History AlternativeCharacterInterpretation / AvatarTheLastAirbender

* Jeong Jeong - Antagonistically dour, but correct in that Aang needed the emotional maturity from learning Waterbending and Earthbending before attempting to learn Firebending? Or just a scarred, bitter, self-loathing (and possibly somewhat crazy) old man who simply didn't want to pass on his knowledge in a bending form he considered inherently evil? Plus, his efforts at teaching; fair but strict for Aang's own good, only turning out badly because of Aang's natural flightiness? Or half-assed due to resentment of being bullied into teaching Aang against his will and so all but deliberately setting Aang up for burning Katara?

* Would Korra and Mao have stayed together and worked out their relationship issues had Unalaq's schemes not served as a complication to Korra's emotional and mental state in Book 2, or would something else have eventually happened to break them up instead? Would there have been a conflict of interest in their relationship at all had Mako had any job other than that of a Republic City cop, or would some other incident have eventually set them at cross-purposes? Would they have ever worked out as a couple in the long run, or were they wrong for each from the start due to Korra's excessively HotBlooded nature and Mako's general inability to be a proper boyfriend to any girl he likes?

* Would Korra and Mao have stayed together and worked out their relationship issues had Unalaq's schemes not served as a complication to Korra's emotional and mental state in Book 2, or would something else have eventually happened to break them up instead? Would there have been a conflict of interest in their relationship at all had Mako had any job other than that of a Republic City cop, or would some other incident have eventually set them at cross-purposes? Would they have ever worked out as couple in the long run, or were they wrong for each from the start due to Korra's excessively HotBlooded nature and Mako's general inability to be a proper boyfriend to any girl he likes?

** There's also the question as to whether or not he was against the Fire Nation secretly since the beginning of Book One or if he merely embraced his status as a traitor following his fugitive status in Book Two.

** Then there's the fact that Kyoshi is implied to have basically let Chin the Conqueror run rampant over the Earth Kingdom until he had the nerve to approach the area she claimed as her own territory, whereupon she simply broke the peninsula off and turned it into an island. So, Kyoshi the [[BystanderSyndrome apathetic]] and [[MoralMyopia only concerned with her own people]] Avatar? Or did she just view the Earth Kingdom's civil war as an internal matter, thus not falling under the Avatar's purview, until Chin tried to force Kyoshi to bend her knee to him? Or was Chin to Kyoshi what Ozai was to Aang and she didn't stop him right away because she had to master all four elements first?

* Ty Lee :

[[/folder]]

'''''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'''''

'''''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'''''

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:''Avatar The Last Airbender'']]

** There's a subset that was so moved by her VillainousBreakdown that they decided she wasn't a sociopath. She's shown in canon to be cold and manipulative, using fear as a weapon and then calling it friendship; in stark contrast, part of the fandom seems to have decided that she's lost, scared, and just wanted Mommy to love her -- as opposed to, you know, being a murderous [[MagnificentBastard bastard]] caught in [[SanitySlippage deep psychosis]]. A few think it's both -- one led to the other. If Azula was so lost and scared as a child, then becoming so powerful, manipulative, sociopathic bitch would (in her mind) seem like an ideal solution to erasing all the pain. It is worth noting, while she is clearly not a good person, what we find out about Azula's mental state in ''The Search'' indicates that she is probably not clinically a sociopath.

** It's possible she was simply a [[RoyalBrat spoiled brat]] who was used to [[ItsAllAboutMe getting her way]] (as she got it from her [[DaddysLittleVillain father]] and those who feared them). Her mother, Ursa, loved her but didn't indulge her the same way her father did. [[DotingParent While her father]] [[SoProudOfYou made her think]] the world revolved around her; [[GoodParents her]] [[ParentExMachina mother]] [[CantGetAwayWithNuthin brought her down to earth]] therefore (according to Azula) [[FelonyMisdemeanor she "hated" her]]. Either way you would blame Ozai for her behavior. But perhaps she doesn't deserve as much sympathy as the fandom has given her. Some fans even insist that every action she takes towards Zuko, no matter how violent or cruel, is actually her reaching out to him in her own twisted way, despite the fact that half the time she was trying to kill him, took pleasure in seeing him be disfigured by their father, never passed up a chance to degrade, embarrass or in some way be condescending towards him, and the real kicker is that she set him up to be the ''freaking fall guy'' to cover her own ass if it turned out she failed to kill Aang.

