Application
Character Name: Iroh
Canon: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Point taken from canon: After the series finale
Age: 64
Gender: Male
Appearance
Iroh is an older man. Though he hails from no Earthly country, someone from Earth would think he looked East Asian. He originally had black hair, which has grayed, and he has dark-golden eyes below bushy eyebrows. He wears a beard and sideburns, which he keeps neat, though they grow long, and has long hair, left free except for a topknot. His hairline has receded quite a bit. He is reported to be quite handsome for an older gentleman. He speaks in a calm, measured voice with a slight accent. He's more likely to show anger in his word choice than his tone, though he is freer about expressing joy. He is on the shorter side for an adult human male and is stockily built, though recent events has had him convert much of his extra body fat into muscle. He has always been healthy, though, and can move with the grace of a master martial artist. His clothing is simple, and normally selected to blend in with the locals -- while in the Earth Kingdom, he had no problems dressing in the locally-favored greens, browns and golds, rather than the Fire Nation's reds, oranges and blacks.
Background
Iroh was born as the first son of Firelord Azulon and Fire Lady Ilah, and grew up as the crown prince. He traveled the world, married and sired a son, and entered the military, showing a marked talent for strategy that made his ascension to General well deserved. Iroh's career culminated in the Siege of the Earth Kingdom capital of Ba Sing Se, the first time the city's outer walls were ever breached. The siege lasted for nearly two years, with General Iroh in command and his son, Lu Ten, serving in the Fire Nation's Army. The siege ended not with the defeat of either army, but with the death of Lu Ten. In his grief, Iroh abandoned the siege, marking an embarrassing defeat for the Fire Nation. Iroh's younger brother, Ozai, was able to capitalize on that (and the death of Azulon), to remove Iroh as Azulon's heir and make himself Firelord.
Iroh had lost a lot of prestige with the court, but still was respected by the military. He retired from his military position, but still served as a military adviser for his brother. He also served as a mentor for his young nephew, Zuko. One day, a thirteen-year-old Zuko, as heir-presumptive, asked to attend a strategy meeting, and Iroh vouched for him. Zuko spoke out of turn, objecting to a general's plan for reasons of excessive losses, and Ozai 'punished' him by demanding Zuko fight a duel... and then surprised him by standing in himself for the elderly general. Zuko refused to fight his father, and was burned badly and exiled, under the condition of locating the legendary missing Avatar. Iroh watched in horror, and was willing to take care of the banished prince, and accompany him into exile.
Iroh spent the next three years trying to guide the prince as he searched for, found, and then started tracking the Avatar. Iroh took this with good grace, despite once being captured by a group of Earth Kingdom soldiers who recognized him as the legendary general -- a predicament that Zuko got him out of. More trouble came in the form of Admiral Zhao, a Fire Nation commander who had found out from Zuko and Iroh that the Avatar existed. Because Zuko had acted to hinder Zhao's capture of the Avatar, Zhao arranged for him to be assassinated. The attempt on Zuko's life failed, and Iroh decided to take up an offer to advise Zhao on his upcoming attack on the Northern Water Tribe -- which gave Iroh extra resources to hide Zuko among the fleet. Iroh was willing to advise on fighting waterbenders, but when Zhao threatened the Moon Spirit in an attempt to cripple the enemy's bending, Iroh abandoned any pretense of helping Zhao, and warned him to not mess with powerful spirits. Zhao did it anyway, was killed, and the Fire Nation fleet he commanded destroyed.
This was enough to brand Iroh and Zuko as traitors. After a failed attempt at capture by Princess Azula, Zuko's sister, once they returned to shore, the two disguised themselves as Earth Kingdom refugees. Iroh pulled some contacts he had in the Earth Kingdom, with a secret society known as the Order of the White Lotus, and he and Zuko made their way to Ba Sing Se. There he was able to get a job as a tea server, and a stroke of good luck put him in charge of his own tea-shop in the nice part of the city. As far as Iroh was concerned, this was his idea of a perfect life. As it happened, a chance encounter with a friend of the Avatar, who told a disguised Azula (in town to take down the city from the inside), revealed their identities. Zuko was captured, but Iroh was able to escape and seek help from the Avatar and his friends. This lead to a confrontation between Azula and the earthbenders she had co-opted and Iroh and the Avatar, with Zuko caught between his sister's promise of a pardon and his uncle. Zuko chose the pardon and Iroh was captured.
