Why I Love Aang Being A Bad Dad (and other great things about Legend of Korra)
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- Опубликовано: 13 июл 2024
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0:00 Intro
0:20 Korra’s Arc
3:54 Tenzin
10:22 The Beifongs
15:24 Toph
18:54 Tonraq
23:48 Tarrlok
27:04 The Red Lotus
31:24 Advancements of Bending
42:33 The Music 
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The fandom is split between whether Aang becoming a bad father was a good decision or not and whether it made sense. But the one thing everyone can agree on is why Katara would just sit there and take it and wouldn’t call him out on his shit. Katara had no problems calling out Aang during the original series. I mean, even if she was in love with him and sympathetic to his circumstances, she’s still emotionally mature enough to recognize that her other two have been neglected. After the trauma she experienced as a child, I doubt she would want her children to not have a present father in their lives. And you’re telling me Kya and Bumi didn’t even have Sokka in their lives to become like a second father to them? None of the children even so much as mention Sokka; he doesn’t even exist to them. Only Tenzin brings him up once and he literally refers to him as “Chief Sokka.” So if we are to accept that Aang is a bad father, we also have to accept that Katara and Sokka did nothing and sat by and watched it happen. Which reeaaally doesn’t sound like the original team avatar so I’m sorry but I don’t buy it.
It was so weird, sometimes I forgot Tenzin and his kids were Katara's descendants as well. They have no water tribe features in them, never wear any blue and Tenzin calling his uncle chief sokka instead of "My uncle" is so weird. There felt like a massive divide. Felt like Kya was characterised as Katara's daughter and Tenzin was Aang's son.
I am on good, neither aang or toph had really good role models to learn that from. And aang, he is a workaholic understndibly and alsounderstandable that he does need to teach a sucessor. Its good that aang i stillthat good comptent heroic person, but human. Aang,is made human. Plus he wasnt bad per se. And katara made up more tan enough for it
Probably because he wasn't actually a bad father. Not even Kya and Bumi go so far as to say that. Sometimes life is just tough, which is why even though Katara was angry at Hakoda for abandoning his kids, she understood that it simply had to be. So when Aang has a million things to do, but is still nice to Bumi and Kya when he's available, she can accept it as it's an even better deal than she had with her own dad. I'm pretty confident that despite his absences, Aang was probably a better dad than my father was. And yes, my dad was present pretty much all the time, he just wasn't great to be around and did the classic toxic masculine thing sometimes. Despite that, nobody else in my family would consider my dad a "bad father" except me and one of my brothers. I'd rather avoid contact with my dad, whereas all Aang's kids actually seem to like him.
@@vindifferenceI mean no one’s saying he’s a bad parent, but no one is the perfect parent and that’s the message that the show tries to show you. And I think you’re forgetting there are in fact times where Kya and Bumi called out their father’s favoritism. Aang went on several adventures with Tenzin, when Tenzin said “remember that?” Kya says “we weren’t on that trip” and Bumi talked about how him being a nonbender despite being the oldest child had a toll on him to where he feels like he failed his father. A perfect protagonist can’t just be the perfect protagonist forever, you’re right, Aang isn’t a bad dad and not the worst if we’re talking about animation fathers but acknowledging someone is flawed doesn’t mean you instantly just hate them. Realistically being a good parent and a good avatar especially one trying to rebuild his nation was sorta impossible
@@KelpSeaweed1 I'm not forgetting anything. Your reply was probably meant for someone else, cause nothing in your comment actually disputes mine. But when it comes to the fandom, people out there *do* say he's a "bad parent" and that's what the original post addresses in relation to Katara.
Old Toph makes me cry every time, since she always recognized Aang by how light his steps were and called him by that nickname, in jest and sincerity, and asked him directly "do you think friendships can last more than one lifetime?"..
"Nice to see you again Twinkle-Toes" ❤
She knew by the lightness of the footsteps, a friendship that transcends a lifetime. ❤
That part gets me😭 A friendship that transcends space and time? I can't. That's also why I love Bumi, he was the only person left who knew Aang before the war...
Isn't Toph's first appearance in the swamp also? I find it full circle on how we first see her appearance in the show and now how she seeks enlightenment in the swamp.
It’s technically her first appearance. That was just a vision.
I know its a side topic. But I like to believe and I've always pictured that after LoK, Toph returns to that swamp and eventually does become enlightened, becomes ''immortal'' in the spirit world and reunites and have tea with Iroh
I also love how it explored how deadly air bending can be when not used by the pacifistic air nomads. When Zahere uses air bending to literally suck the breath out of the earth queens lungs... horrifying
I mean it was hinted with aangs mentor thats what he did, but as weapon, good to see. atla show just a glimpse what itcould liklely kill in mass. if look ll the dead fire ntion corpses. Showed how destructive and scary itis.
And kinda caughtuphis friends if he didnt calm down.Great episode. Butby a villain, :O
Imagine creating razor-sharp wind currents and using them like knives. It would look like someone is trying to hit you with their hand, but in reality it's a bundle of highly compressed air ready to slice anyone that comes in contact.
My headcannon is that Giatso did something similar at the air temple. Sucked all the air out of the entire room he had been cornered in by a few dozen comet-enhanced fire benders, and snuffed out their fire. But also his own air supply.
My one issue with Aang's kids (and this may sound nitpicky) is why are they so....culture coded? I mean, yeah, Tenzin was the only airbender so Aang obviously had to focus training on him, but that doesn't mean Kya and Bumi aren't air nomads themselves. One could argue Aang didn't want to impose his culture on them, but given their dialogue both of them clearly resent Aang and Tenzin for excluding them, to the point it feels like Katara raised them as a single mother....which explains why Kya would be water tribe coded, but....why isn't Bumi?
Is Tenzin not allowed to wear blue? is Kya not allowed to wear orange? is Bumi not allowed to wear either? (I do recall him wearing a blue undershirt once tho, I think). I know they just wanted to make it visually easy to percieve who's who (airbender, waterbender, nonbender/"earth" namesake), but contextually it just seems like Aang and Katara segregated their own children, and that feels ...wrong.
ALSO! neither of Katara's parents were waterbenders, yet she is one, so it can definitely skip a generation (or two?). Even if Bumi was a nonbender, his children could still very well be airbenders.
I kinda felt like that was the point? Like Aang only imparted his culture on Tenzin to try and 'save the Air Nomads' while not introducing Bumi and Kya to it even though they both would make great Air Nomads. Kya is even said to have an 'exploring the world, finding herself phase before Aang died and she had to go home to Katara - but because Aang was so laser focused on Tenzin because he was an air bender, he missed out on all the experiences he could have shared with his other children. Its sad, flawed, and I ultimately love it.
@@meng2976 Which is fair but Katara is way too blunt and motherly to not have told Aang to his face he's straight up neglecting his other 2 kids. I like Aang being flawed but idk, this enters questionable territory imo.
@kou7191 I agree! I wish they had explored how both Katara and Aang raised their children, because theres no way Katara didn't have a stern talk with Aang for putting all his attention on Tenzin
I honestly don’t think it’s anything deep. I think they just wanted to show what element they bended
@@TheCloudRazorable I thought that too but that lowkey makes it worse. It's something we're to take at face value but contextually it made Aang and Katara segregate their own children lol
I really love about Tenzin, that even though he pretty much dresses up as Aang, you can defenetively see Katara's emotional temper as well as herbbull headedness shine through. As much as people always say Katara was poeticly waxing about hope, when I think about Katara, I think about how she crushed the iceberg because she was angry at Sokka or how she constantly fought with Toph because she simply was convinced to be right, or at least more right. Or how she repeatedly refused to leave a town because they needed help.
And when Tenzin loses his temper and fails to be the peaceful (old? he's like in his late 30s) wise man, he just seems to be a well rounded character.
Try late 40's, at least that's how old he looks to me
@@lorettabes4553 yeah, maybe. but that 's **still** not "old"
he's in his 50s (51 in book 1) xD still not really old but firmly on his way there
I love how his moment of enlightenment is himrealiing that he should not try to be aang but himself , and he is a scholar, and has flaws he has to grow with. Great with the neew airmads towhen he has tolearn tolet that be more organic, and trust bumi.
I agree. Whenever Tenzin loses his temper I see Katara, who also could lose her temper. I loved that part. Sometimes you are more into one part of your heritage than the other, but your character never lies.
loving that zuzu - the most complex, traumatized, daddy-issues endowed character with emotional issues - was canonically the one with the best relationship with his child (as far as we know) 😭
But thats cause we know little to nothing about his relationship with his daughter. Zuko's family was barely touched on. We don't even know if his daughter a firebender or not. Or who her mum is. Or who is Iroh II's dad.
@@Markus2E5I6 as i said, as far as we know!
And katara,no one let out a bad word at katara.
Eh, knowing Zuko and his role in the post-War era as the guy that had to redeem his own nation, he likely fucked up thing in a similar way to Aang. If not worse.
@@davidj.medinag.6524I doubt it. He definitely would’ve had a lot of bad times due to stress but I feel like Zuko would’ve looked at how a father shouldn’t act by looking at how his own father acted.
