#atla jet

I'll start with Zuko.

Zuko is a victim of abuse AND a kid. When it's something about kids, especially the ones who did something bad, I think about their parents first. Of course, there's plenty of cases where parents are completely normal and their kid still does some shit. Because there's a whole other world around kids and sometimes to be influenced by someone is very easy.

All of us know who Zuko's dad is and why Zuko became the one who he is. So first of all, I feel sorry for him. But. If I were one of the gAang, I wouldn't care at all who Zuko's dad is and if his behavior is connected to how he was raised. I think I'd react even more aggressively than Katara in Crystal Catacombs and would've thought from the start that he's lying about his mom, or doing it for me to pity him.

One of the things I like about Zuko the most is that he knew that the gAang won't accept him without him proving that he changed. And he did prove that he'd changed.

I heard a lot of phrases like «but there's "good ruzzians"». But I won't ever search for them for myself. If there are some good ones? Then it's their job to prove that they've changed. GAang did need to find some good Fire Nationian, but I think that some person from Earth Kingdom who can firebend would be good enough, though.

And now about Jet.

I can relate to Jet much more than to Zuko. Mostly because of the war. Even though we have pretty different experiences with it, and, for example, ruzzians didn't destroy my house, but I saw too many people who lost their homes. And it's enough for me just to walk around my city and I'll see knocked out windows, fallen down walls and fully destroyed parts of apartments.

Every time I get sad and angry. It's really exhausting to be sad all the time. To be angry is much easier, it motivates you to do something. But in the long term it won't end well. And that happened to Jet. He had two main motivators: love to the Earth Kingdom and hate to the Fire Nation. As I said, the hatred became bigger.

Jet did start to realize that it's not a good way, but, in my opinion, he didn't have enough time to think about it. I think that if he had more time to reflect, he wouldn't react so aggressively to Zuko, or at least would listen to Smellerbee and Longshot.

Also, Jet had the understanding that he's not «just a small screw» from a simple nation that doesn't decide anything. He knew that he's a very important «screw», just as every other person.

And just as Zuko he knew that he had to prove that he has changed and is better now.