SHOULD Toph And Aang Have Been Bad Parents?⎮An Avatar: The Last Airbender Discussion
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- Опубликовано: 27 сен 2022
- So one of the big complaints that comes out of Legend of Korra is that the legacy of the original Gaang was massacred. Obviously there are other complaints too, but this has always been one that stuck out to me. And so today I want to journey down that rabbit hole to really puzzle out just what it is that LoK did to make people angry about their classic Last Airbender characters. Enojy!
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Legend of Korra ruins Katara actually. Aang and Tenzin went to exotic travels and Katara accepted it and stayed with other children? This is so stupid because I know katara from atla would talk to her husband about this issue and Aang would listen his wife and spend times with bumi and kya to. Season two must be uncanon
Agreed - there is no way in hell Katara would have been a complete doormat and say 'Ok dear, enjoy your trip'. Unfortunately, it seems to be a sign of Bryke's disdain for Katara's character from the original show that they wrote her like this.
"His husband"
Came here to say this! Katara’s major motivation is advocating for those who have suffered injustice with direct action. She went in on Haru’s mom to advocate for him despite just meeting him, but as an adult she’d let her husband mistreat two of their children? What?
@@andreawalker8343 Aang didn't mistreat his children.
I hate season two with a burning passion
In regards to Toph's style of parenting, I acknowledge she wouldn't be the cuddly type mum that Katara would have been and she certainly would have been a complete tiger mum when it came to her daughters' earth/metal bending training. HOWEVER, I do not accept this 'Whatever, I don't care' attitude - Toph was capable of expressing deep feelings, just very rarely.
yes, adding that fact to the distant relationship she had with her parents which should provoke a reflection on her parenting abilities and the amount of attention towards her children, but NO PROBLEMATIZING CHARACTERS WITH BAD TRAITS THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE WAS A EASIER WAY TO DEVELOP THE PLOT, and that's what we got...
That didn’t make sense to me either or the fact she literally didn’t grow/change at all as she went through adulthood. Didn’t even get another haircut. If anything she kind of regressed back to how she was before she joined the gang. Pretty disappointing for a character who was already great with more potential to grow.
@@andreawalker8343 it’s not a regression, she developed a good amount the kid toph would’ve never became a policeman but clearly she developed enough to want to change her mindset on it
She grew up in a strict household so she let her kids have all the freedom they could, toph was never a relationship kinda person anyway even in the comics so I don’t see how it’s a regression in her character & even then she worked things out with Su, Lin willingly CHOOSE to not talk to toph
Toph didt have that attitude to her girls andits very clearly explained in the show. Because she was so locked up in her childhood she wanted her daughters to be able to choose their path.she did care though that much is clear
Tbh I think the whole " Aang was a bad parent" thing was a bit overblown, Aang was the Avatar AND had to prepare Tenzin for the burden of rebuilding the Air Nation so it makes sense that his other kids would get a bit less time comparatively. The comics elaborate he still was a loving and caring father of three.
Thank you! The response I've seen online of people saying they hate how TLOK made Aang a "terrible father" is ridiculous. I personally find it refreshing that Aang was a flawed parent because it's more realistic.
Me too. People seem to forget that Aang did teach all of his kids his culture. Kaya and Bumi both complained about how their father tried to teach them about all the Guru's but they weren't interested. Tenzin was the only one interested and also was the only kid who airbended. It sounds more like they were jealous of the attention and not that Aang was terrible father.
Not really. In the original series he did put himself Endanger just to see if other airbenders exist. He did it multiple times some of them were Comics. But he also got upset when people tried to change or be a part of the air nomad culture when they were not air nomads. Think of the episode where a refugees took over one of the air temples. And that doesn't even tie into the fact that he was willing to prioritize his air no mad beliefs over protecting the world and his avatar duties. Though I think it was overdone but it does fit for him to prioritize air bending culture. He was very proud of his culture and was deeply saddened and angry that it was gone. No doubt that caused trauma and trauma whether we like to admit it or not can affect the way we raise our kids
@@ivy456They weren't even jealous. They were annoyed that Tenzin was remembering things differently than they actually happened. Tenzin had memories of these big family trips where everyone had a lot of fun, when in reality it was just him and Aang visiting the air temples and training. Bumi and Kya didn't go because they were not interested in all the airbender stuff. They just wanted Tenzin to remember things the way they actually were, not the idealized memories he actually had.
Kya and Bumi even spoke with great affection of their dad, and acknowledged they were happy. They were upset at Tenzin, not Aang.
Aang was dealt with a bad hand, things would´ve turned out fine if all his kids were airbenders, but they werent hence the issue.
Toph´s problems were more in line with the "demand for metalbending" than anything else, she was successful so her kids got shoved on the shadows of her career.
I actually found it to be such a refreshing plot point to see the consequences of a flawed upbringing on their children as they grow up. Being a parent is terribly difficult and too often media brush over it and let characters become flawless parents, as if simply being a good person means you'll be the perfect parent. But I agree, while it made some sense for Toph, I didn't really see it for Aang.
I think it makes total sense for Aang. He didn’t have parents in the traditional sense, and he’s thrust into this traditional parenting model. He’s an Airbender. He’s aloof and flitting. AND he carries the huge burden of having to propagate air bending and and air nomad culture. He had to go through the birth of 2 other kids before he could even have the relief of knowing he’d have an Airbender as a son.
I’m not saying he was right to neglect Kya and Bumi in some ways, but I can definitely understand it.
@@josephguiste9465 katara had parents but she didn't slap aang upside his bald as head for neglecting his two other kids she just allowed it? Yeah I'm not buying it. Wouldn't katara have taught him how to be a better parent
@@hueyfreeman6262 Katara’s mother died when she was like 5, and her dad left to fight in the war. If anything, she’s accustomed to parental figures leaving home to attend to a greater good. While I don’t think she was happy with Kya and Bumi being neglected (to a limited capacity), she surely had to balance that thought with the fact that Aang was out with Tenzin for the purpose of ensuring the survival of aurbending and air nomad culture. That’s something she would 100% respect. So no, I don’t think Katara would slap him upside the head for doing that. I can imagine arguments happening on the topic, but I don’t think Katara could ever BLAME Aang for taking Tenzin out to the air temples.
We also never hear about Aang’s parenting from Katara, and the kids never once complain about Katara. We only have the perspective of Kya and Bumi and their words, so our insight into the entire dynamic is very limited.
@@josephguiste9465 katara was 8 not 5 and she clearly remembers how her mother raised her
@@hueyfreeman6262 Whether she was 8 or 5 when she lost her mother, my point still stands.
Something I felt like was off it’s just the way kya, aang daughter, didn’t learn that much water bending from him… or why doesn’t bumi have some type of southern water tribe, soldier, experience. Like Sokka, I feel that sokka being his uncle, he will definitely teach him how to be a warrior. Because he doesn’t have any bending abilities. I honestly thought Bumi had fire bending because he was wearing red...😅
Actually yeah and then Sokka could’ve been incorporated into the story a little more than just “Yeah that guy existed”
@@raautumn6368 yaaa. I was kind of sad seeing sokka just featured one time as a Republican member counselor something like that
Considering one of the big lesson that both Zuko and Aang learned was being able to integrate one style of bending into another, Aang through physically learning each element and Zuko learning lighting redirection, it would have been interesting to see Aang’s daughter show some of this through having an skill of cloud or mist bending that takes from both lines of parentages. Bumi could have also had one fight where he showed off in a fight the way an air bender moves, seeing that despite not being a bender he paid attention to what his father taught him. Idk with the whole idea of republic city being a world blended together we didn’t get to fully see that through bending styles like we got in the of show. But also specialty bending became less of a skill to be mastered and instead just a talent that had to be unlocked, but that’s a whole other bag.
