Learn It!

Aang didn't need to kill Ozai. Frankly, don't think it would have been earned, even if Aang didn't have an issue killing him. Aang vs Ozai didn't have any real weight behind it. It was the first time they'd even met, and neither of them had more than an abstract idea of who the other was. Sokka, Toph and Suki's battle was more emotionally fraught, because the crux was them getting each other through the ordeal alive. Zuko and Katara vs Azula was more emotionally heavy because Zuko was facing down his trauma, and then Katara was fighting to keep Zuko alive. The stakes of Aang's battle with Ozai were, ironically, the lowest, narratively, so Aang killing Ozai wouldn't feel like anything.

That said, Ozai should have died. Even without his bending, he is too dangerous to be left alive, which even those horrendous comics illustrate. My ideal ending is Ozai standing trial in front of a global tribunal and being executed for war crimes, but a Disney death would be a good dramatic end for him, too, though. Something ironic, like trying to blast Aang with a fire ball but accidentally dropping a boulder on his own head instead. The...ah...casket would be closed, of course.

In either case, Aang would still have to face the fact that the world is actively celebrating Ozai's death, and that there are very few who would agree that it would have been better to leave him alive. In the case of the trial, he would have been the only one campaigning for a life sentence for Ozai instead. I could see him going to Zuko and Iroh to intercede, only to be shocked by Zuko getting angry at him for suggesting it, and Iroh only giving him a disappointed sigh and a line or two of wisdom about "the needs of the many vs the needs of the few...or the one" (obviously a bit less plagiarizey).

cause on one hand, since zuko and katara's relationship never explicitly turns romantic, I think it spared their dynamic from the weird pitfalls that the writing suffered from when it came to the canon romances. and what we do get from the canon zk dynamic is a really compelling and cohesive narrative arc: enemies -> resentful co-captives -> empathizing co-captives -> ...mayyyybeee allies? -> ENEMIES 2.0 -> "Mr. Sorry For Betraying You" & "Ms. No Worries I'll Just Kill You Next Time :)" -> Southern Raiders "I fear only one person has ever understood me and I hate the guy" + "the guy" accomplices -> brief spy interlude -> Friends <3 -> synergetic teammates -> Co-Usurpers -> literally laid his life down for her

But, hey, I can get this off my chest right now with all of the nonsense and discourse the NATLA is getting because of people saying apparently “they’re ruining the show by trying to make Zutara happen” which is funny because it’s like…why are their bad writing choices automatically related to Zutara, some of which, actually most of which really having nothing to do with Zutara at all really.

Also it’s hypocritical, given that with the OG ATLA, as perfect as it is as a kids show, or as close to perfect as it is, the only thing that most people genuinely believed dragged it down…was the way they wrote the romance in the show, one of the romances in question being Kataang. I’m saying this because before I even watched ATLA, I watched a lot of video essays on it, and it was rare for the romance to be bought up because it’s such an afterthought in terms of the writing of the show. It’s only bought up when they bring up the shipping wars because that’s the only time they’d acknowledge the writing of the romance in particular.

But right now, if I’ll say it; YES, I ship Zutara, NO I don’t ship Kataang. There are personal reasons for that, most of which aren’t related to 1) Zuko being hot or 2) me wanting to self project onto Katara, , 3) Aang being too unattractive for me to ship him with Katara, or 4) Because I’ve got a colonizer/raceplay fetish

The fact Zutara shippers always are assumed to only like the ship for such shallow reasons (which is misogynistic btw but that’s a paper for another day) which is fascinating because narratively speaking, Kataang is technically shallower in terms of its canonical writing. A lot of Kataang’s dynamic is essentially just the two of them place each other on pedestal’s with Aang’s crush, and Katara having high hopes for him because he’s the Avatar. Additionally, neither of these perceptions of one another ever get challenged. Aang chose comics energy over Katara, sure, but Katara never finds out about this and we never see her reaction, which would probably be negative because Katara would NEVER want to the world to be sacrificed for her. Katara never stops having such high expectations for Aang specifically because he’s the Avatar, hence why the pressure and burdens remain entirely on him.

