Have you ever just felt stuck? Like you don't know where to go or what you're even supposed to do?
I've felt like that so many times before and it's not the best feeling. But one thing that
this character has taught me is that you just gotta focus on what you can do and let everything
else go. So we're ending season 7 with someone who may be the wisest character to exist in fiction
and that is the Dragon of the West, Iroh. It was going on guys my name is Nate and you're
listening to the Otaku Liberation. A show where we help you break the chains that are holding
you back in your life by connecting some biblical principles with themes for your favorite anime.
And without further ado let's get right on into it. So the verse I'm covering for this episode is
Romans chapter 12 verse 2. And it says, do not be conformed to this age but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
And that's just you know church speak for those who may not be saved yet but that's really just
saying don't really follow the status quo. Don't be... basically don't be normal right? Dare to be
different and be different in the sense that you do what is good and pleasing to God himself.
Because you know the way things are now everything's crazy backwards and upside down so
it's easy to be confused and not really be sure on what the heck you're supposed to do.
And what this is saying is basically just it's okay just focus on God and what he's told you
to do essentially. And for Iroh, Iroh was an interesting character to really do an episode on
right? Because when I first decided I was going to do the last Airbender for a season I already
knew Iroh had to be one of the characters if not the only one right? Because we can
if you know about Iroh I'm sure you've seen a whole bunch of things on the internet you know
we can go for months and months and months on his you know nuggets of wisdom and whatnot because
everyone loves Iroh. But for me when I was doing the research for this episode it was interesting
just to see how much of a transformation he's had even before the series began. And then even then
even then from even beyond just the last Airbender and just understanding Iroh as a whole I think
one of the main reasons why so many people love him is because he's so real right? He's not perfect
by any means he makes mistakes and he owns up to them. And he's really just there to
to spread peace and love which who can hate on that right? Who can hate on peace and love?
Anyway so Iroh's kind of journey and purpose shifted a couple of times throughout the series.
At first he went from being a warrior to a mentor. Now you know back in his heyday
Iroh was a fierce and seasoned war general for the Fire Nation and he had the typical hunger for power
that was pretty much prevalent in all members of the Roya family. You know him, his brother Oza,
Zuko, Azula they all had this they wanted more right? They just wanted more. And he even earned
the monitor Dragon of the West for his ability to breathe fire as well as his claim to killing the
last living dragon. Which you know essentially means he's him right? Like you don't mess with
Iroh he's he has he has that bravado about him. But after the death of his son and father shortly
after Iroh lost that hunger for power and what was left was just a sense of loss and defeat.
This loss actually caused him to see Zuko as his son rather than his nephew. And this coupled with
his journey across the world with Zuko helped to heal Iroh's heart and set him up to become the
wise sage that we all know and love. So let me just take a take a break right there real really
quick and really let me just hype on the on the the fact that how the loss of someone that you
love can really transform a person for for better or for worse right? I mean Iroh he was he was a
war general during this time fighting for his people and his nation. So on one hand we know
the Fire Nation as antagonist but again in the war there's no real no good or evil in all honesty
everyone's fighting for their own ideal. And again for the Fire Nation they sought to quote
unquote unify the world by burning it to a crisp which was their ideal. So he went from that to
being the type of person who is an advocate for world peace and understanding each of the elements
and things like that. And honestly he was kind of like that even during his time in the war
as a war general. He was always more worldly than other people of the Fire Nation but the death of
his son and again his father right after that helped to bring that side of him to the surface
so to speak to be more willing to to be an advocate for just worldwide peace and
and understanding the balance that the world has. And I just I just found that just really
really powerful because I mean because this all this stuff happened later in Iroh's life.
Until we watch these shows these you know anime or really any show in general the these characters
don't really go through this transformation so late in life and maybe earlier on you know you can
watch enough anime every teenage boy is a main character and they go through these life alternatives
and these life-changing things at the age of 16 and either they cry about it the whole time or they
just become hard all of a sudden and it's just it's really weird. So seeing this happen to not only
an adult character but someone who's older like Iroh is refreshing as a viewer but it's also
humanizing showing that you know hey we all go through stuff in life regardless of our age and
time right and you never know what life is going to throw at you because you know life comes with
challenges some that are expected many that are not and you know and just just thinking about that
I always remember hearing the saying that God gives the toughest battles to his strongest warriors
and sometimes you gotta hear sometimes I know I wonder like okay God am I one of your strongest
warriors because some of the stuff man is is is ridiculous in all honesty and I'm sure a lot of
you can attest to that too but just know this battle and the hardship you're going through right
now is preparing you for the greatness that is coming next because I've come to realize that
God will prepare you in one season for the next one because the current you isn't capable of
handling what's coming next so he has to prepare you and essentially that's what happened to Iroh
right the the death of his son and father and the transformation that resulted in that was preparing
him for the next season in counseling Zuko throughout his travels and ultimately was kind
of like the catalyst for Zuko's transformation in his own in his own journey and and not in even
just beyond Zuko Iroh counseled Toph he became counsel to Aang and the entire group during the
war and thereafter to the point that you know he had he even counseled Korra and stuff years after
the fact and not only that but he also counseled Aang's kids and things like that so Iroh's own
journey impacted so many lives that it was it's it's it's just amazing it's amazing to look at
