It’s been showed and admitted that in Aang’s POV, Katara has been entrenched into this idea of the Avatar’s Forever Girl in his head that nothing else matters to him when he tunnel visions on her alone. The writers made him that way, sure, and he’s a 12yo kid who probably needs more lessons, like fine, and I appreciate the kind of character flaws Aang has that there are some consequences to his actions, like the fact he almost died for them if not for Katara’s spirit water that managed to heal him. But it’s even more obvious in the comics, where all Katara is the crutch to Aang and his needs, and that she’s only been shown as just the Avatar’s girlfriend and not the wonderful character she was in the show.

It drags on as she becomes his wife, where she’s become this person who suddenly doesn’t have her own goals when it’s obvious at what her potential is in the show. She could do so much more as a war hero, as someone who’s seen the world and knows what’s her worth, instead of just catering to Aang’s needs.

In TLOK, Katara is depicted as this old widow whose grandchildren don’t even know her because Tenzin was too busy to even visit his own mother at the Southern Tribe. I would argue it’s because Aang had drilled the pressure so much on Tenzin that his world view just shrunk. I understand the importance of perseverance of an entire culture, but that does not mean that only an airbender can do it, not when you have family to share it with you, people who love you to discover all that was lost with you. Even when compared to Toph and Zuko—who have their own scenes, their interactions with other characters a nod to who they were in ATLA—Katara was sidelined and forgotten, to the point she wasn’t in attendance to her granddaughter’s own ceremony as an airbender despite the fact Zuko was there.

It’s achingly disappointing, but ATLA was made by creators whose whole philosophy on Aang and Katara’s relationship is that oh, the nice dude has to get the girl this time instead of the bad boy, the hero always gets the girl anyway—which is a disservice to Katara as a whole after they disregarded her aside, and it goes against the kind of growth that comes with the consequences part of Aang’s development as a character; he needs a whole lot growing up to do if he can’t take a hint on the soft ‘no’ Katara gave him when he accosted her with another of his surprise kisses. Sure, he achieved the Avatar State in the end, but through fighting with Ozai in which a jutting stone conveniently punches his back scar—the lightning scar Azula gave him in the catacombs while he was desperately trying to achieve the Avatar State by force—instead of actually letting Katara go as his worldly attachment willingly. Because if Aang actually did let her go, he wouldn’t have been wildly insecure about the Ember Island play when the scene between Zuko and Katara came on, which in return made Katara uncomfortable with that kiss after she clearly told him she was confused. That rubs me in all the wrong way, I will admit.

I’m pulling on my understanding of the Jedi Order’s take on attachment here, and it’s one I have always lean on when people try to paint the Jedi as this robotic beings with no emotions, in universe or from fandom in general:

There’s a difference between attachment that stomps repeatedly on the line of selfish love—in which Character A claims that Character B is theirs and only theirs, that Character A refuses to admit that Character B doesn’t fit with whatever concept Character A has in their brains, and that Character B doesn’t get the agency of their own character because Character A will be upset if Character B deviated from those same ideas—and actual love, in which you respect the person for they really are, even if it violently shakes the pedestal or the idea that’s been put in by you. You can’t control someone into fitting the box you have for them, even if it pains you to let them go because you don’t fit with them as well you thought they would. This isn’t just for romantic love, too.

For example: Anakin Skywalker. Before you jump at me for comparing Anakin—genocidal character who destroyed planets—to Aang—character whose people was forced through genocide—I will highlight repeatedly and say that this is strictly regarding attachments. I am touching this point only, at the current moment.

We all know the prequels of the Skywalker Saga is painted from Anakin’s POV. Unfortunately, his POV is from an unreliable narrative in which:

He was deliberately groomed by Sheev Palpatine aka Darth Sidious since he was a kid. Sidious was a slimy character who knew how powerful Anakin is and would become and molded him into a being Sidious will control at all times. Sidious planted the seeds of distrust for the Jedi Order and Obi-Wan into Anakin’s head. Mesh that up with Anakin’s arrogance, he thinks he’s the best and strongest Jedi for being the Chosen One when he’s already failing as one by 1) marrying Padmé, 2) forming an attachment on Padmé to the point he killed her for not choosing him at the end of Revenge of the Sith, and 3) wanting to be a Jedi and be married to Padmé at the same time despite how the Order said that you can be one or the other. Once Anakin turned into Darth Vader, he spent the rest of his miserable life being the little attack dog Sidious wanted him to be.