Kya's fighting style of bending does make me think of Airbending though. She doesn't move with the same fluidly as Katara did and it usually looks like that she's seeking the optimum striking angle.
I feel it made sense iwth Toph but not Aang. His character was so wise, playful and caring. It also doesn't make sense that the other kids weren't raised with more air nomad culture after the whole thing with the air acolytes it seemed like he wanted to preserve the culture and traditions separately from the act of air bending itself.
It's really weird that I wrote this comment before finishing the video and you had the same thoughts as me!
Agreed
Ya, I feel that aang would still include his kids on adventures about his culture. Not isolate them maybe just for training but that’s. And wouldn’t he teach his daughter water bending too because he knows of water bending too… not just air. Like Katara is not the only one Or wouldn’t bumi might possibly learn stuff from sokka… bc they don’t have any bending (at point one for bumi) so shouldn’t he know some water tribe, soldier, man stuff. Idk it just a lot of stuff that does not add up to me.
He tried teaching them about Air Nomad culture, but they didn't show much interest in it.
@@vetarlittorf1807 so that's an excuse to straight up neglect them?
@@isabellaa8875 katara would have taught Kya water bending
I feel like they couldve done the same-ish story but with the aang’s older kids going on the air temple trips too. But they’d feel left out bc they weren’t airbenders and couldnt do the traditions or games that aang was teaching them.
fatherless weirdo
The same way it’s out of character for Aang to be an absentee father I also feel it’s out of character for Katara to allow him to be. Knowing her from the OG series she would not have put up with that bs and would have called him out on it
she was still like a child people change
Its not out of character. You make that assumption based on his childhood mindset and mentally but he was almost twenty years older when he had tenzin. Parenting is hard and it refreshing that they gave aang a flaw
@@youngmaster7405 my comment was about Katara and not Aang. I wrote it the way I did based on the fact that creator of the video thought it was out of character for him (although I also agree with him). Here’s the good thing about opinions. They can differ from person to person which is why I wrote “I also feel” and not “it also is”. 🙂 It’s great that you think it falls into her or/his character but I do not. Yes, people change over time but if you ask me that’s one hell of a change for Katara to go from a caring mother personality to “I’m okay with/I won’t do anything about you treating my other two kids like less than”. That’s just my two cents on the matter 🤷🏼♀️
@@MJSolit fair enough, but I wasn't talking about katara. i was referring to aang. but I think when it comes to her, she probably didn't notice (but thats my assumption)
@@youngmaster7405 you just defend every flaw this show has don't you
You break it down so well. I’ve always struggled with Toph’s portrayal in LOK since she was my favorite in the original series but these arguments make sense. Her emotional growth was definitely stunted and it’s unclear if she ever fully reconciled with how her parent’s treated her before she had children.
I also don’t think what the show has done for Aang has made much sense either. Favoritism is to be expected, but the way they act like it was complete neglect is just completely out of character for him (AND Katara to idly sit by and watch it happen). I also wish Bumi and Kya had more relevant roles in the story, anyway.
I don't like how the show put a big focus on romance, whether it be the disaster that was the Korra and Mako "romance" or Bolins "romance" with the water tribe princess
Yeah, never had a problem with Toph, but with Aang, I do. I agree that it would make sense that he would maybe have a slight favouritism for his air bending son, as the loss of his people was something that generally had a great impact on him and it's what he grew up with. So while the culture he'd want to pass on isn't 1 to 1 with what it used to actually be like, I can see why he'd have a preference for Tenzin because he can pass the culture onto.
What I can't understand is why that would come at the cost of his other children, given he doesn't strike me as that hyper focused on the one person he prefers(Like he still interacted well with the rest of the gang despite having a romantic preference with Katara and caring so much about her that she was the one thing that initially kept him from unlocking his seventh chakra), nor that Katara would let him even if he was.
It's the one thing Katara felt a little ruined over, as I can't reason her having seemingly no problem at all that her husband is blatantly favouring one of his kids over the other two and would probably get him to take them along on those trips he took Tenzin on. And if Aang was to go on those with only Tenzin, she'd probably give him an earfull about it.
When you think about it, it kinda makes sense for both aang and toph to be flawed parents. Aang basically had the fate of his entire race on his shoulders + being the avatar after ending a hundred year war, which most definitely complicated things. As for toph, since she wasnt granted much freedom in her childhood, she wanted to give that to her children but ultimately it backfired since she went way too far with it. Thats just my take though
I think the being raised collectively makes sense as to why Aang would put more into his air bender child and assume there are guides better suited for his other children. What doesn’t make sense is Katara being permissive about it.
Not necessarily. When Katara met Haru, she argued that he should continue Earthbending because it's a part of him, she wanted to learn Waterbending from Hama because of their shared "heritage" and in the "Imbalance" comics she emphasized how integral bending is to her cultural identity. She might have grown up surrounded by non-benders, but when Sokka questioned his worth on the team she stated how much she valued his map reading skills, which by itself isn't bad but Pian Dao listed qualities that actually spoke more to Sokka's identity than a learned skill. Katara views bending itself as a separate and those ideals were never challenged in "The Last Airbender", so they likely haven't changed that much up to "The Legend of Korra". It's possible that she encouraged Tenzin and Aang to spend so much time together so that they could connect to their culture in a way only Airbenders can understand.
They probably had to cope in regards to the other children, I have a theory that Aang was planning to have more kids with Katara, but realizing that out of 3 only one came out a Airbender and he would´ve to start lefting out his other kids probably didnt set well with either Aang or Katara and they stopped having more altogether.
I´m assuming Aang probably realized Tenzin growing up and marrying a nonbender would probably lead to giving out more airbender children so he put all eggs on the Tenzin basket so he wouldnt aggravate things with the family by trying to get more airbender children himself with a waterbender.
something that a lot of people miss is that aang wasn’t a bad dad, he still loved his children a lot. he just had a duty to do to and rebuild the air nation. also, we do know aang taught his children about airbending culture. kya said that aang used to tell them all about the air bending stories and gurus, kya and bumi just wanted to go and forge their own path rather than becoming acolytes.
I think the problem is that in the show first mentions of Aang from Kya and Bumi are negative one. They went on and on about wat kind of dad they think he was. And only say thet they were a happy family at the end of the episode.
I think the problem isn't that Aang is not a perfect father it is that they make him look like a BAD and neglecting one. Like it was that bad that his kids in their 60s didn't forgive him yet.
The problem with the depiction of Aang as a parent is that we're only seeing Bumi and Kya's side of the story. As recently seen from Owl House, it's easy to have a distorted view of a parental figure when you don't have the full picture.
On the face of it, Tophgiving her kids too much space make sense after her own parents did the opposite. But Toph's main issue with her parents was always that they never put in the effort to understand and just pegged her as just the blind, helpless girl. Toph couldn't actually be herself around her parents because they would not stop being overprotective.
