#aang's character arc
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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
#why do antis think I hate either of them the moment I question their development and the writing choices bryke made for them#they're good characters I just want them to live up to their full potential#a lot of their actions in season 3 especially revolving around romance were counter intuitive to their arcs made them come off as jerks#it got to the point of character assassination istg#anti maiko#anti kataang#mai#aang#criticism is not hate#aang critical#anti bryke#this doesn't have anything to do with zutara but tagging for exposure#zutara
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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.
#the wasted potential of aang's arc gets to me so bad#the narrative and thematic set up is entirely there and they just shove it in the bin lmao#it especially irks as someone raised buddhist and dealing with writers that invoke these themes out of a fascination#with the religion and philosophy but then a complete unwillingess to actually commit to what those themes require of the character arcs#anyway sorry to say it#but zuko's arc does a better job embodying buddhist themes than aang's does in the end#despite all misappropriated aesthetics to the contrary#aang critical#but its really the writing like i LIKE aang i love his potential i hate how self indulgently he's written by the end of the show#atla critical#meta*#holly talks bs#also yes it would've been better narratively for aang katara zuko to the go the way of luke leia han#even if katara couldn't have been revealed as aang's surprise secret twin lmao#the thematic conceit of the triangle is the same in that luke and aang get over their infatuation with the first pretty girl he sees#and becomes the hero he needs to be#meanwhile hanleia and zutara are saving each other and being cool and kissing#anyway
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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."
#aang#katara#guru pathik#atla#general fong#gyatso#eldritch aang#ish?#character study#aanglove#i always get a little angry at people who say the avatar state in the finale was unearned#yeah no that's the point#his arc was always about controlling it#also? he could have killed ozai without the avatar state#remember when he redirected the lightning?#i'm still glad he pulled the geezer by his fugly goat beard tho#it was deserved#uuuh#pro aang#i feel like i should include this#for posterity
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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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...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.
#something something about the primary female characters getting treated like grown women while the boys...aren't so much#except maybe toph...who is the least feminine of the girls#I mean all of these kids have to grow up fast and deal with responsibilities no child should be shouldering#aang sokka and zuko all deal with this don't get me wrong#but all of them have a lot more allowance for childish moments#iroh provides zuko the space to be...if not an ordinary teen than to at least express his emotions like a teenage boy#aang is constantly granted spaces to be childish and carefree#and sokka has always had katara looking out for him which allows him to be free from the parentification she was saddled with#meanwhile toph's entire arc is about connecting with the freedoms she wasn't granted as a kid in her home#so she's allowed to be wild and crazy and her desire for that is even explored in one episode#with there being some acknowledgement that she actually DOES appreciate katara's 'motherliness'#but katara is rarely allowed a moment to be a kid and it is arguably only in the first episode that aang even comments on that#and azula never gets a moment of levity#even in the beach she's not really granted the space to be as carefree as zuko mai and ty lee#...anyways get these girls a mother figure please#let girls be girls and not young women#atla
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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.
#avatar the last airbender#atla#character arcs#character study#zuko#atla zuko#prince zuko#uncle iroh#aang#character development
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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
#deerchatter#people r always like buhhh atla was feminist for its time NO IT WASN'T LOL#katara and starfire are nice reference points for each series bc they're both supposed to be caring and emotional but also fierce#but while katara is saddled with supporting other characters' arcs and being her love interest's emotional punching bag 90% of the time#starfire's relationships have equal give and take! she's sweet and caring so everyone wants to care for her in turn!#the narrative treats her as interesting and complex and strong and vulnerable right out the gate!#there are many other good examples of similar female characters treated well in other series before ATLA#but TT is the one i always go to bc it came out just a couple years before and is the same genre + had the same demographic#also btw yeah i skipped over commenting on LOK much. i feel like anything i could say on it has already been said better by someone else#perhaps except i still hold the character writing is MUCH better than ATLA's. like it's not GOOD but it's BETTER#the plotting is clumsy but i honestly prefer it over ATLA just bc korra's so loveable and by contrast i want to put aang in a paper shredder
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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 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
#i’m fucking tweaking rn man#here comes a new wave of perfomative activism#atla fandom critical#atla fandom salt#anti kataang#i noticed an uptick in zutara/kataang discourse recently but i didn’t realize it was bc the show is coming out tdy 😭#i cannot do this again i cannot relive another renaissance where zutara shippers are demonized for existence#i cannot deal with people shitting on katara for no reason again and people selectively ignoring zuko’s character arc when it’s convenient#for their argument and ppl acting like i summoned satan himself when i critique the aang#atla discourse#i don’t even try to engage in discourse it’s just always recommended to me no matter what i do and i’m just so tired of it
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thank you @marijayne-writing for the kofi tip! :D here's a doodle of zuko!
