Alternative Character Interpretation / Avatar: The Last Airbender

aka: The Legend Of Korra

Alternative Character Interpretation in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

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The Last Airbender

• Zuko:
  • 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 maturing a truly amazing story to watch. Some 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. And then there are those that are somewhere in the middle, who agree that Zuko's flaws and actions can get a bit too much, but that coupled with the knowledge that he does have a gentle nature that was being suppressed by his trauma only makes them cheer for him more to redeem himself.
  • His decision to win over Katara in "The Southern Raiders" is cemented when he figures out that she's mad at herself for bonding over their missing mothers and showing her vulnerable side. Was Zuko obviously feeling guilty when Katara reminded him it was his fault Ba Sing Se fell and Aang nearly died, or was it also pragmatism? He knew that if the Gaang had infighting, then it wouldn't be enough to stop Ozai and Azula's plan. Katara also had a legitimate reason to hate him. Zuko committed high treason by leading her to a Fire Nation general and egging Katara to kill a senior citizen, albeit one who wasn't innocent.
• Iroh:
  • 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 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 Obfuscating Stupidity; any earlier "buffoonery" can be attributed to attempts to look harmless so his psycho little brother Ozai won't try to have him killed and endanger anyone who gets caught in the crossfire. It may also be his way of dealing with the trauma he experienced pre-series, such as losing his only son to the Siege of Ba Sing Se, which he himself led.
  • 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. While he did occasionally help Zuko and seemed genuinely dismayed at times when Aang would get away, he would rarely help Zuko directly fight members of Team Avatar who likely wouldn't be a match for his powerful firebending abilities. Supporting this is when he allies with Team Avatar to save the Moon Spirit, telling Zhao that if the latter kills the koi, the General will have to deal with him. He then makes good on that promise, and Sokka trusts him. Considering how highly he valued his White Lotus Tile in Book 1, there are many who would say that he was against the Fire Nation from the first episode and was just taking advantage of his high position in the Fire Nation and the resources it gave him to further the White Lotus' cause. His actions at the beginning of Book 2 - attacking Fire Nation troops without hesitation, immediately being suspicious of his brother's change of heart and the way he seamlessly accepted his new life as a fugitive - seems to imply that he had been prepared to betray the Fire Nation for a while and Ozai forced his hand.
  • His reasons for surrendering to the Dai Li and Azula after holding them off to allow the Gaang to escape. It's implied he could have curb-stomped them and gone with Team Avatar to help out in the scattered war efforts. Was it to give Azula, who can't resist Evil Gloating, a distraction from chasing down the Gaang? Or was it to save Zuko, knowing that he would need The Conscience even if Zuko betrayed him? Muddying this is he only gives Zuko a little advice in prison, telling him that as Roku's descendant, he can fix Sozin's mistake.
  • Iroh refuses to talk to Zuko at first in prison when the latter is feeling guilty about betraying him and worried that Ozai will learn the Avatar is alive. Did he need a few weeks to deal with his nephew's temporary Face–Heel Turn out of disappointment? Was he literally exhausted, given Azula is implied to torture prisoners that catch her interest and Iroh humiliated her a few times? Or was it a Stealth Mentor attempt to tell Zuko that if he's not willing to listen to Iroh in the first place, the prince needs to make his own decisions?
  • Asking why Iroh never bothered to overthrow his murderous usurper of a brother and saddled his emotionally damaged teenage nephew with the job of running the Fire Nation will start arguments, although him not overthrowing Ozai is at least given an (admittedly short) explanation in the finale.
• Azula:
  • At least early on, 48% of Fan Fic depicted Azula as a Psycho Lesbian who raped both her sidekicks and several of the Kyoshi Warriors; 47% depicted her as a Depraved Bisexual who also raped Admiral Zhao and her brother — taking her standard character interpretation (that is, amoral sociopath) to a ridiculous extreme. The other 5% hunt for a Freudian Excuse or twelve (usually related to abuse as bad as or worse than what Zuko received) for being a Magnificent Bastard. Ironically, Azula does wind up having a Freudian Excuse at the end of the series, though it's only revealed through her Villainous Breakdown.
  • There's a subset that was so moved by her Villainous Breakdown 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 bitch caught in 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 such a 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 Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Search indicates that she is probably not clinically a sociopath.