I would have thought that this would lead to Toph trying to get to know her kids, to allow them to feel like they could be themselves around her. But she does the opposite and completely ignores them and becomes exactly like her parents in the process.
The worst part is that, if they really wanted to go down this route, this could have made for a fascinating story if given the right focus. How Toph accidentally emulates her parents by trying to do the exact opposite thing. But the story would have needed to give Toph a lot more agency than she got if that story were to work. Instead, she gets no agency whatsoever so that the conflict between Toph's daughters could be set up. It's the worst of both worlds.
The only way I can think to justify why Aang was so absent in the first two kids lives is odd honestly. If we see the picture when Tenzin was just a baby, we can see Bumi is basically a teenager and Kya looks to be in elementary school (if it were a thing in the universe). I would think Aang was so stressed about the possibility of completely loosing airbending to the world that he threw himself into his duties as to not thing about it. This means it would be too late to share a bond with Bumi, as his forming years had passed, and once Tenzin was born he went overboard with trying to catch up with all the time he had been waiting for another airbender to be born. I would think that by the time Aang realized what he was doing, favoritism to the extreme, it was too late. His kids had grown enough that the relationship would be very difficult to patch up as he was almost entirely absent, and all he had was Tenzin and his own wife. So he committed to it and continued to train Tenzin in the ways of the airbenders.
On a small side note, in movies and TV shows people who were rule breakers and trouble causers tend to eventually go into the police force as to make sure there are good people working there who can help kids that were just like them. Can't justify why she would be an absent parent though, oddly. It could be she psyched herself out of it thinking she would be a horrible mother and figured they would be better off without her present?
I don’t find it so bad, I mean I don’t complain on how they turned out. Just because you’re a nice goofy kid when you’re 12 doesn’t mean you’ll be a perfect parent, aang was raised by monks not his parents so he doesn’t know that concept very well except the love for his father figure Gyatso which he wanted to be for Tenzin so it makes completely sense that he’d unknowingly favor Tenzin who also had the burden of being the last airbender which he became once aang died and before he had his first daughter
True and I agree with this but I also think it could have been done better atlest.
Oh snap! You're right. Tenzin WAS the Last Airbender after Aang's passing.
@@ajstudios9210 well kinda yes, but also no because of Korra lol. But the last Air Nomad monk yes.
He didn’t have parents but that’s not much of an excuse. He knows what it’s like to be left out and he did have someone that was practically a father figure as well.
@@Solverse_ Yes, thank you! he should've reflected on that, being the thoughtful person he grew up to be, it's like neither he nor toph learned ANYTHING ABOUT HOW A KID WOULD'VE LIKE TO BE RAISED OR NEED their own experience, ot just doesn't make sense...
Another reason why it doesn't make sense for Aang was we saw in book 1 where he hid the information from Katara and Sokka about their father for he feared they'll leave and they were the only human family he had. We saw how he nearly was about to wipe out the sand benders for taking Appa and searched tirelessly for him. It's one thing to put more attention on Tenzin, but its another to completely neglect Kya and Bumi. Air nomad culture is theirs as well and both are just as much of his legacy along with Tenzin. Aang would have taught them the ways of their air nomad culture and would have happily taught them.Katara wouldn't even let that slide and will checked him.
Bryan and Dante ruined his character
They didn’t ruin his character he’s just not perfect y’all hold him on a pedestal but in reality kya & bumi did nothing to help keep the air nomad culture going
Never bothered asking tenzins the air nomad ways & they did actually know certain things about air nomad culture like the guru’s & their stories ( probably cuz aang told them)
But they can’t have air bender kids so they don’t have the responsibility or burden of rebuilding an entire culture, it’s not like aang didn’t spend any time with his other kids but he had to prioritize tenzin more cuz he’s the only air bender left to carry on the culture
He searched for appa cuz that was his childhood friend/ life long friend & one of his ONLY ties back to his air nomad life
Of course he’s gonna lose his shit if he loses appa which also ties in to how he treated tenzin & prioritized him more
We never saw the extent of what they know about air nomad culture so to say aang completely neglected them on that is a bit much but i agree he could’ve took them on more trips but it doesn’t ruin his character cuz he didn’t
I wont explain how this isnt ruining his character because even his kids admit they were a good family and kya says he was a supportive father to her. But this is just a flaw.
Katara also tended to view bending as its own unique form of culture. She argued that Haru shouldn't stop Earthbending because she saw it as a part of him, she wanted to learn from Hama because of their shared "heritage" and in the "Imbalance" comics she emphasized how integral her Waterbending was to her cultural identity in spite of the fact that only a select amount of people are born with bending. No one ever challenged her ideals on the subject in "The Last Airbender", so we can only assume that they haven't changed much in "The Legend of Korra". Katara probably believed that Aang spending so much time with Tenzin was their way of connecting to Airbending culture as opposed to Air Nomad culture.
I think the biggest disservice was that none of the characters learned new lessons that changed their behavior, which is all the previous characters. On screen they'd learn life altering lessons within an episode, and although Iroh leaves eventually he was still around to dispense a verbal whooping should they act up for a decent amount of their teenage years. Not to mention the fact that the majority of people would look back on their teen years with cringe at the level of maturity they had. Every atla character ended up as a snapshot of the personalities that was last seen and that is honestly a big one.
You're telling me that the crew never learned anything about parenting? Not even from each other?! They just dove straight in and never communicated again?!!!
I still think it was bad writing to make Aang a shitty father to his elder children and here is how I would have personally written it:
I would have Bumi be an airbender from birth (it was once mentioned that everyone in Air Nomad was an airbender so why make Bumi a non-bender?), but an airbender who was either not skilled enough to earn his arrow tattoos or who connected better with his Uncle Sokka and the Water Tribe's way of life. This naturally causes tension between Bumi and his father which explodes upon Bumi announcing he was joining the United Forces. Aang accuses his son of betraying the Air Nomad's way of life but Bumi counters that the world has changed and that peace can be achieved through other ways than detached pacifism. This leads to a period of estrangement between Bumi and Aang, which gradually resolves to a degree once Aang sees how well Bumi is doing in keeping the peace.
While Kya is still naturally closer to her mother being the only girl and a fellow waterbender, she and Aang bond over a love of animals and being the most spiritual of their family (Kya, in my version, has been to the Spirit World many times). Kya and Aang visited the Air Temples together and went to the Spirit Oasis at the North Pole at least once a year.
Having Bumi as a less pacificstic Airbender, an airbender with more of a waterbender attitude would be great. We could see him fighting with weapons assisted with airbending and lots of jokes about eating meat (to the disgust of his father and Tenzin).
This makes so much sense!
This makes so much sense! A critic I do have of Avatar and its depictions of family is that tension has to always stem it seems from trauma or some type of action from the parent. Sometimes parents and their children just have different personalities, attitudes, and attachments. Tenzin could have just been the closet out of the three to his father without Aang playing favorites. Bumi could have just gravitated more to Sokka and the material world, this being a source of conflict between him and Aang.
i would have bumi learn air bending and water bending
Toph makes total sense - as a parent, she was exactly what I would have expected - now the whole police thing can be argued either way and make sense.
