Dragon At Heart

Chapter 23

As a response he got a lot of agreeing mumbling and nodding. The crew had noticed this change as well.

"If you don't mind me asking..." Jee started hesitantly.

Iroh gave him an encouraging look, so the man went on: "I was just wondering... You said that going home used to be Zuko's number one reason for wanting to capture the Avatar, but that it isn't anymore. Can I ask what is? You don't have to say if it's something sensitive or secret..."

Iroh smiled at the man. He was very grateful to the Lieutenant for having brought up that topic.

Uncle would've shared that story with them even if they hadn't asked because there were certain people present who seriously needed to hear it, but he was happy to know that the Water Tribe siblings weren't the only ones in the room who were curious to learn why Zuko was still after the Avatar.

Also, it was very important to say out loud some cold facts about Aang and his adventures. If Iroh had said these things to Katara and Sokka directly, they would've accused him of being a liar. Since the children were currently hiding behind pipes, they wouldn't be able to stop him.

Trying to open up somebody's eyes to what the world was really like was a tricky task for several reasons, the most prominent being that people only heard what they wanted to hear.

If they were told something that was drastically different from what they were used to believing in, they didn't believe a word.

If you wanted to teach someone a lesson they didn't want to hear, you had to ease it on them slowly. Iroh had been doing exactly that on his nephew for years, and now it was time to extend that courtesy to the Water Tribe siblings as well.

They were, after all, in dire need of someone opening their eyes to the fact that the world wasn't as black and white as they wanted it to be.

If Iroh had earlier simply sat down with the children and told them everything he had 'accidentally' slipped to them here, or even given them some reasonable advice, they wouldn't have believed him. In the worst case scenario, Iroh speech would've only strengthened their old beliefs.

Both children had been brought up to believe that the Fire Nation was evil to the core. Therefore they presumed all Fire Nation people were bad guys with no redeeming qualities. No wonder they thought all of Fire Nation might as well sink to the ocean and the world would be no worse for it.

This was not an uncommon belief about your enemy in a time of war, especially when the war had lasted generations and the beliefs about your enemies awfulness had become what people grew up hearing.

Something learned as a child could stuck with you for the rest of your life, no matter how many facts and proofs indicated that your original presumption was incorrect.

'Katara thinks all Fire Nation people are bad and that bad people always lie', Zuko had told Iroh after their first meeting with the Avatar and the Water Tribe kids. Iroh had seen with his own eyes that his nephew was right, and now he was determined to fix the situation.

The only way Zuko or I can ever have a reasonable conversation with the Avatar's gang (and Iroh had a strong feeling there would soon come a time when that was necessary) is if they are willing to hear us out.

For that to be possible, the Gaang had to first see their pursuers as people, human beings, rather than just something very evil.

Which was why Iroh had gone through the trouble of orchestrating a situation where the Water Tribe siblings were provided with a seeming choice whether to learn more of Zuko's past or not.