Child on the Dragon Throne
Haha, so my jobless state has allowed me to at least have some more time for writing down ideas? My dad suggested that I write a novel this summer, and I may yet do so. I could consider my Ireland-Scotland trip as a research expedition, perhaps? Anyway, I have a few ideas that I'm hammering out in my head at the moment.
I may even actually get around to writing proper fanfic, and not just random ideas. But FOR NOW, here is another Alternate Universe that shamelessly plays up my need for Zuko dressed in fancy dresses robes, protective!Mai, perhaps-not-COMPLETELY-evil!Azula, and awesomesauce!Iroh. :)
Child on the Dragon Throne
Zuko is scarred, and about to be banished. Iroh is completely and utterly PISSED OFF about all of this. (How dare his brother throw away his own son when he would have given anything to still have -) Essentially, within an hour after the fateful Agni Kai, Iroh marches into the Fire Lord’s audience chamber, where, at that very moment, Ozai is drafting the terms of his son’s exile.
(“How convenient, I was just about to ask you about that.”)
“Ozai, my brother, this is wrong.” Iroh tried to keep the pleading out of his voice. Ozai had demonstrated on many occasions that he had no tolerance for emotional weakness.
“I have had enough, Iroh. He needs to learn respect and diligence and steadfast loyalty to his nation.” A slow smile grew on Ozai’s face. “Ah, but I must give him a chance of redemption.”
Iroh let out a sigh. Maybe… maybe it will not be so bad.
“If he brings back the Avatar, and lays him at my feet, his honour will be redeemed.” Ozai pronounced with finality.
Iroh’s anger was fearsome to behold.
Iroh calls him on this bullshit. When Ozai doesn’t back down, Iroh challenges his brother to an Agni Kai. Ozai refuses, but then one of the Fire Sages timidly coughs and states that that isn’t an option - according to imperial law, the Fire Lord must answer the challenges of nobility and high ranking military officers (and Iroh is both), because they are the only ones who can stop a Fire Lord gone mad with power/ can know to object to horrifically bad plans that would ruin the Fire Nation. It’s an institutionalized check to power, one of the few that the Dragon Throne has. It is rarely invoked.
So Ozai has no choice but to accept.
Iroh sets up the terms of the Agni Kai: if he wins (which he will - he can’t contemplate any other possibility), Ozai must rescind Zuko’s order of exile (essentially, getting him back into the line of succession). Iroh makes no provisions for himself.
They fight the very next morning. Zuko is still unconscious and feverish, and knows nothing of what’s going on. Iroh wears the traditional Agni Kai uniform (AKA he’s shirtless), and kind of reminds someone of a squat but angry teakettle.
Ozai loses. Iroh doesn’t just kick his ass - he kills his brother. (Though he was close to losing at several points.) Iroh is still the Dragon of the West, an extremely competent and experienced warrior. Who has also been taught firebending by dragons. And he is righteously indignant, and it is an established fact that anger fuels firebending.
So - Ozai is dead. And due to the provisions of the Agni Kai, agreed upon beforehand and witnessed by half a dozen fire sages… Zuko is back in the line of succession. Immediately in line, in fact. The next Fire Lord, in fact. He gets crowned two weeks later, when he’s no longer insensible from the pain.
Iroh, however, has just committed an act of public regicide. The Agni Kai is usually an arena for resolving of disputes, and rarely does anyone actually die in combat. Maiming and/or humiliation and exile is the usual way of ending high-profile Agni Kai disputes. Iroh knew, going into the Agni Kai, that this was what was going to happen should he win. He is automatically banished. Even if Zuko had been in his right mind, he could not have countermanded the order.
Before Iroh leaves, though, he writes a letter to his nephew with some sage advice of one sort or another. Variations on the theme of “never give up without a fight” and “always remember who you are” and “drink your tea” and “I love you and did this all for you and your father was a horrible person.”
So Zuko awakes to find his father dead, his uncle banished, and himself the next Fire Lord.
Zuko doesn’t know how to feel about all of this. On the one hand, his beloved father his dead. But his father scarred him, and would have banished him… for speaking up in the defense of his own people, something he had been taught from a young age that he was, ideologically, supposed to do as nobility. His Uncle, whose advice and input he very much respects (mostly because Iroh had been the only one since Ursa had left to bother speaking to him with respect and teach him consistently and patiently no matter how poor his firebending skills were), also wrote in his letter that Ozai had been wrong to do what he had done. And Zuko WANTS to believe his uncle.
