Aang Critical - Tumblr Posts
Fucking FACTS. I don't believe Aang was doing any of this on purpose and he does get a little leeway because he's a twelve year old (a little not a lot) but at the same time his actions prove that he just wasn't ready for a relationship. And I totally agree people shouldn't need to talk themselves up or come around to a relationship. Either you like someone or you don't. And that just wouldn't be fair to either party
If a woman has to "come around" and be convinced (coerced) into "giving you a chance", and there's an inherent power dynamic in that you have catastrophic world ending powers and a penchant for irresponsibility, explosive reactions to negative stimuli, selfishness, AND running away from or glazing over conflict-- not to mention basically God-King status over the entire world?
That's not a choice. That's an "I won't take no for an answer" and "we'll laugh about this someday, sweetie, I promise."
Norb is a better version of aang ngl
Something that I’ve been thinking about is how antis think we only like zuko and Katara for the characters design. and if A.ang looked like him we would be all about k.a. And I’m just trying to imagine zuko’s face in a.angs spot. I honestly think we would dislike A.ang more, considering zuko’s character design is a typical villain look but could you imagine him ditching Katara to talk to girls on kyoshi island or imagine him snapping at Katara in the desert and going into the avatar and only Katara can calm him down or forcing a kiss at the play and being so angry that she may not like him. Like face swapping is just an insane argument. a.angs cute little cubby face protects him and hides his worst tendencies imo.
Avatar the Last Airbenders 'Final Solution'
ATLA's resolution is kinda bad, looking back on it.
A better resolution would be if Iroh fought Ozai with the blessing of Aang as a fully realized Avatar, to represent the Four Elements and overthrow the Fire Lord. The source of the world's imbalance.
This is because having a literal God interfering in human affairs is both terrifying and a role Aang should not have been forced into.
Aang's mission in the story is to bring balance back to the Four Elements. How is it balanced to have God himself fighting against the Fire Nation's representative, ruling power?
Even if Aang isn't God, he is a WMD that thinks. A WMD that thinks, stepped into Fire Nation Politics, and showed the world that he would use his power against anyone who opposes his way of thinking.
Aang does this again in the promise where he and Zuko essentially decide to deport refugees and civilians from the homes, and lives, they had formed over a Hundred Years.
That's not a really good message for substantive balance when you look deeper into the matter.
Funnily enough, Avatar Kyoshi basically was an instance where an Avatar used their powers to tyrannize a group of people in the name of bringing Peace and Balance. An act that resulted in a whole town hating the Avatar a Hundred Years on into the future. The conflict of reconciling the Avatar's potential for tyranny and an Avatar's duty to peace becomes a central conflict for Aang in the final seasons.
Of course, Aang's conclusion was to settle the matter with an elemental fistfight.
This is doubly funny when the Fire Nation has a system for deciding matters of state and honor with a duel between Firebenders which Zuko and Azula took advantage of.
The Agni Kai would address Iroh's concerns about the world's perceptions as he is not fighting Ozai for the throne, but to restore the collective honor of the Fire Nation and right the wrongs Ozai had committed under the auspices of tradition, and the Avatar's authority
From a narrative standpoint, the Agni Kai between Iroh and Ozai would lead to the climactic confrontation between two competing ideologies of total domination, and harmony with the four nations, that Ozai's, Zuko's, and Iroh's arcs had built up over the story.
Aang would still have to go through his journey across the Four Kingdoms to realize his power, and gain the wisdom and experience to know that Iroh was the best choice to face his Brother. Aang is not neglected, therefore, and would play a role that is special and befitting of his status as the Avatar, but at the same time he won't interfere with a Nation's internal politics and ensure that Aang is an impartial force over the issues of the Four Kingdoms. Aang also wouldn't have to kill anyone.
The theme of balance in ATLA is a broken Aesop when Aang acts like a thinking WMD who was ferried into the field like an atomic bomb. Wouldn't balance be better achieved by the ordinary men and women who, through their personal traumas and experiences, learned a better way to live and were given the opportunity to teach the lesson of balance to a people brainwashed to see no other way except world domination?
Especially when one could fight a flaming duel to the death in the process?
Louder for the kataangers in the back!
I'm sorry to break it to you (KA shippers) but: when the hero of the story kiss the girl who he spends the whole 3 seasons in love with, without her consent, and instead of the narrative addressing this, this 'issue' in question is completely ignored until the final scene - where instead of acknowledging his mistakes and stating to the public, who are mostly young audiences, that non-consensual kisses are wrong - we have the hero getting rewarded by the narrative, not being punished, by getting the girl who he has been in love with. The same girl who he kissed without her consent just episodes ago. This is totally and definitely the 'Hero gets the girl' trope.
OP thank you so much for sacrificing your opposable thumb to this topic 🙏
What Aang’s Relationship With His Kids Tells Us About His Relationship With Katara
Bumi: “Oh, boo-hoo. Must've been real hard for you, flying around the world with dad, riding elephant-koi all day.”
Tenzin: “Oh, so that's what this is all about.”
Kya: “That's what it's always been about. You think you're some savior who has to carry on dad's legacy.”
Tenzin: “Who else is going to do it?”
Kya: “How about all of us?”
Bumi: “Yeah, we're Aang's kids too.”
The whole problem with this family is, Aang didn’t believe that.
