r/ATLA

I know the show is called avatar the last air bender so please don’t come after me it’s just a question. I was wondering what would’ve happened to the avatar cycle if they actually wiped out ALL of the air benders including Ang.

I know someone will inevitably say that he would’ve gone into the avatar state but that’s not the point. I would assume that the next avatar would be born and the cycle would continue. However, what happens when it’s time to be reincarnated into the air nation but there’s no air nation?

Also, has an avatar ever actually passed away so young? I know Kuruk (I may have spelled it wrong) died young but I mean before even being able to fully become the avatar.

By the way I’m a casual fan so again please don’t come at me. I’m just curious and wanted to engage with the community

I keep seeing people posting about how the new Air nation that Aang rebuilds in TLOK not actually being the full recreation of the previous nomadic culture because Aang was 12 when he ran away from the temple and therefore hadn’t learnt all the rituals and existing traditions that he could’ve learnt when he was older.

I was wondering why that’s assumed, since we know that Aang can communicate with his past Avatar lives, isn’t it possible that he could’ve learnt the missing information from Roku or Yangchen? It won’t be the exact same obviously there would’ve likely been changes to traditions, and the diminished size of the new nation would’ve affected its full realization, but it would’ve been mostly complete? Please correct me if I’m wrong I’ve been wondering about this for like a week LMAO

There are many examples in the series of benders of one element emulating the styles of another. Uncle Iroh famously uses the example of water-bending to help Zuko understand lightning. How do you think a water-bender heavily influenced by fire-benders would fight? How would they dress? What would their backstory be? I’ve got plenty of my own ideas, like maybe using steam or scalding hot water? Or even using ice in an extra aggressive, fire-like style? I’m curious what you all think though, what would a fire-coded water-bender be like?

I feel like it gets so overlooked but rewatching the series again I’m so impressed the way Sokka created Appa’s armor. He’s so creative like the mechanist, like creating that giant arrow on his head and and the coverings for his tail and legs
I know most people just think he’s a side character but his genius is amazing

I think this is one of the very interesting points that when taken together with certain cues from the shows gives Ozai pretty interesting character traits.

This is in no way excusing Ozai's actions, I am merely exploring Ozai's perspective.

This is based on two points mostly.

1. Ozai justifying himself to Zuko that he never thought of the Agni Kai and banishment as unnecessary cruelty but his method of teaching Zuko.

Which does stay consistent with how fast Ozai is to accept Zuko back once he thinks that Zuko has become a proper strong prince in his eyes.

The Agni Kai also wasn't really planned on his part. It was him taking an opportunity that emerged due to Iroh allowing Zuko into the War Council and Zuko breaking protocol. He basically said that he doesn't trust the judgement of his absolute monarch the Fire Lord.

This led to Agni Kai which Zuko refused to participate into a was expected of a prince to defend his rights (like Ozai expected), displaying cowardice which led to his banishment (at least I don't think Ozai would have banished Zuko had he fought back proving himself)

There might be argument that Ozai was simply lying to Zuko, but I don't think so. Ozai doesn't really uses lie as a tool in the show like Azula. He is pretty straightforward and blunt.

See him directly asking for the throne and then using Ursa's plan instead of coming up with one on his own as well as completely believing Azula's lie about Zuko that went against what he knew about Zuko initially.

{This does raise an interesting question on where Azula learned the ability to lie so effectively}

2. Iroh saying that both Azulon and Ozai had hunted for the Avatar in the past.

We knw that Sozin searched for years after the genocide and it would make sense for Azulon to do the same, but Ozai?

It doesn't make sense at all with the avatar missing for moBre that 5 decades by that point.

But what does make sense is that Azulon sent Ozai on this as a form of punishment. Maybe Ozai did something to make Azulon angry, similar but much less idiotic than asking for the throne.

Azulon preferred Iroh more and Iroh didn't include himself among those who had searched for the avatar even though he was a much older than Ozai and if the search was something serious he would have as well.

Ozai was most likely recalled back after some time after Azulon felt like he had learned his lesson.

TLDR: Zuko's scarring and banishment was done by Ozai to force Zuko to become what he viewed as a proper prince or remain banished. This was most likely inspired by his own circumstances with Azulon, his own father.

He named Bumi after his old friend, Kya after Katara's mother. So why Tenzin instead of Gyatso?

I’ve got some theories about Azula that might be interesting. On my first watch I thought ‘oh, they had to make her go insane after being betrayed towards the end of book 3, because otherwise she wouldn’t be beatable at all’ which made sense to me. I thought it was sort of a cop out so that Zuko could win. But the thing is, Azula wasn’t physically weaker, she could still bend lighting and fire perfectly and got the comet boost.

I feel there’s actually more to it, and with that context I feel her character becomes more interesting. I know some of these are hot takes and you might not agree which is fine not looking to argue.

Based on some of her dialogue, actions, and behaviour here’s some stuff I noticed.

Theory 1: ozai was the first major step in her breakdown, not mai and ty lee.

On the day of black sun Zuko tells ozai the truth. Azula has been lying to him, and the truth of what she was hiding was enough to convince ozai to try and murder Zuko on the spot the minute the sun came out. Ozai now knows Azula was openly lying to cover herself because she couldn’t prove Aang was dead.

