It was funny as a joke, but I got tired of people saying it and meaning it. I mean, the kid isn't going through a goth phase, here. He was physically abused and abandonned and has had a very rough childhood. He doesn't need a poem journal, he needs therapy.

I'd say Zuko was more moody and introspective in season 3, and closer to emo in those 10 episodes than in any of the two previous seasons, but even that looked more like continued depression than a teenage rebellion phase. I really think Zuko's character was depressed for the entire series until episode 3x10.

Seeing him in the latest episodes is weird because even though he's frustrated with the water siblings or with Aang's immaturity, he still seems more relaxed and normal than we've ever seen him on the show. That's why it's so weird and hilarious. We've never seen a not-depressed, not-angry Zuko before. This is what he *should* have been like for the last 3 years. The writers really made Ozai a bastard, putting his child through all that crap.