#aang is a child

[comradekatara]

time’s arrow

#id in alt text #avatar the last airbender #atla #aang #oldergaang #art #mart #to live past the end of your myth is a perilous thing #mans misfortune is that he was once a child #teen heartthrob aangy #etc etc

[forged-in-kaoss]

#of the things they added [some good some meh] this was the best #it fucking sent me oh my god #zuko #prince zuko #omashu #atla #atla spoilers #atlala spoilers #atlala #avatar the last airbender live action #aang #avatar aang #gif #how dare you hit that child #natla

[muffinlance]

Do you get the impression the live action is treating us like utter morons?? Like I thought that making it aimed at an older audience would open the doors for more subtle story telling, but no, they're just using monologues to tell us eveything! Like in the second episode Katara's like 'oh his power isn't that he's the avatar, it's that he ~connects~ to people'. Girl we're not idiots we can see that!! And the first episode with Aang's goddawful 'I don't want this responsibility' monologue

THIS, YES. The word that keeps coming to mind is definitely "subtlety". The show for literal children? Had it. The remake for adults? Not so much.

#This is literally Storytelling 101: Show Don't Tell #I'm sorry scriptwriters I know you were working before your union won minimal staffing in writers' rooms and decent pay and all that #but You Know What You Did #Also cgi artists plz unionize #A few more hours on Momo would have maybe taken him further out of the nightmare monkey puppet category #I know some people are reporting him as cute #But all I can see is a creature from the Magnus Archives #that thing is the skin of Momo being worn by something that doesn't quite move right underneath #And maybe it is looking for a better fit #Don't let it touch you adorable child actor Aang #avatar the last airbender #atla #natla #Anyone looking to block the live action posts I'll be tagging all of these with that natla tag going forward #But yeah not going to post about it much #I came I saw I deemed it not worth the hours of my life it asked #I can literally write a better Avatar AU than this #Anyway back to Toph beating up Blind Zuko! #*write write write" #(their big budget fanfic can't hurt me it can only introduce more fans to the original)

[bellwethers]

The boy

#atla #atla fanart #avatar the last airbender #the last airbender #fanart #avatar #atla aang #aang #blessed child #i love him

[bookstoresmp3]

it really pisses me off when people say “aang is a human trying to be the avatar and korra is the avatar trying to be human” because it ignores the fact that the “avatar” as a mantle is not something anyone naturally embodies. it’s a responsibility you’re randomly picked for, and every single avatar’s character arc is about learning how to “be the avatar.” that statement makes it seem like korra is just this unfeeling, piece of brawn that only knows how to punch things (which are things ppl already say about korra anyway) and that depiction of her versus aang feels….super off.

it just really dehumanizes korra, and ignores the fact that korra’s confidence and strong sense of self in season 1 especially is because she was surrounded by community and her parents were deeply involved in her life. korra grew up experiencing the best parts of humanity and one of her major character strengths is how much of a light she is. thats why the trauma she goes through in later seasons strikes her so intensely, because prior to that she was very sheltered and wasn’t expecting the extreme sacrifice and trauma that comes with having to bear the title of “Avatar.”

#lok #tlok #simi speaks #these are just my thoughts on that statement #like yes korra always embraced being the avatar #but her arc was about her misconceptions abt what it MEANS to be the avatar she was always v human 😭 #i just think that yall like to make korra this hard brawny idiot and aang this sweet summer child when in reality korra is a huge softie #and this is tagentially related but this is also why sooo many korrasami shippers like making korra the ‘masc’ in the relationship even tho #korra is pretty feminine and girly in her own way in tlok like she is v soft #korras arc was all abt learning how to be the avatar the world needed it was never abt learning to connect w her human side 💀 #one could argue that that was yangchen or even kuruk if we keep it a buck fr #atla #avatar korra #korra #korrasami #aang

[bernard-the-rabbit]

the height difference betweed aang and korra in their series is..so funny to me

#ye i know aang is 12\13 in atla while korra is 16\20 in tlok but it's funny ok?! #like ye no the last avatar was a child while the new one is a giant and an adult #like ye ye i know kyoshi is tall too just lemme laugh a bit #my trashy art #atla #atla fanart #avatar the last airbender #avatar the last airbender fanart #aang #aang fanart #tlok #tlok fanart #the legend of korra #the legend of korra fanart #korra #korra fanart #also i reject the aang becomes the taller one in the gaang thing #LET HIM BE A SHORT KING????