  • Another increasingly popular theory, and a middle ground between the above two, is that Azula was a relatively normal, albeit mischievous and slightly mean-spirited child who just greatly admired her father, until Ursa left her to be brought up solely by Ozai, who then raised her as a war machine and molded her into the Magnificent Bastard she ended up being, and that Zuko would have ended up the same way if not for his uncle's influence.
  • It's possible she was simply a spoiled brat who was used to getting her way (as she got it from her father and those who feared them). Her mother, Ursa, loved her but didn't indulge her the same way her father did. While her father made her think the world revolved around her; her mother brought her down to earth therefore (according to Azula) 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 and took pleasure in seeing him be disfigured by their father.
  • There's also the issue on whether or not she always wished to be the Fire Lord following her father's death or if she simply embraced it when he relinquished it to her in the finale. While most fans believe that she always wanted Zuko out of the way so she would be next in line, she never seemed to have an issue with this when she helped him restore his birthright at the end of season two, nor was it ever an issue when he was back in the Fire Nation. Still, some fans argue that she probably would've tried to either eliminate him when he was no longer useful, use him as a puppet Fire Lord while she secretly pulled the strings, or been planning to just challenge him to Agni Kai for the throne when the time came (which is why she says it was always meant to be when he does it to her).
  • Sokka seems to fear the worst when Azula refers to Suki as her "favorite prisoner" and says she's been waiting for someone to rescue her but has given up. Either Azula just said it to get his goat because "Azula always lies," remembering that Ty Lee found out Sokka was dating Suki when she made the mistake of hitting on Sokka in Kyoshi warrior guise, or she really did go Evil Is Petty and torture Suki For the Evulz after imprisoning the warriors, stealing their makeup and outfits, and using their identities to stage a coup in Ba Sing Se. Though if that's what happened, Suki displays an Angst? What Angst? attitude when she and Sokka reunite and conspire an escape with Zuko.
    • With the release of the comic Suki Alone, it's become more evident that Suki was not harmed by Azula during her imprisonment and that Azula was bluffing to trigger Sokka.
  • To some fans, the show seems to rely more on informing the audience of Azula's villainy through dialogue, music, and design aesthetics rather than through her actions. She is treated as The Dreaded, though we're never told what exactly she did to earn the reputation. There is a hint she may have abused turtleducks, but it's never actually seen and possibly not be as bad as implied, especially when the show has not shied away from animal abuse. We're led to believe she tortures prisoners, but this appears to just be a bluff.
    • As much as the narrative and Azula herself want people to be scared and intimidated by her, many of her actual villainous deeds are actions that other less supposedly villainous characters commit or try to commit with less success, while many of the things that make her seem villainous mainly boil down to mean words or intimidation tactics and being excited by violence. Ultimately, Azula ends up hated far more for what she might do or may have done than anything she actually does do, and for being mean, scary, and snobby.
    • One of the most egregious double standards is when Zuko lies to Azula about Aang being dead. Azula then lies to Ozai that Zuko killed him. While the show clearly frames this as a villainous act on Azula's part, it never frames Zuko as villainous for essentially trying to let Azula take the fall so he could keep his place. This became so bad that most fans continue to believe that this was Azula's plan all along, rather than a gambit spurned by Zuko's lie.
    • While depicting Azula smirking is most easily taken as a sign of sadism, it can also be seen as her feeling the thrill of a good fight and of winning her battles. Azula smiling at Zuko being burned by Ozai is taken at face value as her enjoying seeing people in pain, but an alternate view is of her being happy that her place at Ozai's side is secured. What's more, Zuko is depicted as being bratty in his younger years, and to Azula, Ozai's punishment is what he deserved for not having the resolve to stand up for his beliefs, of which the Agni Kai was a test. Due to her upbringing under Ozai and the culture, and viewing Zuko as too coddled by Ursa and Iroh, she sees it as a long-overdue lesson Zuko needed to learn, a case of Values Dissonance.