As for Aang - he was a split parent - he was a good parent to his airbending son and a poor parent to his non-airbending children. This makes total sense given that the most important thing to him after the war ended was the recreation of the air nomads. He had 1 child that fit with that and so that was where his focus was. This is not uncommon in the real world, in fact there are a number of famous people who fit this pattern. It doesn't make him a bad person, just imperfect. If he wasn't the last of the airbenders, I would think he would have done much better, but the only way he knew of for the air nomads to ever return was through his children, so while I am sure he loved all his children, he focused on the only hope for bringing back airbending.
I suspect that if he had known that the next Avatar would do something that brought back airbenders in huge numbers, he would have been a much better parent because he would not have felt the fate of the future depended on him ensuring his 1 son knew everything about his culture.
He also would´ve turned out well if all his kids were airbenders.
Sometimes I feel like Azula should have been in the story or had some influence. The comics kind of cut things off with her a little once she decided she just wanted to make Zuko feel miserable. I felt like there could have been lots of political issues created by her in LOK.
Toph becoming a cop has always been weird to me.
First, there were no cops in ATLA only city guards, they militia tasked with upholding order within settlements and defending citizens from outside threats.
Second, as militia they were soldiers first and peacekeepers second. Soldiers must adhere to strict laws and regulations, not make them.
Third, police work is 90% paperwork which is very difficult when you are blind, live in a world without braille, and are illiterate at twelve-years.
I think it makes sense because tenzin is the first Air Bender born in over a century. Tenzin is truly the only person that can carry on aang culture after his death. Aang also most likely saw himself in tenzin because he is the only other air bender.
The monks named me oong
No, they named him Ugh.
Aang is only the one I really have an issue with
What about katara? I personally feel like it’s out of character for her to let Aang treat her two other kids like less than Tenzin
@@MJSolit Katara might not be the parental role model you imagined. She argued that Haru shouldn't stop Earthbending because she saw it as a part of him, she wanted to learn from Hama because of their shared "heritage" and in the "Imbalance" comics she emphasized how integral her Waterbending was to her cultural identity in spite of the fact that only a select amount of people are born with bending. No one ever challenged her ideals on the subject in "The Last Airbender", so we can only assume that they haven't changed much in "The Legend of Korra". Katara probably believed that Aang spending so much time with Tenzin was their way of connecting to Airbending culture as opposed to Air Nomad culture.
@@678fireplace Katara's behavior might be more in character than you think. She argued that Haru shouldn't stop Earthbending because she saw it as a part of him, she wanted to learn from Hama because of their shared "heritage" and in the "Imbalance" comics she emphasized how integral her Waterbending was to her cultural identity in spite of the fact that only a select amount of people are born with bending. No one ever challenged her ideals on the subject in "The Last Airbender", so we can only assume that they haven't changed much in "The Legend of Korra". Katara probably believed that Aang spending so much time with Tenzin was their way of connecting to Airbending culture as opposed to Air Nomad culture.
@@678fireplace Katara's behavior might be more in character than you think. She argued that Haru shouldn't stop Earthbending because she saw it as a part of him, she wanted to learn from Hama because of their shared "heritage" and in the "Imbalance" comics she emphasized how integral her Waterbending was to her cultural identity in spite of the fact that only a select amount of people are born with bending. No one ever challenged her ideals on the subject in "The Last Airbender", so we can only assume that they haven't changed much in "The Legend of Korra". Katara probably believed that Aang spending so much time with Tenzin was their way of connecting to Airbending culture as opposed to Air Nomad culture.
@@ThePrincessCH it isn’t her being okay with aang spending time with Tenzin I’m referring to, but rather the lack of time spending with his other kids or excluding them from holidays
Aang didnt "take his friends along" on avatar journeys
He didnt really have a choice
11:57 yes he is a waterbender too but remember that he was an airbender waaaayyyy longer from young age and was a air nomad way before becoming someone of other elements; he would be more in tune with air nomad mindsets.
Toph being a cop makes sense, now SHE is the authority and can legally yell at people, and Aang focusing on Tenzin, while not perfect, makes a fair amount of sense, as he has to impress what he knows of his culture on one of the only people who can carry it on
Not really, Toph clearly tried to make too much things happening at once and got her kids screwed along the way it´s clear her career overshadowed her kids hard!
TBF, to me, it seems like she let her kids have a bit too much freedom as a sort of....recompense for how she was raised.@@sebas8225
I think it’s cool that they tried to incorporate these very realistic situations into the show I just don’t think they did them well, especially with Aang.
I’m like you where sometimes I feel like it’s nice to see a character with flaws but in the other hand this doesn’t feel like something he’d do, or at least not intentionally. Not to to mention, as another comment or said, Katara would’ve pulled Aang aside once she realized how this made her Bumi and Kya feel.
Toph on the other hand made sense (or at least more sense). Often times parents try and do the exact opposite of their own especially when they deem their parents style as wrong. I do think though that Toph still would’ve been a caring mother, just too permissive. Not the inattentive one that we see in the show.
Personally i have a running headcanon that Sokka never settled down with anyone in particular in his later years due to a mix of his career in republic city and unresolved trauma from both his mom's death and Yue's sacrifice. But he's still a prime bachelor so he had multiple kids out of wedlock with lovers that he wasn't able to commit to. IMO theres at least two characters I'd be happy to be revealed as his kids, Suyin and Varrick.
I will say, everything we know about what Aang was like as a parent comes from what his _kids_ say... You know, his kids that felt neglected by him? Obviously there was some level of neglect, but how neglectful he was may have been a slight exaggeration by his children who would only see the events through their own eyes. It gave me strong "how come dad took YOU out camping instead of us?" vibes.
Aang may have never even considered that his children thought of him that way if they never expressed it to him. How could you change and do better if you never realized there was a problem in the first place? On top of that, Aang had a LOT of pressure being responsible for reviving an entire culture, so it only makes sense he would give Tenzin special treatment.
Zuko made us all proud.🥲
People change when they get older
Everything was good about Legend of Korra accept for Korra (she could be less bitchy) and maybe some villains. I feel like they should elaborate more about their motives. Of course it is not as sympathetic story because bonds are more distant due to them being older. Young kids form very close bond because they are at the beginning of their lives
When the series was starting out, apparently Nickelodeon only planned on making one season of "The Legend of Korra", but changed their mind just as the series was about to end.
Toph’s parenting actually matches her character. Ask for Ang he hasn’t seen another Airbender for hundreds of years and he was just trying his best to preserve the culture. As far as him leaving his other children out and completely neglecting them hell no
To me, it makes sense Toph wanted to be a cop due to wanting to help protect what Zuko and Aang created when they made Republic City. Sokka was on the council, Zuko was busy with the Fire Nation, Aang was busy with his role as Avatar, and Katara was busy with her kids and her duties as the Southern Water Tribe's best medical expert. Toph being a cop isn't a stretch as not only is she in control but she gets to beat up criminals while helping out in Republic City.
As a parent, she mostly gave her kids complete freedom and didn't want to restrict that. That played a role in her sending Suyin away to her parents since she didn't have it in her to be able to restrict Suyin's freedom or properly discipline Suyin as her parents could her. Even in her old life, she is still about having her freedom and not being restricted.
