Aang's not immature. Please stop.
I've had this posted at findmyantidrug since October, but since I'm just going to keep that to a writing/drawing/what-have-you journal, I'm deleting it from there and reposting it here. Feel free to scroll on!
So, yeah. capslock_atla had a recent post that really rubbed me the wrong way, for one reason: They compared Aang to some kid off of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (Simon, for those who've seen it) with the justification of: 'IMATURE NUT-BRAINS THAT DON'T KNOW HOW TO KILL PEOPLE'
My knee-jerk comment was: GAAAAAAAH IMATURE NUT-BRAINS THAT DON'T KNOW HOW TO KILL PEOPLE
LET ME DISSECT THIS
1) YOU SPELLED IMMATURE WRONG
2) WHO DON'T KNOW HOW TO KILL PEOPLE
3) AANG KNOWS PERFECTLY FUCKING WELL HOW TO KILL PEOPLE, HE JUST DOESN'T BECAUSE IT'S NOT WHAT FUCKING MONKS DO AND IT WASN'T FUCKING NECESSARY!
4) AANG IS NOT FUCKING IMMATURE
-> A) STEPPED UP TO THE AVATAR PLATE WHEN HE REALIZED WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED WHEN HE DIDN'T ('CAUSE BEING A SAVIOR TOTALLY ISN'T A SHITTON OF PRESSURE, NOOOO)
-> B) WAS ABLE TO DEAL WITH THE LOSS OF HIS ENTIRE FUCKING WORLD WITHOUT BLOWING ANYTHING UP BESIDES A BUILDING (COULD'VE WANKED ABOUT IT THE WHOLE FUCKING SERIES AND WENT ON A RAMPAGE AND GOTTEN ALL VENGEFUL AND SHIT)
-> C) STEPPED UP TO THE OZAI PLATE ('HAY, SO YOU KNOW HOW YOU THOUGHT YOU HAD LIKE X AMOUNT OF TIME TO GET READY FOR THIS SHIT? WELL JKJK, YOU GOT THREE DAYS' TOTALLY ISN'T HARD TO DEAL WITH, AMIRITE)
-> D) RESPECTS THE FUCKING PEOPLE HE DEALS WITH (WITH LAPSES AND SHIT BUT THE KID'S A FUCKING 12 YEAR OLD BOY)
-> E) DOESN'T LET HIS PEERS PRESSURE HIM INTO DOING SHIT HE DOESN'T WANT TO DO (LIKE, OH, KILL A FUCKING PERSON)
-> F) ?????
-> G) PROFIT, MOTHERFUCKERS
GOD JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP! I'M SO SICK OF THIS FANDOM CALLING AANG IMMATURE.
And then I realized that I just ripped into this person, and added (after posting):
DISCLAIMER: UM...HOLY SHIT. THIS IS WAAAY MORE AGGRESSIVE THAN IT SEEMED WHEN I WAS TYPING IT. SORRY! >.O
But now I'd like to take the time to explain myself a little better, and respond to it with less use of the word 'fuck.' (Edited to Note: Lots of synposis, not so much actual points. May or may not be worth the time it takes to read; it's basically a longer impulse rant.)
I don't really know why people in the fandom insist on saying that Aang is immature. It's fair enough to say that he's emotional and that he's a goofy kid, but what they seem to forget is that he's also 12 years old, and what they were like when they were 12. It's also fair enough to say that he has made immature, selfish, and bad decisions, and that they've had bad effects on the people around him - but that's a part of being human, and...being twelve.
Ignoring my first two points, I'll go to the third. By the time the finale comes around, Aang has mastered airbending and waterbending, has probably mastered earthbending, and is really, really good at firebending, at least. He's learned these elements (sans airbending) from people who aren't opposed to killing when necessary, and will have taught him techniques that can very easily be used to kill opponents (though we've never seen the Gaang explicitly kill anyone). We see him, before he comes out of the Avatar State in the finale, use many attacks that could have easily killed Ozai, if he wasn't as good at evading Aang. He almost did kill Ozai with the four elements - but he stopped himself. In short: Aang knows how to kill people, he simply refuses to do so. (Yeah, yeah, this is a semantic debate, whatever.)
