Also, can we talk about how it took years for Hama to invent bloodbending, but Katara figured it out in a single evening, just by becoming aware it was possible and seeing a brief demonstration?

ATLA Unpopular Opinions

I’ve had some thoughts about various aspects in Avatar: The Last Airbender. So, in order of least to most controversial, here we go:

Sokka looks better with his hair up. Sokka’s wolf tail is one of the more unique hairstyles in the show, at least for the guys. He looks so basic with his hair down. The wolf tail adds to his personality, his dramaticness, and humor. How can a water tribe warrior fight with hair in his face? Please also refer to his topknot in Book Three.

Sokka didn’t have as much pull as fans think he does. Pull, in this context, means to attract someone romantically/sexually. First of all, Toph is a child, so I’m not counting her because a 12 year-old crushing on a 15 year-old should be nothing more than that---a crush. Yue and Suki pulled him first, as he fell for them before they fell for him. Suki could care less for the sexist guy who insulted her on her own island; but teaching him the ways of the Kyoshi warriors, plus a kiss on the cheek had him blushing---HARD! He thankfully changed his mindset after that. Yue, while she barely had a choice, had accepted her role as princess and was prepared to dedicate her life to the values of her tribe in an arranged marriage. The amount of times she ran away from Sokka was both tragic and hilarious. But that only made Sokka want her more, she never chased him. To be honest though, he was probably the first guy who treated her normally, despite her status. I think she mainly wanted a friend, but was surprised to find a potential lover in Sokka. Plus he made her laugh. Ty Lee thought he was cute, but Ty Lee thinks everything is cute. That is all. If you wanna talk about pull, Aang had Zuko risking his life chasing him for three seasons (I’m joking, don’t think too deeply about that).

Azula and Katara are almost equal in power. I get that Azula is a firebending prodigy, but sometimes her skills are overestimated by fans and she’s made to seem as though she can overpower everyone. It makes perfect sense that she lost to Katara in almost every fight. Before meeting her, she’s only ever fought nonbenders, firebenders, and earthbenders. She never had experience fighting a trained waterbender, so her losing to Katara shows that even she has her limitations. Whenever she did win a fight against her, it was because she got help from her friends, brother, or subjects. Katara never hesitated to fight her, and being 14 years-old herself, allowed for an even exchange of combat. Let’s be honest, what bender would go up against Azula fearlessly except the one who’s element puts out fires?

Ursa was not a bad mother. Ursa was a victim of an abusive, arranged marriage. For context, Fire Lord Azulon wanted Ozai to marry Ursa because she was the granddaughter of Avatar Roku, and he felt that they would produce powerful heirs to the royal family. Ursa was forced to leave her village, family, and fiance behind for this marriage; because who would dare turn down the request of a Fire Lord? Ursa never really loved Ozai, but he never cared. He just wanted to increase his status and power. Ursa is often criticized for giving Zuko attention over Azula, while scolding Azula and not showing her any love. However, Azula was praised by Ozai, and as a result showed more of an obedience towards him. Ozai showed a great disdain for Zuko. Ursa was simply doing her best to show Zuko how much he mattered. He was living in his sister’s shadow, while being neglected by his father. I also really feel for Azula, because she was only valued for her firebending skills, and she probably had no emotional outlet that she trusted to help guide her. However, I do think Azula was too far along for her mother to really help her. Ursa encouraged Zuko to play with Azula; she genuinely wanted her children to get along like any other parent. I just don’t think there was anything she could say or do to encourage Azula to be less destructive and show remorse for her actions. She should have never called Azula a monster, but she was a woman filled with fear. She feared her abusive husband and the repercussions of speaking out against him, she feared the destructive tendencies of her daughter and the ways she hurt other people without caring for how they felt, and she feared for Zuko’s life for not living up to the impossible ideals of the royal family. Ursa was not a perfect mother, but she tried given the little power she had. Also, to be fair, we only see Ursa’s life from Zuko’s perspective in the show. Azula probably had many memories with Ursa but she most likely blocked them out to hold space for firebending forms and her father’s approval; one of which she never really secured.

