date with a woman, proving that he isn't exactly a great conversationalist..
At the finale of the second book, Zuko once again came in contact with the avatar. He saw posters for Aang's missing bison. Zuko forced information on the bison out from the secret police and found the lost animal in a prison. Iroh found Zuko, as well, spoke to him, and helped Zuko decide to set the bison free. The prince then tossed his blue spirit mask into the lake. Things were not at all good with Zuko, though.
He passed out after they returned to their apartment with a blazing fever brought on by his huge internal conflict between right and wrong. He had a series of surreal hallucinatons and fever dreams. When he did come out of it, though, Zuko acted like a brand new person. He became much more pleasant towards Iroh. The two of them opened a new tea shop, but were "invited" by the earth king to serve him tea.
The "invitation" was actually a trap by Azula. Zuko decided to fight, and was imprisoned for it in a cave with Katara. Katara yelled at Zuko, but then Zuko began to tell her of his history. She grew compassionate and even offered to heal his scar until Aang busted in to save the pair. Iroh, who had come to their rescue, was soon put into a crystal encasing by Azula's agents. Iroh and Azula both began to try and convince Zuko to go to their causes, but by the end of it, Zuko chose to go on his sister's side, to catch the avatar.
She convinced him his honor would be restored. A great battle ensued, but Aang was struck by Azula's lightning. Iroh then fought Zuko to help the avatar escape, and he did. However, Iroh was captured afterwards. Aang was believed by the world to be dead.
So, Zuko should have been happy now, right? Well, he was allowed to return, and even heralded as a hero. He ended up with a girlfriend, Mai, an old friend of his and childhood crush on. Mai was the final factor in convincing him to actually go through with the move. Azula told the fire lord, now Zuko's father, that it was Zuko that killed the avatar, when really it was her who delivered the final blow. If the avatar should still live, Azula had everything to benefit. Zuko would be shamed by Aang still being alive.
Zuko then secretly visited his uncle, who refused to talk to him, and the prince even went so far as to hire an assassin to try and kill Aang, as Zuko didn't believe he was dead. Zuko, despite all this praise, became extremely angry. He often blew up at little things and became increasingly paranoid. He blew up in the face of a man who was just talking to Mai during his island vacation and eventually lamented that he was just angry at himself. Despite how he had exactly what he wanted, he was now angrier than he had ever been.
One morning he woke up with a letter saying that the death of his great grandfather would help him discover his destiny. He found nothing at first, but when he threw the letter over a lamp he found a secret message regarding the dragon bone catacombs. Zoku infiltrated the catacombs and read the words of his paternal great-grandfather, Sozin. He found out that Sozin was friends with the avatar while he was incarnated as Roku. Sozin, however, eventually betreayed Roku and left him to die. He confronted Iroh about this, who explained that Roku was actually his maternal great-grandfather.
Zuko did fine for a while, actually enjoying his life after he calmed down from the shock of his family situation. One day Mai spoke of a war meeting to happen a few days before the solar ecplise. Zuko didn't get an invitation, but Azula did. At first he refused to go at because of this, but an informant told him on the day of the meeting that the others were waiting on him to begin. Zuko did attend but remarked that he didn't feel like himself during it.
During the solar eclipse and the invasion of his city, Zuko took up his swords, wrote a goodbye letter to Mai, and confronted his father within his bunker. He explained that he didn't destroy the avatar, and spoke his mind about the state of the fire nation. He finally told his father that he was leaving to help the avatar and to free his uncle, but he stayed because his father questioned him if he wanted to learn about his mother. Ozai explained about the situation surrounding his mother's disappearance, biding his time until the solar eclipse ended. When it did, the fire lord struck out with a blast of lightning. Zuko redirected it, smashed his father directly with the bolt, and left. He went to free his uncle, but found Iroh gone alread, aided by the White Lotus.
Zuko then left himself on his war balloon to chase after the avatar, who led the invasion. Zuko followed the avatar and his group to the western air temple. There, he practiced his rather awkward speech to the group on a frog. The frog turned him down, and so did the avatar gang when he tried to show that he changed. He returned to his camp, and Toph, the avatar's earthbending teacher, broke into his camp to try and speak with him. She frightened Zuko, and he burned her, which gave the rest of the group even less of a desire to trust him. However, all that changed when the assassin Zuko hired long ago to kill the avatar showed up.
Zuko ordered the assassin to stop attacking Aang, and even offered twice the amount of money he paid. The assassin refused to quit, but he was killed by the group. Determined as always, after this Zuko went back and tried again to join the group. He apologized to Toph, and this time, Aang started to believe that Zuko was meant to be his teacher. He was then reluctantly accepted.
Well, he was going to teach firebending to the avatar, but when he tried, there was nothing. Zuko lost his abilities. He said maybe it was because he switched over to the avatar's side. Toph had an idea, saying he should go to the original source of firebending. Zuko thought he was out of luck, because the original source, the dragons, were extinct. He then remembered the Sun Warrior civilization, a group that was thought to be long died out, but the ruins could help. The prince and Aang traveled to the ruins, and found the Sun Warriors were very much alive. They would be both taught by the firebending masters of the tribe. To their surprise, the masters were dragons. The dragons judged Aang and Zuko, and the dance they had learned from the temple in the ruins, and found the two worthy. After the dragons passed their judgment, Zuko was able to firebend again. He also used to think his uncle killed the last dragon, but Iroh said so to protect the two living dragons in the ruins.
