The Promise: Part 1 Zuko makes his way to a prison tower where his father is now being kept. After their initial greeting, Zuko leans forward and demands to know where his mother is, but Ozai only smirks and casually suggests that Zuko ought to bring him tea so they can discuss how to be a good Fire Lord, then mocks Zuko, saying that maybe the subject of his mother will come up. Zuko, wise to his father's antics, declares he doesn't need to deal with this and promptly leaves, but not before Ozai gives a quick speech. Being Fire Lord has all sorts of pressures he knows Zuko isn't ready to handle; Ozai is the only one available to Zuko with the experience of being Fire Lord.
Later, Zuko and Earth King Kuei determine how best to bring healing to the world. They decide the best thing to do is to remove the Fire Nation colonies from the Earth Kingdom. Aang points out that doing so, while a good idea, will disrupt many lives and that someone should be there to oversee it; someone whose job it is to keep peace: Aang. They call this movement the Harmony Restoration Movement.
While riding home on Appa, a celebration begins in the Earth Kingdom when the Harmony Restoration Movement is announced. Fireworks are shot off and everyone has a generally good time. Except Zuko. Zuko never has a good time. Zuko, his face serious as always, tells Aang that he visited his father in prison the other day. He tells Aang he has a favor to ask: that if he ever sees Zuko turning into his father, Aang will end him. He admits that the throne comes with a lot of pressures and that he needs a safety net. Aang refuses, but Zuko pulls the Friend Card and makes Aang promise to kill him if he ever "goes bad."
One year later, everything has gone downhill. Five attempts have been made on Zuko's life and they've driven him to absolute paranoia with a heavy dose of insomnia. Tonight, he says he can feel that someone's there, trying to assassinate him. For once, his paranoia turns out to be correct. A young woman named Kori tries to kill him but he apprehends her. She claims that she is the daughter of the mayor of Yu Dao, one of the oldest Fire Nation colonies. She tells him that the Harmony Restoration Movement is destroying homes and lives.
So the next day, Zuko goes to Yu Dao to check out the situation. He learns of life there and how deeply integrated the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom citizens have become. Some have married and had children; most work together. In short, it's become something other than "Fire Nation land" or "Earth Kingdom land." After his visit, Zuko officially withdraws his support from the Harmony Restoration Movement without telling Aang.
Protesters soon show up at Yu Dao, angry that Zuko has gone back on his word. Aang shows up soon after and makes his way into the city with Katara, intending to talk some sense into Zuko. Aang is met by Zuko's guards who tell him that Zuko has forbidden anyone from entering or leaving the city. Aang remains peaceful, while continuing to insist that he needs to speak with Zuko and the guards attack. With Katara's help, he defeats them. With one guard left, Katara moves to get him out of the way, but Zuko shows up and grabs her wrist.
Katara shouts that Zuko's hurting her wrist and Zuko reminds her she just hurt an entire group of his guards. Zuko won't let go of Katara until she agrees to stop hurting his people, but Aang's had enough. He offensively airbends at Zuko who retaliates with firebending of his own. This pushes Aang over the edge, who enters the Avatar State, ready to kill Zuko. Katara talks Aang down out of the Avatar State and Zuko agrees that Katara is right and he and Aang both need to calm down and talk. Aang, angry, yells that talking is what he'd wanted to do in the first place.
Zuko walks Katara and Aang through Yu Dao, showing how the Earth Kingom citizens have integrated with the Fire Nation citizens. The union between the two nations there enabled great metalwork to be done, thus making Yu Dao one of the richest cities in the world. Katara points out that it doesn't seem equal; the Fire Nation citizen seem to be above the Earth Kingdom citizens.
Aang quickly grows tired of the history lesson and says that by continuing to betray the Harmony Restoration Movement, Zuko's going to end up starting a war. Zuko assures Aang that his original intention was to personally enforce the removal of Yu Dao, but then the mayor's wife asked him to stay and see their way of life, so he did. When Aang and Zuko can't reach an agreement, Katara then suggests they arrange a meeting with Earth King Kuei and asks both of them to attend. Aang and Zuko agree.
Zuko leaves Yu Dao and returns home. Mai, unhappy that Zuko left suddenly without telling her, greets him. She points out that Zuko's clearly having problems but not sharing, and Zuko apologizes, saying it won't happen again. Mai then says she can tell he hasn't been sleeping well lately and pulls him to the next room. It turns out Mai arranged for the Kyoshi Warriors to guard him since he and Mai both felt he needed real security.