And most of the populace believes him. When the story is made public, well, many people (too used to losing sons and daughters and husbands and fathers to the war effort) think that it’s appalling that the Fire Lord himself would publically maim (or try to kill) his young son.
Zuko is, of course, thirteen, and so he’s pretty much a puppet monarch. The generals and admirals are the ones really running the show. Because he has little else to do, Zuko acts as a good figurehead. He hosts parties and celebrations of Fire Nation culture, goes on promenades in the countryside, even deigning not just wave at his people but SPEAK with them as well. Listen to their problems like he actually cares, and sometimes he even does stuff to fix them ( if a town is starving, and the palace can afford a luxurious feast every evening, why not send loaves of bread and rice and such to the widows and orphans?). Essentially, because he has nothing else to do, he becomes the darling of the Fire Nation public, known for his kindness. It’s something that the people on the home front kind of need right now.
Azula is kind of torn by all of this. On the one hand, she was under the impression that SHE was going to become Fire Lord upon her father’s death, because of all of the implications with Zuzu’s general uselessness and then the day-long period after the Agni Kai in which he was to be (permanently) banished. But even if her brother were to conveniently die, she wouldn’t REALLY be in power - she’s twelve. She’d just be another puppet monarch, like Zuzu. And she wants to rule the Fire Nation with an Iron Fist and achieve the ultimate glory for herself.
So she waits. And plots. And decides to bump her brother off when she’s old enough to seize power.
One day, though, she is walking through the palace, accompanied by her school “friends”, Ty Lee and Mai. They are walking alongside an open courtyard, where Zuko sits serenely, pretending to be reading some letter/petition from his adoring fans the public. He looks up, smiles, and lifts a hand to wave (and Azula thinks don’t you dare use your public face on US, Dum-dum as Mai blushes at Azula’s side), and suddenly his eyes widen in shock as a fletched feather arrow blooms from his shoulder.
Mai and Ty Lee, true to their training, leap into action. The arrow came from directly above their heads: a hidden archer on the roof. Ty Lee leaps up the wall and disables the would-be assassin as Mai scans the rooftops and courtyard for any other archers, before running to Zuko’s side. Azula is frozen for a moment, then joins Ty Lee on the roof for lack of any other thing to do. It is Azula, in fact, who spots the secondary archer, and takes him out with a well-aimed lightning bolt. A necessary sacrifice. If they came here intending to kill the Fire Lord, they should feel strongly enough about such actions to die for them if need be. (AZULA FEELS NO GUILT)
Before he was taken away from the turtleduck pond on a stretcher, Zuko did take a moment to sincerely thank Azula and her friends, and that they were, well, awesome and skilled warriors and all that a Fire Lord could ask for. He says something like: “You are the perfect warriors of the Fire Nation.” And Azula could tell that he was totally sincere. And it WEIRDS HER OUT. She’s never gotten sincere praise from any of her family members before. Her brother had never really had much of a kind word for her before this (he could always see through her lies), her mother had thought she was a monster and had avoided speaking with her unless it was to chastise, and Ozai always had “constructive” criticism - never enough, she was never perfect. Never.
And yet - Zuzu had said she was. Well, she knew she was already. She didn’t need anyone to say it. Not really.
Well, maybe.
Azula is no longer under the influence of Ozai, anymore. She is still a perfectionist, still wickedly deadly, and yet… she starts to see that maybe there is SOMETHING in her brother’s words.
She’s not going to turn good overnight or anything. The most immediate effect that this assassination attempt has on Azula is the fact that it strikes her that if SHE were to become Fire Lord, people would probably send assassins after HER too. Especially if she looked like a weak child monarch, like Zuzu. And it occurred to her that she wouldn’t have to worry about such things if she wasn’t the Fire Lord. So essentially, she decides to rule from the shadows, as the perfect princess and sister to the Fire Lord. That way, Zuko would take any flak or criticism for her actions (and be the target of what would otherwise be HER assassination attempts!), while she still had all of the power. Perfect. Her brother was a pushover, anyway, and probably wouldn’t notice, at least not for YEARS, not unless someone told him.
Zuko is treated by the court physician, and he formally thanks the three “Dangerous Ladies” with a ball a week later, his arm still in an elegant sling.
