If you watched Avatar: The Last Airbender than you should be familiar with Zuko. Zuko was a powerful fire bender that was positioned as the primary antagonist to Aang along most of his journey. Zuko's personality and temperament are a direct result of the society of hierarchy he was raised in. Discipline and respect were the primary motives for success and failure were seen as a result that should never happen under any circumstance. Throughout the series, the viewer comes to understand Zuko and eventually are rewarded with one of the best character arcs in television history. Zuko makes the journey from stubborn prince to a respected lord. He goes from obsessing over the capture and defeat of Aang to coming to terms with who he really is and helping the Avatar succeed in bringing peace to the land. Zuko progression through the series and his trials and tribulations are a large part of what makes Avatar: The Last Airbender one of the best-animated television shows of the modern era. Fans are subsequently rewarded with Zuko reappearing in The Legend of Korra series as an older advisor to the new Avatar. He's a complicated character with a complex set of morals that's seemingly trying to learn who he is and what his life's purpose is. Zuko's journal throughout the series is said to purposely follow that of the Buddha himself. Let's take a look at 25 crazy or little-known facts you never knew about Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

25 Zuko Comes Full Circle

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In the intro to this list, I discussed that Zuko has a character arc throughout the series that we rarely see come full circle in animated television shows. He starts as an unlovable and whiny brat, yet over the course of the series, he slowly transforms into a misunderstood and troubled boy with a chip on his shoulder and a remorseful understanding of his misdoings. In The Legend of Korra fans are not only treated to an old and grizzled Zuko, they're treated to a beautiful closing to an unforgettable story of a character with a lot to prove and even more to learn. It's great to see it come full circle and witness a man care for his grandson and truly wish the best for him despite seeing the opposite treatment from those he cared most about as a child. It showcases that Zuko really did learn and grow as a person.

24 Zuko Means...

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When we see a character's name we rarely ever assume that it has anything to do with that same character's personality or attitude. That is, of course, unless it's a right on the nose reference or word that we could easily connect the dots with ourselves. Sometimes these relations are like I just stated, but a lack of understanding and knowledge of languages other than English leave us in an unknowing predicament.

Zuko is phonetically similar to the word suko, which is a Cebuano word referring to "anger."

This makes sense considering Zuko is famous for his ill-tempered nature and fiery emotions. How do you feel about these types of character naming conventions? It seems that audiences are okay with them as long as they're either comedically obvious or refer to a non-English word or reference.

23 Cry Me A River

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With a character as gifted and powerful as Zuko, you need to do some things in the creative writing process to make him a complex and interesting character to follow. We quickly learn that Zuko's weakness is his emotional instability. He has a hard time controlling his emotions and often lets his passion take precedence over his reason. Even though Zuko is emotionally unstable, he also comes from a community that looks down on vulnerability and weakness.

That's why it's so surprising that we're treated to him crying on numerous occasions.

Zuko is seen crying in 5 different episodes throughout the series. On the surface, this showcases that in many ways he's still just a child. He's learning and the pressure has taken its toll on him. Everyone deserves the right to let out a good cry now and again.

22 Thunderbolts Of Lightning!

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When you first learn that fire benders can manipulate lightning, it begins to showcase the true power of a veteran fire bender. There's a very difficult and precise technique involving the redirection of lightning that Zuko learns from his Uncle Iroh in the show. Funny enough, the two times Zuko successfully pulls off this maneuver is against two members of his immediate family. One of them is performed when Zuko is in a battle with his father. The other takes place when Zuko's sister tries to get the better of him. If we were to take into account the real physics behind lightning that would make Zuko's reaction time otherworldly. Being able to showcase a move learned from the one family member who believed in him against those who created the monster he was is a very beautiful moment.

21 Mom, Where Are You?

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For a person as troubled as Zuko was during his childhood, it is truly astounding that he turned into what he did at the end of the series. A lot of love should be given to his Uncle Iroh who was a fundamental piece in forging the new person Zuko had grown into. Uncle Iroh was the only person in his immediate family who believed in what Zuko truly was. Team Avatar played a huge role in terms of forgiveness and acceptance as well. When Zuko became Fire Lord his first major act was to search for his long-lost mother. The backstory behind her disappearance is oddly mysterious and explains the many emotional issues Zuko had as a youth.

20 Zuko + Katara = True Love?

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A lot of times when a show is being developed, the writing team likes to throw numerous amounts of ideas out and see what sticks. Many times decisions that are made late in the creation process can be forgotten, mishandled, or put on the back-burner for a multitude of reasons. In the extras commentary for one of the episodes, it is stated that it was originally intended for Katara to be Zuko's main love interest in the series.