Iroh was returned to the Fire Nation, and faked being beaten down by his imprisonment to lull his guards into a false sense of security, giving him time to develop enough strength to escape. On the day of a solar eclipse, when firebending would stop working for several minutes, he made his break, defeating every guard inside the prison. He left the Fire Nation again, and gathered the Order of the White Lotus to assist the Avatar. It was here that Zuko, who had finally decided to oppose his father, sought Iroh out to apologize and to ask that Iroh stop Ozai from destroying the Earth Kingdom -- the Avatar being missing. Iroh refused, both because he doubted he could take on his brother, and because an intra-dynastic fight would save the Earth Kingdom but wouldn't heal the wounds from a century of Fire Nation occupation. Iroh also refused to take the throne if Ozai was defeated. Instead, Iroh and the other White Lotuses were set on freeing the occupied Ba Sing Se. They did so, and Iroh resumed the ownership of his teashop as the city recovered.
Personality
Life has taught Iroh to be very even-tempered, to the point where Zuko expects him to shrug off Azula's attempt on his life. Even when Zuko betrays him, he is hurt by this but able to see it not as an act of cruelty, but as the attempts of a damaged young man trying to find his identity. While Iroh is able to condemn people who seem irredeemable or mentally unbalanced -- his brother and niece being two examples -- he does try to see the good in people. He is not an unlimited font of patience, though, and does express frustration in others.
Iroh's easy-goingness, kindness and tendency to prefer simple comforts over power and money mean that some tend to underestimate him. However, Iroh has a keen intellect and is very perceptive and wise. Though he occasionally makes social gaffes and some people find his collection of proverbs irritating, he also has a reputation for being able to sort out emotional problems quite well. He is very spiritual, taking the Avatar world's collection of nature spirits to heart, though he is by no means an ascetic -- he enjoys friends, family, flirting with women, good food and tea, and music. He has a high degree of personal honor, which presents itself as mostly good manners.
Abilities/Strengths
Iroh is both a powerful and skillful firebender. Known as the Dragon of the West partially for his ability to breathe fire, he is also able to manipulate heat without fire and create lightning. His adaptation of other bending techniques allow him to do unusual tricks such as redirecting lightning. Also, unlike most firebenders, his is powered by his willpower, rather than anger or the dispassion needed to create lightning. As a general, he was both quite educated in the histories and cultures of his opponents and in strategy and tactics. Personality-wise, Iroh's even temper and optimism help buoy him up, and he is generally considered a wise person who gives good advice. He is rather perceptive of people, able to read people extremely well, and spiritually attuned, capable of seeing things that most people in his world can't -- quite literally, in the case of spirits and ghosts. He also brews a damn fine cup of tea, plays pai sho quite well, and is competent on both the tsugi horn and pipa. He knows a bit about botany -- mostly relating to his love of tea -- but not as much as he thinks he does.
Weaknesses
Firebending has a number of weaknesses -- it is harder to do in the dark and cold, and it is a very offensive form of combat, though Iroh's studies of other martial arts have given him better defenses than most firebenders. As a member of the Avatar world, Iroh also has a slightly skewed sense of fauna -- most animals in the Avatar world are hybrids of several Earth animals or legendary creatures. This may not be as much of a disadvantage in a realm created by the gods, but Iroh won't know as much about normal Earth animals (which do occasionally pop up) as an Earth native. Plants are more likely to be held in common, especially those domesticated in East and Southern Asia and Indonesia on Earth. (For example, maize might be a novelty, but rice is familiar.)
As for personality weaknesses, Iroh tends to take a very relaxed, almost self-indulgent, approach to life. While he is quite capable of undergoing deprivation, has enough strength of will and personal morality to fight for what he believes in, and has incredible loyalty to his loved ones, really he'd rather be the owner of a tea shop and have just enough money to be financially secure and for the occasional luxury. As a result, he can be caught off guard while relaxing. He's also a bit of a flirt. He has at least twice gotten into trouble over his love of tea -- once accidentally poisoning himself by misidentifying a tea plant, and once revealing his bending to an Earth Kingdom resident because he wanted to heat up his tea.
Defining Quote(s)
"There is nothing wrong with a simple life of peace and prosperity" -- Iroh.
"Life happens wherever you are, whether you make it or not." -- Iroh.