Bloodbending is overrated and unnecessary. Some fans claim that Katara should have had a more positive reaction to becoming a bloodbender. However, it was never in her character to be so controlling, especially against another person’s will. Bloodbending is also not as useful as it’s made to seem. Since one can only bloodbend on a full moon, you would have to wait an entire month to even utilize the skill. That’s extremely inconvenient and because you have to wait until nighttime, it’s even less practical. How often does Team Avatar fight during the night compared to the day? They would be sleeping if anything. Also, when your team consists of an agile airbender, a master waterbender, a powerful earthbender, and a weapons strategist, plus Appa and Momo; why would anyone need to bloodbend? Most of the Gaang’s enemies never required that level of power in order to be defeated. Bloodbending is also VERY niche. If this is allowed, should bonebending be allowed since there are minerals in bones? Should soundbending be allowed since sound is produced from vibrations? I admit it’s a really cool ability, but it’s not that important in the grand scheme of things. Also, speaking of Katara...

Katara gets too much hate. I’m not sure if it’s the surge of new fans since the Netflix debut or the repressed thoughts of old fans but lately Katara’s character has been mercilessly criticized. It’s been said that she brings up her mother too often, and that she’s overly emotional and selfish. First of all, Katara was eight years-old (and Sokka nine) when her mother was murdered. During the run of the show, only six years have passed since then, as she’s 14 when she finds Aang. She lives with survivor’s guilt due to her mother lying about who the last waterbender was so that Katara wouldn’t be taken prisoner. Unfortunately, the firebender soldier Yon Rah wasn’t taking prisoners that day, implying that he was going to murder her. Katara mentions her mother only a handful of times, usually to relate to another character who lost someone close to them in an effort to empathize (Aang, Haru, Jet, Zuko). People forget that she saw her mother’s dead body after running to get help. It was definitely wrong for Katara to tell Sokka that he didn’t love their mother the way she did in the Southern Raiders episode, and she definitely should have apologized. But, she was right. Sokka was shown to be closer to his father. She was in extreme emotional pain and instead of being comforted, she was criticized by Aang and Sokka for wanting revenge. How many times has Katara sacrificed something for the sake of others? She barely had a childhood considering she took on a maternal role in her tribe after her mother’s death. She had to deal with Sokka’s sexist comments, she had to suppress her talent for waterbending, and she felt isolated and alone because the one parent that was alive left to fight in the war. When someone needed encouragement, Katara was always there to encourage them. When someone needed help, she never hesitated to assist them. She often put herself in harm’s way if it meant someone else didn’t get hurt. For a 14 year-old girl in a war torn world, she is immensely brave. How many times has Zuko gone on and on about his honor, or lashed out at his Uncle for a seemingly small reason? How many times has Sokka talked about meat? Or Azula and her speeches about controlling and manipulating people? Toph and her rebelliousness? Even Aang’s laid back attitude turned into carelessness every now and then. Every character has a crutch that they attach themselves to, but Katara isn’t given the grace that other characters have been given. Yes, Aang lost his entire nation, and Katara would never know what that felt like. However, Aang wouldn’t know how Katara felt either. Aang was in the presence of children his age and was able to travel around the world to make friends (i.e. Bumi from the Earth Kingdom and Kuzon from the Fire Nation). He was taught to be less detached, so his idea of family is very different from Katara’s. He never witnessed the dead bodies of his people firsthand, though he did see Gyatso’s skeleton later on. Katara grew up in a world ruined by war. She had little to no friends, and the one person she was closest to left her life very early. Her tribe was VERY small and I doubt she had a lot of people to talk to. She had never left the Southern Water Tribe before, so it’s very likely that she was going to stay there her entire life had she not met Aang. She’s been accused of not allowing Sokka to feel sad about their mother, but why should she? It’s not Katara’s job to burden the weight of Sokka’s emotions, especially about their mother. She cannot force Sokka to open up about his feelings, that is something he must do at his own free will. Sokka hides his pain behind his masculinity. He’s protective because he feels guilty about not being able to do anything to help his mother. He doesn’t even remember what she looks like, he could only picture Katara’s face in her place. He felt even worse when his father left and he, understandably, couldn’t go with him. Sokka is not upfront about how he feels, but Katara should not be blamed for that. Overall it may be said that Katara was a flawed character that has recently been more scrutinized for her flaws than acknowledged for her strengths. We can do both, but there’s been an imbalance. She successfully revolted to free Haru’s father as well as other prisoners of the Fire Nation. She guided her friends out of the Si Wong desert despite the obstacles that stood in their way. She healed Aang and Zuko when shot by lightning, ultimately saving their lives and the lives of many other people who have been physically hurt by someone. She even washed Sokka’s underwear and sewed his pants. We can cut the girl some slack if she wants to talk about her mother, can’t we? She’s the glue that holds everyone together. Katara’s emotions make her a stronger fighter. Her trauma has shaped her into someone determined to master waterbending and has allowed her to be more empathetic to those around her. But she shouldn’t have had to go through all of that. She was forced to mature faster in order to survive. Katara can sometimes be arrogant, misguided, oblivious, and doubtful, yes. But she is also resilient, brave, selfless, and generous. That is the duality of her character. She is NOT to be disrespected. After all, as she said to Sokka in The Painted Lady, “I will never, ever turn my back on people who need me!”. And she hasn’t.