We never see this happen in the show which is a huge bummer.

In hindsight, it doesn't feel like this relationship would have filled a void we needed to be fixed, but it could have added another layer to Zuko's complex character arc. The showrunners have stated numerous times that a relationship between Zuko and Katara was never planned or implied despite what the extras might state.

19 Slappin' The Tsungi Horn!

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One of the many running gags in the Avatar series is that even though Aang is supremely talented and extremely powerful he struggles with many simple tasks. Though it may not be seen as a simple task a specific gag is that Aang can't play an instrument known as the tsungi horn. This is pretty ironic considering Aang, someone who can move air with his might, can't play an instrument predicated on the user inputting air into it.

Musically instruments can be quite hard for certain types of people so that shouldn't be too shocking.

What is shocking is that in some behind the scenes commentary it is revealed that Zuko can actually play the tsungi horn. You would think Zuko would take any opportunity he can to embrace the Avatar, but unfortunately, we weren't treated to such a performance.

18 What A Physique!

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When you're watching a show a lot of times the subtle details a team excruciates over nailing are the ones that go unnoticed because they're so well integrated into the narrative. Small detail viewers may have missed is as Zuko's health and diet change throughout the show, his body, muscular build, and overall physique change accordingly. At the beginning of the show, we see him as a toned and stout leader of an immense force with great wealth and access to any food they'd want. When Zuko becomes an outcast and is living as a refugee near the Earth tribes we see his stature become slimmer and resemble that of a leaner more compact individual. This has to do with the fact he was mostly eating vegetables and lacked the carbs he was used to consuming back with the Fire Nation.

17 That's Not His Name

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When Zuko is outcast and is wanted for his crimes and misfortunes we're treated to wanted signs looking for the lost prince/lord that was. Those wanted posters had a different alias for him and when translated showcased different titles for who he was exactly. This titles, once translated, read as the following: ancestor's robber, awaken rank, and vertical high. Only one of these titles has an easy to understand and digestible relation to Zuko. The others seem to be lost in translation and lose any connection to the original character that's wanted. With these types of subtle details, it's understandable that the localization team tends to purposefully leave them as is or try their hardest to come up with a solution but run into numerous hurdles along the way.

16 Don't Dao Me!

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The fire nation is one full of anger and fury. It's built on honor and pride, which if toyed with or disrespected, could result in some serious punishment. Every nation has a select number of specialized weapons and tools they come to grow fond of due to their synergy with that nation's specific element of choice when it comes to bending. Zuko, the lord of the fire nation, is the only fire bender in his entire nation that uses dao swords. Dao swords are single-edged swords primarily known to be used for actions needed a slicing or chopping motion. They're also known as Chinese sabers and are often seen dual-wielded. Throughout the series, we come to understand that Zuko is unique and one-of-a-kind in many ways, so being the sole wielder of a specific weapon should come as no surprise.

15 Do You ...?

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Avatar: The Last Airbender was an animated show that happened to introduce a younger audience to some very serious situations and issues revolving around current day society. It handled mature issues favorably well and did a lot in terms of teaching kids some valuable lessons. In a show where people can bend elements to their will you would assume it could showcase a favorable amount of violence, and though we see a good amount of fighting, you rarely would see blood in any of the fights. Zuko was the first character to ever be shown bleeding and was only one of two characters to ever be shown bleeding period. He bleeds when Azula scratches his forehead with her nails. The other character that is shown bleeding is none other than Appa, himself.

14 Getting His Hair Did

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At the beginning of the series, Zuko is designed with black hair. You wouldn't really assume anything about this considering black is a fairly normal and common hair color for someone of Asian descent. That would be the case if Zuko's hair wasn't dark brown in everything in the Avatar franchise except Book One: Water.

It's a weird change to dedicate so much time to make his hair black only to change it to dark brown for the foreseeable future.

Many people have assumed that this was simply done for further personal characterization. Maybe the creators wanted Zuko to stand out and the black hair made him feel too much like everyone else. Either way, you're welcome for ruining this for your numerous re-watches of the series in your future.

13 The Bird Is The Word

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According to the pilot episode, there were initial plans for Zuko to have a pet hawk in the show. In early concept stages, it was pitched that the primary antagonist would carry with him a loyal and dangerous sidekick which happened to be a hawk. Though it never made it into the full show as Zuko's pet, there was a pet hawk in the show.

The hawk was named "Hawky" and was actually Sokka's pet bird.

Unfortunately, we only saw Hawky for one episode. It seems likely that the showrunners felt that since Aang had his own animal sidekick it was only right to give Zuko something as well. It would have been really neat for them to create a unique animal creature like they did for Aang instead of settling on a hawk.