"In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself. That is the meaning of inner strength." -- Iroh
"It is important to draw wisdom from many different places. If you take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale. Understanding others, the other elements, and the other Nations will help you become whole." -- Iroh
"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! The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation! They don’t see our greatness - they hate us! And we deserve it. We’ve created an era of fear in the world. And if we don’t want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness."
"Your Uncle has gotten to you, hasn’t he?"
"Yes. He has." -- Zuko and Ozai.
"I know what you're going to say. She's my sister, and I should be trying to get along with her."
"No, she's crazy, and she needs to go down" -- Zuko and Iroh, on Azula.
"Are you so busy fighting you haven't noticed your own ship has set sail?"
"This is no time for one of your proverbs, Uncle!"
"It is no proverb." -- Iroh and Zuko.
"Care to hear your fortune, handsome?"
"At my age there is really only one big surprise left, and I'd just as soon leave it a mystery." -- a fortuneteller (Aunt Wu) and Iroh.
"I know you're not supposed to cry over spilled tea, but it's just so sad!" -- Iroh
Other
Okay, I have some head-canon on Iroh's history, which I'm setting apart for clarity's sake. I'm holding that Iroh's wife died early in Lu Ten's childhood, explaining why Iroh had only one child. Before the Siege and Lu Ten's death, Iroh was still a kinder man than his brother (not hard), but saw the Fire Nation's conquest as an unfortunate means towards the ends of giving the world a force of stability that it lacked because of the Avatar's absence. He had already found the last dragons -- and helped them fake their deaths -- giving him his nickname of 'Dragon of the West', a reference to both his supposed dragon-slaying ability and the fire breath firebending technique. He also had some contact with the Order of the White Lotus pre-Siege, though he lacked rank in the society.
Post-Siege, that all changed. His own personal loss made Iroh decided that nothing justified the sorrows committed by the Fire Nation's war of conquest. On the other hand, there was nothing he could do to change it besides try to mitigate his brother. He did step up his own contacts with other nations, climbing to Grand Lotus of the Order of the White Lotus, and intensified his own spiritual training.
Also, once he's settled, I'd imagine Iroh will want to reopen his tea shop, even if it's just an excuse to sit around and make tea all day and talk to people. I'd assume Kusasato would have the best selection of plants growing in the area, and that a garden of herbs and tea plants could easily be cultivated, but if I misread, Iroh may move to the best place he'd find.
Canon: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Point taken from canon: After the series finale
Age: 64
Gender: Male
Appearance
Iroh is an older man. Though he hails from no Earthly country, someone from Earth would think he looked East Asian. He originally had black hair, which has grayed, and he has dark-golden eyes below bushy eyebrows. He wears a beard and sideburns, which he keeps neat, though they grow long, and has long hair, left free except for a topknot. His hairline has receded quite a bit. He is reported to be quite handsome for an older gentleman. He speaks in a calm, measured voice with a slight accent. He's more likely to show anger in his word choice than his tone, though he is freer about expressing joy. He is on the shorter side for an adult human male and is stockily built, though recent events has had him convert much of his extra body fat into muscle. He has always been healthy, though, and can move with the grace of a master martial artist. His clothing is simple, and normally selected to blend in with the locals -- while in the Earth Kingdom, he had no problems dressing in the locally-favored greens, browns and golds, rather than the Fire Nation's reds, oranges and blacks.
Background
Iroh was born as the first son of Firelord Azulon and Fire Lady Ilah, and grew up as the crown prince. He traveled the world, married and sired a son, and entered the military, showing a marked talent for strategy that made his ascension to General well deserved. Iroh's career culminated in the Siege of the Earth Kingdom capital of Ba Sing Se, the first time the city's outer walls were ever breached. The siege lasted for nearly two years, with General Iroh in command and his son, Lu Ten, serving in the Fire Nation's Army. The siege ended not with the defeat of either army, but with the death of Lu Ten. In his grief, Iroh abandoned the siege, marking an embarrassing defeat for the Fire Nation. Iroh's younger brother, Ozai, was able to capitalize on that (and the death of Azulon), to remove Iroh as Azulon's heir and make himself Firelord.
Iroh had lost a lot of prestige with the court, but still was respected by the military. He retired from his military position, but still served as a military adviser for his brother. He also served as a mentor for his young nephew, Zuko. One day, a thirteen-year-old Zuko, as heir-presumptive, asked to attend a strategy meeting, and Iroh vouched for him. Zuko spoke out of turn, objecting to a general's plan for reasons of excessive losses, and Ozai 'punished' him by demanding Zuko fight a duel... and then surprised him by standing in himself for the elderly general. Zuko refused to fight his father, and was burned badly and exiled, under the condition of locating the legendary missing Avatar. Iroh watched in horror, and was willing to take care of the banished prince, and accompany him into exile.