[lilith-91]

Fandom: "Katara is Aang/Gaang mother"

Katara:

Y'all should rewatch this episode. No actually, rewatch the whole series. Properly :)

#avatar the last airbender #atla #katara #aang #toph beifong #zuko #kataang #katara i'm so sorry #you deserve better #mischaracterization #she's a CHILD #a child with a trauma

[longing-for-rain]

You want to prove Zuko is the better man so bad but he only got 1 kid and Aang got 3 so who’s the ‘alpha’ now?

😬😬😬 Maybe I spoke too soon when I said Kataang shippers weren’t as outwardly misogynistic as they used to be

#well idk maybe not outwardly since all you people are cowards on anon #all seriousness though this logic is so gross #wtf even #using child production as a marker of superior masculinity is such a disturbing idea #they are *people* not objects to boost your ego #besides aang was a shit father compared to zuko so #die mad ig #katara deserves so much better than the kataang fandom #zutara #anti kataang #anti aang stans #zuko #katara #ask #anon #hall of shame

[the-badger-mole]

Aang was a kid who was the sole survivor of a genocide. Why doesn't that factor in your opinion of him?

I've talked about this before, but his age and tragic backstory are irrelevant. ALL of the main characters are children with tragic backstories, and they are more empathetic, have more growth, and their tragic backstories...actually matter.

Listen, for all people whine about how often Katara talks about her mom (which isn't really that often), it's clear how her mother's death shaped her as a character. It's clear how witnessing her mother's death formed her worldview, and Kya sacrificing herself for Katara made a mark (she never turns her back on people who need her? COME ON! That is obviously her trying to save people the way she couldn't save her mother). Even her wanting to learn how to fight and not heal (which is an insane battle advantage, btw) speaks to her trauma around not being able to defend her mom.

Even Sokka's trauma around the loss of his father and not being deemed old enough (big enough/ strong enough/ smart enough) to go with Hakoda and the other warriors come through in his recurring need to prove himself (coming up with the big battle plan for DoBS, breaking his father out of prison, learning swordplay, etc.). It's woven so neatly into the narrative. His trauma matters to his story.

Toph is the least developed of the Gaang, and her issues with her parents have more impact on character than the destruction of the Air Nomads have on Aang. Heck, Zuko's entire arc hinges on compound traumas.

Meanwhile, Aang's trauma....? What trauma? Yes, the loss of the Air Nomads is a tragedy, but we, the audience, only know it's a tragedy because we have real world knowledge telling us so. Personally, I was in 3rd or 4th grade when I began learning about the Trail of Tears, and in kindergarten when I began learning about slavery (I was born in Harlem. The kindergarten I went to taught us accordingly). When I saw ATLA, I had a frame of reference for the genocide of the Air Nomads. But it didn't really seem to bother Aang all that much. Oh, sure, it did come up when it was convenient to the plot, but it mostly seemed to be a way for Aang to expound on the superiority of Air Nomad philosophy and society to whoever he's talking to. Aside from that, and his first rush of feeling when he found out what happened to them, the loss of the Air Nomads doesn't seem to effect Aang all that much. If he doesn't care about his tragic loss, why should I?

Aang is a fictional character. I don't have to extend the same pathos to him that I would to a real life person. It is the writers' duty to make me feel for him, and they did not. The way he's framed is the issue. And here is where I really start retreading things I've said before, but I think it needs to be repeated (again and again and again). Aang is not framed as someone who has a lot of growing up and learning to do. I could give him a pass on his worst traits because he's a child and still growing, but the show doesn't frame him that way. The show wants me to see him as a precocious imp who's wise-beyond-his-years but still has a cheeky lil' mischievous streak. It's not trying to frame his lying to the quarreling tribes in The Great Divide as a bump in his journey to becoming an effective leader bridging different people together. It wants the audience to laugh at him getting one over on the foolish tribes who absolutely went back to fighting as soon as Appa was out of sight. The show isn't framing his desperation to get the village in Avatar Day to like him as a foolish pursuit he needs to get over if he wants to be strong in the face of adversity. It wants us, the audience, to feel bad for him because his charm isn't immediately bringing the people over to his side. It wants us to be indignant that the villagers don't see how important Aang is and wont' support him. The show isn't framing Aang's non-con kisses with Katara as bad because it hurt her. It isn't making a point to that Aang needs to care about her feelings. It wants the audience to feel bad for Aang and hope for Katara to come around because he's A Nice Guy™️©️®️. Aang is never shown to be a particularly good friend to any of the Gaang, let alone him being kind to strangers just because that's his heart. All of that I would allow to be just him being a dumb kid with growing to do if the show hadn't made it clear that Aang was perfect and didn't have to change, and in fact the world should change for him.