Anakin himself chose to go into the Dark Side. He chose to not talk to Obi-Wan—his mentor and friend for years—when Obi-Wan just wanted to make sure Anakin wasn’t spiralling into something so bad to the point of breaking him. Anakin chose to go to Sidious instead because he doesn’t want to listen to Obi-Wan’s advice. Obi-Wan knows how the prophecy of the Chosen One rests heavily on Anakin’s shoulders, and he loves him to the point of doing absolutely doing anything (within reason) for him if Anakin trusted him more. But his vision of Obi-Wan was covered by Sidious’s hand, who hated Obi-Wan’s guts so much for interfering with Sidious’s plan to drop-kick Anakin into the Dark Side quickly.

Anakin’s an unreliable narrator, and so his perspective of the Jedi is shrewd despite outsider views definitely say he’s the wrong one, to the point he’s just doing whatever by the time Luke came waltzing in to save him, and that Anakin loved his son to the point of destruction by killing Sidious himself. Anakin is such a complicated character, and his poor little meow meow tendencies has captivated me all the same lmao.

Anakin can’t let go of Padmé for the fate of galaxy, and I will say that this is the same thing Aang does when he can’t let go of Katara for the fate of the world, only Aang is much better as a person in a sense that he doesn’t kill people over it. Both Padmé and Katara to this day will only be a stepladder to Anakin and Aang respectively, whether it be for them be better or worse—this unfortunately happens to a bunch of female characters whose only service in shows are to be the plot piece to the Main Character’s story—whether they would die on screen or be left into a husk of a person they once were—as if they don’t have their own world to explore with. But, again, they’re just the love interest now, aren’t they?

THE GAANG

Listen, some of us are not that fond of TLOK in the first place for multiple reasons, but it’s certainly a choice for them to make the one character who hated rules with a passion and had done unspeakable amounts of law-breaking to be a goddamn cop. The comics made sure to even paint her that way. Toph, you deserve better.

Anyway, in terms of ATLA, the Gaang doesn’t bend easily to Aang the way Katara and Iroh are made to be. The rest of the Gaang were put out as challenges for him, and that’s great to see when it makes the story move forward with the way Aang solves them, either with his friends or from another third party’s perspective i.e. the turtle lions. While there aren’t any attachments from Aang towards the Gaang as much as he does have for Katara, I will be talking about how these characters act as Aang’s stepping stool, all the same.

For this, I’m stepping into the world of the movie, The Legend of Aang, and I will be criticising it. If you haven’t seen it, you can skip to the TLDR later.

Every time I think about this movie, I release a big sigh at how this piece of media could be soo much better if the big heads of Bryke didn’t restrict the growth of our beloved characters. It’s bad enough we have a bunch of zionists on there (the irony in which Aang’s VA is a zionist doesn’t escape me), but of course Bryke will do everything in their power to make it worse.

To me, in the movie, the Gaang doesn’t serve more than just Aang’s hype men. Not even friends, only glorified fans they would similarly depict the earlier predictions of the Air Acolytes in the comics, from how flat they all turned out. They even died because of Aang’s narrow-minded decision in blindly following Tagah instead of actually listening to what they all have to say, his friends for decidedly a decade (or so I heard of the timeline of the movie), who have the seen the worst and best of each other as they grow up together.

Plus, I find it incredibly insulting to Katara’s character to have her be as this villain when all she’s ever done is for Aang’s benefit, especially when Tagah has been hinted to be shady as hell. The one person who’s clocked this is Katara, and later the Gaang, after they find out just what the dude can do for the sake of revenge and power. Aang, understandably optimistic about finding other airbenders, should not just brush years worth of friendship away without at least hearing out what they have to say, especially since in ATLA, he’s trusted their instincts a bunch of times before.