Aang being a bad father always bothered me so much for one reason: Katara. This show treated their marriage like a... I don't know, it often acted like Aang and Katara were never truly together as parents, kids were always seen like either Aang's kids or Katara's kids depending on the story the show was telling at the point. In the second season when we found out Aang wasn't a great father and he favored Tenzin, Katara was completely forgotten and pushed out of the story. Are you telling me that Katara who as a child was looking after other kids in her village, Katara who became the mother figure in her older brother's life after their mother died despite being a child herself, Katara who worried and tried to help Toph despite them clashing often, Katara who was the mother figure in their tiny group who kept them together and didn't take no shit just sat there and let Aang favor one of their kids so obviously???? She was just okay with Aang taking Tenzin everywhere and leaving Kaya and Bumi back at home??? Are you telling me Katara never talked to Aang about this??? Katara is very sympathetic the whole time but adult Katara just doesn't give a shit about what Aang does with their kids? Who is that woman?!?!1
So Aang being a not-so-great father isn't actually about him, it's about Katara and their marriage. It makes sense for Aang to feel so close to Tenzin after everything he's been through, suddenly there's another airbender in the world, it must be really emotional and difficult for him. But Katara is someone who would remind Aang that he still has 2 other kids and they deserve the same love and attention. Especially after we saw how much Katara suffered when her father had to go away because of the war. No way she's letting that shit happen, I'm sorry. LoK's writing is very messy and poor but I like the show in general. But Atla's strength was its characters while in LoK apart from Tenzin and Korra (and sometimes Lin), most characters are poorly written and they are just there. I swear they forgot Katara exists for a second when they were writing this plot lmao
Honestly aang being a bad father is about him. In the comics and the show he’s taught and accepted non benders into the air bender traditions. So why wouldn’t he do that with bumi II? He was so stressed about holding the air bender culture? You had 3 kids sir… one bad cold and the air bender line is gone. He’s the avatar master of 4 elements and didn’t teach his water bender daughter anything? He was born in a time where all cultures were closely related so why the change? He was spiritually awakened supposedly so why wouldn’t he see the error in his ways? Plus he did have a father figure so it’s not like he has no-idea how something like that could go. LOK has extremely messy writing
YES! THANK YOU! THIS NEEDED TO BE SAID! 👏
i havent even watch this show yet but my first thought about this situation is HOW WOULD YOUR WIFE THINK IF YOU ONLY TREAT THE KID WHO GET YOUR BENDING NICE. its like two kids get your wife's familiy name and suddenly you dont give a f about them. which sounds so wrong and disturbing.
yeah, lets blame the mother once again
It's not blaming the mother. It's the writing. Because we know Katara would NEVER let her kids be ignored like this, even if they were three eyed and uglier than a bullfrog. Her nature is her family, and her nature would not allow Aang ignore his own children in favor of once like that.@@zkme2734
While I'm fine with broken families being portrayed in media, but what I don't like is that it doesn't match the character's...well character.
I reeeeeally don't like that they made Aang a bad dad, whether he was aware of it or not, because Aang doesn't seem like the type to IGNORE his children in favor of one. If I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure Tenzin's sister mentioned how Aang would ONLY take Tenzin of field trips around the world. Like excuse me? Aang would never just abandon his WIFE and TWO CHILDREN just to go ride some koi fish with his youngest child. And even if he did, KATARA, Miss All Up in Your Business, Speak Her Mind Regurdless of Who It's To, Mom of the CENTURY...didn't have anything to say to Aang about that? Imo, Katara would've smacked the arrow off his head, sat him down, and told him that what he's doing is wrong. And it's not like Aang wouldn't listen.
This is my exact problem as well. I'll admit, the idea that Aang could grow up to be a "bad" parent is interesting and has some merit-- with him not growing up in a traditional family unit like Katara had. And yeah, I completely understand that Aang might've hyperfocused on his only Airbender progeny since he, well, lost his entire culture in a genocide. It's just the execution that really bungles the whole concept. I also can't buy the fact that Katara just stood by while all of this was happening and said...nothing? Really? Doesn't sound like Katara to me 🤨
Youmean himhaving allthat burden of having a sucessor,and he probably just took them along less and less.
And i thinkits pretty understandably why he is overworking so much, its good for the world, bad for being a great present dad. He also did deal with the air normad club to preserve the cultue and god knows whre he was active.He is stilla human,itmakes sense he would neglect the two not airbender unintentional.
Tenzin is probaly a better dad to not do that. And had a good role model as parent ,katara
Just because the kids (bumi and kya) don't mention that Katara didn't have anything to say, doesn't mean she didn't have anything to say. It's clear Katara loves all of her kids equally and very much so. When parents fight, it's not right to bring that fight to the kids, whether it be shouting through the background, tense conversations, passive aggressiveness, etc. And we know Katara really tried her best so it's possible these fights still happened behind closed doors with the kids never knowing about it.
There was probably a lot going on considering they were very young lovers with little experience making romantic relationships work, Sokka included. We see the relationship struggles with Zuko and Mai but we only see the first kiss established with Aang and Katara. Katara can get a bit hot headed at times. Aang was taught to always find a peaceful solution. Plus he wasn't raised with 2 parental figures. Making a relationship with - let alone parenting - would always be rough. They aren't soulmates. They're just 2 young people attempting to make things work in a very fucked up world. Aang had a lot to focus on between the ending war, the fire nation colonies, the air acolytes, and teaching Tenzin to be an airbending master since there was no one else in the world who could do it.
Also yes, while Aang should have done more stuff with all of his children, I still can't 100% blame him. Kya calls them field trips and you imply they're riding fish? Just because Kya saw them as field trips doesn't mean they were all fun times. It was all likely air nomad related. Exploring and fixing up temples, working with the fire temple with the colony of air bison they saved to let them back into the wild, meeting spiritual people to teach tenzin the spiritual side (which we know he struggled with), finding any leftover existing air literature, working with the air acolytes. The list goes on and on with the things they could have been doing.
I never interpreted the field trips as season one let's ride a koi fish time? It seemed pretty clearly that the 'field trips' were in fact cultural studies at the air temple ruins for Tenzin. The flaw is that Aang didn't realize Air Nomad culture could be passed down by him to all his children, not just Tenzin- not that Aang and Tenzin had fun doing silly filler episodes while everyone else was left behind.
I do agree about Katara though. LOK just sort of pretended nothing about her existed before the show and that she just came into being as this wise old healer, and then constantly did shit that the Katara we know would never have taken laying down... but that's what she does, apparently.
I think they could (if they wanted to) make aang even a worse father. Imagine if tenzin was bad at airbending/ air bending ideals. Aang would want the future of his ENTIRE culture to be PERFECT. Like she said. Having a airbender child was an obligation for Aang. They could have written him as semi abusive if they really wanted to and i don't think that would ruin Aangs character. It would male it seem real. Aang was 12. That trauma would run deep
21:30- I don't think the ban of female bending in The North still exists by Korra's time; we see Korra's cousin, Eska, who's literally the tribal princess and is shown openly and proficiently waterbending and is not reprimanded by her father for doing so. Katara's whole thing with Pakku probably led to the ban falling apart.
I liked that Toph was in the swamp, especially since in ATLA that is literally where the audience first sees her. In Aang's vision in the swamp.
38:00 I love how Kya was such a good match for Zaheer in that moment because she had actually trained with airbdenders before. He was stomping everyone before he came up against her.
That would only be the case if aang was there for her childhood instead of taking tenzin around for a world tour
@@carlensoreo4886so I guess Aang was not that negligent
@carlensoreo4886 😂 Remember that these are overexaggerated claims made by siblings while arguing.
@@arbogast4950I dont think aang completly abandone them ,maybe he said lets all to Air temple or something and the kids dont want him lecturing them about his culture the only one that was interest was tenzin so maybe that was what happen... Like why Will take 3 children to teach them about something they are not interest in I Guess...also I dont want to believe Katara just stood there and do nothing about her children been left out. 😅
@@imitationporcelain well she did which is why its a dumb as shit decision. Apparently katara was also down with blatant favoritism to the air bender child.............
Toph being a cop is the REAL problem of this show 💀
Yeah they should've had her start a school and then quit when most of her students go on to be cops
@dudeman5303 actually in the comics which take place after the series, Toph does infact start a metalbending school. The *three* students there eventually learnt metalbending while trying to prove themselves. I'm guessing sometime inbetween the comics and The Legend of Korra, she became chief of police. So yh Toph did start a school and became a cop later on..
Yeaaah Toph is very anti rules. Goes against her entire character
Did yall forget that toph matured? I'm also pretty sure sokka convinced her to be one with a "You get to beat up people without getting trouble."
@@drunknbard2807yeah, they’re acting like a 12 year old can’t completely change after a decade or so…
(We also know very little about her time as a cop, all we know is that she was a mother, a cop, and wanted her kids to get along)
Honestly, Aang not being a great dad tracks given his whole… everything. He’s a fun uncle type! It’s really more weird that Katara and to a lesser extent Sokka let it slide.
My big problem is that the pattern of shitty parenting amongst the Gaang is it’s just another way the story puts down the older characters to prop up the new ones. The old characters are either all dead, passive, or… Zuko. And it’s weird as hell, given that in the OG, being old did nothing to limit bending power. Ba Sing Se was retaken by a handful of old men. Bumi is literally 112 years old and kicks so much ass his feet need condoms. Old people are very active in the story. And then in Korra they are just… gently dunked on and toned down so the newbies could shine.