During one of the evenings the group spent together, Sokka asked Zoku about prisoners of war of the fire nation. Zoku was reluctant to answer, but did, and told Sokka of a high security prison named Boiling Rock. Sokka's father and many of the troops that served at the eclipse invasion were expected to be there. Zoku and Sokka snuck away from the group and went to go find the prisoners. Zuko was actually found out during this event and captured. He sacrificed himself so Sokka wouldn't get caught himself. They only found Sokka's girlfriend at first, and tried to make a plan. Sokka's girlfriend turned out to be Suki, one of the first people Zuko fought in the series. Just as they were about to escape, Sokka and Zoku overheard that new shipment of prisoners of war was coming in, so they abandoned it. However, a prisoner that blackmailed them to get into the escape plan decided to go through with it by himself. He was captured, interrogated, but didn't rat out Sokka on account that he wanted in on their next plan. Sokka did create another plan, with the help of his father who arrived the next day. Sokka spoke with everyone else involved, except for the prisoner who refused to rat them out. The prisoner found out just as it was being put in motion.
Zuko was then confronted by Mai, the warden's niece, after he discussed the plan with Sokka. She berated Zuko for breaking her heart and betraying the nation. Zuko locked Mai in the cell in order to escape into the yard and pull off their plan. The group started a riot, captured the warden as a hostage, and rode on a gondola out of the prison. While on the gondola they discovered that Azula and her friend had followed them. The warden took off his gag in the struggle that ensued on the gondola's rooftop and commanded the men to cut the line. If the line was cut, the gondola would fall into the boiling water below. Azula and her friend escaped on another gondola. Luckily, Mai escaped her cell and stopped the men from cutting the line, saving Zuko and his friends. All of them then stole Azula's zeppelin and returned to the air temple. Mai was detained, so was Azula's friend, who turned against her as well.
Sadly, there wasn't much time for peace. Azula discovered the group's hideout in the temple and attacked them. Zuko fought her, and it ended in a tie. Both of them survived.
Katara, however, still didn't trust Zuko, and he knew it. The prince tried to find out a way to help and remembered that Katara had spoken about her mother being killed by fire nation while they were imprisoned together. He asked Sokka for the full story, and figured out which fleet killed her mother. He gave this information to Katara, who then went with Zuko to inact revenge. They snuck into a communications tower, found out where the main ship was, and took it down. The captian wasn't the same captian, though, but with some interrogation he turned over the information to the pair of the old captian's location. Katara and Zuko found him, but Katara couldn't force herself to kill him. Zuko and Katara returned home afterwards.
Now was the matter of finding a new hideout. Zuko brought the group to Ember Island, a vacation spot where he often spent time as a child. They occupied his father's old estate and attended a play about themselves. Not much about the play was noteworthy, other than it had a very forboding ending. Ozai managed to harness a comet nearing earth in the play, and both Zuko and Aang died in the production.
Zuko continued training Aang, even though Zuko became furious when he believed Aang was slacking. Aang then told him that he planned on defeating Ozai after the comet. Zuko was shocked at this, and told Aang there wouldn't be a world to save if he waited until then.
The next morning, Zuko woke up with Aang missing. He searched for the avatar to no avail. Zuko then decided to get June's help. He used Aang's staff to try and track Aang, but June said the avatar didn't exist anymore. He then changed plans to try and find his uncle by using an old, sweaty shoe he kept, because he believed that Iroh could defeat the fire lord.. Zuko found his uncle and tearfully reconciled with him. Iroh, however, refused to try and kill the fatherfire lord, as it was the avatar's destiny. When asked further about ascending to the throne, Iroh also refused, and said Zuko had the right over him. He then told Zuko that he had to duel Azula for the throne, while Aang would take out Ozai.
Zuko did return to the fire nation to duel his mentally unstable sister. With the comet close, his abilities were insanely powerful. His sister's poor mental state meant the two were evenly matched, and in another cheap-shot, she attacked Katara, who was with him to help. Zuko jumped into the blast of lightning Azula fired at Katara. While he redirected some of it, a portion of the lightning entered his body. This is where he'll be taken from.
Now for his role in future events! No the insanity does not end hereeee.
Katara defeated Azula and healed Zuko with her abilities while the avatar defeated Ozai by taking away his supernatural abilities. Zuko began dating Mai again, and ascended to the throne as fire lord. He was determined to usher in a new era of peace. There is one currently loose end of the plot. At the end of the series, Zuko questions his fallen father on the location of his mother. The answer is never made clear in canon. What is clear, is his role in events after the series was over.
During comic-con, it was announced that he founded a vast city and united territories. In the new unreleased series, he currently is presumed to be deceased, like the rest of the main cast.
Sooo, as you can see from his history, Zuko's a hothead, as expected with his element. He's impulsive, stern, and pretty bad with small talk and dealing with women who aren't Mai. However, towards the end of the series he thinks things through a bit better. He talks before he thinks, and mostly lacks an internal censor. Zuko can be also be easily irritated. He can be comical, but the majority of his jokes fail. Despite all of this, and his past, he's still a teenager. Zuko isn't too eloquent in his speech, he uses contractions and words like "gonna, outta, etc." much like a typical person. His personality isn't really hitched on his speech patterns, but rather what he talks about and his tone of voice.