Iroh should be banned from the Earth Kingdom. It’s not an unpopular opinion that Uncle Iroh is a war criminal, but I just don’t think he should be allowed anywhere near the Earth Kingdom; either temporarily or permanently. Yes he played an instrumental role in Zuko’s redemption, with tea in his left hand and wisdom in his right. However, that does not excuse his invasion of Ba Sing Se. He laid siege to the impenetrable city for 600 days. Surely hundreds, maybe thousands of innocent people died under his commands. He broke the lower ring, home of the poorest members of the Earth Kingdom. The only reason he stopped was because his son, Lu Ten, died in battle; not aware that many citizens also died as a result of his actions. How many children’s lives has his army taken away? How many sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, aunts, uncles, and grandparents have died under his siege? Not only does he get to establish a business and earn money, he is elevated to the upper ring of the city; meanwhile an entire population can barely afford food and stable jobs. I understand that is was for plot purposes, but It’s a slap in the face to allow him to thrive in the city after Aang defeated Ozai. His wanted poster should be everywhere, not just for supposedly betraying the Fire Nation, but also for crimes against the Earth Kingdom. The very least he could do was shut down his tea shop and hand the building over to a family who may need it, and establish a tea shop in the Fire Nation. I’m not saying Iroh couldn’t be redeemed for his war crimes, but it definitely would take more than what was seen in the show for him to be forgiven for them.

Anyways, let me know what you think. This took an ungodly amount of time to write.

Aang Appreciation

I feel like Aang is such an underrated character in many ways. I know Korra gets a lot of abuse in the fandom and I acknowledge and recognise that as unfair (also, yes, I understand these are fictional characters). But in some ways this is something they share. There is a lot of hate of both these characters because of their strengths and their weaknesses and I want to take some time to talk (again) about Aang and why I love and appreciate him so much.

He starts the show as a goofy, kind, fun loving 12 year old kid who has woken up after being frozen for 100 years. He is unaware of what has happened to the world and his people. He acts like a child because he is. He tries to get Katara to have more fun like a kid, because SHE is. Whether you love him or hate him you have to acknowledge that a 12 year old is still a CHILD and as a child he will make mistakes and he will have somewhat childish struggles. He is still learning and growing. And regardless of whether you think it impacted him or not he suffered a significant trauma with the loss of the other airbenders. Literally, all but one person he knew before were gone and when he finds this out he doesn’t even know that one person is still alive. It’s not just friends and the people he grew up with either. He also lost Gyatso and that man was the closest thing he had to family. I would even consider him Aang’s dad/father figure. And he was gone. He must come to terms with the fact this happened after he left. He carries around this guilt with him because of it.

I feel like that is one of the areas the show was weakest. Aang’s trauma and loss was mostly glossed over. I understand it to a degree but I think some of the Aang hate could be lessened had they developed this more, given it focus in more episodes and maybe stretched it out throughout the show. Because whether you think another character’s trauma was worse or not, this BOY lost those he grew up with, the ones who looked after him and he never really got the time to grieve because he was thrust into this position no Avatar before him had been thrust into and he was thrust into it at the youngest age of any Avatar before him (that we are aware of).

But Aang never gave up. He learned how to bend the other three elements. He might not have mastered them but he learned how to water bend, fire bend and earth bend in one summer. Was he a master? I will let you answer that. But he had a good knowledge and ability in each of these at the end of the show. THAT is something to be proud of. It shows that he wasn’t fucking around or being too childish the whole time. He wasn’t a master of every element but he was competent in them all, and for such a short amount of time that is just incredible in my mind. He also had good control over the Avatar State. 

He made mistakes both as The Avatar and as Aang. Those mistakes are hard to hold against a 12 year old who lost so much. Yes, he was wrong, he should not have lied to Katara and Sokka about their dad. Again, I will repeat, he was in the wrong for that, but he learned from that, he grew. He didn’t do it again. Yes, he shouldn’t have kissed Katara when he did, it was wrong when she had already expressed her confused feelings. He learned from that. He showed instant regret. He didn’t try to guilt her or coerce her into accepting his kiss.