** The real potential head case of the ''Avatar'' universe is Ozai. Viewing Zuko as a reflection of who he was as a child, a sensitive MommasBoy who [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption fails at every attempt to please Daddy]], and his big brother [[FriendToAllLivingThings whom everyone loves]] doesn't make things any easier. No, Azula represents his idealized self, ([[ManIFeelLikeAWoman not in THAT way]]) along with her perfection as a Bender, intelligence and natural born leadership skills. He indulged Azula as he wished he could have been indulged as a child. Perhaps he genuinely loved Azula but spoiled her rotten for the reasons above, he tried to love Zuko but he couldn't due to his own self loathing.
** It's also known that Ozai inherited the Fire Nation well into the Hundred Year War; there's also no mention of military accomplishments on his part, at least on par with his brother's. It's possible that his [[OmnicidalManiac overzealous]] pursuit of glory for himself and the Fire Nation stems from an Omashu-sized chip on his shoulder. The way Zuko goes to him for advice during the sequel comic, The Promise, also implies that there was more, and more complex, issues on his solid-gold plate than figuring out which people and lands to subjugate. Any chance for sympathy probably ends when he decides to raze the Earth Kingdom to the ground, though.

** A throwaway line from the comics has him telling Zuko that the "throne will challenge and change a man". It's also worth noting that Azula when given the throne fell insane when she had the power, though in Azula's defense, the throne combined with her previous issues greatly accelerated the madness. In addition, Zuko while not having any love for his father admits that Ozai wasn't always a power hungry bully. Combining it all, one wonders exactly how much of Ozai changed when he took up the throne or whether the prospect of inheriting the throne (especially when he learned that of Lu Ten's death) drove him partially insane like his daughter.
* Many viewers saw Zuko as a very troubled and sympathetic guy who legitimately struggles with various aspects of his life and himself, and sometimes has periods of whining (but understandably so), which thus makes his [[CharacterDevelopment maturing]] a truly amazing story to watch. A number of others saw him as a pathetic, loser teen with serious anger problems and a general fuck-up who constantly causes unnecessary trouble for everyone, including himself.

* Was Admiral Zhao's refusal to [[TakeMyHand let Zuko try to rescue him]] from a vengeful {{Kaiju}}-class Ocean Spirit one last act of arrogant contempt for the boy, or a rare act of wisdom and honor in not letting the stupid kid get himself drowned too? Considering he'd tried to murder Zuko by shooting him InTheBack and then tried to have him assassinated by pirates, it's unlikely that he cared what happened to Zuko. But since we don't know what was in Zhao's head, it is still a possibility. There's also the possibility that it had nothing to do with Zuko and that Zhao let himself be killed due to shame of having failed in capturing the Avatar one too many times and seeing the moon back in the sky.

* Was Ursa a perfect mother, a humanly flawed woman, or a bitch who blatantly played favorites and ruined her daughter forever? The show gives us the first characterization -- but it comes from Zuko's personal memories, making it possible that Zuko is simply idealizing her out of his love for her. Ozai and Azula would probably think of her as the second and third characterizations respectively. According to ''The Search,'' she's [[spoiler: a victim of DomesticAbuse as a result of an unwanted ArrangedMarriage with Ozai, with... ''less-than-ideal'' results. She sends a letter saying that Ozai isn't Zuko's father to force him to admit he'd been reading her mail, gives Ozai an untraceable poison to use to murder Azulon when Azulon orders Zuko's death, and has her face changed and memories of her time in the palace (including her own children!) erased after being banished for it because those memories (and the thought of her children being stuck with Ozai for the rest of their lives) are too painful.]] The book itself clearly intends her to be seen as humanly flawed, but a huge portion of the fandom thinks she's a terrible person because of what she did.

