was zuko the real protagonist of atla all along?

>>88856627
There were two plots in every ATLA episode, the gaang plot and the Zuko & Iroh plot. The gaang plot was meant to appeal to the child audience, the Zuko & Iroh parts were made to appeal to the teenage audience.

he was a punk ass bitch desu until the last season

>>88856627
Oh Christ no. He had his own side thing going on in parallel to the main plot, and it took up less screen time and wasn't as good.

>>88856792
He goes through the heroes journey while angs whole thing is i dont want responsability.
From a narrative standpoint he is the protagonist

>>88856792
>>88857045

The thing with Ang is that he his most interesting conflicts last very little.

At the start he has the "accept his role as the avatar" thing, which gets resolved quickly enough, and by the end he gets the "willingness to kill" thing, which comes out literally just before the final boss and is resolved through a copout.

In between those it's all "help spirit/person of the week" and "Muh Katara!"

>>88857081
well wasn't zuko just "muh honor" through most of the first season?

>>88857099

Nah, muh honor remains the entire show (muh honor, muh honor is lost forever now, and getting back muh honor doesn't feel as good as I expected)

Zuko's conflict is being shat on, scarred and then exiled by his own father and being desperate to get his life back, and then trying to follow that path against the teaching of his actually caring uncle.

>>88857099
its pretty common for the villain to get introduced as one dimensional early on so you get to expand on his motives and reasons in later seasons

>>88857147
i think zukos ark is about realizing he wasnt a cold hearted bad guy like he tried to but he was just acting out because he had been hurt a lot.
His travels change him and teach him just as much as aang and you can tell he realizes that what the fire nation is doing is wrong way before he has an epifany.
By the end he doesnt want honor or revenge or anything like that he just wants peace

>>88857205
"He's not really a bad person, just a nice guy who feels an obligation to be evil due to his backstory"

>>88856792
>wasn't as good
Are you crazy? Zuko's arc was the absolute best thing about Atla.

>>88859694
I agree with this

>>88856627
Absolutely. Aang by his own as just a plot device, in a group he was part of an ensemble. Zuko was the real protagonist.

>>88856779
>he was a punk ass bitch desu until the last season
That's called a character arc. That thing they kind of half gave Aang as an afterthought

>>88857099
>First season of ATLA
>good

>>88857155
>Zuko
>the villain

>>88856627
>was zuko the real protagonist of atla all along?

Not from a grander narrative standpoint, no. The entire plot of ATLA hinged on "Fire Nation taking over the world, and Avatar's gotta stop them". The central unifying theme of the entire story still was focused wholly on Aang's journey to stop the conquest of the world and bring balance to it. Every event that transpired, be it from his own actions towards that goal or other's actions in opposition to him in order to capture him to ensure he doesn't achieve said goal, hinged on that central narrative structure, and Zuko's journey is very much dependent on it.

That said, you're confusing the common literary trope of a single focused individual that is the 'true' main character of the series with the ideal that through the journey multiple character arcs can happen in succession or parallel to the main narrative while being driven by them, a good example of the type of storytelling used in ALTA has a more common root in the dual journeys of Gollum and Frodo in Lord of the Rings, and how despite Frodo being the central protagonist and his journey being what drives the plot, there is a sustained arc with Gollum throughout and a final action that could be argued for impact on the story, in the end.

With grand scale and overarching stories, it's important to remember that trying to put labels on who was developed 'more' ultimately robs them of said development by putting it on a scale, and the important ideal should always be who was developed 'completely'. Both Aang and Zuko, and Katara and Sokka and Toph, completed their character arcs, grew in believable fashions, and did so with the same unifying narrative of the greater world, and that's what's important, and that's what made the show so great.

Unlike that piece of shit, Korra.

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>>88859888
>huge overwrought bit of over analysis about why Aang was actually just as good an MC as Zuko
>it's an ATLA nostalgia fag that can't go fifteen minutes without shitting on the sequel
every time

>>88857081
While he accepted being teh avatar early on it did just cause more issues for him as he tried to figure out what that role meant and the best way to do it.

>and by the end he gets the "willingness to kill" thing, which comes out literally just before the final boss
Completely wrong. Aang often created more problems for himself as he would refuse to kill or generally go mad with his powers whenever a problem came up. Him constantly having to hold back was part of what made him work as a character, he could have ended 90% of his conflicts every quickly if he had gone all in

>>88856627
No but he was the deuteragonist

Yes.

