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Have you ever just felt stuck? Like you don't know where to go or what you're even supposed to do?
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I've felt like that so many times before and it's not the best feeling. But one thing that
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this character has taught me is that you just gotta focus on what you can do and let everything
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else go. So we're ending season 7 with someone who may be the wisest character to exist in fiction
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and that is the Dragon of the West, Iroh. It was going on guys my name is Nate and you're
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listening to the Otaku Liberation. A show where we help you break the chains that are holding
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you back in your life by connecting some biblical principles with themes for your favorite anime.
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And without further ado let's get right on into it. So the verse I'm covering for this episode is
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Romans chapter 12 verse 2. And it says, do not be conformed to this age but be transformed by the
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renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
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And that's just you know church speak for those who may not be saved yet but that's really just
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saying don't really follow the status quo. Don't be... basically don't be normal right? Dare to be
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different and be different in the sense that you do what is good and pleasing to God himself.
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Because you know the way things are now everything's crazy backwards and upside down so
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it's easy to be confused and not really be sure on what the heck you're supposed to do.
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And what this is saying is basically just it's okay just focus on God and what he's told you
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to do essentially. And for Iroh, Iroh was an interesting character to really do an episode on
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right? Because when I first decided I was going to do the last Airbender for a season I already
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knew Iroh had to be one of the characters if not the only one right? Because we can
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if you know about Iroh I'm sure you've seen a whole bunch of things on the internet you know
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we can go for months and months and months on his you know nuggets of wisdom and whatnot because
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everyone loves Iroh. But for me when I was doing the research for this episode it was interesting
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just to see how much of a transformation he's had even before the series began. And then even then
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even then from even beyond just the last Airbender and just understanding Iroh as a whole I think
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one of the main reasons why so many people love him is because he's so real right? He's not perfect
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by any means he makes mistakes and he owns up to them. And he's really just there to
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to spread peace and love which who can hate on that right? Who can hate on peace and love?
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Anyway so Iroh's kind of journey and purpose shifted a couple of times throughout the series.
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At first he went from being a warrior to a mentor. Now you know back in his heyday
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Iroh was a fierce and seasoned war general for the Fire Nation and he had the typical hunger for power
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that was pretty much prevalent in all members of the Roya family. You know him, his brother Oza,
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Zuko, Azula they all had this they wanted more right? They just wanted more. And he even earned
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the monitor Dragon of the West for his ability to breathe fire as well as his claim to killing the
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last living dragon. Which you know essentially means he's him right? Like you don't mess with
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Iroh he's he has he has that bravado about him. But after the death of his son and father shortly
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after Iroh lost that hunger for power and what was left was just a sense of loss and defeat.
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This loss actually caused him to see Zuko as his son rather than his nephew. And this coupled with
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his journey across the world with Zuko helped to heal Iroh's heart and set him up to become the
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wise sage that we all know and love. So let me just take a take a break right there real really
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quick and really let me just hype on the on the the fact that how the loss of someone that you
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love can really transform a person for for better or for worse right? I mean Iroh he was he was a
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war general during this time fighting for his people and his nation. So on one hand we know
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the Fire Nation as antagonist but again in the war there's no real no good or evil in all honesty
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everyone's fighting for their own ideal. And again for the Fire Nation they sought to quote
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unquote unify the world by burning it to a crisp which was their ideal. So he went from that to
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being the type of person who is an advocate for world peace and understanding each of the elements
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and things like that. And honestly he was kind of like that even during his time in the war
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as a war general. He was always more worldly than other people of the Fire Nation but the death of
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his son and again his father right after that helped to bring that side of him to the surface
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so to speak to be more willing to to be an advocate for just worldwide peace and
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and understanding the balance that the world has. And I just I just found that just really
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really powerful because I mean because this all this stuff happened later in Iroh's life.