The Gaang, in my opinion, was stripped down for, again, Aang’s sake. They’re bland as hell.

Katara: They’ve literally made her as just Aang’s Forever Girl. They’ve made her look as if she loves him more than Aang ever loved her, and they made sure to show it in all the PDA. Also, it’s entirely unfair that Aang screamed at her for ‘not understanding the fact he’s the last of the airbenders’ when Katara was literally the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe. She is supposedly the love of his life, and yet, the audacity is astounding. Plus, nothing makes me more irritated than having to hear her cry out, “I don’t have enough water!”, like babe. You were made a waterbender master at just 14 years old, just grab that thang outta the air! Again, the studio is downgrading Katara into nothing, and I find this incredibly disrespectful to her and everything she went through in ATLA.

Sokka: He’s been reduced to only a comedian. The kind of decidedly mature dialogues he had in ATLA is nonexistent at this point, and everything is a slapstick waiting to happen. And what do you mean he wouldn’t understand the Fire Nation’s war balloon when Zuko told him to steer, ATLA Sokka would figure that shit out on his own without going into a panicking wreck. He’s the engineer! The inventor! He even has his own workshop in the movie! And what’s the point of them of having the scene with the kids who were heckling him for being a nonbender? Does the episode with him training with Piandao in ATLA mean nothing or?

Toph: Same thing with Sokka, but only making her as this arrogant character whose only catchline is, “I’m the best earthbender in the world!” which is true, but she’s more than just that. She gives deep insights on what she thinks and considers the world around her, enough that people listen to her when she has something important to say, and they’ve filtered her into only this? Come on, man.

Zuko: Only there to exist as fandom thirst trap. He loses his shirt along the way, shows off his tits and his arms, barely says a word, and the stomach scar he got from Azula’s lightning in the Agni Kai—an integral part of his redemption arc in ATLA by saving the same friend he begged atonement from—vanished simply because Bryke is insecure about a fanon ship. My man has only been served as eye candy and the gang’s driver, nothing else.

Suki: Non-existent. She too, is Team Avatar, and yet.

My biggest pet peeve is that they’re not talking with each other as friends should be doing. There’s maybe Sokka and Toph, but overall, the group isn’t even a group, they’re just in silos whose convenience corps up only when Aang’s involved. They’re friends, and friends talk with each other. What is going on, Avatar Studios? Why are your characters all over the place?

TLDR; in order to make Aang as the only morally right person, they had to shave down the rest of the side characters into only agreeing what he has to say despite that it could go against what their characterisations actually are, because this aligns on what Aang wants to do for reasons that can constitute as selfish gains. These side characters are dumbed down to fit Aang’s narrative despite it could compromise their growth, but because they are only side characters, this does nothing but that they only serve Aang as his propeller to the main character status that he is when the story sees them fit to do so. Aang refuses to be taken accountability, because the creators wouldn’t want to ‘taint’ him because he’s, again, the main character.

- Moon wrote the letter they found at Nexus's death site that was """from Nexus.""" He wanted Sun to finally get over the brother he clearly views as "inferior" to himself so he forged the letter. Because let's be so real, Nexus didn't give a fuck about Sun, he didn't care about Sun at all, especially not after he became a villain. He wouldn't spend his last moments bothering to write a letter to tell Sun, "I hate you, baka! B- but, you should move on and be happy without me, okay?" If he really did write a final letter to Sun, it would be a long laundry list of all the ways he ever wanted to make Sun suffer for """"forcing him to be Moon.""""

- Bouncing off my fourth hot take in this post, Nexus is responsible for the fact that everyone "only saw him as Moon." I don't mean in the beginning, I don't mean when he was new and fresh and confused.

I mean when he started to find himself and started to separate himself from the old Moon. And when he finally realized he didn't want to be a Moon at all, it was his responsibility to tell everyone, "Hey, I don't want to be Moon anymore, this is my new identity." They are not to blame for still seeing him as a Moon when he did not tell them he didn't want to be Moon until it was TOO LATE! What the fuck were they supposed to do, read his fucking mind? Suddenly decide to rename him themselves like he was a dog they got from the shelter?

