sagechan:

I think what gets me about Avatar: The Last Airbender (because, yes, I still think about it daily and engage in critical debates with my own inner thoughts) is that while, in a sense, it’s a love story, the typical “romantic” love story takes a backseat to a much more important type of love: forgiveness.

Take the show on a microcosm level. Since it was geared for a younger audience, each episode (especially in the earlier parts) usually involved the characters learning some type of lesson. No, not how many hot dogs they can fit in a picnic basket; you could flip over to House Of Mickey on Disney Channel for that kind of lesson. It was more like the characters learned lessons about their own human failing, and being able to own up when they did something wrong. How many times throughout the entire series has each character ended up apologizing to the others for doing something stupid, or acting a little nasty, or putting the group in danger?

A:TLA is a show about being able to forgive, especially since none of these kids really have much of a family to return to. Aang’s entire people are lost, Sokka and Katara’s father is at war, and Toph’s parents neglect her. Each face a form of familial loss, and they come together, form bonds together, become their own family. And in a family, you need to be able to forgive when someone screws up. One of the most important aspects of forgiveness isn’t just the person doing the forgiving, but the person who is forgiven. How do they change? How do they become better?

How do they redeem themselves?

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