#boomeraang

[murkywildernessturtle]

The mash up we deserve

[delusional-void]

HMMM…

Nobody Freak Out About What I’m About to Tell You

[cybermax]

saw this and had to repost.

[incorrect-atlaquotss]

Zuko: {wakes up} Morning So-

Sokka: TELL ME WHYYYY

Aang: AINT NOTHING BUT A HEARTACHEEE

Zuko: Sometimes I wonder why I married you..

Sokka and Aang: {still singing}

Katara: They’ve been singing since 3am...

[satorugojjo]

boomeraang has a whole new meaning when you realize aang is 112 years old

[user8907]

does anyone have any good convincing reasons to watch atla? i’m trying to get my irl’s to watch it but i’m really bad at arguing, so leave good reasons down below😎

[muclunga]

Aang as an adult and a father: a short(ish) essay about poor character development

Okay so this is something that bothers me a lot, for a few different reasons.

One: I very much enjoy the ART of story telling

Two: This show was my absolute favorite as a child and still is a favorite of mine now. It helped me through a rough time in my childhood.

I’ll try to keep my thoughts organized.

A lot of people say the older Aang (OA for short) is written perfectly. That it makes sense that he isn’t a perfect dad, that he’s just matured with age, etc.

People can grow up, but still never really “grow up”. It happens all of the time. It’s not even that someone is immature; they’re just a child at heart. Even if this wasn’t something that I deeply believe would apply to OA, maturing still isn’t synonymous with pretentious. Suddenly Aang has different values.

It’s not just that he’s older.

We see him age from 12 in the show to 16 in the comics. With age, he becomes more responsible and better at handling conflict but his personality still never changes. We’re supposed to believe that this upbeat, level-headed, easy going child who spends his adolescence dealing with the genocide of his people AND the fate of the world turn into a super serious guy who only focuses on his on his job or forcing his culture onto his family? Speaking of which, it’s heavily inferred that OA played favorites with his kids and that he put too much pressure on Tenzin. What sense does that make? Aang’s ENTIRE arc was about doing things HIS way. He resented the monks for the pressure they put on him, so he did it his way. General Fong nearly killed Katara because he wanted to force Aang into the avatar state, but Aang took his time and did it his way. Aang was told by literally everyone he trusted to kill the fire-lord, even though that went against what he believed in. Even Yangchen, the previous air-bending avatar told him to kill Ozai, but he solved things HIS WAY. That’s the whole point: Aang ignores the expectations that people put on him to do things the way other avatars have done, but he does it... His. Own. Way. It’s no different in the comics. With all this happening in his formative years, you really think he’s going to turn and put that onto his own children?

“Oh, but Aang doesn’t know how to be a dad, he didn’t have a father figure!” I here you saying.

Yes, he did have a father figure. Gyatso. Gyatso was not only his father figure, but he was the only one who recognized the pressure being put on Aang and defended him.

Let’s get something clear: I wouldn’t expect Aang to be a “perfect” dad. In fact, I think him being unconventional and not conforming to what people expect would be his flaw as a parent, not being harsh and biased. If that were the case, it’s still understandable that he would probably drift towards Tenzin because passing down his culture IS important. It also makes sense that even if Aang was a “perfect” father, that Tenzin would be worried that he isn’t living up to what his dad wanted from him.

There’s also the chance that Aang wasn’t as bad as people believe him to be as a parent. We only hear it from his kids’ perspectives, it’s only natural that they would have feelings of resentment. But we never once hear them say that they knew he was trying his best. The closest we get is when the three of his kids are looking at an old photo and talking about how happy they were back then. That only makes it sound worse when you think about it.

That makes it sound like, “Things were better when Tenzin was an infant and we were young and innocent so we didn’t have to deal with the pressure of not contributing to our dad’s dying culture.”

Again, to give OA some credit, there are some scenes where OA seems perfectly in character. For example, during flashbacks, he seems to have the same demeanor towards villains when he’s older. It just sounds more menacing because he’s an adult. I even think his VA is spot on. Also when we see the picture of him doing the ‘marble trick’ with sushi: it’s just him having some light hearted fun.

All in all, I’m not saying that Aang needs to be some idealistic father who does nothing wrong or some immature man-child. My point is that, even for an adult, what we hear about him seems very out of character.

Side note: a lot of people believe that Bryke (Brian and Mike) purposely tried to make some aspects of the original series seem unappealing so that people would enjoy Korra more. Not saying that as an argument, just thought it was interesting.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

[thezukospirit]

Oop- bow down to the king