Aang's age and tragic backstory are irrelevant because the show made them irrelevant. All they left us with was a Gary Stu character who hides his selfishness under a thin veneer of cheerfulness. It's not good enough.

#atla #anti aang #anti kataang #when people stop thinking of aang as a literal child and start thinking of him as a character with a role in a narrative #things in this fandom will get SO much better

[lauralying]

Im sorry but the lady in Omashu hitting Zuko took me out

#like yeah zuko #what are you doing hitting a child #look at him hes 12 #atla #natla #natla spoilers #avatar the last airbender #aang #avatar #avatar aang #zuko

[hanadoesstuffwrong]

Thinking abt the air nomads:

What if, after the war, once the dust has settled a little, Aang goes back to travelling, hoping that maybe he can find at least some trace of surviving airbenders. As an added bonus, he gets to do more of the exploring and wandering that he had to put on hold.

Toph goes with him ofc. She only just got a taste of real freedom and it was overshadowed by ever-present impending doom. While she's on speaking terms with her parents, she isnt quite ready to be back under their roof on a permanent basis. The rest of the gaang have their individual homes and responsibilities that they get back to, though they join for the odd field trip or adventure when they can.

So anyway, they're touring all over the world and over the years they notice just how displaced so many people have become. EK citizens who barely escaped the blaze but lost everything; FN military now decommissioned with no idea how to carry on; people looking for a new start in the hard-won peace. Maybe it starts with Toph heading back to Earth Rumble, where a group of young runaways scrounge for cheap fights to make a little money.

At each turn they find more and more people with no homes to return to and no family to protect them; runaways escaping the roles the war forced them into. Gradually, Aang and Toph start to see that they aren't so different from themselves. They just want a new start.

So they decide to give them one. They clean up the temples and set up villages in the surrounding areas (helps to be master earthbenders), where people can arrive and stay as long as they need. Travellers and refugees pass through in droves, sometimes choosing to stay and rebuild their lives there, sometimes continuing in their wandering with a guarantee that they'll always have a place to return to should they have the need.

Over time, the lemurs grow in number and even some flying bison calfs (hybrids with a relative species maybe?), can be seen in the skies. Whenever the founders visit, it isn't the same but Aang feels a little more at home.

The first time someone asks Aang to teach him his philosophies, and expresses his desire to become a monk, how can he refuse? Maybe it's a former soldier, somebody who's done terrible things, looking for a path to redemption. So Aang teaches him, and then he teaches others. And though they may not be airbenders, they are as earnest and faithful as any nun or monk Aang knew before. The temples become filled with new faces: Firebenders, Earthbenders, Waterbenders and non-benders all wearing Air nomad orange and yellow.

Aang always feared that it would be his responsibility to have airbender children, and the idea of forcing that on someone he loved terrified him. Maybe that's why he waited so long before acting on his feelings for his best friend, his travelling companion, his fellow-village builder and temple-restorer. How could they have a truly happy relationship with this pressure hanging over them? He wishes he could be content with the new way of things that he and his friends have created. But he knows that he can't be the last airbender forever...

Nobody knows why some children can bend the elements and others can't. Is it blood? Is it blessing? Is it the land in which you're born? Or is it the simple allocation of fates decided by the values and norms you're raised believing in? Is it enough to be surrounded by the culture and beliefs of the Air Nomads? Nobody knows...

All they know is that nobody sees it coming when the six-year-old daughter of two non-bender villagers from the Earth Kingdom and Northern Water Tribe sends herself flying twelve feet into the air with a sneeze.

