Prince Zuko (Dante Basco) joins Team Avatar in season 3 of Avatar: The Last Airbender with the intention of becoming Aang’s (Zach Tyler Eisen) Firebending teacher, but has trouble demonstrating his own skills during their first lesson — why does Zuko loose his Firebending? Beginning within the season 3 episode “The Day of Black Sun,” Zuko undergoes a drastic transformation when he decides to switch sides and aid the Avatar in his quest to defeat Fire Lord Ozai (Mark Hamill) and the Fire Nation regime, a metamorphosis which also changes his Firebending technique.
Since the advent of season 1, Zuko, the Fire Nation prince who was exiled at age 13, has had one goal in mind: to capture the Avatar for the Fire Nation and be welcomed home a hero. As a child, Zuko struggled to learn the basics of Firebending and was often overshadowed by his sister Azula’s (Grey DeLisle) natural Firebending ability. Despite the fact that Zuko takes after his mother Ursa with his innate moral compass and compassion for others, Zuko modeled his own Firebending technique after his father Ozai, who draws on his anger, hatred, and desire to achieve world domination over all four nations to fuel his Firebending. Since Zuko’s Firebending was initially powered by his anger towards the Avatar and his desire to capture him, Zuko’s Firebending grows weaker in season 3 because he no longer has enough anger to sustain his former method of Firebending now that he’s joined Team Avatar.
In the episode “Firebending Masters,” Zuko’s Firebending begins to suffer when the motivations that once fueled his bending change. Having spent three years of his life searching for the Avatar before he’s introduced in the pilot, Zuko channels all of his anger towards himself for being exiled into his mission, hoping that if he captures Aang he’ll regain his father’s love. After being welcomed back to the Fire Nation for helping Azula injure the Avatar in Ba Sing Se, Zuko has an epiphany that causes him to rethink his beliefs. During “The Day of Black Sun: Part 2,” much of Zuko’s suppressed anger is resolved when he confronts his father and comes to the realization that Ozai was in the wrong for exiling him in the first place. As Zuko resolves to join Aang and help create a new era of peace, Zuko lets go of all of his former anger towards himself, Avatar Aang, and his father.
When it comes time for Zuko to help Aang learn to master Firebending, however, Zuko’s own bending is suddenly weakened since the anger at the heart of his Firebending technique no longer exists. When Zuko admits to Team Avatar that he’s lost his Firebending due to his lack of rage, Toph (Jessie Flower) suggests that Zuko draw his power from a different source, possibly the original source of Firebending: the dragons. While dragons are currently extinct in the Avatar universe, Aang and Zuko set out on a journey to visit the ruins of the Ancient Sun Warrior civilization, who learned to Firebend from the dragons. Exploring the remnants of the civilization, Aang and Zuko find the Sun Warriors themselves and are taught the true meaning of Firebending from the last dragon masters, Ran and Shao. Instead of using rage to power his bending, Zuko regains his Firebending by learning a purer form which involves viewing fire as life and energy rather than destruction.
Not only does abandoning his rage help Zuko alternatively discover a purer form of Firebending, but it also allows Zuko to strengthen his Firebending by creating more balance within himself. In the episode “Bitter Work,” Zuko’s Uncle Iroh (Mako Iwamatsu) tells him that to master lightning, he first needs to let go of his feelings of shame and cure the turmoil within himself. In the episode "The Guru," Guru Pathik (Brian George) explains to Aang that energy flows in pools throughout your body that are often blocked by emotional muck. When Zuko finally accepted that his father was to blame for his exile within season 3 of Avatar: The Last Airbender, he let go of his shame of being banished from the Fire Nation and inadvertently opened his fire chakra, which is blocked by feelings of shame. By resolving his former anger at himself for being exiled, Zuko finds more balance within himself, and simultaneously strengthens his Firebending.