Aang makes sense when you look at that he felt guilty for the Air Nomad genocide and wants to rebuild both the entire nation and Air Benders. Aang has had a problem of hyper fixate on things. Like his pacifism when he didn't want to kill Ozai. He rejected any option that involved killing. He even called Yangchen to have someone agree with him since Roku, Kiyoshi, and Kuruk said that it had to be done to protect the world. Yangchen lectured him since even though she was an Air Nomad too, Ozai had to be taken out if it meant saving the world. Aang still refused to confront Ozai until a Lion Turtle happened to give him the solution to his problem with Energy Bending. In the Promise comic Aang was hyper-fixated on restoring the nations to how there were before when they were separated. Katara agreed at first until she saw what Zuko saw when someone from the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom had a child that represented both nations and took pride in it. It took Katara pointing that out even asking if their relationship could work since she was from the Water Tribe and he was from the Air Nomads, all the allies made wouldn’t be possible if the four nations stayed separated.
Aang hyper fixating on teaching everything about Air Bending and the Air Nomads to Tenzin before he died and putting the pressure on Tenzin to rebuild the entire Air Bending population makes sense.
Even Aang's pacifism came back to bite him.
Ozai was trying to manipulate Zuko since Zuko was struggling being the Fire Lord in the beginning.
Yukon had Noatak and Tarrlok learn Blood Bending to get revenge for Aang taking his bending away. Noatak later created the Equalist that was problematic for all of Republic City.
The family structure was also off with how all of the kids couldn't really relate to each oother'sproblems and pressure. Bumi was the firstborn and a nonbender, everyone most likely expected him to be either an Air or Water bender due to his parents. When he was neither, his parents were okay with it, but what about the rest of world that heard all the feats Katara and Aang did seeing him being a nonbender disappointing, and most likely heard that from people over and over again despite Aang or Katara saying the opposite. It plays into his character as he constantly trying to outdo his siblings or say things like "If a nonbender like me do it then you benders should have an easier time."
Kya felt like an outsider since she was a bender but she wasn't and Air bender. She couldn't relate to how either of her brothers felt since the world wasn't saying she was a disappointment like it did to Bumi and she didn't have and pressure like Tenzin did.
Tenzin had a lot of pressure put on him since as an Air Bender it was his responsibility to keep the entire Air Nomads way life and Air Benders alive so it wouldn't die off. It also makes sense there was a disconnect with his siblings since they didn't have the pressure he had nor the good times to balance it out.
I dont think we know how long did it take for Tenzin to get his tattoos/ be a master. It feels like we're all just assuming he got it early like aang but he couldve been 30 and still not have it.
If Aang knew he was dying than it might make sense that he was fearful of Air Nomad culture dying out. Remember he only had 3 kids and only one was an Air Bender. Aang probably felt he had to rush Tenzin's education unlike with his previous children who grew up before Aang realized he was dying.
Honestly he probably had plans to have more children, but once he realized out of 3 only Tenzin came out a Airbender, he made the good father call and stopped having kids altogether (Unlike Endeavor), he probably had to cope with dark stuff like thinking he couldnt have more airbender kids due to marrying katara a waterbender which gave a chance for his kids to sway over to the waterbender side of things.
This is probably why he put All Eggs on the Tenzin basket he probably wished he married a non bender and could keep getting airbender kids consistently, unlike him.
@@sebas8225 Well that really depends on what type of contraception he had access too. Otherwise you are suggesting Aang kept an ice cold house to stop having kids. Poor Katara! No thrill marriage.
Toph growing up to be a police officer makes a lot of sense, many troubled/rebellious kids grow up to become police officers. Because they know why the rebelled in their youth so they try to correct others as adults. Also with Aang not spending as much time with this oldest non-airbending children it's not that unsurprising. Many people spend more time with one parent more than the other, which does indeed lead to sibling jealousy.
It is completely fair for Kya and Bumi to feel neglected by Aang in this aspect, I doubt that it was Aang's intention. Katara didn't go on hunting trips with her father and the other men. Sokka did though. Did that make Katara feel neglected in favor of Sokka? It was never addressed but she very well could have.
Atleast they explained why Toph was a bad mom but for Aang case nope he was a bad Dad no discussion or helping him he was just a bad dad period
I think you misunderstood the series the show said Aang wasn't a perfect dad nothing ever implied he was like a terrible father
Imagine that all the story beats are based on real people the writers know, then someone says that the characters are unrealistic;
If the story beats are not to your standards, why don't you write something that reflects what you think solid story writing would represent. Then defend it against people saying your writing is 'wrong'.
I’ve got a video idea for you. With Aang being the avatar and all did he eventually become a better water bender than Katara?
If they went with magic system with 5 elements it would be betters. Odd numbers just don't make balanced magic system
Teaching others about the culture of Air Nomads is completely different from ensuring that the only other airbender is fully trained & prepared to teach not only the next Avatar how to airbend, but also prepared to hopefully teach his own children how to airbend. Aang was under pressure to ensure that airbending continued, which is something that no other bender had to contend with in his lifetime. He HAD to have kids & then his first born ended up being (while Aang was alive anyway) a non-bender. His second child was a waterbender. He finally ensured that there would be at least one more airbender in the world with Tenzin. Then Tenzin inherited the same pressure. But unlike Aang, he fathered four airbender kids, which then lessened not only the pressure on him, but each of them a bit. And it's not like Aang knew he could have tried opening the Spirit Portals (even if he knew of their existence) & possibly create more airbenders in the world. It might not have worked anyway until Harmonic Convergence (really I think it was the combination of the two, because people who were nowhere near the portals became airbenders.
Kataras mom was killed and akodah abandoned her because of the war💔😢😔😞😪😕
Nickelodeon should've allowed the crew to take their time with writing these episodes. Sounds like Aang's arc got rushed to completion there. Another 2 years for S3 and 4 would've made more sense.
It doesn't ruin anything from AtLA it just doesn't fit every fans expectations. And to that I say, get over yourself lol
Aang and Toph aren't necessarily bad parents but they are realistic. You can want to be the greatest parent in the world and still mess up with certain parenting aspects. And that's because people are flawed and parenting is hard. I think LoK showing this to be true for Aang and Toph is great. It makes these characters seem more real and especially for Aang it shows he wasn't some perfect, unrelatable, person.
Aang loved his kids but he also understood that if he didn't get Air bending culture on a new path it would throw balance out of order. So he was tasked with this overwhelming pressure to teach his only Airbender child everything he could. This unfortunately meant he spent less time with his other children and they obviously felt that. I think it fits his character, if you think back to how he acted in AtLA. He could really get obsessive over his Avatar responsibility, even if it went against his personal wants. And I think people assume Aang was never present for his other kids, which isn't supported by the narrative. He just had to spend more time with Tenzin. And it wasn't just for fun, or adventures, but to train Tenzin. This accidentally creates a complex within Tenzin that becomes an issue he has to overcome as and adult. So yeah I completely disagree with your take, makes perfect sense.
Honestly, after seeing this and another video we really should stop and ask. Was aang a bad dad,or were his oldest just venting some frustrations they had? We don’t have many but it seems clear threw a few moments that while aang wasn’t perfect,his kids still loved him and felt loved by him. So I personally think this one moment got overblown.
I agree with you. It felt too out of character for Aang and his flaws should have focused on the political side of things instead of "he was a absent dad." Being the last airbender, it would have made more sense that he teach all his kids the culture regardless if they airbended or not. Which is why I dub it bad writing and for drama (since it was brought up just to have a fight between the siblings), not for the actual characters themselves.
