Avatar: What if Zuko Never Became Good

imagine the world of avatar the last airbender on fire most of its nations crumbled to ash with no avatar coming to save them that is the world where zuko never earned his redemption and became the villain of his father's dreams i'll explain all about the global destruction here in a second but we need to establish a few things first so first things first let's establish where exactly zuko's redemption actually happens this is a surprisingly difficult question as there are many moments throughout the series where zuko has his awakening the easiest point to cite for his redemption is the one where he finally turns on his father this isn't really an impulsive move though if anything it's an inevitability coming to fruition the previous point comes when zuko betrays team avatar without revealing that katara has the magic healing water from the north pole sure this isn't a true redemptive moment for zuko but it does prove that his mind wasn't as made up as he thought nope the true moment of redemption for zuko came when iro convinced him to relinquish the blue spirit and save oppa from that moment forward zuko had changed on a fundamental level the rest of his arc was simply him accepting that change it's part of what makes his arc so magnificent redemption is kind of like tipping over a vending machine you can't really do it in one push you gotta rock it back and forth a little bit but when you finally do get it tipped over oh there's so many tasty treats so what would the series look like if zuko hadn't saved oppa well it's likely the next part of his plan would be to use oppa as a trap this would lead to another battle with team avatar but this time with a twist see azula was already in town unknown to everybody else she and her team would come in to help zuko now that he had aang on the ropes this would also mirror the big confrontation in crossroads of destiny regardless of the specifics of the situation destiny still arrives nonetheless this time just as before aang will go full avatar state only for azulla to blast him with some lightning zuko knowing that katara is a trained healer would then prove undeniably that he was his father's son by blasting aang's body with a fireball this would not only destroy aang but the entire avatar cycle as well it would be the biggest nickelodeon twist since we found out that timmy turner was actually just a really young drake bell the whole time after seeing her love and hope for the world obliterated kotaro would likely attack zuko in a way we've never seen before she would strike at him with a blast of her north pole water and freeze his face and then azula would cancel out qatar with another blast of lightning toff would then have to haul an enraged saka away just so that they could live to fight another day while this might seem like an easy win for the fire nation it actually creates a lot more conflict you see unknown to anyone at the time there was a secret group of elderly warriors called the white lotus that would not be too happy about this the destruction of the avatar cycle would be a huge crime against the spiritual world so the elder avengers would definitely be coming for justice honestly i wish betty wipes or patrick stewart and morgan freeman would team up to save our world already you know they could do it not only that but if azula didn't spend quality time with the earth king as a disguised kyoshi warrior she wouldn't have known about the day of black sun so saka's plan to surprise the fire nation while their bending was gone would have been a lot more of a good idea also one of the biggest feathers in the fire nation's cap was that the other nations weren't a united front the destruction of the avatar would be a crime against every nation making it much easier for them to rally together at last so imagine a force combining the white lotus team avatar the earth kingdom and the water tribes coming for the ozai family during the eclipse which will now all be a surprise yeah the fire nation's gonna be in some trouble of course now things are all good with team ozai zuko is now living as his father's favorite baby boy at last the true avatar slayer that discomfort and inner rage that he felt after betraying ira would no longer be so hard to deal with he never truly changed this time instead he'd just revert back to the zuko we met in episode 1 except this time he'd be much more hardened and cynical than ever before to complete his transformation into dark zuko he would now permanently hide his disfigurement beneath his blue spirit mask this would essentially make him avatar's darth vader the seemingly irredeemable monster of the fire nation this would naturally make azula vengeful and jealous though her old tricks wouldn't work on the new zuko the cold detached blue spirit is not as easily swayed as zuzu was while the two would likely begin plotting against each other things would come to a head once the day of black sun arrived things would start off very badly for the fire nation sako's army combined with the white lotus would easily invade the mostly defenseless capital ira would go for his brother while saka would go for zuko the only problem is that while most firebenders would be defenseless zuko wouldn't be we know that zuko might not be the greatest firebender in the series but he was one of the best swordsmen by far saka also would have likely had more time to study his meteor sword skills in preparation for this fight the two would duel in the middle of an epic battle that looks like the end for the fire nation saka's surprising and unpredictable style would be hard for even zuko to deal with especially in the chaos surrounding him this would lead to him taking a page out of azula's playbook he would start mocking saka and aang and katara this would cause saka to start making mistakes all it would take would be one wrong move for saka to give zuko an opening and then things would finally take a turn for the worse zuko would get the upper hand on saka slashing away the leader of the combined army then the eclipse would end allowing the firebenders to repel the invaders meanwhile ira would have succeeded in capturing ozai he would throw his prisoner before the fire nation army declaring the battle