* Zutara shippers frequently portray [[EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette Mai]] as a cruel, insanely jealous bitch, though she's just as easily a confused and possibly depressed teenager just as messed up as the rest of the Fire Nation characters whose character development, while less overtly stated than Zuko's, nevertheless paralleled his enough to [[spoiler: give her a HeelFaceTurn near the end of the series]].

* Azulon - For a character that has had only a few minutes of screen time and a couple lines, there is so much debate about him and the ambiguous scenario involving him. Did he ask Ozai to [[DisproportionateRetribution sacrifice his son]] for a slight against his eldest? Was it a ''SecretTestOfCharacter''? Was Azulon speaking [[labelnote:figuratively?]]Ozai would lose a son because Iroh would adopt Zuko as his son and heir completely by-passing Ozai's chance to the throne.[[/labelnote]] Did he even give that as an order or did Azula make it all up (for any various reasons) and Ozai went with it? [[spoiler:"The Search" complicated things exponentially, since he forced Ursa and Ozai's marriage as a SuperBreedingProgram and Azula was the successful result, his order for Ozai to kill Zuko may as well be KillTheSpare.]]

* Avatar Kyoshi's willingness to kill an enemy (when she could find not find any other solution to deal with Chin the Conqueror) has somehow turned into the fanon interpretation that Kyoshi is a killer who constantly revels in bloodshed. This is mostly prevalent when she is compared to other Avatars.

* Yu Dao colony from [[ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderThePromise the Promise Trilogy sequel comic]]: beacon of multiculturalism and victim of backwards thinkers who don't appreciate its glories, or inherently racist community whose famed wealth is built on making weapons for the Fire Nation's war effort?

** Also, does her asskicking skills come from her brutish attitude? Or is it just favoritism from the writers that makes Toph look good and the other girl characters "mediocre" compared to her?
[[/folder]]

[[folder:''The Legend of Korra'']]

* Amon: The fact that it was never entirely clear whether or not Amon was sincere about his crusade against bending [[spoiler: despite being one himself]] or was just taking advantage of anti-bender sentiments to gain power [[spoiler: or upstage his [[AbusiveParents Abusive Father]]]] makes it very difficult to determine what category of villain he falls under. Whether or not he counts as an AntiVillain-considering his tragic backstory [[spoiler: the real one that is]]-is up for debate. In the former interpretation, what type of AntiVillain Amon is[=-=][[spoiler: Type III if one thinks Tarrlok was right about him being sincere in his belief that bending was the root of all evil, or simply type II if one doesn't]]-is also contested. Eventually, though, WordOfGod confirmed that [[spoiler:Amon was fully sincere in his rhetoric]].

* The Park Protestor: Contrarian attention-whore, as [[WordOfGod Nick's website]] claims, or an earnest political activist standing up to the pro-bending establishment? Although for all he harps on Korra for benders like her using her power to oppress people like him, he still wholeheartedly supports the Equalists even after they indiscriminately bombard Republic City with ''their'' superior martial power... at least until Amon [[spoiler: reveals himself as a waterbender]]. Not to mention that for all his talk about an oppressive establishment keeping down the non-bender, he's allowed to freely agitate for the Equalists in a public park with police protection.

* Even Korra's not safe from this. Is she a strong young woman who's trying to do what's right despite her [[NaiveNewcomer naivety]] due to growing up in a GildedCage or a [[SpoiledBrat spoiled]], selfish bully who relies on her [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveSuperNaturalPowers bending]] and Avatar title to get what she wants? Is she [[FemaleMisogynist sexist]] for assuming that Asami was [[RealWomenDontWearDresses prissy and spoiled because she was girly]] or was it just because [[GreenEyedMonster Asami was dating a guy that she liked?]] Was she intentional leading [[DoggedNiceGuy Bolin]] on, or was it all [[InnocentlyInsensitive a big misunderstanding?]] Was she ''really'' [[spoiler: going to commit suicide at the end of Endgame?]].

