I've been following the Dark Horse atla comic on Webtoon, and the new chapter pissed me off enough that I came to complain about it on another app (I hit Webtoon's character limit when commenting, lmao).
So Aang says the reason he didn't take Liling's bending was because her problem was bigotry, not bending:
Which is such horrible reasoning. If I said "Ozai's problem was bigotry, not bending" it'd be equally true! I still think Ozai deserved to have his bending taken! I think Liling deserves it too!
If the comic wanted to show Aang's pacifism and how the *only* time he'd consider taking away bending is with a global tyrant like Ozai, they could've done so in a much better way.
He could have reasoned that Ozai's followers weren't as devout, that most of them followed out of fear of his power, not because they liked his message. Since Liling's followers *do* like her message, taking the bending away wouldn't help the situation -- not like Aang can/should take every follower's bending away. Plus, it could make matters worse since her followers could take Aang taking her bending away as a sign of him "picking a side."
The reasoning as it stands is silly. She has the same principles as Ozai, same narcissism, and even parents in the exact same way (having a favorite child with "superior" bending, then belittling and abusing the other)
They should've let me in the writer's room 😡