I think what hurts me most about Kyoshi isn’t that she made brutal decisions. It’s that she knew, from the very beginning, what those decisions would cost her.
This quote kills me:
“The people would never revere her like they did Yangchen or smile at her like they did Kuruk.”
She doesn’t argue with it. She doesn’t promise herself she’ll change their minds. She just thinks:
“Then let it be so.”
That is devastating.
Kyoshi accepts that history will probably remember her as a monster before she’s even had the chance to become a hero. And the cruel part is… history does.
Centuries later, everyone remembers the Avatar who killed Chin. The Avatar who ruled through fear. The Avatar who was ruthless and uncompromising.
Almost nobody remembers the scared girl who just wanted people to be safe. Nobody remembers the girl who worried constantly about doing the wrong thing. Who loved deeply. Who cried. Who questioned herself. Who sacrifices being with the one she loved in the afterlife. And everything she does is because she believed protecting people was her duty and worth much more then protecting her own reputation.
The world got to live in peace because Kyoshi was willing to become someone it could fear.
And then it only remembered the fear. And ugh…that is the tragedy of Kyoshi.
It makes sense by the end she lost her humanity.
