As much as the Avatar: The Last Airbender series may be viewed as just another cartoon for children, the themes throughout the series give both new and nostalgic audiences of any age very mature moral lessons. We await the newest installment in the series, Avatar: Seven Havens, to continue the tradition. Although this new post-apocalyptic world will introduce new characters, new territory, and even new corporeal and metaphysical rules to this world’s dynamics, the one thing that stands the test of time is the enduring imparted words of wisdom.
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Although The Legend of Korra still had fragments of its predecessor showcased at certain points itself from its four kingdoms to aged characters, in Avatar: Seven Havens, such things may be anticipated to have completely disappeared as legends of a bygone era. As the four nations will be no more having given way to splintering into seven struggling cities and the beloved characters surely returning to dust, their legacies live on. One such legacy being the ever-relevant wisdom of Uncle Iroh, especially one important piece of advice.
All of Iroh’s Ideology Can Be Found in One Avatar: The Last Airbender Quote
Some of Iroh’s advice in Avatar: The Last Airbender revolves around bettering oneself, be it choosing happiness and love over perfection and power, keeping hope alive instead of giving into despair, finding one’s own destiny through open introspection, the importance of humility as a tool to stamp out pride and therefore shame, maintaining self-respect amidst harsh circumstances, and not being afraid to open oneself to experiences. His other sage advice involves the importance of relating to others and taking life head-on; allowing loved ones to care for you as you care for them, striving forward despite being unable to see the finish line, admitting mistakes, and attempting rectification. From Uncle Iroh’s wisdom about inner strength to imparting and receiving blessings to and from others, this particular quote from Episode 9 of Book 2: Earth in The Last Airbender arguably encapsulates Iroh’s core ideology:
“It’s important to draw wisdom from many different places. If you take it from only one place, it’ll become rigid and stale. Understanding others… will help you become whole.”
-Iroh, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Throughout the original series, Iroh mainly mentors his nephew Zuko, the exiled prince of the Fire Nation, to carve his own path to a more fulfilling life. But Iroh isn’t stingy with his wisdom; he also generously shares his sage insight with everyone he meets, whether passing strangers or previously presumed enemies, as willingly as he shares a cup of tea. After all, “Sharing tea with a fascinating stranger is one of life’s true delights”.
Iroh doesn’t just enjoy interacting with others to give them advice but does so because that’s precisely how he creates his repertoire of wisdom — learning about others and their own struggles and accomplishments in life as living, breathing individuals. Akin to Bob Ross leaving harsh military service to pursue a more fulfilling passion in life, Uncle Iroh pursues a more meaningful life after retiring from being a general for the Fire Nation. After his son had perished while serving in the siege of the capital of the Earth Kingdom, Ba Sing Se, Iroh began to devote his life to making the world a better place.
[RELATED: Avatar: The Last Airbender Announces One-Shot Starring Iroh]
Iroh’s Wisdom Could Bring Together a World in Ruin in Avatar: Seven Havens
Following his own piece of advice, Iroh strives to draw wisdom from wherever he can and share what he learns with others to create a chain of discernment and understanding. This, in turn, allows him to learn and grow in a progression of cooperative conferring; a cycle of introspection and outrospection working in tandem. With his title of Grand Lotus of the secret society known as the Order of the White Lotus, Iroh became one of the wise members who sought to share knowledge and philosophy, transcending national and political divides.
As much as Iroh makes a valiant effort towards an ideological world of peace and compassion, influencing others to cooperate is an incredibly slow process of setting an example rather than force; Unlike how the contentious four nations determined outcomes. The divide and strife between the elemental nations had only caused each of them blind hate and prejudice, each being myopic to the disadvantages they caused themselves. Even before the accounts in the original series, the entire tribe of the Air Nomads had been widely wiped out in a Massacre of the Innocents manner to prevent any opposition from the prophesied next airbending Avatar.
With the impending wasteland world in which the series is supposed to be set, this specific piece of advice offered by the legendary master will be needed more than ever to bring together the shattered seven haven remains of what were once the powerful four nations. Giving and receiving mutual understanding as though inhaling and exhaling to breathe life into the world itself will perhaps be just the thing Avatar: Seven Havens will need to resuscitate a dying disconnected world.
Uncle Iroh is an inspiration to us all. Let us know in the comments what your favorite quote from the wise, eccentric old man is!
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