I write posts past midnight and hope they are understandable to

I know it's a basic fact to most people, but I'm still going to write a post about it. Lately a new misconception in the fandom arose, that being the supposed parallel between the Painted Lady and the Blue Spirit. To understand why it's not the case, we must take a look at these alter egos and what they represent.

The Blue Spirit represents Zuko's worst traits. It's his persona he uses to achieve his selfish goals. While prince Zuko is still limited by the expectations of his uncle and the fire nation's law, both of these things don't apply to him when he dresses up as the Blue Spirit. It's a phsyical manifestiation of his selfishness, selfishness that leads him to ignore his uncle's feelings, the law of his country and most moral norms. The big part of Zuko's arc was letting go of his persona and accepting the responsibility for his actions instead of hiding behind it. The Blue Spirit is a symbol of Zuko's pre redemption arc mistakes, something he let's go of in the process of becoming a better human being.

Now, let's look at the Painted Lady.

Unlike Zuko's alter ego, the Painted Lady is a representation of Katara's desire to help others. She dresses as the Painted Lady to aid the opressed. Her alter ego serves a good purpose. It's a complete opposite of the Blue Spirit, it's selfishness vs selflessnes. Finally, Kuzon. It's interesting that people don't notice the parallels between "The Headband" and "The Painted Lady". In "The Headband" Aang creates the persona of Kuzon to show the Fire Nation's school students that they don't need to obey the facist apparatus and that self expression is something fundamental. While not helping them physically, Aang aids these students in resisting their oppressive country. And who is there with him to help? Katara. She is onboard with the idea and she helps Aang to complete his objective successfully. In the very next episode, Katara goes on her campaign of re-distributing goods and helping the villagers. Aang catches her, but instead of scolding her for delaying the invasion like she expects him to do, Aang decides to help her with his full enthusiasm. Why? Because Aand did the same thing the episode earlier. He understands her urge to help random strangers who need their help and he is all in to help.

TL;DR both Kuzon and the Painted Lady are alter egos created to help ordinary people in resisting the Fire Nation. The Blue Spirit is an alter ego created to help Zuko achieve his selfish goals.

I woke up. This was supposed to be a post about Sokka's mischaracterization in "The Promise" but half way through writing it I realized that this abysmal dogshit of a comic deserves to be fully slandered.

Let's start with my biggest issue with "The Promise". Zuko. I can not stress enough how much I dislike Zuko in this comic. The ENTIRE arc of Zuko in ATLA was about realizing his father is a monster who has never loved him. By the end of ATLA he understands what kind of a monster Ozai is. He accepts Iroh as his father and moves on. And in "the promise" they just scrap that. Zuko goes for advice to Ozai, the madman who burned half of his face.

...

Ozai throws his usual tantrums about strenght supremacy and Zuko falls for it, which just completely undermines all of his development in ATLA. Get used to this because this comic just loves to do that. Zuko gets assaulted and nearly killed by an assasin who I'm going to slander in just a moment. Instead of imprisoning her, he hears her out like she didn't just try to kill him. He then gets manipulated by her and Ozai into not abandoning Yu Dao. We can argue about that being a good decision, but why the hell doesn't he try to resolve it peacefully? The comic justifies that by saying that Ozai poisoned his mind, which is my main issue. Zuko's arc in ATLA was about getting rid of Ozai's influence from his head, why the hell is he listening to him again 😭? Okay to sum it all up Zuko gets manipulated by a hormonal teenager and his abusive father into nearly starting a war without even talking it through with his friends, physically assaults Katara, attacks Aang, after talking to his friends he STILL nearly starts a war... please tell me I hallucinated this comic. It starts with Zuko asking Aang to kill him if he ever turns into his father and then going to his father to ask for advices in governing, are you shitting me??

My second biggest issue is Kori, the assasin girl. God I hate her. She nearly kills the ruler of her country who reformed the Fire Nation because he wanted them to move back to the homeland. Then, when Aang and Katara are trying to warn the Yu Dao residents that they are in danger and should evacuate she tries to kill them. I have no sympathy for her, I found myself rooting for Ozai more than for her. I wish Zuko made her share her cell with him, since the residents of Yu Dao loved Ozai so much.

My next issue is the mischaracterization of Aang and Katara. They are acting like Katara's actress in the ember island play. Hope! I'm so full of hope! They don't get angry or petty, even at the people who try to kill them. They are constantly curious and open minded which I just don't buy. I like these traits in them, but they are acting irrationally and OOC. When I saw the scene of Katara telling Aang that they may need to live apart for the first time, I didn't realize that she is talking about breaking up. Why? BECAUSE THAT MADE NO SENSE! Only a month later, after reading some Tumblr posts I realized she is talking about going their separate ways. This had no buildup and was just a random mean for the creators to rise the stakes, even if it meant mischaracterizing Katara. Nah but it's totally fine, the girl who saved Aang's life multiple times and was willing to die for him would leave him because of him supporting a different political option 🙃. I am NOT even going to mention the fact that Aang actually promised to kill Zuko, it's such a low hanging fruit that I'm not even touching it. Just no.

Note that my issue with Katara and Aang is that they are being too good and kind towards these people.

Last but not least, we have Sokka. I'll try to be quick with this one. Sokka's character was reseted back to his s1 self, including his hair cut. Sokka in the last episode of ATLA is mature, selfless and brave, yet in the comic he is back to being his immature self. The difference is collosal and it's weird for me that nobody is talking about how dirty this comic did Sokka.

I hate „the promise” with all my burning rage. It contains Zuko threatening Aang and Katara and nearly starting a war without even talking to them or earth king Kuei. It contains Katara telling Aang that they may need to live apart. And, the absolute PEAK of mischaracterization: it contains AANG PROMISING TO KILL ZUKO!!! It undermines all of their arcs, it undermines all of their personality traits, it just reinvents their characters! Lets start with Zuko. Zuko would NEVER treat his friends like he did in „the promise”. We may argue about his withdrawal of the support for the harmony restoration movement, but we can all agree that he would have done it peacefully. Making Zuko act aggressive is just a way for the writers to push the narrative forward, completely undermining Zuko’s character in the process.

Then we have Katara. Once again, comic completely butchers her character to increase the tension. The only case where Katara would leave Aang (or Aang leave Katara) would be either one of them cheating, which simply wouldn’t happen.

Finally Aang. Do I really have to say anything? Aang, who’s 3 season long arc was about staying loyal to his airbender principles of not killing simply >accepts< the plea of Zuko to kill him if he sees him turning into his father. Absolutely horrendously executed idea that undermines all of Aang’s development.

I don’t have much to say about TLOK. It’s not an actual criticism, but I wish they have gave the gaang a happy ending, instead we get Katara that had to spend more than 17 years without Aang before reuniting with him for eternity in the afterlife, Sokka and Aang dying young, Sokka never having his relationship with Suki confirmed, Toph turning into a Florida woman… TLOK did a good job at inventing their own characters but did a poor job at honoring the ones from ATLA.

My solution to that? Cope! I simply act like the pieces of lore I dislike don’t exist. My coping apparatus is so amazing in fact I can just get over anything.