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Until we watch these shows these you know anime or really any show in general the these characters
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don't really go through this transformation so late in life and maybe earlier on you know you can
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watch enough anime every teenage boy is a main character and they go through these life alternatives
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and these life-changing things at the age of 16 and either they cry about it the whole time or they
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just become hard all of a sudden and it's just it's really weird. So seeing this happen to not only
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an adult character but someone who's older like Iroh is refreshing as a viewer but it's also
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humanizing showing that you know hey we all go through stuff in life regardless of our age and
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time right and you never know what life is going to throw at you because you know life comes with
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challenges some that are expected many that are not and you know and just just thinking about that
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I always remember hearing the saying that God gives the toughest battles to his strongest warriors
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and sometimes you gotta hear sometimes I know I wonder like okay God am I one of your strongest
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warriors because some of the stuff man is is is ridiculous in all honesty and I'm sure a lot of
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you can attest to that too but just know this battle and the hardship you're going through right
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now is preparing you for the greatness that is coming next because I've come to realize that
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God will prepare you in one season for the next one because the current you isn't capable of
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handling what's coming next so he has to prepare you and essentially that's what happened to Iroh
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right the the death of his son and father and the transformation that resulted in that was preparing
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him for the next season in counseling Zuko throughout his travels and ultimately was kind
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of like the catalyst for Zuko's transformation in his own in his own journey and and not in even
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just beyond Zuko Iroh counseled Toph he became counsel to Aang and the entire group during the
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war and thereafter to the point that you know he had he even counseled Korra and stuff years after
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the fact and not only that but he also counseled Aang's kids and things like that so Iroh's own
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journey impacted so many lives that it was it's it's it's just amazing it's amazing to look at
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that and so again that's really the definition of going from a warrior to a mentor right he's
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he's Iroh is something special then the next aspect of his journey was actually achieving
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spiritual balance so like I said earlier Iroh was a very spiritual man and believed in the
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balance of all the elements even during the time of war it just became more prominent after his
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his own transformation and this directly contradicted the Fire Nation's supremacy that
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the rest of the Fire Nation believed in right and so they they believe fire was the best in
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you know whatever and Iroh was like uh no all the elements have a purpose and we shouldn't mess with
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that and in to show how far and how dedicated he was to that belief Iroh even threatened General
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Zao at the North Pole when Zao threatened to harm the moon spirit which would have caused great harm
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to not only the water tribe because again without the moon they can't bend but it would have caused
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like great harm to the world as a whole because without the moon everyone's gonna suffer because
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then the whole world is just gonna be thrown out of balance and again Zao being power hungry as
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it was just didn't care Iroh even though he was at the time an enemy to you know Aang's group and
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the water tribes and things like that he understood the repercussions of destroying the moon and he
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was like uh no I am a fighter for balance first in the Fire Nation second and this understanding
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of balance allowed Iroh to see things from a bigger picture and to understand how everything
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works together I mean he even helped Aang and the gang on multiple occasions because he didn't truly
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see them as enemies I think he was just kind of humoring his nephew at that point in time but
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Iroh himself never really saw Aang as his enemy which I think is kind of is really cool especially
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going back and re-watching the series and seeing how Iroh's interaction with Aang's group on the
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different occasions he was always very hospitable and just welcoming in direct contrast to his
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nephew which I just I just find it funny so think about this where would you be if your teachers or
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mentors hadn't have been the people that they are so just think about the one or a couple people
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who have guided you in your life you know again your parents can be your actual teachers in school
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different mentors you had for you know career skills or whatever sensei different martial arts
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coaches people who have guided you in in ways for your own benefit who have tried to grow you up and
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to be to be the person that you are today if they if they were never the person that they were
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how would that have impacted you and whose lives would you be changing if you stopped pursuing
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your own purpose because maybe you can be someone's uncle Iroh later down the road right you know
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I'm not saying tomorrow it may not even be 20 years from now but again we don't know right
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so what if what you're going through right now in discovering your purpose and trying to figure out
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what the heck you're gonna do in life what if that's just preparing you for the next season
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where you can be the mentor to somebody who's going through the same thing that you're going
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through now so just you know just think about it you know just little little things like that can
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really shift your perspective on a lot of things and the last part of Iroh's journey is creating
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your own destiny so throughout the series Iroh has been a huge supporter of one creating their own
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destiny for instance he went from being a war general to someone that spreads love and peace
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everywhere he went and he often said his very exact thing to Zuko when he found his nephew at a
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crossroads essentially you know what does he want to do what is he striving for what is what is his
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destiny beyond just trying to find his honor and or reclaim his honor rather and what is it that
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Zuko wants to do and then this namely came in bossing saying right after Zuko freed Appa
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because like I mentioned in Zuko's episode when he went through that whole
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confliction after he freed Appa because it was in direct conflict with who he thought he was
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he thought he was this you know scarred prince that had to capture the avatar by enemies necessary
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but he just freed the avatar's bison which would have been nice leverage to capture Aang and it's
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things like that Iroh has always been there encouraging Zuko to make his own choices and
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not be bound by his past and part of that was because Iroh was a firm believer in not worrying
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about what you can't control but but being fully responsible for what you can and for me this is
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something I'm striving to live by each and every day and not just be so consumed about you know
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what's going to happen tomorrow or heck what's going to happen today you know it just you know
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just random doomsday stuff right but just focusing on what can I do right here right now and how can
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I do it to the best of my ability that that that's it just let let god handle everything else
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because I can't and just go just go on from there and you'll find or as I have that you free up so
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much mental space and your so much stress is removed when you start worrying about things that
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you can't do anything about then it's like oh man I can actually enjoy living my life now at least
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a little bit easier because I'm not worried about that I can just focus on the things that I'm doing
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and how can I do them better and all this type of stuff and it's just crazy again I used to be
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worried about tomorrow when I haven't even gotten out of bed today that's how you see how insane that
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is I'm really worried about what's going to happen tomorrow next week or you know on the 30th and
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today is the first you know just weird stuff like that and so basically I'll come down to this
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question how will you live your life will you be worried about tomorrow and what it holds or will
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you focus on what you can do today and let god handle the rest you know are you are you just
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going to be you know sitting there doom and gloom you know crying in the fetal position or are you
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going to actually go outside and touch grass for once so hey that's all I got for you guys and as
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always if you liked what you heard on today's episode you want to take a deeper look head on
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over to the otaku liberation dinette you'll find a blog article that covers today's episode in a
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little more detail and you might also find a link or two to our youtube channel where I cover bonus
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topics outside of the podcast and hey that's it for season seven man I've enjoyed re-watching and
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learning more about these characters and avatar and after one of the shows as soon as you get
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done watching it you're like man all right time to start over and I'm honestly just glad I could
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share it with you all but don't worry it's not over yet because next season I'll be covering the
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legend of Korra the sequel to the last avatar I know exciting stuff and I can't wait to see you
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guys on the next one and always remember you are the main character of your story and that story
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doesn't end until he says so all right be blessed
