Also this is another thing people miss about Iroh. Lu Ten dying didn’t turn him good, it just broke his will to fight. He quit the war, but he didn’t oppose it. It was arguably Zuko that changed his ideology, speaking out against the sacrifice of those soldiers.
If redemption were deserved, it would be a transactional trade. Redemption is an unearned gift of grace. Because you can never "earn" your way back from a mistake, true redemption relies on remorse, accountability, and the difficult, ongoing work of changing your future behavior.
@simp4mako Me too I loved that it felt earned (esp cause he learns waterbending off screen lmao 💀) and that we get to see the Gaang actually live in Ba Sing Se. There’s way more of a sense of time going by compared to the cartoon