I Dont Know How To Say This Tactfully, But Ill Do My Best.

I don’t know how to say this tactfully, but I’ll do my best.

If other fans online have convinced you to see the gentle, optimistic, empathetic, fun loving, whimsical, forgiving, wise beyond his years genocide survivor, as a sexist, racist, xenophobic, abusive, pro-colonization, sexual assault perpetrator who doesn’t care about anyone else and doesn’t understand trauma…

You have been LIED TO.

Please just think for a moment!

ATLA was banned in China from the beginning for a reason. Because they didn’t want anyone empathizing with a character based on Tibetan monks. Why? Because they are an actual oppressed and persecuted minority IRL. Their religious leader lives in exile. Their second most important spiritual figure is the youngest political prisoner ever taken (and to this day no one knows if he’s alive or dead!). China has actual prison and labor camps. Tibetan people get sent there for “re-education”.

Can you please think about what these “fans” are saying when they stomp all over this allegory in TLA and try to frame Aang as the oppressor?

Do you really think it’s appropriate or these people who call Aang all these horrible (and inaccurate) things are being in anyway fair when they call Aang “white coded”???

Even without the real world context, Aang is explicitly the only survivor of a genocide. The last of his people. He has lost more than anyone else in the entire franchise. There’s a reason he clings so hard to Appa.

Do you think it’s fair to compare a 12 year old misreading signals and trying to kiss a girl who already consensually kissed him before, and immediately backing off and giving her space when she says no, to rape?

Tweens and teens miscommunicating and trying to comfort each other with kisses, only to realize that’s not what their friend needed and immediately backing off is the same as having your body violently violated against your will? The same as having your “no” ignored?

How do you think this makes survivors feel? To see people use their experiences as a shield and cudgel for ship discourse? It certainly upsets me as someone who experienced intimate partner violence, let me tell you! And I know I’m not the only one.

And how is it in anyway feminist or pro-Katara to ignore her own agency and deep love she shows for Aang? Yes, that includes her own crush on him! It IS reciprocated!

Lastly, you don’t need to demonize Aang to ship whatever you want to ship. Please understand that the majority of these takes are bad faith and born out of bitterness and insecurity over a friggin FANON SHIP.

And none of it is necessary! You can ship whatever you want! You don’t need permission or excuses. You can just ship them! You can make your case for why you like another pairing better without misrepresenting what happened in the show and what these characters are like, let alone what they represent.

There’s already plenty to work with in the show as it is! Otherwise why bother?

I’m imploring fans taken in by persuasive and manipulative metas to please just think about it. Get off social media and rewatch the show for yourself thoughtfully.

It doesn’t need to be like this.

Re-Blog if you want to see Azula get her Redemption Arc!

Come on.  Look at that face!

Post like these are what engaging with the fandom is all about. A new vision that makes you think and makes a rewatch all the more wonderful.

Thinking about how Aang is punished for choosing power over love and his own happiness, punished for sacrificing another part of himself for the world… shot in the back and straight through his heart, his Air chakra, by lightning. His Air chakra, which deals with love and is blocked by his grief. His grief over losing his entire nation, his culture, everyone he has ever known and loved. And how the battle he fights with Katara here, they are surrounded by green crystals, the color of the Air chakra.

Aang makes the wrong choice, he too comes to a crossroads in his destiny just like Zuko—they both choose wrong. He goes against Aunt Wu’s advice, that he should follow his heart and shape his own destiny. He blocks off his own heart because he thinks it’s the only way he can save the world, to literally tear himself apart. And how his entire character arc is about him trying to mend his grief, to allow himself to still feel love, even in the wake of such devastation. And how it is Katara who saves him, because she loves him, because love never leaves, it’s simply reborn.

Many thoughts head full.

Whu...?

Sam's on a bogus journey now.

Reblog if you also think Toph shouldn’t have been a cop.

I want to see how “unpopular” this opinion really is outside cop-worshipping Reddit.