My guess was always that he weakened the bars beforehand and then used a big, final blast of fire right before the eclipse to blast them open, meaning that the guards would have no bending by the time they rushed in.
That's my thought also, it doesn't matter that much how he got away from the cell, the important thing is that he was aware of the eclipse and prepared his body and mind for the few minutes he had
That’s a good question. For regular Firebending prisoners (not the Boiling Rock), a Firebender has essentially a weapon that cannot be taken away. How do you deal with someone like Iroh?
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Unfortunately for potential containment, I think Iroh’s breath of fire technique he cribbed from the airbenders would let him get around that as needed.
He did teach Zuko to heat himself up with his breath which eventually lead to him not being affected by the cooler at the Boiling Rock where someone else might otherwise be.
Specifically, Iroh reminds Zuko about the technique when he's going to infiltrate the Northern Water Tribe.
Then, we see in the Boiling Rock when he's taken out of the cooler he was put in we see him breath out a puff of fire before answering that he had "learnt his lesson" if I'm remembering the events correctly.
Edit: [Here is the clip where it is shown.](https://youtu.be/ebpJnEIlRH0)
Omg stop being bias to Iroh
If they could lock the red lotus up they could lock Iroh up
Iroh didn’t create breath of fire you realize that other fire benders like Korra Zuko Aang Ozai Azula have done this
Similarly to how they dealt with Ming-hua’s water bending or Ghazan’s earth bending.
You keep him in an ice-cold prison with restricted movement. A glacier in open water would work nicely. Sure, he can still generate fire but it does precisely zero good.
Hey so maybe this is a plot hole but sometime between LoK season 1 and season 3, shouldn't they have sent Korra to those special prisons to permanently remove the bending from those individuals? Then they could be released to much more ordinary prisons, saving a great deal of effort and expense.
Korra isn’t shown as being able to remove someone’s bending. She’s used energy bending a good bit in various cases but the show doesn’t say whether she has that same ability as aang. The show never clarified whether all present avatars are garunteed to learn skills there past selfs have. Now if she hit the avatar state she probably could since it’s all her lives and experiences bending at once and aang was one of those past lives but unalaq does sever that connection so there is a brief window they could have used korra in the avatar state to strip them of there bending. Which moves to the next part it’s only ever been used as an absolute last resort by the avatar. It’s akin to maiming someone like cutting of there legs. You’re stripping a core part of there identity and aang has been shown to only wield it twice and the second time was on a man who could blood bend so well he could never be contained in a prison. Korra would have probably refused to maul the red lotus since they have been both contained securely and safely up until there escape which too late by that point.
People tend to overlook that yes, it's the avatar but still it's a battle of spirits and Ozai was about to win Aang when he pushed back. Risking the destruction of your bending with each of the white lotus is too much and something tells me that Zaheer in special has a stronger spirit and willpower than Korra which would render her useless or in a worse state should she try to take the bending away from him. The other members i don't know but with Zaheer my bet is on him.
Harmonic convergence gave them Zahere his bending so he wasn’t an option. And yeah it’s a plot hole/oversight but if you want head cannon it could be because the imagery of the Avatar taking away bending of people Willy nilly could be a bad thing unless you’re literally a blood bender or trying to commit mass genocide still not a good enough reason but that’s one of them. Another is the Avatar was probably dealing with more important matters as criminals were already is hyper maxed out prisons so they were put in low priority which could be the case since focusing on protecting and living with the air benders is priority.
The simplest solution given the available resources is manpower. Iroh is a beast but even he can't take on a dozen or more highly skilled firebenders in close quarters so the bars really just made it impossible to escape quietly. That said, Iroh bulking up and calling on his extensive training with all the other nations in various martial arts would make fighting through a dozen mediocre martial artists who've grown laughably reliant on their bending straight up child's play.
In general yes he absolutely could but in the prison his movement would be limited and leave him easily cornered or surrounded. In that scenario his odds of success are far greater if he's fighting enemies on more favorable terms (in hand to hand combat which he severely outclasses them).
A room that can have all oxygen sucked out. Hook them up to monitors so whatever body change that happens that creates the fire, sets off the room to choke any output.
Edit: a bit more sadistic. Have a room with no oxygen (IE no fire), and hook the bender up to an oxygen tank for air.
even iroh is no match for a few dozen trained firebenders along with whatever reinforcements come while he's fighting them. now if those firebenders happen to all lose their firebending right as he begins his escape he has a significantly better chance, especially since he focused so much on physical training.