Also: The lionturtle provided Aang with a means to put a stop to Ozai without killing him. He didn't really understand how to go about doing it until the time came and he did it, but what would have been the point of killing Ozai, ruining Aang's spirit, and ending a 100-year long war with more violence? There was a peaceful resolution. Aang had a choice between a peaceful resolution and a violent one. Being an airbending monk before anything else, would he really choose the option of killing Ozai?
And, why doesn't anyone ever say that Zuko and Katara were pussies for not killing Azula? Was it because she was crying at the end? Is it because no one pressured them to kill her, whereas everyone was telling Aang to kill Ozai?
Aang stuck to his guns. He refused to change his moral compass, and was lucky enough to find a way to end the war without having to compromise his beliefs. Why is that a bad thing? Why does that make him a coward? I just don't understand that mindset.
It makes just as little sense as calling a twelve-year old boy immature, when he's quite the opposite. Aang is a dork. He's light-hearted and free-spirited and he doesn't realize when he walks straight into danger. He believes in people, sincerely and full-heartedly. He thinks big fire dragons are cool, and tries to make one when he's a n00b firebender. He yells at people when he's irritated. He cries when he's hurt, he attacks people when he's angry. He's a hypocrite, and makes stupid mistakes. These are all human traits, guys, and more so traits of young people, who tend to be hormonal and not as good at controlling themselves when it comes to dealing with people and difficult situations.
The thing is, he found out four years before he should've that he was the Avatar. Look at a seventh grader (American school system, bear with me), and then look at a Sophomore or Junior in high school. There's such a huge difference, no matter who you're looking at. The Avatar is a very important figure, and it's dangerous, and it's a lonely job. It's a job where the whole world expects everything from you. Aang probably had hopes and dreams and ideas for his future that definitely didn't involve that - and when he found out he was the Avatar, all of those were crushed. Suddenly, he had responsibility, and more of it than he'd ever imagined he would have. Then, he found out that the monks were going to separate him from the closest person to him, the one person who kept his life fun when the airbender kids were excluding him, the one person who was a parental figure - so he panicked. He didn't want to be alone in this journey; he's assumedly always had Gyatso to help him. He ran away, because running away from your problems will surely make them go away! And he froze himself in a block of ice and slept for a hundred years. He never made a similar mistake again: From The Southern Air Temple on, Aang faced his problems, with the two exceptions of when he lost Appa and when he failed at Ba Sing Se. Losing Appa was losing a great friend and the last bit of his living culture aside from himself and Momo - of course he would be devastated and furious; people come and go, but Appa has always stayed with Aang. Losing at Ba Sing Se meant that he failed to keep the Fire Nation from taking over the world, something he'd been fighting since he woke up, and once they found him on the island (what, the next day?), he sucked it up and moved forward.
When he woke up, and when he saw proof that the war of the last hundred years happened, and when he saw that the world truly needed the Avatar, he sucked it up and accepted his fate. He never looked back; he didn't have relapses where he went off about how he didn't want to be the Avatar, except in The Storm when he was telling Katara his story. He started to work towards helping the world in whatever way he could, though he had no real direction aside from learning the elements until Roku told him about Sozin's Comet.
In the Southern Air Temple, Aang saw proof that what Katara had been telling him was true. He saw the firebender's corpses and Monk Gyatso's - and he flipped. He blew crap up. He didn't calm down until Katara talked him out of it, and once he was calm, he never once suggested that they exact revenge on the firebenders for killing the airbenders. He never attacked a firebender without being attacked first (except for Ozai), and he never showed any animosity towards firebenders. This suggests that he made the distinction between the firebenders of a hundred years ago who killed his people, and those now, who just heard of the airbenders through stories - he didn't throw all Fire Nation into one generalization, he didn't blame anyone. He didn't go on long spiels about how horrible life was now that the airbenders were gone; he picked up the pieces and moved forward. He stepped away from his pain and looked at the state of the world, and, for the first time that we've seen in canon, chose the world's priorities over his own, and started acting. What I mean by this is, instead of getting revenge on the Fire Nation, he put them on a neutral ground - blindly attacking the Fire Nation would've inevitably lead the world out of balance, and whether Aang knew that consciously or not, that's the decision he made.
