Iroh essentially achieved enlightenment, freeing himself from the mortal coil for good.

It is ironically something the Avatar can never do, since Raava and Wan took it upon themselves to keep striving to bring balance to the world.

Edited by M84 on Dec 24th 2020 at 10:33:40 PM

Yeah. Yangchen even says this at one point. The Avatar can never detach themselves fully from the world. If they did they'd fail at their job.

Presumably the Avatar would be allowed to rest after balance is permanently restored to the world.

But that will probably never happen.

I think that's kind of the central premise that The Legend of Korra ultimately builds to. Toph basically sums it up in the swamp. There will always be some threat no matter what Korra does. As the Avatar she needs to devote herself to being constantly vigilant and ready to face them.

Balance is an utopia and even if it could be achieved, it'll be ephemeral. Both in the human side and, well, Spirits are assholes too.

I suppose in theory at the next Harmonic Convergence Raava could say "you know what, Wan? You've done enough. How about you escape the cycle of reincarnation and I'll bond with somebody else as the new Avatar." But other than that, yeah, the Avatar can never escape the world.

Iroh's whole situation also leads me to believe that many—maybe even most—spirits used to be human. They escaped the cycle of reincarnation and slowly stopped looking human over the centuries. This explains the somewhat unnecessary reverence they are shown (ancestor worship) and why they are so often dicks—they're human, after all, they've just given up on personal desires like food and lust in exchange for protecting knowledge or a specific oasis or whatever.

Raava and Vaatu would definitely be exceptions, both due to power and Vaatu literally stating he's older than humanity.

@Last page bottom: But Korra is now no longer Wan.

No, she's still Wan. She just doesn't have a copy of his personality she can load up for advice anymore. Vaatu didn't swap out her soul for someone else's.

EDIT: Have you ever played one of those mobile games where they have PVP, but only sort of? You can play against teams that other players made, but you aren't actually playing against the other players. There is no human person on the other side. The game just saved a copy of their team, and you are playing against that.

That's basically how it works. When Aang consults Roku for advice, Aang isn't talking to Roku, the real human person. Roku isn't, like, chilling in Avatar Spirit Heaven with Kyoshi and Kuruk, shooting Spirit Pool and waiting to be summoned. Roku is Kyoshi is Kuruk is Aang. They have different personalities and identities, but they are all the same person.

So Aang isn't really talking to Roku. Roku's on the other side of that conversation. Roku is Aang. Roku/Aang is talking to the Roku Identity, a saved impression of the life Aang once lived when he was Roku. He's talking to a set of stored memories and experiences and opinions and beliefs that once were his but are not anymore.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 24th 2020 at 10:45:46 AM

I’m gonna call foul on that interpretation. Roku was the one who warned Aang about Sozin’s Comet. Azula says that before Spain used it as part of a first strike in the war, it was only known as “The Great Comet” and was later renamed in Sozin’s honor.

If he was just a bunch of impressions and memories or whatever, how can he use a term that refers to events that only happened after he died?

I thought it was Zuko who warned the Gaang about the Comet.

In all fairness, in the ending of the Spirit World online game, Yangchen did say to Aang that this vision would be like a dream that he wouldn't remember upon waking up, which would explain why he forgot about Kuruk and Yangchen in Season 3.

Roku is the one who told Aang that Sozin's Comet is coming and that he must complete his training before that comet arrives in Season 1. Back then, it was generally assumed that Ozai planned to use the Comet to conquer Ba Sing Se and thus conquer the world.

That's also why the Gaang decided to take a gamble of waiting until after Sozin's Comet pass before taking a shot at Ozai since he already won. What Zuko really told the Gaang isn't that there was a Comet coming, it was that Ozai still planned to use the Comet to destroy the Earth Kingdom for resisting his rule despite already winning Ba Sing Se. Ozai had all the power in the world by this point, and yet it's never enough. Gotta use that Comet to showcase how powerful he is, and starting a genocide sounds like a perfect excuse to so.

Correct.

I really don't buy that the Avatars are all the exact same individual. Look at the way spirits are treated in relation to humans in the rest of the series. Yue took a piece of the moon spirit as a baby. The moon spirit. If it's true that "spirit" is all that makes a person an individual, was Yue a completely different person before and after she took the Moon Spirit in?

I imagine there's a distinction between a fragment of spiritual energy and an entire soul. The Moon spirit is also different from a human. Higher level spirits are more analogous to deities than the minor Fair Folk style beings we often see.

Yue was granted a piece of the Moon Spirit's energy as a baby to save her from dying. That's it.

When she sacrificed herself to revive the Moon Spirit, she simply gave that energy back. She apparently achieved apotheosis at the same time, becoming one with the Moon Spirit after death.

To the dust we shall return.

The wave returns to the ocean.

All is one, one is all.

Til all are one.

Edited by wanderlustwarrior on Dec 25th 2020 at 12:02:48 PM

Xiran Jay Zhao, who some of you might recognize as the blogger who eviscerated Disney's live action Mulan on twitter, has made a video about the cultural inspirations behind Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 1.

Edited by windleopard on Dec 26th 2020 at 2:42:11 AM

How do you think a meeting between Zuko and Jake Long would go?

It would be a great honour for them both.

Maybe 2 rounds.

True. Jake does have modern knowledge he can use to help take out Zuko.

They would both compliment each other’s voice.

So has anyone here heard the rumors of a possible new Avatar animated series?

EDIT: Never mind, the source I got it from was fake.

Edited by ElSquibbonator on Jan 10th 2021 at 9:18:48 AM

I wonder if Ozai would prefer coffee to tea.