In the terms of Aang's love for animals, I, as a huge animal lover myself, was very...annoyed with the "Appa's lost" arc of the show. Simply annoyed of the way Aang was behaving and treating others around him.
Now...now I get it, he's just a kid. But what would a normal kid do in his situation? I don't know, curl up in a ball and cry? Or he would've been scared to death and on pure adrenaline would've rushed to search for his friend.
But Aang's initial first reaction is blaming Toph for Appa's disappearance. Then, he blames Katara in a very angry and violent way. Then, he almost kills the sandbenders (well, that part I could understand). Then, he becomes careless and again, doesn't appreciate his friends. Then he returns to his normal self seemingly, but there are sparks of anger shown again and again.
I mean the story just feels so...uneven on Aang's side that I, emotionally, never shared a tear. I've never felt his pain because I've never felt the sadness of the situation. I didn't see a 12-years old boy being absolutely heartbroken about his pet friend taken away from him. But I saw a little vengeful hypocrite who's ready to rip someone's head off and then teach others about the "ways of forgiveness".
I felt really sorry for Appa and Momo though, they were really precious, and the little bit of "Tales of the Ba Sing Se" episode in which Momo curls up in Appa's pawprint is what made me emotional. Not Aang's uncomfortable anger issues (which we see later by the way). Not Katara reassuring him each and every time that it's gonna be okay.
I hope I don't come off as weird, but the thought is, Aang's reaction is nowhere relatable or emotional for me.
It's not weird. It honestly makes me feel better. I felt for Appa more than I felt for Aang in that situation. The way the show frames Aang's treatment of his friends and their reactions to him makes it hard to empathize with him. Yes, his grief is valid, but the way he behaves isn't, and it would be a lot easier to feel for him if he was occasionally called out. If he had to grow through his grief and apologize for the way he took the situation out on his friends, it would make him much more relatable, but I honestly don't think he believes that he did anything wrong. It follows everything else we see of him and his behavior throughout the show. I just wish his being a consummate people-pleaser with a quick smile wasn't enough to fool people into thinking he's actually a good person. He's not. Aang in ATLA has the beginnings of a grade-A narcissist and looking at the comics and LoK, it looks like he lived up to that potential.