Zuko is a bit of an odd exception. It’s actually really funny. Besides the fact he seems to be tight with his daughter, there is also just. Toph and Katara generally being like “Nah, I’m too old. You youngins take it.” Cut to Zuko, older than both of them, riding around on a dragon going to fight in a fucking snowstorm as firebender. In his 80’s, wanting all the smoke but in like the worse possible position to show off his skills, making him look like a bit of bitch. Because they can’t let the legacy characters be too cool, they’ll out shine the newbies.
It really seems like a lot of it could have been avoided if they just made a show about the avatar after Korra instead or just… had Aang die older so the others would also reasonably be dead by show start.
or Zuko🤣
@@mariajosepulido3029 I didn’t really know how else to put it, mans built different
I think that’s what kinda rubbed me the wrong way too. They’re clearly props for the new characters in the way we’re just told “they messed up these other characters” but it never really feels like we get where the parents are coming from. Imo it’s less effective to explain on side only. It’s why the Zuko/Aang dynamic worked in the OG bc we see why Zuko does what he does while being the antagonist for the majority of the first 2 seasons. In these instances we don’t have much reason to accept these characters outside of “well they’re family, and we can’t just cut off family!” Except the more recent sentiment is that - you CAN cut out toxic family members.
37:59 the same could be said about twins Eskna and Desna. Who's waterbending style is based on Earthbending movements. It's to the point that people headcanon that maybe their mom was an earthbender and taught them a some moves before she passed away.
Between seasons 1 and 2, the benders-only United Republic council is disbanded and replaced with a democratically-elected president. It's a cool idea because Aang was seeing benders as spiritual representations of the four nations broken by war, and he was unable to predict that his council would prioritize benders over nonbenders once Republic City's population was 70 years removed from the divisions that the war made. I think it's easy to miss, because it's easy for people to invest in this show and think Amon's reveal as a bender killed the Equalist movement, so I wish the writing did put emphasis on Korra dismantling some of Aang's decisions to make things work for the people living now, because that was an interesting direction for the show to take.
I think Aang would have wanted kids because he was always so fun oving, but Tenzin i think didnt - he stayed with Lin for so long and then when he becomes the last airbender, switches to pema and has 4 kids in less than 15 years? That to me sounds like having kids out of obligation rather than wanting them
Didn't he said that his relationship with Lin started to be pretty rocky with time? Plus it was Pema who said Tenzin that she loved him.
@@Lee-cr6xb Yes - things were rocky but I think its Tenzin realising that both of them were getting on in age and he needed to have kids but Lin flat out refusing. Then Aang dies, Tenzins the last airbender, and ten heres Pema whose much younger and willing and also pretty great anyway. Dont get me wrong, I think Tenzin definitely loves his wife but is still holding a candle for Lin perhaps. A bit sad and wistful about what could have been but he felt he had to have kids.
The obligation was probably more to settle down and i get the feeling tenzin wanted a family. Yeah itplayed a role, but helikely got from katara that desire to have a family. ok he really wanteed a bigfamily i think but lin not and that might have ben in the room. I know there is obligation but he is a happy thriving dad.
And if thefamily planning was in the room for a while, it makes sense they broke up, the obligation just adding .
When judging Aang's parenting, one problem I had is that we only had Kya, Bumi and Tenzin's recollections; Aang is dead, so he can't give his side and Katara was absent for much of the series, so she couldn't give any input. I'm not saying that their recollections are untrustworthy or anything, but to get the full story, you need everyone's side and a third, outside perspective just for good measure and we don't have that. One person can only see so much after all.
A neutral third party perspective would be great
12:57 Su may have changed since hurting Lin but we never hear or find out if she apologised for it (nor Toph for the way she invalidated Lin during that same incident). Owning up to your mistakes & making things right with those you hurt is over half the process when it comes to change & growth.
They made up. Ithinkits implied she did at least somewhat, else i cant see lin to be so happy there. And sulin is notso inconsiderate tonot ask wat angered her,i would think.
They could have given aang a different parent fuck up, him neglecting his two other kids wasn’t it. Could’ve simply made it so that he was harder on tenzin and was actually more loving and fatherly to his other kids. Making tenzin mad at aang and his siblings
That would make tenzin way less likable as protaonist of his story. And him hating aang would be way too edgy. And that way they dont really hate him.And aang would be way more awful if he did that to tenzin more than shouldering him wit alltht expectation,thenaang wouldntbe an understandingly neglectful,parent,he just woul be bad.
nah, that would have been worse
Korra is a flawed but beautiful series
Exactly
I mean. Thts literally every piece of media? Good back handed compliment though
@piusdoe8984 true but what I think they mean is like, Avatar has flaws but most of them are very minor. Korra has a lot of bigger flaws, but despite them is still an amazing series
I’ll agree for a good part of it but season 2 was weird and not very good
@@IceZone27especially the part where korra lost all of her past lives. Like literaly what defined the avatar state the writers just decided to throw it away for the sake of what “so that korra can move on from the past”. That shit was pathetic imo
I really agree with the list of great things about Korra from this video but I want to add one more. The animation of fights are much more fluid and stunning to watch than many of the fights in ATLA (excluding Zuko v Azula Agni Kai, Katara blood bending, and the Aang v Sozin finale). LOK made the fight scenes really dynamic and brilliant to watch (even if the plot behind the fight was lackluster). The animation just took a big lunge forward in LOK and I really appreciate that.
I second this. In the Book 3 art book the creators talk about how fluid the Korra v Zaheer fight was in 20 secs and there’s two whole pages dedicated to it. Such a fantastic fight scene for a talented crew.
to be fair, it's a newer show with better tech and budget.
And korra really brings energy top the table while being flawed tht she has to learn.
About Aang’s challenges concerning parenting, one headcanon that has crossed my mind is him trying to be what Gyatso was for him to honor his mentor and surrogate father.
You know, I hated how Aang was a negligent and somewhat absent father to his other 2 children. But your video made me understand a perspective I didn’t even consider about his obligation to have children rather than a want. I now appreciate that they didn’t give him past protagonist favouritism. Overall great video!
Still. Katara letting that slide seems a bit odd...
@@thalmoragent9344 I imagine he was a workaholic outof obligation of a lot of duties.
Why would katara not understand that, and her kids mention she was great, aka take over to let aang doprobaly important overwork. Itsems he had then only really focus on tenzin .
And he hadnt had the sense of a traditional family tobegin with. Aang was a workaholic by duty, withno experienced family.
I justassume katara knows he tried his best and picked up the slack, cause they let no bad word come on her.
@marocat4749
So, there was never a time they considered this? 🤔 Katara was still alive throughout the show, and I don't see why we couldn't see her speak to them on that issue considering that they brought it up with Tenzin and naturally that leads me to believe it must've been am ongoing thing.
So, if Karara knew Aang had a lot going on, fine, but she never conveyed this to the kids? Aang never made attempts to see all his kids from time to time, even if we have to see him spend a bit more time with Tenzin?
Seems odd Katara and Sokka wouldn't try to hash this out. The kids are all adults now, how is this not resolved? Why is it just now being talked about between all of them, as older people?
@@thalmoragent9344 I think you’re missing a Key Component of the Situation, Team Avatar had to literally guide the world out of a Era of war and division. Aang being the last of his People, Zuko having to guide an entire Nation away from his father’s philosophy, and Toph revolutionizing a whole sub-type of bending which was a huge boost to the technological revolution at the time. That leaves Katara and Soka to rebuild their Home Tribe after almost being put to the brink of cultural extinction.
She Knew that Aang, Sadly had greater responsibilities than just her and their family. As Her and her friends were all rebuilding a world to be more culturally diverse and peaceful.She is one of the most compassionate and understanding characters in media so she would understand that while having a distant father who played favourites was leagues better than having Aang abandon the world that needed him.
Plus, what was she supposed to do? Blood bend Aang every full moon to a family dinner? I agree that the show should have went more in-depth on their relationship later in life, how it affected their children and how they saw each other. But it’s reasonable that while Katara was probably very upset or even downright hating the circumstances it’s a small price to pay for a more stable world.
thats the thing, she wouldn't let it slide. I'm secure knowing that katara would never let aang actually neglect his children in any way. @@thalmoragent9344
I understand what the creators were going for, with 'Bad Dad Aang", but like a lot of the rest of Season 2, it wasn't done in the best way. Namely in that it only makes sense... if we've never met Aang before.
So let's talk about consistency of character. The idea that Aang is better at making his friends feel loved when he's twelve years old, than he is as an adult with his own children, does not track. The idea that the weight of carrying the Airbending legacy (as well as being the avatar) would pre-occupy his attention as an adult, when again, he was going through the same pressures as a child, does not track. And the idea that his wife Katara, who's right there with him on this parenting journey, would allow Aang to be a neglectful father to her kids too, once again- say it with me- Does. Not. Track.
I'm welcome to unveiling more flaws in Aang, and no one is a perfect parent. We all understand this. But as presented in Book 2, it is antithetical to the logic of the show. "But people change when they grow up!" One says. Except, they directly contradict that idea with the introduction of Old Toph, who shows that the series wanted to keep the character consistent into adulthood. With Aang, his more positive persona is thrown out because people relate more to cynical sensibilities these days. Aang being a "bad dad" falls very much in line with the 'tear down your heroes' trend in modern media.
Honestly, I agree. The whole Aang being a bad dad only works if you didn't know who Aang was. Aang is the same person who nearly killed some sandbenders because they took Appa from him, so why am I now forced to think he would just ignore 2 out of his 3 kids because only one of them was an airbender? Yeah I don't think so. And not to mention, he didn't wife up a random background character, he got with KATARA. The same girl who challenged a master waterbender because she wasn't gonna take any of his sexist shit, knowing she was gonna lose. And now you want me to believe that Katara said nothing when Aang was neglecting their kids? Yeah, I don't fucking think so.
