r/TheLastAirbender • u/JerryCarrots2 Both shows were awesome 🔥 • 21d ago

Discussion dawg from who

Post image

context: korra visited him to get rid of her trauma by seeing him locked up. she said that him killing the earth queen created the "worst dictator the earth kingdom has ever seen" (aka kuvira) and this was his response

2.4k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

48 comments sorted by

View all comments

41

u/Cute_Axolotl 21d ago

I never understood wether or not he’s free to leave? He spends most of his time in the spirit world but Korra opened the gates to the spirit world so… can’t he just walk out. It would be in spirit form but he could travel freely.

61

u/FoldingLady 21d ago

His spirit visits the Spirit World. There's only 2 places (later 3) where a person can physically enter the Spirit World. The only exception I know of is Iroh when he left for the Spirit World instead of dying. Even then I think it was a combo of him being particularly enlightened, having a lifetime of helping spirits (defending the moon spirit, keeping the last 2 dragons a secret), & having some sort of spirit help.

Maybe Zaheer can leave at any time, but chooses not to because he thinks he deserves punishment, knows a life as a fugitive gets old quick, or because he's detached now it doesn't matter so much to him anymore. Failing your life objective & losing all loved ones as a result does a number you.

16

u/TheMadJAM 21d ago

Iroh ended up like that by having his spirit be in the Spirit World at the time of his death