Analysis:

“It is time for you to look inward, and start asking yourself the big questions. Who are you? And
what do you want?” Big word for one of the well written character I’ve ever known. Iroh is a wise man
with a deadly ability. Throughout the series “Avatar: The Legend of Aang” Iroh truly demonstrated of
how a self actualized man can be more powerful than a king.

-Iroh & Ozai (Childhood to Adulthood)-

Iroh was the first born of the fire lord Azulon ruler of the fire nation. His parents have a high
expectations on him, for they saw potential within him, but Iroh have a younger brother named Ozai,
who is equally powerful and talented as Iroh but only possessed a complete opposite personality. Ozai
developed inferiority feelings towards him, to compensate with his feelings, Ozai pushed himself to do
horrible things just to prove that he is the rightful heir to the throne, and in the process because of his
actions, it tolerated a more aggressive personality and hate towards his brother Iroh. Iroh was the
favorite son of his father, the expectations of those people around him drove him to train to prove his
prowess to become someone they wanted him to be. Later when they grew up, Iroh became one of the
best fire benders in the nation, and was became a war general that led the siege to the capital of the
Earth Kingdom Ba sing se. Iroh’s only son died in the process, and he failed to conquer the city. Ozai saw
an opportunity and tried to convince their father that Iroh is not worthy to become the next fire lord for
he has no hier anymore. Their father was insulted and ordered Ozai to kill his own son as punishment.

Ozai demonstrated the concept inferiority feelings of Alfred Adler. According to Adler, inferiority
feelings is the constant motivating force in all behavior. For which we strive to compensate with this
feelings. Ozai used this feelings to strive for greatness, for him to outstand his brother and to replace
Iroh to be the next fire lord. For him to achieve this, he did horrible things and in the process, he
developed a style of life that turned him into a man who have an aggressive personality. Ozai felt
neglected for his parents shows a little warmth and affection to him, same as the case of Karen Horney
during in her childhood years. While Iroh on the other hand, motivated to improve and to attain the
expectations of his parents. Iroh followed the path of becoming the next fire lord who will rule the world
in domination for he was submerged with their idea that power is everything. Iroh keeps on moving
forward to attain the goals his parents wanted him to achieve, he must repress his hostility towards
them or not go to opposite path for him to keep his parents’ love or affection. This concept what Karen
Horney called “guilt”, according to Horney guilt is one of the reason why children represses their
hostility for fear of losing these unsatisfactorily expressions of love.