Another result of this assassination attempt? It makes Mai - and by extension, Ty Lee - extremely protective of Zuko. They become informal bodyguards, of a sort. Azula tags along (as much as Azula can tag along with ANYBODY), mainly because on some level, she likes the praise she gets when she saves her idiot brother’s life once again. The three girls view Zuko in a vaguely condescending but benevolent light - he can’t protect himself, so they have to do it for him. Mai does try to teach Zuko how to use knives properly (Zuko always keeps that Earth Kingdom blade his uncle gave him on his person at all times, even though it clashes with everything else. He needs the reminder, even if it’s tucked away, unseen, up the voluminous sleeves of his formal robes).
Azula also deigns to share her firebending instructors with him. She even starts to spar with him, for the first time since they were five and seven, respectively (before it grew apparent how USELESS Zuko was at firebending). She mostly uses these training sessions as opportunities to show how superior her firebending is to the FIRE LORD’S, but Zuko does end up learning a lot from them, in a humiliating fashion. He’ll never manage blue fire, but he’s getting closer to cracking the secret of lightning. And getting better at holding his own against ridiculously strong firebenders.
Meanwhile… Iroh wanders around the Earth Kingdom in exile! He makes money on the side as a tea vendor / tea maker. He eventually hears rumours of the Avatar’s return. Iroh has seen in his journeys the horrors of the Fire Nation’s war of invasion, and wishes to help restore balance. He fears that if the Earth Kingdom is not completely crushed (and he doesn’t really want it to be), they, along with the Water Tribe, will rise up at the first opportunity to utterly destroy the Fire Nation - and his nephew. He does not want that to happen. Mostly, Iroh just wants a hundred years of warfare to end.
Zhao is the one chasing the Avatar around. A select few in the Fire Nation navy know about the “feral airbender” he’s after (not that they know he’s the Avatar), and Zhao keeps the knowledge of the Avatar’s return quiet because he wants the glory for himself.
Then, while in one of the Fire Nation colonies, incognito, he sees Admiral Zhao’s invasion fleet off in the distance, and inquires about it. The fleet is very large, and has stopped for supplies in the port town, so the invasion is a well-kept secret. Iroh realizes that he has to do something, and impulsively stows away on a ship (or calls in a favour with one of his Pai Sho friends, perhaps, for a spot on one of the ships as a galley cook).
(Someone recognizes him as General Iroh? XD “Gen-general?” The cook raised his eyebrows. “… Sorry, I thought you were someone else.”
“I get it all the time!” The man laughed jovially.)
Iroh knows that Zuko would not have allowed such an invasion to go forward had he known. Zuko was always a kind and compassionate boy, and had listened to Iroh when he had told his nephew of the horrors of the siege of Ba Sing Se, and the folly of invading enemy strongholds into certain slaughter.
And Iroh realizes that Zuko is not in control of the Fire Nation’s armies - war mongers, like Zhao (like Ozai had been) WERE. Iroh needs to get a message - advice - to his nephew. Zuko is nearing the age in which he would be able to take over active Fire Lord duties, anyway. Iroh does not want any of the generals or nobles, complacent in their power, to want to stay in command by, say, getting rid of THIS child ruler and replacing it with another one, like Azula, thus buying themselves more time in power. Iroh realizes that this is all about to blow up in his nephew’s face if he, personally, doesn’t do something.
Iroh’s done with idly making tea and having a good time, trying to forget about his own losses.
And so Iroh, Kin-Slayer, goes North, to protect the Moon…
The end of the first season goes identically, with Iroh jumping in to save the day… except that Zhao escapes the Moon Spirit because Zuko isn’t there to distract him. Iroh also sticks around to help the Gaang and only later reveals himself to be not just a kindly old stranger, but a master firebender who could help Aang learn what he needs to know. (He still introduces himself as Mushi, because his true identity is kind of a hot spot for a lot of the Fire Nation and the Four Nations in general - it would cause panic.)
I should mention that the Fire Nation’s armies haven’t exactly been advertising that the new Fire Lord is a young boy. Zuko’s banners, in the colonies, make him look much older. More like his father’s age. Also, hardly anyone sees him in person, from close up, outside of the Fire Nation, and even if they do, Zuko is wearing elaborate robes that emphasize the broadness of his shoulders and such. No-one thinks anything of it, because wasn’t the Dragon of the West quite old? And Azulon before him? The Fire Nation doesn’t want to seem like they have a weak leader. They don’t like to show weakness.
