#aang's character arc
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yourhighness6 · 7 months ago
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Me, screaming into the void: I DON'T HATE MAI I JUST FEEL LIKE SHE NEEDED MORE DEVELOPMENT OUTSIDE OF ZUKO AND HER ARC SHOULDN'T REVOLVE AROUND HER LOVE INTEREST
Also me, still screaming into the void: I DON'T HATE AANG I JUST QUESTION WHETHER HIS ROMANTIC INTEREST IN KATARA BRINGS OUT THE BEST SIDES OF HIM AND FEEL AS THOUGH HE AND HIS DEVELOPMENT IS NOT ABOVE NECESSARY CRITICISM
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lovegrowsart · 9 months ago
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it's pretty wild to me that people don't see that aang running off to save katara in CoD is his luke in empire strikes back moment, where he runs headlong into his want and attachment and he's narratively punished for doing so and not learning his lesson - aang runs after katara despite guru pathik's warning, like luke runs after leia and han from yoda on dagobah despite yoda's warning; similarly, as a result, things go to hell in ba sing se like they do on bespin - aang enters the avatar state before he's ready and gets killed, and ba sing se falls to the fire nation, luke fights vader before he's ready, loses a hand, and symbolically commits suicide after vader tells him he's luke's father.
the difference between their character arcs is that george lucas and co. actually went thru with luke's hero's journey and understood the fundamental difference between attachment and love, whereas I don't think bryke understood this difference and then dropped this from aang's arc pretty much completely and replaced it with aang digging in his heels into his want and attachment and he gets rewarded with energy bending from a lion turtle, the avatar state from a random pointy rock, and his forever girl from the self-indulgent white men that couldn't bring themselves to give their hero a compelling character arc that meant he might not have gotten everything he wanted at the end.
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aquatint-101 · 2 months ago
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They tell you that you are a god, that thousands of years of unnamed power thrums beneath your veins. Yet your lungs rise and fall as they always have, and you feel just as human as ever-
(Maybe you never have been. Maybe your only reference point is you, and that is where your error is gravest. If you have been a god all along, what would you know of being human?)
-x-
They start to fear you for the accident of your birth. You try to tell them that you are the same as you have always been. You play all the same games, throw pies off the stony balcony ledge and watch them land and burst open like overripe fruit, gooey cream exploding into the air.
But they stop smiling at your jokes. They stop listening to the songs you've learned to play on your flute. They never say we're not friends anymore, because it's not true, not exactly. Friends are people that can be trusted and you, you are not a person.
There is only one man in the world who thinks otherwise.
-x-
They want to take him away from you. They want to tear you from your home and your family and what little you have left. You have been taught not to be covetous, but this angers you.
So you run, like the wind that has been trapped between the trees. You see the wide, open sky and decide to conquer it, just like your people have for generations. But it's not the storm that swallows you; the waves claims you before the clouds can.
You sink to the ocean's depths, and your grip on the reins starts to falter.
(You are not human, and this keeps you alive. Perhaps it is the elements. Perhaps it is the magic. Perhaps it is something far older than both. Your eyes glow beneath your closed eyelids, and your tattoos burn with impossible light. You are breathing still.)
-x-
They want to ask you how you did it, want you to reach inside the depths of your murky memory and proffer your secrets to them. But you have no answers to give her when she keeps questioning how you forced the turning tides to do your bidding.
The answer is simple. You didn't, the monster did.
See, there is a monster inside of you. Not a god, because gods are never this angry, never this vindictive. The monster wants to rage and destroy everything it sees painted in red, but you will not let it. The monster eats you up when you get scared or angry, and you are never strong enough to make it go away.
She is. She calls out to you and her voice somehow lulls the monster back to sleep. She cradles you in her arms and tells you that you can let go. You think her words are lost on you, because you are not the monster.
-x-
They want to pull the monster out from inside you, and you let them. The monster has laid waste to armies while all you have done is run, run, run. Your people are gone because of you, but the monster saved you. Perhaps it can save them too.
She tells you in plain terms that she does not like this, and you can see the fear in her eyes when she talks about rage and pain and you. You do not know how to respond. Perhaps if you cut enough pieces of yourself away, the monster can finally save you both.
It's okay, you want to say. I'm scared of it too.
All you give her is cold, cold silence.
-x-
They are gone, and you are all that is left of them. They are gone, and it is you, two animals, and a monster that stubbornly claws its way out of you when you are forced to confront this fact. The monster is everything your people would have hated, because it aches for blood and vengeance in a way you never can.