Zuko's uneasy sleep continues and finally, he decides he can't take it anymore. The Kyoshi Warriors insist he try going back to sleep, but Zuko says he's going to get a drink of water and that the walk will do him good. He then proceeds to make his way to the prison his father is being kept. Ironically, he brought tea.
Zuko sits humbly across from his father, pours a cup of tea and passes it to Ozai. He then finally admits that he needs Ozai's help.
The Promise: Part 2 Ozai begins their talk by reminding Zuko of the family vacations their family used to take to Ember Island. On one of them, Zuko saved a turtle-crab from being eaten by a hawk. Then, Zuko had seen how hungry the hawk looked and felt indecisive. Before he could reach decision, a wave swept him out to the ocean. Ozai dove in to save him. Whether either Zuko or Ozai know it or not, that story is a perfect parallel to what Zuko is experiencing now.
Zuko, failing to understand the point of that story, tells his father he came to ask for advice about how Ozai was able to sleep peacefully in spite of the pressures of the throne. Ozai assures Zuko he just told him how, but when Zuko insists he didn't, Ozai declares he's tired and that their discussion will continue tomorrow... and that Zuko should bring more tea.
Zuko allows his father to order him around and leaves, his posture one of defeat.
The next day, Zuko returns wearing his Fire Lord robes and brings his father more tea. Zuko stayed up all night thinking about his father's words and figured out that in Ozai's story, he'd been overwhelmed because he couldn't decide which side to take. He then declares he should have sided with the hawk who, like the Fire Nation, had earned its meal.
Zuko continues, saying that he's done that. He's putting the Fire Nation first unlike when he first took the throne, yet he still can't sleep.
Ozai tells him he's only partially right; that Zuko's sleeplessness does come from his inability to choose sides, but that he was wrong about the hawk. Zuko is completely baffled, wondering why his father would want him to side with the weaker of the two. Ozai clarifies further saying it was right because Zuko decided. He is the Fire Lord; what Zuko chooses is, by definition, right.
Zuko vehemently disagrees, saying that right and wrong are bigger than him, his father or even Aang. Ozai then changes the subject about the meeting he, Katara, Aang and the Earth King were planning. He mocks Zuko, calling him naive for believing that the Earth King will be reasonable. Ozai says that if Zuko is truly the Fire Lord, then he will defend the people of Yu Dao ferociously, not because they're his people but because they are an expression of Zuko's will.
Zuko refuses, insisting that waiting is the best course of action. He says that Aang is his friend, has often been right through this whole ordeal and that he trusts Aang. Ozai asks Zuko if he trusts Aang more than he trusts himself, but Zuko doesn't respond.
Ozai, however, declares that Zuko sickens him. Zuko finally stands up for himself and makes an attempt to remind Ozai of his place in jail as the ex-Fire Lord, but Ozai shouts at Zuko for him to leave his presence.
Zuko obliges and Suki sees Zuko leaving the prison.
Later, Zuko is in his throne room tending to the fire. He decides that a huge intimidating fire isn't him and puts it out, only to find Mai behind the smoke, unhappy as ever. Mai tells him that she knows he's been secretly meeting with Ozai. When Zuko asks where she heard that, she says it doesn't matter because it wasn't from him. Zuko admits that he's been screwing up a lot lately and admits that he loves Mai. Unfortunately, Mai doesn't care. She's fed up with Zuko and realizes that Zuko must love his secrets more than her.
Mai leaves and Zuko loses it for a second, stooping so low as to order her back. Mai doesn't listen and suddenly Suki appears behind him, apologizing. She'd asked Mai to talk to him about his father but it backfired, then proceeds to tell Zuko how worried she and the others are about him.
They're interrupted by General Mak, who received a message from the spies Zuko sent to the Earth Kingdom. Zuko's suspicions are confirmed: the Earth King's army is marching toward Yu Dao. Zuko, shocked, quietly admits that his father was right.
Having no choice, Zuko immediately leaves to board his warship, hoping to get to Yu Dao before the Earth King.