I dont see a good portion of it canon either since they tried to fix it in season 3 with Kya actually bringing up Aang's teachings which contradicts season 2??
Anyways I love the legend of Korra but it fumbled so bad in a lot of places :(
Toph I can see. With Aang I could also see him overlooking his non Airbender kids for the Airbender, but I can't see Katara not putting a stop to it. So honestly it's worse for Katara's character then it is for Aangs.
Yeah, I hate the habit of making the protag from the original series an awful parent. Character assassination indeed 😔
Except he wasn't an awful parent.
LOVED IT!!! WELL DONEE 💗😃
It's possible that Aang tried to engage Bumi and Kya in Air Nomad culture but the two were uninterested.
Agree.. Bumi also angry and said he didn't want to be an Airbender because of Tenzin hard training.
Interesting Alternate History Scenario:
People like to point out that Zuko only has one kid because he grew up with toxic familial relations - but what if he planned on having one child but the first child dies/has complications that was out of his control, so he has a second child. I think *could* give him more depth.
And if we want it to be more complex, what if his first child didn't die but was disabled in such a way that they can't rule (even as simple as being a non-bender) so Zuko needs to make the choice of either sticking with the first child or getting a second child.
And if we want to be extra complex, what if Zuko had to abdicate his throne to his nephew/niece through Azula because his child can't be firelord.
Just interesting scenarios
If you read "the promise" it makes sense, why Aang is that way
first thing what we know about aang parenting, comes from his own children, who probably have a certain perspective to aangs parenting style, for example Bumi as non-bender probably had always a little bit low self-esteem, considering his parents are really strong benders. Second thing Aang had his duties as the avatar and also had to make sure that the air benders didn't die out, so it is understandable, that his family probably was more of an afterthought to him, except for Tenzin and lets not forget that aang didn't only fail Bumi and Kya, but also Tenzin for putting him under this huge pressure of having to rebuild the airnomads at a really young age, must have been hard for tenzin to meet aangs expectations or what he perceived as such, as a kid.
all there was, was one line about how they did not go on the same vacations that Tenzin went on with Aang, we don't know the entirety of Aangs teaching methods and his kids childhoods.
It also doesn’t make sense for Aang to not care for his other children, because... they have his genes. Even though they weren't airbenders themselfes they could have had airbender kids. I know Kya turns out to be a lesbian but he propably wouldn't assume that when she was still a child. Same with Bumi not ending up with kids. So Tenzin shouldn't have been his only hope for a continuation of airbenders. Honestly, I'm kinda wondering how not even one of Tenzin's kids turned out to be a waterbender, since he has waterbending heritage from Katara.
Aang, yes. At least in the ways that it manifested.
The guy was brought up with women and men not even living together, and each monk who raised him having a favorite or two that he spent special time with. Tenzin was the Air Bender, so obviously he was the favorite that Aang needed to devote the most time to training. Someone else could mentor the other two. He didn't love them less, they just weren't as special.
This is, essentially, where being a 112 + year old man whose culture was destroyed kicked him in the butt.
At least Kya had Katara. Getting the Water Tribe skin color, I'm suspecting Aang never really thought she was an airbender any way. Bumi was probably the most devastated, going from being the oldest, so getting attention because they didn't know if he was an airbender to getting no attention whatsoever when his brother showed up, he probably most suffered from emotional whiplash and the feeling that he was a disappointment, even if Katara did cushion the blow some. I do wonder if he got special time with Uncle Sokka, since Sokka ended up with zero kids, and would have been sensitive to a young water tribe by not getting enough attention and guidance.
But if that was the case, Aang would likely have thought all the more that his upbringing was correct. Everyone got a special mentor, and surely he didn't need to be there for all of his kids.
Toph --- Toph is basically an argument for birth control. I just don't get the impression she actually wanted either of her daughters. They were the products of short term love affairs, and babies would only slow her down while she was more interested in doing stuff. We don't really see any form of birth control in Avatar, and while it's not surprising given it's a kids' show, if we go by the real world, if they did use anything at the time, it would have been more likely to fail.
Toph was never motherly and had a poor relationship with her own family, so yeah. I don't think she would have made a great mother.
My picks for actual good parents would be Katara, Sokka, and Zuko.
Which Katara maybe let Aang get away with ignoring his own kids when she shouldn't have. I'm more surprised she didn't keep him in line. Sokka never had kids that he knew about from what we see, so there's not telling , really. And Zuko had the good example of his mother and his Uncle Iroh, and the bad example of his father, which he knew was bad, so could use as an example of what not to do. After what he went through, he seems like he'd have done anything not to repeat mistakes.
Toph didn't want to repeat mistakes, but also went too far the other direction, giving too little support instead of being overly fussy about her kids. She didn't really have a good role model to temper things. Though again, I'm not sure she really wanted kids. She may have just been making do because it was her only option.
I feel there's a bit of a misunderstanding here yes it is said that Aang was always busy with Avatar duties and sent more time with tenzin but its a situation of we don't know the full context because we don't really know what Aangs relationship with Kya and Bumi was and we don't know how old they were when asng and tenzin went on the trips together also at the end of that episode they look at a picture of them all together and say thats a happy family.
No hate I jus think Saying that Aang ignored Bumi and Kya is a unfair assumption.
The LGBT stuff - and I'll keep this short is a mixed bag. There is nothing wrong with girl and girl or boy and boy relationships but romantic relationships is not what the original series was built on while LOK dragged its way through pointless aged up romantic drama that was neither productive or interesting. Korra and Asami ending up together I don't care how you feel about it. It's narratively bad and was presented as one quick "gotcha" that writers and showrunners were implimenting in that day and age and even now. No I don't want to hear about how hard it is to get that stuff on a children's network on television. There are networks for that and say what you will about bigoted Karen's imo it shouldn't matter at the end of the day. If we're to normalize this stuff then just do it. If you can't then don't play gotcha or queerbait.
As for the actual discussion all of the the original Gaang were subverted because they needed to be. I'll say this now. I don't like LOK for a great many reasons. But building a story about how Toph goes on to become great, building legacy, creating the first public service security force - and of metalbenders at that and then ripping it away from viewers and fans and introducing her as an old swamp hermit sucks. And maybe you can create a justifiable reason for why she does but I believe the writers just wanted to do it because "screw you". All of LOK was about sticking it to tradition and going your own way even if these decisions are ultimately not good (cough Harmonic convergence cough). Maybe people liked that. Me - not so much.