    • Azula's treatment of Iroh and Iroh's attitude toward Azula is often cited as evidence of her being irredeemable. While Azula has no sympathy for Iroh quitting the war, it's often overlooked that this is the general opinion the Fire Nation holds over his retreat, as it means not only were soldiers lives lost in vain, but that also Lu Ten would have died for nothing, and Iroh could not even avenge his death in some fashion. Iroh saying Azula is crazy and needs to go down is treated as gospel, when it's shown that he did not understand Azula as a child and a holds a double standard when it comes to her and Zuko; while he tells Zuko he is a descendent of Roku and this is the reason for his inner conflict, he does not tell this to Azula. This is further compounded in the Legacy of the Fire Nation, where Iroh seems to blame Azula for Zuko's suffering at Ozai's hands simply for outshining him, and does not acknowledge the similar abuse and grooming Azula went through for years. The show ultimately side steps these issues by never bringing them up and relying partially on Informed Wrongness and Designated Villain. Iroh is treated so much as the franchise Sacred Cow that his word is never questioned and simply taken as the truth. Similarly, it is never acknowledged that Azula's relation to Avatar Roku could mean she has an inner conflict of good and evil, only that she is the result of Azulon's eugenics project.
• Ozai:
  • 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 Momma's Boy who fails at every attempt to please Daddy, and his big brother whom everyone loves doesn't make things any easier. No, Azula represents his idealized self, (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.
    • The Search reveals that, while Ozai did show Azula favoritism for being a better firebender, the real reason he treats Zuko like crap is to spite Ursa after learning she wished she was still with her old boyfriend and that said boyfriend was Zuko's real father. Ozai from then on resolved himself to treat Zuko like someone else's child just to make Ursa's wish come horribly true. A more disturbing interpretation from this revelation is that Ozai intended to turn Zuko into an exact copy of himself as the ultimate form of revenge, explaining why he gave back everything to Zuko (including the title of Crown Prince) once he heard of Zuko's alleged killing of the Avatar.
  • 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 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, Avatar: The Last Airbender - 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.
  • It's possible Ozai saw himself in Zuko and was being hard on him to instill the strength in his son that being second-best instilled in him. Forgetting what happened to his own father as a result... Or even expecting it and wanting his son to kill him later on. That way he could be truly proud at the very least. It's possible that the main reason Ozai was angry in the Day of Black Sun was that Zuko was trying to join the Avatar and end the war instead of trying to do a better job leading the effort. He'd even posit that Ozai probably would've been far more satisfied if Zuko killed him right there. He still saw Zuko, even in defiance, as a coward.
  • 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 and her father's perceived betrayal 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.
  • Zuko has memories of Ozai being different and a better parent when he was a toddler and Azula was a baby, and his relationship with Ursa was healthier. The Search confirms that Ozai was none of that; his father coerced Ursa into marriage and refused to let her see her family again or visit them, making their relationship Questionable Consent and Ursa longed for her freedom as well as Ikon. Ozai's few attempts at kindness were messed up apart from letting Ursa say goodbye to her current fiance, including telling Ursa that he has no choice but to carry out the order to kill Zuko, and will make it a Mercy Kill by waiting until Zuko is fast asleep. Was Zuko having Nostalgia Filter for a past that never existed, or was he exaggerating a few moments of token kindness that may have happened off-page?
• Ty Lee:
  • Is she really a nice, sweet girl who had the rotten luck of being manipulated into working for the bad guys when she probably would have been happier hanging out with the good guys, or a Dirty Coward Karma Houdini who knew full well how much damage she was helping Azula and the Fire Nation inflict on the world and went with it because deep down she figured they'd win sooner or later and she was better off playing for what she thought was the winning team?
  • Or a nice, sweet girl who knew full well how much damage she was helping Azula and the Fire Nation inflict on the world, but was too afraid of Azula's wrath to turn her down up until she was forced to decide between Azula's wrath and Mai's life.
  • Is Ty Lee genuinely friends with Azula or is she just so scared of her that she simply pretends to be her friend? The comics imply the latter, as Ty Lee is still afraid of Azula and wants nothing to do with her even months after the finale.