Later, after Zuko defected and Aang is revealed to be alive, we see that Azula is sent to hunt them down. She had a hunch Aang was alive before but didn’t act on it? This is pure conjecture, but I think Ozai ordered Azula to kill them both without formally banishing her, in the hopes that she’d end up either redeeming herself of getting killed. Azula was put into a similar position as zuko was and she starts to slip.

Theory 2: Azula might have cared about Zuko in a surprising way. She did have an ideal life in her head beyond the war.

Azula is a cold blooded strategist, but she’s actually quite the patriot. She doesn’t want the cities named after herself, she gives them to the fire lord. She believes everything sozin and Azulon wrote, doesn’t question it, and goes after enemies without mercy or question, so I think she is the culmination of the imperialist ideology sozin created.

I think her ‘dream’ is to end the war as swiftly as possible to make up for iroh’s failure to conquer ba sing se, which is why she hates him so deeply. She’s also very clearly scared of ozai and the one time we see her challenge him she flinches. She knows her boundaries and respects her nation.

When Zuko comes back to the fire nation, IDK if it’s stated explicitly but I think Zuko once again becomes the next in line to succeed ozai. She’s surprised when ozai declares her fire lord (it was a very sudden announcement, but I suppose she was already thinking it).

Azula doesn’t seem to mind letting Zuko be next in line because it’s fire nation custom (she even boosts his reputation with the people by saying he killed Aang and tells him it’s not too soon to start with the court painter). Obviously I know she was being strategic with Aang’s potential survival but if Aang was that big a threat, wouldn’t she have gone looking for him after conquering ba sing se rather than come home right away? She just went home despite suspecting the threat to the fire nation was alive. Either she thought he was sufficiently weakened or set Zuko up for a reason that could get them both killed.

She warns Zuko not to hang out with Iroh but never tells ozai about that and even goes on beach trips with him. I think she genuinely was expecting Zuko to become the next fire lord and was trying to prepare him for what that would mean. My theory is that she was showing love to Zuko in her twisted strategic way or wanted to use him as a puppet to extend her own rule. This ultimately contributed to her mental decline, knowing even her brother who she tried to show some form of love and culture towards ultimately ended up rejecting or failing her like Iroh and Ursa.

Theory 3: Zuko’s inner turmoil might be genetic.

Zuko goes through physical illness because of his inner turmoil. I think it’s because the blue spirit inside him (Roku Aang and his perspective of the world) is clashing with the red spirit (sozin Azula and ozai) as we see in ba sing se.

However because both Azula and Zuko are roku’s descendants, I think they both experience this but to different extents.

My last theory is that Azula gets her blue fire bending because she has the avatar’s bloodline inside of her as well as royalty. Ozai doesn’t have blue fire and that is precisely why he married ursa, to improve the power of his next of kin.

She’s followed her red spirit and her connection to Roku and the world is completely severed. She’s left a power obsessed husk who had all the good in her brushed out by her father. She’s going through the same thing as Zuko in season 2 in the finale because she also travelled through the entire earth kingdom and never once stopped to think like Zuko did, about the fire nation’s true role in hurting the world.

That’s why Azula can’t connect with her own citizens at all after the connections are severed. The people of the fire nation were once peaceful industrial and cultural people, not warmongers. She goes insane when Zuko ozai mai and ty lee leave her on an empty throne because she doesn’t even understand herself at this point.

So tldr: Azula’s blue fire is because she was the product of Roku and sozin’s bloodlines to create a perfect firebender, while zuko ended up inheriting the avatar’s will and integrated that into his bending which was how he overpowered her in the end.

Her breakdown isn’t just from ursa mai and ty lee, it’s because Zuko left her too, because ozai stopped trusting her as much, and because a genetic element may play into it too.

I ordered the full series on Blu-ray which should be here this week and I am going in COMPLETELY blind. I’m a 35 year old male who lives alone, never had kids. I grew up a huuuuge Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network head as a kid but this show came out at just the wrong time for me…I was just entering high school and getting into smoking and driving and partying and shit and my young teenage brain considered any newer cartoons that may have been catching on too immature for me (just me being young and dumb). Anyways I have recently been collecting manga and watching old great anime I loved as a kid and exploring new anime/animated series which I never experienced before. I just finished My Hero Academia and the story was beautiful the characters were great and now I’m experiencing that all too familiar feeling of loss and emptiness after one finishes a great piece of fiction, so I’m ready to start a new story. On a whim I purchased this series last week to give it a go. Like I said earlier I know nothing about what happens or the characters or story or anything so I just want to know…is this story beautiful? Do the characters grow on you in a special way? Will I get chills and tears? Should I pop it in this week for my next adventure?

“Leaves from the vi-“ WRAP IT UP
I cannot STOP crying like he’s such a good man and never deserved the Hell he was put thru after he lost his son

The main series has comics, too, right? I distinctly remember there being a volume that wasn't adapted very early that took place after episode 2 that explained what happened to the airbenders who survived or fled etc the attacks.

Are the original comics all that different from the tv show? Are they easy to find and buy in bulk? I've been reading the post series comics slowly.

i miss azula very much. her character was well-written. one of the best villains in animated films imo, but i’m really curious to what happend to azula after she decided not to redeem herself in her comics.

Can we just not overlook the fact that Katara tried to slice Azula in half??!! Look I know she’s evil, but girl, chill! 😭