(They are your people, they have to be, and you cannot be this other, this god, that they just raised like a cuckoo in the nest.)
In the desert, as the heat scorches your bare skin, you look at your shaking hands. You do not deserve to be the last of your kind, because now when anyone thinks about your culture of peaceful monks, they will think about the monster inside you.
-x-
They are right to fear the monster, and you are right in wanting to control it. You seek out someone who promises to help you tame it. He wears the saffron of your people but smiles sadly when he says he is not one of them. He tells you about your guilt and your fear, your hope and your longing, and all the things you have to confront.
And it doesn't make sense. This isn't about you, this is about excising the monster inside you.
But as you gulp down the horrible banana onion juice he insists on feeding you, the truth hits you like a falling meteor. There is no monster, no other force inside you that magically appears when you get sad or angry.
There has only ever been you.
-x-
They are disappointed that you cannot summon the monster anymore, but you are just relieved. The anger keeps building inside you, like a roaring flame or a rising tide or a towering mountain or a howling wind. Its pitch and roll keeps you up at night, the names of all you have lost black marks against the inside of your skin.
You try to be as you have always been, but your smiles never reach your eyes, and the notes of your flute always sound out in minor key. They probably notice that something is wrong, but they don't say much except to push you towards your destiny.
Your temples are in ruins, and they think you weak for trying to hold on to them. They think you weak for forgiving, not knowing that the alternative, letting the monster have at them, would have been far worse. But it's okay now, the monster can't hurt anyone ever again. You can't hurt anyone ever again.
-x-
They tell you to kill him, and you want to say no. The voices of your friends, the voices in your head, the voice of the monster, they all scream at you to just end it. But a smaller voice, one that speaks from your heart, just whispers in quiet opposition.
The monster is you, has been this whole time, but you are not a monster. You are more than a living relic or a god given flesh. You are a person, the last of your kind, and they all live on in you, so for their sakes and yours, you say no.
"I'm not going to end it like this."
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seasideoranges · 6 months ago
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y'all i gotta be honest for a sec, the "atla wouldnt change much if aang wasnt there, in fact it might be better" and "the atla finale wouldnt change much if aang wasnt there to fight ozai" debates is the funniest thing ive seen come out of this fandom
#'this show wouldnt change much if the main character wasnt there' hmm me thinks otherwise!#do people just. not realize that the gaangs arcs ESPECIALLY zukos and kataras would not have happened if aang was taken out of the picture?#ppl praise zukos redemption arc sm and rightfully so but aang is such a HUGE factor in zukos arc!#hell you could argue that it kickstarted because of aang#'if we knew each other back then do you think we could have been friends too?' the question that forever changed zukos life#without aang katara would still be stuck in the south pole with sokka and she wouldve never gotten the training she needed#toph wouldve never left if aang wasnt in the picture#hell you could argue the same with suki shed still be stuck on the island#tbh without aang theyd all be dead or at least in serious trouble by the end of the series#and the finale argument... cmon now#did people forget the scene of iroh explaining to zuko (AND THE AUDIENCE) that aang HAS to be the one to fight ozai#ONLY aang could defeat ozai#the strongest firebender in the series#without aang they all wouldve been cooked#by this point both zuko and sokka were seriously injured and katara and the rest were absolutely exhausted from fighting their own battles#ozai is only one guy yeah but again he is the strongest firebender in the whole series#even iroh was like 'nah theres no way in hell i could beat him'#ozai was in the air spinning around like a beyblade shooting fire from all parts of his body destroying everything in sight LMAOOO#delete later#probably
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likeabxrdinflight · 22 days ago
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...I should be editing my dissertation but now I'm thinking about how both Azula and Katara are perhaps the most "adultified" of the atla characters and...hmm. Interesting.
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raiidsol · 1 month ago
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once again thinking about how avatar the last air bender delivered one of the bests characters arc of all time yes i am talking about my boy zuko.
in three seasons, we saw zuko's anger burn him to ground to the point where he had nowhere else to go, but up. it wasn't linear, he struggled to find himself and he even took the place next to ozai again. considering how toxic his environment was, returning to the place of his trauma is such a in-character thing to do. he wasn't open to healing yet.
the most beautiful thing is that he had help and support all along the way. at the end, he saw that the wasn't alone after all, he saw that other people would heal his trauma with him. that's so so so important and im so glad that a "kid's show" has a character like him.