  • Her joining the Kyoshi Warriors smacks of this. Was Ty Lee The Atoner when she visibly saw the consequences of her actions and being on the other side of Azula's wrath? Or was she an opportunist looking for a new home after Azula ensured she couldn't return to the circus? Ty Lee just summarizes that she bonded with the girls in prison and earned her way in by teaching them chi blocking. The thing is two of the girls she hugs have The Unsmile, and Suki just tells Sokka she vouches for the new recruit when Sokka has a Freak Out. Given that Suki is a Reasonable Authority Figure who accepted a Jerkass Sokka on probation, perhaps something similar happened in prison if Ty Lee similarly humbled herself? Or was it a case of Moral Pragmatist in that they all agree Azula is the worst and figured having Ty Lee on their side was better than the other way around.
• Zuko’s behavior in Avatar: The Last Airbender when Aang tried to save him near the end. Was him letting go of Aang’s hand because of stubborn pride of being saved by his enemy or because he realized Aang couldn’t physically support him and let go to save Aang?
• About half the fandom considers Sokka to be a sensitive genius with occasional moments of idiocy and assholery. The other half considers him to be just the reverse. Some consider him to evolve from the latter to the former as the series goes on. And some think he juggles the Idiot and Smart Balls.
• Was Admiral Zhao's refusal to 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 him get himself drowned too? Considering he'd tried to murder Zuko by shooting him In the Back 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 the shame of having failed in capturing the Avatar one too many times and seeing the moon back in the sky and/or the belief that he would suffer a far crueler fate if he returned to Ozai having failed.
• Is Aang the kind, childlike Air Nomad that everyone (including he himself) sees him as? Or is he a selfish, power hungry —or Naive— child who cares more about his own wants than the happiness of his family and friends or the needs of the world, even if it means destroying the balance he's supposed to maintain?
• Is Katara a crazy bitch whose entire personality is mood swings and nothing else, or is she a very human teenage girl struggling to keep her head and everyone else's above water in dark times? Also, was her behavior towards Zuko mean and petty, or was it perfectly justified after what he pulled on her in season 2? It seems that the fandom will never be able to decide.
• Koh is the Avatarverse Anti-Christ. Or the Avatar version of Cthulhu.
• Was Ursa a perfect mother, a humanly flawed woman, or a bitch who blatantly played favorites and ruined her daughter forever? According to Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Search, she's a victim of Domestic Abuse as a result of an unwanted Arranged Marriage 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.
  • On that note, the comic's interpretation of Ursa. A complete contradiction of the character or an Ursa that is much more than just Zuko's fond memories of her?
• This trope was deliberately cultivated for most members of the Fire Nation Royal Family. The writers were afraid that anything they came up with would be too dark even for this show. They intentionally left details vague so the viewers could make their own ideas.
• Zutara shippers frequently portray 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 give her a Heel–Face Turn near the end of the series.
  • Additionally, there seems to be a lack of consensus over whether she thought Azula was a sociopathic bitch and only followed her because she was afraid of what would happen if she didn't (this is exceedingly common in Tyzula fanfiction, and you can bet she'll be portrayed as in the wrong for feeling this way), or whether she genuinely liked Azula and only turned on her because she valued Zuko's life over Azula's friendship.
  • On the other hand, Mai only rouses herself from her perpetual ennui when Azula orders her to hurt someone. She was quite willing to let Earth Kingdom rebels keep her infant brother, expressing zero concern for him. The only things Mai seems to like are throwing knives at twelve-year-olds and Zuko.
• Mai's reasons for calling off the hostage exchange with Tom-Tom and Bumi. Given that she's The Stoic, fans theorize that she only did it when Azula gave the hint and implicitly threatened her little brother, showing Mai actually does care about Tom-Tom. As Ty Lee had just demonstrated, crossing the princess means that you pay dearly for it, and Azula is quite willing to murder children younger than her, which we see with Aang. Supporting this is her calm when seeing Tom-Tom happily giggling in Sokka's arms and that she goes after Katara instead while Sokka gets the baby out of the line of fire. As long as Azula was focused on Bumi and the Avatar, it would keep her farther from Tom-Tom. The comics further support this when Mai rescues Tom-Tom from becoming one of her father's pawns and gets him safely stationed in her aunt's flower shop. Without Azula to motivate her, Mai can show her sisterly love more openly.
• Sozin - Was he a power-hungry ruler who sought only his own benefit, or did he honestly believe that things would be better once he took over the world? Or is it a bit of both?
