Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Mikhail Bakunin of Nickelodeon cartoons.

Which is why this is fictional, and he's allowed to have a narrative story arc.

However, if this was a Nazi SS Officer, who fled to South America, and then went on to redeem himself by [insert narratively compelling redemption story], he'd still be a war criminal.

But again, it's a cartoon, and we don't have to treat his character as if he were an actual Imperial General commanding troops during wars of conquest, especially one from the IJA.

He was first in line to be Fire Lord until his son died.

I don't think Iroh would have been as ruthless as his brother. But he did see conquest as a sort of duty.

But then his son died, and he realized that it was all pointless.

The other nations wouldn't see it that way.

There's no central authority, but it's not a machiavellian free-for-all like medeival Europe. The rest of the world was rather unhappy with the Fire Nation's aggression, even in light if the world's long history of warfare. He would be tried for that, no doubt.

And his reputation/nickname is subtext for crimes he did commit but that the cartoon couldn't spell out.

I mean really the existence of war crimes relies on the existence of treaties between the nations defining what those crimes are. Gonna guess the Fire Nation was not a signatory.

No, it's not a war crime that I can find, however we can attribute harm caused to civilians through these actions, such as starvation due to supply lines cut off. So he did some vile shit, had a moment where he realized the error in his ways, then did everything in his power to make things better.

Depends on the culture The Japanese viewed siege tactics as cowardly and armies at the gates would deliver food and supplies to the people in the walls. Ba Sing Se was able to convince it's citizens there wasn't even a war going on, I don't think they were starving or being killed with siege weapons.

Siege warfare of a city is absolutely a war crime.

Additional academic reading on the subject.

He did it as a capitalist though so it's no big deal.

If Varrick were real, he would have blown himself up because he had a hissy fit, threw his briefcase at the wall, but forgot there was a bomb in there.

Not only does he help the opposition, I'd argue he was one of the most involved people in bringing peace to the world, between everything he did to train Zuko to become a great leader and all the ways he helped team Avatar, I think the world would have turned out far darker if Iroh hadn't existed.

There is no war

I agree, I love the change they made to include the fact that Zuko's soldiers where the same ones he spoke out against sacrificing.

He apologies for that in the comics, though many of the panels feel OOC.