But it’s not a well-kept secret. Many of the Earth Kingdom generals know about Fire Lord Zuko’s youth (they’re among the groups sending assassins), but the Water Tribes (at least the Southern one) don’t have very good spies, so Sokka and Katara have built up an image of Fire Lord Zuko for Aang that is totally not in-keeping with reality. They’ve been working on a plan to defeat the Fire Lord, not knowing that defeating a figurehead will probably do nothing to end the war. Iroh tries to relieve them of this notion when he learns of it. (The first time he was present for such a discussion of the evils of the Fire Lord he nearly snorted tea out through his nose, because the image of an evil genocidal dictator just doesn’t fit with the image he has of his dorky nephew.)
Iroh speaks fondly of his nephew, whom he doesn’t name - he who likes feeding turtleducks and playing with knives and is entirely TOO dorky for words - long before the Gaang find out just who that nephew really is.
Eventually, after recruiting Toph, and Sozin’s Comet coming within the year, Iroh decides he needs to get in contact with Zuko directly. He knows that the Generals are planning something horrific for the day of the comet’s arrival, and he doesn’t want that kind of blood on his nephew’s hands (he dreads, deep inside him, the possibility that his nephew already knows and is doing nothing to stop it). They travel to the Fire Nation in disguise.
Somehow, probably through Iroh’s Pai Sho contacts, they get a coded message to “Iroh’s nephew” (whom Iroh just describes as having “palace contacts”). Toph and the others realize that Iroh is hiding some information, but they trust him. He’s a mysterious old man, doing mysterious old man things. But he’s trustworthy. They probably think that he’s just having someone steal Fire Nation plans for the upcoming comet attacks.
They get a message back: Ember Island, a date, and the word “puffin-turtle eggs”. Iroh knows what it means - he and his nephew visited some caves and found some puffin-turtle eggs together after Zuko’s mother left. It was their last trip to Ember Island together. Only Iroh and Zuko would know which area to find those eggs… as puffin-turtles nest everywhere on the island.
On the day of the meetup, they wait anxiously for Iroh’s nephew. The shadows are growing long when a young woman comes down the beach, idly and boredly tossing random shells and bits of jetsam into a basket. She walks right up to the cave and immediately drops the basket without regard to the fragility of the shells. “Cover.” She explained shortly in a bored tone of voice.
It’s Mai. She’s been sent to make sure that this isn’t a trap (she can mostly take care of herself in a fight). Only Zuko knows that she’s been sent, and Mai didn’t inform him entirely of the possible danger that she’s putting herself into. She gives them Zuko’s well-wishes, and tickets to tomorrow evening’s Ember Island Players production of Love Amongst the Dragons, and leaves.
The next evening, Zuko convinces his ever-present guards that he wants a break, to be able to go out without people constantly bowing to him or trying to touch his robes and hair for good luck or whatever. The guards totally sympathize, because they’ve also had to escort his palanquin through those adoring crowds for the past week. So he goes out “in disguise” to see the local players, with Mai as a bodyguard. There are half a dozen imperial guards in the audience, though, in plain clothes, just in case. Because having someone finally succeed in assassinating the Fire Lord under your watch, especially if you weren’t there, even if you were ordered not to be, is a good way to get executed by the Fire Lord’s successor. Incompetents have no place in a military state.
Anyway, this means that Zuko (wearing a partial dragon mask as disguise, as are many other “cosplayers” in the crowd) and Mai are conveniently in a private booth with spare seats for “plebeians” - AKA their contacts.
Cue reunion and covert exchanges of information. Zuko is very reserved when he gets the news of the information, but he’s very disturbed by the idea that his generals would plan something like this and neglect to tell him.
Iroh doesn’t tell the Gaang until afterwards just who it was that they had met in that booth.
“Wait - Zuk- Fire Lord Zuko? EVIL Fire Lord Zuko?”
“Yes.” Iroh gazed back, calmly. “I wanted you to see him as he actually was, not whom you and the Earth Kingdom’s propaganda portrays him to be.”
And what they had seen was a dorky, unsure boy of Sokka’s age who was nonetheless extremely willing to help them prevent the loss of life.
Oh, and Azula has totally been attending those war meetings (the generals like her ruthless ideas) and totally knows about the comet plans. She thinks that they’re awesome.