* [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen The Earth Queen]]: Definitely a JerkAss, but whether she was actually WRONG was a whole other kettle of fish. It is, technically, true that the United Republic was built on Earth Kingdom land, and as a sovereign ruler she does have [[spoiler: the right to conscript her own citizens into the military.]] Depending on your perspective, she was either trying (and failing) to strengthen her nation's political position, or was desperately holding onto the old order, as the rest of the world was moving forward.

* Kuvira's relationship with Bataar Jr.: genuine romance or Kuvira stringing him along to keep him on her side? The events of "Kuvira's Gambit" manages to offer evidence in both directions. [[spoiler: When he tells her he loves her, she doesn't reciprocate but instead tells him "[[ExactWords she couldn't have made it this far without him]]." She fires the spirit cannon at Bataar's location to kill Korra and her other main opponents, but the uncharacteristic waver in her voice as she does so is telling. Even if she does love him, her empire comes first.]]

* Was Admiral Zhao's refusal to [[TakeMyHand let Zuko try to rescue him]] from a vengeful {{Kaiju}}-class Ocean Spirit one last act of arrogant contempt for the boy, or a rare act of wisdom and honor in not letting the stupid kid get himself drowned too? Considering he'd tried to murder Zuko by shooting him InTheBack and then tried to have him assassinated by pirates, it's unlikely that he cared what happened to Zuko. But since we don't know what was in Zhao's head, it is still a possibility.

* Asami Sato: Did she oppose her Equalist father for the reasons she expressed or was it because she believed she'd be better off on the benders' side?

** When Mako tells Korra that he's got her back, and he always will, [[spoiler:is he aware of Korra and Asami's feelings for each other and telling Korra that he supports them as a couple]]?

[[folder:''The Legend Of Korra'']]

** The real potential head case of the ''Avatar'' universe is Ozai. Viewing Zuko as a reflection of who he was as a child, a sensitive MommasBoy who [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption fails at every attempt to please Daddy]], and his [[MaryTzu big]] [[PuritySue brother]] [[FriendToAllLivingThings whom everyone loves]] doesn't make things any easier. No, Azula represents his idealized self, ([[ManIFeelLikeAWoman not in THAT way]]) along with her perfection as a Bender, intelligence and natural born leadership skills. He indulged Azula as he wished he could have been indulged as a child. Perhaps he genuinely loved Azula but spoiled her rotten for the reasons above, he tried to love Zuko but he couldn't due to his own self loathing.

* Kya: a disappointing waterbender who is unworthy of her mother and of her title of master or a talented waterbender who is simply lacking in combat experience (having not had to fight a war as a teenager) and was, therefore, unprepared to take on an opponent who, like Toph, constantly used her bending to [[DisabilitySuperpower compensate for a disability]] and was, thus, on a whole nother level.
* [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen The Earth Queen]]: Definately a JerkAss, but whether she was actually WRONG was a whole 'nother kettle of fish. It is, technically, true that the United Republic was built on Earth Kingdom land, and as a sovereign ruler she does have [[spoiler: the right to conscript her own citizens into the military.]] Depending on your perspective, she was either trying (and failing) to strengthen her nation's political position, or was desperately holding onto the old order, as the rest of the world was moving forward.

* Kuvira's relationship with Bataar Jr. Genuine romance or Kuvira stringing him along to keep him on her side? The events of "Kuvira's Gambit" manages to offer evidence in both directions. [[spoiler: When he tells her he loves her, she doesn't reciprocate but instead tells him "[[ExactWords she couldn't have made it this far without him]]." She fires the spirit cannon at Bataar's location to kill Korra and her other main opponents, but the uncharacteristic waver in her voice as she does so is telling. Even if she does love him, her empire comes first.]]