>>88856627

He is literally Vegeta, prove me wrong.

>his 'home' is snatched out from under him by someone he serves and trusts
>he has to grow stronger and try and restore his former glory with the aid of a wise counselor and some incompetent goons
>they are constantly bullied and crapped on by the eccentric dogs of their oppressor
>they only start to see good when they get the shit beaten out of them by the protagonist and eventually lose their mentor
>the love of a good woman helps them reform, but they also continue to betray the main cast on their road to redemption
>they have raw strength over most of the rest of the main cast, but will never match them in interesting and useful techniques, and they have weird moments of being OP and UP
>they never get revenge on the person who took their home, and the main protagonist gets all the glory

Vegeta is not the protagonist

>>88859932
>tfw I can totally relate to that faggot OP
Feels bad, man.
>tfw I at least have enough social graces and fortune to have made a good few friends who appreciate that sometimes I get silly
Feels good, man.

>>88856627
yes

>>88856627
He was just the protagonist of his own story.

>>88856627
haha

no

>>88860484
You forgot

>is a prince of a culture of folks who shoot energy blasts

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Been meaning to rewatch this series. Can I stream it on Netflix/Crunchyroll or am I better of torrenting it?

>>88867088
>crunchyroll
I think it got taken off of netflix a while ago, but there's plenty of places you can torrent/stream it for free

>>88856627
No, he was the deuteragonist.

I dont know about real protag but he was by far the more interesting character.

Aangs story is boring, its good vs evil on a global scale, its been done a million times(in kids media) Zuko's story is of the good vs evil within yourself.

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>>88856627
Zuko isn't the protagonist, his story and motovations are initialy is entirely dependant on Aang.

The story follows his path almost as much as Aang's and they are frequently mirrowed and compared to each other.

I don't know if it is enough to make him a deutoragonist tho.

Also, Bryke based Aang and Zuko on each other. This might count for something.

>>88856627

Nope; it was Katara.

>>88867088
His left hand is far too extended to play. Just saying

>>88867088
https://www.reddit.com/r/RemasteringATLA/comments/5hr9w2/atla_remastered_in_1080p/

1080p remaster

>>88856755
>A plot and Z plot
Holy shit

Tyler go to bed

>>88867088
It's free on Amazon Instant

>>88860793
An adult doesn't care if a thing is "adult" or "childish", but has a wide range of tastes and hobbies. The guy in the pic is pathetic and childish with a peter pan complex, but someone that thinks they're better because they only watch Netflix comic adaptations because they have swearing and violence is only somewhat better.

Avatar is still a kid's show though

>>88867088
better off not rewatching season 1 except maybe the last few episodes, it doesn't hold up well.

>tfw it broke my nostalgia goggles
feels bad man

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>>88869911

>>88856627
A better question is whether or not he fucked Azula.

>>88872177

Fuck off with your sick shit.

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>>88872177
Not until Azula gets one of these

>>88872507

Azula is not insane you piece of shit.

>>88872548
Then where is her not insane certificate?

>>88872559

She doesn't need one.

>>88870861
While the episodes of the first season are more standalone, mostly everything has a payoff later.

>>88856627
By narrative standards no, but he and Iroh were easily the best characters in the show.

Foil

>>88857081
The second thing changed from willing to kill to willing to do supremely difficult things to maintain his convictions.

Still rushed and poorly explained, but better than most people give it credit for.

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>>88867265
Neat. Didn't know that.
>>88869911
well shit.

>>88856755
>childhood is idolizing Aang
>adulthood iis realizing Zuko makes more sense

>>88873518
>The second thing changed from willing to kill to willing to do supremely difficult things to maintain his convictions.
It still wasn't done very well, though. The narration says that the energybending thing comes at the risk of losing his soul, and we have that little power struggle thing, but it's very bare-bones in execution and is resolved about as quickly as it's brought up. It didn't feel like a legitimate risk, or even much of a legitimate struggle, because of course they aren't goint to have Aang die that suddenly, especially when they introduce the new danger near the end of the last episode.

>>88859888
The protagonist of the story doesnt have to be the one to save the world
You can make a war story and focus in a group of civillians trying to survive even tho someone else is fighting

>>88859932
>i relate better to my younger cousins
I know this feel, this scary feel
Im lucky for the couple nerdy friends i nave left