And like I go to painstaking lengths to point out in the linked post, it was not a matter of him not being in a safe situation where telling them would get him hurt. Solar changed his name, Terra changed her body multiple times while Nexus knew her, one time being completely of her own will, which he and Solar HELPED WITH, AND NO ONE EVER TOLD HER NO, YOU CAN'T DO THAT, HOW DARE YOU?

- Moon didn't improve AT ALL as a brother to Sun after the fight last year. Moon took Sun's grace for granted and has gotten completely complacent with how he is, and he clearly believes he's now flawless after unlocking his emotions considering he's stated in the past that he's "served his penance" despite the fact that he never meaningfully made amends with Sun aside from whimpery, whining, crying-ass apologies that Sun never actually accepted or forgave.

And considering when Carme of all people told him, "there's some things you should really work on with yourself for your brother's sake," Moon brushed him off, it is painfully clear that he does not care about actually trying to work on himself and become a better brother to Sun. If he were at least trying but struggling like the Old Moon, I would be more forgiving. But he's not trying, and that's why so many people hate him and are so critical of him.

He's genuinely at a point where you could tell me he's casually beating Sun again and the only reason I'd question it is to ask, "And Sun's not breaking his arms and burning him alive for laying hands on him??"

- Nexus wasn't justified using Sun as a living weapon to hunt Bloodmoon. I don't care if "he was scawed 🥺," because why doesn't it matter that Sun was scared? Why is Sun's fear of his hallucinations worsening if he were involved in Bloodmoon's death irrelevant? Why was Nexus coercing his own brother into being a living weapon because "your better with Star power" acceptable when he could have tried fixing a gun barrel or when Solar could have gotten off his little ass to help considering he had his arm cannon by that point? Let's be frank, using Sun was the easiest option so Nexus guilt-tripped him into it. And if anyone brings up "the greater good" ANYTHING I am eating your house.

I am getting real fucking tired of murray.

she wants to be out here assuming she knows the most out of anyone and questioning everyone else’s motives? okay, girl, you have the LEAST reason to be involved out of anyone, and you’re complaining that it was just ‘dropped in your lap.’ let’s look at everyone else’s stakes and reasons for involvement:

- hal: brother executed. livelihood endangered. family endangered. personally in the crosshairs of very dangerous people.

- thaisha: family endangered. old path endangered. also in the crosshairs.

- thimble: best friend and partner executed. former comrade killed. childhood friend murdered and brought back as undead. home destroyed. very much in the crosshairs.

- kattigan: family murdered. comrade murdered. in the crosshairs.

- wick: faith destroyed. found out his whole family is a bunch of dicks. girlfriend kidnapped. having to face real life for the first time ever.

- tyranny: see wick’s stuff, as she’s bound to him. also her existence threatened if she doesn’t toe the line.

- bolaire: livelihood threatened. sister who he desperately wanted connection with trying to kill him.

- azune: father figure executed. former comrade killed. extending self to a dangerous degree to avoid being in crosshairs.

- julien: family and friends murdered. sister cursed. home destroyed. liege lady endangered. in the crosshairs.

- occtis: PERSONALLY murdered. family actively trying to use him as a ritual component. childhood haven destroyed. in the crosshairs.

the only one who has similarly lacking stakes to murray is vaelus, who still has had to contend with the loss of her faith, the sacrifice of the opportunity to see her family to the afterlife, and now the death of hannan.

meanwhile murray… is mad that the penteveral is being overtaken by the sundered houses. which is a fair thing, but it is NOT as high stakes as anyone else. she has not lost her livelihood. she has not lost family. her connection to thjazi does not seem to have been a close one, and she did not know teor, so the deaths were not personally impactful. yes, one of her students was murdered, but she didn’t even like occtis much before his death because he was of the sundered houses. demodus’ endangerment was the closest she’s come to having personal stakes.

anyway. I need her to shut the fuck up with the holier-than-thou, smarter-than-thou, suspicious of everyone’s motivations bullshit. she has the least reason to be involved in all this and can take an out if she wants it, as she’s not personally endangered at this point. I’m just finding her so fucking insufferable right now and I hope she gets some level of called out on her bullshit.