Who really is the dark, misunderstood, firebending prince of the Fire Nation?

Banished from his home nation when he was fourteen by his father, Fire Lord Ozai, Prince Zuko is determined to redeem himself. He knows what he must do: capture the Avatar, the master of the elements and the only on that can stop the Fire Nation's raging conquest. But after 2 years of searching on a small ship with his Uncle Iroh, former general and great dragon of the west, Zuko has lost hope.

That is, until the Avatar, Aang, resurfaces and Zuko's wild hunt reaches it's hieght. He now is viciously pursueing Aang, determined to capture him at all costs.

But why does Zuko want to capture the Avatar so badly?

Many years ago, (like 2 years), Zuko was a happy prince eager to learn as much as he could about the Fire Nation. After all, he was to one day rule over it as the Fire Lord. While many people of the Fire Nation were ruthless, cruel, and sadistic, Zuko was caring, kind, and eager to help.

One day, Zuko tried to enter the War-Planning Chamber of the Fire Lord. The guards would not let him pass, so he appealed to his uncle, Iroh. The nephew and uncle seemed to have a closer relationship than Zuko had with even is own father, Ozai. So, Iroh let Zuko ebter the chamber, warning him that he musn't speak and upset the elder members of the council.

In the chamber, an elderly general proposed his plan of sacrificing a squadron of new recruits in order to distract an Earth Kingdom Army, while a better prepared army would attack from behind. Zuko, who couldn't bare the thought of brave, loyal soldiers being sacraficed for no reason spoke out. In doing so, he had shown disrespect. The only way to resolve this conflict was witch an Agni-Kai, or Fire Duel.

Zuko accepted the challenge, after seeing the feeble old general. But he was not to be Zuko's opponent. Zuko had disrespected the FIRE LORD himself by iterrupting in his war chamber. When he saw his father, Zuko refused to fight him. But Ozai said that Zuko showed shameful weakness by not fighting, and gave Zuko his infamous scar as a lesson, while many eagerly watching Fire Nationers, (including Captain Zhao), looked on.

Zuko was forbidden to return to the Fire Nation without the captured Avatar.