Why the ATLA Comics Suck[Submitted by justanotherthrowaway1950]
Here are the reasons why I think the comics suck, or at least why they are lackluster. And if you disagree with any of my points, please feel free to comment down below why so.
Writing everyone out of Zuko's life so he would go to Ozai willingly and use his advice, despite Zuko making Aang promise to kill him if he ever starts acting like Ozai.
Making Aang promise to kill Zuko and almost follow through with it until Katara stops him.
FL Zuko and Aang “convincing" Kuei to allow the oldest FN colonies to become independent, despite being dominated by FN colonials, just to keep families “together” despite separating families due to creating new borders/nation-states. It is implied Kuei never got reparations (or at least adequate reparations) and so the loss of trillions of dollars of land/taxes partially motives his daughter and Kuvira in LoK.
Have the only people we see (on-panel at least) advocating for the colonies to become independent are Fire Nationals who have direct ties to the old colonial regime and the Earth Kingdomers who managed to integrate themselves into the colonial power structure and/or have relationships with Fire Nationals (cough*Sneers*cough). Like they briefly touch upon the colonies' class structure and how the Earth Kingdomers are at the bottom of it but we never see them bring up that issue again. Nor do we ever see any of these lower-class masses talk to Zuko, Kuei, and/or Aang; the people responsible for their fate.
Make everyone act stupid so Azula could go on the search for Ursa free and unbound and constantly act a menace thanks to her psychotic breaks since no one asks her what she is hallucinating about before nearly succeeding in committing matricide so she can use a letter (more details below) to overthrow Zuko and then allowing her to escape into a dangerous forest without giving proper chase (ex. have Aang use AS Seismic Sense, call in June or Toph or just have Zuko run after her in the beginning).
Have Zuko fail to station (extra) guards at Azula's asylum, allowing her to break out several of her fellow asylum inmates without Zuko ever finding out.
Have Mai find out about the existence of the New Ozai Society (and the fact that her father is the leader of it) but have her not tell Zuko until Zuko has almost been killed and his half-sister (along with her bro) have been kidnapped by Azula and her mental asylum escapees who are “working” with the New Ozai Society.
Have Mai trust Ty Lee's "aura sense" in order to gauge the trustworthiness of a New Ozai Society pasty she is dating in order to get intel despite already knowing who their leader is and at least one of their hideouts.
Have Mai initially honeypot said pasty to also get back at Zuko, but eventually have her fall for him but then have him break up her with since it is painfully obvious that she still simps for Zuko, despite Zuko not really working on any of the flaws that caused Mai to break with him in The Promise.
Have Zuko try to get back into Mai’s favor while searching for Azula's terrorist cell, despite the fact it is largely his fault that Azula is free and Mai and Ty Lee are rightfully fearing for their lives as well as for Tom-Tom's.
Not having Ty Lee confront Azula and get over her fear of Azula despite one of the main themes of Smoke & Shadow being getting over one’s fears, or at least learning not to have them drive your actions and/or cloud your mind.
Not having Mai & Ty Lee confront their imperialist past and explicitly reject it while making amends. For while the Sisters comic heavily implies that one of Ty Lee’s motivations for joining the Kyoshi Warriors is to make up for her past, it is odd that they don’t do any real self-reflection in regards to their imperialist past despite all the other Fire Nationals who have similar pasts (ex. Iroh, Jeong Jeong, Piandao, Chey, & Zuko) having to do so before they get redeemed. For if they did, maybe, for example, Mai wouldn’t have hesitated to tattle on Ukano, who in addition to wanting to put Ozai back on the throne, seems to want to re-engage in the very imperialism that Mai supposedly rejected.
Give Azula a very, very, very unjustified & unearned power-boost that allows her to slap most of the non-Avatar State powered main characters without really trying once she regains her "sanity." Like where would someone who is constantly chi-blocked and straightjacketed before becoming a homeless, penniless, fugitive find the time, space, and energy to train? Especially when Azula’s abilities were previously depicted as a byproduct of having the resources of an entire nation-state behind her and her obsessively training in near ideal conditions.
Have Azula regain her "sanity" but end up deciding to implement a 148D plan to make Zuko into a tyrant when there are better ways of doing so like becoming his advisor or killing his loved ones like Mai or Kiyi.