#oops it became a taang au how did that happen #i just think it wld be neat if the air nomads worked more like irl monks/nuns #not necessarily celibate but still made up of people who choose to follow the way of life #instead of the iffy implications of all monks/nuns having no choice because they were born airbenders #i dunno it's iffy to me #taang #my posts #atla #atla headcanon #do we need to rewatch Ice Age 2 ppl?? #repopulation is not a good reason for two people to be together! #avatar: the last airbender #i do also think that given them being nomads the fire nation probably want able to wipe the air nomads out completely #bu they just had to survive in hiding/ in a very diluted form #maybe like the sun warriors do #airbender!Ty Lee my beloved #also wld reflect the themes of unity vs division well if there were more than just airbenders among the air nomads #like how a waterbender can be a ruler of the Fire Nation or a Firebender can run a tea shop in the Earth Kingdom #toph x aang #edited cos someone got upset at my introduction and while i reckon they were willfully misreading i didnt want anyone to misconstrue #to clarify -> any child of aang's wld be an air nomad but there's no guarantee they wld be an airbender #esp if he had a child with an earth or waterbender #and we see how this had a negative effect in canon #hope that clears things up xx

[comradekatara]

katara will see an elder, any elder, and be like “is anyone gonna respect them” and not wait for an answer. sokka could be like “katara they are literally stealing candy from babies right now,” but if they are above a certain age she does not care, in fact she is like “sokka how could you even say that!! the audacity!! that is a respected member of the community!!!!” like the closest she comes to realizing someone old sucks actually is with pakku, and even then she is inexplicably happy to find out that he’s gonna be her step-grandpa. meanwhile zuko sees literally any old person and is immediately like “ew i didn’t know raisins could talk”

#compare & contrast katara and zukos homophobia ableism and ageism stats 5 page essay double spaced due on friday #katara #zuko #sokka #pakku #no but it rly is so funny #how she likes and respects iroh for NO good reason #like toph likes iroh bc theyre genuinely buddies #aang likes iroh bc hes nice and charismatic and aang was asleep the whole time he was out there destroying the world. he doesnt know! #sokka is reasonably wary of iroh #but katara likes iroh even though she KNOWS who he is and what hes done #bc shes insane i guess. sad #probably bc kanna lectured her abt respecting her elders her entire childhood and it worked too well #sokka was already an obedient child so he didnt hear any of the lectures and just formed his own opinions #meanwhile katara is like 'oh man if i dont treat this war criminal w warmth and respect gran grans gonna beat my ass'

[starlight-bread-blog]

My Interpretation of The Last Agni Kai

(Disclaimer: This isn't critisism of Zuko as much as it a small breakdown of the tragedy of the royal family. This post was also editted and it may not appear in reblogs).

Do you hear this language? "The showdown that was always meant to be". It's somewhat true, but I'd argue that it's not because of who they are as people. It's because of Ozai.

It's because they're the golden child and the scapegoat. It's because they've been put against each other by their abuser.

I would argue that she is sorry. She does love her brother, and she didn't want it to end this way. Zuko cannot see that, and he isn't sorry.

In The Beach, Zuko burns a picture of them, as a family.

To him, the picture resresents the perfect past. Before everything went to shit. But he no longer fits there. Even though he's back. He's frustrated, he hates the world, and wants to burn it all.

Especially after he has redeemed himself, he is sure there is nothing for him. His mother is gone, his father is abusive, and Azula: the prodigy, the favored one, who belittled him from the day Ozai began to favor her. She left him in the dust while making it extra dirty. She's barely his sister anymore, she's the untouchable force making his life worse.

In Zuko Alone, Azula practically taunts him over his planned murder.

This is what Zuko sees. Not a human, not a sister, but a boogeyman. After all, Azula always lies. What he doesn't see is Azula's reaction when she realizes the situation is serious. She'll never let him see that.

Azula could have burned the bridge all those years ago, when he was banished. But she didn't. She is the reason he's back home, on that beach. Ozai was her God, she was disciplined to him and only him, even more than herself. And she lied to his face so Zuko could come back home. She's cunning, manipulative and dangerous, but she loved her brother.

