there’s a little detail that i didn’t notice about “the blue spirit” when i first watched it. when zuko returns to his ship after his misadventures at ponhuai, avatar-less and honorless and still puzzling over aang’s speech and having made an enemy of zhao and probably severely concussed, iroh is there on deck.
music night happened the previous night. and yet it’s morning when zuko returns, and iroh is still playing the tsungi horn on deck.
iroh waited up all night for zuko to come back.
it’s such a small detail, but speaks volumes about their relationship. iroh not only allows zuko to sneak out in order to free the avatar in order to preserve his chance at regaining his honor, iroh actually subtly encorages zuko to free aang from ponhuai, even though he clearly knows that there’s every possibilty that zuko will be caught by zhao and iroh will not be able to save him.
as the guardian of a teenager, iroh’s influence over zuko is limited. iroh must allow zuko the freedom to chase after the destiny he thinks he wants, iroh cannot always protect zuko or keep him out of danger, iroh cannot even demonstrate affection to zuko in the way he would clearly like to because zuko is too hurt and guarded to be able to accept it from him -
- but iroh can wait up for him.
iroh can sit up all night, just to make sure that zuko gets home safely.
and it is such a striking element of their relationship, because I waited up all night for you becomes the unspoken love language by which they communicate caring and affection for each other.
iroh waits all night for zuko to return safely from ponhuai stronghold. iroh stays up while zuko sleeps on the ferry and waits up for zuko to return home from his date with jin. iroh sits up all night watching over zuko when he is sick and feverish.
and it’s not one-sided, because zuko waits up for iroh.
zuko waits up all night watching over an injured iroh after azula blasts him with blue fire. zuko sits up all night waiting for iroh to wake up when they reunite at the white lotus camp.
and this gesture becomes so important to zuko that it even becomes the way he demonstrates caring and concern for the members of the gaang. zuko waits up all night in appa’s saddle, knowing that sokka is planning a rescue mission. zuko waits up all night for katara to wake, knowing she needs to confront her own deeply-felt anger before she can understand and let go of it.
and this even is the gesture by which aang first demonstrates friendship to zuko. after zuko is knocked out by an arrow to his blue spirit mask, aang sits up with zuko for the rest of the night until zuko wakes up, just to make sure zuko is all right.
and the concept of sitting up all night for you is such a poignant contrast to zuko’s memory of his mother, who vanished out his life in the middle of the night, waking him up for a last goodbye.
it’s pretty clear that iroh sitting up all night with a sick child was far from an unusual occasion. i think it was probably really important for zuko to be shown, again and again and again, that he has someone who will be there when morning comes.
one parent left zuko in the night - but one parent will always wait up for him to come home.
toph didn’t need a life-changing field trip with zuko because the point of the field trips was for the members of the gaang to challenge their preconceptions of zuko.
toph’s life-changing field trip was withiroh.
so when toph finally encountered zuko, it was with iroh’s loving view of zuko as someone who is misguided but good at heart already firmly entrenched in her mind. and therefore she begins their relationship already thinking of zuko as someone who is not so different from toph herself, who struggles to ask for help and tries to do everything on his own, who has made mistakes in the past but is genuine in his desire to help, who is loved and highly regarded by iroh and therefore valuable and worth getting to know.
so it’s not just that toph, unlike the rest of the gaang, does not have any previous unpleasant encounters with zuko to overcome - she is already predisposed to believe in zuko’s change of heart simply because of iroh’s belief in his goodness.
and it’s because of her life-changing field trip with iroh that toph returns to the group to teach aang earthbending - but it also paves the way for zuko to become part of team avatar.