that and so again that's really the definition of going from a warrior to a mentor right he's
he's Iroh is something special then the next aspect of his journey was actually achieving
spiritual balance so like I said earlier Iroh was a very spiritual man and believed in the
balance of all the elements even during the time of war it just became more prominent after his
his own transformation and this directly contradicted the Fire Nation's supremacy that
the rest of the Fire Nation believed in right and so they they believe fire was the best in
you know whatever and Iroh was like uh no all the elements have a purpose and we shouldn't mess with
that and in to show how far and how dedicated he was to that belief Iroh even threatened General
Zao at the North Pole when Zao threatened to harm the moon spirit which would have caused great harm
to not only the water tribe because again without the moon they can't bend but it would have caused
like great harm to the world as a whole because without the moon everyone's gonna suffer because
then the whole world is just gonna be thrown out of balance and again Zao being power hungry as
it was just didn't care Iroh even though he was at the time an enemy to you know Aang's group and
the water tribes and things like that he understood the repercussions of destroying the moon and he
was like uh no I am a fighter for balance first in the Fire Nation second and this understanding
of balance allowed Iroh to see things from a bigger picture and to understand how everything
works together I mean he even helped Aang and the gang on multiple occasions because he didn't truly
see them as enemies I think he was just kind of humoring his nephew at that point in time but
Iroh himself never really saw Aang as his enemy which I think is kind of is really cool especially
going back and re-watching the series and seeing how Iroh's interaction with Aang's group on the
different occasions he was always very hospitable and just welcoming in direct contrast to his
nephew which I just I just find it funny so think about this where would you be if your teachers or
mentors hadn't have been the people that they are so just think about the one or a couple people
who have guided you in your life you know again your parents can be your actual teachers in school
different mentors you had for you know career skills or whatever sensei different martial arts
coaches people who have guided you in in ways for your own benefit who have tried to grow you up and
to be to be the person that you are today if they if they were never the person that they were
how would that have impacted you and whose lives would you be changing if you stopped pursuing
your own purpose because maybe you can be someone's uncle Iroh later down the road right you know
I'm not saying tomorrow it may not even be 20 years from now but again we don't know right
so what if what you're going through right now in discovering your purpose and trying to figure out
what the heck you're gonna do in life what if that's just preparing you for the next season
where you can be the mentor to somebody who's going through the same thing that you're going
through now so just you know just think about it you know just little little things like that can
really shift your perspective on a lot of things and the last part of Iroh's journey is creating
your own destiny so throughout the series Iroh has been a huge supporter of one creating their own
destiny for instance he went from being a war general to someone that spreads love and peace
everywhere he went and he often said his very exact thing to Zuko when he found his nephew at a
crossroads essentially you know what does he want to do what is he striving for what is what is his
destiny beyond just trying to find his honor and or reclaim his honor rather and what is it that
Zuko wants to do and then this namely came in bossing saying right after Zuko freed Appa
because like I mentioned in Zuko's episode when he went through that whole
confliction after he freed Appa because it was in direct conflict with who he thought he was
he thought he was this you know scarred prince that had to capture the avatar by enemies necessary
but he just freed the avatar's bison which would have been nice leverage to capture Aang and it's
things like that Iroh has always been there encouraging Zuko to make his own choices and
not be bound by his past and part of that was because Iroh was a firm believer in not worrying
about what you can't control but but being fully responsible for what you can and for me this is
something I'm striving to live by each and every day and not just be so consumed about you know
what's going to happen tomorrow or heck what's going to happen today you know it just you know
just random doomsday stuff right but just focusing on what can I do right here right now and how can
I do it to the best of my ability that that that's it just let let god handle everything else
because I can't and just go just go on from there and you'll find or as I have that you free up so
much mental space and your so much stress is removed when you start worrying about things that
you can't do anything about then it's like oh man I can actually enjoy living my life now at least
a little bit easier because I'm not worried about that I can just focus on the things that I'm doing
and how can I do them better and all this type of stuff and it's just crazy again I used to be
worried about tomorrow when I haven't even gotten out of bed today that's how you see how insane that
is I'm really worried about what's going to happen tomorrow next week or you know on the 30th and
today is the first you know just weird stuff like that and so basically I'll come down to this
question how will you live your life will you be worried about tomorrow and what it holds or will
you focus on what you can do today and let god handle the rest you know are you are you just
going to be you know sitting there doom and gloom you know crying in the fetal position or are you
going to actually go outside and touch grass for once so hey that's all I got for you guys and as
always if you liked what you heard on today's episode you want to take a deeper look head on
over to the otaku liberation dinette you'll find a blog article that covers today's episode in a
little more detail and you might also find a link or two to our youtube channel where I cover bonus
topics outside of the podcast and hey that's it for season seven man I've enjoyed re-watching and
learning more about these characters and avatar and after one of the shows as soon as you get
done watching it you're like man all right time to start over and I'm honestly just glad I could
share it with you all but don't worry it's not over yet because next season I'll be covering the
legend of Korra the sequel to the last avatar I know exciting stuff and I can't wait to see you
guys on the next one and always remember you are the main character of your story and that story
doesn't end until he says so all right be blessed