Zuko can't see that. Even when "she's slipping", he can't see that. Of course he wouldn't, her love for him is overshadowed by the damage she caused him, and his envy of her. She's above him, the demon haunting him. As Ozai and their history led him to believe. And he sticks to this belief, until it's disproven.

(Author's note: Azula's face here makes me want to cry, props to the animator)

She's human, his sister. And she's trurly sorry it had to come to this.

The Last Agni Kai is a tragedy. It's the story of two siblings who grew up in an abusive household, with a dad who played favorites. One made all the wrong choices, while the other could not fathom the other's humanity. They don't reconcile, they put themselves against each other. Because it's the showdown that was always meant to be. And he only recognizes it wasn't, after it's over. Now, he too, is sorry.

#next to aang's non violent solution #this sticks out like a sore thumb #tw abuse #tw child abuse #prince zuko #atla zuko #fire lord zuko #firelord zuko #zuko meta #azula meta #princess azula #atla azula #azula avatar #azula and zuko #zuko and azula #sozin's comet #the last agni kai #atla meta #atla analysis #avatar the last airbender meta #avatar the last airbender #avatar aang #avatar: the last airbender #atla #a:tla

[evilkitten3]

atla crack au where zuko and azula burn the palace down as kids (like 12 and 10, respectively, pre-banishment but post-grandpacide), run away to avoid consequences, and somehow end up "discreetly" living in the abandoned fire nation ship in the south pole ("discreetly" is a word which here means "all the adults know they're there bc they have massive arguments every other day, and when hakoda's nearby he "drops" things that might be useful")

ozai ends up blaming the palace fire on iroh and banishes him. he must capture the children to regain his honor (translator's note: this is adult speak for "get their asses back here so i can ground them for the rest of their lives")

#atla #avatar the last airbender #zuko #azula #fire siblings #somehow despite having lived isolated on a wrecked boat for four years they manage to still be spoiled brats when aang shows up #ozai is significantly less evil bc a) crack au and b) the burning zuko's face off never happened #like he still kinda sucks but he hasn't crossed the line from throne usurper to child mutilator just yet #azula spends half a minute trying to find a way to blame the fire on zuko before realizing that half the flames are blue #the plot twist is that they actually weren't (fully) responsible for the destruction #ursa did it #she chose terrorism ok #jet is her accomplice #like he hates that she's fire nation but damn if she's not good at what she does #jet: ok so how're we gonna get your children out before we- #ursa: fuck them kids #jet: ...dope let's do this

[softestepiloguemisc]

people who are hyper critical of aang are super fucking weird and we should say so.

#aang #pro aang #avatar #atla #atla aang #avatar the last airbender #it’s just like when he acts like the 12 year old he is people who hate him are like wow he’s really acting like that #like bitch what??? #he’s fucking 12 lmfao #of course he’s immature #but aang grows so damn much over the series and they just turn a blind eye to it #he’s trying to be a child while also grappling with his duties as avatar and his teachings as an air nomad #being told constantly that he has to kill someone despite that going against his teachings #anyway aang is great and yeah there were times he was annoying like any 12 year old can be #but he also matures a lot which is super sad cause of the weight placed upon his shoulders #anyway the people i see who criticize him to the point where it’s just like just say you don’t like him and go are zutara shippers of course #some zutara fans are so fucking demented i swear #and mostly all of them are annoying #even when i watched avatar as a pre teen i didn’t ship zutara

[eemolu]

the winter solstice episode of atla is crazy. aang rocks up to the fire temple and he's like heyyy roku i'm twelve and need help! i don't know how to learn all the elements and the spirit world is a mystery to me etc. and roku goes yeah fine shut up. if you don't figure all that out by the summer the world will LITERALLY EXPLODE. obviously aang is like dude no way what if i can't do this and roku's response is yeah you can :) ok the glowy light is going away i have to jet bye <3 dude WHAT that was the least helpful you possibly could have been to that child. nice job elevating the stakes of the show and providing narrative tension but god you could have tried to be nicer to the baby standing in front of you asking for help

#atla #avatar the last airbender #aang #avatar roku #atla rewatch #the way that people are constantly being like ok aang you got this #after providing the most LACKLUSTER advice of all time #please help this child he's literally in the sixth grade #mine