  • There's also the question of whether he felt remorse for starting the war, or if he simply felt remorse for leaving his old friend to die. Not to mention that he destroyed an entire culture for his ambition and didn't seem to be sorry about any of that.
• Azulon - For a character that has had only a few minutes of screen time and a couple of lines, there is so much debate about him and the ambiguous scenario involving him. Did he ask Ozai to sacrifice his son for a slight against his eldest? Was it a Secret Test of Character? Was Azulon speaking figuratively? ^noteOzai would lose a son because Iroh would adopt Zuko as his son and heir completely by-passing Ozai's chance to the throne. Did he even give that as an order or did Azula make it all up (for any various reasons) and Ozai went with it? If he didn't order Zuko's death, then what was his punishment for Ozai going to be? "Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Search" complicated things exponentially, since he forced Ursa and Ozai's marriage as a Super Breeding Program and Azula was the successful result, his order for Ozai to kill Zuko may as well be Kill The Spare.
  • There's also the question of his outrage towards Ozai for requesting that he pass over Iroh as his heir. Was it out of love or pride for his first born son? Or was Azulon merely a traditionalist who was simply offended that Ozai was so willing to disrespect the protocol? Perhaps a mixture of both?
• 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 he have even given Aang a chance as a pupil had Roku not intervened on Aang's behalf?
• 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 most prevalent when she is compared to other Avatars.
  • 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 apathetic and 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? Did she actually support Chin's conquest until he aggressively demanded that she and her region submit 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?
• Yu Dao colony from Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise: a beacon of multiculturalism and victim of backward 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?
• Is Toph a cute little badass bruiser, with a penchant for one-liners and a snarky attitude? Or is she a spoiled, entitled, violent brat who pulls out the "my parents are stifling so that's why I'm like this" card to justify every mean action of hers every step of the way?
• While General Bujing was the catalyst for Zuko's banishment, one can see that during the Agni Kai between Zuko and Ozai Bujing's face is expressionless unlike Azula and Zhao who smiled savagely. Was he watching Zuko's misfortune with cold satisfaction, or was he uncomfortable at the brutal treatment given to a 13-14 year old?
• One-off character Jin, who dated Zuko in Tales of Ba Sing Se, is ripe for this due to how ambiguously his tale resolved. Was she The Ditz who fell for Zuko's Lee disguise hook, line, and sinker, even though he failed hard at juggling when asked to show her a circus trick, and clearly used firebending to light up the fountain? Or was she fully aware, but played along because she genuinely liked him? Also, if one assumed she knew he was a firebender, was she just ignorant of their reputation due to being sheltered in Ba Sing Se (where the administration hides any knowledge of the world war outside from its citizens), or was her affection for him enough to overcome any such prejudice? The answers to these questions tend to depend on how much one supports their pairing.

The Legend Of Korra

• The series has an unusually tongue-in-cheek interpretation of The Stoic and terse Mako, born out of Memetic Mutation: Fandom!Mako is an emotional crybaby tormented by his own good looks, obsessed with his beloved scarf, plagued by his raging Tsundere crush on Korra, and permanently tortured by the very thought of his worst enemy, Hasook.
  • Another interpretation of Mako is that Mako/Money is his OTP, the idea that he's a gold-digger. Or at least a young man who goes by practicality. His (paraphrased) statement "I like Korra, but it makes more sense to be with Asami," seems to indicate that he didn't really go with his heart, just with what would be more likely to get him and Bolin further off the streets and Asami was beautiful and kind to boot. It would explain why he threatened to end Korra's friendship for questioning Mr. Sato's integrity. He had come to view the Satos as his new family who would help him out financially, so he kept them close. Korra coming by and calling out Mr. Sato drove a pick through Mako's heart and he stood up for the one wealthy man who ever showed him an ounce of kindness, in denial of the possibility that someone wealthy must automatically be evil, because he had finally torn down that assumption he likely held all these years... Only for it to be proven correct in the one example where he let his guard down.
  • This may sound bad for any ship involving Mako, but the fact that Mako grew to care about Korra enough that she need not be the Avatar (a person of serious status) to love her indicates that he cares far more about her as a person than anything else... Although, if she isn't the Avatar, she'd still be a former Avatar and one of the few remaining airbenders, the idea that the Order of the White Lotus would cut off all funding and support is a dubious assumption, so if one wants to get really cynical, it could be assumed that he'd rather stand by the girl he likes who could still have high status and financial support, than the one who's father's company just experienced a serious blow.