Iroh spent the next three years trying to guide the prince as he searched for, found, and then started tracking the Avatar. Iroh took this with good grace, despite once being captured by a group of Earth Kingdom soldiers who recognized him as the legendary general -- a predicament that Zuko got him out of. More trouble came in the form of Admiral Zhao, a Fire Nation commander who had found out from Zuko and Iroh that the Avatar existed. Because Zuko had acted to hinder Zhao's capture of the Avatar, Zhao arranged for him to be assassinated. The attempt on Zuko's life failed, and Iroh decided to take up an offer to advise Zhao on his upcoming attack on the Northern Water Tribe -- which gave Iroh extra resources to hide Zuko among the fleet. Iroh was willing to advise on fighting waterbenders, but when Zhao threatened the Moon Spirit in an attempt to cripple the enemy's bending, Iroh abandoned any pretense of helping Zhao, and warned him to not mess with powerful spirits. Zhao did it anyway, was killed, and the Fire Nation fleet he commanded destroyed.
This was enough to brand Iroh and Zuko as traitors. After a failed attempt at capture by Princess Azula, Zuko's sister, once they returned to shore, the two disguised themselves as Earth Kingdom refugees. Iroh pulled some contacts he had in the Earth Kingdom, with a secret society known as the Order of the White Lotus, and he and Zuko made their way to Ba Sing Se. There he was able to get a job as a tea server, and a stroke of good luck put him in charge of his own tea-shop in the nice part of the city. As far as Iroh was concerned, this was his idea of a perfect life. As it happened, a chance encounter with a friend of the Avatar, who told a disguised Azula (in town to take down the city from the inside), revealed their identities. Zuko was captured, but Iroh was able to escape and seek help from the Avatar and his friends. This lead to a confrontation between Azula and the earthbenders she had co-opted and Iroh and the Avatar, with Zuko caught between his sister's promise of a pardon and his uncle. Zuko chose the pardon and Iroh was captured.
Iroh was returned to the Fire Nation, and faked being beaten down by his imprisonment to lull his guards into a false sense of security, giving him time to develop enough strength to escape. On the day of a solar eclipse, when firebending would stop working for several minutes, he made his break, defeating every guard inside the prison. He left the Fire Nation again, and gathered the Order of the White Lotus to assist the Avatar. It was here that Zuko, who had finally decided to oppose his father, sought Iroh out to apologize and to ask that Iroh stop Ozai from destroying the Earth Kingdom -- the Avatar being missing. Iroh refused, both because he doubted he could take on his brother, and because an intra-dynastic fight would save the Earth Kingdom but wouldn't heal the wounds from a century of Fire Nation occupation. Iroh also refused to take the throne if Ozai was defeated. Instead, Iroh and the other White Lotuses were set on freeing the occupied Ba Sing Se. They did so, and Iroh resumed the ownership of his teashop as the city recovered.
Personality
Life has taught Iroh to be very even-tempered, to the point where Zuko expects him to shrug off Azula's attempt on his life. Even when Zuko betrays him, he is hurt by this but able to see it not as an act of cruelty, but as the attempts of a damaged young man trying to find his identity. While Iroh is able to condemn people who seem irredeemable or mentally unbalanced -- his brother and niece being two examples -- he does try to see the good in people. He is not an unlimited font of patience, though, and does express frustration in others.
Iroh's easy-goingness, kindness and tendency to prefer simple comforts over power and money mean that some tend to underestimate him. However, Iroh has a keen intellect and is very perceptive and wise. Though he occasionally makes social gaffes and some people find his collection of proverbs irritating, he also has a reputation for being able to sort out emotional problems quite well. He is very spiritual, taking the Avatar world's collection of nature spirits to heart, though he is by no means an ascetic -- he enjoys friends, family, flirting with women, good food and tea, and music. He has a high degree of personal honor, which presents itself as mostly good manners.
