the way i imagine 16!yo aang is basically the exact same but with massive attachment/abandonment issues.
even if he wasn't told he was the avatar at 12, he was still a prodigy, and i fully believe that he would've been ostracised by his peers simply because of that, because kids are insecure as hell. so aang would've spent the years leading up to losing literally everything (sans appa) with minimal friendships, an over-reliance on gyatso for validation, and progressively losing contact with his friends from other nations due to political tensions rising and the air nomads adopting a somewhat isolationist policy.
then he wakes up 100 years later, faced with a girl who seems to immediately like him and a guy his age who warms up to him quite quickly, only to then find out they are the only people in the world he has any remaining connection to (i doubt he'd assume bumi is still alive) and you've got yourself the clingiest, most overprotective avatar ever.
the bato episode could be turned up a notch with this, with aang insisting he couldn't give katara and sokka the map to their father because he can't lose them, and that being the first time the siblings realise just how messed up aang was by finding out about the genocide.
and during the blue spirit fiasco, when aang finds out zuko was the one who helped him, he wouldn't be able to let it go, refusing to fight him with any force, insisting to anyone who would listen that zuko can change if they give him a chance. cue ba sing se where him and zuko form a genuine tentative friendship and then zuko backstabs him for a chance to go home, aang is utterly devastated but even after that he refuses to believe zuko meant him any actual harm.
naturally this is zukaang so he's right, and when zuko comes back to apologize and teach him fire bending, he welcomes him with open arms. but everyone else in the gaang is fucking pissed about how badly zuko hurt aang and it takes a while of zuko proving himself to get to any point of trust, and even then he's got katara or sokka basically stalking him at all times. toph is more chilled out cuz she knows for a fact that zuko regrets all his life choices.
the problem is, when aang sees the opportunity to be friends with zuko again, he doubles down way too hard. he agrees with anything zuko says, shuts down the water siblings' concern and even gets angry that they'd suggest zuko would do anything against them, and no one is comfortable with it at all, least of all zuko.
eventually toph has had enough and (somewhat literally) smacks some sense into aang, asking him why he's so unconditionally loyal to someone he was only friends with for a couple weeks before he betrayed him in the worst way possible. aang sits down hard and mumbles, "i can't lose him again", and toph has to resist hitting him again because only aang could blame himself for something like that.
during the firebending masters episode zuko confronts aang on his placating and insists that he'd rather aang yell or punch him or kick him off the team than be so visibly afraid of zuko hurting him again. aang doesn't respond at first, but after meeting the dragons and learning from them, he silently pulls zuko into a hug and says he forgives him, and asks him to tell him if he ever slips back into old patterns. zuko hugs him back and promises he will.
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