    • It doesn't help that Mako started paying more attention to Korra only after Asami had lost all her money and this is before Tarrlok kidnapped Korra and framed the Equalists for it. And after Asami calls him out of this, he continues to pay more attention to Korra as well as spend more time with her rather then his girlfriend who, as Korra pointed out, needed him to get through this rather tough time.
• Amon: The fact that it was never entirely clear whether or not Amon was sincere about his crusade against bending despite being one himself or was just taking advantage of anti-bender sentiments to gain power or upstage his Abusive Father makes it very difficult to determine what category of villain he falls under. Whether or not he counts as an Anti-Villain-considering his tragic backstory the real one that is-is up for debate. In the former interpretation, what type of Anti-Villain Amon is-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, Word of God confirmed that Amon was fully sincere in his rhetoric.
  • Amon's final moment shedding a tear before his death. Does he shed a tear because he was getting sentimental about regaining his identity and hearing his real name being spoken, being with his brother again, and Tarrlok's response "just like the good old days"? Or does he shed a tear because knows what is about to happen^note Tarrlok is about to ignite the gas of their boat to kill them both. (could possibly sense Tarrlok's movements), he understands why it has to happen, he hates what he is, and accepts it because he realizes they never had chance of normal lives?
• Tenzin and Lin Beifong: The last light for good government in Republic City, or well-meaning incompetents that only achieved their high rank through nepotism? For all Tenzin's talk about not escalating the conflict between benders and non-benders, he never offers any policy alternatives, and never gets so much as a single vote in favor of his position. Lin is a badass when it comes to combat situations, but as police chief she presided over a city rife with organized crime, let a violent revolutionary movement gestate under her watch, botched the defense of the arena, fell for the Cabbage Corp fake-out, and resigned her post despite knowing full well that she would be replaced by Tarrlok's anti non-bender candidate.
  • For that matter, does Lin even like her job?
• The Park Protestor: Contrarian attention-whore, as Nick's website implies, 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 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.
  • Are the cops protecting him out of genuine respect for his right to state his opinion or are they merely more aware than Korra that he can use attempts to stop him to be seen as an oppressed individual?
• Hiroshi Sato: is his anti-bender attitude simple racism brought about his wife's murder, or is it a way to excuse unfashionable classism? He alone in the show comments negatively about Asami dating outside her social class, calling Mako a "street rat" and expressing his disgust at seeing the two of them together. He's also happy to trumpet in the finale that everyone will finally be equal after Amon's revolution... a revolution that consists only of purging society of benders with no other reforms, and a never-ending world war that will keep Sato's factories busily churning out weapons for the new Equalist government.
• Even Korra's not safe from this. Is she a strong young woman who's trying to do what's right despite her naivety due to growing up in a Gilded Cage or a spoiled, selfish bully who relies on her bending and Avatar title to get what she wants? Is she sexist for assuming that Asami was prissy and spoiled because she was girly or was it just because Asami was dating a guy that she liked? Was she intentional leading Bolin on, or was it all a big misunderstanding? Was she really going to commit suicide at the end of Endgame?.
  • If she was going to commit suicide, was it because she legitimately wanted to die out of shame and hopelessness from losing her bending, or because she simply thought it would be best for the world if the Avatar was reincarnated into someone with intact bending abilities as soon as possible?
• The entire Equalist movement: a legitimate revolution for equality and the well-being of disadvantaged non-benders or a cult of racist terrorists fueled by hatred and bitterness? Many people think that they had a good cause, just terrible methods, while others think they were spouting off nothing but propaganda from the beginning. Arguments over the Equalists' legitimacy have forced people to analysis of Republic City society, the world of Avatar before the revolution, and our own human history. Needless to say, opposing viewpoints regarding all three subjects have also ensued and led to even more arguments.
• A minor case - Pema. Ever since episode six, there's been debate about her actions in the Love Triangle between her, Tenzin, and Lin. On one side, fans are furious at her for breaking up "Linzin" and have described her as a "homewrecking whore". Pema fans have responded by saying that isn't fair to judge Pema because we don't have all the details and that Lin and Tenzin's relationship was already going downhill.