And yeah, he was almost killed in the Avatar State. But Azula took him unaware. He was doing his best but he was still learning. He wasn’t a fully fledged Avatar when that happened.

I 1000000000% do not blame him for the death of his people. He was a child. He was being sent away (or so he thought). Almost everyone was rejecting him. All he wanted was for things to go back to normal. He ran away and there are kids who run away in real life. They feel unwanted, uncared for, or there is so much going on they just need to go. Aang had his whole world turned upside down and he reacted. He was 12. His being there would not have saved a single life. If anything, he would have perished with the other airbenders and then where would the world have been? Down an entire nation.

We see Aang live by his morals and culture. It’s not easy for him. Those around him do not share the same ways of life he grew up with.They eat meat, they weren’t brought up with the pacifist way of life. His vegetarianism is questioned and made fun of at times. He is pressured to do something that goes against everything he believes in (more on this in a bit) and he doesn’t. But no matter what people say to him, no matter how many jokes are made at the expense of what he believes, he never ever turns around and does the same. He doesn’t judge his friends for eating meat. He never tries to stop them. He never pushes his vegetarianism on anyone and contrary to what others think, he never tried to push his belief of not being violent onto people either.

He encouraged Katara to reconsider. He gave his point on it. But he did not physically try to stop or shame her. He gave his blessing for them to take Appa. This, after they tried to take Appa behind Aang’s back, this after he already lost Appa once. He wasn’t angry. He didn’t hold it against them. In fact, he showed remarkable kindness and understanding in the scene and I don’t think that is pointed out enough.

Then we have the ending. We have Aang learning how to win the war without taking a life. The one thing most people dislike. For me, it fit perfectly with the story and his arc specifically, but let’s talk about why it was a good character move for him. For the whole show we see Aang holding onto his beliefs, his way of life. We see how he’s sometimes put in positions where he has to fight, which goes against what he believes. Then we see him meet the Lion Turtle. One thing I love about this that I only realised recently is how incredible it is that he met the LT. Aang, a very spiritual person, got to go on a journey unlike any other before and he got to learn a new (to benders/avatars) element. He did so by going on a spiritual journey to help him find a solution to a problem he was having. Before getting that advice he turned to 4 of his past lives. Depending on how you look at it he did not take their advice (but reflect on this, how many of them actually said he needed to KILL Ozai?)

Roku:   “You must be decisive.”

Kyoshi:  “Only justice will bring peace.”

Kuruk:  “Aang, you must actively shape your own destiny and the destiny of the world.”

Yangchen:  “Selfless duty calls you to sacrifice your own spiritual needs and do whatever it takes to protect the world.”

Notice anything? Three of the four are definitely something you can say Aang took on board. Aang was decisive, he brought Ozai to justice and brought peace to the world by doing so and he did all this in a way that shaped his own destiny but also the destiny of the world, by showing there is another way to do it. He brought a new way. A way that doesn’t continue the cycle of death previously seen in the world. He did so by keeping his spiritual needs and beliefs. He did so in a pacifistic way. He did so in a very Aang way. We saw that Aang had a very different style of fighting from other. He knew how to avoid/doge attacks. He knew how to win without hurting the other person (he had to go on the offensive at times too, I won’t argue that) but Aang at his best in some respects was when Aang was being Aang in a fight. And Aang was being Aang at the end. He followed his heart and conscience and he brought peace to the world.

He did all this in such a short space of time, after finding out about a horrific loss, without losing himself. He stayed the same imperfect, lovable, relatable (for me and I’m sure others), kind, loving and goofy person. He grew up a lot. But his core person was still very much the same because Aang was already a developed person in his own right and he knew himself in a way not many 12 year olds would know themselves, but there sure are some. The key fact is he was imperfect. That made him very real for me. He wasn’t this never fucks up, never makes a mistake, never has a bad day character. But he felt so real to me and that isn’t always true. He also showed us that boys can be soft and loving and kind and still not be absolutely perfect. We get to see a boy grow but remain a boy in the end. And we leave him when he still has more learning and growth to do, which is something really cool in my opinion.

Aang is my favourite character in the Avatar universe for all these reasons and more. He is a character I have passionately felt a connection with since I was a little girl first watching the show and I truly hope that others can learn to at least accept he’s not the bad guy or a totally unrealistic character. But even if not, and you read this, I hope you can see why others would love him.