Avatar Thinky Thoughts: analysing Ty Lee (also headcanons)
I’ll definitely incorporate this into the fic.
After chosing Mai over Azula, Ty Lee had a pretty hard time of it in prison. She kept resolutely cheerful during the day, but every night she sobbed herself to sleep in her cell. Plus, being so attractive, she got a lot of unwanted attention from the guards and other prisoners.
When she was released, she couldn’t deal with the trauma of Azula’s breakdown, or her bad experiences in prison. So she retreated into her happy-go-lucky facade. And she ran away from her problems by going back to the comfort of just being part of a “match-set” (the Kyoshi Warriors). Amongst them, she didn’t need to have her own identity. She didn’t need to accept what had happened to her since she left her first “match-set” (her family). Subconciously she was steeped in deep denial - hiding from her life, and trying to erase what had happened by going back to what she knew.
I can’t think of any other reason she’d go back to the very thing that caused her anguish over the years. All of her personality is formed out of a desire to generate attention, so that she’s picked out from the crowd. She has so many issues that are because of how she felt growing up, so to go back to being part of a “match-set” is obviously caused by a deep seated denial and somewhat self-destructive subconcious triggers.
I could analyse this one tiny part of the finale until the cows come home. But if I really think about it, it’s probably just sloppy writing on the part of Bryke. They needed a quick-fix happy ending for Ty Lee, and obviously thought OMG SHE’D BE A PERFECT KYOSHI WARRIOR. They were so short sighted they completely over looked the fact that to have her decide to join such a band of girls directly contradicts the backstory they wrote for her.
Short-sightedness seems the most logical explanation to me. I dunno, maybe their decision was based on a deep analysis of the character and how she would react to emotional trauma, but I doubt it. Mostly because if they did do that, they’re actually not giving her a happy ending at all, but a rather ominous one.
These ominous undertones for her decision have never occured to me before. If we take away her problems with individualism and identity then she’s the perfect candidate to be a Kyoshi Warrior - she’s lighthearted, fierce, and enjoys working with others.
But if you really examine her character you can see just how much this feeling of invisibility among similar sisters has affected her. Just about everything she does is a cry for attention, yet she’ll almost mindlessly obey Azula (to prevent Azula rejecting her and casting her aside - Azula’s the only person who saw her as an individual amongst her sisters, so she’s desperate not to lose that). She doesn’t wear red or orange, but carves out her own identity among the Fire Nation by wearing pink exclusively.
I could go more into it, but I won’t.
Of course I might be exaggerating how much these issues affect her. It could be that she’s actually got over a lot of them, so being part of the Kyoshi Warriors is comforting without threatening her sense of identity.
But I just find it really baffling and creepy that she would spend so much effort escaping being part of a “match-set” (joining the circus, for example) only to end up part of one again, and by choice.
This bubbled under the surface for a long time. I’m going to have to develop what I think happened next - whether she had a breakdown, or an epiphany. Whether she visited Azula and found solace there.
Godammit this fic is going to be HUGE. There’s no way I can do this in a oneshot. It’s gonna be a multi-chaptered filling-in-the-gaps/what-happened-next fic.
If only I had tiiiiiiiiiiiiime.
After chosing Mai over Azula, Ty Lee had a pretty hard time of it in prison. She kept resolutely cheerful during the day, but every night she sobbed herself to sleep in her cell. Plus, being so attractive, she got a lot of unwanted attention from the guards and other prisoners.
When she was released, she couldn’t deal with the trauma of Azula’s breakdown, or her bad experiences in prison. So she retreated into her happy-go-lucky facade. And she ran away from her problems by going back to the comfort of just being part of a “match-set” (the Kyoshi Warriors). Amongst them, she didn’t need to have her own identity. She didn’t need to accept what had happened to her since she left her first “match-set” (her family). Subconciously she was steeped in deep denial - hiding from her life, and trying to erase what had happened by going back to what she knew.
I can’t think of any other reason she’d go back to the very thing that caused her anguish over the years. All of her personality is formed out of a desire to generate attention, so that she’s picked out from the crowd. She has so many issues that are because of how she felt growing up, so to go back to being part of a “match-set” is obviously caused by a deep seated denial and somewhat self-destructive subconcious triggers.
I could analyse this one tiny part of the finale until the cows come home. But if I really think about it, it’s probably just sloppy writing on the part of Bryke. They needed a quick-fix happy ending for Ty Lee, and obviously thought OMG SHE’D BE A PERFECT KYOSHI WARRIOR. They were so short sighted they completely over looked the fact that to have her decide to join such a band of girls directly contradicts the backstory they wrote for her.
Short-sightedness seems the most logical explanation to me. I dunno, maybe their decision was based on a deep analysis of the character and how she would react to emotional trauma, but I doubt it. Mostly because if they did do that, they’re actually not giving her a happy ending at all, but a rather ominous one.
These ominous undertones for her decision have never occured to me before. If we take away her problems with individualism and identity then she’s the perfect candidate to be a Kyoshi Warrior - she’s lighthearted, fierce, and enjoys working with others.
But if you really examine her character you can see just how much this feeling of invisibility among similar sisters has affected her. Just about everything she does is a cry for attention, yet she’ll almost mindlessly obey Azula (to prevent Azula rejecting her and casting her aside - Azula’s the only person who saw her as an individual amongst her sisters, so she’s desperate not to lose that). She doesn’t wear red or orange, but carves out her own identity among the Fire Nation by wearing pink exclusively.
I could go more into it, but I won’t.
Of course I might be exaggerating how much these issues affect her. It could be that she’s actually got over a lot of them, so being part of the Kyoshi Warriors is comforting without threatening her sense of identity.
But I just find it really baffling and creepy that she would spend so much effort escaping being part of a “match-set” (joining the circus, for example) only to end up part of one again, and by choice.
This bubbled under the surface for a long time. I’m going to have to develop what I think happened next - whether she had a breakdown, or an epiphany. Whether she visited Azula and found solace there.
Godammit this fic is going to be HUGE. There’s no way I can do this in a oneshot. It’s gonna be a multi-chaptered filling-in-the-gaps/what-happened-next fic.
If only I had tiiiiiiiiiiiiime.