Zuko (and Mai, and Ty Lee) confront her about this later, and give her a “killing people is wrong and horrible and we should stop the plans” speech.
I may even actually get around to writing proper fanfic, and not just random ideas. But FOR NOW, here is another Alternate Universe that shamelessly plays up my need for Zuko dressed in fancy dresses robes, protective!Mai, perhaps-not-COMPLETELY-evil!Azula, and awesomesauce!Iroh. :)
Child on the Dragon Throne
Zuko is scarred, and about to be banished. Iroh is completely and utterly PISSED OFF about all of this. (How dare his brother throw away his own son when he would have given anything to still have -) Essentially, within an hour after the fateful Agni Kai, Iroh marches into the Fire Lord’s audience chamber, where, at that very moment, Ozai is drafting the terms of his son’s exile.
(“How convenient, I was just about to ask you about that.”)
“Ozai, my brother, this is wrong.” Iroh tried to keep the pleading out of his voice. Ozai had demonstrated on many occasions that he had no tolerance for emotional weakness.
“I have had enough, Iroh. He needs to learn respect and diligence and steadfast loyalty to his nation.” A slow smile grew on Ozai’s face. “Ah, but I must give him a chance of redemption.”
Iroh let out a sigh. Maybe… maybe it will not be so bad.
“If he brings back the Avatar, and lays him at my feet, his honour will be redeemed.” Ozai pronounced with finality.
Iroh’s anger was fearsome to behold.
Iroh calls him on this bullshit. When Ozai doesn’t back down, Iroh challenges his brother to an Agni Kai. Ozai refuses, but then one of the Fire Sages timidly coughs and states that that isn’t an option - according to imperial law, the Fire Lord must answer the challenges of nobility and high ranking military officers (and Iroh is both), because they are the only ones who can stop a Fire Lord gone mad with power/ can know to object to horrifically bad plans that would ruin the Fire Nation. It’s an institutionalized check to power, one of the few that the Dragon Throne has. It is rarely invoked.
So Ozai has no choice but to accept.
Iroh sets up the terms of the Agni Kai: if he wins (which he will - he can’t contemplate any other possibility), Ozai must rescind Zuko’s order of exile (essentially, getting him back into the line of succession). Iroh makes no provisions for himself.
They fight the very next morning. Zuko is still unconscious and feverish, and knows nothing of what’s going on. Iroh wears the traditional Agni Kai uniform (AKA he’s shirtless), and kind of reminds someone of a squat but angry teakettle.
Ozai loses. Iroh doesn’t just kick his ass - he kills his brother. (Though he was close to losing at several points.) Iroh is still the Dragon of the West, an extremely competent and experienced warrior. Who has also been taught firebending by dragons. And he is righteously indignant, and it is an established fact that anger fuels firebending.
So - Ozai is dead. And due to the provisions of the Agni Kai, agreed upon beforehand and witnessed by half a dozen fire sages… Zuko is back in the line of succession. Immediately in line, in fact. The next Fire Lord, in fact. He gets crowned two weeks later, when he’s no longer insensible from the pain.
Iroh, however, has just committed an act of public regicide. The Agni Kai is usually an arena for resolving of disputes, and rarely does anyone actually die in combat. Maiming and/or humiliation and exile is the usual way of ending high-profile Agni Kai disputes. Iroh knew, going into the Agni Kai, that this was what was going to happen should he win. He is automatically banished. Even if Zuko had been in his right mind, he could not have countermanded the order.
Before Iroh leaves, though, he writes a letter to his nephew with some sage advice of one sort or another. Variations on the theme of “never give up without a fight” and “always remember who you are” and “drink your tea” and “I love you and did this all for you and your father was a horrible person.”
So Zuko awakes to find his father dead, his uncle banished, and himself the next Fire Lord.
Zuko doesn’t know how to feel about all of this. On the one hand, his beloved father his dead. But his father scarred him, and would have banished him… for speaking up in the defense of his own people, something he had been taught from a young age that he was, ideologically, supposed to do as nobility. His Uncle, whose advice and input he very much respects (mostly because Iroh had been the only one since Ursa had left to bother speaking to him with respect and teach him consistently and patiently no matter how poor his firebending skills were), also wrote in his letter that Ozai had been wrong to do what he had done. And Zuko WANTS to believe his uncle.
