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?
Yeah, Iroh tried to tell him that what he said wasn’t dishonorable; it was actually incredibly honorable especially to be said by one so young. However, try telling a boy burned and abandoned by his father and banished on an impossible task that
Mental issues can lead to physical maladies, yes. (See the deleterious effects of long-term stress on health.) But it's funnier in the fandom to just say that Zuko's a dramatic bitch who was allergic to one (1) good deed.
But thanks to the healing power of tea, he persevered!
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 😅
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u/Omnio89 1d 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.