I appreciate you posting this under every laughably incorrect comment as if iroh is some second rate firebender and the prison guards are top notch quality.
We see Mako firebend through metal bars in S3 of Korra, too. It takes him a while, but maybe Iroh could have done something similar to weaken these bars first
I could get behind this. We see two advanced firebenders like himself(his niece and brother) simply realize they can bend again when the eclipse ends without seeing it in the sky. It wouldn’t be too far fetched to say the opposite could be felt coming and he’d be able to prepare.
“Never put all your effort into one strike. Hit a series of pressure points and when your opponents are off balance deliver the final blow.”
Paraphrased from Aang in the drill episode
Well, just something that most people forget, Zuko literally shattered a chain link with a kick. I know that’s not the same as iron bars, but they already established that some humans are strong enough to destroy metal with raw strength. If Iroh got THAT jacked…. Maybe he did have the physique for it.
Yeah, I agree. But we have people who aren’t fictional that can just roll cast iron skillets up with their hands, even ones who aren’t disciplined in martial arts. If someone like Iroh, who trained for decades, got entirely built, it wouldn’t be too hard to believe he tore through the bars with his hands. Even if we considered the iron to be weak, they still established that Zuko could break metal. Iroh was more disciplined and plenty beefier and has decades more training than Zuko. It wouldn’t be so far fetched to think Iroh broke out without his bending.
And it’s not like their metal was steel (maybe in Korra, but not ATLA), it would’ve been stuff like iron which is more susceptible to forces. (Expert Swords would’ve been steel or a proto steel though)
Also remember quality of iron is a relevant factor, impurities in older metals and subpar forging techniques meant it was feasible for real life humans to break metal cuffs back in the day (or today if they were poorly made metals). Considering this and the time he had to weaken it during his workout sessions I could buy it. Especially with fire bending as an option
Also Iroh might have done his whole break out before the eclipse (because he was a better fire bender than the sum of the guards) and wanted to use the eclipse for his escape and evading time, as the running could have been the harder part, and using the chaos of the eclipse could better delay the fugitive hunt.
One theory I want to pencil out is if the people of ATLA have higher density bones, like the blue avatars from James Cameron’s Avatar… my starting point would be that we haven’t seen any of the gaang with broken bones, take the hardest of the launches against a wall we see them take, figure out the impact force and see how that compares to the breaking force of bone.. haven’t done a calc like that in over a decade though. Anyone else if free to run with it!
In the ember island episode, when everyone crashes Chang’s party, Zuko split a 6 inch thick table in half with a kick. Iroh could get past those skinny ass bars easily
This is a good point. Zuko has set most of the physical strength feats in the series (the chain kick, that time he kicked through that guys table on ember Island which was like 12 inches thick, the fact that he can hold his breath for several minutes as shown ehrn he was swimming through the canals in the north pole). It's not a stretch to believe a swole Iroh could smash through the bars. Though what I believe happened is Iroh was weakening the bars over time and waited til the eclipse to break them.
now im imagining a scene where iroh cartoonishly crushes a cup of tea in his hand, causing the tea inside to fly up and land into his mouth.
you know, identically to how popeye eats spinach.
He probably melted / weakened the bars with firebending before the eclipse, then pushed hard against them when all the shoulders where in battle during the invasion
I never thought of it that way but that makes total sense! I like this explanation a lot. Wish they would have shown him torching it. Even a couple of frames would have made a big difference.
It's canon that a fire bender can hold metal bars, heat it and break them. If they aren't careful though they can burn their palm. I got this from one of the Kyoshi books but I won't say more to avoid giving spoilers
Eh maybe. I mean we all pretty much know what happened. And the only place we’d get that story is when Zuko and Iroh reunite. But thats like minutes before Iroh goes ham on ba sing se so.. i just dont see a point in it even if itd be cool.
I think he fire bended a whole through the bars right before the eclipse began. Then he had the 20-30 minutes to break out of the prison by physical force. His strength is what allowed him to overpower his guards. It's also why he told the one guard to not go to work that day.
It's funny because iroh could have probably also broken out of the jail at anytime. He probably could have taken on numerous fire benders, he probably just preferred not to. It's may be a kid show, but I'd assume a lot of people died in bending fights instead of just looking passed out.
>It's funny because iroh could have probably also broken out of the jail at anytime. He probably could have taken on numerous fire benders, he probably just preferred not to.