* The fact that it was never entirely clear whether or not Amon was sincere about his crusade against bending [[spoiler: despite being one himself]] or was just taking advantage of anti-bender sentiments to gain power [[spoiler: or upstage his [[AbusiveParents Abusive Father]]]] makes it very difficult to determine what category of villain he falls under. Whether or not he counts as an AntiVillain-considering his tragic backstory [[spoiler: the real one that is]]-is up for debate. In the former interpretation, what type of AntiVillain Amon is[=-=][[spoiler: Type III if one thinks Tarrlok was right about him being sincere in his belief that bending was the root of all evil, or simply type II if one doesn't]]-is also contested. Eventually, though, WordOfGod confirmed that [[spoiler:Amon was fully sincere in his rhetoric]].

* Kuvira's and Suyin's relationship. Depending on how you interpret what being "like a daughter" refers to, it's anything from a teacher-pupil relationship to adoption, made more complicated by the fact they met when Kuvira was eight.

* Toph. As wise as she is could she have projected her own reasons for being in the swamp onto Korra as well? Is she perhaps jaded rather than just enlightened? Note she does not directly answer Korra when asked why she cut ties with the rest of the world. Instead she notes that she can keep track of what goes on just fine via the tree roots, but ignores that while this lets her connect to others, all her loved ones including her daughters apparently don't have any idea where she is or if she's even alive. Has she really decided she just wants to be left alone the rest of her life, much as she pointed out that the swamp was the perfect place for that?
* Some fans have begun to hotly debate if Suyin's non-interference in the rest of the Earth Kingdom was a restrained decision not to act as a conqueror, as she believes it was, or if it was choosing to be [[JustForFun/DyingLikeAnimals an ostrich]]; hoping the problem would solve itself if she just ignored it long enough. Opinions are sharply divided between if Su was right not to want to use Zaofu's advanced technology and intact military might to try and fix the broken kingdom, or if her decision was more or less abandoning the people outside Zaofu to their fate and doing nothing to stop Kuvira from exploiting the situation until Kuvira finally brought the problem to her doorstep.

** Kuvira. WellIntentionedExtremist and KnightTemplar genuinely wanting to unite the shattered Earth Kingdom, or ambitious, power hungry conqueror who strong arms Earth Kingdom nations to unite them all under her tyrannical rule? Her actions in "The Coronation" and the revelations in "Enemy at the Gates" are pointing towards the latter, while the flashback and Toph's discourse point towards the former, at least initially in her conquest. [[spoiler:Eventually, the series finale reveals that, despite her increasingly extreme methods, she was thoroughly a WellIntentionedExtremist.]]
** Kuvira's relationship with Bataar Jr. Genuine romance or Kuvira stringing him along to keep him on her side? The events of "Kuvira's Gambit" manages to offer evidence in both directions. [[spoiler: When he tells her he loves her, she doesn't reciprocate but instead tells him "[[ExactWords she couldn't have made it this far without him]]." She fires the spirit cannon at Bataar's location to kill Korra and her other main opponents, but the uncharacteristic waver in her voice as she does so is telling. Even if she does love him, her empire comes first.]]
** Kuvira's and Suyin's relationship. Depending on how you interpret what being "like a daughter" refers to, it's anything from a teacher-pupil relationship to adoption, made more complicated by the fact they met when Kuvira was eight.
** Toph. As wise as she is could she have projected her own reasons for being in the swamp onto Korra as well? Is she perhaps jaded rather than just enlightened? Note she does not directly answer Korra when asked why she cut ties with the rest of the world. Instead she notes that she can keep track of what goes on just fine via the tree roots, but ignores that while this lets her connect to others, all her loved ones including her daughters apparently don't have any idea where she is or if she's even alive. Has she really decided she just wants to be left alone the rest of her life, much as she pointed out that the swamp was the perfect place for that?
** Some fans have begun to hotly debate if Suyin's non-interference in the rest of the Earth Kingdom was a restrained decision not to act as a conqueror, as she believes it was, or if it was choosing to be [[JustForFun/DyingLikeAnimals an ostrich]]; hoping the problem would solve itself if she just ignored it long enough. Opinions are sharply divided between if Su was right not to want to use Zaofu's advanced technology and intact military might to try and fix the broken kingdom, or if her decision was more or less abandoning the people outside Zaofu to their fate and doing nothing to stop Kuvira from exploiting the situation until Kuvira finally brought the problem to her doorstep.
** Did Varrick want to blow up the train as a HeroicSacrifice, or was he doing it out of grief from being betrayed by Zhu Li? Perhaps both? His later praising of Bolin would indicate that he was bluffing the whole time about wanting to die, just so Bolin would save them... except it's equally in-character that he'd [[IMeantToDoThat claim that was his plan all along]] if he didn't.
** The Spirits. Just don't want to set a dangerous precedent by involving themselves in fighting Kuvira, or GodwinsLaw invoking hypocrites who care about nothing but themselves and will leave humans to burn at the first sign of danger? Most of this is directed towards those who lived within Republic City, however, as the season intro showed that they had become friends and neighbors to its populace even after all the damage caused by them moving in back in Book 3, but when Kuvira was at the gates they upped and left without even explaining why.
** Baatar Jr.: [[spoiler:Ambitious young man who was led astray and exploited by Kuvira, or selfish {{Jerkass}} turned DirtyCoward? Was he really sincere about his regrets or just tugging at his mother's heart strings in the hopes that she would protect him from truly suffering for his crimes?]]
** Are the {{Old Master}}s really too old to fight or is that just an excuse Toph throws in because she knows people won't accept "I can't be bothered to help unless my family is involved" as an answer and she wanted to forestall any attempts to interrupt her solitude?
** Did Zhu Li work as Varrick's assistant for so long because she wanted to help him bring about innovation, or because she somehow liked her job, or really just because she was in love with him all this time? Furthermore, is her anger at Varrick during her speech to Kuvira genuine, or did she really not mean a word of what she said?
** Is Varrick's 'craziness' just good old-fashioned eccentricity, or is he a mentally ill person who is just displaying symptoms? Some of his lines and interactions with other characters this season seem to suggest that he has ADHD, and he has also been interpreted as being on the autism spectrum.