3rd person sample: He felt like he was losing his mind. For the past few days, he hadn't been able to sleep for more than an hour or two at a time and no matter what he did, he just couldn't find peace. This feeling was worse than the one he'd felt in the Earth Kingdom last year. Back when he was a refugee, he hadn't known what he wanted in life. He let other people make decisions for him, feeling like it was pointless to try making them on his own. After all, everyone had more experience than him. People like his uncle, father and sister were great people with power and loyal followers. Something about them made people want to follow them, but it wasn't the case with him.
Was he doing the same thing now? Allowing other people to make his decisions for him? His father kept telling him that not only was his affinity to the weak a weakness itself, but so was his indecisiveness. So far, his father had been right about everything: the colonists, Yu Dao, the Earth King. Was being indecisive such a complete crime? Wasn't it better to think everything through instead of blindly rushing headfirst into a situation or making an uninformed decision?
How did his father do this? How did his father sleep so well at night? Even if he'd been a tyrannical leader, his people still liked him; apart from the war, his father had actually been a good Fire Lord.
Did that mean the few decisions he was reaching were all the wrong ones? He never thought being the Fire Lord would be an easy task, but he never thought it would be this hard, either. It was one thing to expect pressures, but to have people trying to assassinate you? To have absolutely no one on your side? It was like everyone thought he was a worse Fire Lord than Ozai—Ozai, who had done so many terrible things in life that Zuko had lost count. Even the daughter of the Mayor of Yu Dao was against him—she fully supported Ozai's regime, in which the Earth Kingdom would have been burned to the ground, the very place where she lived.
What was he supposed to do? Who was he supposed turn to? All he had was his father and as much as Zuko disliked him, he was the only person in the world with actual experience being Fire Lord.
Zuko sighed. He was buckling under the stress of being Fire Lord. Then there was that paranoia—well, he didn't consider it paranoia, others did. He could feel it, though. That feeling of someone watching him from the shadows. He was tired of these assassins. Six in a year. This would be the seventh—but he wasn't going to give up. He promised his uncle that he would restore honor to the Fire Nation and he would, no matter what he had to do.
Anything else worth mentioning: Nah. He's a bit less sane, got to be Fire Lord, has a second scar now and has a dumb hair cut.
CANON UPDATE SUCCINCT 2
Zuko makes his way to a prison tower where his father is now being kept. After their initial greeting, Zuko leans forward and demands to know where his mother is, but Ozai only smirks and casually suggests that Zuko ought to bring him tea so they can discuss how to be a good Fire Lord, then mocks Zuko, saying that maybe the subject of his mother will come up. Zuko, wise to his father's antics, declares he doesn't need to deal with this and promptly leaves, but not before Ozai gives a quick speech. Being Fire Lord has all sorts of pressures he knows Zuko isn't ready to handle; Ozai is the only one available to Zuko with the experience of being Fire Lord.
Later, Zuko and Earth King Kuei determine how best to bring healing to the world. They decide the best thing to do is to remove the Fire Nation colonies from the Earth Kingdom. Aang points out that doing so, while a good idea, will disrupt many lives and that someone should be there to oversee it; someone whose job it is to keep peace: Aang. They call this movement the Harmony Restoration Movement.
While riding home on Appa, a celebration begins in the Earth Kingdom when the Harmony Restoration Movement is announced. Fireworks are shot off and everyone has a generally good time. Except Zuko. Zuko never has a good time. Zuko, his face serious as always, tells Aang that he visited his father in prison the other day. He tells Aang he has a favor to ask: that if he ever sees Zuko turning into his father, Aang will end him. He admits that the throne comes with a lot of pressures and that he needs a safety net. Aang refuses, but Zuko pulls the Friend Card and makes Aang promise to kill him if he ever "goes bad."
One year later, everything has gone downhill. Five attempts have been made on Zuko's life and they've driven him to absolute paranoia with a heavy dose of insomnia. Tonight, he says he can feel that someone's there, trying to assassinate him. For once, his paranoia turns out to be correct. A young woman named Kori tries to kill him but he apprehends her. She claims that she is the daughter of the mayor of Yu Dao, one of the oldest Fire Nation colonies. She tells him that the Harmony Restoration Movement is destroying homes and lives.
So the next day, Zuko goes to Yu Dao to check out the situation. He learns of life there and how deeply integrated the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom citizens have become. Some have married and had children; most work together. In short, it's become something other than "Fire Nation land" or "Earth Kingdom land." After his visit, Zuko officially withdraws his support from the Harmony Restoration Movement without telling Aang.