He's also very attached to his uncle despite his betrayal of him. Zuko is deeply moved by guilt for his past actions about choosing his sister over his uncle. He's very, very determined and refuses to give in despite failure. He draws knowledge from his uncle, even impersonating him when he wasn't around in the series. Zuko is strong willed, firecly dogged in pursuit of his goals, and unmoving. He is obsessed with his honor, only now how he creates his own honor.
Zuko is sometimes compassionate, towards women (especially pregnant women), and children. Even still, he did steal from a woman who was kind to him before. In the series, he often decides to help the people close to him instead of sacrificing them to continue chasing the avatar. However, this is sort of rendered nil when he gave up his uncle, his greatest regret. He can be teasing (even to the Avatar) and brutally honest. Zuko often speaks his mind during the series adamantly. Towards the end of the series, where he will be taken from, he's a tad more relaxed. His temper isn't as bad as it used to be (he's shown in the series to not blow up when jokes are made at him), but it's still there.
Abilites/Special Powers:
Unarmed combat: Zuko is adept at unarmed combat, as he's shown in the series to break wooden spears with kicks, and be formidable even without a weapon. He's also very acrobatic and agile, capable of jumping larger distances than the average person. He can move stealthily and quietly, as in the series he's been able to infiltrate various buildings.
Armed combat: Zuko's weapons are called Dao swords. They're two short broadswords contained in a single sheath. He's been shown to be extremely skilled when wielding these, even going so far as to use them in conjunction with his firebending. (interesting stupid trivia: They're actually supposed to symbolize the "good" and "bad" sides of Zuko.) He also has a dagger, given to him by his uncle. This dagger is one of his prized possessions, but isn't used as a weapon in the series. Zuko will not be bringing the Dao swords with them. They're not with him in that fight. Putting this here because likely he'll try to get new swords from the closet.
Firebending: Prince Zuko is a living flamethrower. He might not be as skilled as his sister at her peak, or as his father, but he still can stand his ground. By using various stances he can command fire, and does so unintentionally in the series while angry.
He can create everything from massive shields and walls of fire, to small balls, to arch and rings, to continuous streams. He can also make large whips and daggers out of pyre. It's worth mentioning that firebending in the series isn't just "flamethrower-esque" the fire appears to have a degree of combustion, seen as breaking apart things, pushing people back, and cutting things. He can use his swords in conjunction with his flames, and even "charge" his abilities up make them more fearsome. He can also control heat and pressure, as well as control pre-existing sources of fire. Firebending even includes a type of personal jet-propulsion. And yup, he can breathe fire.
Firebending is super aggressive. There's basically nothing defensive about it besides shields. It hinges on throwing opponents off balance with rapid attacks, and keeping foes totally on the defensive. It's the "glass cannon" of bending skills. Firebending is all about force.
His will and determination fuels his internal fires, as does celestial movements and the temperature. Zuko cannot use his abilities during the solar eclipse, for example, and when a huge comet comes closer to the earth, he is extremely powerful. This has daily implications too. He's strongest at noon, weakest at midnight. However, Zuko, unlike most of the members of the royal family, cannot control lightening. He can redirect an existing source of lightening, but can't create it himself. However, it's assumed that he can create his own lightning if he successfully deals with his anger.
Third-Person Sample:
All he could remember was the flash of light arching through his body. He knew, oh how he knew that he had to keep his energy fluid. How could he be expected to do so at such a short notice? However, he didn't feel the earth of the temple under him. He felt grass. The cool grass staunched the smoldering embers of his clothes. The pain, the agony of the attack, was horrifying. He barely had the mental faculties to question where he was. It only came as a brief realization of the grass below him.
He growled, his body twitching and shifting into a fetal position as he felt another residual wave of cold fire coursed through his veins. Lightning arched across his body. His eyes clenched shut, as did his fists. His nails dug so hard into his palms that he nearly bled. The exiled prince was determined to live through this, even as he felt his consciousness fading. Zoku didn't even notice the solemn, blinking lights of a strange device next to him. Lucky kid.
He woke up propped upright in a hospital bed. Bandages covered the star shaped burn on his chest and continued to trail towards his arm. He groaned, aching, but drugged. He tried bitterly to sit upright, as strong willed as ever. He then put his hand over the strange thing plugged into his arm, an IV, and swiftly pulled it out. A voice finally spoke up in the distance of the room.
First-Person Sample:
[The comm device buzzes, then kicks in an audio feed. A frustrated Zuko growls in the background. He talks, presumably to himself.]
Come on! Work!
[He pauses.]
I just don't understand. I shouldn't be here.
[He pauses again, growls again, and finally flops back onto a bed. His voice changes into a more thoughtful one.]
..What would Uncle say now?
[His tone changes to mimic his Uncle's, slower, using more time between each word.]
"Zuko, you must understand that the fish does not control the stream. The stream takes the fish where it pleases, but the fish is still in the river, even if the current pulls him away from his home."
[He sighs, frustrated, and buries his head in his pillow with a loud groan.]
LJ: psy_chedelic
E-Mail: loliteisgod@yahoo.com
IM: Diotomacenest
Character Name: Prince Zuko
Series: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Timeline: Directly after he jumps in the way of his sister's lightening to protect Katara during the finale.