** Uncle Iroh comes off as a buffoon as often as he does a wise old mentor. But the buffoonery is in such diametric opposition to a long and storied career in which he was, until Ba Sing Se, an extremely successful general that the simplest explanation is that he does it to distract Zuko from focusing on how awful his lot in life is and to mask that he's surreptitiously setting up lessons for Zuko. If the buffoonery is genuine, then Iroh's buffoonery may border on [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass a trope of a different color]]... but the line between buffoon and wise man isn't usually that pronounced. In Season 3, he's explicitly shown using ObfuscatingStupidity; any earlier "buffoonery" can be attributed to attempts to look harmless so his psycho little brother Ozai won't [[BadassGrandpa try]] to have him killed and endanger anyone who gets caught in the crossfire.

* Azulon - For a character that has had only a few minutes of screen time and a couple lines, there is so much debate about him and the ambiguous scenario involving him. Did he ask Ozai to [[DisproportionateRetribution sacrifice his son]] for a slight against his eldest? Was it a ''SecretTestOfCharacter''? Was Azulon speaking [[labelnote:figuratively?]]Ozai would lose a son because Iroh would adopt Zuko as his son and heir completely by-passing Ozai's chance to the throne.[[/labelnote]] Did he even give that as an order or did Azula make it all up (for any various reasons) and Ozai went with it?

** Is Ty Lee genuinely friends with Azula or is she just so scared of her that she simply pretends to be her friend?

* Azulon - For a character that has had only a few minutes of screen time and a couple lines, there is so much debate about him and the ambiguous scenario involving him. Did he ask Ozai to [[DisproportionateRetribution sacrifice his son]] for a slight against his eldest? Was it a ''SecretTestOfCharacter''? Was Azulon speaking [[labelnote:figuratively]]Ozai would lose a son because Iroh would adopt Zuko as his son and heir completely by-passing Ozai's chance to the throne[[/labelnote]]? Did he even give that as an order or did Azula make it all up (for any various reasons) and Ozai went with it?