Saw your post about the radical Aang thing and it got me thinking about how many character arcs in media (American media) centre around, not necessarily revenge but avenging something and usually by violent means ish â avenging = justice, fairness. And I do wonder why that is (esp w the strong female character tm), because I grew up w the opposite. Justice is served / achieved by avenging (so killing Ozai, passing a verdict) rather than, yk, doing what Aang did which is end the cycle of bloodshed and sarting a new era w/o blood ("untarnished) via dethronening Ozai (without making him into a martyr / icon, which would've happen if he died) and that is by all means fairness or well, justice in the "moral" face of things, but would it be "legally" considered justice? (I bring legal because moral notions of justice in said American media seems to stem from the law kinda ???) But yeah,, shsgs that was a Rantâ˘ď¸
aang is such a great character for so many reasons, many of which stem from just how wonderfully he subverts western/american notions of heroism, especially irt masculinity. america is predicated on this mythos of individualism, and that the true hero is someone who rejects all systems, who âplays by his own rules.â the loose cannon cop/agent, the gun-toting cowboy, batman, etc. even heroes such as superman, who was literally designed to represent jewish values such as tzedakah and tikkun olam, got the gritty zack snyder makeover in the newest iteration of the dceu. and while aang does forge his own path, and ignores all the people who tell him that there is only one way to end the war, it is also obvious that to frame this as celebrating individualism would be folly, because it ignores why aang does this: which is, of course, to uphold, maintain, and preserve the values of his people. aang rejects the system that sees solutions only in terms of war, because he sees value in tradition, in the way of life he knew outside the war, before it, and the people who imparted those values. aang knows it is his duty as the avatar to put an end to the war, but it is also his duty as an air nomad to end the war not through conquest, but through peace. the message he sends in this decision speaks so much louder than the alternative some people were disappointed did not come to fruition: one in which he kills ozai and loses himself in the process. it is the ending many people were expecting to see, and they felt betrayed by the lack of bloodshed. but aang is not an individualist hero. he may be the only air nomad (for the time being), but that doesnât mean he doesnât belong to a community. and it is his ties to this community, their rich culture and history and values and people, that is what makes aang such a refreshing and necessary hero, not only to his world, but to ours.Â