Then, of course, we have the finale. So Aang's 13 now, and the past year's changed him quite a bit. He's mellowed out some, matured, done a dance or two. We find out that, since Ba Sing Se went down, Aang's not gonna mess with the comet, he's just going to work on his bending until he's at a point where he feels he can take on Ozai. Zuko tells him this is stupid, because Ozai's going to burninate the countryside. Suddenly, Aang has another time limit - but this one is much, much shorter than a year. He needs a plan, and he needs one now, and he's not a master firebender and his earthbending apparently needs work and Fire Lord Ozai's the baddest man on the planet and he's going to be super-powered by the comet and how is he supposed to do this he can't roar like a tigerdillo and and and Aang starts freaking out. And Zuko feels a little bad for fighting him, but not that bad. We've seen Aang be okay with facing the Fire Lord before, and he seems to get to that point again here, except for one thing: He doesn't want to kill Ozai, and with him being powered by the Comet, there's not much else Aang can feasibly do.
Enter conflict. Aang's followed his moral code for his entire life. The fight's not just about the fight anymore, it's about Aang having to take a life. When he finds himself on the lionturtle, nothing seems better - the past Avatars are all telling him that killing Ozai is what he's gotta do, and the lionturtle isn't exactly clear. Aang hears what he's saying, but the impression I get is that he doesn't really know what it all means - that he remembered the lion turtle touching his head and chest, remembered the sensation, and when he had Ozai down, figured it was worth a try. And when he pins Ozai to the ground, he could've very easily gone the route that he knew would work - killing him, but he made his decision and his mark as the Avatar.
Gah...I'm rambling, so I'm gonna summarize:
Aang's decision to let Ozai live wasn't immature, and just because he's a dork doesn't mean he's immature. He deals with death, conflict, and people very well, and he shows a lot of maturity for his age. Which is 13, by the end. He's not a nut-brain who can't kill people, he's actually a pretty wise kid who chooses not to kill people because there ARE other ways of stopping Big Bad Villains.
So, Avatar fandom: Say that Aang's immature all you want, but if you say it to me, expect a really really fucking long rant. XD
-gets off soap box-
Thoughts? Comments? Corrections? Questions? Lobster?
So, yeah. capslock_atla had a recent post that really rubbed me the wrong way, for one reason: They compared Aang to some kid off of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (Simon, for those who've seen it) with the justification of: 'IMATURE NUT-BRAINS THAT DON'T KNOW HOW TO KILL PEOPLE'
My knee-jerk comment was: GAAAAAAAH IMATURE NUT-BRAINS THAT DON'T KNOW HOW TO KILL PEOPLE
LET ME DISSECT THIS
1) YOU SPELLED IMMATURE WRONG
2) WHO DON'T KNOW HOW TO KILL PEOPLE
3) AANG KNOWS PERFECTLY FUCKING WELL HOW TO KILL PEOPLE, HE JUST DOESN'T BECAUSE IT'S NOT WHAT FUCKING MONKS DO AND IT WASN'T FUCKING NECESSARY!
4) AANG IS NOT FUCKING IMMATURE
-> A) STEPPED UP TO THE AVATAR PLATE WHEN HE REALIZED WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED WHEN HE DIDN'T ('CAUSE BEING A SAVIOR TOTALLY ISN'T A SHITTON OF PRESSURE, NOOOO)
-> B) WAS ABLE TO DEAL WITH THE LOSS OF HIS ENTIRE FUCKING WORLD WITHOUT BLOWING ANYTHING UP BESIDES A BUILDING (COULD'VE WANKED ABOUT IT THE WHOLE FUCKING SERIES AND WENT ON A RAMPAGE AND GOTTEN ALL VENGEFUL AND SHIT)
-> C) STEPPED UP TO THE OZAI PLATE ('HAY, SO YOU KNOW HOW YOU THOUGHT YOU HAD LIKE X AMOUNT OF TIME TO GET READY FOR THIS SHIT? WELL JKJK, YOU GOT THREE DAYS' TOTALLY ISN'T HARD TO DEAL WITH, AMIRITE)
-> D) RESPECTS THE FUCKING PEOPLE HE DEALS WITH (WITH LAPSES AND SHIT BUT THE KID'S A FUCKING 12 YEAR OLD BOY)
-> E) DOESN'T LET HIS PEERS PRESSURE HIM INTO DOING SHIT HE DOESN'T WANT TO DO (LIKE, OH, KILL A FUCKING PERSON)
-> F) ?????
