Iroh

"After I reconquer Ba Sing Se, I'm going to reconquer my tea shop, and I'm going to play Pai Sho every day!"

- Iroh to Team Avatar.

Iroh is a character in the Nickelodeon cartoon ''Avatar: The Last Airbender. ''He was once a Fire Nation member but decided to turn good for a life of peace and because he did not want to help Phoenix King Ozai at all. He was an extremely talented firebender who also knows how to shoot lightning like fire lord Azula. Part of his good guy life was working in the tea shop of Ba Sing Sae with Zuko who was like his only family to him and who hated seeing Zuko struggle. When Zuko decided to join team Avatar he met with his uncle later on who said i'm proud of you in tears because he thought Zuko had almost gone down the wrong path. When Iroh passed away, he decided to reside in the spirit world. He met Aang's successor Korra when she traveled to the spirit world to stop Unalaq, but got separated from Jinora and got lost in an environment of dark spirits.

Firebending
Iroh was a firebending master, and arguably one of the most powerful firebenders of his time. It was mentioned that if Aang were to fail at defeating the Fire Lord, Iroh would be the only other person who could possibly defeat Ozai. Iroh, like Jeong Jeong, knew its destructive and alluring power which could cause an amateur firebender to lose control. Instead of anger, Iroh based his bending style on the original firebending wisdom of the dragons and teachings of the Sun Warriors from whom he learned and whose secrets he kept. This philosophy emphasized the beauty and life-giving qualities of fire; thus, Iroh firebent without resorting to anger, hate, or lust, unlike his brother, niece and most other firebenders of his time. At the same time, he was able to show truly destructive power when provoked, able to blast through the inner wall of Ba Sing Se with a large and highly charged fire blast.

Iroh was highly knowledgeable and well-versed in most styles of firebending and their respective techniques. He was also a very capable teacher of the art, having personally trained his nephew, Zuko, in the majority of his high proficiency in firebending. He also stood as one of the select few firebenders of his time who possessed the ability to generate lightning. This technique required perfect calmness of mind, but unlike his brother Ozai and niece Azula, Iroh derived this from inner peace instead of amorality.

Like his brother, he could easily perform it quickly and even during intense battle. Iroh's prowess for firebending also extended to creating his own original techniques. One of the techniques he invented was the absorption and redirection of lightning. Iroh invented this by observing the fluidity of waterbending moves and their ability to effectively redirect chi. He used this move on multiple occasions, to redirect natural as well as man-made lightning (the latter he even channeled before it was fully unleashed).

While not exclusive to him, Iroh's signature technique was his fire-breath, a feat he could perform with especially potent power that earned him the nickname "The Dragon of the West". He was able to maintain this technique in a sweeping manner against the Dai Li to give himself and Zuko enough time to escape from their clutches.

Iroh had a tendency to not involve himself in battle, but when he did partake, he displayed great skill, speed, agility, and ferocity. Even in his old age and while out of shape, he overwhelmed a group of four firebending guards accompanying Admiral Zhao within seconds, causing Zhao to retreat in fear, and defeated multiple trained earthbenders in combat, using the chains that had previously subdued him. He was also able to overpower, with notable ease, a full squad of Imperial Firebenders accompanying Azula as well as the prodigious princess herself.

His firebending skill may have developed even further after getting back in shape in prison. He managed to break himself out of the jail, leaving only an enormous hole in the bars of his cell, and various scorch-marks on the walls. A shell-shocked Warden Poon described Iroh as being like a "one-man army". During the coming of Sozin's Comet, Iroh displayed the true extent of his firebending prowess: he created a ring of fire around him and several other members of the Order of the White Lotus, expanding it and shrinking it with every breath, in and out. After a few breaths, he focused the ring around him into a ball, from which he launched a fire blast that breached the Inner Wall of Ba Sing Se itself.

Other skills
Iroh was a gifted strategist and tactician, having once been the Fire Nation's top general and next in line to become Fire Lord. His craftiness was best showcased by his skill at Pai Sho. His army won many battles in the Earth Kingdom and managed to break through the Outer Wall of Ba Sing Se. There were many who still referred to him as "General" Iroh, despite the fact that he had been retired for years, though Zhao did so in a partially sarcastic manner.

Iroh was a lover of music; he was a good singer, as well as a gifted pipa and tsungi horn player. He had knowledge of other cultures, and history. He was also something of an amateur botanist, probably due to his love of tea, although this skill was not enough to save him getting poisoned, when he confused a rare tea plant with a poisonous one. Because of his love of tea, Iroh was also an excellent tea maker, increasing business in the tea shop he and Zuko worked in and was eventually awarded one of his own. With his adept entrepreneurial skills, Iroh had managed to invent a new variety of tea, mixing tea with milk and tapioca pearls.

Iroh was able to see the spirit of Aang riding Roku's dragon when no one else could. He was also able to immediately discern that Princess Yue had been given life by the Moon Spirit. His knowledge of the spirits and their world is immense, as he was later in life able to consciously depart his soul to the Spirit World, where he was welcomed.

Iroh also demonstrated an impressive physical strength and skill in close combat without the usage of firebending. While imprisoned after the fall of Ba Sing Se, he spent most of his time performing intensive calisthenic routines without the guards' knowledge. In a few weeks, his previously overweight physique had completely changed to a slim yet impressively muscular one. On the Day of Black Sun, while the scorch marks on the prison walls indicated part of his escape occurred before the eclipse began, he still escaped during the eclipse, when firebending was not possible. This implied that Iroh had some knowledge of hand-to-hand combat to accomplish this feat. Interestingly, Iroh had planned to escape on the Day of Black Sun beforehand, implying he knew not only of this firebending weakness but also knew when an eclipse was going to occur, despite none of this information being public knowledge.