avatarparallels:

Robert Moscoe: I have to ask. Anything you can say about Iroh's experiences after Lu Ten's death and before he returned home to the Fire Nation capitol?

Michael Dante DiMartino: He definitely had a 'walkabout', if you will, where he left the battlefield and had some sort of journey throughout the world after Lu Ten's death and before he returned to the Fire Nation.

Bryan Konietzko: We're seeing Iroh in his golden years, when he's been softened by loss which has changed his perspective on what's important to him and what's important in life. As we've shown and had talked about, he was once a serious military giant, a very capable general, and he was very fierce. To me he's such an interesting character because a lot of times people find themselves in situations which they happen to be very good at. He was born into this very powerful, aggressive family and just so happened to have a gift and the strength for it. But not all people are just one way, and he certainly had this gentle, kind side which appreciated life, all forms of life, and he could appreciate all cultures. If you look back on the great swordmasters of Asian history, a lot of them were artists, poets, masters of tea ceremony, actors, and the like. So I think when he lost something really near and dear, he went on a spiritual journey. He was lost and that other part of him was calmed. It's not gone, it's just not the most important thing to him anymore.

Robert Moscoe: So he was a very different man before the death of Lu Ten.

Bryan Konietzko: Yeah. He was never a cruel man. But he was very good at what he did, and it was the role he was supposed to play. He went along with it, very successfully.