Yangchen could eschew her responsibility to her culture because her culture was still there.Īang was the only Air Nomad left. He refuses to accept the notion that his people were ignorant, that their ways were insufficient, and he refuses to go with another people’s way. Refuses to accept that his own people’s way of life was wrong. Avatar Yangchen told Aang, point blank, that he should kill Ozai because his duty as the Avatar, his duty to the world, outweighs his duty to his people. What I now realize is that this is the whole point.
The deus ex machina in the final battle, where Aang gets pressed against a sharp rock that releases his closed off chakra and unlocks the Avatar State, always felt like a cop out to me as a kid: the narrative itself realizing that the only way for Aang’s philosophy to hold water was to make up a tenuous solution. Selfishness.Īs I’ve matured, what was once a blemish on an otherwise perfect show has become something else entirely. “For me, the most important part of Aang’s character is the most uncomfortable. [Image description: Screenshot of a Youtube comment by Ultimate Kyuubi Fox.
