#aang's character arc

[yourhighness6]

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

[seasideoranges]

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

[akiizayoi4869]

This is probably a hot take in this fandom (actually not probably, it is most definitely a hot take) but Aang's character arc is better than Zuko's. At least, to me it is.

[likeabxrdinflight]

...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.

[raiidsol]

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.

[seventeendeer]

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

[fromtheseventhhell]

Zutaras are really the original self-insert, "we understand the story soooooo much better than everybody else" girlies and they just never moved on

[i-d-e-g-a-f]

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

[mokutone]

thank you @marijayne-writing for the kofi tip! :D here's a doodle of zuko!

[zuko-always-lies]

One of the remarkable things about Aang's writing and arc is that Aang actually learns things. Plenty of episodes are largely structured as "Aang learns why he shouldn't do x or why behaving like y is a bad idea," and Aang actually remembers this stuff going forward and rarely makes the same mistakes again.

It's like the opposite of Zuko. Even though there are episodes which are allegedly about Zuko learning something, he never seems to remember the lesson or let it affect his behavior in the future.

[wileycap]

[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.

[yourhighness6]

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.

[pumpkinrootbeer]

Aang being a shitty dad is fine, but it's the way tlok makes Aang a shitty I have a problem with. You're telling me a guy who's entire culture was whipped out and whole family was massacred wasn't overjoyed at the possibility of sharing his culture with his entire family?

Would Aang have given more attention to Tenzin? Probably, them being the only airbenders would have almost certainly fostered a complex dynamic between the two— even to the extent that it would damage the father/son relationship. I think it's also worth pointing out that Aang was raised in a culture without the nuclear family dynamic we see him participarting in with Katara and their kids, and it's not out of the realm of possibility that Aang would fall short of the expectations and responibilities being a typical father figure brings especially when he himself never experienced that dynamic. Especially, especially compounded with the task of rebuilding a struggling world and maintaining peace.

However, do I think he would neglect to show his kids his culture? Their culture? No. Certainly not the extent he did, and especially not when we see how excited he is to share it with his friends in the show. Why wouldn't he be excited to share it with his kids? With all his kids? How the writers of The Legend of Korra make him a bad dad is a complex series of failures not the least of which stem from racism, the unwillingness to even attempt an understanding of multicultural families, TLOK originally being a 12 episode miniseries that then got greenlit for another season and was suddenly taxed with building upon a world that was never intended to exist beyond its original scope, and a fundamental misunderstanding of Aang as a character.

tldr:

[akiizayoi4869]

I mean.....🤣🤣🤣

[hellengomes]

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...)

[seventeendeer]

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