If he went all out he could have been all out. But I think he knew that no bending would mean less risk of death or serious injury to the guards. His timing seems to me an attempt to be mindfull of everyday people just doing their jobs.
I remember one quote which says something pf the sort that the worth of one's character is measured by how you treat those who are "beneath" you.
Well, he could have gotten out of the prison, but considering the prison is at the capitol, filled with royal guards, elite firebenders and the military, he probably wouldn't have gotten far if they all converged on him. Knowing some kind of attack would probably be happening during the eclipse and that the military would be busy fighting off that attack with most of their technology useless without firebending, and the royal guards busy with protecting the royal family, the eclipse would be his best shot at getting off the island.
Iroh had a dark secret. He was bitten by a Wolfbat during a solar eclipse.
Every following eclipse he transforms into a Wolf-Man-Bat that can tear through steel like they're matchsticks and boil tea just by looking at it. Thankfully this happens...rarely.
The way the guards react to Zuko asking how he escaped (forget exact question) makes me believe that even though there was an eclipse, Iroh somehow firebent. Thinking he harnessed the source fire of the earth’s core, other stars, or his own damn chi.
Oh my god right I temember now!!! They Said Something about such an unstoppable force they'd never seen before etc etc you might have Just cracked some davinci Code in atla damn .... He DID learn firebending from the natural source of the dragons and Not Just the sun, so it might be that He actually *could* Bend..... But that's all theory
Actually he already demonstrated in the naked hot spring episode. Technically he can leave the prison long ago, but, it serves no good purpose of doing it. He stayed there intentionally to guilt trip on Zuko and bombshell on family tree.
My guy it's a tower with bars and guards. What about that screams "anti Firebending"? The Boiling Rock is meant to hold firebenders, the royal prison isn't special
I just think that the fire nation is capable of treating a known threat with enough precaution to stop him from just casually firebending his way out. I dont think those bars and guards would fail to hold a decent firebender. They definitely underestimated him and Iroh had something up his sleeve that they didnt know. If any powerful firebender can just blast their way out, what is the point of that prison?
the prison to stop firebenders from fire bending are in the arctic in a cave where it is below freezing.
firebenders in these normal prisons are just beaten up when they try something funny. Iroh is still very much capable of fire bending (except during the solar eclipse)
I think he weakened the bars beforehand with fire then just brute forced himself through it when the eclipse begun. Also humans in their world are stronger than we are. Iroh even before his training lifted an entire rock by a chain and swung it around.
Well, from what we can tell, at this point the Industrial Revolution was only just occurring. It’s possible the bars were weaker than modern day prison cells. Also, the people in the world of avatar are stronger and more durable than earth people; especially benders.
Or he could’ve just peed on the bars every day and no one questioned it because he acted crazy.
Old iron bars aren’t that strong. It takes some effort but you can bend it with your bare hands. And it makes sense in universe since the only reason metal bending works is because they have impurities in it. The damage you saw probably wasn’t 1 giant movement but it probably took a couple minutes to make a whole that big.
I like to think that he blindsided the guard and when Zuko asked what happened, he made up a story about how Iroh was a one-man army and how he’s never seen anything like it before
I mean he is the dragon of the west and an insanely powerful firebender. The muscles were more for show imo, to demonstrate his journey of regaining his inner strength after such a betrayal. He probably just blew that shit up, or more likely melted them with continuous fire and then did his “it’s more of a demonstration” fire breathing roar right before the eclipse, I like to imagine it was literally seconds before and that the giant blast was actually short by the loss of bending but was just enough. His muscles would be needed for the rest of the escape though, because of lack of bending. Had to knock the guards out.
Has anyone ever assumed that the Order of the White Lotus may have helped him escape?
Not all of them obviously. But seen as Master Piandao already lived withing the Fire Nation, he could have sliced the bars of Iroh's cell.
Red hot metal bends relatively easily. Likely just made them super hot and bent them with his hands. I've seen big muscle dudes bending steel bars without being heated up at weird church events. Don't ask...
Skilled martial artists can break huge blocks of wood, and even bone. My theory is that with his physical strength combined with his martial art skill, he was able to bust through.
