#I left my general Aang disliking bias at the door for this one

[konggodzuko]

Rare non-ZK ATLA post from me, but imagine if ATLA was more realistic and had Air nomad survivors in Aang’s time. Like, is the extremely rare and situational genocide that gets 100% of a people, and those are usually due to disease doing most of the heavy lifting, and even then there’s almost always still a surviving element (the Taíno people are gone but us Caribbean Latines still carry on their genes and some cultural stuff).

So, the idea that ATLA and LOK puts forward that the Air Nomads, who were NOMADS and very much a part of the wider world, were *entirely eliminated* is ludicrous. It also torpedoed some *very* interesting story ideas for Aang.

What if Aang & co. find Air Nomads and they’re violent and angry… except if anyone has the right to be angry beyond what is usually considered reasonable it’s them. They’ve lost basically everything. So how does Aang square his beliefs about how Air Nomads *should* act with how these survivors are acting? I feel like it could pull some *very* interesting stuff out of Aang, and have a very interesting conversation about revenge (that Hama’s episode almost does but also sabotages by having her go after civilians instead of military or government workers).

Also, narrative plenty aside, it would give the poor kid a break and the ability to be the motherfucking Avatar. A 12 year old wouldn’t be solely in charge of a people’s legacy and that people’s repopulation. He also would be able to be an Avatar of all 4 nations, no longer needing to be so concerned with making sure he’s also an Air Nomad since he’s the only one left.