And most of the populace believes him. When the story is made public, well, many people (too used to losing sons and daughters and husbands and fathers to the war effort) think that it’s appalling that the Fire Lord himself would publically maim (or try to kill) his young son.
Zuko is, of course, thirteen, and so he’s pretty much a puppet monarch. The generals and admirals are the ones really running the show. Because he has little else to do, Zuko acts as a good figurehead. He hosts parties and celebrations of Fire Nation culture, goes on promenades in the countryside, even deigning not just wave at his people but SPEAK with them as well. Listen to their problems like he actually cares, and sometimes he even does stuff to fix them ( if a town is starving, and the palace can afford a luxurious feast every evening, why not send loaves of bread and rice and such to the widows and orphans?). Essentially, because he has nothing else to do, he becomes the darling of the Fire Nation public, known for his kindness. It’s something that the people on the home front kind of need right now.
Azula is kind of torn by all of this. On the one hand, she was under the impression that SHE was going to become Fire Lord upon her father’s death, because of all of the implications with Zuzu’s general uselessness and then the day-long period after the Agni Kai in which he was to be (permanently) banished. But even if her brother were to conveniently die, she wouldn’t REALLY be in power - she’s twelve. She’d just be another puppet monarch, like Zuzu. And she wants to rule the Fire Nation with an Iron Fist and achieve the ultimate glory for herself.
So she waits. And plots. And decides to bump her brother off when she’s old enough to seize power.
One day, though, she is walking through the palace, accompanied by her school “friends”, Ty Lee and Mai. They are walking alongside an open courtyard, where Zuko sits serenely, pretending to be reading some letter/petition from his adoring fans the public. He looks up, smiles, and lifts a hand to wave (and Azula thinks don’t you dare use your public face on US, Dum-dum as Mai blushes at Azula’s side), and suddenly his eyes widen in shock as a fletched feather arrow blooms from his shoulder.
Mai and Ty Lee, true to their training, leap into action. The arrow came from directly above their heads: a hidden archer on the roof. Ty Lee leaps up the wall and disables the would-be assassin as Mai scans the rooftops and courtyard for any other archers, before running to Zuko’s side. Azula is frozen for a moment, then joins Ty Lee on the roof for lack of any other thing to do. It is Azula, in fact, who spots the secondary archer, and takes him out with a well-aimed lightning bolt. A necessary sacrifice. If they came here intending to kill the Fire Lord, they should feel strongly enough about such actions to die for them if need be. (AZULA FEELS NO GUILT)
Before he was taken away from the turtleduck pond on a stretcher, Zuko did take a moment to sincerely thank Azula and her friends, and that they were, well, awesome and skilled warriors and all that a Fire Lord could ask for. He says something like: “You are the perfect warriors of the Fire Nation.” And Azula could tell that he was totally sincere. And it WEIRDS HER OUT. She’s never gotten sincere praise from any of her family members before. Her brother had never really had much of a kind word for her before this (he could always see through her lies), her mother had thought she was a monster and had avoided speaking with her unless it was to chastise, and Ozai always had “constructive” criticism - never enough, she was never perfect. Never.
And yet - Zuzu had said she was. Well, she knew she was already. She didn’t need anyone to say it. Not really.
Well, maybe.
Azula is no longer under the influence of Ozai, anymore. She is still a perfectionist, still wickedly deadly, and yet… she starts to see that maybe there is SOMETHING in her brother’s words.
She’s not going to turn good overnight or anything. The most immediate effect that this assassination attempt has on Azula is the fact that it strikes her that if SHE were to become Fire Lord, people would probably send assassins after HER too. Especially if she looked like a weak child monarch, like Zuzu. And it occurred to her that she wouldn’t have to worry about such things if she wasn’t the Fire Lord. So essentially, she decides to rule from the shadows, as the perfect princess and sister to the Fire Lord. That way, Zuko would take any flak or criticism for her actions (and be the target of what would otherwise be HER assassination attempts!), while she still had all of the power. Perfect. Her brother was a pushover, anyway, and probably wouldn’t notice, at least not for YEARS, not unless someone told him.
Zuko is treated by the court physician, and he formally thanks the three “Dangerous Ladies” with a ball a week later, his arm still in an elegant sling.
