Throughout the show, we see Aang struggle with the idea of obtaining unlimited power, while simultaneously staying true to who he is - a fun loving, accepting, sweet boy. Aang never wished to be the Avatar, but he is, and he cannot neglect his responsibility to the world. To us, we might see the Avatar State as some awesome godlike power, and in some ways it is, but the show diverges what we would expect by having Aang fear it. Aang’s victory at the Northern Water Tribe with the help of the ocean spirit is not treated as an amazing accomplishment, but rather, something that haunts Aang throughout the second and even third season. He often has nightmares about it, and about the destruction he is capable of. He does not enjoy the fact that his body can be used as a vessel for all of the previous Avatar’s, rendering him as more or less an empty shell that will do their bidding. Through out season two, the question becomes: is it better to use your unlimited power to end the war, or to try and stay true to the things which make you human?
Aang faces these questions head on, much like the element of the season: Earth. He is pressured in the first episode of seaosn two to use the Avatar State to his advantage, even if it means going against the person he is. Katara says, “I’m not saying the Avatar State doesn’t have incredible, and helpful power... but you have to understand... for the people that love you, watching you be in that much rage and pain is really scary.”
In the episode The Desert, we see Aang’s grief over the loss of Appa, yet another sacrifice he unwillingly makes to the world, force him again into the Avatar State.
As Aang battles internally with whether to choose emotion vs. power, toward the finale of season two, he is asked to make another sacrfice, and asks a very valid and important question:
Aang’s decision at first glance might seem like a foolish one to make, to choose attachment rather than godlike power, but his choice is affirmed by Iroh. “Perfection and power are overrated. I think you are very wise to choose happiness and love.” Aang, a character who has been forced to sacrifice everything he has for the rest of the world, is now being asked to give up one of the biggest attachments he feels, and asks with good reason as to why he should have to. How is it fair for him to have to sacrifice everything for everyone else? This plays out on an even bigger scale in season three, as Aang is pressured to give up his own morality and cultural views for the rest of the world. Sadly, his wish to not give up his love for Katara does not last, because Aang is not allowed to have a choice. He is forced in his battle with Azula, Zuko, and the Dai Li to let go of his earthly attachments, and his love for Katara, forced to choose power over emotion.
This moment is not painted as a positive thing, but as a tragedy. Aang is a boy who has experienced unimaginable loss, sacrificing his culture, his entire sense of belonging, and now finally the love which he feels in order to try and rise to the responsibility of saving the world. It is only seconds after he makes this sacrifice that he is killed by Azula. Typically, we would see a main character, or any character really, gaining power to defeat an enemy as something good or as something to celebrate, but not in Avatar. This moment is heart breaking, and his death that follows moments after is even more so.
Aang being forced to strip himself of all that he is is not treated as a good thing, and he is for lack of better words, punished for being forced to choose power over love. One of the reasons this specific battle is so emotionally driven isn’t only because Aang dies, but because Katara is present. Aang might have felt that it were in his best interest and in hers to let her go to reach his full potential of the Avatar State, and he does accomplish this, but it is Katara who does not let him go. Devestated, she creates a giant wave as she rushes to catch him as he plummets to the ground, not even caring if she were to drown the Dai Li, Zuko, or Azula in the process.
Katara tries to heal him, and it seems as if he truly is dead as she sobs over his body, before he comes back to life. Aang is saved not because he is somehow lucky, or because Katara is simply an amazing healer, but because Aang has someone in the world who loves him deeply.
Aang is given a second chance at life because Katara gives it to him. It is Katara’s unwavering belief, support, and love in Aang which not only broke him out of the iceberg, bringing the Avatar and the symbol of hope back to the world, but that also brings his soul back to his body at the end of season two, launching his character into his last and final arc of the show: staying true to his beliefs and emotions despite the demand to assert unlimited power where compassion and forgiveness should be.
In the first episode of season three, Katara and Aang exchange a short moment of dialogue that is very powerful in meaning, both for each character and also for a huge theme of the show:
Aang: I went down. I didn’t just get hurt, did I? It was worse than that. I was gone, but you brought me back.
Katara: I just used the spirit water from the North Pole. I don’t know what I did, exactly.
Aang’s character development has always been interesting to me, specifically in the way it tackled the theme of having unlimited power. He is very much a character that sacrifices, and then sacrifices some more, but is never really rewarded for doing so. The contrast between the Crossroads of Destiny, season two episode 20, and Avatar Aang, season three episode 21, will always fascinate me. Zuko comes to a crossroad in the finale of season two, but Aang does as well. Both Zuko and Aang make the wrong choice, Zuko siding with Azula, and Aang trading a part of himself to obtain power.
Contrast the Crossroads of Destiny to Avatar Aang, where Aang goes from having a decision made for him to making his own decision and standing by it. He is first forced to choose power, which ultimately gets him killed. But by the end of the show, Aang has learned that no one can make his decisions for him, nor do they have the right to. Aang is pressured by everyone excluding Katara, to make the choice to kill Firelord Ozai, which would be his ultimate sacrifice - giving away his own morals for the world. But Aang has learned better by now, and refuses.
By standing strong on his decision to stay true to his own beliefs and morals, he is finally rewarded with the knowledge of energy bending, a skill no previous avatar had encountered. Aang demanded a third option repeatedly, refusing to cave to what others expected of him; for him to use unlimited power to end the war. To end violence with more violence, something Aang feared and avoided as much as possible. Aang is told by Ozai that he is weak regardless of being the avatar, but Ozai is a man who has let power consume him, completely erasing whatever morals he may have had prior. Aang, however, is a character that strikes me as so strong not because he is the avatar, but because of his spirit.
"The true mind can weather all the lies and illusions without being lost. The true heart can tough the poison of hatred without being harmed. Since beginning-less time, darkness thrives in the void, but always yields to purifying light. To bend another’s energy, your own spirit must be unbendable, or you will be corrupted, and destroyed.”
Aang, through trial and error, finally develops into a fully realized avatar, mastering the Avatar State and the power he possesses, while refusing to let it change any aspect of who he is.
We end the show with this being one of the last moments of Avatar Aang we see, as he has this moment of true peace. He affirms to us that sometimes, holding tight to the things that you love and believe in, and that make you who you are, are the most powerful actions you can take in life. That the world cannot take the things that you believe in, that it cannot take away your spirit so long as you do not let it.
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