Kyoshi Novels’ Parallels: Kyoshi and Airbending

One of the many reasons The Rise of Kyoshi deserves a re-read is just how faithful F. C. Yee is to the original mythos of Avatar The Last Airbender, and the way he deepens and explores it. In the scene where Kyoshi learns airbending, F. C. Yee creates a slight parallel to Aang mastering the Air chakra in The Guru (2x19), beautifully capturing the moment in which Kyoshi learns to let go of her grief over her lost Air Nomad father figure: 

“Rangi made a little snort. “You know I miss him too?” she murmured. “Master Kelsang. He was so kind and funny. Sometimes when I find myself missing him, I feel guilty that I’m not thinking about my father instead. I wish they were both here. I wish everyone we’ve lost could be here with us, one last time.” Kyoshi squeezed her tight. She imagined Rangi’s energy twining together in place with her own, forming a stronger thread from two strands. There was a tickle against her brow. She and Rangi looked up to see a swirling dance of leaves, spinning around in a circle, the two of them caught in its eye. Kelsang used to make her laugh in the garden like this, by swirling the air, letting her touch the currents and feel the wind run between her fingers. Kyoshi let the breeze play against her skin before giving it a gentle push with her hand. The wind spun faster at her request. She could feel Kelsang smiling warmly at her, a final gift of love. “They’ll always be with us,” she said to Rangi. “Always.”

In this scene, we see a perfectly symmetrical parallel to the scene where Aang learns to master the air chakra. In letting go of her grief over Kelsang and embracing her newfound connection with Rangi, Kyoshi accepts Kelsang’s final gift and airbends for the first time, much in the same way that Aang letting go of the Air Nomads and embracing his love for Katara allows him to master the air chakra. In this callback, Yee creates a beautiful moment in The Rise of Kyoshi for Kyoshi to move past the pain that defined her for the third quarter of the book, a moment that both stands alone and works as wonderful commentary on the original scene in The Guru. 

Avatar parallels || hair

when iroh taught zuko about the elements and their specific qualities he said: "fire is the element of power,earth is the element of substance,air is the element of freedom,water is the element of change."

looking at the prominent villains of avatar, this can be applied to them as well. what do we know about these villains?

fire is the element of power. it can be dangerous, even deadly. ozai was a typical imperialist. he wanted to conquer the earth kingdown and turn it into his empire. he simply sought power. (I think you can see where I'm headed with this.)

earth is described as the element of substance. earthbenders are often characterized as being stubborn. earth is harsh yet stable. this reminds me of kuvira. she's someone who wanted nothing more than to bring peace to the earth kingdom after it was left in chaos. yet the way she chose to find that peace, through tyranny, was wrong. she wanted stability and control.

the air nomads have always been the most tolerant people. they lived in harmony with nature and each other. they believed in freedom for everyone. the way that zaheer turns the philosophy of the air nomads on its head is really interesting. he trusts in their core beliefs, he wishes for freedom. zaheer doesn't believe in institutions. he doesn't believe certain people should have power over others. he wanted freedom but he wanted it through chaos because in his mind, chaos IS freedom. chaos is the natural state.

so we are left with water. waterbenders are known to both, evade and attack. just in a different way. they use the attacks of their opponents against them. water is always moving, it's the element of change. let's look at amon. his father taught him how to bloodbend when he was a little child, which turned amon into a cold and isolated individual. after learning these things, amon realised that benders shouldn't be oppressing non-benders. he believed they shouldn't be able to bend at all. he essentially used what his father taught him (to control living beings through bloodbending) and turned it against him (he literally bloodbent his father). but he took it one step further. amon used his bending ability to suppress other people's bending ability. amon wanted social change, equality for benders and non-benders. and he believed that they could only ever be on an equal playing field if all benders became non-benders. this is a direct parallel to socialism (in some core ways). crush the bourgeoisie, overthrow the ones who oppress you.