Another result of this assassination attempt? It makes Mai - and by extension, Ty Lee - extremely protective of Zuko. They become informal bodyguards, of a sort. Azula tags along (as much as Azula can tag along with ANYBODY), mainly because on some level, she likes the praise she gets when she saves her idiot brother’s life once again. The three girls view Zuko in a vaguely condescending but benevolent light - he can’t protect himself, so they have to do it for him. Mai does try to teach Zuko how to use knives properly (Zuko always keeps that Earth Kingdom blade his uncle gave him on his person at all times, even though it clashes with everything else. He needs the reminder, even if it’s tucked away, unseen, up the voluminous sleeves of his formal robes).
Azula also deigns to share her firebending instructors with him. She even starts to spar with him, for the first time since they were five and seven, respectively (before it grew apparent how USELESS Zuko was at firebending). She mostly uses these training sessions as opportunities to show how superior her firebending is to the FIRE LORD’S, but Zuko does end up learning a lot from them, in a humiliating fashion. He’ll never manage blue fire, but he’s getting closer to cracking the secret of lightning. And getting better at holding his own against ridiculously strong firebenders.
Meanwhile… Iroh wanders around the Earth Kingdom in exile! He makes money on the side as a tea vendor / tea maker. He eventually hears rumours of the Avatar’s return. Iroh has seen in his journeys the horrors of the Fire Nation’s war of invasion, and wishes to help restore balance. He fears that if the Earth Kingdom is not completely crushed (and he doesn’t really want it to be), they, along with the Water Tribe, will rise up at the first opportunity to utterly destroy the Fire Nation - and his nephew. He does not want that to happen. Mostly, Iroh just wants a hundred years of warfare to end.
Zhao is the one chasing the Avatar around. A select few in the Fire Nation navy know about the “feral airbender” he’s after (not that they know he’s the Avatar), and Zhao keeps the knowledge of the Avatar’s return quiet because he wants the glory for himself.
Then, while in one of the Fire Nation colonies, incognito, he sees Admiral Zhao’s invasion fleet off in the distance, and inquires about it. The fleet is very large, and has stopped for supplies in the port town, so the invasion is a well-kept secret. Iroh realizes that he has to do something, and impulsively stows away on a ship (or calls in a favour with one of his Pai Sho friends, perhaps, for a spot on one of the ships as a galley cook).
(Someone recognizes him as General Iroh? XD “Gen-general?” The cook raised his eyebrows. “… Sorry, I thought you were someone else.”
“I get it all the time!” The man laughed jovially.)
Iroh knows that Zuko would not have allowed such an invasion to go forward had he known. Zuko was always a kind and compassionate boy, and had listened to Iroh when he had told his nephew of the horrors of the siege of Ba Sing Se, and the folly of invading enemy strongholds into certain slaughter.
And Iroh realizes that Zuko is not in control of the Fire Nation’s armies - war mongers, like Zhao (like Ozai had been) WERE. Iroh needs to get a message - advice - to his nephew. Zuko is nearing the age in which he would be able to take over active Fire Lord duties, anyway. Iroh does not want any of the generals or nobles, complacent in their power, to want to stay in command by, say, getting rid of THIS child ruler and replacing it with another one, like Azula, thus buying themselves more time in power. Iroh realizes that this is all about to blow up in his nephew’s face if he, personally, doesn’t do something.
Iroh’s done with idly making tea and having a good time, trying to forget about his own losses.
And so Iroh, Kin-Slayer, goes North, to protect the Moon…
The end of the first season goes identically, with Iroh jumping in to save the day… except that Zhao escapes the Moon Spirit because Zuko isn’t there to distract him. Iroh also sticks around to help the Gaang and only later reveals himself to be not just a kindly old stranger, but a master firebender who could help Aang learn what he needs to know. (He still introduces himself as Mushi, because his true identity is kind of a hot spot for a lot of the Fire Nation and the Four Nations in general - it would cause panic.)
I should mention that the Fire Nation’s armies haven’t exactly been advertising that the new Fire Lord is a young boy. Zuko’s banners, in the colonies, make him look much older. More like his father’s age. Also, hardly anyone sees him in person, from close up, outside of the Fire Nation, and even if they do, Zuko is wearing elaborate robes that emphasize the broadness of his shoulders and such. No-one thinks anything of it, because wasn’t the Dragon of the West quite old? And Azulon before him? The Fire Nation doesn’t want to seem like they have a weak leader. They don’t like to show weakness.
