| “ | Oh great. It's Prince Pouty. Where's your creepy grandpa? | „ |
| ~ June |
Yup, that's right, I'm doing a removal for one of the most beloved characters in all of fiction, but the truth is that the last removal didn't address a critical moment from the show that is very corrupting for Iroh, so I'm going to break down exactly why I think good old Uncle Iroh can't be Pure Good.
Thank you to Emeraldblade95 for permission.
What's the Work?
Avatar: The Last Airbender is an animated television series set in a fictional world where people can control different elements, that being water, earth, fire, and air. One individual known as the Avatar can control all four at once, and the series follows the most recent incarnation of the Avatar, an airbender named Aang. Due to the rest of the airbenders being killed by the Fire Nation, which has declared war on the entire world, Aang is tasked with learning all four elements and taking down the Fire Nation so that he can restore balance.
Who is Iroh? Why Doesn't He Count?
There doesn't appear to be an original proposal for Iroh, but you can read the first removal here.
So the most commonly discussed factor in whether Iroh is PG is the fact that he used to be a war general, making him responsible for death and destruction in the past, but this is often countered by the fact that he has changed his ways after the death of his son and never acts villainous during the series itself. And you know what? I actually agree with this, Iroh not being PG has nothing to do with his past as a war general, that is not a valid corrupting quality because he has moved past it and we are never shown him doing it on-screen. The question is whether or not he is mischievous during his time in the first season, because during the first season, he is helping Zuko with his quest to capture Aang. Now for the most part, Iroh is simply trying to support Zuko and set him on a better path, but during their travels, Iroh does have one particularly mischievous quality, which is that he can be a little bit perverted. Now it is no secret that Iroh is flirtatious, and most of the time it's not an issue, him complimenting the women he comes across is perfectly fine so long as he never tries to do anything inappropriate.
...but he does do something inappropriate. In the episode "Bato of the Water Tribe" he acts flirtatiously toward June, a bounty hunter that Zuko hires to help him track down Aang. Now at first, it's not an issue that he is hitting on her, but by the end of the episode, he does something... very... very strange. June has a pet Shirshu named Nyla, which is a large tracking creature that could hunt someone down based on scent and has a tongue that is coated in a venom that paralyzes a person instantly. At the end of the episode, Zuko manages to track Aang down and has June try to paralyze him. Katara manages to counter this by pouring out vats of perfume to disrupt Nyla's sense of smell, causing her to lash her tongue out wildly, hitting Zuko and June and paralyzing them. Iroh catches June and pretends to be paralyzed so that he can hold her. When Zuko points this out, Iroh gives him a sleazy "shh" and June is visibly uncomfortable by this. So uh... yeah that's really creepy and definitely a corrupting quality.
Now I know that a lot of people dislike this scene because they claim it is out of character for Iroh, however, just because something only happens in one scene does not mean it can't disqualify a character from being PG. Plenty of characters are disqualified from being PG and PE due to a single scene, as they only have one redeeming or corrupting quality. Also, it's not that out of character, because as stated previously, Iroh is flirtatious with women, so the show deciding to have him act perverted in one scene isn't completely out of nowhere. And it is addressed again later in "Sozin's Comet, Part 2: The Old Masters" when June calls Iroh a "creepy grandpa" So yeah, this moment can't just be ignored because people don't like it, it is canon, it happened, and is very corrupting. June is clearly not happy about what Iroh did, and honestly just go watch the scene yourself, you can see it here. And yes, I know it is meant to be a comedic scene, but it does still make June uncomfortable, it's addressed by her later, and comedic scenes can still be corrupting. So there, we have an unsubverted mischievous/perverted moment from Iroh.
Final Verdict
Cut. I love Iroh, he's one of my favorite mentor characters, but we can't ignore corrupting scenes for characters that we like, that would be Badge of Honor treatment. Iroh has a corrupting moment that goes completely unsubverted and he never apologizes for it, so he cannot be PG.