Aang has a long, undeviating track record of never questioning anything he believes about the Air Nomads. Who the hell has a perfect and complete understanding of their society, government, international relations, education system, religion, morality, genetics, and reproduction at age 12? According to Aang? He does.
The entire lynchpin of Aang’s Book 3 arc is all about how Air Nomads are pacifists and cannot ever under any circumstances harm a life. (We’re going to ignore the body count Aang’s already wracked up over the first two seasons for the sake of preserving his feelings because those were soulless NPCs or something.)
And yet Aang never questions this…
Monk Gyatso’s bones surrounded by a pile of Fire Nation soldier bones. The picture doesn’t fit Aang’s image of Air Nomad peace and harmony, so he ignores it entirely. It NEVER comes up despite its overwhelming relevance to Aang’s internal conflict and the sorts of advice he seeks from authority figures in the third season (despite Monk Gyatso being the penultimate authority figure in Aang’s life).
Another thing Aang never questions?
There’s no such thing as a non-airbending Air Nomad. They’re just all born that spiritual. And spirituality is the golden key that unlocks bending. (Because Bryke said so.)
Despite Guru Pathik not being a bender. Despite the fact that Zhao, literal spirit murderer, is one. Despite Toph—the most un-spiritual, cynical, feet-on-the-ground-head-nowhere-near-the-clouds member of Aang’s friend group—being the most powerful bender of the lot. Despite Hama being a waterbender equal to none but Katara while completely cut off from her culture and turning her back on everything we believe about water bending’s inherent ties to community, connectedness, and love (Iroh’s words). Despite Azula mastering the god-tier lightning technique BECAUSE she’s practically dead inside and values life least of all things. Despite the fact that Princess Yue has the literal MOON SPIRIT THAT IS THE SOURCE OF ALL WATERBENDING living inside her, and yet she still somehow manages to not be a bender.
Despite the fact that Air Nomads roam all over the world, sewing their wilds oats throughout every nation, yet no airbending toddlers ever crop up in Fire Nation or Earth Kingdom preschools.
Despite the fact that non-monogamous societies where men have multiple partners father more children and boost the population faster than in societies that favor “attached” relationships, yet the all-airbending Air Nomads still somehow have the smallest population of any ethnic group in the world.
Despite the fact that Aang’s twin, Ty Lee, is RIGHT. THERE. with her unparalleled aura-seeing, chakra blocking spirituality and her GRAY EYES in a world where color coding is ~totally~ not a thing… *sigh*
But nope. Air Nomad parentage = airbending child. Always.
So when Katara births a child that is… not an airbender? Not any kind of bender at all, in fact. There’s only one logical conclusion (in Aang’s mind).
That is not Aang’s child.
Aang never had a problem traveling with non-airbenders before. He was non-exclusionary by nature. Katara and Toph and Zuko were welcome. Sokka and Suki were welcome. The more, the merrier, in fact. Because Aang loves nothing as much as he loves an adoring audience.
Yet Bumi never travelled with Aang.
Bumi’s as old in this picture as Aang was in the first series. He had an entire decade in which he should have been the most important thing in his parents’ lives. His personality was already more or less formed (not completed, but the groundwork was laid) by the time Tenzin came along. Bumi’s inferiority issues began long before there were any airbending children around to siphon Aang’s attention for training purposes.
Aang and Katara didn’t have another child until Bumi was on the verge of adolescence because Aang was convinced that Katara cheated. And I’m guessing it took Mr. “Let Your Anger Out, And Then Let It Go” about ten years to forgive his wife and give her the chance to get it right. (Which is at least four years longer than he gave her to forgive her mother’s murderer, in case you forgot.)
Acolyte: “Sorry, I thought you were the servants.”
Bumi: “We’re Tenzin’s brother and sister!”
Acolyte: “Avatar Aang had other children? The world is filled with more airbenders?!”
Kya: “We’re not airbenders.”
Acolyte: “Oh… I’m so sorry.”
The Air Acolytes—whose whole identity, purpose, lifestyle, and religion center around every detail of this man's life and beliefs—didn't know Aang had more than one child.
The best case scenario here is that Aang simply pretended his older children didn’t exist because he was ashamed of them and made Katara keep them shut away at all times.
And maybe that could have worked… If Aang and Katara had ever had any privacy in their relationship. But they didn’t.
The Air Acolytes have been following Aang and Katara since the comics. They’ve been there at every step of Aang and Katara’s life together. Observing. Fangirling. Emulating. Diefying. Looking for weaknesses in the relationship because Katara was only his “first girlfriend.”
Yet, somehow, they didn’t know Aang had three children.
I can’t imagine a way for them not to know unless Aang actively told people, “Those aren’t my kids,” and let Katara bear the shame and stigma of having the world believe she was unfaithful.
All because Aang couldn't entertain the idea that he was wrong about some facet of a society he never understood clearly.
Just finished discussing with a Kataanger who had to use the "genocide survivor" card to defend Aang's unjustified outbursts of anger for minor reasons. Facepalmed myself into oblivion.
kataang shippers are the most whiny and insecure canon shippers ive ever seen, i think deep down they know how poorly written it is so feel the need to attack other people for not validating their interest in the most boring middle school boy’s babysitter fantasy ever
X
no need to elaborate, it's a syndrome that so many main characters suffer from 😩
Aang is a perfect example of “they won because they are the main character” instead of “they’re the main character because they won”. No, I will not elaborate.