Ok this is going to be long, but it's a discussion Jamie and I had a couple days ago and I'm curious if anyone had any input or thoughts on our idea.
We want more Avatar The Last Air Bender - more importantly more Iroh, and I doubt Nickelodeon will revisit Avatar - The Last Air Bender for another season, but seeing the quality of the DC animated movies, we proposed a three movie mini series of the life of Iroh. We feel it would be a good way of revisiting the world.
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first movie would be his origin of sorts, Iroh and Ozai growing up together, Iroh looking over his little brothers crib, them playing together as kids.
Their father not completely approving of Iroh's playful nature and skipping meetings where he should be learning about the running of the nation.
Meeting the love of his life, their wedding with Ozai as his best man (making his inevitable betrayal even worse).
Iroh's wife interrupting training for tea and pai-sho, although Iroh thinks it's a waste of time, he still partakes because he loves her. The movie should end with the start of the war with the earth nation as well as the birth of Iroh's son, giving him the motivation to step up join the war and become the father his son deserves, the man his father would respect, the fire lord his nation deserves.
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second movie should be set years later, his son is on the cusp of manhood, a new recruit in the war joining the siege of Bah-Sing-Sei. Iroh has started a tradition of his own leaving a little time each day for tea and pai-sho, a little taste of home to remind him of what he's fighting for. (or possibly a memorial to his wife who may have passed between movies).
His son meets him for pai-sho the morning before the battle, as his son leaves he tells Iroh he'll make him proud .... that'll be the last time they see each other. During the battle Iroh, being a general, is towards the back directing the forces whilst his son's in the front lines. There is a turn and his son's battalion is cut off from the rest of the army and are being overwhelmed. Iroh wants to send other troops to their aid but is stopped by another general, as it's not worth sacrificing the rest of the army for a bunch of new recruits and Iroh is devastated as the army is called back away from a battle which can't be won. This movie should end with Iroh's loss and the betrayal of Ozai, all culminating in a broken Iroh: lost.
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third movie should be an adventure or quest, a broken Iroh travels the world to gain some clarity in his life, goes on a journey to defeat the last dragon. But when he finds the sun tribe and is face to face with the 2 dragons who surround him with the rainbow fire he finally reaches inner peace, and in those flames he sees visions of his wife and son, maybe even visions of the future and Zuko's journey.
During his trip back to the fire nation Iroh meets up with other like minded benders and starts/joins the white lotus.
His return to the palace happens the same week as Zuko's Ag-ni-ki with his father. The movie/movies should end with Iroh's decision to mentor Zuko during his banishment with a final scene matching the first scene we see them in Avatar: Zuko training on his ship as Iroh oversees whilst sipping his tea. Perhaps there is a final thought from Iroh, seeing Zuko wishing to regain his honour, that Iroh himself will regain what he lost when he lost his son, by teaching Zuko a better way. Redemption for both of them.
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We'd also had another thought of what other stories we'd love to see from the Avatar universe, and the next major story we'd love to see fleshed out in a movie or series would be the story behind the Red Lotus from Legend of Korra.
It'd be amazing to see the four come together, a bit of history of their unique bending techniques, possibly their interactions with the white lotus before they turned to the dark side.
I like to think Zaheer and Iroh would have had great philosophical debates on bending and the Avatar in general. Maybe Iroh was a mentor in Zaheer's spiritual side and Iroh leaving to live in the spirit world might be the trigger that begun the Red Lotus on their quest to capture the Avatar.
The Red Lotus just raises questions that I think would have interesting stories behind the answers, What happened to Ming-Hua's arms, was Ghazan taught lava bending or was it more like Bolin where a need brought it out, How did Zaheer and P'Li's relationship start, and how was Zaheer such a threat before he got his air bending? I'd love to see answers to these questions in the beautiful animation style we've come to love from the Legend of Korra series.
Thanks for listening to our ideas, we'd love some feedback of what people think.
MAT