And aang has prtty good reason to.frankly,itprevents himfrommary sue that he isntperfect. And he is neglctful, because of his job and cultural burden to preserve.
Should katara tell him to stop negogiating conflicts or preserv the airnormad culture, or teach a sucessor? All of that would pretty weird.
Plus they still respecthim,they jusst are bitter too minus tenzin who got his own baggage of expectations.
frankly iam glad he is stillshown as flawed human in a way that makes sense for him and not make him a bad avatar. i am glad aang has limits too.
It also doesn't make sense because it's possible that, if Kya and Bumi had had children, those kids could still become airbenders. I don't know of any reason why they couldn't.
@@annamelvina216 Bumi,yes, through i dont know if aang knew that traits can skip a generation.
but kya would probably be unlikely.
Considering that they come from two bending parents, they can have one or the other. And, as even Iroh showed, you can teach them the bending techniques, because even at its core, it's literally martial arts and the different sub-categories beneath it. Fighting styles. @@marocat4749
I'm sad you didn't bring up the pro-bendint style during your evolution of bending section. I know that the pro-bending sections of the show weren't very popular, but I loved the exploration of how to make a sport where benders could come together and compete. And now that there are more Airbenders, I'm interested to see if/how they get integrated. Like, tbh, I would love a sports anime/movie about pro-bending and maybe even how airbending gets involved.
Same!
Apparently, the whole thing about pro bending was they wanted to make a bending look that fast and dramatic and sleek in the original, but they couldn’t do the variety of limitations, so having pro bending in Korra was a little reference to that, and how bending was intended to be portrayed originally. Or at the very least, that’s what I’ve heard.
My issue with the parenting stuff regarding Aang, is that it makes little to no sense given Katara is the mother of his kids. And Sokka is their uncle.
You're telling me they'd have allowed for neglect to happen regarding Bumi and Kya? Especially considering how tight they are as a family unit?
Should ang stopbeing the avatar? Pretty muchallavatars of the past told him to be active. And the trauma,and having tocarry and want his culture surviving.
She picked up,and they dont hate him. Bad father is more neglicting father because overworking avatar wth loads of pressure. It also humanizes and shows him as human too.
@@marocat4749
Just seems odd this was seemingly a whole new discussion for these now older characters
I don't know about Sokka, but I think the child rearing lines up more with Katara's ideals than you think. Throughout "The Last Airbender," she's touted about the importance of bending to ones cultural identity. She lectured her brother about it in the first episode, she argued that Haru should keep Earthbending because she sees it as a part of him, and she wanted to learn about her "heritage" from Hama. Tenzin's situation actually resembles Katara's more than Aang's and the fact that Bumi has an identity crisis over not being an Airbender seems to line up with Katara's beliefs on how bending is a cultural identifier. Plus, Kya was presented with all the opportunities her mother would have had if not for the war, which would also explain why Tenzin got more attention.
Who say it's neglect? Just because Kya and Bumi felt that way, doesn't mean its entirely true or as bad as they make it out to be. Katara knowingly married Aang and agreed to have children with him, despite she would know that he wasn't your regular dude, but rather being the world souls incarnation who's sole mission it keep the world in balance and restoring a nation and preserve an almost extinct bending style.
@@marocat4749Aang was too traumatized about abandoning his duty as Avatar resulting in 100 years of conquest and genocide by Fire Nation. He couldn't run away after that. This desire to be Avatar was so strong it even influenced Korra.
aang being a “bad” father makes so much sense, considering everything you mentioned. the nuclear family is completely foreign to him and he didn’t really have a choice in the matter if air bending culture was to persevere.
anyone in his situation would’ve struggled
"I'm kind of glad [Aang] was a bad dad."
THANK you! I'm glad SOMEbody said it: Good people CAN be bad parents for a variety of reasons.
I personally don't buy Aang being a bad dad because it makes Katara look like a bad mom. Even if Aang showed blatant favoritism...why didn't Katara say anything about it? It's not like she ever had a problem calling out anyone she had a problem with before, so why now and why when it comes to her kids? It just doesn't add up to me.
@@mason8467 She probably DID say something. The problem just isn't limited to what Katara thinks is best. She didn't have to want Aang to raise their kids the way he did, but she probably empathized with his situation enough to allow it after who-can-say-how-many painful discussions on the matter. Aang being a bad dad doesn't mean Katara was a bad mother per se. Wives aren't responsible for their husbands' actions. And even if Katara WAS complicit in bad parenting, the notion that "good people can be bad parents" still applies.
@@Canido19 I'm not arguing that good people can't be bad parents, that I think is true, but it just doesn't make sense for these specific characters. Aang may have showed some favoritism towards Tenzin, but it doesn't make any sense for him to do that for his character. This is the same guy who almost killed some sandbenders because they took Appa from him, so why would he just ignore 2 out of 3 of his kids because only one of them is an airbender? Aang wouldn't even ALLOW Zuko into the group UNLESS he had the okay from ALL of his friends first. Aang values everyone both in his family and friend group. So, why all of a sudden, is he ignoring his kids as an adult? Even if you factor in the airbender culture and heritage and stuff, it still doesn't seem like he would neglect his family and kids unless they were airbenders.
And if Aang did neglect his kids, it does make Katara a bad mom, even if she empathized with Aang's situation. Katara is all about empathy, but she would never sit idly by while her kids were being neglected. This is the same charatcer who challenged a master waterbender because she wasn't gonna sit by and take his sexist shit, even though she was aware of the culture, the rules, and the fact that she was going to lose. Now you expect me to believe she would just sit by and let her kids be neglected? Doesn't seem in character for her. If anything, I feel like she would ABSOLUTETLY put her foot down against Aang. Yes, the wife isn't responsible for their husband's actions, but she is responsible for her kid's livelihoods.
@@mason8467 Neglect comes in shades. I agree Aang definitely *existed* in all three of his childrens' lives. He probably didn't even *realize* he was being neglectful.
As for Katara, what would you have had her do to "put her foot down"? Tell Aang that he should make more time for his other kids while he still needs to act as the Avatar *and* raise a child to be the bearer of an entire otherwise-dying culture? Even in the best case scenario, these kids were doomed to have issues. I don't think there's much of anything Katara could have done to save them from that.
@@Canido19 Honestly, yes. I would've had her do literally anything, because the way both Bumi and Tenzin's sister phrased their childhood made it seem like Katara was barely a factor in their loneliness. If I recall correctly, Tenzin's sister even admitted that Aang only took Tenzin on field trips around the world and left the other kids behind. Katara should put her foot down to that 1000% percent. Aang even put a lot of responsibility on Tenzin to carry the legacy, which Katara should've put her foot down to that, too. The way the show was written made it seem like Katara was mute during her kid's lives.
Yeah, I don't expect Katara to be 100% in the right or for either her or Aang to have all the answers, but the way the show was written made it seem like Katara just became deaf and mute while Aang forgot how to be a decent person just to be "a bad dad"
This series wasn't as good as its predecesor but it certainly deserves more recognition.
Korra was just written poorly. Her character design and motivations are great but after season 1 they basically made her weaker than how aang was able to master All the elements. And they took away her past lives which is just asinine. Hopefully in the future whoever is the next avatar that he or she restores the connections again becuaee whoever made that idea up needs to be fired or not touch anything avatar related
@pavanraj4125" And they took away his past lives which is just asinine "? It was litteraly th best idea or the series
@@ConstantinDOSSOU-vy1zo It really wasn't. It completely destroys the point of the Avatar.
Yeah but destroying the avatar was a compelling change. And korra having to deal with the depression of not being able to keep up or live up to her past lives.
I actually really wish something like this had happened sooner, with Korra's bending not being restored in season 1, and her having to try to make do with only airbending after that, which she would be much weaker at (at first at least) than her other elements.
The way bro was scared we'd cancel them because she doesn't like the legend of Kora spirits 😭
@marshalmarrs3269 I searched it up on google because I had no idea what rule 34 was.. 😭 DID I JUST SEE MAKO AND BOLING.. MY POOR EYES
How is there anyone that doesn’t know what rule 34 is. Everybody knows it.
@@I_always_have_been_Daniel49 I'm 14
@marshalmarrs3269 I'm so sorry buddy :(
@@antoniocasias5545 it's very disturbing please don't search it up
You know in the series we didn't even know Aang's parents because of how the Air Nomads raised the children. They were raised by the community rather than their parents, so Aang likely didn't even have an idea of how to raise children or what it even meant to be one as there was no template nor an example to follow. However, I see nothing wrong with him at least exposing his children to at least some of the airbending traditions within reason. The fact that he excluded his other children from at least going with him and Tenzin is messed up. Though, he did carry some baggage about what he lost.
He learned from other parental figures though, Iroh, Gyatso, and Sokka and Kataras dad. I think what people interpret as him being a bad father is actually him being a good father. Bumi and Kaya didn't want to learn (both called it boring) so he didn't make them, and Tenzin being an airbender did.
I remember seeing a comic where Bumi and Kya were complaining to Katara on how Aang took only Tenzin to Wail Tail Island.