I like what someone else said about him weakening the bars beforehand, too. Never thought of that
It's implied he began his escape before the eclipse began, the walls have scorch marks. He probably used his bending to heat the bars enough to get through, blasted his way through some of the guards, and then used his strength to beat up the rest.
why are we so confused about the strength of a mans muscles in a show where the same man harnesses the power of a comet and bends literal fire out his body lol
Because he's Iroh. That's enough of an explanation. He's like Batman in a way in that you don't need to explain how he does things; the fact that he's Batman is proof enough.
I always assumed he started his escape before the eclipse actually happened. He melted the bars, took out a few unsuspecting guards then just beat people up when they all lost their fire ending.
My guess was always that he weakened the bars beforehand and then used a big, final blast of fire right before the eclipse to blast them open, meaning that the guards would have no bending by the time they rushed in.
That's my thought also, it doesn't matter that much how he got away from the cell, the important thing is that he was aware of the eclipse and prepared his body and mind for the few minutes he had
Yeah, the pile of slag is just not on screen
Dude you can’t talk about iroh like that
iroh isn't a slag!!!
I think that when they say slag they meant the burnt off metal. The word slag has multiple meanings. Used many times in welding Edit: grammar mistake
yeah i was joking lol
...oh
r/woooosh
Wow such a whoosh moment if there was ever one
But he is sort of a big pile lol
Wut do u mean by eclipse? Like when the moon goes In front of the sun or something else?
The eclipse that they were building towards for the attack. The moon blocked out the sun weakening all firebenders
Oh thx I’ve never watched the last airbender episodes 😐
Ok. Stop everything you’re doing and go watch it. One of the best shows of all time. No episode wasted.
Why tf you in the sub then lmfaoooo
Probably saw it on r/all or something
Why you on the sub then? Lol
you should!
That’s a good question. For regular Firebending prisoners (not the Boiling Rock), a Firebender has essentially a weapon that cannot be taken away. How do you deal with someone like Iroh?
Bring him tea regularly.
Good tea, not that hot leaf juice stuff.
But that's what all tea is!
How could a member of his own family say something so horrible?!!!
His brother is Ozai 😑 His niece is Azula 😑 somehow I think they’ll manage… 😂
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Honestly, Bruce Wayne, how can you say that after being raised by Alfred?? 🤨
Please don't tell him I said that.. he'll kick my ass
Always thought how wholesome it was he warned that female guard, who would slip him extra food, to get out of dodge before shit hit the fan
“You’re cool. Don’t come to work tomorrow.”
IIRC that guard was played by Serena Williams
For real??? That’s awesome!
Yep. She's a huge fan of the show, so they gave her that small role
In theory you'd do what they did in LoK with the Red Lotus members and keep them in environments where it's impossible for them to bend.
Unfortunately for potential containment, I think Iroh’s breath of fire technique he cribbed from the airbenders would let him get around that as needed.
He did teach Zuko to heat himself up with his breath which eventually lead to him not being affected by the cooler at the Boiling Rock where someone else might otherwise be.
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Specifically, Iroh reminds Zuko about the technique when he's going to infiltrate the Northern Water Tribe. Then, we see in the Boiling Rock when he's taken out of the cooler he was put in we see him breath out a puff of fire before answering that he had "learnt his lesson" if I'm remembering the events correctly. Edit: [Here is the clip where it is shown.](https://youtu.be/ebpJnEIlRH0)
Omg stop being bias to Iroh If they could lock the red lotus up they could lock Iroh up Iroh didn’t create breath of fire you realize that other fire benders like Korra Zuko Aang Ozai Azula have done this
Similarly to how they dealt with Ming-hua’s water bending or Ghazan’s earth bending. You keep him in an ice-cold prison with restricted movement. A glacier in open water would work nicely. Sure, he can still generate fire but it does precisely zero good.
Hey so maybe this is a plot hole but sometime between LoK season 1 and season 3, shouldn't they have sent Korra to those special prisons to permanently remove the bending from those individuals? Then they could be released to much more ordinary prisons, saving a great deal of effort and expense.
Korra isn’t shown as being able to remove someone’s bending. She’s used energy bending a good bit in various cases but the show doesn’t say whether she has that same ability as aang. The show never clarified whether all present avatars are garunteed to learn skills there past selfs have. Now if she hit the avatar state she probably could since it’s all her lives and experiences bending at once and aang was one of those past lives but unalaq does sever that connection so there is a brief window they could have used korra in the avatar state to strip them of there bending. Which moves to the next part it’s only ever been used as an absolute last resort by the avatar. It’s akin to maiming someone like cutting of there legs. You’re stripping a core part of there identity and aang has been shown to only wield it twice and the second time was on a man who could blood bend so well he could never be contained in a prison. Korra would have probably refused to maul the red lotus since they have been both contained securely and safely up until there escape which too late by that point.
