Xiao Yuliang for SEEU Vision
Boys of the Yin city arc
favorite story arc in Word of Honor: Xie’er realizing he deserves better
There is no unity between father and son.
When I am useful, I am your beloved son.
When I am not, I’ll be kicked away, right?
This will never not be funny to me. Like… yes Aang, tell us more about how you forgave the people who murdered the Air Nomads and the people who stole Appa.
I’m tagging this anti-Aang, even though I don’t think of it as really being anti-Aang as a character as being against some of the writing choices made on the show. It makes sense for Aang to hold this view about forgiveness, and it fits with his characterization. However, it was poor writing because the creators wanted to give examples that showed Aang experiencing trauma, and then forgiving the perpetrator of the trauma - and these examples don’t do that.
If Aang came face to face with the perpetrators of the Air Nomad genocide (impossible because they’re all long dead, but hypothetically), or the sandbenders who stole Appa, Aang would not be able to greet them completely neutrally. Aang might not choose to take revenge on them, but that’s not the same as forgiveness. The parallel also falls apart because Aang is in a different place from Katara; in Aang’s situation revenge would be impossible or unnecessary. As mentioned, those responsible for the Air Nomad genocide are long dead, so Aang can’t do anything to them. Aang may not forgive the sandbenders, but there is no purpose in seeking revenge because the main source of hurt (losing Appa) has been resolved. In Katara’s case the hurt can’t be fixed (her mother is dead), and her mother’s murderer is still alive.
This scene also spectacularly fails to recognize the very real harm that Aang did cause with his anger. From demolishing part of a building, and nearly blowing his two friends off a mountain, to killing a buzzard-wasp, destroying a sandbender boat, and creating an environment so dangerous that his friend (Sokka) feels like he needs to evacuate himself, Toph, and everyone else from the area for their safety.
If the examples Aang gave Katara were later questioned and a longer discussion about what forgiveness means were had (or perhaps the creators gave Aang the motive that he feels guilty for the harm he caused when he was angry and that he wants Katara to avoid that same guilt), then these examples maybe could have worked. However, without such a moment the creators imply that Aang and Katara’s situations are parallels (they’re not), and conflate forgiveness (what Aang is suggesting) with making the choice to move forward from trauma not for the perpetrator but for yourself (what Katara ultimately chooses). This leaves a big inconsistency between the interpretation that the creators wanted for “The Southern Raiders” and what actually happens in it. Unfortunately this dissonance is never resolved, leaving Aang seemingly unable to understand or support Katara at her darkest.
this is sorta off topic but a lot of people romanticize aangs anger. they’re like ‘omg he went into the avatar state and she’s the only one that can calm him down <333’ like that shit is so unhealthy please stop
Also the thing with the Avatar state is…Aang literally goes into an uncontrollable, violent rage. Which he cannot get out of without Katara’s help. It’s especially unhealthy when Katara becomes the source of that rage in EIP when Aang is worried that she might not want to kiss him. Katara is always tasked with calming him down and she’s told Aang how scary that is for her, yet we see Aang make no real attempts to control it, and, in fact, threatens her with it. He has no business lecturing Katara (or Zuko, for that matter) on controlling their anger.
I agree with OP, the writers could have made this a learning opportunity for Aang and that would have been compelling (they could have even paralleled it with Zuko learning to control his anger) but they chose not to.
The force works in mysterious ways and after years of travelling through the galaxy Finn was able to find a path to his destiny
ambarsariyaaa