 Remember this Zuko. No matter how things may seem to change, never forget who you are. Zuko alone in the title itself holds weight in symbolism. In this seventh episode of the second season, Zuko spends the entire episode alone. The episode begins and ends by himself in current time and by the end of the flashbacks. It is also an episode that is not show or even mention the gang once. It truly is Zuko alone. The scenes of a lonely cowboy like Zuko riding towards the sunset, the close up shots of the young prince's face, carry reference to a number of westerns. The episode opens with Zuko, his sunken cheekbones and his rumbling stomach that steer him towards a desolate earth kingdom village. As he's on a hunt for food. There's barely any people nor is there any life. It is a village that the war has really affected. The first encounter Zuko has is with the rogue earth kingdom soldiers of the village and these soldiers really add a layer of depth specifically to the war and welcome the underlying focus of the episode. And so as the episode continues, the rogue earth kingdom soldiers end up stealing Zuko's items and one of the townsmen speak about how this is not regular behavior. With the behavior of the rogue earth kingdom soldiers, this kind of sheds a light that not all of the nations are good as they claim to be or as the show has perceived them to be. While yes, the fire nation may be the main threat, each nation has individuals that abuse their power. This episode centers on Zuko and him helping a boy, Lee, and his withering earth kingdom family. The question I always asked myself was, why did Zuko even decide to help this family? It was a random family, a random town that he didn't owe anything to. To me, this was Zuko's first attempt at trying to honestly understand Uncle Iroh and his teachings. Teachings of kindness and humility. Zuko spent his entire life as royalty and now it was time to possibly try his hand at doing some good. And as the flashbacks begin to Zuko's past, they really highlight all of the different relationships of the fire nation royalty. The scarcely mentioned Ursa and her kids, specifically Zuko, Ozai's relationship with his father, Azulan, and Azula and Zuko's relationship. Zuko and his mother had a very special relationship and it seemed as though in their family of four, they were the only ones who didn't crave power or have a cruelty to them. Ursa acted as the watchful eye making sure that Azula didn't bully Zuko and protecting her son at all costs against her husband Ozai. Conversely, this episode follows the infrequent encounters between Azula and her mother. While it wasn't much, Ursa did see something wrong with Azula, often commenting on her cruelty as she was so young. And also the first flashback demonstrates that, even at a young age, Azula sought perfection. And she was also an envious child, as shown by her reaction to Ty Lee. The flashback continued to Iroh as he was in the middle of his famed bossing Seiji. The episode highlights how he sent Zuko and Azula gifts an inscribed Earth Kingdom dagger for Zuko and an Earth Kingdom doll for Azula. Azula comments asking Ursa that if Iroh doesn't return, then her father would become Fire Lord, following by her burning the doll's head. And again, these comments and sadistic actions really beg the question of why and how Azula has become this way, again at such a young age, possibly highlighting her desire to gain nothing else but her father's attention and love. Moving forward in the episode, Azula continues to help the family, the Earth Kingdom soldiers return, and they inform the family that their oldest son's battalion got captured. And one of them makes a comment about how Fire Nation soldiers dress their prisoners as Fire Nation soldiers and put them on the front line, unarmed. And this really illustrates the brutality of war and of the Fire Nation. And to make things worse, these are their own soldiers who are supposed to be protecting them. Instead they are making jokes and bullying their own, drunk with power. In the episode flashes back once again to show Ozai's lust for power, as he pleads to his father about being next in line, claiming that Iroh is unfit to lead, especially after abandoning the siege because of the death of his son, Azulan quickly dismisses this idea and instead orders the death of Ozai's first born, Zuko. Without it being shown, Azulan mysteriously dies and Ursa flees the Fire Nation, as it was her efforts that protected her son. Finally, Zuko is asked to help Lee by Lee's mother, as the boy got himself into trouble with the village's soldiers again. Zuko successfully defeats three of the four Earth Kingdom soldiers without firebending, though as he is consistently knocked down by the leader, he begins to remember his mother's words, to never forget who he is. With this new motivation, he displays that he is actually a firebender, and proudly claims that he is son of the Fire Lord, and heir to the throne, which is followed by the family that he just saved, shunning him out their village. Many people look down on this family and Lee for reacting this way after he helped them, but let us not forget, Zuko just proudly claimed that not only is he Fire Nation, but that he is the son of the Fire Lord, and heir to the throne, that he could potentially be adding years on to this war, if it gets to that point. But this has been going on for a century. This is the effect of the war. The Fire Nation's attacks have caused such ingrained hatred towards them that even acts of kindness are quickly forgotten. The Fire Nation have taken people's lives for a century, so their reaction is so normal. This episode showcases the realism of war on a grounded level, compared to how it's commonly shown on a worldly scale. Zuko alone stands as one of my favorite episodes because of two things, the complexity of war, and the complexity of the royal family responsible for it. It also displays the impact that Zuko's mother had in shaping his identity, the inscribed dagger that Iroh sent to Zuko had the inscription to never give up, which also parallels what his mother tells him when he fails his demonstration to Fire Lord That's who you are, Zuko, someone who keeps fighting even though it's hard. This is her role in shaping Zuko's character, and it seemed as though those words were like a parting gift. Before she leaves, Ursa tells Zuko to never forget who he is. And just before that, she tells him exactly who he is, someone who doesn't give up. Ursa built Zuko up, and suddenly she had to leave, effectively leaving Zuko as the title states alone, leaving him with Ozai and Azula, though thankfully he had Uncle Iroh. This episode forced Zuko to see the Fire Nation from a perspective completely different than his own. Instead of seeing it as Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, he sees it as an unnamed refugee. He hears how the Fire Nation soldiers treat prisoners. He sees that when showing off that he's actually a firebender, and even worse son of the Fire Lord, the reaction that it gets. The fact that he helped that family didn't matter in the slightest. The war was indirectly caused by him, and Zuko sees the reaction of Lee telling Zuko that he hates him. Because Lee's brother, and now possibly his father, could be one of those people brought to the front lines unarmed at any given moment. This episode reels us back into the reality of the world. It reminds us that this war has been going on for a hundred years.