#my art#atla#zuko#prince zuko#not nart content#? hehehe i don't think ive ever posted art of atla im not sure the tagging conventions#but he was my second favorite character when i watched it as a kid! aang was my favorite overall but zuko had such an excellent arc#image desc in alt text
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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.
#like I get what they were trying to do#but it was just such bad writing#like it's just unnecessary drama#which they hopefully won't have time for in the live action if they stick to the eight episode per season cap#I love aang I want him to get the arc he deserved#not whatever crap Bryke thought they were acing or whatever#atla#avatar the last airbender#zutara#katara#aang#anti bryke#everything i post is anti bryke#I will never forgive them for making me care about characters and then not giving them satisfying endings#its like divergent but worse
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I mean.....🤣🤣🤣
#submission#shitpost#someone had to do this#zuko is neither a better person nor a better character than aang#never been#His arc is as good as his social skills#messy#leaves much to be desired#pro aang#aang love#atla#zuko#aang
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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.
#aang#discussion#avatar the last airbender#atla#fire nation#air nomads#fandom#character arcs#avatar aang#spoilers#but the show is very old by now so#atla spoilers#fire lord ozai
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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...)
#pmmm#Homura akemi#Azula#atla#princess azula#Homura#Madoka magica#avatar the last airbender#Fandom critical(?)#puella magi madoka magica#Homura deserves better#Azula deserves better#Obs: i'm just trying to put my thoughts into words here (taking advantage that i'm actually having the courage to write something for once)#just to be clear i'm not trying to say that they are the “same character” or anything#Aside from these things i mentioned (and some i didn't mentioned)#their character arcs and personalities are quite different.#Sorry if i came off as annoying or too repetitive/confusing#and if there's any writing mistakes i also apologize#avatar the legend of aang#mahou shoujo madoka magica#character analysis(?)#tw self loathing#ableism tw#trauma tw#This is just me rambling about two characters i love tbh
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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.
#atla#sofia speaks about herself#but yeah I’m not saying that it isn’t important to look into character arcs and analyse all that juicy good stuff#im saying that it’s dumb that people use all of that to get into petty arguments#like really#who gives a flying cobswabs ass that someone ships Zuko and Aang#It’s literally so unimportant to your life#but anyway carry on discussing the deeper meaning of scenes and themes and deep diving into character arcs and personalities#im always here for that
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probably a hot take but i don't really like ezran. i don't dislike him, he just feels like such a 2d character. maybe it's his voice acting (i'm sorry but it's so.. soulless?) or maybe it's the fact that his personality has no depth. like i get it, he's a child but i've seen a lot more interesting characters who were around the same age as him.
#some examples being aang and toph from atla#greg from otgw etc#tdp usually has such complex and fun characters#but ezran is just.. innocent child™#he had that whole arc about needing to mature quickly because he had to take the throne#but even that was so rushed and just.. weird?#i just can't connect to him as a character at all#even bait has more personality than him#tdp critical#tdp#tdp salt#tdp discourse#tdp criticism
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