Abilities/Strengths
Iroh is both a powerful and skillful firebender. Known as the Dragon of the West partially for his ability to breathe fire, he is also able to manipulate heat without fire and create lightning. His adaptation of other bending techniques allow him to do unusual tricks such as redirecting lightning. Also, unlike most firebenders, his is powered by his willpower, rather than anger or the dispassion needed to create lightning. As a general, he was both quite educated in the histories and cultures of his opponents and in strategy and tactics. Personality-wise, Iroh's even temper and optimism help buoy him up, and he is generally considered a wise person who gives good advice. He is rather perceptive of people, able to read people extremely well, and spiritually attuned, capable of seeing things that most people in his world can't -- quite literally, in the case of spirits and ghosts. He also brews a damn fine cup of tea, plays pai sho quite well, and is competent on both the tsugi horn and pipa. He knows a bit about botany -- mostly relating to his love of tea -- but not as much as he thinks he does.
Weaknesses
Firebending has a number of weaknesses -- it is harder to do in the dark and cold, and it is a very offensive form of combat, though Iroh's studies of other martial arts have given him better defenses than most firebenders. As a member of the Avatar world, Iroh also has a slightly skewed sense of fauna -- most animals in the Avatar world are hybrids of several Earth animals or legendary creatures. This may not be as much of a disadvantage in a realm created by the gods, but Iroh won't know as much about normal Earth animals (which do occasionally pop up) as an Earth native. Plants are more likely to be held in common, especially those domesticated in East and Southern Asia and Indonesia on Earth. (For example, maize might be a novelty, but rice is familiar.)
As for personality weaknesses, Iroh tends to take a very relaxed, almost self-indulgent, approach to life. While he is quite capable of undergoing deprivation, has enough strength of will and personal morality to fight for what he believes in, and has incredible loyalty to his loved ones, really he'd rather be the owner of a tea shop and have just enough money to be financially secure and for the occasional luxury. As a result, he can be caught off guard while relaxing. He's also a bit of a flirt. He has at least twice gotten into trouble over his love of tea -- once accidentally poisoning himself by misidentifying a tea plant, and once revealing his bending to an Earth Kingdom resident because he wanted to heat up his tea.
Defining Quote(s)
"There is nothing wrong with a simple life of peace and prosperity" -- Iroh.
"Life happens wherever you are, whether you make it or not." -- Iroh.
"In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself. That is the meaning of inner strength." -- Iroh
"It is important to draw wisdom from many different places. If you take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale. Understanding others, the other elements, and the other Nations will help you become whole." -- Iroh
"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! The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation! They don’t see our greatness - they hate us! And we deserve it. We’ve created an era of fear in the world. And if we don’t want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness."
"Your Uncle has gotten to you, hasn’t he?"
"Yes. He has." -- Zuko and Ozai.
"I know what you're going to say. She's my sister, and I should be trying to get along with her."
"No, she's crazy, and she needs to go down" -- Zuko and Iroh, on Azula.
"Are you so busy fighting you haven't noticed your own ship has set sail?"
"This is no time for one of your proverbs, Uncle!"
"It is no proverb." -- Iroh and Zuko.
"Care to hear your fortune, handsome?"
"At my age there is really only one big surprise left, and I'd just as soon leave it a mystery." -- a fortuneteller (Aunt Wu) and Iroh.
"I know you're not supposed to cry over spilled tea, but it's just so sad!" -- Iroh
Other
Okay, I have some head-canon on Iroh's history, which I'm setting apart for clarity's sake. I'm holding that Iroh's wife died early in Lu Ten's childhood, explaining why Iroh had only one child. Before the Siege and Lu Ten's death, Iroh was still a kinder man than his brother (not hard), but saw the Fire Nation's conquest as an unfortunate means towards the ends of giving the world a force of stability that it lacked because of the Avatar's absence. He had already found the last dragons -- and helped them fake their deaths -- giving him his nickname of 'Dragon of the West', a reference to both his supposed dragon-slaying ability and the fire breath firebending technique. He also had some contact with the Order of the White Lotus pre-Siege, though he lacked rank in the society.
Post-Siege, that all changed. His own personal loss made Iroh decided that nothing justified the sorrows committed by the Fire Nation's war of conquest. On the other hand, there was nothing he could do to change it besides try to mitigate his brother. He did step up his own contacts with other nations, climbing to Grand Lotus of the Order of the White Lotus, and intensified his own spiritual training.
Also, once he's settled, I'd imagine Iroh will want to reopen his tea shop, even if it's just an excuse to sit around and make tea all day and talk to people. I'd assume Kusasato would have the best selection of plants growing in the area, and that a garden of herbs and tea plants could easily be cultivated, but if I misread, Iroh may move to the best place he'd find.