Canon Resource Link: http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Zuko
Character Background:
As a child, Zuko was treated with indifference and disdain by his father, Prince Ozai. He was shown affection by Ursa, his mother, over his sister, Azula. The situation escalated when Ozai's older brother's son was killed during the war. His older brother, named Iroh, also gave up the siege attack after his son was killed on the front lines of his battle. Ozai petitioned to the current ruler to take away Iroh's birthright to the throne because of his failure. The first born, Iroh was expected to take the throne after he passed. The fire lord was infuriated by this and tried to enact the proper punishment for speaking out about such things. Ozai was to be forced to kill Zuko and was going to go through with it. Zuko found out about this from his teasing sister but believed her to be lying.
Ursa, obsessed with protecting Zuko, created a massive scheme to protect young Zuko. Thia plan resulted in the death of the fire lord. It's assumed that Ursa killed the fire lord, or hired an assassin. Ozai was then risen to the throne, and Ursa was banished from the nation. Zuko grew up without his mother. Life was difficult without his mother, but he survived. When he turned 13, he was allowed to sit in on a war meeting. A general proposed to send new recruits to their doom as a "distraction" during the meeting. Young Zuko believed this to be too cruel and spoke out against it.
His father decided to punish him for this with an Agni Kai, a duel between fire benders. Zuko didn't know until it had begun that instead of fighting the general he spoke out against, he had to fight his own father. Zuko refused to attack his father and instead groveled. Ozai burned the side of Zuko's face during the duel as punishment and banished his son. Prince Zuko was forced to leave the nation, just like his mother, but he could return if he brought back the Avatar, a legendary person who could master all of the elements.
The avatar, one person reincarnated over and over again, actually was Zuko's great-grandfather in a previous incarnation.
Iroh accompanied Zuko in his desperate search for the avatar. Others before him failed, and the avatar was missing for a hundred years. It was common knowledge that the Avatar would be reincarnated as an airbender, but all the airbenders were believed to be killed off. Lucky for Zuko, he happened to be sailing around the soul pole with his crew when he discovered a huge plume of blue light. This was the avatar being found by members of the south water tribe. A day passed without much excitement, until a flare was shot off from one of the sunk fire nation warships in the south pole. Zuko used his telescope to hone in on the wreck and found an airbender and a young water tribe girl, who he would later call Katara, running from it. Zuko watched the pair run towards a nearby village and struck it mercilessly to find him.
The prince didn't find the avatar at first, but instead fought the oldest warrior of the tribe, Sokka, and easily fought him. Just when Zuko was about to unleash a whole mess of flame on the villagers, Aang, the new avatar, showed up. Zuko attacked Aang, who defended himself, but Aang eventually willingly surrendered to spare the people around him from Zuko's fire. Once on the ship, Aang freed himself using his air abilities and orcastraed an escape. Frusterated and furious, Zuko did everything in his power to stop Aang from escaping. They both rearched the deck of the ship, but Sokka and Katara, riding the avatar's flying bison, appeared. While Aang was distracted with his friends, Zuko attacked and pushed Aang overboard.
Zuko didn't expect Aang to shift into the Avatar state, a powerful and uncontrollable state of mind that gave Aang all the abilities of his past incarnations. Aang attacked the ship in this new form and threw Zuko overboard himself. After being pulled up back onto the ship, Zuko ordered to stop them, but Aang commanded the wind to turn the attacks of Zuko's men on the glacier right next to them. This caused an avalanche and buried the ship.
Zuko managed to get the damaged ship into a fire nation occupied harbor. There he found fire nation Commander Zhao, who questioned Zuko about his ship. Zuko made up the story that his ship crashed into an earth nation vessel. Zhao invited Zuko and Iroh to have a drink with him. Zuko tried to refuse, but Iroh spoke over him. The conversation dwindled to the avatar, and while Zuko said he had never even seen the avatar, his crew was interrogated by Zhao's men. Zuko tried to leave, but was stopped, and confessed.
Zhao then said that he was taking over the search for the avatar. Zuko attacked but was held back by the guards. Zhao said he'd release the pair after his ship was set sail, and teased the banished prince, but Zuko had another idea, and challenged him to an Agni Kai. Zuko then defeated Zhao in the duel.
They continued their search, but Iroh told Zuko he had no idea where Aang was. Aang's sightings were reported sporadically, and didn't make much sense to either of them. The avatar finally settled for a while on an isolated island, and news reached Zuko. Zuko attacked the town and defeated their greatest warrior, Suki. He even fought Aang himself, but the avatar managed to put out the fires and escape.
Zuko continued to pursue the avatar tirelessly, and followed the group to a prison rig. He found, among the debris, a necklace that belonged to one of the people accompanying Aang, Katara.
Later on, Iroh was taking a break in a natural pool he heated. Zuko, frustrated with his impatience, told Iroh he was leaving with or without him in a half hour. Iroh fell asleep in the spring instead, and was captured by the earth kingdom. Zuko went after the kidnappers, and found Iroh's sandal, which he cleverly left behind to mark his trail. On the trail, he saw the avatar on his bison. This was one of his reedeeming moments, as Zuko decided to leave the avatar and instead continued to follow his uncle's trail. Zuko found Iroh and rescued him. Together, they continued hunting the avatar.
They followed the avatar past another small village to the temple of Aang's previous incarnation and Zuko's great grandfather, Ruko. Zuko was required to cross fire nation waters, which wasn't permitted and was met by a blockade. The blockade was being run by Zhao. Instead of detaining Zuko when he crossed the blockade, he followed Zuko's ship. In an attempt to get Zhao off his trail, Zuko took a smaller boat and under the cover of smog continued to stalk Aang. However, Zhao was too smart for that and did end up finding out Zuko's true location. Zuko followed Aang to the temple, but was too late.
