Fandom "Flanderization" of ATLA Characters
Over the years, much of the fandom has totally flanderized the characters in a lot of the common headcanons and creative depictions. I know this happens in a lot of fandoms (especially big, older, ongoing ones), but I see it pretty commonly here, across the board in all ship spaces. This isn't to try to police how anyone makes content by any means, but pointing out how things can devolve into ridiculousness because of how audiences anticipate tropes to play out, and they then home in on them and whittle a character down to it in a way that's at odds with the depth of their actual portrayal. Below the cut, I discuss how I believe the fandom has done this to each member of the gaang after floating around the fandom the past 15ish years:
Sokka
I think Sokka's fandom flanderization is the most commonly seen, and it was the most doomed to happen because part of the nature of his character: comic relief. The show actually does an excellent job making Sokka both comic relief and someone with serious depth, personality, struggle, and heart. The fandom remembers this at times, and I totally get memeing Sokka's silliness, but in many portrayals he's often completely overlooked as a buffoon, as is the case for comic relief characters typically.
But Sokka is not a buffoon. He has buffoonish behaviors from time-to-time, sure, he's a 15/16-year-old boy and he's funny. But, he's actually one of the most intelligent members of Team Avatar, if not the most intelligent member of Team Avatar. He's often the brains of the operations, a man of common sense, and very innovative and brave. To see him constantly depicted as fumbling over himself, shouting gaffes, and just being an idiot doesn't align with his actual character. He's very multifaceted.
This goes so far that even [spoiler warnings for The Legend of Aang ahead] in the movie where the Gaang are adults, Sokka is pretty much a walking buffoon. He basically just mumbles one-liners for comic relief and is running from danger and downplaying the danger and risks throughout the movie in ways even teenage Sokka wouldn't. So, for Sokka, I would say this goes beyond the fandom. Bryke has even done this, I think, as a form of fanservice to a degree, and also because they have consistently struggled to depict their main cast with the same depth and complexity that the original writing team did as a collaborative whole.
So this is likely to just further cement the fandom's treatment of Sokka in fics, fanart depictions, TikToks discussions, headcanons, and memes. It's unfortunate because Sokka is done so well and is given a really compelling arc in his original story. It's not super common to see a character who's written as comic relief get such multitudes. I think Bryke tried, and failed, to replicate this in Bolin, but he just was not nearly as well done.
Zuko
I would argue that Zuko is actually the second biggest victim of flanderization within the fandom. Zuko, is also, a very complex and well-written character and people do remember this about his redemption arc, but not so much about his personality and depth as a character. He is very often whittled down and mislabeled as, conflictingly, aloof and socially inept/unable to read between the lines.
Zuko is not aloof, he's shy and emotionally reserved from child abuse. Aloofness is someone who is distant and detached usually from nonchalance in a social setting. This is not the case for Zuko, he is shy and lacks confidence because of growing up isolated in a palace until he was thirteen, and then living among a group of old men the next three years. He is seen consistently craving to be a part of something and yearning for approval.
When Zuko is comfortable, we seem him wearing his heart on his sleeve and yearning for connection. As soon as he joins the gaang, he's very eager to not just make amends with them, but forge genuine connections with them. He is warm with Sokka during their interactions in the Boiling Rock, gives him advice, and opens up to him. He is also warm with Aang the further along they get in The Firebending Masters, and makes jokes with him. He is highly attuned to Katara's emotions in The Southern Raiders and almost desperate to connect to her. Even Toph, Zuko opens up to and shares an earnest heart-to-heart with in The Ember Island Players.
Suffering child abuse that makes someone stunted and afraid doesn't equate to aloofness as a personality trait.
Now for the "socially inept" or "Zuko can't read between the lines" types of portrayals.
This is also glaringly false and overdone, like Sokka's flanderization, for humor. Zuko can be awkward, especially in new social groups or with new people. He was raised in a palace and seemingly did not even go to a real school, like Azula got to. Presumably, he was privately tutored or something. So, growing up he literally had no peers to interact with his own age. The closest thing he had to that was presumably Mai and Ty Lee, who were more so under Azula's thumb. So of course, he's going to be awkward and stumble over his words.
He also, is traumatized, so his confidence in himself and who he is is not very strong. When people are self-conscious, they are awkward as well, and struggle to believe good things about themselves. This is not the same thing as being unable to read people, their feelings, or social situations at large.