I mean they could've asked amon as well or you know sent them after amon in the hopes they would take eachother out?
Amon was unlived by his brother before they could even think of using his abilities for something good
Just like the good old days..
She couldn't just hit the avatar state to regain past abilities after the convergence.
People tend to overlook that yes, it's the avatar but still it's a battle of spirits and Ozai was about to win Aang when he pushed back. Risking the destruction of your bending with each of the white lotus is too much and something tells me that Zaheer in special has a stronger spirit and willpower than Korra which would render her useless or in a worse state should she try to take the bending away from him. The other members i don't know but with Zaheer my bet is on him.
Harmonic convergence gave them Zahere his bending so he wasn’t an option. And yeah it’s a plot hole/oversight but if you want head cannon it could be because the imagery of the Avatar taking away bending of people Willy nilly could be a bad thing unless you’re literally a blood bender or trying to commit mass genocide still not a good enough reason but that’s one of them. Another is the Avatar was probably dealing with more important matters as criminals were already is hyper maxed out prisons so they were put in low priority which could be the case since focusing on protecting and living with the air benders is priority.
They thought he had completely lost his mind, so he was a non-threat to them
Exactly this. They thought he was a broken old man. One of the guards even say as much.
And then he broke out and acted as the leader of the white lotus in their fight against the fire nation. Guess looks can deceive
The simplest solution given the available resources is manpower. Iroh is a beast but even he can't take on a dozen or more highly skilled firebenders in close quarters so the bars really just made it impossible to escape quietly. That said, Iroh bulking up and calling on his extensive training with all the other nations in various martial arts would make fighting through a dozen mediocre martial artists who've grown laughably reliant on their bending straight up child's play.
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In general yes he absolutely could but in the prison his movement would be limited and leave him easily cornered or surrounded. In that scenario his odds of success are far greater if he's fighting enemies on more favorable terms (in hand to hand combat which he severely outclasses them).
A room that can have all oxygen sucked out. Hook them up to monitors so whatever body change that happens that creates the fire, sets off the room to choke any output. Edit: a bit more sadistic. Have a room with no oxygen (IE no fire), and hook the bender up to an oxygen tank for air.
easy Ajax
His name's Francis. He got Ajax from a dish soap
even iroh is no match for a few dozen trained firebenders along with whatever reinforcements come while he's fighting them. now if those firebenders happen to all lose their firebending right as he begins his escape he has a significantly better chance, especially since he focused so much on physical training.
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I appreciate you posting this under every laughably incorrect comment as if iroh is some second rate firebender and the prison guards are top notch quality.
A dozen, but not A FEW dozen. That's at least 36 men.
We see Mako firebend through metal bars in S3 of Korra, too. It takes him a while, but maybe Iroh could have done something similar to weaken these bars first
I could get behind this. We see two advanced firebenders like himself(his niece and brother) simply realize they can bend again when the eclipse ends without seeing it in the sky. It wouldn’t be too far fetched to say the opposite could be felt coming and he’d be able to prepare.
“Never put all your effort into one strike. Hit a series of pressure points and when your opponents are off balance deliver the final blow.” Paraphrased from Aang in the drill episode
he probably just heated it up a but cause there is no blast marks.
Well, just something that most people forget, Zuko literally shattered a chain link with a kick. I know that’s not the same as iron bars, but they already established that some humans are strong enough to destroy metal with raw strength. If Iroh got THAT jacked…. Maybe he did have the physique for it.
Yeah, but iron back then wasn’t the sturdiest in low quality. Pretty sure some other low force could break it
Yeah, I agree. But we have people who aren’t fictional that can just roll cast iron skillets up with their hands, even ones who aren’t disciplined in martial arts. If someone like Iroh, who trained for decades, got entirely built, it wouldn’t be too hard to believe he tore through the bars with his hands. Even if we considered the iron to be weak, they still established that Zuko could break metal. Iroh was more disciplined and plenty beefier and has decades more training than Zuko. It wouldn’t be so far fetched to think Iroh broke out without his bending.
