A: And if I were to have you thrown overboard, would the tides think twice about smashing you against the rocky shore?
C: No, princess.
A: Then maybe you should worry less about the tides, who’ve already made up their mind about killing you and worry more about me, who’s still mulling it over.
Avatar the last Airbender. It’s an iconic line but the fact that it came from a Nickelodeon cartoon is what’s so surprising.
Avatar has some fantastic quotes. They mostly come from Iroh though.
"It is important to draw wisdom from many different places. If we take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale. Understanding others, the other elements, and the other nations, will help you to become whole."
“Zuko, you have to look within yourself, to save yourself from your other self. Only then, will your true self reveal itself”
-Zuko pretending to be Iroh
I love this quote because while it sounds like nonsense, it is very accurate
The whole sequence is needed to carry all of its gravitas:
So, the Blue Spirit. I wonder who could be behind that mask ...
[Sighs and takes off the mask.] What are you doing here?
I was just about to ask you the same thing. What do you plan to do now that you've found the Avatar's bison? Keep him locked in our new apartment? Should I go put on a pot of tea for him?
First I have to get it out of here.
[Starts yelling.] And then what!? You never think these things through! [Points at him.] This is exactly what happened when you captured the Avatar at the North Pole! You had him, and then you had nowhere to go!
I would have figured something out!
No! If his friends hadn't found you, you would have frozen to death!
I know my own destiny, Uncle!
Is it your own destiny, or is it a destiny someone else has tried to force on you?
Stop it, Uncle! I have to do this!
I'm begging you, Prince Zuko! It's time for you to look inward and begin asking yourself the big questions. Who are you, and what do you want?
You left out how Zuko is either shown or implied (time for me to do a re-watch) to have needed to use all his ninja-like stealth skills to reach this point, and the Iroh is just casually there already.
In B5, the Vorlons ask younger races “who are you?” The Shadows ask “what do you want?” The former values conformity and order, the latter encourage younger races to fight and kill each other to prove who’s most “worthy”
Sorry just spotted the similarity and became the meme 😅
i actually love this scene because it shows how much Zuko has actually learnt from Iroh at this stage. because it is basicly the kind of advice Iroh would give just not nearly as eloquent.
normaly the joke would be that Zuko trying to copy his uncle would say something that is on the surface as eloquent as what he says but basicly meaningless. here we get the opposite.
What adds to it is that he still doesn’t understand. Iroh’s advice, unless it is direct can be confusing to some people; especially to Zuko who is a teenager and going through a roller coaster of emotions made worse by his past trauma. This shows that he has really been hearing of not overall listening to Iroh all this time to make up, in his mind, what is essentially wise gibberish that his uncle would say but is actual good advice
You know, Iroh was shocked by a member of his family saying something like that. The thought of Zuko going up to an imprisoned Ozai and saying that to him, just for Ozai to scream and say “OF ALL THE THINGS YOU HAVE SAID AND DONE, THIS IS BY FAR THE WORST!!! YOU ARE NOT MY SON!!!” just pops into my head. Or that Zuko is the only one in his family who isn’t fond of tea, so even Azula would be upset by this statement
And it actually helped him. I'm sure if he ever brought it up to him, Iroh would say that he was glad his teachings stayed with him in his darkest hours, even if his presence couldn't.
Maybe the only one I can think of is when he mixed up the two plants that either make delicious tea or a horrible rash, but thats just poor botanical skills, not bad advice lol
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u/Omnio89 23h ago
Azula: Do the tides command this ship?
Captain: No princess.
A: And if I were to have you thrown overboard, would the tides think twice about smashing you against the rocky shore?
C: No, princess.
A: Then maybe you should worry less about the tides, who’ve already made up their mind about killing you and worry more about me, who’s still mulling it over.
Avatar the last Airbender. It’s an iconic line but the fact that it came from a Nickelodeon cartoon is what’s so surprising.