#a:tlaedit

underrated atla friendship -> Toph and Aang

“Way to go dancy pants. I think you really did help those kids. You taught them how to be free” (Just because Aang doesn’t have red dots around his cheeks doesn’t mean he wasn’t flattered by Toph praising him)

When they begin the ritual, we get one of my favourite musical moments in all of tv history. We hear this: [the ATLA end credits music]. In this moment, where Aang and Zuko are performing this mirrored dance together, we have the completion of a perfectly balanced musical system. Aang’s internal wants — his want to just be a kid and have friends, represented by the kalimba theme is reflected in how the Fire Nation leitmotif represents Zuko, and how he just wants to be accepted by his father. Aang’s wants are entirely internal: he just wants to be himself. While Zuko’s wants are all external: he wants that validation from his father. Both of these wants are represented by their own leitmotifs, but these wants are entirely contrasted by the needs of these characters on each of their journeys. While Aang just wants to be a kid, he needs to be the Avatar, which we hear represented in the Avatar theme. His internal want to be himself is countered by the external pressure and necessity to save the world and fulfil  his role as the Avatar. Compare that to Zuko, who has this eternal pressure and want to seek his father’s validation, but eventually learns what he needed to do was look within himself and figure out who he really was all along, which we see represented in the Blue Spirit tsungi horn theme. Aang, moving from an internal want represented by the kalimba theme to an external need represented by the Avatar theme is paralleled by Zuko transitioning from an external want represented by the Fire Nation leitmotif to an internal need represented by Iroh’s tsungi horn. Both of these characters have travelled through an equal and opposite journey to find each other, and this single beautiful moment where, as Zuko completes his training, he becomes the thematic equal and opposite to Aang on a meta-narrative musical level. Whenever Aang is doing something heroic, he’s represented by the opening theme, arguably the main theme of the show. But where Aang is represented by the music that opens the show, now Zuko is represented by the music that ends it. But somehow, against all odds, Zuko’s destiny was hinted to us from the very beginning of the show every time he had to fight with his firebending. [Audio music from s1 with Zuko firebending / fighting with Aang paired with the end show theme.] Revealed in a moment where the two now have to rely on each other to both grow and finish their personal journeys about confronting the legacy of their birthright. Again: equal, opposite, and now complete. You might even go so far as to say these two are like yin and yang. 

favorite avatar: the last airbender characters → aang