was done even ozai would likely tell his soldiers to surrender to spare himself this cowardice would be met with a bolt of lightning from his own daughter a smiling azula would declare that the fire nation never surrenders as she and zuko continue to battle iro unable to bring himself to fight his beloved nephew would retreat the fire lord would be destroyed but the fire nation would be victorious zuko and his sister would stand proud of their accomplishment but only for a few seconds you see only one of them can be the new ruler azula would challenge her brother to a final confrontation but this zuko wouldn't take the bait and said he'd issue a signal and suddenly there would be an explosion where zula was standing that's right instead of hiring combustion man to take out aang this time he would have hired the assassin to take out his sister nothing would now keep zuko from becoming the phoenix king each and every fire nation soldier would be outfitted with a replica blue spirit mask and swords on the day of sozen's comet he would complete his father's work and lay waste to the earth kingdom with no avatar to stop him so this brings us to the legend of korra continuity only with one huge problem there's no quora without the avatar cycle everyone's favorite hot-headed hero would be a no-show so who would be the hero in a world where korra tenzin and the gang likely didn't even exist well i have some pretty crazy ideas on that front you see in the northern water tribe a local criminal would have discovered how to blood bend without needing the full moon and would have taught this to his children the leader of that tribe would also have discovered spiritual secrets that were buried centuries ago not only that but a dark group of fighters sprung from the ashes of the white lotus would have formed perhaps most importantly a young metal bending woman would unite the survivors of the earth kingdom into a new empire yeah that's right amman unolok the red lotus and kevira are now the closest things to heroes the avatar universe has left in a world completely engulfed in flames even the villains can become heroes this zuko would also be nothing like the one we see in legend of korra that zuko managed to have a family and happily forged a new world with the avatar and his friends this one wouldn't have had any time for family or happiness you see there are a lot of long-term problems with burning half of the entire world for one you also burn a lot of your farmland and nature knowing avatar this would probably anger more than a few spirits it would also make the fire nation's expansion into the earth kingdom five times as difficult now they would have to rebuild cities replant thousands of trees and desperately try to reinvigorate the farmland his years ruling would likely have been filled with impossible tasks after impossible tasks that would only degrade the fire nation over the decades taking over the world is one thing but ruling it would be a whole other problem the elderly phoenix king's troubles would get worse with that pesky equalist movement now that the fire nation has wiped out a sizeable portion of the population it would be very easy for amman to get non-benders on his side only this time he'd likely focus his attention on taking the bending away from firebenders while that's going on the red lotus would form this time to avenge the avatar cycle instead of destroying it so while zuko is struggling to deal with an equalist movement running rampant through the world he'd also be dodging assassination attempts from an elite group of fighters though they would be quite a bit less elite since this here wouldn't be an airbender these problems at home would be nothing compared to kavira along with toff beifong and her children leading an army of earth and metal benders to retake the earth kingdom with giant robots eventually zuko would realize that the fire nation had stretched itself far too thin that there's no way that he could possibly take on all of these threats at once and then the worst would happen unlock would succeed in releasing vatu from the spirit world a new avatar would be born but this one would be a dark counterpart to aang one that would bring the entire world into eternal darkness what's worse is that this would be a threat that only an avatar would be able to defeat seeing as zuko obliterated the entire concept of an avatar he's fresh out of luck this is when zuko would come to the revelation that he'd been running towards his entire life ozai was wrong he'd gaze out upon the great empire of his father's dreams and see only disorder and chaos with no force or harmony to restore the balance too late would he realize that his uncle had been right all this time the only way for the world to be at peace would be a world where the nations coexisted he would remove his mask and look at the deformed remnants of his face for the first time in years then he'd think back to that day where his uncle urged him to release oppa and in turn the blue spirit he would wonder what the world would have looked like if he'd made the other choice if he joined the avatar would the world really be at peace now zuko's final thought would be of a city where all four nations might have lived together in peace a tear would roll down his eyes as he dropped the blue mask spirit at last then vatu kevira the equalists the red lotus or some other twisted monster from his broken empire would end his reign at last but they would never be able to save the world boom well there you have it the dark and twisted version of your favorite optimistic animated series that you never knew you needed what do you think would have become of the world of zuko had gone bad would you like to see us take on more alternate avatar timelines well just let us know in the comments down below and don't forget to like and subscribe to cbr as always thanks so much for watching

Channel: CBR

Views: 186,267

Keywords: Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, Prince Zuko, Princess Azula, Avatar Aang, Avatar Korra, Darth Vader, Firelord Ozai, Uncle Iroh, Sokka, The Day of Black Sun, Kuvira, Amon, The Red Lotus, Vaatu, CBR

Id: XkkAXFJ_B_c

Length: 11min 52sec (712 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 07 2020