“I know you’re nervous, but remember:
firebending in and of itself is not something to fear.”
Avatar: The Last Airbender dissects human nature
according to the four elements: Water, Fire, Earth, and Air.
In this Avatar series, we’re looking at the deeper meaning
of each element and how you can know
which one most defines your essence.
In our first video of the series, we discussed what makes someone
a Water Personality,
who embraces constant change while maintaining
a steadfast love for one another..
“I’m not giving up on these people.”
In this episode, we’ll be looking at water’s opposite: Fire,
to understand what makes someone a Fire personality,
in the World of Avatar and in our own.
For most of Avatar: The Last Airbender,
the Fire Nation is positioned as the enemy:
the cause of imbalance in the world.
“Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony.
Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.”
But as we learn later on, the Fire Nation isn’t inherently evil.
It’s just misunderstood, and sometimes misguided.
“It’s like these people are born bad.”
“No, that’s wrong.
I don’t think that was the point
of what Roku showed me at all.”
Firebenders are dedicated, focused, and intent on achieving their goals,
often at any cost.
It’s a drive to conquer that mirrors fire’s all-consuming spread.
“Fire is the element of power.”
But as we’ll see, the power of fire
doesn’t necessarily make you the bad guy.
It all depends on how you choose to use it.
“It’s like the sun, but inside of you.”
Here’s our Take on the qualities that define the Fire Nation
and how you can tell if you’re a firebender deep down.
“I’m begging you, Prince Zuko!
It’s time for you to look inward.”
You’re watching: The Take.
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What defines fire?
More than anything, it’s passion.
You’re a fire personality if you want something and pursue it,
by any means necessary.
“The people of the Fire Nation have desire and will,
and the energy and drive to achieve what they want.”
It’s something we learn from our first encounter
with the show’s central fire character: Prince Zuko.
“I don’t need any calming tea, I need to capture the Avatar!”
Zuko is, quite literally, hotheaded - we see him actually breathe fire -
and he’s intent on capturing Aang even if it means risking the lives
of his own crew.
“Finding the Avatar is far more important
than any individual’s safety.”
Fire personalities often apply their passion
to planning and carrying out complex projects,
which explains why the Fire Nation is the most technologically advanced
society in the world of Avatar.
“This drill is a feat of scientific ingenuity
and raw destructive power.”
In the show, its culture is the closest to what we think of
as a modern civilization, from its citizens’ epicurean diet,
“Come on Aang, everyone here eats meat.
Even the meat!”
to its strict schooling and system of etiquette.
Firebenders are industrious and innovative people,
which explains the rapid changes in the world of Avatar
in the years between Aang and Korra’s lives—
including the construction of large factories
that run on applied lightning bending.
But fire is also destructive.
While the other elements
can be abused, fire, by its very nature,
inflicts damage and pain.
“Its nature is to consume and without control
it destroys everything around it.”
We’re never far from a reminder of the deadly power of fire—
whether it’s the murder of Sokka and Katara’s mother,
or the genocide of the Air Nomads
“Firebenders?
They were here?”
The first time Aang tries to learn firebending,
it ends in disaster.
“Katara!
I’m so sorry!”
Even Zuko himself bears a memento of fire’s harmful capabilities
in the burn scars given to him by his own father.
“You will learn respect, and suffering will be your teacher.”
When a powerful person’s passion and ingenuity
are given the wrong direction, and their fire is allowed
to spread unchecked, the result can be ruinous.
Time and again, we see that fire personalities
are willing to destroy anyone who gets in their way.
“I think you should take their precious hope,
and the rest of their land, and burn it to the ground.”
Zuko’s great-grandfather, Fire Lord Sozin,
was at first motivated by his wanting to make the world
a better place, and spread all that the Fire Nation had accomplished.
“We should share this prosperity with the rest of the world.
In our hands is the most successful empire in history—
it’s time we expanded it.”
But through his convictions, Sozin became an enormous threat,
instigating a war against the rest of the world.
The citizens of Fire Nation committed terrible atrocities,
because they were raised to believe in their own superiority.
“Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was
the greatest civilization in history, and somehow the war was our way
of sharing our greatness with the rest of the world.
What an amazing lie that was.”
Still, in the same way a fire can either keep you warm
or destroy your house, cook your food or burn your skin,
Avatar also gives us examples of fire’s versatility—
the way it can be used for great good, or for great evil...
“Fire is life, not just destruction.”
depending on what kind of fire personality you decide to be.
“In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself.”
“That’s who you are, Zuko: Someone who keeps fighting
even though it’s hard.”