Even Bryke described it as a babysitter crush type deal, so that aspect doesn’t add much more depth to the ship, if anything, it takes away more because it narrows it down to such a shallow ‘boy attracted to girl who’s more mature than him’ type of deal. As for the argument of ‘Aang helps Katara feel like a kid again’, that aspect isn’t built upon aside from the first episode with the penguin sledding. Then after that, she’s back to being in the motherly role, and it’s crazy to me.

"Have you seen every Zutara fanfic and how they protray Aang?"

No because I exclude the Aang bashing tag on ao3 or just exclude Aang entirely. Y'know, taking responsibility for my fandom experience. Which was the message of my linked post 😐.

"Every Kataang fics portrays Zuko normal."

The same fandom that got into controversy for calling Zuko a klansmen? Sure jan. And even if they did, the point of the post is that I'll never know what they do to Zuko in their fanfics because-

I DON'T READ KATAANG SHIT! Which is what you and other Kataangaroos should learn. I don't give a fuck about Aang bashing fanfics because that happens all the time to other character. Your favs will always be slandered in fanfics. Learn to block it out.

I don’t like how people will sometimes argue that Aang was right and all that juju during the SR episode. I’ll see people say that Aang was supporting her because he “knew what she actually needed” but that misses the ENTIRE POINT of the episode. The point was never if Aang was right or Zuko was, I find it strange under these circumstances when people treat Katara agency/feelings like something almost akin to a child throwing a tantrum.

I can’t really explain it but people tend to put Aang on this moral pedestal like he always knew what Katara needed when it is canon that she doesn’t actually follow his advice. Aang has little to nothing to do with the choice Katara made. She knows right from wrong and she is not a natural killer, but she also isn’t opposed to it either. It’s just something about the argument that reeks of misogyny. I see a lot of people mention how he actually can relate to her pain, but I would go as far to say as that doesn’t matter within the context of what we’re talking about it. He used his grief as an example of what Katara should or shouldn’t do. Their grief is not the same, and they aren’t the same people (aka they don’t process grief the same way clearly). It is insensitive to compare grief in general, but using it as a reason for someone to not act a certain way is even worse. I just want to clarify that mentioning your grief in order to connect with others is not wrong, in fact when used correctly it is a great way to empathize with ohers and something that katara actually does a lot throught the series( with jet and haru).

However, Aang is not actually mentioning his greif in order to show Katara he understands her pain and wants to connect with her emotionally, hes only mentioning it as if to say, "I've also experienced something similar (but not really bc why is the first thing he mentions Appa being stolen??) but I didn't do what you're about to". The tone of his voice indicates that he's judging her, and throughout their conversation, it feels like he's really talking at her, as if he can't see her grief for what it is, interpreting it as just petty revenge, which begs the question does he really ever understand her? How can he have travelled with her for the whole summer and not seen how she still grieved for her mother??

If Aang understood her and knew her as well as anti's claim he does, he would have never insinuated that she only was looking fo Yon Rah becasue she wanted revenge (her mother was MURDERED for petes sake), he would've understood that her grief was slowly poisoning her. To be honest, I would go as far as to say he only understands/sees what she's shown him. It’s significant that when we finally learn the story behind the death of her mother, Zuko is who hears it and not Aang. It is significant that besides the scene in season 1 (when she tells him about her death), aang never attempts to genuinley connect wth katara/ ask about it. I'd like to point out that some anti's claim that this isn't something that he needs to discuss with katara and I disagree. The death of Kya is Integral to kataras character development, and her being able to let go and have full closure marks the end of her character arc.

And in this movie, he is immediately drawn to Taga despite the ONLY thing linking him to Taga is him being an airbender. I'll admit that the plot was confusing and boring and I already forgot most of it since I saw it a few months ago, but I believe Taga was not even an Air Nomad, or if he was, his culture and personality certainly did not resemble the ones Aang knew, and he was given airbending by magic, not born to it like the other Air Nomads. The thing that drew Aang to Taga was his airbending, despite the red flags that appeared from the moment Aang met him that signaled that Taga was nothing like the peaceful monks he knew.

