Zuko: I'm gonna check EVERY Air Temple in the world for the Avatar.
Iroh: *via complicated metaphor* Don't be a dumbass.
Guru Pathik: As per that vision I had as a young man, year 97 of waiting for the Avatar at the Eastern Air Temple.
Okay.
So this is an idea that's been bugging me for a while, and I would prefer to talk about it at more length than usually happens in the Misc. idea thread.
The idea is this: Guru Pathik was waiting for the Avatar at the Eastern Air Temple. Zuko, pre-series, canonically checked all four temples for clues or whatever pretty much first thing after getting exiled. Presumably Pathik just hid when Zuko showed up.
Well what if he didn't. Here's Zuko, who's desperately looking for anything, anything, that will lead him to the Avatar. Here's Pathik, who decided to wait--his whole life--in one place, because he had a vision that the Avatar would need him there, once. And here's Iroh, who would definitely not be adverse to Zuko taking in some wisdom from a guru.
So I submit to you, my friends: what would happen? What kind of spiritual guidance would Pathik provide to Zuko? How would he accept or interpret it? I have my own thoughts, but I want to see what you all come up with.
Some background on my thoughts here, this is a little less on topic:
Okay, so one of my biggest problems with Avatar was how kinda, simple-minded Zuko becoming a good guy was. It was very black-and-white, which I guess makes sense because it's a kid show. But, it was very unsatisfying for me to watch Zuko throw away everything because it was the "right thing to do." I mean, if it was all a big Xanatos Gambit to become an Avatar-endorsed Fire Lord that would be one thing, but it totally wasn't. That just sorta happened.
Also what bothered me was how even Iroh condemned Zuko as having "evil" inside him when he god-damn didn't. I mean, it would be one thing if he liked cutting people too much, that would perhaps be an evil he would have to grapple with, but Zuko's "evil" pretty much boiled down to "hunting down most powerful bender in world to earn daddy's approval." That's not evil.
So I felt like the writers misrepresented the ideas of "good" and "evil" because they set up a scenario that was too complicated for a child's show. My response would be that if you're going to be a source of moral education for children, if you are going to expose them to complex ethical problems, don't misrepresent the solutions as "good vs evil."