Fortnite shows us a new side of Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender
Zuko’s story Avatar: The last airbender showed that honor wasn’t something someone else could give you. True honor comes from living a life that feels true to yourself and your values. In the show, Zuko restores his sense of self by teaming up with Avatar Aang and overthrowing his evil warlord father.
That was great and all, but now he’s in Fortnite, And I can’t escape viral clips and memes of the angsty teen doing cute little TikTok dances and stunt-like pranks.
Zuko, Katara and Toph joined the roster of playable characters Fortnite on April 9. (Aang is there too, but you can only unlock him as part of Avatar: Elements Premium Reward Track.) Instead of doing the right Avatar thing and bringing balance to the lands of Fortnite, the team descended on the game to wreak havoc, as I imagine a group of Red Bull-soaked kids would be given the power to wield the elements. The result is some of the funniest videos to come out of a Fortnite not yet working together. Watch below watch a video of Zuko doing a full backflip on a dirt bike while Katara quickly fires a machine gun into the air.
Many of the clips take on the inherent humor of having such a serious character in the craziest of environments. Zuko had one of the most iconic character arcs in modern television Avatar: The last airbender with a deeply moving story. But now players can just interact with him and make him go crazy with crazy dances.
As our boy really goes through it over the course of the series, Zuko has many dramatic character moments with emotional monologues about restoring his honor and fighting back against his family. So of course people have taken the audio from iconic scenes and set it to clips of the character running around Fortnite.
Many of the memes also reference lighter points from the show. For example, Zuko has several episodes towards the end of the series where we see him bond and connect with Katara, Aang, and Sokka. The only person who doesn’t get a full one-on-one excursion with Zuko is Toph, so people joke that Fortnite is showing us what that trip was like. According to the person below, the two robbed a bank. We know about TThe Legend of Korra that Toph becomes a police officer, but I think I like the Bonnie and Clyde version of her and Zuko better.
Some clips use AI to generate lines that mimic the voice actors’ performances from the original show. Here we can hear Zuko calling someone a “bitch” while blasting someone from a distance, or Aang shouting responses at his skin. In case it’s not clear, this isn’t actual dialogue from the show or game, but it seems to fit the general vibe of Fortnite.
This is just a sampling of what I’ve seen online. Players can use all elements including Airbend, Firebend, Waterbend and Earthbend Fortnite, and it has become a real farce to play – in a good way. So if you don’t want to do anything good, the Fortnite Avatar: Elements Quest is now live and runs until Fortnite is now live and runs until May 3.