Zuko is the most complicated character in Avatar,
precisely because he’s so volatile—
his fire could turn in any direction.
“I’m angry at myself!”
Zuko’s story exemplifies how a firebender’s true nature
is forged by choice.
“You have come to the crossroads of your destiny.
It’s time for you to choose.”
Throughout the series, Zuko’s relationship with Aang
is the source of his firebending, and the root of his passion.
At first, the possibility of capturing Aang
represents Zuko’s only chance to return to his old life
“The Avatar gives Zuko hope.”
Once Zuko fully rejects his old life and joins up with Aang,
his firebending is significantly weakened.
“For so many years, hunting you was my drive.
It was my purpose.
So when I joined you,
I lost sight of my inner fire.”
But in confronting the original firebenders—dragons—
Zuko understands something that, if you’re a fire personality,
you must come to understand, too:
drive comes from inside you.
After that, Zuko realizes that Aang still gives him hope,
and a kindling for his fire— but it’s now the hope
for a new Fire Nation, and an end to the war.
“But now, I have a new drive: I have to help you defeat my father,
and restore balance to the world.”
In order to successfully deal with his own inner turmoil, though,
Zuko must confront the consequences of his previous actions,
and the complexity of his inner fire.
“Fire can be dangerous and wild, so as a firebender
I need to be more careful and control my bending
so I don’t hurt people unintentionally.”
He must also move beyond the more superficial, immature drives
that fueled his earlier hot-headnesses —
like the fire of pride.
“Prince Zuko, pride is not the opposite of shame,
but it's source.
True humility is the only antidote to shame.”
The show gives us models for fire’s potential for evil
in Zuko’s father, the ruthless Fire Lord Ozai
who killed his own father and usurped the throne
from his older brother Iroh, and in the more in-depth portrait
of Zuko’s fearsome sister, Princess Azula.
“Afraid of fire, I see?
That’s good, you should be.”
Azula is arrogant, looking down on anything
that doesn’t meet her high standards
“True power, the divine right to rule,
is something you’re born with.”
You’ve heard the expression that for someone holding a hammer,
everything looks like a nail.
For Azula, everything looks
like kindling, waiting to be burned.
“None of them could be trusted.
Sooner or later,
they all would have betrayed me.”
If you’ve ever known someone who took bar trivia
a little too seriously, you might have met an Azula.
“Yes, we have defeated you for all time!
You will never rise from the ashes
of your shame and humiliation!”
So overall, she represents the terrifying extremes
of the fire personality, but at the same time,
she also exemplifies how impressive fire can be.
Flanked by her exceptional and accomplished friends
Mai and Ty Lee, intimidating Azula epitomizes
the best and the brightest.
As a young girl, she easily
outshines her brother in aptitude,
“She’s a true prodigy, just like her grandfather
for whom she is named.”
“You’ll never catch up.”
and it’s understandable that she’s frustrated
at being encouraged to follow more traditionally girly pursuits.
“For Zuko, a pearl dagger from the general who surrendered
when we broke through the outer wall.”
“And for Azula, a new friend.”
Azula scares her followers into serving her—
Mai and Ty Lee;
the Earth Kingdom’s secret police, the Dai Li;
and the Fire Nation itself— but she also commands their respect.
She demonstrates fire’s terrible charisma —
how it can draw people to the flames— even though you should be wary
of standing too close.
“She’s terrifying and inspirational at the same time.
It’s hard to explain.”
Yet Azula is also a cold person.
“He found out his son died and he just fell apart!
A real general would stay and burn Ba Sing Se to the ground.”
Her flames contain none of the warmth of human compassion;
she’s driven by a bottomless greed for personal success and power.
She doesn’t trust even her closest friends.
“Well what choice do I have?!
Trust is for fools.
Fear is the only reliable way.”
The chilling aspect of Azula’s personality
is encapsulated in her preferred form of firebending—
lightning generation.
“Some call lightning the cold-blooded fire.
It is precise and deadly, like Azula.”
Most compellingly of all, we see the warm,
nourishing side of fire in Zuko’s uncle Iroh.
“You’re burning up.
You have an intense fever.
This will help cool you down.”
Iroh’s version of fire is balanced, and demonstrates a self-awareness
and understanding of life as a whole that eludes many
of the other firebenders.
“There is nothing wrong with a life of peace and prosperity.”
Whereas other Fire Nation leaders force people into battle
or demand blind obedience, Iroh nurtures spirits,
rather than scorching them.
“Follow your passion, Zuko, and life will reward you.”
At the beginning of the series, he patiently stays by Zuko’s side,
subtly offering expert guidance and genuine affection,
while pretending to play the silly old man.