We consistently see that Zuko is very empathetically attuned to people's feelings and is actually very good at connecting the dots, or reading between the lines. He is clearly very aware of his uncle's feelings and how he thinks of him as his own, even before Iroh has ever said it. He knows well that Sokka will go off to try to rescue his father to "restore his honor" and why he's doing it in advance to crash his trip.
He pieces together Katara's anger towards him is connected to her mother's murder and intuitively understands her feelings of anger, resentment, and desire to avenge her mother. He anticipates her needs by staying up all night for her, encouraging her to rest, and listening patiently is she opens up about her grief.
When he does believe things foolishly, it's often a symptom of his abuse as well. He is in denial about his father banishing him because he doesn't love him as a coping mechanism, not because he's so "socially inept" he doesn't see the truth. That's why he so eagerly believes Azula is inviting him home and why he so fervently chases after the avatar despite no evidence.
Zuko also is not stupid, as the fandom likes to play for laughs because of the gaang calling him this and Azula's teasing. He is often shown being very cunning in his plans and ideas. He strategizes leagues ahead of his years and bests adults at their own games consistently. He's impulsive and rash, yes, but not stupid. If he was supposed to be seen as a stupid character, they would not write him to be fire lord and restore balance to a nation 100 years into imperialist warmongering. He wouldn't be the other person alongside Katara keeping the gaang in check. Throughout the finale, he's the one staying on track and reining the gaang in to keep focus. He's the one who comes up with the game plan for their Plan B to defeat his father when Aang disappears without a word. He executes that plan too, takes charge and takes everyone to find his uncle and get things in order. Stupid people don't do that!
They like to overplay the awkwardness and morph it into social ineptitude or inability to read between the lines for people, too. Zuko's awkwardness in The Western Air Temple makes sense and awkwardness is not the same thing as social ineptitude. He reads people very well, he just lacks the confidence and life experience to behave anything but awkwardly around his peers. A lot of it's social anxiety as well.
Azula is the same way among peers she isn't dictating, as seen in The Beach. She's almost just like Zuko, but instead of resorting to shyness, she resorts to assertiveness because that's what she knows. And Azula, of course, has no trouble reading people. But unlike Zuko, she does struggle to connect to them emotionally.
Speaking of Azula, this idea that Zuko isn't an extremely talented firebender is also false. He may not be on the prodigal levels of Azula, Katara, and Toph (let's go girlsssss), but he is an excellent firebender. It takes effort, practice, and time -- but Zuko is a very skilled fighter in his element. He consistently defeats his opponents in firebending and holds his own.
Toph
Toph is victim to fandom flanderization to the point that she is made out to be emotionally rigid, cool, and uncaring. The fandom portrays Toph as someone who could not be bothered to listen to someone's pain, is too tough to care about anything, and is kinda always just looking out for A#1.
That's how Toph presents herself as a coping mechanism, sure, but as the show consistently depicts, this is not truly the case. Her parents had her propped up like a delicate flower and fragile doll, pushing her into a box for their expectations and limitations they imposed on her because of her disability. In defense of this, Toph has created a tough exterior shell to counter her parents' beliefs.
Toph pretends she doesn't care, but deep down she really cares. This is why Toph breaks down when talking to Sokka about how Katara cares about her — the real her — more than her actual mother ever did. (Which also reminds me how crazy it is that certain parts of the fandom are trying to say Katara was not motherly and that Sokka was more parentified than she was…)
And Toph might have a rough exterior, but she's a very caring and loving person. She's always the first to stand up against situations of injustices and very passionate about stopping the fire lord, despite growing up in wealth and privilege herself. Her tough edges when teaching Aang is her own personal approach to earthbending — taking this bluntly and head on, like a rock. It doesn't mean she doesn't care.
She shows in the Tales of Ba Sing Se that she also is a regular girl in that she is insecure about things, including her appearance, even if she can't see it. She cries when talking to Katara, confiding in her about it, and is touched when Katara warmly tells her that she is pretty while sending the girls (literally) down the river.
She also shows vulnerability in how hurt and upset she was in having to let the benders who abducted Appa get away. She feels tremendous guilt in having to hold up the tower to keep the gaang from dying at the expense of Appa's safety. She is offers Zuko very sage and compassionate advice in The Ember Island Players too, knowing that he, too, struggles to be vulnerable with people and taking his trust to confide in her seriously.
Just because Toph wears a tough mask does not mean she's an unfeeling person who doesn't have just as much love in her heart as the rest of the gaang. The way the fandom paints her, again, leaning into the comedic side of things, as bluntly unfeeling is really whittling down the depth of Toph's character and everything at play here about her.