Have The Gaang and The White Lotus continue on with their lives instead of dropping everything to search for the Fire Warriors 24/7. For not only does the Fire Warrior’s goal of turning Zuko in a tyrant no matter the cost have the potential of destroying the post-war order they fought so hard to establish, the Fire Warriors have proven themselves to be more than a match for the Gaang considering the only reason why Aang and Zuko, or for that matter everyone who had entered the palace while the Fire Warriors were operating in the Garden of Tranquil Souls without anyone having a clue, are still alive is because the Fire Warriors did not want to kill them. Especially if Azula keeps progressing at the rate she is and manages to develop something like instant lethal lighting with full control after she has fired or, god forbid, their psychic smoke-bending is a precursor to psychic fire and/or lighting bending just like smoke-bending is a precursor to firebending (Kyoshi when she first attempted to fire-bend generated smoke just like Aang did when Zuko told Aang to firebend at the start of The Firebending Masters), which itself is a precursor to lighting bending.
Have Ursa tell Zuko to never forget who he is but mind wiping herself of her time at the palace despite the fact that she loses the memory of the kids she supposedly loves and adores. (Note: This is just a disagreement with writing choices leading up to Ursa’s mind-wipe. In-universe, Ursa was in a position that no mother should ever have to be in and thus I don’t judge her for what she did considering she thought that Ozai would be on the throne for decades like his father & would have succeeded in breaking Azula (which did happen) & Zuko (which almost happened if not for Iroh’s unforeseeable heel-face turn).)
Have Ursa write a letter saying that Zuko isn't Ozai's kid despite Ursa knowing that she and Zuko only have value if Zuko and Azula are Ozai's kids. For if Ozai was smart, he could have used the letter to kill them off by showing the letter to Azulon, who would be very displeased at having his eugenics experiment partially ruined & angry that a bastard is in line for the throne. Moreover, having Ursa write such a letter makes Ozai retroactively very stupid for instead of burning & banishing Zuko or trying to kill Zuko on DoBS, he could have released the letter to the public, essentially disinheriting Zuko without ever getting his hands dirty. Especially when it is established earlier in the comics that Ozai never had any love for Zuko from the moment Zuko was born instead of Ozai being warped by his ambition like was implied in the TV show.
Disregarding the prior established world-building/engaging in anachronism by having western-style straight jackets, western-style mental asylums, modern wheelchairs, and modern forklifts.
Have Sokka get reduced to comedic relief for the most part and inconsistently portray Toph's power level in order to maintain tension in the various plots she is involved in. For in Sokka’s case, would it have been too hard to show Sokka get further trained by Piando, learn chi-blocking from the Kyoshi Warriors, and/or take leadership positions (ex. helping his father govern the industrializing Southern Water Tribe), helping plant the seeds for the hyper-competent leader & non-bending combat master he is implied to have become as an adult? And in Toph’s case, for example, Toph is able to catch, using her earthbending or hands, Sokka and Chong, despite all of them being in the air and thus, Toph having no way to sense their position. But despite these feats, Yaling is able to provide Toph with a competitive fight by taking advantage of Toph’s inability to see in the air. Like if that was the case, how come the Dai Li or King Bumi during their fights didn’t take advantage of this weakness despite (most likely) having prior intel on Toph?
Making the Southern Water Tribe look racist for being suspicious of their Northern brothers, and Kuei and Zuko when it was the Northern Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom that allowed the Fire Nation to genocide their water benders without helping them. Especially considering Zuko is the leader of a newly post-imperialist nation and that he was an important member of the previous genocidal ruling regime before his defection. And this is compounded further when it is revealed that the North wants to essentially colonize the South for its oil, proving the skeptical Southern Water Tribesmen/women right.
Have Ursa be able to make a mega op poison (it is colorless, odorless, and does not elicit any symptoms in those who ingest it) on command and on short notice with materials easily found in the palace but have her never think to use it on Azulon and Ozai until Ozai is going to kill Zuko at Azulon's command.
Never explaining how Zuko managed to make Azula a non-entity in Fire Nation politics; how he managed to make amends to Kyoshi Island after burning it (something that Suki, Alone explicitly points out angered the Islanders) to the point the other Kyoshi Warriors were ok with supporting his regime, let alone becoming his bodyguards; and whether or not he managed to help all the people Azula banished.
Have Aang almost get killed by some mental asylum escapees or more generally have The Gaang constantly suffer the worf effect so they don't stomp every Comics!antagonists like they should based on their show feats.
Never showing Zuko finding out what happened to his ship crew and whether or not he decided to ever honor those who were killed by Koizila.
Not touching or trying to resolve the lingering plot threads in the TV show: Hama, Long Feng, and the rogue/ banished Dai Li. Especially since bloodbending eventually becomes common enough that Katara got it banned and the Dai Li are back defending Ba Sing Se during Korra’s era. Like how did bloodbending get spread when Hama was last seen locked up again, Katara doesn’t seem like the type of person to teach it to others (willingly), and it doesn’t seem that people are likely to come up with it on their own due to not being in the same desperate situation as Hama? Did Long Feng survive the coup attempt? And if so what is his plan to take back control of the Dai Li (Are they even still a thing? Are they independently plotting their revenge?) and/or The Earth Kingdom (assuming he is now in Kuei’s custody)? Is he going to try to take revenge on Kuei, The Dangerous Ladies, Zuko, and The Gaang for ruining him? And why would Kuei and/or his daughter ever be ok with reinstating the organization that not only betrayed their own country but was also ok with their own countrymen being genocided?