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seventeendeer · 3 months ago
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after watching ATLA I got curious about whether my constantly negatively comparing its gender politics to the (imo superior) 2003 Teen Titans animated series had any merit or what, so I sat down to watch TT properly for the first time in ~2 decades, prepared for the worst
but you know what literally THE SECOND EPISODE centers one of the female leads and her complex relationship with her sister and features her love interest comforting and supporting her as she works through her insecurities and finally confronts said sister so WHAT THE FUCK WAS ATLA'S EXCUSE FOR ALL OF THAT
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fromtheseventhhell · 1 year ago
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Zutaras are really the original self-insert, "we understand the story soooooo much better than everybody else" girlies and they just never moved on
#anti zutara#no offense to anyone who ships it and follows me but I'm so over the shipping wars of this show that aired almost 20 years ago 😭#at some point you guys are gonna need to hang it up cause there's a sequel series and these people are married with children like...#we get it if you were Katara you would've chosen Zuko but guess what?! you aren't and need to stop projecting onto her#the pretending to care about Katara is what really gets me cause she's never even implied to have romantic feelings for him#or vice-versa + it ignores her anger towards him and how long it took her to forgive him + rightfully so#criticizing the writing for Kataang is one thing but turning around and shipping Zutara while doing so is crazy work#ship it if you want but please stop pretending it makes more sense when both Zuko and Katara have their own separate romances 😭#love how people have to age Aang down + infantilize him and erase Mai to make it work but sure it's the better option#stop erasing Katara's arc and development just to claim that Aang brings her down when she's been a bad-ass since season 1#reducing her arc to that ONE moment with Zuko and ignoring all of her other development just to prop up a ship is nasty#Katara isn't a reward for Aang and she sure as hell isn't one for Zuko stop belittling her like that#if y'all didn't watch ATLA when you were 12 and think Zuko was cute this ship wouldn't even exist#thinking about that post that said the writers /pandered to dudebros/ like we all weren't children the delusion is crazy sdfssdfsdfsd#also seeing AANG of all characters getting whacked for a ship...please get a life and stay away from him#antizutara
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i-d-e-g-a-f · 9 months ago
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i already have so many gripes with the original show and how they handle aang’s character arc and his relationship with katara/how they disserviced her by putting her in that relationship and i don’t trust netflix to fix ANY of that in the slightest, in fact i think they’ll probably make things i actually like about the original even worse and the actors are so young too oh my god Kiawentiio get behind me and it’s gonna be another horde of new fans rehashing the same tired old discourse i cannot do this again helpppp
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mokutone · 2 years ago
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thank you @marijayne-writing for the kofi tip! :D here's a doodle of zuko!
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yourhighness6 · 9 months ago
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I've seen a lot of people say that Zutara would just work in the live action if they eliminated Aang's crush on Katara in the first couple seasons and NO. no no no no NO. I want Zutara to happen as much as the next person, but I think Aang's crush should stay intact. If they include the want vs need plot line introduced in "The Guru" in book 2, it could be an easy way to launch some much needed character development for Aang. Having him struggle with letting go of an unreciprocated crush at the beginning of book 3 might actually be a jumping off point for what Bryke tried to do with his arc in the final book, making him seem wiser, more mature, and assertive without coming off as a complete jerk like he did in the animated series.
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wileycap · 1 year ago
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[Note: spoilers for ATLA ending]
[like right in the first paragraph]
[I know it's an old show but still]
I think one thing that doesn't get enough respect is Aang's unwillingness to just kill Ozai.
I see a lot of people sort of going "ah man the whole world is at stake, why is this even a question, do you know how much everybody could lose?"
And that's the thing.
Aang lost EVERYBODY.
His entire culture was wiped out by the Fire Nation. And where does his refusal to kill stem from? His culture.
Aang's determination not to kill is such an enormously powerful statement - a statement for his people, for his heritage, for everything that was taken away from him.
It's such a poignant way to end his arc: he finds another way, and keeps the Air Nomads alive by ending the war on not just his terms, but their terms.
Not to mention, Aang was willing to kill Ozai before discovering energybending. He was willing to sacrifice that part of himself, too, because he really is a hero. But if he had, I think his arc would have been so much the lesser for it - because this way the final victory is also a victory for the victims.
