What Happened to Zuko’s Mom in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Answered

Avatar: The Last Airbender is getting a live-action show on Netflix this year, and it’s sure to recreate many of the series’ iconic moments. Many of those sequences involve Zuko, who has many mysteries surrounding him. Here’s an answer to what happened to Zuko’s mom in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

What Happened to Zuko’s Mom in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Answered

When viewers first meet Zuko, he’s a man on a mission. He’s on the lookout for the Avatar alongside his uncle, Iroh, who doesn’t share his nephew’s enthusiasm in finishing off the last of the Airbenders. However, due to some good luck, he travels to the Southern Water Tribe and come across Aang, giving him an opportunity to make his father, Ozai, proud.

And Ozai is really the impetus for the mystery surrounding Zuko’s mom, Ursa. When Zuko was young, she disappeared, meaning she wasn’t there to stop Ozai from banishing their son. That forces Zuko to continue his quest to gain redemption, which he does for over two seasons. However, during Season 3, he has a change of heart and defects to the Avatar’s side, hoping to take down his father.

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Becoming Aang’s firebending teacher, Zuko becomes friends with the very person he was meant to destroy, and together, they defeat the Fire Lord and restore balance to the world. But that doesn’t mean Zuko forgets about his mother’s disappearance. In fact, he asks his father, who is imprisoned, where she is during the final episode of the series.

That thread is picked back up in the Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Search comic series. Zuko and the rest of the Gaang, as well as Zuko’s sister, Azula, begin searching for Ursa and make some startling discoveries. First, it comes to light that Ursa was banished because she cut a deal with Ozai for Zuko’s life. Her husband, whom she was forced to marry, was going to kill their son because his father ordered it. In order to save her child, Ursa provided Ozai with poison, allowing him to kill his father and take the throne.

Ozai banished her to ensure the truth never got out, and she returned to the village where she was born and ran into her first love, Ikem. He introduced her to a spirit called the Mother of Faces that allowed her to wipe her memories of her past and start a new life. And that’s how she lives until Zuko finds her and explains who he is. After that, Ursa decides to regain her memories and returns to the Fire Nation. She even sees Ozai and gets in one last dig at the man who ruined her life.