"However, we know from LoK that the only person in his family he shared Air Nomad culture with was...you guessed it, his one airbending child."

not true at all. ofc yes, he did spend more time with tenzin but look at i from his perspective. he knew that one day tenzin would have to teach his reincarnation, so he had to make sure the boy knew EVERYTHING he knew, not just bending, culture, customs, practices, etc.

not to mention tenzin was a more wilder child than his siblings.

aang had his hands full with tenzin. also keep in mind the age gap between tenzin and his older sibs. by the time he was a teen, both bumi and kya were already adults and moved out.

the only issue the other kids had was that aang spend most of his time with tenzin and was too busy with work NOT that he didnt love them or didnt like them.

and that's the tragedy of aang's character and his role of being the avatar. yangchen said herself: being the avatar means that his sole duty is first and foremost to the world, not to himself.

also mind you THIS is how they ALL looked at their family photo.

they all agreed to have had a happy childhood:

"It's that Aang never tried to share things with Katara, his culture, his grief, nothing."

saying aang never shared his culture/customs with his family/katara is complete baloney:

and here he;s sharing her his grief:

now i'll admit the Gaang's writing in TLOK and after ATLA is... iffy and definitely not perfect. we have so many unanswered questions. but with the little snippets of details we have gotten we can see that aang did share his culture with his family and that each of his kids did get to spend time with him and had their own unique relationship with him.

It's not just what Aang says to Katara and how dismissive it is, especially in the context of Katara dropping everything to help him without question, and then the moment she does question things, he immediately insults her like this.

The thing that drew Aang to Taga was his airbending, despite the red flags that appeared from the moment Aang met him that signaled that Taga was nothing like the peaceful monks he knew.

i really don't see how you watch the movie and thing he insulted her. he's clearly in a lot of grief and mourning and self-hatred/survivor's guilt and that's the thing. grief is messy and that's what this movie is trying to show: how aang's grief makes him act reckless and blind to all red flags and honestly its a very human approach to aang's character.

(and what he said IS true. Katara might be the last bender but she still has her culture and her people. Aang has neither. so ofc no one can ever fully understand what its like)

while yes there were red flags, aang was desperate for community. someone he could share his customs with and learn from and who would actually understand him and his culture (ex. the "Air nomads are formed from the mist. We walk the world for a moment in time. Then we return to the eternal wind" -> something that is tied to his culture, that he could talk to.)

thats the whole tragedy of his character

now ofc, does the movie have flaws, yes. (ex. sokka's characterization) but this movie is about Aang. about his unresolved grief. and how, now that he's an adult and his brain is developed, he's understanding the true weight of what it means to be the last. which also ties in to why he spent more time with tenzin: to make sure that his culture and everything he knows wouldn't die with him.

but that doesnt mean he didnt spend time and share his culture with his family ESPECIALLY considering how happy he is to share it with the acolytes and other people:

so if he's happy to share his culture with strangers, what makes you think he wouldnt do the same for his family??

I'm not going to get into a debate with you about this, but:

so if he's happy to share his culture with strangers, what makes you think he wouldn't do the same thing for his family??

Because in the same comic you pulled those panels from, we see this:

Katara actually voices in the comic that she felt left out, to which Aang responds that he just wanted to feel like he had his people with him again, and Katara feels bad, but then the discussion just...ends.

Why isn't Katara with him? Why isn't she included? Why doesn't she make an effort? Why doesn't Aang say something like, "well, I would love it if you would join us?" Why doesn't Katara bring up any of the things she says in the show about how she wants to be a part of his family so that he doesn't have to bear this burden alone?

well the movie shows that she's with him and isnt left out anymore, so what now?? obviously theyre kids in that comics and therefore act like so but newsflash they grow.