Zuko, with the help of the temple guards, tied Aang's fellows to a pillar, but the avatar went inside the sealed chamber. Zhao then showed up and placed the banished prince under arrest. However, when the doors of the chamber opened Roku's spirit was standing before them. Roku melted the chains, and Zuko fled to his ship.
Zuko was then forced to take a detour again on his trek for the avatar. His uncle lost a game piece, and the pair docked in a market to find it. They didn't find the piece, but they did find a huge amount of goods. They stopped and bought stuff from a group of pirates, and overheard that they were after the avatar, too. They joined forces, found Katara on her own, and captured her. Aang and Sokka too were eventually captured, but Sokka managed to turn the pirates on Zuko. During this, the group escaped yet again, skillfully eluding Zuko.
Next Zuko lost trail of the avatar, but soon he discovered that the Avatar was captured by Zhao's archers. Zuko decided to break Aang out of Zhao's hands, in order for him to recatch the avatar. He broke Aang out but was injured in the process. Aang discovered Zuko's identity under the mask when he was hurt. Aang then stayed watch over him, and when he regained consciousness, spoke of his old fire nation friend. Zuko attacked Aang once he regained his senses, but Aang escaped into the forest. Zuko returned to his ship.
Stressed, Zuko didn't know exactly what to do until a bounty hunter named June boarded his ship in an attempt to find a stowaway. She did find him thanks to the strange animal she was riding. The animal was a tracking expert due to its sense of smell. Zuko paid June off and they tracked Aang by using Katara's necklace. They apprehended Sokka and Katara and used a map Aang once held to track him. Of course they escaped again, June's animal was turned against the pair, and they were paralyzed by the venom from its tongue.
Zuko then lost basically all his assets. His crew was taken from him and given to Zhao to bolster his numbers during their attack on the north water tribe. Zuko was restrained by Iroh when he tried to attach Zhao, who noticed the conspicuous dao swords on Zuko's wall. Zuko used these swords when dressed as the blue spirit, and Zhao recognized that. Zuko denied he ever used them, but Zhao still hired the pirates Zuko fought with previously to assassinate him by planting explosives on his ship. Zuko shielded himself from the explosion and lived.
Zuko then disguised himself as one of Zhao's men and snuck aboard his ship. Iroh didn't need to disguise himself, he simply accepted the offer to be Zhao's advisor. Zuko snuck out of the battleship at nightfall during the siege to try and capture Aang in the city by himself. He found Aang meditating and unaware of his surroundings. Zuko and Katara fought over the avatar, and while Zuko was frozen at first because of Katara's hightened abilities during the full moon, he was victorious when the sun rose. He stole Aang and got lost in a great blizzard afterwards. Zuko took shelter in a cave, but Aang woke up and was joined by his friends who followed his trail. Zuko was then defeated by Katara, and at first, left for dead in the snow.
Aang had mercy on Zuko, though, and took him with them. Zuko escaped soon after in the turmoil of the siege. Zhao was then killed by Aang taking on the form of the sea spirit, even when Zuko offered his hand to save him from drowning.
Zuko then left the north pole by drifting on a raft with his uncle for three weeks until they hit land. Eventually they made their way to a colony. However, they ran into Azula, Zuko's grown up sister. Azula asked Zuko and Iroh come home, and Zuko decided to go with her. Iroh came along as well. However, when they were accidentally referred to as prisoners before boarding the ship. Iroh defended his nephew and the two of them managed to fight them off and escape. Once they did, they both cut off the topknots as a symbol of their disconnection to the fire nation.
The two of them were forced to live as fugitives. Iroh was poisoned from eating the wrong plant, so Zuko found a herbalist to help them. Zuko stole the family's ostrich-horse out of desperation. They even panhandled. Desperate, Zuko took up the guise of the blue spirit again and began to steal food. He spoke to Iroh, and then decided to split off from his uncle and find his own way. On his seperate travels Zuko became extremely hungry, but refused to steal from a young couple who had a pregnant woman, showing his sense of compassion.
Zuko eventually came upon a small town and ordered feed from a merchant. Kids next to him threw eggs at a group of soldiers, who stole Zuko's food. He didn't rat the kid out. The child then invited him to their family farm. He sort of replaced the boy's brother who had left in the war for a short time. Zuko was then leaving town, but the boy's tearful mother found him and said her son had been captured by the soldiers for threatening them with the dagger Zuko gave him. Zuko rescued the boy, but had to firebend to beat their leader. He tried to give the dagger back to the kid, but the child renounced him as a firebender along with the rest of the village.
Zuko, alone, then found the treads of his sister's tank. He followed her to where she and Aang were about to battle. Zuko turned it into a three way fight. Azula was eventually cornered by Aang, his friends, and Iroh, who had been secretly following Zuko. However, Azula fired a cheapshot and attacked Iroh, severely wounding him. Katara tried to help, but Zuko would have none of that. Zuko and Iroh were reunited, and Zuko badgered Iroh into training him further. Iroh tried to teach Zuko how to master lightening, but Zuko was in too much turmoil to control it. Instead, he instructed Zuko how to redirect lightning. When Iroh refused to let him try this with real lightning, he chased a thunder storm defiantly.