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hellengomes · 1 year ago
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Usually misenterpreted by the fandom, thinks of themselves to be an irredeemable demon/monster and attempts to behave as such, huge part of the fandom actually thinks that it's an undeniable fact that they are an irredeemable demon/monster (and that they should be punished / that they should be k*lled), fandom gives them some sort of mental illness to define their entire characters/personalities usually without thinking about all the trauma/pain/abuse they've been throught. They are literally just 14 years old which the fandom also tend to forget/ignore and continues to treat them as if they were adults who should have known better and that they should have behaved better, are quite the definition of "feels like i'm the worst so i always act like i'm the best", tend to mess with their own hair when upset/stressed/nervous(though this one might be a hc), are usually labelled as "always been a bad person" just for behaving acordingly to the situattion they are under, not very good at "comunicating accordingly", very good at analyzing/understanding other people but can't figure themselves out to save their lives, are actually very loyal, dedicated, caring and huge dorks deep down, have some major trust issues, have/had a "bubbly pink themed girl / friend" to give them the affection that they desperatedly need despite their usual cold/harsh attitude towards them, antagonizes themselves towards the ones they care about, the usually considered "questionable/wrong/bad/evil" thoughts/actions/behaviors that they have are understandable especially if you actually look by their point of view/put yourself on their shoes, they are doomed by the narrative and they deserve better.
(Some similarities between Homura Akemi and Princess Azula, as in how they are as characters, how part of the fandom views/treats them etc...)
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carpthecarp · 9 months ago
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I hate that the atla remake toned down Sokkas sexism for the sake of not being offensive bc honestly I think it’s MORE offensive that it’s not included bc they are basically saying that it’s not important enough to teach those lessons and it’s negative to prevent toxic masculinity 🫶 As a girl I loved seeing the sexism in atla, I loved the lesson that it taught and I loved that all the girls were capable and strong but some of them were STILL FEMININE (cough cough Katara. The new show ruined that too)
While I’m talking about Katara, they ruined her too, not just Sokka. Where’s her rage? Her hurt? Her anger? Let her be angry. She’s 14 fighting in a war, she’s supposed to be mad. I loved her anger it was real and gave her flaws and depth. And also she’s supposed to be motherly. What’s bad about that? There’s nothing sexist about that? Some girls DO want to be that way? Also, it’s supposed to show how she was forced to take the role of her mother as a CHILD bc of the fire nation. It shows the negative effects of war and the loss of innocence, it was so important why is that gone???
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fanfic-gremlin-ft-trauma · 1 year ago
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It really makes me laugh when I see people taking atla so seriously. like u guys. if a person wants to ship 2 characters together then let them. u don’t need to go on a whole impassioned rant about how ‘oh but- but that’s not- but they’d never’ I’m squishing my hand over your mouth and shushing you and placing a soft fuzzy blanket over your shoulders and handing you warm tea. like guys. yes it’s cool that this show has so many important themes and a lot of stuff to unpack. But it is, at its core, a goofy little kids show.
There’s also stuff to say about how people slander characters for no reason other than them having trauma/ being flawed human beings but that’s another conversation.
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seventeendeer · 4 months ago
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just started book 3 of my ATLA rewatch and, all goofs aside, I do think it's a massive shame how many genuinely interesting ideas are in here which never get to shine because the headwriters are fundamentally uncomfortable with the themes they inserted into their own story.
they want to write a story introducing kids to the concept of war, but all of their main characters are inexplicably insanely competent and powerful, so we only get a handful of scenes depicting the war with any amount of realism. these scenes usually involve very minor one-off characters, and while evocative to adult viewers to an extent, they are likely to go over kids' heads because they're not grounded in the central narrative.
the writers are eager to borrow concepts from various asian mythologies and schools of thought, but they cherry-pick the parts they think are "cool" or "deep", while ignoring or shouting down ideas that don't neatly line up with what they themselves are already able to relate to (see the whole "opening the chakras"/"letting go of katara" plotline).
they want to portray strong, independent female characters standing up to sexism, but every female character must still on some level aspire to be someone's wife (and the dark-skinned girls are depicted as already fitting the mold perfectly; it seems to be the price they pay to be allowed in the story at all. the writers attempted to branch out a little in the sequel series with korra, but immediately felt so uncomfortable they felt the need to put the character through an insanely traumatic plotline as punishment for creative choices they made!).
there are many more of these, but you get the pattern. it's what happens when creatives like the idea of doing something meaningful, but ultimately can't bring themselves to leave their own comfort zones.
I'd honestly be interested in reading fanfiction of ATLA by writers who have a better understanding of the themes it's trying to depict, because there are a lot of interesting pieces on the board and I would love to see them moved around by players who aren't fucking stupid and actually know what the hell they're talking about
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