And she completely beat the living shit out of him till he grabs his two negligent kids and was like, "Ok kids! Now it's your turn to go to Wail Tail Island! LET'S GO!" 😂
Honestly those things only make the Korra experience more frustrating because they keep making me think how great the series could have been with some more episodes and some polishing in the witting of the first two seasons.
If it was all bad it would be easy to write it off as just a bad sequel.
They could totally fix things in the inevitable live action Korra adaption. Y'know, if the Aang one isn't hot ass.
They could totally fix things in the inevitable live action Korra adaption. Y'know, if the Aang one isn't hot ass.
@@yurifairy2969 Which is the main reason why I'm hoping it's successful.
@@yurifairy2969bad news, y the live action did exactly what Korra did and it's hot ass
I always liked the bad parent aang approach just i always expected or hoped they would do more with it, like having air normad be so different with parenting was such a good oportunity, like talking about how the temple in its interety and exspecially a teacher figure where the parents in that nation is such an interesting difference that you could do so much with. Like imagine if at some point we could get a comkc or a movie about it and it shows just how suprised aang is about what parenting does include, like where he grew up people still loved each other and had children, but the parenting wasnt too much part of it in the sense that the parents do to much of it. Like it makes so much sense that the one child he was a better das for, was the airbender not even because of just the continuing the line reason, but because being a teacher to another airbender is like the monk that raised himself, so he had far more experience of what to do and how this could work. I would love to see katara and aang having to work through these issues. Also seeing how still very much in her own culture katara would be such an amazing point to touch on, like tenzin wife is very in the air normad culture do they raised their children far lore in that like; but having both aang and katara havibg grown up so differently is such an interesting thing to watch
Also while i know it is only in the comics where they explained the different views of the nations to same sex couple, his daughter saying how accepting aang was also because of his upbringing ik the temples to her being with women in the show, would have been also a good moment to still say that aang did have his good parenting moments sometimes, while i do understand the times the show came out didnt really made nickelodeon ok with having it.
I’m glad Tenzin was an actual character and not just a mix of the characters his parents were. That’s how it is in Boruto and it’s awful. Since he is so old then it also gives us an idea of how Aang could have been
I think Aang being a bad dad is actually a really good decision. It does make sense for his character as he never really had an adult figure in his life after coming out of the iceberg
I think the Gaang being bad parents was to be expected. With all the trauma they went through at such a young age, it's not surprising they'll pass some of that trauma onto their kids. Especially with Toph who only felt comfortable around the Gaang, but the Gaang eventually split up bc they all had their own family. So her withdrawing makes sense. For Aang, I'm always a bit on the sideline. Because I can see him being a bad father because he feels like he has to pass on the airculture on his own, but I'd have expected Katara to call him out and force him to be better. They treat Aangs kids like just that, *Aangs* kids. It's almost as if Katara doesn't exist.. Which sucks.
i always just assumed it made sense to others why Aang was slightly absent with his kids; he's literally the AVATAR. he's gonna spend his whole life going from nation to nation, leaving his home and family for possibly long periods of time, to sort out problems in the world, and considering he brought an end to a literal 100 YEAR WAR at 12 years old he had a lot of work on his hands. theres no way an avatar living in that kind of world was gonna be #1 Best Dad Ever; the avatar's duty is To the world, not just their family & friends. and ofc theres the last airbender problem too.
Bumi and Kya were both a few years older than Tenzin so clearly Aang had years to spend with them before Tenzin was born, did people just think he ignored them both until he had an airbending child? Clearly Not. he named his first born after his closest and oldest life long friend, he loved, accepted and supported Kya when she came out. he clearly loved all of his children but just had a hard time treating them equally when it came to his time, mostly bc of Tenzin being the second airbender to ever exist after the genocide and Aang having a short amount of time to teach him everything about Air Nomad culture and airbending. i truly believe he did love all of them but he was just bad at showing it and spending quality time with his kids (and also showed some favouritism lbr)
my one problem is how bryke handle a lot of the siblings in these shows; even when they introduced republic city and even more mixed nation relationships, they still choose to separate siblings out by nations and/or parent, they cant be influenced by both parents and also have an understanding of both cultures they hail from. soo irritating but hopefully they'll stop doing this when they make the new earth avatar series.
With bumi and Kya they both said they were taught like Tenzin both also both said they were bored and didn't like to, now why might Aang not force them to continue with it? Could it be that he respected their wishes and was a good father? Hmmm
We only see glimpses, but Zuko having a good relationship with his daughter and grandson is soooo important to me. With a character like Aang, I think it’s fine that he made some big mistakes as a parent. It’s not character assassination, it doesn’t disrespect his original arc, it just makes him human. Meanwhile a portion of Zuko’s arc was breaking a cycle of abuse. So while he was probably terrified, he does the work throughout the series to become a good person and he likely did the work to become a good parent as well. I also think it’s really interesting he chose to only have one kid. I don’t know if it was done on purpose, but I imagine he could have been worried he’d recreate the dynamic between his father and Iroh or himself and Azula.
Regarding your last both, I think it's because of both relationships.
I was worried you were gonna continue calling Aang a terrible father. It's one of the most annoying "critiques" of LoK. Kya and Bumi mention Aang spent a little more time with Tenzin than them and mfers assume he completely neglected them. Despite Aang clearly being ill equipped to be a father, it's clear all his kids still loved him and held him in high regard. Him being, at worst, a neglectful dad, doesn't completely ruin his character.
Aang was well equipped for fatherhood and did something not many fathers would. He had gyatso, iroh, and sokka and katara father as models. Aang didn't force bumi and Kaya to learn about airbending because they didn't want to and found it boring, how is that neglectful?
@Jiub_SN I meant that at worst, Aang *could* be considered a little neglectful in reference to him spending more time with Kya and Bumi. I do agree that Kya and Bumi probably didn't wanna be around for all the airbender training anyway, but my point was that, at worst, you could interpret it as Aang being "neglectful." It doesn't make him an awful dad or character. Like Tenzin was the youngest and the only airbender. Obviously, Aang would've spent more time training and teaching him.
I wish you delved into Bumi. He was my favorite character in book 2. He was the closest thing to Sokka and had such an interesting backstory. Aang’s first born son and a non-bender joined the military and became a general.
I hated when he became an air bender because everything special about him was lost.
Imagine if everyone involved in this show was involved in Winx Club seasons five and six.
I would cry
@@westanstuffcuzperiodt. It would have been so good. They probably could have outdone season three.
I have thought that so many times :( avatar is to me the the best example of a show that is for almost all ages and winx club could easily be like that
sokka not having kids was insane to me lol, of all the characters not to have kids, sokka was last on my list lmao. toph having kids makes less sense imo
You should check out the theory of Sokka being the father 👀
I thought the decision to make Aang neglect his first 2 kids to focus on Tenzin made perfect sense. Aangs objectively biggest trauma was being the last Airbender. Throughout the whole first series he was grappling with being the sole legacy of his nations culture and wanting to preserve it. So when only 1 out of his kids got Airbending he would know that when he himself passed away that the same exact trauma of being the last Airbender would be given to Tenzin. So it makes sense that Aang would want to spend as much time with Tenzin as possible and give him anything he wanted as a way to kind of make up for that.
Also Airbender didnt seem to have much of a....Family. He seemed to more act like Gyatso.. beeing a Mentor to his Airbending Kid.
While Katara acted more like the closeknitted Watertribe and took care of the other 2 (which kinda mirrors herself and Sokka. A Bender and a Nonbender).. so maybe neither of them saw the fault in their actions.. since they did how their respective Tribes seem to handle themselves. Who knows.
Things that I love about Korra
•The animation•
•The fight scenes•
•Voice acting•
•The villains•
•The characters•
•Korra's character development•
What I don't like about Korra
•That there was 13/14 episode each season•
•The love triangle•
•Other characters not given enough screentime and arcs•
•Suki, Mai, and Ty Lee aren't mentioned•
•Kuvira not having an episode to herself•
also the claim that the two magic kites were somehow yin and yang because was goofy
Season 2 started off so damn strong with a literal civil war plot and then ditches it in the 2nd half to focus on a super generic pure good vs pure evil giant energy battle
Avatar Wan worked on its own, but in terms of the season it took it way the hell off track and wrecked the season
@@XanderMatthews-nv9zf fr. (Spoiler) Even when trying to ignore that fact, the ending was just so contrived. When the magical Jinora appeared to give giant magic spirit Korra the powers I was like “this is literally just a deux ex machina ending”. The season literally went from “oh no civil wars” to “the end of the freaking world for 10,000 years”
There was supposed to be a Kuvira background episode but due to budget cuts it had to be replaced with the flashback episode. Since making the Kuvira episode would have required half the staff to be laid off, they did the right thing by not making it.