Katara and Aang…
Now, for Katara and Aang, I honestly do not see a ton of flanderization. I see mischaracterization, but not so much flanderization. They're connected, but not one and the same.
Katara is presented as someone simply, whiny, annoying, and preachy. Talking about Katara as "whiny" or "annoying" is likely some misogyny. If you think Katara is "whiny", but Zuko is "deep" and "suffering" about his trauma, then you're probably just sexist. But this is common in the fandom from the early days on.
Again, if Katara is "preachy", but Iroh and Aang are "wise", then again, it's time to look inward and start asking yourself the big questions.
Katara is also strangely portrayed in fandom as hating Zuko's living guts post canon, which is just… not accurate. I see many fandom comments, such as "she really haes that man fr" and stuff, as if they never watched the rest of the show following The Southern Raiders and skipped their connecting moments, such as Crossroads of Destiny, or The Chase. But, I figure this goes back to hating Zutara, which also is, a majority of the time, misogyny.
Katara also gets this strange rap for being absolutely cruel and cutthroat. She has moments where she lashes out in anger, yes, she has a temper. But overall, Katara is the most compassionate, loving, and empathetic person in the entire gaang. Her biting remarks in the heat of the moment to Toph, Sokka, and Zuko are not indicative of her overall personality. Of course, portraying the multifaceted sides of her is great, but this whittling down of her to portray her as a "bitch" almost is absolutely bizarre to me.
Now, for Aang, this is a doozy. There is so much idoloization of Aang's character as a perfect hero from people's childhood and also some over-the-top critiques of his character that makes it hard to pinpoint what's going on. Aang's character is also kind of all over the place and there are moments that don't add up from the writers' side of things, so it makes nailing this one down tough.
But Aang is not a happy-go-lucky character all the time. He leans into his juvenile traits as a literal 12/13-year-old, but also he has a serious streak, especially Book 2 onwards. He gets livid angry, lashes out to the point of going into an Avatar State rage, and has tantrums that are unfair to people.
He behaves selfishly at times, like taking away Katara and Sokka's chance to see their father out of a fear of abandonment. He's not this perfect, does-no-wrong character. He also runs away from his problems as a common theme throughout the whole show up until the finale, which is weirdly never addressed as a hurdle to overcome for him by the narrative.
But, Aang is also a very loving, earnest character. He genuinely loves people. He's a people person and wants to befriend everyone. The writers, imo, didn't flesh him out to his full potential in the cartoon. I wish that he had gotten more time to explore his grief, showcase his grief, and experience it. Instead, they seemed to be too afraid to break the portrayal of him as a happy kid, and just didn't go there too much. There was far much more angst from Aang about being the avatar and the weight of those expectations than grief he would be feeling as a lone genocide survivor. And I really wish we got to see more of him grappling with that. His character deserved that, imo.
He also didn't get the full chance to overcome a lot of character flaws. The show sort of decided he suffered enough (without showing him grapple with that fully) and that he kinda didn't have to overcome other things that were set up as if he would. I think that Aang's character sometimes gets over demonized as well for things that are writing flaws that aren't adding up, and making him seem like multiple characters rather than one, consistent MC.
But, Aang is a complex case for fandom dissection because there seems to be two prevailing trains of thought for him, and a lot of mistakes in the writers' room pertaining to his character that bleed into this fandom dichotomy.
Overall, it's frustrating when fandoms bastardize characters and reduce them to either entirely mischaracterized traits or memeified tropes. Of course, memes are fun, but like how show writers do this in late seasons, fandoms do it late into fandom (sometimes early too). They whittle the character down to a trope that either has some basis, or something they anticipate will happen because of the trope's common themes, even though it did not occur with this specific character.
So many fandoms do this, and the Avatar one is no exception, in fact, I would argue that it's a huge culprit of it. These characters, for the most part, are so well fleshed out and deep, that it's exhausting and disappointing to see the fandom flanderize and mischaracterize them, even if it seems inevitable. And of course, these flanderizations speak the loudest, even if the majority in the "real" (not casual) fandom, don't do it.
The ATLA characters are why this show has had such an indelible mark in TV storytelling and animation. The plot is good, the world is exciting, and the creatures are creative, but above all, it is these characters that keep people coming back. They connect with people because of their complexities and depth. When that's the crux of a show, watching the characters get flanderized and mischaracterized is even more disappointing.
So I wanted to write about what I'm seeing and open the discussion further for fans here. Thanks for sticking with me in this long post and meta! We'll see how many edits I make later as I think of things.
