ATLA being absolutely devastating once again
I'm rewatching ATLA right now, and I just started the Winter Solstice part 1: the Spirit world, and man. This show never fails to break my heart.
Aang is the Avatar but he's also just a lost little kid trying to make sense of everything. Every Avatar before him had the guidance of their people, but Aang has nobody except Katara and Sokka, and it's not like they can give him Avatar wisdom. He went from having monk Gyatso one day, to waking up 100 years later and finding out that not only was Gyatso killed, but the rest of his people are gone too. He has nobody to talk to who would understand.
There's this moment in the beginning of the episode where they come across the destroyed forest, and Aang is so solemn. He literally says "why would anyone do this? How could I let this happen?" And it's so eerily similar to when he first goes back to the Southern Air Temple. Then Katara says that's why we're going to the Northern Water tribe, to find him a teacher. and Aang is like "Yeah, a waterbending teacher, but there's no one who can teach me how to be the Avatar." He says Gyatso told him to talk to Roku, but he's no longer around to tell Aang how.
Not only is Aang literally 12, but he has to figure out how to be the Avatar without ANY guidance, and THEN realizes he has to master the elements faster than ANY Avatar before him??? Plus the survivors guilt of knowing he's literally the last Airbender, and the guilt of running away? Again, in this episode, he says "how could I let this happen?"
And the saddest part is when Sokka says "Listen: It's so quiet. There's no life anywhere." paralleling when Aang said how their used to be Bisons, and Lemurs, and Monks everywhere at the Air Temple.
Like holy shit this nickelodeon cartoon is the most devastating show ever.