Watching this video has made me realize just how much the show represents realistic parental relationships
I’d say the biggest problem for me with aang being a bad dad( and other things in Korra) is that it was trying to be too many things, the idea of the gaang being parents and seeing them raise their kids is a great premise already that should have been it’s own series, then you’ve got each villain which really belong in their own series especially unulaq, zaheer and the red lotus, because a series about spirits and origin of avatar had no business being in Korra and an evil air bender and evil red lotus should have been set before the air nomads were wiped out, just my opinion
Okay so I’m glad I’m not the only one who loved that Legend of Korea (LOK) revealed that Aang was a “bad dad.” Aang, Toph, and people in general grow up and are not perfect. I just love the realism and maturity of LOK
Amon's bending removal would be more akin to Tai Li and the equalist's Chi Blocking, but instead of just hitting them, he would very painfully DESTROY each one, and since water bending healing is about chi redirection around the body, if you cut the wire there is nowhere for the energy to go through, even if you try to redirect it. Only the Avatar with their knowledge and energy bending was able to restore this bending, but maybe chakra could have worked? or at least partially
Something I hated was how in the box they made Aangs relationship with his kids. Okay, so Bumi and Kaya aren't air benders. Their father is still an air nomad. Air nomad culture isn't only Tenzins culture, but it's theirs too. Why do they always act as if they have nothing to do with it? And why does Aang only teach Tenzin? The culture of the air nomads is more than just bending. Why are they all wearing those stupid colours related to their bending? Kaya wearing an air nomad cape would make all the sense as she is literally half air nomad. Same goes to Bumi. Same goes to Tenzin wearing blue or something.
Really appreciate the point you made two minutes in about the neoliberal mindset and about how the revolution had valid concerns that get dismissed upon the revelation of the leader.
I would have appreciated it if they spun the bending philosophy as being something more important in smaller and further afield communities but in large cities modernisation had taken away some of the philosophy of bending while also adding things to it like the quick-paced punchy fighting in the pro bending arena or as you pointed out bending styles taking more influence from other styles rather than being completely isolated and linear. I've got my issues with it too though, why for example and entirely Asian inspired show with all the cultural and architectural influences thereof ended up portraying modernisation and progress the way we see Asian cities developed in the real world under western colonisation and influence rather than exploring what it would be like without western influences all together. Like republic city looks like an Asian city made from a mixture of 2 cultures, but instead of exploring what it would mean architecturally for example for Japanese and Chinese cultures to mix and modernise independently they lean heavily on readily available imagery of such cities that were influenced by western culture. That's truly my biggest gripe with how ALOK developed the world from ATLAs foundation, they brought in way too much western culture and ideals because "that's the natural place the world would have become as we are at the pinnacle of human history" or something. And we don't get to see what most of the rest of the world did with their modernisation so it just feels wrong. Not really intentionally as the writers are American and probably don't even question that point that they've been taught, that their country is the pinnacle of modern human excellence, but frustrating nonetheless. Also 100% agree with you the only reason I invest so much energy into this show is because I love it already and just wish it were better
While I like your comments about Lin, I kinda disagree that her portrayal is so positive.
I think her character can be seen in a really harmful way. She’s, old, single, alone, and only gets a small bit of happiness from her job. It’s the typical narrative Chads say what will happen to cis women if they reject relationships and children to focus on their career. Lin is rarely seen as happy IMO. She is the gruff sergeant archetype and while I think that should be a role a woman can play, it also feeds into the harmful idea of what single, childless women are like, in this case mean and bitter. It also doesn’t help that her ex, Tenzon, who is established to be the one who dumped her, left her for a more typically feminine woman who is less powerful than Tenzon.
I guess my issue is I don’t recall ever seeing Lin being portrayed as happy overall or almost ever which means her character can be viewed in a reductive lens.
I agree with this take except Book 3 we learn that she even really isn't fond of her job even though she takes it very seriously. The only reason she went into law enforcement was to please her mother. She encourages Opal to not make the same mistakes she did when it came to her happiness.
I also didn't particularly like how they handled Lin's issues with Suyin and Toph.
@@GreatUniter tbh, I didn’t even remember that until you mentioned it. So yeah, it makes her character even less positive as she “girl-bossed” herself to the top of a career she doesn’t even like and isn’t happy in her choices of being where she is.
I mean, I don’t dislike her character but when you think about it, she’s everything Matt Walsh types say what will happen if you don’t get married and have kids.
Like, is she ever portrayed as happy in the series? I’m seriously asking cuz I don’t remember.
@@ThatOneAccount931
Tbh. I don't really recall an instance of her being truly happy and at peace with life.
We get small short scenes where she gives a small smile in a touching moment with friends and family but that's about it. Her character as whole never seems to irradiate the vibe that she's at peace with life like say Suyin and Pema.
The same thing happened with Azula, except Lin isn't and never was a villain and it's nice to see these characteristics in a good person.
Why is it bad that Tenzin left her for a feminine, less powerful woman?
I have found that a lot of critics who really tear apart movies and TV and studios are the ones who love them and wish the products could be better, and to maybe hold out hope for something amazing among the mediocrity or bad. It's far from a unique take, but it's still an important one.
I just feel so sad how many things were handled in Korra. But you already said most of it in your other video. We all know it could have been so much more with all the ideas they had.
aang is a terrible father.
goku: hold my beer.
It took me like 2 years after first watching LOK to realise that Bolins' ability to lava bend is partly to do with him being of both earth kingdom and fire nation heritage. He's not a particularly strong bender so that's why he can't metal bend but he has connections to fire so he can lava bend.
I would rather phrase it as Aang being a very flawed father. There are no perfect parents but sometimes people get preoccupied by things and push others to the sideline. I'm sure before Tenzin was born, Aang devoted his time to Bumi and Kya just like any other, as well as balancing his Avatar responsibilities. I'm sure he focused his time helping the Air Acolytes as they would essentially become museum curators and living historians. But as soon as Tenzin was born and revealed an Airbender, i would believe he revived his hopes and dreams of not being the only true Airbender left. Bumi and Kya were kids seeing their baby brother get more attention than themand it would give them those thoughts of favoritism. I also believe that Aang would never intended on favouring Tenzin, but subconscious and unintended actions speak louder than words. Katara would have also known this was a complicated situation and I'm sure there were arguments between them about it, but Katara would have also understood why Aang was like this. I would equate it today as a father who works long hours and has limited time with his family. Sure his intentions are good, he wants to provide for his family and give them the best future, but the consequences are a stunted bond between the father/husband and his family after years, with resentment and maybe even trauma being born from it. Aang is a flawed dad. His actions are understandable, but there were consequences.
Aang being a bad father is fine if you do it right. Making one of the most compassionate characters in the series just cast aside his children because they aren’t airbenders doesn’t make sense. Especially when you consider that the Air Acolytes were a thing, aang clearly had no issue teaching non airbenders the air nomad teachings. Not to mention the absolute character assassination it does to Katara as well.
I have been thinking that it would be so cool if they explained how the philosophy of bending and how the spirits act has changed in Korra's era unforchanetly it wasn't explained the spirits feel like pokemon.
i can't believe it's taken me this long to realize just HOW perfect it was for toph to be in the swamp later in her life. not only for all the reasons you listed, but also because it closes the loop set up in atla when aang sees toph for the first time in his swamp vision. time really IS an illusion. and so is death :')
13:40 in my avatar fan fic about the eath avatar Bolin and Opal have twin daughters who end up being Avatars (Vatuu ends up in the younger twin who was an earth bending prodigy expecting to be announced as the Avatar over her older sister who never showed any bending ability for the first 16 years of her life)
Writing Bolin as a dad is fun as he is totally the type to make the worst possible dad jokes and he basically becomes a house husband to Opal
Where can i read it? And i thought Vatuu was destroyed
I'd also like to read it
I took up the twin idea too, though without Vaatu, and the two boys just represented the Earth and following fire incarnation of the cycle foreshadowing a massive disaster that sent the straight line reincarnation of the Avatar out of whack.
My sister helped on that front, presenting the idea that for anyone else reincarnation is non-linear so any given person when dying could reincarnate into wildly different eras of history and of course have no memory of the thing.
Plus with Raava's passing neither twin has access to an Avatar besides Korra for spiritual guidance and so she'd left a tangible journal in the event her spirit couldn't pass to the next. Of course the twist is Ling sees his own future incarnation following Ming's death mistaken for straight future sight.
I feel like some of the emotion like anger and jealousy would have to be caused by Vaatu
I personally really resonated with Korra as a neurodivergent queer kid who has become physically disabled, learned about mental disabilities, and now cannot work or do school because of the systems in place as an adult. I wish they had focused more on Korra when she became disabled instead of skipping it straight to her PTSD travel days.
Politically I have problems with Korra--as a leftist, lol--but this was def a show I loved growing up as a hot-headed undiagnosed neurodivergent child with trauma, lol.
I can understand why some people are a little miffed at the idea of Aang being a subpar parent in The Legend of Korra, but honestly given the circumstances he found himself in, being both the Avatar and the Last Airbender as well, it makes perfect sense why he had to prioritise taking Tenzin under his wing and why he didn’t always have time for Bumi and Kya growing up, he had other responsibilities that just did not coincide with being a parent, unfortunately, between his duty to a post war world as the Avatar, his responsibility to preserve the culture of the Air Nomads and teaching the only other airbender at the time in existence, and being their for his other two kids, something had to be neglected and unfortunately for Kya and Bumi, it was them.
This is a especially stressful sitaution when you consider that out of his three kids, Tenzin was the youngest and the only one who was an Airbender, how many years did he have to live with the fear that both his culture and his entire race might die with him.
This all an awful lot for one person to manage, especially when you consider that given his connection to the spirits, Aang might have been subconsciously aware that he wasn’t going to be around for as long as he would have liked.
There is also the fact that Aang was not ever supposed to be a husband or father, he was handed over to the Air Nomads not long after he was born and never had any contact with his birth parents since, he was raised by the monks of the Air Nomads, who do not marry or have children of their own, because their culture expects them to give up these social attachments in order to commit themselves entirely to the Air Nomad way of life and achieve spiritual enlightenment, like it or not, had Aang met Katara in his own time, he would not have been allowed to pursue a relationship with her, much less have children with her.
