#togah

Forgiveness & Learning From Others

I just watched the ATLA movie and I love all the subtle callbacks to the show and the hints they added into the movie just before big things happened.

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Aang ruminating on memories of the past, trying to rebuild the same air temple he ran away from, because he could never forgive himself.

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When Tagah first sees Toph earthbending he has an instinctual reaction to try and attack her until Aang stops him, and Toph recognized that.

Since she was a kid, and blind, Toph’s parents belittled her. She could never let go of the want and need to prove herself as the greatest earth bender, even in The Legend of Korra.

Toph turned her “weakness” into a strength — seismic sense, and invented metal bending.

Toph hugging and clinging to Tagah after they got through the immortal storm & he fake apologized to the Gaang stood out to me. She could probably sense he wasn’t being truthful with his intentions, even if she couldn’t tell exactly what. Additionally, Toph could probably sense the vibrations of Tagah crushing and blowing up the ship, and earth bended them out.

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The entire parallel between “natural/spirit learned bending” and “unnatural bending” given to people from the staff. The air bison (“the original wind benders/spirits”) teaching people to air bend vs the power given to Tagah and The Denied through cruelty, violence, and suffering.

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Tagah only ever recognized Zuko as The Fire Lord, “sitting on a throne built by cruelty and violence.” But Zuko is not Ozai. He defied his ‘father’, his rule, and his cruelty by helping Aang. But then Tagah admits the truth, he wants to build an “Airbender empire”.

Also, a side note, but when Zuko; Katara; Toph; and Sokka are all fighting Tagah (after he blows the ship up), at the start of the fight you can faintly hear Zuko yell at Tagah “TRAITOR!”.

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The girl in The Denied (I don’t remember her name if the creators ever gave her one 😭) that Aang saves at the beginning of the movie, and then who becomes one of Aang’s pupils at the end chose to help stop the destruction. She chose to help people. And the other girl in The Denied with the red face paint, and who got fire bending, screamed at Katara to “get away from her” because Katara was speaking the truth.

And the whole concept of “The Denied” is just a “narrative distortion” in a way. The people of The Denied villainized Aang because he wasn’t there to save people as the avatar when he was a kid and had just lost his entire culture. Even when Aang chose to save one of them in the collapsing air temple. Even though Sokka, a nonbender who was brilliant, creative, reckless, and a little bit full of himself was one of Aang’s closest friends.

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The insistence from Katara that she knows Aang and what kind of person, what kind of Avatar Aang is. Katara saw him as Aang, Tagah idealized him as the Avatar and one of his ‘brothers’ who could help him bring back their people.

After Tagah “apologizes” and takes the blame for Aang not helping them through the Immortal Storm, Katara is standing in the background. Tagah was just trying to make them feel better because it benefitted him. Katara recognized that and refused to be deceived — so Tagah lured her into private to attack her.

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Sonam recognizes how far Aang fell. How Tagah twisted his hope, ideals, and trauma against him.

Tagah specifically antagonizes Aang over his regret about running when the Fire Nation attacked the air temple.

“No Avatar has fallen into such shame as to join me in my sorrow.” - Sonam to Aang

Sonam gave Tagah too much power with the staff and all she could do was encase him in ice at the top of the mountain. She could never forgive herself for what happened so she cut herself off from the other avatars and their spiritual connection.

And then Sonam’s rage, sorrow, and inability to forgive her own mistakes, almost corrupted Aang through the staff.

The creators even visually show this by giving Aang parts of Sonam’s outfit when he was using the staff. But Aang could see the destruction the staff (and he) was causing — so he destroyed it.

Tagah tried to appeal to Aang, “We’re the only ones who can understand what the other went through”… but Tagah saw violence and then turned to violence, and Aang was taught mercy but he ran as a kid — Aang was a scared kid while Tagah was a grown man. But Tagah was scared too. All he ever saw was war and he could never let go of the memories, grief, and guilt of watching his ‘brothers’ get slaughtered.

Until Aang showed Tagah mercy. Even after everything. They helped each other forgive themselves.

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That’s something I’ve been noticing a lot in different movies and shows recently. The idea of learning from other people, helping each other heal & learning to forgive ourselves for things we regret but can’t “fix.”

Lastly,