Netflix's Avatar Can Change Zuko's Backstory & Make It Even Better
Netflix's live-action reboot of Avatar: The Last Airbender can improve on one key aspect of Prince Zuko's backstory. The Netflix take on Avatar is set to tell its story of the young Avatar Aang (Gordon Cormier) over eight one-hour-long episodes, with Dallas Liu portraying Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation. While Netflix's Avatar offers an excellent opportunity to move the franchise into far better live-action storytelling territory than the dreadful failure of 2010's The Last Airbender, it can also provide a fresh take on some aspects of Nickelodeon's original Avatar animated series itself.
One such area could be via the event that brought about Zuko's downfall and started him on his long path to redemption, the Agni Kai Firebending match with his father, Fire Lord Ozai. In the Avatar animated series, Aang's eventual best friend Zuko objected to a Fire Nation military strategy because of the peril it would put the soldiers in. This led to him being summoned to an Agni Kai, only to unexpectedly discover it was his father would be facing in combat.
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The fear-stricken Zuko begged for his father's forgiveness, only for Ozai to cruelly burn his son's face and banish him from the Fire Nation with his Uncle Iroh, only allowing them to return if they capture the Avatar. Netflix's Avatar will surely go into Zuko's motivation to capture Aang to reclaim his honor and return home, but flipping how Zuko responds to the Agni Kai itself could make for an intriguing change. As a poignant contrast, the Netflix reboot of Avatar could instead show Zuko defiantly standing his ground against the merciless Fire Lord Ozai only to be defeated, which could work for the
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