The pair soon moved on to the earth city capital, Ba Sing Se, but not without first getting fake documentation from the members of a secret society to which Iroh was a part of called the White Lotus. On the boat ride to the capital, Zuko befriended a freedom fighter named Jet, but Jet saw Iroh firebending his tea to make it warm again. Jet then became determined to expose them as frauds.
Zuko and Iroh found a new home and a new job. They became tea servers. Meanwhile, Jet stalked and tried to gather evidence that the pair were firebenders, but he found none. Finally, Jet tried to get one of them to firebend in self defense by attacking them in the teashop, spouting accusations. Zuko defended himself fine without fire until Jet was arrested by the secret police of the capital. While there, Zuko went on a really awkward date with a woman, proving that he isn't exactly a great conversationalist..
At the finale of the second book, Zuko once again came in contact with the avatar. He saw posters for Aang's missing bison. Zuko forced information on the bison out from the secret police and found the lost animal in a prison. Iroh found Zuko, as well, spoke to him, and helped Zuko decide to set the bison free. The prince then tossed his blue spirit mask into the lake. Things were not at all good with Zuko, though.
He passed out after they returned to their apartment with a blazing fever brought on by his huge internal conflict between right and wrong. He had a series of surreal hallucinatons and fever dreams. When he did come out of it, though, Zuko acted like a brand new person. He became much more pleasant towards Iroh. The two of them opened a new tea shop, but were "invited" by the earth king to serve him tea.
The "invitation" was actually a trap by Azula. Zuko decided to fight, and was imprisoned for it in a cave with Katara. Katara yelled at Zuko, but then Zuko began to tell her of his history. She grew compassionate and even offered to heal his scar until Aang busted in to save the pair. Iroh, who had come to their rescue, was soon put into a crystal encasing by Azula's agents. Iroh and Azula both began to try and convince Zuko to go to their causes, but by the end of it, Zuko chose to go on his sister's side, to catch the avatar.
She convinced him his honor would be restored. A great battle ensued, but Aang was struck by Azula's lightning. Iroh then fought Zuko to help the avatar escape, and he did. However, Iroh was captured afterwards. Aang was believed by the world to be dead.
So, Zuko should have been happy now, right? Well, he was allowed to return, and even heralded as a hero. He ended up with a girlfriend, Mai, an old friend of his and childhood crush on. Mai was the final factor in convincing him to actually go through with the move. Azula told the fire lord, now Zuko's father, that it was Zuko that killed the avatar, when really it was her who delivered the final blow. If the avatar should still live, Azula had everything to benefit. Zuko would be shamed by Aang still being alive.
Zuko then secretly visited his uncle, who refused to talk to him, and the prince even went so far as to hire an assassin to try and kill Aang, as Zuko didn't believe he was dead. Zuko, despite all this praise, became extremely angry. He often blew up at little things and became increasingly paranoid. He blew up in the face of a man who was just talking to Mai during his island vacation and eventually lamented that he was just angry at himself. Despite how he had exactly what he wanted, he was now angrier than he had ever been.
One morning he woke up with a letter saying that the death of his great grandfather would help him discover his destiny. He found nothing at first, but when he threw the letter over a lamp he found a secret message regarding the dragon bone catacombs. Zoku infiltrated the catacombs and read the words of his paternal great-grandfather, Sozin. He found out that Sozin was friends with the avatar while he was incarnated as Roku. Sozin, however, eventually betreayed Roku and left him to die. He confronted Iroh about this, who explained that Roku was actually his maternal great-grandfather.
Zuko did fine for a while, actually enjoying his life after he calmed down from the shock of his family situation. One day Mai spoke of a war meeting to happen a few days before the solar ecplise. Zuko didn't get an invitation, but Azula did. At first he refused to go at because of this, but an informant told him on the day of the meeting that the others were waiting on him to begin. Zuko did attend but remarked that he didn't feel like himself during it.
During the solar eclipse and the invasion of his city, Zuko took up his swords, wrote a goodbye letter to Mai, and confronted his father within his bunker. He explained that he didn't destroy the avatar, and spoke his mind about the state of the fire nation. He finally told his father that he was leaving to help the avatar and to free his uncle, but he stayed because his father questioned him if he wanted to learn about his mother. Ozai explained about the situation surrounding his mother's disappearance, biding his time until the solar eclipse ended. When it did, the fire lord struck out with a blast of lightning. Zuko redirected it, smashed his father directly with the bolt, and left. He went to free his uncle, but found Iroh gone alread, aided by the White Lotus.
Zuko then left himself on his war balloon to chase after the avatar, who led the invasion. Zuko followed the avatar and his group to the western air temple. There, he practiced his rather awkward speech to the group on a frog. The frog turned him down, and so did the avatar gang when he tried to show that he changed. He returned to his camp, and Toph, the avatar's earthbending teacher, broke into his camp to try and speak with him. She frightened Zuko, and he burned her, which gave the rest of the group even less of a desire to trust him. However, all that changed when the assassin Zuko hired long ago to kill the avatar showed up.
Zuko ordered the assassin to stop attacking Aang, and even offered twice the amount of money he paid. The assassin refused to quit, but he was killed by the group. Determined as always, after this Zuko went back and tried again to join the group. He apologized to Toph, and this time, Aang started to believe that Zuko was meant to be his teacher. He was then reluctantly accepted.