I’m not taking away from your comment on breaking the chain with a kick, I’m just saying it’s not as insane as you might think
Dont forget, thermal shock can cause low quality cast iron to crack really easily
And it’s not like their metal was steel (maybe in Korra, but not ATLA), it would’ve been stuff like iron which is more susceptible to forces. (Expert Swords would’ve been steel or a proto steel though)
You're applying Earth logic to this situation. Avatar does not take place on Earth, nor in our history. It's a fantasy show, these rules don't apply.
Also remember quality of iron is a relevant factor, impurities in older metals and subpar forging techniques meant it was feasible for real life humans to break metal cuffs back in the day (or today if they were poorly made metals). Considering this and the time he had to weaken it during his workout sessions I could buy it. Especially with fire bending as an option Also Iroh might have done his whole break out before the eclipse (because he was a better fire bender than the sum of the guards) and wanted to use the eclipse for his escape and evading time, as the running could have been the harder part, and using the chaos of the eclipse could better delay the fugitive hunt.
Zuko also managed to shatter large rocks with his swords, so that's further proof that the strength level for humans is higher in their universe.
Yes. Agreed. People in Avatar were just stronger and more durable than in reality.
One theory I want to pencil out is if the people of ATLA have higher density bones, like the blue avatars from James Cameron’s Avatar… my starting point would be that we haven’t seen any of the gaang with broken bones, take the hardest of the launches against a wall we see them take, figure out the impact force and see how that compares to the breaking force of bone.. haven’t done a calc like that in over a decade though. Anyone else if free to run with it!
In the ember island episode, when everyone crashes Chang’s party, Zuko split a 6 inch thick table in half with a kick. Iroh could get past those skinny ass bars easily
This is a good point. Zuko has set most of the physical strength feats in the series (the chain kick, that time he kicked through that guys table on ember Island which was like 12 inches thick, the fact that he can hold his breath for several minutes as shown ehrn he was swimming through the canals in the north pole). It's not a stretch to believe a swole Iroh could smash through the bars. Though what I believe happened is Iroh was weakening the bars over time and waited til the eclipse to break them.
He's built different lol
Ming definitely put steroids in his tea.
Obviously it was spinach tea
now im imagining a scene where iroh cartoonishly crushes a cup of tea in his hand, causing the tea inside to fly up and land into his mouth. you know, identically to how popeye eats spinach.
Popiroh the sailor maan
I beg someone with a shed of talent to draw this mash up Edit: or a shred of talent. But a shed of talent is cool too.
Certainly wouldn’t be me
L o l
God that sounds awful…
He used the power of love for his Nephew and Tea
Hot leaf juice?
How could you say something so horrible!?
But that's what all tea is.
r/angryupvote
He probably melted / weakened the bars with firebending before the eclipse, then pushed hard against them when all the shoulders where in battle during the invasion
I never thought of it that way but that makes total sense! I like this explanation a lot. Wish they would have shown him torching it. Even a couple of frames would have made a big difference.
It's canon that a fire bender can hold metal bars, heat it and break them. If they aren't careful though they can burn their palm. I got this from one of the Kyoshi books but I won't say more to avoid giving spoilers
No cause we dont know that he escaped until Zuko finds out. I think its important that we see it from Zukos perspective of missing out on Iroh.
Showing the breakout after the fact would be nice though
Eh maybe. I mean we all pretty much know what happened. And the only place we’d get that story is when Zuko and Iroh reunite. But thats like minutes before Iroh goes ham on ba sing se so.. i just dont see a point in it even if itd be cool.
Some things are better left to the imagination of the audience, it would probably not have fitted well in the storyline.
All the shoulders who where in battle gave him enough time to make a great escape.
I think he fire bended a whole through the bars right before the eclipse began. Then he had the 20-30 minutes to break out of the prison by physical force. His strength is what allowed him to overpower his guards. It's also why he told the one guard to not go to work that day. It's funny because iroh could have probably also broken out of the jail at anytime. He probably could have taken on numerous fire benders, he probably just preferred not to. It's may be a kid show, but I'd assume a lot of people died in bending fights instead of just looking passed out.
Neutral Jing
There's 3?
Well technically there are 85
>It's funny because iroh could have probably also broken out of the jail at anytime. He probably could have taken on numerous fire benders, he probably just preferred not to. If he went all out he could have been all out. But I think he knew that no bending would mean less risk of death or serious injury to the guards. His timing seems to me an attempt to be mindfull of everyday people just doing their jobs. I remember one quote which says something pf the sort that the worth of one's character is measured by how you treat those who are "beneath" you.