Korra and Asami getting together was for brownie points - nothing more.
i can't remember where i read this but apparently nick originally planned one season of lok but change there mind after they saw the rating for the first episodes so the creative team had to make season 2 in a rush which may explain why that one sucked so bad (edit note just did some quick searching and season 2 took two years to make so i was either lied to or i echo chambered myself i don't know which)
Actually I heard from the start the creators always wanted Korra & Asami together but though the company would be mad so explains why we got the love triangle. However once we got switched to online they were able to show some hints. I’m not crazy about that pairings like others but agree the romance & drama wasn’t all what avatar was about. Then again it’s a different time period too
The whole Asami Korra thing is kind of on the same level of J.K Rowling out of nowhere announcing that Dumbledore is gay. If you don’t write it in the story to begin with then it has no business being there at all
I honestly think they just did that bc of how bad and annoying, the romance was in the show. And a lot don’t like Mako bc of it. So I think they just did that so that none of them would’ve ended up with Mako and made them “even” idk
It made sense to me that they were bad parents or at least not the best. Toph is just super tough n probably wouldn’t be able to express parental love the best and Aang while he’s an amazing friend and person that doesn’t mean he would necessarily be the best dad. Nothing about Aang strikes me as someone who could raise children especially with him wanting to share airbending and his culture with someone else. So him spending to much time with one kid makes complete sense. Now Katara is someone who we can clearly see would be could at raising kids she’s strict when necessary, caring, helped to cheer up the gang and taking Toph to try new things and she’s even known as the mother of the group. Now I don’t think just because Aang isn’t like Katara means he wouldn’t be a good dad I just don’t think that his personality (even though he’s great) would be of much help when raising kids. And the kids are mad that they didn’t get time with they’re dad so i feel like it’ll be safe to say they could be making it sound a little worse than it was. Other than the not taking on trips just because I think I remember Tenzin confirming it so if true than I give him that.
Katara should argue with aang about family matters taking care of them👪🙄😒😪😕😑
I guess it's just crazy to me that we see her in a swamp "being connected to Lin and Su" but lacking the emotional maturity she had as a 12 year old. You know, how she was the one in the gaang that was willing to hear Zuko out, and didn't think his past mistakes locked him out of redemption, and even was willing to trust him after he burnt her feet. Toph was generally willing to listen, while collecting necessary information, then give her very blunt opinion. Her analytical thinking is actually great for a cop character, although she was probably more interested in field work than the politics. I'm not surprised she didn't become a doting or touchy-feely parent; but seeing her completely lack the emotionally maturity to talk to her children is kinda jarring. I'm not saying Toph is without her flaws, but the idea that her children felt so neglected and didn't feel like their mother would listen to them, kind of shows how the writers of this show didn't fully understand the characters. I do feel a lot of what happens with Toph and Aang are for shock value, to try to upset the audience. When writers do this, it sometimes takes away from the original work, because the audience is sitting there wondering if they missed a sign or signal that could have led to this shift in characterization, when in reality, the writers just want to elicit a response.
I feel like it would have been good if it was established that ultimately Aang didn't want kids, he exclusively had children as an obligation, and even though he did love his children having kids because an entire culture and type of magic will die with you if you don't make kids until you have an airbender will make you a kinda crap dad who views his kids as a chore rather than a joy, and could've been a good compliment or mirror to Tenzin who, despite having kids for the same reason as Aang also really wanted children, and is by extention a much better father than his own
0:24 legend of korra has 2 world leaders who are girls
The avatar cartactor Didn't really make sense to us😕😐🤔🙄😒😑
I never took it was not that he was an absentee dad While watching the show I took him as a dad who was proud of his culture And hyper fixated up on that culture And not letting the air Bender way die. Because he was still there for his kids through the other forms of media they show it mainly through the comic. It just seemed Like he had difficulties balancing being an airbender no mad and being a father which made sense in his character when he had trouble being an air no mad And the avatar. Or at least that's the way I interpret It.
4:00 no no no. The northern water tribe had always been their chief. He just lost significance during the war and regained it afterwards but even with that until unalaq he was just a figurehead.
It actually does align with him and his personality Very well given some of the actions he took during his time as a avatar the way he rests his own. I'd like to make sure. There were other air benders falling into multiple fire nation traps some entire comics. And I don't need that but remember the episode where he got mad that another group of people were taking over One of the air temples how much he stick to tradition only recently in the comics has that change. Given some of his actions in the previous series. It's not too much a stretch that he would prioritize air bending Culture and pass me down.
And the thing that I don't understand is during season 3 which I am rewatching one of ang's kids mentions that she could never remember all the. Names of the monks implying that he at least taught her that culture, So for me feels like he taught them the culture but took tens in on more. Adventures due to the fact that he was an airbender. I am gonna say I feel like there was slight favoritism But not enough to cause the family to break
A curious take
Yes, thank you! both aang and toph should have reflected on that, being the thoughtful person both of them grew up to be, it's like neither he nor toph learned ANYTHING ABOUT HOW A KID WOULD'VE LIKE TO BE RAISED OR NEEDED TO BE RAISED through their own experience, it just doesn't make sense...
I am late, but since I still see new comments I decided to throw some of my thoughts here and there. In the argument if Aang was a bad parent or not I stand somewhere in the middle. I see how his upbringing would make his perception of parents and family in general different, even a bit damaged. Not to even mention the burden of being the last of his people and having to save his culture from vanishing in time, so it make sense he would be a flawed parent. And yes it makes him realistic as nobody is perfect in real life. I also understand flawed doesn't mean bad or neglecting and he probably still loved his kids. Other side of the argument also makes sense to me. We don't have any objective source of information about his family, only a couple sentences from two of his kids that could be biased of course, but it still can rub the wrong way. We have no idea if him leaving with Tenzin alone was frequent or not, but if it was you can clearly see how that can be hurtful to other kids. Also with the huge responsibilty he had to rebuild air nation you can clearly see how easy it could have been for him to neglect Kya and Bumi. And there argument that it was just vaguely mentioned doesn't sit right with me. It was a whole plot point that was meant to me a character development. It doesn't make sense it wouldn't be that big of a deal like people make it seem if it was building device. So yeah I see both arguments, but here's my view on it. Everyone expects different thing from animation/stories. Some people want incredibly detailed, realistic stories with brutal truth and harsh characted development, some just want to laugh, some want to just watch the story and are able to bond with character and some people what something completely diffetent. There's like infinite expectations people can have. My personal is that whilr I enjoy good writing that has some realistic tone to it I also wanna watch the show to "detach" from real life, that can be harsh, for at least a couple moments. I loved ATLA and bonded with characters and I loved them just the way they were. I know people change, realism is a thing and all that other stuff, but it wasn't that important for me. I just wanted to see my favourite characters happy at the end of the torment they endured. And LOK kinda broke it for me and I feel it did the same for a lot if people. The question isn't if Aang realistically would be flawed or not, it is if we wanna see him that way or not, do we want to see someone we grew up loving make terrible mistakes that were never fixed? Do we wanna see his struggles that didn't have time to resolve? Do we wanna see beloved character impact other's lives negatively even though in our mind he would never do that? I personally don't. And I know many other people don't wanna see that too. Many just want to forget that about stuff like that that happens in real life. Especially that we've already seen other flaws of character that in our mind fit him better, so it's not like he's complete crystal sue blue whatever. It's just my point that bittered the story in my eyes though. It isn't a fact, there are also tons of people who wanna see that raw struggle and flaws and good for them. I just think we should accept we all gonna have different points of views and not gonna like the same stuff. There's no objective way to look at things we like, humans are subjective creatures. It's not a dry fact of science law we can all agree on. It all boils down to our feelings and way we see the world, our experiences and attitude. When someone says something is bad/good in 90% it will be completely subjective thing. And ad long as it's not a point of view hurting anyone we can just respect it and consider or just go on with our lives. So in conclusion was Aang a bad father? We dunno. We can only speculate, especially that we are given almost nothing to base on. This whole thing can canonically just be fumes of our speculation. I also believe that even if something is canon we can still imagine and interpretate different things in various ways. Same goes for the question if it was a necessary plot point. There's no good or bad answer here, just different people thinking different things as it should be. And last but not least. Even if we render something consensually bad it doesn't mean we can't enjoy it and vice versa. There are plenty of questionable movies and books that still summon wholr fandoms just because of nostalgia or just some weird way if appealing to people. It's whatever floats your boat.