Well, he was going to teach firebending to the avatar, but when he tried, there was nothing. Zuko lost his abilities. He said maybe it was because he switched over to the avatar's side. Toph had an idea, saying he should go to the original source of firebending. Zuko thought he was out of luck, because the original source, the dragons, were extinct. He then remembered the Sun Warrior civilization, a group that was thought to be long died out, but the ruins could help. The prince and Aang traveled to the ruins, and found the Sun Warriors were very much alive. They would be both taught by the firebending masters of the tribe. To their surprise, the masters were dragons. The dragons judged Aang and Zuko, and the dance they had learned from the temple in the ruins, and found the two worthy. After the dragons passed their judgment, Zuko was able to firebend again. He also used to think his uncle killed the last dragon, but Iroh said so to protect the two living dragons in the ruins.
During one of the evenings the group spent together, Sokka asked Zoku about prisoners of war of the fire nation. Zoku was reluctant to answer, but did, and told Sokka of a high security prison named Boiling Rock. Sokka's father and many of the troops that served at the eclipse invasion were expected to be there. Zoku and Sokka snuck away from the group and went to go find the prisoners. Zuko was actually found out during this event and captured. He sacrificed himself so Sokka wouldn't get caught himself. They only found Sokka's girlfriend at first, and tried to make a plan. Sokka's girlfriend turned out to be Suki, one of the first people Zuko fought in the series. Just as they were about to escape, Sokka and Zoku overheard that new shipment of prisoners of war was coming in, so they abandoned it. However, a prisoner that blackmailed them to get into the escape plan decided to go through with it by himself. He was captured, interrogated, but didn't rat out Sokka on account that he wanted in on their next plan. Sokka did create another plan, with the help of his father who arrived the next day. Sokka spoke with everyone else involved, except for the prisoner who refused to rat them out. The prisoner found out just as it was being put in motion.
Zuko was then confronted by Mai, the warden's niece, after he discussed the plan with Sokka. She berated Zuko for breaking her heart and betraying the nation. Zuko locked Mai in the cell in order to escape into the yard and pull off their plan. The group started a riot, captured the warden as a hostage, and rode on a gondola out of the prison. While on the gondola they discovered that Azula and her friend had followed them. The warden took off his gag in the struggle that ensued on the gondola's rooftop and commanded the men to cut the line. If the line was cut, the gondola would fall into the boiling water below. Azula and her friend escaped on another gondola. Luckily, Mai escaped her cell and stopped the men from cutting the line, saving Zuko and his friends. All of them then stole Azula's zeppelin and returned to the air temple. Mai was detained, so was Azula's friend, who turned against her as well.
Sadly, there wasn't much time for peace. Azula discovered the group's hideout in the temple and attacked them. Zuko fought her, and it ended in a tie. Both of them survived.
Katara, however, still didn't trust Zuko, and he knew it. The prince tried to find out a way to help and remembered that Katara had spoken about her mother being killed by fire nation while they were imprisoned together. He asked Sokka for the full story, and figured out which fleet killed her mother. He gave this information to Katara, who then went with Zuko to inact revenge. They snuck into a communications tower, found out where the main ship was, and took it down. The captian wasn't the same captian, though, but with some interrogation he turned over the information to the pair of the old captian's location. Katara and Zuko found him, but Katara couldn't force herself to kill him. Zuko and Katara returned home afterwards.
Now was the matter of finding a new hideout. Zuko brought the group to Ember Island, a vacation spot where he often spent time as a child. They occupied his father's old estate and attended a play about themselves. Not much about the play was noteworthy, other than it had a very forboding ending. Ozai managed to harness a comet nearing earth in the play, and both Zuko and Aang died in the production.
Zuko continued training Aang, even though Zuko became furious when he believed Aang was slacking. Aang then told him that he planned on defeating Ozai after the comet. Zuko was shocked at this, and told Aang there wouldn't be a world to save if he waited until then.
The next morning, Zuko woke up with Aang missing. He searched for the avatar to no avail. Zuko then decided to get June's help. He used Aang's staff to try and track Aang, but June said the avatar didn't exist anymore. He then changed plans to try and find his uncle by using an old, sweaty shoe he kept, because he believed that Iroh could defeat the fire lord.. Zuko found his uncle and tearfully reconciled with him. Iroh, however, refused to try and kill the fatherfire lord, as it was the avatar's destiny. When asked further about ascending to the throne, Iroh also refused, and said Zuko had the right over him. He then told Zuko that he had to duel Azula for the throne, while Aang would take out Ozai.
Zuko did return to the fire nation to duel his mentally unstable sister. With the comet close, his abilities were insanely powerful. His sister's poor mental state meant the two were evenly matched, and in another cheap-shot, she attacked Katara, who was with him to help. Zuko jumped into the blast of lightning Azula fired at Katara. While he redirected some of it, a portion of the lightning entered his body. This is where he'll be taken from.
Now for his role in future events! No the insanity does not end hereeee.
Katara defeated Azula and healed Zuko with her abilities while the avatar defeated Ozai by taking away his supernatural abilities. Zuko began dating Mai again, and ascended to the throne as fire lord. He was determined to usher in a new era of peace. There is one currently loose end of the plot. At the end of the series, Zuko questions his fallen father on the location of his mother. The answer is never made clear in canon. What is clear, is his role in events after the series was over.
During comic-con, it was announced that he founded a vast city and united territories. In the new unreleased series, he currently is presumed to be deceased, like the rest of the main cast.