“Is it something to do with the Avatar?”
“Even more urgent.
It seems...
I've lost my lotus tile.”
Over time we come to see that the wise, mature, tea-loving Iroh
is essentially an older version of Zuko.
He, too, was once ambitious and seeking glory,
before suffering changed him.
“Many times I imagined myself here, at the threshold of the palace.
But I always thought I would be here as a conqueror.”
As we learn more about the choices Iroh made,
we see the many lessons he learned about tempering his fire
when necessary— such as choosing not to kill
the last dragons in the world,
“He must have lied to protect them, so no one else would hunt them.”
or refusing to turn on Zuko, even in his nephew’s darkest moments.
“I was never angry with you.
I was sad, because I was afraid
you’d lost your way.”
It’s a steely resolve born of being burned himself:
by the devastating loss of his son in the war.
“Happy birthday my son.
If only I could have helped you.”
Yet Iroh’s pain (like Zuko’s) ultimately helps form a whole,
mature firebender who understands that the world’s harmony
must come before fire’s supremacy.
“The Fire Nation needs the moon too.
We all depend on the balance.”
His outlook is informed by the strengths
of the other elements, too -
like the adaptability of water, and the humor and lightness of air.
“The stomach is the source of energy in your body.
It is called the sea of chi.
Only in my case,
it is more like a vast ocean!”
In the end, Iroh demonstrates that the most powerful,
transformational flame is quiet, steadfast love.
“The secret ingredient is love.”
“Everything burns.”
The people of the Fire Nation are reminiscent of many
of pop culture’s most fascinating characters outside of Avatar.
“Hulk like fire.
Thor like water.”
“Well, we kind of both like fire.”
“But Hulk like real fire.”
Many of our greatest, most terrifying villains
have fire personalities.
They’re single-minded in their passions
“He is seeking it, seeking it, all this thought is bent on it.”
no matter the consequences.
Their charisma makes them natural-born leaders.
“There is something you could do for me, doctor.”
“Anything— I mean, yeah.”
And they’re so consumed by their ambitions,
they’re willing to destroy everything around them.
“Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
Like the firebenders, many of our greatest villains
begin as brilliant, if misguided people.
Consider Spider-Man 2 antagonist Dr. Otto Octavius,
who turns to crime to complete a project
intended to provide the world with clean energy.
“The real crime would be not to finish what we started.”
Or Black Panther’s Erik Kilmonger,
who seeks to use the tremendous resources of Wakanda
to free his people all over the world.
“The world’s gonna start over, and this time we’re on top.”
And, of course, there’s Daenerys Targaryen.
“I will take what is mine, with fire and blood I will take it.”
Game of Thrones’ Mother of Dragons stokes fire with her words,
“Dracarys”
winning powerful allies to her crusade
for vengeance and justice.
[in Dothraki] “Strike the chain off
every slave you see.”
But eventually, like so many fire personalities,
she is finally devoured by the destructive allure of her flames.
Still, heroes can be just as single-minded.
“And then and then and then, I never stopped,
because the truth is I don’t want to stop.”
They also tend to be impulsive, and often act without
giving much thought to the consequences
or the collateral damage caused.
Many of our most exciting stories are about fighting fire with fire—
two equally strong personalities
with conflicting goals,
clashing in an epic battle.
They are, essentially, Agni Kai,
the Fire Nation’s ritual of single combat,
which pits two strong firebenders against each other.
“Is that a challenge?”
“An Agni Kai, at sunset.”
They are stories of heroes and villains
who are more alike than they are different
“Let’s settle this, just you and me, brother.
The showdown that was always meant to be: Agni Kai.”
and who are inextricably connected,
by the similar fire that fuels them both.
Fire personalities are compelling, in Avatar: The Last Airbender
and beyond, because their passion
stimulates a spark in us.
We feel energized by them, invigorated to match
the power of the passion.
[In Dothraki] “I choose you all.”
And we can often admire their grandiose, idealistic goals—
even when the pursuit of their ambitions
leads them astray from their original noble intentions.
“Give me a break!
I’m doing what has to be done,
to stave off something worse.”
The fire personality’s impossible struggle
to maintain their zeal and drive, while adhering to the principles
of their guiding vision, can be both inspirational and tragic.
“It forces those of us burdened with its care
to walk a razor’s edge between humanity and savagery.
Eventually, we’re torn apart.”
And if we look around our world, we see the indelible impact
of fire personalities everywhere, for better and worse --
they can lead us toward incredible advancement,
or fuel unimaginable destruction.
“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
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