Protesters soon show up at Yu Dao, angry that Zuko has gone back on his word. Aang shows up soon after and makes his way into the city with Katara, intending to talk some sense into Zuko. Aang is met by Zuko's guards who tell him that Zuko has forbidden anyone from entering or leaving the city. Aang remains peaceful, while continuing to insist that he needs to speak with Zuko and the guards attack. With Katara's help, he defeats them. With one guard left, Katara moves to get him out of the way, but Zuko shows up and grabs her wrist.
Katara shouts that Zuko's hurting her wrist and Zuko reminds her she just hurt an entire group of his guards. Zuko won't let go of Katara until she agrees to stop hurting his people, but Aang's had enough. He offensively airbends at Zuko who retaliates with firebending of his own. This pushes Aang over the edge, who enters the Avatar State, ready to kill Zuko. Katara talks Aang down out of the Avatar State and Zuko agrees that Katara is right and he and Aang both need to calm down and talk. Aang, angry, yells that talking is what he'd wanted to do in the first place.
Zuko walks Katara and Aang through Yu Dao, showing how the Earth Kingom citizens have integrated with the Fire Nation citizens. The union between the two nations there enabled great metalwork to be done, thus making Yu Dao one of the richest cities in the world. Katara points out that it doesn't seem equal; the Fire Nation citizen seem to be above the Earth Kingdom citizens.
Aang quickly grows tired of the history lesson and says that by continuing to betray the Harmony Restoration Movement, Zuko's going to end up starting a war. Zuko assures Aang that his original intention was to personally enforce the removal of Yu Dao, but then the mayor's wife asked him to stay and see their way of life, so he did. When Aang and Zuko can't reach an agreement, Katara then suggests they arrange a meeting with Earth King Kuei and asks both of them to attend. Aang and Zuko agree.
Zuko leaves Yu Dao and returns home. Mai, unhappy that Zuko left suddenly without telling her, greets him. She points out that Zuko's clearly having problems but not sharing, and Zuko apologizes, saying it won't happen again. Mai then says she can tell he hasn't been sleeping well lately and pulls him to the next room. It turns out Mai arranged for the Kyoshi Warriors to guard him since he and Mai both felt he needed real security.
Zuko's uneasy sleep continues and finally, he decides he can't take it anymore. The Kyoshi Warriors insist he try going back to sleep, but Zuko says he's going to get a drink of water and that the walk will do him good. He then proceeds to make his way to the prison his father is being kept. Ironically, he brought tea.
Zuko sits humbly across from his father, pours a cup of tea and passes it to Ozai. He then finally admits that he needs Ozai's help.
The Promise: Part 2
Ozai begins their talk by reminding Zuko of the family vacations their family used to take to Ember Island. On one of them, Zuko saved a turtle-crab from being eaten by a hawk. Then, Zuko had seen how hungry the hawk looked and felt indecisive. Before he could reach decision, a wave swept him out to the ocean. Ozai dove in to save him. Whether either Zuko or Ozai know it or not, that story is a perfect parallel to what Zuko is experiencing now.
Zuko, failing to understand the point of that story, tells his father he came to ask for advice about how Ozai was able to sleep peacefully in spite of the pressures of the throne. Ozai assures Zuko he just told him how, but when Zuko insists he didn't, Ozai declares he's tired and that their discussion will continue tomorrow... and that Zuko should bring more tea.
Zuko allows his father to order him around and leaves, his posture one of defeat.
The next day, Zuko returns wearing his Fire Lord robes and brings his father more tea. Zuko stayed up all night thinking about his father's words and figured out that in Ozai's story, he'd been overwhelmed because he couldn't decide which side to take. He then declares he should have sided with the hawk who, like the Fire Nation, had earned its meal.
Zuko continues, saying that he's done that. He's putting the Fire Nation first unlike when he first took the throne, yet he still can't sleep.
Ozai tells him he's only partially right; that Zuko's sleeplessness does come from his inability to choose sides, but that he was wrong about the hawk. Zuko is completely baffled, wondering why his father would want him to side with the weaker of the two. Ozai clarifies further saying it was right because Zuko decided. He is the Fire Lord; what Zuko chooses is, by definition, right.