12 Zuko Gets Tea-sed

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We've already covered that Zuko was apparently a tremendous tsungi horn player, but that doesn't mean he was a savant at everything. We learn early on in the show that Zuko is terrible at making tea. So much so that we hear Uncle Iroh complain about how bad the tea Zuko made for him was.

Practice does make perfect and we do have evidence that Zuko eventually became pretty proficient at making tea.

Later in the series, Zuko makes tea for all of Team Avatar and it seems at that moment they really enjoyed it. So either Zuko stepped his tea game up, or Team Avatar just didn't want to squash Zuko's confidence and hid their disgust of the beverage. The latter seems tough considering Aang is so bad at doing exactly that.

11 Can You Hear Me Now? Good.

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Zuko is known for being an extremely talented and fierce human being. His above-average gifts go far beyond his fire bending abilities. In the episode where Zuko's ship is infiltrated by pirates, it is stated that he has above average hearing. This heightened sense of hearing allowed Zuko to hear the pirates board when one of them opened a rusty door. It's never fully explained why or how he has these heightened abilities, but most believe that Zuko's simply a special and gifted human being. In a world where one can learn to bend elements, it should come as no surprise that some of these individuals are gifted with additional abilities. Maybe it's these exact hearing abilities that allow him to be so good at playing the tsungi horn.

10 Last Living Male

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Zuko is introduced to the audience as a bratty but powerful bender with traditions to uphold and an anger problem to temper. He slowly grows into a powerful person spiritually and takes on a new life task of bringing a time of peace and prosperity to his people and the land around them.

When Zuko first appears in The Legend of Korra we see the grizzled old man he has become.

The love he shows to his grandson is an astounding character moment considering how vile his own family was to a much younger version of himself. It takes the audience a bit to realize it, but Zuko was the last living male member of Team Avatar. He was a late addition to the team, but arguably the most meaningful.

9 Hold Your Breath

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We've already covered the fact that Zuko is far from ordinary. He possesses many skills and hidden talents that seem to come out of nowhere and just add to his overall skillset. His hearing ability is pretty dang impressive and helped warn him of an impending pirate attack. Let's now talk about his underwater talents. Zuko has the ability to hold his breath for an extremely long time.

This means that he can swim underwater for a lengthy chunk of time when need be.

This ability is showcased in "The Siege of the North Pt. 1" when you see Zuko swimming in underwater tunnels. In the extras for the episode, a commentary bubble confirms that Zuko has great lung capacity. This seems a little-overpowered considering he's a fire bender and has an affinity for water.

8 Can We Eat Yet?

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So, we've covered that Zuko has exceptionally great hearing. His ability to breath underwater for prolonged periods of time unlike most of his peers has also been a topic of conversations. Let's now discuss how Zuko and his Uncle Iroh managed to go weeks without food or water. This impressive feat is actually a lifestyle for a select number of individuals across the world who enjoy seeing their body pushed to its absolute limits.

Many doctors and nutritionists feel that this type of dietary behavior could have unforeseen and dangerous effects on one's body.

Obviously, Zuko and his Uncle Iroh did it out of necessity and not necessarily choice. Being on the run as long as they were it could be plausible that their bodies just adapted to conserving energy for future use.

7 Mai-be They Reconnect?

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Everyone seemed to wonder if Zuko and Mai would ever get back together in some meaningful way. Last year during Emerald City ComiCon 2017 it was implied that Zuko and Mai did, in fact, end up back together. This implication was made by Gene Luen Yang who was the writer of the trilogy of novels that represented a continuation of the story from the main Avatar series. He stated that both Zuko and Mai had rekindled their love for one another after the end of the third novel. It's always great to see these creators imply or confirm things that they don't necessarily have to, but feel like they owe it to the audience to give them some sort of resolution. Here's to all of you caring creatives!

6 That Sounds Familiar

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When a voice actor is brought back for numerous projects involving the beloved character attached to their voice, it always brings a smile to people's faces. We've seen this happen over the years with Kevin Conroy and his iconic portrayal of Batman. Dante Basco, who's most known for playing Rufio in Hook, voiced Zuko in the original series. He also had the pleasure of coming back for The Legend of Korra and was also given the responsibility to voice Zuko's grandson as well. This was a cool little nod to both the actor and Zuko. This warmed fans hearts that Basco could lend a hand in the new generation of Avatar presented to the masses. If they ever create an open-world RPG set in the Avatar universe it would be a real shame to not see Dante Basco involved in the fire nation narrative at all.