  • Not helping matters is that Pema made the mistake of telling this story to Korra when she was looking for relationship advice. The more sensible thing to do would have been to give Korra The Talk and explain that infatuation isn't the same as love, especially for your first crush. Was Pema projecting onto Korra, seeing herself into the younger girl? Or was she just too naive to realize the consequences of breaking up a relationship, while exhausted from being pregnant and Didn't Think This Through? The hints towards the latter is she gets a Heel Realization on meeting Asami when the latter takes refuge on Air Temple Island.
  • This brings up questions about Lin and Tenzin's past relationship in general. He glosses over the breakup as if it were just puppy love they both grew out of, yet the fact that Lin still has hurt feelings over it years later suggests their previous relationship was deeper than a childhood infatuation; that Tenzin left Lin for a much younger woman undoubtedly added to the heartache. Then there's the question of just how did he end the relationship - were they living together? Were they engaged? Etc.
  • Word of God states that Tenzin broke up with Lin because he wanted a family and she didn't, but was it just that he really wanted a family, or that he, being the last living Airbender, felt morally obligated to have a family?
  • Or even both? Growing up his relationship with his siblings was never very good (they bullied him as he was the perceived favourite, Aang spent a lot more time with him as he was an Airbender) and also he would probably have felt a lot of pressure to have a big family as, seeing as Korra is much older than Jinora, for a time Tenzin was The Last Airbender.
  • Related to the above, did Lin simply not want kids period, or was she afraid if she became a mom she would do just as poor a job at it as Toph did? It's likely given how Suyin turned out, and Lin became estranged from her half-sister and mother due to the fallout of the robbery.
• Some Tahno fans wonder how much of his taunting was him being a Jerkass and how much was just, well, taunting opponents before a sports competition.
• Is the Republic City council corrupt and biased or are they just in extreme stress from the Equalist Revolt and bending crimes?
• Given their secrecy about their motives and goals, their Villainous Friendship and Affably Evil traits, the Red Lotus are a big source of this. Are they Affably Evil terrorists who want to kill Korra? Well-Intentioned Extremists? Them harming and even killing OWL's members during their jailbreak is heavily debated too. Some consider it cold blooded murder, while others think of it as unavoidable collateral damage or even rightful payback.
• Whether or not Aang and Toph were good parents to their respective sets of kids. Did Aang deliberately ignore Bumi and Kya because they weren't air benders like oh so precious Tenzin, or was he simply under a lot of pressure to make sure that Tenzin, the first air bender born in over a century, knew everything there was to know about air bending and Air Nomad culture because it was his job to bring back the Air Nomad Nation, thus neglecting Bumi and Kya by accident? Was Toph a neglectful parent or did she simply miscalculate trying to give Lin and Suyin the freedom Toph herself never had as a child in an attempt to go against her parents' controlling ways?
  • There's also the theory that Aang wasn't really neglectful towards Kya and Bumi at all, they were just unfairly projecting their own bitterness at not being as special as Tenzin (Bumi was a non-bender, and Kya was a water bender, which were much more common than air benders) onto him and Aang.
  • Grumpy old Toph in season 4 - a gruff but wise veteran who's still just telling it like it is, or a cynical, jaded, bitter old woman hiding away from the world because life didn't turn out the way she wanted? Her reasons for cutting herself off from the rest of the world basically boil down to "Things weren't fixed permanently, so what the point?"
  • There is also Toph's parenting skills. Both Suyin and Lin said that Toph had no desire to be a mother towards them, out of a misguided intention that setting ground rules and boundaries would be oppressive. Yet, despite Lin not speaking to her for fifty years, Toph still doesn't get that Lin wants a mom, not a trollish old lady. Was Toph in denial that she was a bad parent until Lin called her out and said they were done after rescuing Suyin and the Beifongs, or did she believe in At Least I Admit It and thought her kids didn't need her?