Never showing someone recognize General Iroh in The Jasmine Dragon and have Iroh explain why it was a good idea to set up shop in the city he besieged for years. Especially when he apparently operates with his given name instead of Mushi; the whole situation reeking of economic imperialism; and the fact that he never actually made amends to the people he had hurt (Earth Kingdom commoners) or attempts to rectify his past actions by, for example, using the money he makes from the Jasmine Dragon go towards helping those orphaned, widowed, and/or wounded by his siege, at least on panel. Or have someone question why he chooses to stay in Ba Sing Se and engage in his tea-maker retirement dream instead of doing something actually productive like mentoring his inadequately prepared and way over his head nephew in statecraft.
Never showing whether or not Zuko made amends to Lee's family or Song's. Also never showing whether or not he owned up to robbing people in the Earth Kingdom and offered to make them whole again. For if part of Zuko’s redemption arc was making it up to The Gaang for hurting them, shouldn’t Zuko help all of the people he hurt during his time as villain to the best of his abilities?
Not have Zuko, or anyone around him, advocate for and implement prison reform (at least on panel) in regards to the Fire Nation considering a not so small number of friends, allies, and loved ones have done hard time in the canonically torture-like, at best, Fire Nation prison system. Or, if one wanted to be consistent in regards to how Zuko treats Ozai and the Red Lotus, explain why Zuko doesn’t reform the Fire Nation prison system. Especially Suki considering how her time in prison almost broke her (as seen in the climax of Suki, Alone) and should have caused her to experience PTSD considering her treatment (ex. she got put into solitary for two weeks in a very narrow room).
In general, not having Zuko face any real consequences for his actions, take tangible steps to make sure that he doesn’t make them again, and/or make sure bad actors won’t be able to hurt him, his subjects, his allies, and/or his loved ones again. Like what protocols does he establish in order to facilitate better communications between his regime and Kuei so a repeat of the Yu Dao crisis never occurs? How come he doesn't really face any organized movement from the Earth Kingdom after the whole Yu Dao fiasco despite him showing a willingness to break agreements with the Earth Kingdom without notice and basically costing the Earth Kingdom billions, if not trillions, dollars worth of land, labor, & resources? How come the only real organized Fire Nation movement against Zuko (so far) was the New Ozai Society/Safe Nation Society that was easily defeated by a bunch of mentally ill, homeless, penniless fugitives? Especially when Katara’s standalone comic shows that the average Fire Nation citizen’s indoctrination is not something that will go away with just a leadership change (ex. the soldier in question calls Aang’s airbending demonic). And going further, how come we don’t see the specific steps Zuko is taking to de-Sozinize his country? How come we never see Zuko engage in court/palace politics despite being an absolute monarchy of a centralized, industrial superpower? What steps is he taking to make sure he doesn't pursue ill-advised actions like the fear based policies he enacted in Smoke & Shadow? Or for that matter what steps is he taking to make sure that not only do the Fire Warriors get back into custody before they do something irredeemable but to make sure that the asylums stop abusing their patients, if not for wanting to treat the mental ill better, then at least to make sure they don’t become terrorist breeding grounds that they seem to have become? What steps is Zuko taking (ex. learning how to generate lighting or combine his sword skills with his firebending like his Old Friends picture suggests he did) in order to close the gap that has reopened between him and Azula considering she has eliminated his trump card over him (lighting redirection), has become the GOAT firebender as a teen, has shown that Zuko can not protect his loved ones from her, & has told him in his face that she will keep messing with him until he stops her or he snaps? What has Zuko done to rectify the fact that his security protocols got breached and almost got him killed? Did he figure out that it was Azula feeding the New Ozai Society intel and so he has to change every protocol that Azula might have even had knowledge of? Or did Ukano have a mole in Zuko's detail and so Zuko had to order a sweep of his security detail, or even everyone working in the palace, to root out Ozai loyalists?
-submitted by justanotherthrowaway1950
I would say that all these issues are accurate. In general, I would say that the comics' biggest issue(other than character derailment of almost everyone) is not dealing well with imperialism, it's role in the lives of characters, the massive complacency of certain characters in imperialism, and the role of imperialism in Fire Nation society.
And I've heard that North and South basically endorses cultural imperialism.
