I don’t think that tracks with all the exercise they show him doing in prison before then. Or the many comments about his shape before that. I feel like the implied arc is that he went downhill after losing his son and finally does a comeback to break out and meet up with the White Lotus and fulfill his destiny to take back Ba Sing Se.
He didn’t get ripped in prison. He was always ripped but it was revealed to the viewer for the first time in prison.
I don’t think that tracks with all the exercise they show him doing in prison before then. Or the many comments about his shape before that. I feel like the implied arc is that he went downhill after losing his son and finally does a comeback to break out and meet up with the White Lotus and fulfill his destiny to take back Ba Sing Se.