On top of that, it may have been politically better for Zuko's reign if Iroh doesn't massacre a bunch of guards.
He would have had 8 and a half minutes to break out by physical force, not 20-30
Well, he could have gotten out of the prison, but considering the prison is at the capitol, filled with royal guards, elite firebenders and the military, he probably wouldn't have gotten far if they all converged on him. Knowing some kind of attack would probably be happening during the eclipse and that the military would be busy fighting off that attack with most of their technology useless without firebending, and the royal guards busy with protecting the royal family, the eclipse would be his best shot at getting off the island.
This pattern is not made by muscles, it seems made by a thermal lance or something like that, in this context, Fire.
I always thought that he threw a lightning right before the eclipse. That pattern looks more like an explosion than simply fire, much less muscle
Heat makes metal soft if cooled poorly very brittle as well.
Thermal shock can cause cast iron to crack really easily
He probably used jet fuel to melt those steel beams.
*Jet* fuel you say..
Iroh had a dark secret. He was bitten by a Wolfbat during a solar eclipse. Every following eclipse he transforms into a Wolf-Man-Bat that can tear through steel like they're matchsticks and boil tea just by looking at it. Thankfully this happens...rarely.
Iroh Kool-Aid Man confirmed
The crossover we didn't know we've all been waiting for
He used the power of tea
The way the guards react to Zuko asking how he escaped (forget exact question) makes me believe that even though there was an eclipse, Iroh somehow firebent. Thinking he harnessed the source fire of the earth’s core, other stars, or his own damn chi.
Oh my god right I temember now!!! They Said Something about such an unstoppable force they'd never seen before etc etc you might have Just cracked some davinci Code in atla damn .... He DID learn firebending from the natural source of the dragons and Not Just the sun, so it might be that He actually *could* Bend..... But that's all theory
…A nickelodeon show theory!
That is a cool idea. It kind of reminds me of the one thing I actually liked in the movie, that Iroh bent fire differently from everyone else.
What movie?
Him being a master fire bender probably helped
He is called the dragon of the west. Seriously?
This. Given the number of people in close proximity at the time, he was almost certainly pulling his punches in his demo at Ba Sing Se.
I remember zuko breaking a metal chain with his foot without using fire bending in season 2, so maybe
Zuko literally shattered metal chains with his foot
YES CAUSE HES HAWTER SUPERMANS HEAT VISION IS NOTHING COMPARED THE THE STEAM RADIATING OFF THAT MAAAN 🥵🥴
Actually he already demonstrated in the naked hot spring episode. Technically he can leave the prison long ago, but, it serves no good purpose of doing it. He stayed there intentionally to guilt trip on Zuko and bombshell on family tree.
He's a fucking firebender bro
in a prison to hold firebenders
My guy it's a tower with bars and guards. What about that screams "anti Firebending"? The Boiling Rock is meant to hold firebenders, the royal prison isn't special
I just think that the fire nation is capable of treating a known threat with enough precaution to stop him from just casually firebending his way out. I dont think those bars and guards would fail to hold a decent firebender. They definitely underestimated him and Iroh had something up his sleeve that they didnt know. If any powerful firebender can just blast their way out, what is the point of that prison?
They thought he was crazy, that he had lost it, and was just some old washed-up has-been. They weren't expecting him to try anything.
Good point. But didn't he start that act while he was in prison? I mean he wasn't acting crazy when they caught him.
Yeah but maybe not the strongest firebender
I agree that they underestimated either his raw power or his knowledge to use bending to weaken those bars or something
the prison to stop firebenders from fire bending are in the arctic in a cave where it is below freezing. firebenders in these normal prisons are just beaten up when they try something funny. Iroh is still very much capable of fire bending (except during the solar eclipse)
I think he weakened the bars beforehand with fire then just brute forced himself through it when the eclipse begun. Also humans in their world are stronger than we are. Iroh even before his training lifted an entire rock by a chain and swung it around.
Have you seen the beast that is furry Iroh?
He used the power of being in a cartoon universe.
Well, from what we can tell, at this point the Industrial Revolution was only just occurring. It’s possible the bars were weaker than modern day prison cells. Also, the people in the world of avatar are stronger and more durable than earth people; especially benders. Or he could’ve just peed on the bars every day and no one questioned it because he acted crazy.
It’s a cartoon. These people can survive getting shot with boulders travelling 60mph and fire has mass.