Phew...Sorry for that essay, but this video really reminded me of that personal war I had with myself whenever I will accept to treat Korra as canon for my own sanity.
I guess given the fact that they made The Gaang's legacy be Republic City I'm not sure what other productive role Toph could have had besides being the Chief of Police. On her motherhood, I felt Toph having children at all was a odd and a out of character choice. I would have preferred for her to have been a sensei with a quasi-parent relationship to a close student who carried on her earthbending legacy. Her not telling either of children who their fathers were made no sense and was unnecessary drama. The identity of Lin's and Suyin's fathers weren't relevant at all so why hide it besides creating petty drama?
I 100% agree with Aang. Has the Avtar Aang had to understand and value all the four nations/elements and even connect with non-benders, which he clearly did. Why wouldn't this also translate to him connecting in different yet meaningful ways to all three of his children? I can understand Tenzin feeling or being the closet child to Aang, but Aang outright favoring him because he's an airbender? No. Not to the point or in a way that the two other children felt neglected, even still being traumatized by it well into their middle age.
I've only seen s1 on Korra and thought it was pretty good, but the airing of things was missed up for me so I didn't watch the rest of the show. I want to give it the benefit of the doubt but then I hear things like this and I don't. I honestly hate hearing that sequel series take the "absent parent" way for the original characters because they either had absent parents themselves or some paremt issues and they make the same issues in the future. Seriously it makes them seem like they learned nothing from the original series if they make the same or similar mistakes and don't fix them.
bumi should have had both water and airbending at the end of lok
My friend, you also forgetting the Aang’s children near the end of the episode they, even it was a (happy family, and they respected) their father. That implies he was present and their lives too. I forgot the name of the comic. One of the pages Kya told avatar Korra she love women, not men and when Korra ask how did Aang handle it she told her he would support her and her decision.
So Kya was gay -_-
This cartoon crashed more ways than one.
Legend of Korra is a step down in everything aside from maaaaaybe the animation... in parts.
Being a step down in everything and seeing as how in also drastically diminishes/oversimplifies many aspects of the original to seem "smart", I'd argue because of how it treats the legacy character it also manages to actively tarnish what came before.
Toph and Aang could have been shown nuanced. I don't care what the comics showed, neither will the vast majority of fans. The shown should have been able to stand on it's own. It never did.. Korra had 4 seasons to get this right. They didn't.
It was obvious that Aang and Toph weren't going to be perfect parents because there is no such thing as a perfect parent, everyone makes mistakes.
The closest parallel I can see with how Aang raised his kids was how Harry Potter raised his. With his son Albus, who looked the most like him, Harry tried to take him to Godric's Hollow, or give him his baby's blanket. imagine how that would have looked to his two other kids, especially if they were older, when it seemed Harry favourited one child over them. Yet Harry loved his children equally. It's just that I believe that with Albus because he looked like Harry, Harry made the unconscious mistake of treating him as if he was him, expecting him to feel about things the same way he did, and got upset when he didn't get the expected reaction, seeing Albus as a way to rectify Harry's own childhood,
I feel like it's fine for the original gaang to have flaws, but I would have preferred to see them learn and grow. Let Toph actually acknowledge what she did at the end. We've seen that while she is headstrong, she is also capable of change if need be.
As for Aang, I think you're right: he had plenty of good role models and taking his children (and Katara) along on his adventures would have been perfectly in character for him. Plus, I can't imagine that at some point Zuko wouldn't have seen what was going on, and had a very stern "you remember why playing favourites with your kids is bad, right?" talk, while gesturing vaguely at his own scarred chest.
It will never matter to me if it makes sense or not,story-wise or character-wise, that Toph and Aang would be bad parents. Their backgrounds are explanations not excuses to be terrible to their children.
How the show handled Suyin and Lin (and of course Korra not minding her business) pissed me off so much that I quit the show. I don't care if any of you worship Su, she was horrible through and through and the whole "Sorry for being rough on you during childhood" is the pathetic excuse of apology I have ever heard. I will never love Su and I will never,ever forgive Su and and Toph for how they treated Lin. Ever.
Nothing any of you say will ever change my mind on Su,Toph and Aang. So, don't bother.
I’m tired of hearing this shit; people whinning just becuAang was written as a bad father. Well guess what I am glad he was written that way because it is more realistic. You fans just refuse to have it like that just because Aang was too likable of a character from a previous series to view him this way. Having responsibly as an avatar would make him absent in his children’s lives and not to mention that one of his children was an air bender that could play as the catalyst to rebuild an extinct civilization, a civilization that Aang was devestated was wiped out. It would be no surprise that he would should more attention towards a child that would rebuild that civilization so much so why should be unexpected for Aang to be a bad father. So he is the protagonist we all know and love and that love we have for him is making you people be pissed off of him being a bad father but im glad he was because
1. That is realistic and
2. I am sick and tired of protagonist characters always being perfect, down to earth parents for no other reasons of them being the hood guys and just be they are supposed to be likable. Even good people can do things incorrectly. So please all of you, get the hell over it!
I didn't mind Aang being an absentee father.
atleast he was'ent a dead beat
There is a fair criticism that Katara's character was not handled and even narratively looked the opposite of how she was portrayed in the OG show.
I just realized that Gyasto favored Aang from all the other air nomad children, just like how Aang favored Tenzin. That must've played a huge part in his parenting style.
Its also doesnt make sense bc Aang loved talking and showing the gang and other people his culture like temples, what Airbenders did etc so he obviously would do that with all his kids not one who is an airbender. Aang neglecting his other children feels like a forced flaw just for the sake of it and cheap way just to make the him interesting as an adult.
Hm, fair and valid points and opinions, personally i didn’t mind any of it.
Toph being a cop does make sense as she already assumed a bit of an authoritarian role when she opened her metal bending academy.
Aang was just given the shaft He had an War to figth in his early Teens and oversee the rebuilding of the World from 100 years of War
That He even had 3 Kids is a surprise here
I Personaly would have made Bumi Sokkars and Sukis son as an Military men He would have fit them make him more Stoic and Resent his fathers goofy nature
Tenzin would be as old as Bumi and Aang would have been absent for his Youth but would have been very present for the Early lives of Tenzins older children his Oldest beeing an Young adult and the middel child as old as Kora
Kaya would have been either an very late child or adopted barly beeing older than Kora so both would have an Sisterly relationship
So yes i would have Replaced Mako and Bolin with Tenzins Oldest and Middelchild and Asami with Kaya
Maybe some throw away Male Charakters that date Kaya and Kora and very brave let Tenzins Son inclosed Gay and an stereotyp of manlyness because the reveal of it would be actually more satisfactory than the Two Amazonians in my eyes
Yes, yes it did.
Korra didn't ruin Aang.
Korra ruined everything about Avatar and the world it was part of.
Yeah I think toph being a cop because she doesn't wanna be controlled makes sense
Aang should be here for the kids for the family
Korra is more of a mary sue character.
Aang was a good guy but he's not perfect. He made mistakes. He does love all his kids but sometimes even good parents play favorites
LOK is an anime. They retconned some beloved shit and added a gigantic starwars robot dont even.