Why do you treat Zuko like he's somehow more of a man than Aang is? Aang constantly helped, supported, and saved both his friends/loved ones and other people in need and stood up for his morals and beliefs even when others insulted and patronized him for it and was the first to forgive the teenager that tried to hunt him and kill him for the majority of the show, while Zuko spent most of this show the exact opposite, yet his struggle is somehow more than the boy who lost his entire culture?
Iâve had this ask in my inbox for months because I honestly forgot about it, but I have some time to reply properly.
GET READY FOR THE ESSAY NOBODY ASKED FOR
Aang is a wonderful character that is generous and loving and protective and basically the moral compass for the show for at least the first two seasons, and thatâs good. I like Aang as a character, but he just doesnât develop past square one. I Â think it was a huge mistake to write him the way Bryke did throughout all of season three. They missed just a huge opportunity to develop him into a complex character who has dealt with loss and genocide and a huge, impossible burden, but instead they made him out into the nice guy.
You are, however, grossly underselling Zuko as the guy who spent the show hunting Aang. They started out even in their journeys, both young boys who had a complicated and tragic past coupled with an epic journey. But somewhere along the way, they went in different directions.Â
The fact is, itâs unrealistic and unfair to expect Aang to not change throughout his journey. He canât end the series as the same person he was in the beginning, because there is no way that an actual person wouldnât change after going through everything that Aang did. The funny thing is, every single time Aang had a chance for growth, Bryke stunted it by placing a Katara-esque band-aid on the wound.
Aang never learns to really control the Avatar state. Every time he freaks out and loses control, Bryke throws Katara at him as a solution. Aang should have dealt with the fact that he massacred the Fire Nation at the North Pole. He should have dealt with how violent he was when Appa was stolen. He should have dealt with his defeat at Ba Sing Se. He should have dealt with the failed invasion on the Day of Black Sun. He should have dealt with the fact that he canât kill Ozai.
Aangâs MO is unfair for his character, but it repeats itself throughout the entire show. Obstacle, tantrum, solution. Obstacle, tantrum, solution. He lashes out at people when they try to help him, like a child, and usually does whatever he wants anyway. Look at how he responds to Katara when theyâre stuck in the desert by the Library. Look at how he ignores her and Sokka when they try to regroup after the invasion. Heâs acting like a child when, as unfair as it sounds, he needs to grow up.
If you apply that same standard to Zuko, you get completely different reactions.
I wonât say that one of them has more tragedy in their past than the other, because I think they have suffered in vastly different yet somewhat equal ways. Aang has never had to deal with being rejected or unloved. Zuko has grown up being belittled, abused, and kicked down. Heâs been indoctrinated with very violent and harmful views, brutalized for resisting them, and then sent from home at like, FOURTEEN.
Itâs hard for Zuko to change and he throws the same tantrums that Aang does, but then he grows up.
Iâd put his growth starting point somewhere between his battle with Zhao and the attempted murder by the pirates.Â
You see Zuko change. He abandons everything heâs ever known and is left with nothing, physically and metaphorically. He has to rebuild his identity from the ground up, and he makes mistakes along the way. He steals. He lies. He resents the loss of his luxury.Â
But heâs also kind and selfless.
Thereâs a running joke that âNo one had a crush on Book One ZukoâÂ
That should give you an idea of how drastic his character development is compared to Aangâs, even within the span of one season. Zuko ends the series a completely different person, having made amends with those that were initially his enemies, and taking on the responsibility of rebuilding the country that once shunned him. Itâs a beautiful redemption arc the likes of which I donât think Iâve ever seen.Â
You mention that Aang sticks up for his beliefs, and Iâll agree that that is good. However, Aang never challenges himself. He never has a moral quandary. He never stops and wonders if what he believes is actually the best option. He just keeps doing it anyway.Â
Something that has always bothered me is that he never tells the Gaang that he has failed to control the avatar state (before the  battle in the crystal catacombs). He picks up Sokka and lies about something that affects all of them. He lies time and time again to the people that have given up their lives to help him accomplish his goal. He patronizes Katara countless times when all sheâs trying to do is keep them going.Â
And that will be my final point as to why I value Zuko as a character more than Aang. Their treatment of Katara.
Shipping aside, Aang never once treats Katara like his equal, in a romantic sense. He applies the same childish hard headedness to their ârelationshipâ as he does to his problem-solving. Itâs very one sided, and itâs very selfish. When he first kisses her, itâs out of the blue. I personally consider it to verge on an unwanted advance, but I realize it could be just an innocent gesture.Â
But the fact remains that after he kisses her, Katara doesnât ever talk about it. She never confronts him or approaches him to tell him she feels the same way. Instead, when he gets jealous over a play, she tells him that sheâs confused. He says he thought they were going to be together forever. After ONE kiss. THEN, after sheâs said sheâs confused, that theyâre fighting a war, that she canât think about anything like that right now, he kisses her. Again.
This time, itâs very clearly portrayed as unwanted. Katara storms off and Aang is left to throw a tantrum one last time.
The next time they have some actual alone time is after the battle, if Iâm not mistaken. And Iâm supposed to believe that sheâs overcome whatever confusion she had and throws herself at Aang? #trophy
Then you get Zuko, who from day one has treated Katara as an equal. By day one, I mean the first time he ever really sees her. Not âIâll save you from the piratesâ not the shirshiu chase, but the battle on the North Pole.Â
He fights her like an equal, and every encounter since has them evenly matched.Â
I could say a million things about their dynamic, but Iâll narrow it down to The Southern Raiders, because I think that episode does a wonderful job at contrasting the differences between the way she relates to Aang and Zuko.
When Katara confronts Aang with the idea of going after the man that killed her mother, she doesnât get a friend, she doesnât get a lover, she gets a lecturer. Aang is so detached from the situation that he canât understand how Katara feels. He is, first and foremost, a pacifist monk. That doesnât mean heâs a bad person, but it does mean heâs bad at relating to people. He canât understand why âletting goâ isnât an option for Katara because he canât understand Katara. He knows what he thinks she should do, so he tells her that. He judges her for wanting revenge. He lets her go with a patronizing farewell. Heâs been traveling with this girl for almost three years and he canât figure her out.
Zuko gets her almost instantly. He sees through her anger at him and you know what he does? He tries to find out how to help. When did you EVER see Aang trying to find out more about Katara and Sokkaâs mom? When did he EVER try to get to know Kataraâs pain? How SICK is it that we went two and a half seasons with NO ONE asking these two kids how their mother died. But Zuko does. And once he finds out, he tries to help her get closure.
Even better, Zuko trusts her to make her own journey because he KNOWS WHAT ITâS LIKE TO STUMBLE ON THE WAY TO THE RIGHT CHOICE. Aang expects Katara to automatically choose peace and forgiveness. Zuko understands that, in reality, that doesnât happen. He respects Katara enough to let her have her own path to closure.Â
He lets her stumble. He lets her bloodbend and intimidate and get so close to ending the manâs life, but she doesnât. And I think if she had, Zuko wouldâve helped her with the body and never said anything to a living soul ever.
The people who come at my bb Katara going off about how awful it was for Zuko to let her or encourage her to bloodbend or seek revenge are just being dicks. Either youâve never lost a parent or you just donât understand that particular journey, but it comes down to the same thing Aang couldnât do:
Itâs not your journey, so you donât decide how she takes it.
Katara is a master at this point. She has grown up more than the majority of the gaang (with the exception of Zuko probably), and she has a right to her own agency in her story.
Zuko grows up into an understanding human being and Aang remains a petulant child.
discoholicmusic
vaporwave
gummygunk
stormborns