Zuko vehemently disagrees, saying that right and wrong are bigger than him, his father or even Aang. Ozai then changes the subject about the meeting he, Katara, Aang and the Earth King were planning. He mocks Zuko, calling him naive for believing that the Earth King will be reasonable. Ozai says that if Zuko is truly the Fire Lord, then he will defend the people of Yu Dao ferociously, not because they're his people but because they are an expression of Zuko's will.
Zuko refuses, insisting that waiting is the best course of action. He says that Aang is his friend, has often been right through this whole ordeal and that he trusts Aang. Ozai asks Zuko if he trusts Aang more than he trusts himself, but Zuko doesn't respond.
Ozai, however, declares that Zuko sickens him. Zuko finally stands up for himself and makes an attempt to remind Ozai of his place in jail as the ex-Fire Lord, but Ozai shouts at Zuko for him to leave his presence.
Zuko obliges and Suki sees Zuko leaving the prison.
Later, Zuko is in his throne room tending to the fire. He decides that a huge intimidating fire isn't him and puts it out, only to find Mai behind the smoke, unhappy as ever. Mai tells him that she knows he's been secretly meeting with Ozai. When Zuko asks where she heard that, she says it doesn't matter because it wasn't from him. Zuko admits that he's been screwing up a lot lately and admits that he loves Mai. Unfortunately, Mai doesn't care. She's fed up with Zuko and realizes that Zuko must love his secrets more than her.
Mai leaves and Zuko loses it for a second, stooping so low as to order her back. Mai doesn't listen and suddenly Suki appears behind him, apologizing. She'd asked Mai to talk to him about his father but it backfired, then proceeds to tell Zuko how worried she and the others are about him.
They're interrupted by General Mak, who received a message from the spies Zuko sent to the Earth Kingdom. Zuko's suspicions are confirmed: the Earth King's army is marching toward Yu Dao. Zuko, shocked, quietly admits that his father was right.
Having no choice, Zuko immediately leaves to board his warship, hoping to get to Yu Dao before the Earth King.
3rd person sample:
He felt like he was losing his mind. For the past few days, he hadn't been able to sleep for more than an hour or two at a time and no matter what he did, he just couldn't find peace. This feeling was worse than the one he'd felt in the Earth Kingdom last year. Back when he was a refugee, he hadn't known what he wanted in life. He let other people make decisions for him, feeling like it was pointless to try making them on his own. After all, everyone had more experience than him. People like his uncle, father and sister were great people with power and loyal followers. Something about them made people want to follow them, but it wasn't the case with him.
Was he doing the same thing now? Allowing other people to make his decisions for him? His father kept telling him that not only was his affinity to the weak a weakness itself, but so was his indecisiveness. So far, his father had been right about everything: the colonists, Yu Dao, the Earth King. Was being indecisive such a complete crime? Wasn't it better to think everything through instead of blindly rushing headfirst into a situation or making an uninformed decision?
How did his father do this? How did his father sleep so well at night? Even if he'd been a tyrannical leader, his people still liked him; apart from the war, his father had actually been a good Fire Lord.
Did that mean the few decisions he was reaching were all the wrong ones? He never thought being the Fire Lord would be an easy task, but he never thought it would be this hard, either. It was one thing to expect pressures, but to have people trying to assassinate you? To have absolutely no one on your side? It was like everyone thought he was a worse Fire Lord than Ozai—Ozai, who had done so many terrible things in life that Zuko had lost count. Even the daughter of the Mayor of Yu Dao was against him—she fully supported Ozai's regime, in which the Earth Kingdom would have been burned to the ground, the very place where she lived.
What was he supposed to do? Who was he supposed turn to? All he had was his father and as much as Zuko disliked him, he was the only person in the world with actual experience being Fire Lord.
Zuko sighed. He was buckling under the stress of being Fire Lord. Then there was that paranoia—well, he didn't consider it paranoia, others did. He could feel it, though. That feeling of someone watching him from the shadows. He was tired of these assassins. Six in a year. This would be the seventh—but he wasn't going to give up. He promised his uncle that he would restore honor to the Fire Nation and he would, no matter what he had to do.
Anything else worth mentioning: Nah. He's a bit less sane, got to be Fire Lord, has a second scar now and has a dumb hair cut.