Everything else you brought to explain why Aang doesn't share his culture with his wife, children who aren't airbenders, or even his friends are just excuses.

its not really excuses, its giving plausible reasoning as to why

we dont know what happened those 50+ years in between ATLA and TLOK so we have to infer. and if we stay true to the character's personality and characteristics, aang being willing to share his culture with strangers but unwilling to share with his family, people who he treasures and values deeply (given with how his few worldly possessions included a locket with his family pictures in them) it would be ooc and makes no sense for aang to not share it with them as well.

If you have to bring out the damn cookbook to show that Aang shared his culture with Katara, then you've found the problem.

honey we all are literally in the trenches when it comes to adult gaang. we know literally nothing abt them (rip sokka and suki my shaylas😭) if its canon, then im taking it loll

but you do have valid criticisms and i agree with them. like i said, the writing for gaang is iffy and definitely questionable BUT you cant pick and choose canon (take this from a retired dc comics fan) canon is canon and it doesnt matter where you get the source. if its said to be canon then it is.

So are you admitting now that we don't see Aang sharing his culture with his family?

The fact that we don't see it happen and only get scraps is quite literally the issue. If you are happy with that, then fine, but you made the post arguing against people critiquing the movie, and then insulted me when I argued the perspective you wanted to argue against.

Also, the show being for kids isn't why there are so many different spinoff media. It's because the creators want to make money off of a show that got hugely popular and milk the franchise for all its worth twenty years later. My point was not that canon was spread across different mediums, it was exactly what you admitted: that we have so little evidence that Aang even tried to empathize with Katara over both of them being genocide victims struggling to keep their culture alive that the very first piece of evidence you provide is from a cookbook that only a very small portion of the fandom will actually read.

no ofc i don't and i never will because its completely ooc for aang to not share his culture. what are we doing rn, even in the SHOW we see her knowing about aang's culture which implies he's told her about it and seen him share his grief. 

grief:

culture:

(theres definitely more but im too busy rn with sat stuff to look for them all lol theses screenshots will have to do lol but yeah go read ALL the comics and rewatch the show/movie while ur at it bc you can see aang talking abt his culture to katara and also being open to her about his grief)

it was exactly what you admitted: that we have so little evidence that Aang even tried to empathize with Katara over both of them being genocide victims struggling to keep their culture alive that the very first piece of evidence you provide is from a cookbook that only a very small portion of the fandom will actually read.

we have practically nothing when it comes to adult gaang. you can say that suki and sokka broke up later but we dont have evidence to back it up so therefore it remains as a headcanon

but what we do have is aang talking abt his culture with other people and katara. we do have scenes where he is open with his grief to her. it may be "little" but its still there. 

and if he has been sharing his culture and customs and grief from age 12 (and we can see that at age 25 hes still doing so) what makes you think that the moment bumi is born he’s suddenly like “yknow what i dont wanna ever talk abt my culture again”???

Like??? Its who he is. He is the last airbender, the last of the air nomads. Ofc he wont stop talking: what abt not wanting his culture to die with him do you not understand??? 😭😭😭

Keep in mind that tenzin was born later when bumi was around 10(maybe? Idk they retconned the timeline with the movie) so what?? For ten yrs aang didnt say anything to his children?? really???

After two children, one nonbender and the other water, aang probably didn't even expect any of his children to be airbenders and even so, we dont know when tenzin’s powers kicked in, so what?? Aang just didnt say anything or teach his kids anything for that 10+ yr time??? Bsfrrn.

Like look at this objectively: It makes no sense for aang to just stop talking abt his culture when it means everything to him. He literally sought another way to stop ozai (which could have gotten him killed) JUST to make sure his customs and culture and values were not lost or forsaken.

Just bc tlok treated the gaang dirty in 170 AG it doesnt suddenly erase the 50+ yrs of canon before korra was born. 

If we stick to characterization, aang would have shared his culture with his family cuz we see it in both the show and comics.

Katara is not with Aang when he's looking for artifacts related to his culture, he tells her to come with him on his mission,

i think you need to rewatch the movie bc that is NOT what she said. she said she was WORRIED for him bc he kept spending so much time there, not that she wasnt "with" him. she was worried he was losing himself in his grief.

and the "telling her to come on the mission" is BECAUSE he found out what the Denied were after.