-> G) PROFIT, MOTHERFUCKERS
GOD JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP! I'M SO SICK OF THIS FANDOM CALLING AANG IMMATURE.
And then I realized that I just ripped into this person, and added (after posting):
DISCLAIMER: UM...HOLY SHIT. THIS IS WAAAY MORE AGGRESSIVE THAN IT SEEMED WHEN I WAS TYPING IT. SORRY! >.O
But now I'd like to take the time to explain myself a little better, and respond to it with less use of the word 'fuck.' (Edited to Note: Lots of synposis, not so much actual points. May or may not be worth the time it takes to read; it's basically a longer impulse rant.)
I don't really know why people in the fandom insist on saying that Aang is immature. It's fair enough to say that he's emotional and that he's a goofy kid, but what they seem to forget is that he's also 12 years old, and what they were like when they were 12. It's also fair enough to say that he has made immature, selfish, and bad decisions, and that they've had bad effects on the people around him - but that's a part of being human, and...being twelve.
Ignoring my first two points, I'll go to the third. By the time the finale comes around, Aang has mastered airbending and waterbending, has probably mastered earthbending, and is really, really good at firebending, at least. He's learned these elements (sans airbending) from people who aren't opposed to killing when necessary, and will have taught him techniques that can very easily be used to kill opponents (though we've never seen the Gaang explicitly kill anyone). We see him, before he comes out of the Avatar State in the finale, use many attacks that could have easily killed Ozai, if he wasn't as good at evading Aang. He almost did kill Ozai with the four elements - but he stopped himself. In short: Aang knows how to kill people, he simply refuses to do so. (Yeah, yeah, this is a semantic debate, whatever.)
Also: The lionturtle provided Aang with a means to put a stop to Ozai without killing him. He didn't really understand how to go about doing it until the time came and he did it, but what would have been the point of killing Ozai, ruining Aang's spirit, and ending a 100-year long war with more violence? There was a peaceful resolution. Aang had a choice between a peaceful resolution and a violent one. Being an airbending monk before anything else, would he really choose the option of killing Ozai?
And, why doesn't anyone ever say that Zuko and Katara were pussies for not killing Azula? Was it because she was crying at the end? Is it because no one pressured them to kill her, whereas everyone was telling Aang to kill Ozai?
Aang stuck to his guns. He refused to change his moral compass, and was lucky enough to find a way to end the war without having to compromise his beliefs. Why is that a bad thing? Why does that make him a coward? I just don't understand that mindset.
It makes just as little sense as calling a twelve-year old boy immature, when he's quite the opposite. Aang is a dork. He's light-hearted and free-spirited and he doesn't realize when he walks straight into danger. He believes in people, sincerely and full-heartedly. He thinks big fire dragons are cool, and tries to make one when he's a n00b firebender. He yells at people when he's irritated. He cries when he's hurt, he attacks people when he's angry. He's a hypocrite, and makes stupid mistakes. These are all human traits, guys, and more so traits of young people, who tend to be hormonal and not as good at controlling themselves when it comes to dealing with people and difficult situations.
The thing is, he found out four years before he should've that he was the Avatar. Look at a seventh grader (American school system, bear with me), and then look at a Sophomore or Junior in high school. There's such a huge difference, no matter who you're looking at. The Avatar is a very important figure, and it's dangerous, and it's a lonely job. It's a job where the whole world expects everything from you. Aang probably had hopes and dreams and ideas for his future that definitely didn't involve that - and when he found out he was the Avatar, all of those were crushed. Suddenly, he had responsibility, and more of it than he'd ever imagined he would have. Then, he found out that the monks were going to separate him from the closest person to him, the one person who kept his life fun when the airbender kids were excluding him, the one person who was a parental figure - so he panicked. He didn't want to be alone in this journey; he's assumedly always had Gyatso to help him. He ran away, because running away from your problems will surely make them go away! And he froze himself in a block of ice and slept for a hundred years. He never made a similar mistake again: From The Southern Air Temple on, Aang faced his problems, with the two exceptions of when he lost Appa and when he failed at Ba Sing Se. Losing Appa was losing a great friend and the last bit of his living culture aside from himself and Momo - of course he would be devastated and furious; people come and go, but Appa has always stayed with Aang. Losing at Ba Sing Se meant that he failed to keep the Fire Nation from taking over the world, something he'd been fighting since he woke up, and once they found him on the island (what, the next day?), he sucked it up and moved forward.
