Zuko's a failure at being a villain, that's for sure.

But first of all, he *did* defeat Katara earlier that day once the sun came up, and if you use the sun as the only excuse for his strength, you could just as easily attribute Katara's strength only to the moon being full. Second, about the night of "The Blue Spirit," he got into an "impenetrable" fortress- twice- and single-handedly took out four fire benders to get to Aang.

Zuko??stood up for a small troop of expendable soldiers, completely unknown to him, valuing human life more than etiquette. He defeated Zhao in an Agni Kai and had the upper hand during their entire fight at the North Pole before the Ocean Spirit interfered. He sprung and took down an armed man with his bare hands in??a??dark alley like Batman. Pretty impressive resume- more impressive than Aang's, I might add, without the Avatar State.

Finally, Zuko??showed his arch enemy mercy when he could have killed him ("Southern Air Temple") and tried to save his life ("Siege of the North"), neither of which we know he couldn't expect from Zhao.??That's what I think proves his real strength: despite his upbringing and the atmosphere that surrounded him his entire life and his abuse, he's still himself. The Fire Nation, his sister, and his father have hurt him and beaten him down, but not broken or changed him. I think the fact that *he* cut his hair proves that; he severed his ties with his people of his own free will, which I'm sure hurt, but that requires all the more courage.

Now, Zuko definitely thinks of himself as a failure- hates himself for failing his father when he should hate his father for attacking him. Maybe that's weak and crazy, but not at all uncommon.

So, Zuko has his strengths and weaknesses- that's what I call "human."