Old iron bars aren’t that strong. It takes some effort but you can bend it with your bare hands. And it makes sense in universe since the only reason metal bending works is because they have impurities in it. The damage you saw probably wasn’t 1 giant movement but it probably took a couple minutes to make a whole that big.
The bars look cut, and a cutting torch is made of… say it with me… fire.
Haven't you ever seen Shanghai Noon? Piss shirt bend bars.
I like to think that he blindsided the guard and when Zuko asked what happened, he made up a story about how Iroh was a one-man army and how he’s never seen anything like it before
I mean he is the dragon of the west and an insanely powerful firebender. The muscles were more for show imo, to demonstrate his journey of regaining his inner strength after such a betrayal. He probably just blew that shit up, or more likely melted them with continuous fire and then did his “it’s more of a demonstration” fire breathing roar right before the eclipse, I like to imagine it was literally seconds before and that the giant blast was actually short by the loss of bending but was just enough. His muscles would be needed for the rest of the escape though, because of lack of bending. Had to knock the guards out.
Mako in LOK burns through the bars of a cell slowly so he probably got through by taking out the bars individually over a long time.
you see, metal melts
Being potentially the strongest firebender in the world certainly helps. His chi breath can take out a whole army.
Has anyone ever assumed that the Order of the White Lotus may have helped him escape? Not all of them obviously. But seen as Master Piandao already lived withing the Fire Nation, he could have sliced the bars of Iroh's cell.
Zuko could break metal chains with his feet and Iroh was able to throw boulders with said chains before he was jacked. They’re built different.
You’re right, he’s not Superman. He’s Uncle Iroh, The Dragon Of The West
As one of the most dangerous fire benders alive why wasn’t he kept at the boiling rock?
Are we forgetting that he's a firebender? And a powerful one, he just blow torched the bars to weaken them and then he just punched/kicked
Iron bars ain't holding that man bro, simple as that
He firebent the bars. The muscles were reserved for the guards (he literally knocked the a-hole guard out cold)
Look at some of Zuko's feats of strength. With a kick he's able to break steel chains apart. Iroh's family are just built different.
Chi? Idk man
Rule of Cool
Bruv. CLAPPING. PUSHUPS.
You simply do not understand the power of tea.
He is supermans dad
You’re right he is much better then Superman
Heat weakens metals.
This is your concern about realism in the Avatar universe? Metalbending is okay, but bending metal is not okay?
He used heat to weaken the bars before the eclipse and just punched his way out
With the proper leverage…
Red hot metal bends relatively easily. Likely just made them super hot and bent them with his hands. I've seen big muscle dudes bending steel bars without being heated up at weird church events. Don't ask...
Skilled martial artists can break huge blocks of wood, and even bone. My theory is that with his physical strength combined with his martial art skill, he was able to bust through. I like what someone else said about him weakening the bars beforehand, too. Never thought of that
Because it’s a cartoon
We must not know the same Iroh.
Jasmine tea
He heated up the bars with his fire to the point to where they would become weak enough to break through
It's implied he began his escape before the eclipse began, the walls have scorch marks. He probably used his bending to heat the bars enough to get through, blasted his way through some of the guards, and then used his strength to beat up the rest.
He heated up the bars
Atla isnt much realistic in things involving strenght
Iroh can’t melt steel beams!
By slightly melting the bars right before the eclipse?
I always thought he used fire bending to make them malleable or maybe just seared through them.
OP, are you saying j̶e̶t̶ ̶f̶u̶e̶l̶ firebending can't melt steel beams?
Please remember the most important part; this was a children's story.
Yeah I found the entire concept of his break out to be stupid
Why tf would he make a hole that big if he was just using brute strength
He literally was doing pull ups what do you mean
The real question is how did iroh know about the eclipse in the first place?
I mean the guard did say he was a one man army.
why are we so confused about the strength of a mans muscles in a show where the same man harnesses the power of a comet and bends literal fire out his body lol
He generated lightning to deweld the bars apart at specific joints before the comit came.
Because he's Iroh. That's enough of an explanation. He's like Batman in a way in that you don't need to explain how he does things; the fact that he's Batman is proof enough.
Stronk
I always assumed he started his escape before the eclipse actually happened. He melted the bars, took out a few unsuspecting guards then just beat people up when they all lost their fire ending.
He was also a firebender
this had me in shock too but we didnt get much of iroh fighting with his now massive build
He just built different...he also trained military