• Suyin Bei Fong, Lin's long lost younger half-sister introduced in season 3, who we learn scarred Lin's face early in her career (albeit by accident) when Lin broke up a robbery Suyin was taking part in and then had the whole thing swept under a rug by their mother, then Chief Toph Bei Fong, who sent Suyin away to live with her grandparents before she eventually struck out on her own and wandered the world for years, helped build a city and eventually settled down. Is she really a cool, complex older lady who properly atoned for her past misdeeds, or a smug Karma Houdini who should have had to struggle more to earn Lin's forgiveness? Was Lin actually justified in resenting Suyin for so long, or did she unfairly hold a grudge against her younger half-sister? Was Suyin ever really sincere about wanting to reconcile with Lin, or was she just trying to make herself look better?
  • And now that they've, ahem, "reconciled" as of "Old Wounds"... did Lin really need the reconciliation with a loving and genuinely regretful sister, or was she unfairly bullied into forgiving someone who, as far as we know, never brought anything positive into her life, and is she truly now a better, happier person who can now enjoy a big extended family she never had before, or simply a victim of Suyin manipulating her so she can finally have her "perfect life" exactly as she always wanted it (after claiming that Lin refusing to be a part of her life was the one thing that kept it from being perfect), regardless of whether or not she actually deserves it, by taking advantage of Lin being too emotionally weak to tune her out?
  • Suyin's relationship with Kuvira has created multiple interpretations. Despite saying Kuvira was 'like a daughter' to her she shows no maternal bond toward Kuvira, and Kuvira doesn't seem to view her in a familial way. How close are they meant to be differs from anything from adoption to a mentor-pupil relationship. If viewed in a family way was she simply forgetful to introduce her like her kids and Kuvira too busy on guard duty to be around, or did she simply think of Kuvira as a protégé and exaggerated her feelings when she never loved her like family? Did Suyin's lack of affection make Kuvira's abandonment issues even worse, which led to her becoming the dictator she's known as? Many fans see Suyin as being an emotionally abusive and distant parent to the already sensitive Kuvira and being a major cause in why she ended up becoming a Big Bad.
  • Suyin's refusal to get involved in reuniting the Earth Kingdom in season four - really a principled attempt at not forcing her ideals on others and acting as a conqueror, or selfishly abandoning the weak and helpless outside of her city to warlords and bandits with only a ragtag group of barely trained airbenders standing between the innocent and the criminals? Was she really the justified non-interfering wise woman she saw herself as, or a Dirty Coward hiding inside her well fortified home hoping the problem would just go away if she ignored it long enough?
  • Suyin has a habit of making bad decisions without realizing they are bad and seriously not expecting anything bad to happen. Is this fueled by arrogance from years of dodging bad karma, believing that nothing bad can truly happen to her and those around her, willful ignorance of how the world works outside her own home, or just plain thinking too positively for her own good?
• 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 compensate for a disability and was, thus, on a whole other level.
• 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 the right to conscript her own citizens into the military. Depending on one's perspective, she was either pragmatically trying (and failing) to strengthen her nation's political position, or selfishly and desperately trying to hold on to the old order as the rest of the world was moving forward.
• Kuvira. Well-Intentioned Extremist and Knight Templar 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. Eventually, the series finale reveals that, despite her increasingly extreme methods, she was thoroughly a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
• 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. When he tells her he loves her, she doesn't reciprocate but instead tells him "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. Later in Ruins of the Empire she tries to reconcile with him while she's helping Team Avatar fight Guan, but Baatar Jr. shuts down her self-righteous bullshit when she tries to go Never My Fault. He rightly says that if she had truly loved him, she wouldn't have tried to kill him and he wouldn't have done the same if their roles were reversed. Opal does think maybe they can reconcile if the rest of the Beifongs forgave Kuvira.
• Did Varrick want to blow up the train as a Heroic Sacrifice, 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 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 Godwin's Law 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.: Ambitious young man who was led astray and exploited by Kuvira, or selfish Jerkass turned Dirty Coward? 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? His mother believes the former, and his siblings and father believe the latter as of Ruins of the Empire. Opal hasn't forgiven him and makes it clear she's not forgetting his and Kuvira's ambitions so he's in Once Done, Never Forgotten.
• Are the Old Masters 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 displaying the characteristics and behaviors of real neurological conditions? 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.
• Would Korra and Mako 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 other from the start due to Korra's excessively Hot-Blooded nature and Mako's general inability to be a proper boyfriend to any girl he likes?

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About all the above? You'll never know because Mike and Bryan won't tell you! MWAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!