Of course, by the end of the Last Airbdender, Aang has both a personal and a very justifiable reason to want to pursue a relationship with Katara, but he noticeably never considers that he is doing something that his teachers would otherwise not have approved of, mostly because none of them are around to point this out to him, but because Aang also has a pretty clear bias when it comes to his people’s values and culture, he is very reluctant to consider that maybe parts of their way of life were in fact outdated or just plain wrong, but that doesn’t change the fact that Aang was never really supposed to become a husband or a father.
All of this together doesn’t make him a bad dad, we’ve seen plenty of bad dads in both the Legend of Korra and the Last Airbender and Aang certainly isn’t one of them, he’s just a complicated one with a lot of other responsibilities on his hands, but hey, that’s life as a parent for you.
What always annoyed me about Toph being a bad mom was how out of character her flaws were. On the surface, it may make sense that the blunt and less emotionally sensitive Toph would give her kids space, considering her parents always suffocated her with attention. But if you look beneath the surface, Toph's problem with her parents was never that they did not give her enough space, it's that they never bothered to get to know and shoved her into the proverbial box being a "helpless blind child." Season 3's "The Runaway" demonstrates this well. She felt lost due to being unable to share her real self with her parents.
That's why I hate that Toph was such a bad mom. The way she failed her children is simply so dissatisfying as a story because it directly goes against what child Toph thought would be good parenting, even if it might seem so on the surface. In fact, this could have been a really interesting story if the story of Toph as a parent, even as bad parent, had been treated with a degree of nuance. There was a lot of material here. But the show had no time to explore it and made the whole story remarkably dissastisfying.
I disagree Toph’s problem with her parents is that they were so controlling that they never allowed Toph to be herself and showcase who she is. Toph went in the complete opposite direction and gave her daughters the freedom to do what they wanted and be whatever they want. It’s not about space, it’s about control vs freedom.
Yes. Lok is a good show, but not a good sequel. It does not have continuity. It is okay to admit that.
Aang got really lucky that Tenzin was straight and found a wife willing to have a million air babies
I think people forget people are complex. Aang is a complex person with traumatizing past with a lot of pressure but in the end he is good person and avartar. But he made choices what felt wrong with his childeren and Aang knew this. You can be a good person/avartar and have made bad choices as a father. Bumi/kya and tenzin knew his choices had no malice against them. They all wanted to have him more around, be more included or in Tenzins case to be a normal kid.
And about Katara. Yeah she is someone who alway speak their mind against Aang i think she wantend to keep the peace. Although the childeren having issues with Aang as a father they never speak negative about Katara. This tells me Katara and Aang have spoken about his role as a father.
And Aangs hands were tight he needed to priortize his avartar rol and airnation thing first. As a adult the pressure of a whole nation of his shoulders affected him and tenzin gave him finaly hope. He is not the only airbender anymore. I think Katara chose to keep the peace and chose to step up where i left a hole. The alternative would be 2 partents fighting and maybe even a divorced family. Katara would rather keep the peace then have a another broken family. But that is my 2 cents.
It amazes me when people decide they dislike a character before the character’s arc is even remotely finished. So many people decided they disliked Korra before she even had a chance to prove herself. Imagine if people, from season 1 of ATLA, decided they didn’t like Aang because he was too immature. You’d think to yourself, wow. They really missed out on seeing Aang grow. But for some reason people will watch the first season of Korra and decide they don’t like how headstrong she is… when she literally is that way because she is growing. They don’t let her grow like they did Aang. And while I can’t prove it’s sexist because I don’t know people’s hearts, I do often wonder if some people would have given her more of a chance if she’d been a boy. Because there are a lot of male characters who have very similar arcs to hers who have gotten praised for their character development. Even in shows that, like Legend of Korra, have a decent amount of flaws. Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars for example. The prequels were very flawed as films and many people didn’t like them. Many people also didn’t like how Anakin was written half the time, yet he’s still considered a super beloved character and when Hayden Christiansen recently came back to cameo in Kenobi and in Ahsoka, he was super well received… so yeah. I do sometimes feel like Korra being a girl is part of her negative reception. I don’t like it, I wish I didn’t feel that way, but I can’t lie.
Legend of Korra is not a BAD show.
It's a very good case study of what happens when the TV who owns the show doesn't allow the creators to have do their show in peace.
In a lot of ways, Korra reminds me of Steven Universe.
Both of them wanted to do something else, but couldn't. Both of them needed more time, but they couldn't have. Both of them needed less filler to give more focus on the important thing, but they couldn't either, so the important things felt rushed.
I love the concept of what the Avatar Spirit is, and I do like the concept of Korra losing the cheat code that was the Avatar Lives. However, I don't like how ambiguous it is so far to know what will happen after her passing. Material OUTSIDE the show says the connection is fully broken, meaning the next Avatar won't even be able to talk to Korra, which makes no sense.
The same could be said about the show's time on TV. 12 episodes per season will always be too little to give the entire arc meaning. Even ATLA had 20-22 episodes per season. Another thing Nickelodeon didn't want to give them, time.
And finally, they got so annoyed by it, that they even took TLOK away from the TV and it only happened online in the last season, and clearly the last season is the one who had the best plot. Still, too little time to give them the plot to shine.
To me, the problem with TLOK is not that the story is bad, it's the culmination of the card that were given to the creators, and a product of the times. Sadly, most good animation shows made in the USA are the ones made by a team that owns nothing to anyone. Helluvaboss would NEVER have 85% of it's content if it were in any of those more, traditional channels controlled by a lot of old man full of prejudice. xD Demons killing deamons, blood, swears?! Of course those would have a hard pass but GAY STUFF?! No that's too much.
Anyway I love the Korra series, I just wish they had the time it deserved.
yeah it's really hard to talk about korra without talking about just HOW much nickelodeon screwed it over
The owl house showed that studio interfernece isn't a exuse for garbage writing.
maybe but i want you to write your best when you're told you're getting 1 12 episode season but then when that's all done you're told you're getting 1 more 12 episode season. and when THAT'S done you're told you get 2 more seasons. but then if that isn't enough last minute your budget is heavily slashed to the point where you have to either fire a bunch of people or cut an episode. thus the recap episode.
owl house did recieve interference and was cancelled before it was meant to be.
but korra was treated worse i think@@samuelclayhills3298
Korra isn’t a perfect show but I love it nonetheless
Ming Hua is the single most terrifying character we’ve seen in the series in my opinion. I’d even say she’s scarier than the blood benders. I think she could easily outsmart them given how often and comfortable she is using water as an extension of her own body, pun intended. She is the most fast paced and ferocious water bender we’ve ever seen.
Air is the element of freedom, and that's the reason Korra can't commune with it. She thinks she exists on this planet to BE the Avatar. That if she can't succeed this one particular thing, she's utterly failed at life. This is probably a reason why the show resonated with a lot of people entering college.
21:06 I did not know that the Northern Water Tribe was the original water tribe. That is so interesting.
I do agree with most of these, but I have a few disagreements:
For starters, I kind of disagree about Korra's arc. Certainly, the hate is overblown and there IS some development in the second half, but the real problem with her arc is pacing. in that she gets no real tangible growth for the first two seasons, then she's suddenly trying to be more empathetic and patient in season 3, and then all of her development is speedrunned in the first half of season 4 so that we can get to the action. The show also had a nasty habit of brutalizing Korra in an attempt to swap character growth and likeability with audience sympathy in the first three books.
And Aang wasn't a bad father. In the end of that episode Bumi and Kya admit that they had good times at the family and it is implied that it's less of Aang outwardly favouring Tenzin and more of them having that feeling because of their own internalized guilt for not being the airbenders they felt Aang needed them to be.
bad father is more more neglectful,because aang had too much on his shoulder to not be a mess of a father. I think bumi and kya knew he had reasons, but it sounds also like there was neglect due him busy avataring. He wasnt realy a good father but not awful,just complicated?
I am sure karata is responsible for making itas family work,, but aang mostly due no faulton his own, was a worcaholic and might have been away a lot.
And aang cant be tht perfect todoalltht and be a perfect dad., thats too inhuman. iam glad he has failures too.
Really glad you made this video. I agree with most of your points, although I do have to say, I don't think you've given Kuvira enough thought. Unfortunately budget related reasons prevented us an episode entirely focused on her character, so I understand how she's perceived the way she is.
Appreciate the way you have the animation, fight scenes and choreography some credit (a lot fights are just out right better than AtLA's if you ask me) although I have to agree, the bending philosophy did diminish. Would be so cool to have new cultures forming around new bending arts (and how were the perceived by everyone else), Metal benders being all about structure and order regardless of shape (it does show a little bit with the Earth Empire although that's more a Kuvira thing than a metalbender thing) Lavabenders being more about the dismantling of rigid ideals and values (literally opposing Metalbending, it would tie in to Bolin's character arc) and have it all melt away as Lava. Combustion bending could be originated from the Fire Nation 100year war ideals, about the absolutism of power and reliance on militarism. And since the Air Nation as a whole is forever changed, have the new arts such as True Flight and Astral Projection be some variations of old Air Nomad values.
Also, finally someone who gives the music enough credit, it's on the same level as AtLAs soundtrack to me :)
An advanced bending tactic that I want to know about would be glass bending. It is one hundred percent canon that earthbenders can bend sand and that they can (under the right circumstances and, perhaps, with the right heritage) heat/quicken earth to the point it melts. It makes sense that a sand bender could (again, under the right curcumstances and with the right heritage) combine the two abilities to do glass bending.