The Denied was a dangerous group Katara mentioned in the beginning and the FN chamberlain also did, so obviously him finding out what they were after was a big thing. Aang didnt start the mission for personal goals, he was doing it bc he's the Avatar and his responsibility is to the safety of the world and he figured his friends would like to help.

then yells at her for not understanding when she goes along with him up until he puts them all in danger

I dont think you understand storytelling bc thats the literally the point???? to humanize aang and to show the extents he'll go bc of his grief. its called ✨character flaw✨

plus aang already did apologize which would be ✨character development✨

like look, i never said that there arent flaws with the writing because there are. like... a lot.

Also, again, you keep saying that things MUST have happened offscreen and insulting me, when my argument is that we should have seen those things happening onscreen, because this is a story, not real life. In narratives, there is some stuff that can be assumed to have happened offscreen, but it's perfectly reasonable to look at the story being told and consider what the creators chose to portray and what they did not, and why.

Also idk why you are arguing with me about what Katara said in the movie. I didn't say anything about that. You seem to be having an argument with someone who is not me.

There is no indication they are married at all.

Aang yells at her like he did when he was 12 at 25.

These are all indicators of a toxic relationship.

I've been through toxic relationships.

I know the signs.

Anyway, I passed an Instagram reel that was talking about how people annoyed with Katara's fate aren't "normal" about female characters and aren't treating mothers like people.

I'm gonna hold everyone's hand when I tell you this. The problem is not making Katara a mother. Katara is absolutely the kind of woman I can see always wanting a family and no one I've seen who criticizes how she's been handled has ever said differently.

The problem is that she wasn't allowed to be anything else. She didn't get a statute like the rest of the Gaang. She wasn't (from what LOK showed us) active in Republic City like Aang, Toph, and Sokka. She didn't get to fight in LOK like Zuko and Toph. Hell, we don't even get good insight into her relationship with her kids; we get more with Aang's relationship with them and he's dead. The only thing she got was being labeled the best healer in the world, which is also something they did nothing with.

The bare minimum would have been to have Katara open and run a hospital in LOK and give her a statue for it if they absolutely had to make her just a healer. They couldn't even do that.

And in this movie, he is immediately drawn to Taga despite the ONLY thing linking him to Taga is him being an airbender. I'll admit that the plot was confusing and boring and I already forgot most of it since I saw it a few months ago, but I believe Taga was not even an Air Nomad, or if he was, his culture and personality certainly did not resemble the ones Aang knew, and he was given airbending by magic, not born to it like the other Air Nomads. The thing that drew Aang to Taga was his airbending, despite the red flags that appeared from the moment Aang met him that signaled that Taga was nothing like the peaceful monks he knew.

"However, we know from LoK that the only person in his family he shared Air Nomad culture with was...you guessed it, his one airbending child."

not true at all. ofc yes, he did spend more time with tenzin but look at i from his perspective. he knew that one day tenzin would have to teach his reincarnation, so he had to make sure the boy knew EVERYTHING he knew, not just bending, culture, customs, practices, etc.

not to mention tenzin was a more wilder child than his siblings.

aang had his hands full with tenzin. also keep in mind the age gap between tenzin and his older sibs. by the time he was a teen, both bumi and kya were already adults and moved out.

the only issue the other kids had was that aang spend most of his time with tenzin and was too busy with work NOT that he didnt love them or didnt like them.

and that's the tragedy of aang's character and his role of being the avatar. yangchen said herself: being the avatar means that his sole duty is first and foremost to the world, not to himself.

also mind you THIS is how they ALL looked at their family photo.

they all agreed to have had a happy childhood:

"It's that Aang never tried to share things with Katara, his culture, his grief, nothing."

saying aang never shared his culture/customs with his family/katara is complete baloney:

and here he;s sharing her his grief:

now i'll admit the Gaang's writing in TLOK and after ATLA is... iffy and definitely not perfect. we have so many unanswered questions. but with the little snippets of details we have gotten we can see that aang did share his culture with his family and that each of his kids did get to spend time with him and had their own unique relationship with him.