Sooo, as you can see from his history, Zuko's a hothead, as expected with his element. He's impulsive, stern, and pretty bad with small talk and dealing with women who aren't Mai. However, towards the end of the series he thinks things through a bit better. He talks before he thinks, and mostly lacks an internal censor. Zuko can be also be easily irritated. He can be comical, but the majority of his jokes fail. Despite all of this, and his past, he's still a teenager. Zuko isn't too eloquent in his speech, he uses contractions and words like "gonna, outta, etc." much like a typical person. His personality isn't really hitched on his speech patterns, but rather what he talks about and his tone of voice.
He's also very attached to his uncle despite his betrayal of him. Zuko is deeply moved by guilt for his past actions about choosing his sister over his uncle. He's very, very determined and refuses to give in despite failure. He draws knowledge from his uncle, even impersonating him when he wasn't around in the series. Zuko is strong willed, firecly dogged in pursuit of his goals, and unmoving. He is obsessed with his honor, only now how he creates his own honor.
Zuko is sometimes compassionate, towards women (especially pregnant women), and children. Even still, he did steal from a woman who was kind to him before. In the series, he often decides to help the people close to him instead of sacrificing them to continue chasing the avatar. However, this is sort of rendered nil when he gave up his uncle, his greatest regret. He can be teasing (even to the Avatar) and brutally honest. Zuko often speaks his mind during the series adamantly. Towards the end of the series, where he will be taken from, he's a tad more relaxed. His temper isn't as bad as it used to be (he's shown in the series to not blow up when jokes are made at him), but it's still there.
Abilites/Special Powers:
Unarmed combat: Zuko is adept at unarmed combat, as he's shown in the series to break wooden spears with kicks, and be formidable even without a weapon. He's also very acrobatic and agile, capable of jumping larger distances than the average person. He can move stealthily and quietly, as in the series he's been able to infiltrate various buildings.
Armed combat: Zuko's weapons are called Dao swords. They're two short broadswords contained in a single sheath. He's been shown to be extremely skilled when wielding these, even going so far as to use them in conjunction with his firebending. (interesting stupid trivia: They're actually supposed to symbolize the "good" and "bad" sides of Zuko.) He also has a dagger, given to him by his uncle. This dagger is one of his prized possessions, but isn't used as a weapon in the series. Zuko will not be bringing the Dao swords with them. They're not with him in that fight. Putting this here because likely he'll try to get new swords from the closet.
Firebending: Prince Zuko is a living flamethrower. He might not be as skilled as his sister at her peak, or as his father, but he still can stand his ground. By using various stances he can command fire, and does so unintentionally in the series while angry.
He can create everything from massive shields and walls of fire, to small balls, to arch and rings, to continuous streams. He can also make large whips and daggers out of pyre. It's worth mentioning that firebending in the series isn't just "flamethrower-esque" the fire appears to have a degree of combustion, seen as breaking apart things, pushing people back, and cutting things. He can use his swords in conjunction with his flames, and even "charge" his abilities up make them more fearsome. He can also control heat and pressure, as well as control pre-existing sources of fire. Firebending even includes a type of personal jet-propulsion. And yup, he can breathe fire.
Firebending is super aggressive. There's basically nothing defensive about it besides shields. It hinges on throwing opponents off balance with rapid attacks, and keeping foes totally on the defensive. It's the "glass cannon" of bending skills. Firebending is all about force.
His will and determination fuels his internal fires, as does celestial movements and the temperature. Zuko cannot use his abilities during the solar eclipse, for example, and when a huge comet comes closer to the earth, he is extremely powerful. This has daily implications too. He's strongest at noon, weakest at midnight. However, Zuko, unlike most of the members of the royal family, cannot control lightening. He can redirect an existing source of lightening, but can't create it himself. However, it's assumed that he can create his own lightning if he successfully deals with his anger.
Third-Person Sample:
All he could remember was the flash of light arching through his body. He knew, oh how he knew that he had to keep his energy fluid. How could he be expected to do so at such a short notice? However, he didn't feel the earth of the temple under him. He felt grass. The cool grass staunched the smoldering embers of his clothes. The pain, the agony of the attack, was horrifying. He barely had the mental faculties to question where he was. It only came as a brief realization of the grass below him.
He growled, his body twitching and shifting into a fetal position as he felt another residual wave of cold fire coursed through his veins. Lightning arched across his body. His eyes clenched shut, as did his fists. His nails dug so hard into his palms that he nearly bled. The exiled prince was determined to live through this, even as he felt his consciousness fading. Zoku didn't even notice the solemn, blinking lights of a strange device next to him. Lucky kid.
He woke up propped upright in a hospital bed. Bandages covered the star shaped burn on his chest and continued to trail towards his arm. He groaned, aching, but drugged. He tried bitterly to sit upright, as strong willed as ever. He then put his hand over the strange thing plugged into his arm, an IV, and swiftly pulled it out. A voice finally spoke up in the distance of the room.
First-Person Sample:
[The comm device buzzes, then kicks in an audio feed. A frustrated Zuko growls in the background. He talks, presumably to himself.]
Come on! Work!
[He pauses.]
I just don't understand. I shouldn't be here.
[He pauses again, growls again, and finally flops back onto a bed. His voice changes into a more thoughtful one.]
..What would Uncle say now?
[His tone changes to mimic his Uncle's, slower, using more time between each word.]
"Zuko, you must understand that the fish does not control the stream. The stream takes the fish where it pleases, but the fish is still in the river, even if the current pulls him away from his home."
[He sighs, frustrated, and buries his head in his pillow with a loud groan.]