I thought the northern tribe got rid of that no Waterbending Warrior Women rule after Paku left to help rebuild the southern tribe. Especially when Eska is one of the strongest water benders from the north, I mean he was the chief and willing to do whatever he needed to further his goals so maybe just ignored the rule. I dunno
Good points. I honestly wouldnt have been able to tell you like the show without this video. I especially like the points about Toph, red lotus, bending. And music is something that i dont pay much attention to so it was nice hearing about your thoughts. Good vid
Your analysis of Avatar is probably my favorite, your lens is just so entertaining and still thoughtful! I really think people who say Aang would never have faults as a parent are silly
When are you gonna publish episodes 20 & 21 of your season 6 rewrite? You said that you’ll take a look at it in August :/
41:55 You are talking about the first Yangchen novel (The Dawn of Yangchen), the "Chronicles of the Avatar" novels are all worth a read in their own right.
Though I haven't yet read the second Yangchen novel, I'm waiting for it to physically come out in my country.
does anyone know the song at the very very end?
Thinking of Zaheer as a right-wing libertarian, instead of a poorly-written anarchist, really helps me enjoy the 3rd season a lot more. Thank you for that, Mr. Vaccaro.
A poorly written anarchist?;
@@ayoubazahaf1511well one example of him being poorly written is reflected in his ideology. Anarchism is very community based, and asks of people to work together with the population to get rid of rigid and oppressive power structures and hierarchies. In the show, Zaheer just shows up, kills the queen and leaves. Never does he even talk to the population. Never does he work with them. He just kills the head of the state and assumes the system won't just stay in place with a replaced monarch (WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED). His ideology is very incoherent and poorly thought-out but the show wants us to think that he has a point when he doesn't.
Funnily enough, thinking of Tarrlock as a fascist helps me appreciate Season 1 more. Thinking back on it, Tarrlock doesn't actually believe in a cause as such, but is happy to escalate existing class divides to build his power base. Be damned who gets caught up in the crossfire, so long as he and his end up on top. If he was actually successful in exposing and stopping Amon, I have no doubts that Republic City would be in for some pretty bleak days.
I know that Kuvira and her Earth Empire faction are supposed to be fascists, but... eh. As presented, Kuvira comes off as someone that was genuinely making an effort to fix something after it was broken. Before the Earth Queen was killed, there were already Mad Max style roving bandits and after that there were warlords carving their own little fiefdoms and starving out the people. Kuvira stepping in when she did almost certainly seemed heroic, if not intention definitely in appearance. So it's not much of a surprise that a decent guy like Bolin would enthusiastically support her, even those wary of her seem like they might support Kuvira as a means of harm reduction. Not saying that Kuvira isn't meant to be read as fascist, but she's written in a very 2010s understanding of what that means.
@@nathanjuste6778 That last part isn't true. We were _never_ supposed to sympathize with his wanting an anarchist rule, but rather with his desire to help people. That's what sets the LoK villains apart. With the exception of Unalaq, all of them have admirable _intentions,_ but go about them in awful ways.
Amon wanted to bridge the gap between benders and non-benders, but forcibly stripped benders of their gifts.
Zaheer wanted people to have freedom from oppressive governments, but wanted to throw the world into chaos to do it.
Kuvira wanted stability among the Earth Kingdom, but through bullying and coercion.
@@marktwayne9796 I don't think I spoke clearly. I meant to say the writers make Zaheer see the kingdom for what it is, so we agree with him. Then, they give him an ideology he simply doesn't adhere to. Anarchism means something, but LoK cheapens it (and him, by proxy). There could've been a really exploratory story about anarchism, but we never had it.
as an Aang stan, i adore the idea that he's an imperfect father and more focused on training rather than raising his kids as his own. the closest thing he had to parental figures were the elder monks, especially Gyatso. it's no wonder that's how he ended up "raising" Tenzin, and technically Kya and Bumi. the original Air Nomads were raised by the community and only specifically trained by one or a few monks. it's what he knows.
now the idea that Katara would let it slide is baffling. maybe a case can be made that she wanted to let Aang raise their kids based off his culture, but there's only so long a woman with a temper like hers would take that kind of shit, no matter how much she loves him. maybe she called him out on it a few times and Aang just didn't understand what she was saying? or that she believed that training Tenzin took "priority"? tho i don't think that anything like that has been mentioned, and again, wouldn't make sense for her character.
In naruto, Kiba Inuzuka had a tough mum who scared off his dad. I suspect that Toph did the same.
Don't bring Naruto into this you sick bastard.
Also, the Swamp is where Toph first appeared in ATLA.
Korra and the whole series honestly gets so much undeserved hate. Yea, somethings are flawed, but people nitpick literally everything even if it's good.
You're commentary and view on works is always so refreshing
That pendulum swinging that you talked about goes for the Avatar as well, where Ang ran from his duties Korra tried to take it on head first. Kuruk was the go with the flow Avatar while kyoshi was strict
I don’t accept Aang being a bad father. Aang is the most empathetic character in the original series, so for him to even unintentionally neglect two of his three kids doesn’t work for me. It’s all made worse by the fact that Katara, Sokka, and Toph never noticed, let alone intervened. Katara would’ve shut that nonsense down, and we all know it.
The only reason they made Aang a bad dad was to create personal drama between his kids during the shows worst season. “It doesn’t matter that the drama was done at the expense of legacy characters, just do it and don’t think about it.”
WOW I typically don't look at videos about Korra but ngl the title intrigued me lol While the title only had to do with a small amount of the video I was sucked in hearing you talk about about different details of the show.
As someone who grew up with the original avatar show, I have attempted trying to get into Korra a few times but failed but your perspective on these things kind of makes me want to give it another try
I'm still waiting on a new blu ray DVD for legend of Korra with toph commentary
26:50 Saying bending is a privilage is like saying your right hand is a privalage. Schould thiefs be robbed of the privilage of their hands after being cought stealing? I dont think so.
(althou the lack of countermesures may justify it in this case)
That's a bad analogy.
@@teddybear979
Not really, imagine everyone is blind and then a guy who can see gets born and commits a crime with the help of his eyesight. Should his eyes be taken away just because he did harm with them?
I guess taking away someones bending is more akin to lobotomy. Should a criminal master mind be lobotomized because he is so smart he can avade every security system?
Bending is an intrinsic part of someone, its not a tool or a learned skill. Well blood bending is learned, but you have to be able to bend in the first place and someone not able to bend wont ever be able to bend.
@@evilmurlock by that logic, are non benders disabled? The show clearly depicts this as a class issue, so bending= money, which is the most popular analogy, makes the most sense here.
@@teddybear979
Depends on what you define as the baseline. The show shows that bending is genetic, so its more like 2 spiecies coexisting.
You wouldn't call an alien disabled because it only had 1 arm all aliens have just 1 arm.
The normal people are not disabled, they are unabled. Unable to bend just like they are unable to fly.
What I am trying to say, is hence benders can bend by default, taking away their bendingh would disable them. Which is normaly considered inhumane.
I only watched the first season of Kora, butf from what I saw its not really a class issue. What divides the people is wheater they can bend or not. So its a bending supremecist issue. A bender would not join the equalist movement even if he was poor and jobless. And a rich non-bender would still be looked down upon by benders. Or atleast the benders have an easier time getting jobs because bending is so usefull, which creates the wealth divide.
So its more like the class divide is a symptom of the issue than the issue itself.
@@evilmurlock There are a lot of holes in what you're saying. First of all, I'm generally not a Korra defender, and I think that the writing is very flawed. Saying that they're comparable to being separate species is very wrong, the only difference between benders and non benders is literally being more or less able, as you yourself said, which adds to the bending=money allegory, same with it being a thing people are born with and very personal to them and their way of living.
“i wish we had more on combustion bending, heard there was supplementary material but idk :) would’ve loved to see that tho!”
everyone who has read the supplementary material: 😳
Fully agree on your points about Aang. A lot of people don't realize how much pressure was on him to have an airbending child + be the Avatar at the same time.
Is he a bad father or do his kids still not fully understand what their dad went through
Bad father
Aang had ONE airbender child and said OKAY I DID MY PART THAT'S ENOUGH
I think it'd be fantastic if the new Series has a villain(?) on the same tier of Zaheer, framed as the big bad - but over time wins the Avatar onto their side as they are actually fighting for a better world/ending fascism/equal rights etc - I really enjoyed the aspect of Korra that was naive and sheltered, and if the new avatar is similar, but ends up learning about the true nature of the world, realizing they're just a government puppet and then switching sides it could be an insane series.
And if we really are getting a futuristic setting I'd love to see more of bending and technology co-existing - like The lightning-bending power plant!
Imagine a Bending-created space-habitat - Earth/metal/lava-benders mining and terraforming asteroids into airtight living spaces, water and lightning benders working together to electrolyse fresh oxygen that air-benders can help to contain.
I thought an orbital elevator would be cool, but Imagine if spirit portals could be used to travel up there instead?!
Now this has actually got me wondering why something like this hasn't been tried already... you don't need rocket science, just an airtight container with a bunch of metal-benders inside, taking turns to lift it up into orbit - it's basically troll-physics :^)
20:55
Call me crazy, but I feel like South Korea leaving North Korea might have been more than a little bit justified.