It's not just what Aang says to Katara and how dismissive it is, especially in the context of Katara dropping everything to help him without question, and then the moment she does question things, he immediately insults her like this.

The thing that drew Aang to Taga was his airbending, despite the red flags that appeared from the moment Aang met him that signaled that Taga was nothing like the peaceful monks he knew.

i really don't see how you watch the movie and thing he insulted her. he's clearly in a lot of grief and mourning and self-hatred/survivor's guilt and that's the thing. grief is messy and that's what this movie is trying to show: how aang's grief makes him act reckless and blind to all red flags and honestly its a very human approach to aang's character.

(and what he said IS true. Katara might be the last bender but she still has her culture and her people. Aang has neither. so ofc no one can ever fully understand what its like)

while yes there were red flags, aang was desperate for community. someone he could share his customs with and learn from and who would actually understand him and his culture (ex. the "Air nomads are formed from the mist. We walk the world for a moment in time. Then we return to the eternal wind" -> something that is tied to his culture, that he could talk to.)

thats the whole tragedy of his character

now ofc, does the movie have flaws, yes. (ex. sokka's characterization) but this movie is about Aang. about his unresolved grief. and how, now that he's an adult and his brain is developed, he's understanding the true weight of what it means to be the last. which also ties in to why he spent more time with tenzin: to make sure that his culture and everything he knows wouldn't die with him.

but that doesnt mean he didnt spend time and share his culture with his family ESPECIALLY considering how happy he is to share it with the acolytes and other people:

so if he's happy to share his culture with strangers, what makes you think he wouldnt do the same for his family??

I'm not going to get into a debate with you about this, but:

so if he's happy to share his culture with strangers, what makes you think he wouldn't do the same thing for his family??

Because in the same comic you pulled those panels from, we see this:

Katara actually voices in the comic that she felt left out, to which Aang responds that he just wanted to feel like he had his people with him again, and Katara feels bad, but then the discussion just...ends.

Why isn't Katara with him? Why isn't she included? Why doesn't she make an effort? Why doesn't Aang say something like, "well, I would love it if you would join us?" Why doesn't Katara bring up any of the things she says in the show about how she wants to be a part of his family so that he doesn't have to bear this burden alone?

well the movie shows that she's with him and isnt left out anymore, so what now?? obviously theyre kids in that comics and therefore act like so but newsflash they grow.

Everything else you brought to explain why Aang doesn't share his culture with his wife, children who aren't airbenders, or even his friends are just excuses.

its not really excuses, its giving plausible reasoning as to why

we dont know what happened those 50+ years in between ATLA and TLOK so we have to infer. and if we stay true to the character's personality and characteristics, aang being willing to share his culture with strangers but unwilling to share with his family, people who he treasures and values deeply (given with how his few worldly possessions included a locket with his family pictures in them) it would be ooc and makes no sense for aang to not share it with them as well.

If you have to bring out the damn cookbook to show that Aang shared his culture with Katara, then you've found the problem.

honey we all are literally in the trenches when it comes to adult gaang. we know literally nothing abt them (rip sokka and suki my shaylas😭) if its canon, then im taking it loll

but you do have valid criticisms and i agree with them. like i said, the writing for gaang is iffy and definitely questionable BUT you cant pick and choose canon (take this from a retired dc comics fan) canon is canon and it doesnt matter where you get the source. if its said to be canon then it is.

So are you admitting now that we don't see Aang sharing his culture with his family?

The fact that we don't see it happen and only get scraps is quite literally the issue. If you are happy with that, then fine, but you made the post arguing against people critiquing the movie, and then insulted me when I argued the perspective you wanted to argue against.

Also, the show being for kids isn't why there are so many different spinoff media. It's because the creators want to make money off of a show that got hugely popular and milk the franchise for all its worth twenty years later. My point was not that canon was spread across different mediums, it was exactly what you admitted: that we have so little evidence that Aang even tried to empathize with Katara over both of them being genocide victims struggling to keep their culture alive that the very first piece of evidence you provide is from a cookbook that only a very small portion of the fandom will actually read.