But it’s not a well-kept secret. Many of the Earth Kingdom generals know about Fire Lord Zuko’s youth (they’re among the groups sending assassins), but the Water Tribes (at least the Southern one) don’t have very good spies, so Sokka and Katara have built up an image of Fire Lord Zuko for Aang that is totally not in-keeping with reality. They’ve been working on a plan to defeat the Fire Lord, not knowing that defeating a figurehead will probably do nothing to end the war. Iroh tries to relieve them of this notion when he learns of it. (The first time he was present for such a discussion of the evils of the Fire Lord he nearly snorted tea out through his nose, because the image of an evil genocidal dictator just doesn’t fit with the image he has of his dorky nephew.)
Iroh speaks fondly of his nephew, whom he doesn’t name - he who likes feeding turtleducks and playing with knives and is entirely TOO dorky for words - long before the Gaang find out just who that nephew really is.
Eventually, after recruiting Toph, and Sozin’s Comet coming within the year, Iroh decides he needs to get in contact with Zuko directly. He knows that the Generals are planning something horrific for the day of the comet’s arrival, and he doesn’t want that kind of blood on his nephew’s hands (he dreads, deep inside him, the possibility that his nephew already knows and is doing nothing to stop it). They travel to the Fire Nation in disguise.
Somehow, probably through Iroh’s Pai Sho contacts, they get a coded message to “Iroh’s nephew” (whom Iroh just describes as having “palace contacts”). Toph and the others realize that Iroh is hiding some information, but they trust him. He’s a mysterious old man, doing mysterious old man things. But he’s trustworthy. They probably think that he’s just having someone steal Fire Nation plans for the upcoming comet attacks.
They get a message back: Ember Island, a date, and the word “puffin-turtle eggs”. Iroh knows what it means - he and his nephew visited some caves and found some puffin-turtle eggs together after Zuko’s mother left. It was their last trip to Ember Island together. Only Iroh and Zuko would know which area to find those eggs… as puffin-turtles nest everywhere on the island.
On the day of the meetup, they wait anxiously for Iroh’s nephew. The shadows are growing long when a young woman comes down the beach, idly and boredly tossing random shells and bits of jetsam into a basket. She walks right up to the cave and immediately drops the basket without regard to the fragility of the shells. “Cover.” She explained shortly in a bored tone of voice.
It’s Mai. She’s been sent to make sure that this isn’t a trap (she can mostly take care of herself in a fight). Only Zuko knows that she’s been sent, and Mai didn’t inform him entirely of the possible danger that she’s putting herself into. She gives them Zuko’s well-wishes, and tickets to tomorrow evening’s Ember Island Players production of Love Amongst the Dragons, and leaves.
The next evening, Zuko convinces his ever-present guards that he wants a break, to be able to go out without people constantly bowing to him or trying to touch his robes and hair for good luck or whatever. The guards totally sympathize, because they’ve also had to escort his palanquin through those adoring crowds for the past week. So he goes out “in disguise” to see the local players, with Mai as a bodyguard. There are half a dozen imperial guards in the audience, though, in plain clothes, just in case. Because having someone finally succeed in assassinating the Fire Lord under your watch, especially if you weren’t there, even if you were ordered not to be, is a good way to get executed by the Fire Lord’s successor. Incompetents have no place in a military state.
Anyway, this means that Zuko (wearing a partial dragon mask as disguise, as are many other “cosplayers” in the crowd) and Mai are conveniently in a private booth with spare seats for “plebeians” - AKA their contacts.
Cue reunion and covert exchanges of information. Zuko is very reserved when he gets the news of the information, but he’s very disturbed by the idea that his generals would plan something like this and neglect to tell him.
Iroh doesn’t tell the Gaang until afterwards just who it was that they had met in that booth.
“Wait - Zuk- Fire Lord Zuko? EVIL Fire Lord Zuko?”
“Yes.” Iroh gazed back, calmly. “I wanted you to see him as he actually was, not whom you and the Earth Kingdom’s propaganda portrays him to be.”
And what they had seen was a dorky, unsure boy of Sokka’s age who was nonetheless extremely willing to help them prevent the loss of life.
Oh, and Azula has totally been attending those war meetings (the generals like her ruthless ideas) and totally knows about the comet plans. She thinks that they’re awesome.
Zuko (and Mai, and Ty Lee) confront her about this later, and give her a “killing people is wrong and horrible and we should stop the plans” speech.