When he woke up, and when he saw proof that the war of the last hundred years happened, and when he saw that the world truly needed the Avatar, he sucked it up and accepted his fate. He never looked back; he didn't have relapses where he went off about how he didn't want to be the Avatar, except in The Storm when he was telling Katara his story. He started to work towards helping the world in whatever way he could, though he had no real direction aside from learning the elements until Roku told him about Sozin's Comet.
In the Southern Air Temple, Aang saw proof that what Katara had been telling him was true. He saw the firebender's corpses and Monk Gyatso's - and he flipped. He blew crap up. He didn't calm down until Katara talked him out of it, and once he was calm, he never once suggested that they exact revenge on the firebenders for killing the airbenders. He never attacked a firebender without being attacked first (except for Ozai), and he never showed any animosity towards firebenders. This suggests that he made the distinction between the firebenders of a hundred years ago who killed his people, and those now, who just heard of the airbenders through stories - he didn't throw all Fire Nation into one generalization, he didn't blame anyone. He didn't go on long spiels about how horrible life was now that the airbenders were gone; he picked up the pieces and moved forward. He stepped away from his pain and looked at the state of the world, and, for the first time that we've seen in canon, chose the world's priorities over his own, and started acting. What I mean by this is, instead of getting revenge on the Fire Nation, he put them on a neutral ground - blindly attacking the Fire Nation would've inevitably lead the world out of balance, and whether Aang knew that consciously or not, that's the decision he made.
Then, of course, we have the finale. So Aang's 13 now, and the past year's changed him quite a bit. He's mellowed out some, matured, done a dance or two. We find out that, since Ba Sing Se went down, Aang's not gonna mess with the comet, he's just going to work on his bending until he's at a point where he feels he can take on Ozai. Zuko tells him this is stupid, because Ozai's going to burninate the countryside. Suddenly, Aang has another time limit - but this one is much, much shorter than a year. He needs a plan, and he needs one now, and he's not a master firebender and his earthbending apparently needs work and Fire Lord Ozai's the baddest man on the planet and he's going to be super-powered by the comet and how is he supposed to do this he can't roar like a tigerdillo and and and Aang starts freaking out. And Zuko feels a little bad for fighting him, but not that bad. We've seen Aang be okay with facing the Fire Lord before, and he seems to get to that point again here, except for one thing: He doesn't want to kill Ozai, and with him being powered by the Comet, there's not much else Aang can feasibly do.
Enter conflict. Aang's followed his moral code for his entire life. The fight's not just about the fight anymore, it's about Aang having to take a life. When he finds himself on the lionturtle, nothing seems better - the past Avatars are all telling him that killing Ozai is what he's gotta do, and the lionturtle isn't exactly clear. Aang hears what he's saying, but the impression I get is that he doesn't really know what it all means - that he remembered the lion turtle touching his head and chest, remembered the sensation, and when he had Ozai down, figured it was worth a try. And when he pins Ozai to the ground, he could've very easily gone the route that he knew would work - killing him, but he made his decision and his mark as the Avatar.
Gah...I'm rambling, so I'm gonna summarize:
Aang's decision to let Ozai live wasn't immature, and just because he's a dork doesn't mean he's immature. He deals with death, conflict, and people very well, and he shows a lot of maturity for his age. Which is 13, by the end. He's not a nut-brain who can't kill people, he's actually a pretty wise kid who chooses not to kill people because there ARE other ways of stopping Big Bad Villains.
So, Avatar fandom: Say that Aang's immature all you want, but if you say it to me, expect a really really fucking long rant. XD
-gets off soap box-
Thoughts? Comments? Corrections? Questions? Lobster?