Avatar: The Last Airbender

Wan Shi Tong didn't want to interact with humans at all though. He wasn't demanding anything except to be left alone, and even then he was still fairly accommodating.

I had a problem with how he and the spirits acted in Legend of Korra, but for his initial appearance, there really wasn't anything different to expect.

He's got his priorities in check

Still though, gotta wonder. Why would anyone accept and respect spirits like that?

Hei Bai is another guilty party here.

I wonder if Wan Shi Tong's behavior was to foreshadow that the Day of Black Sun plan was going to fail from the very start.

Essentially, it was a shortcut to preemptively defeat the Fire Nation and capture the Fire Lord before Sozin's Comet arrives, and thus sidestepping the need for Aang to learn firebending. After all, the Day of Black Sun ended into total failure and the only victories for the good guys have actually nothing to do with the invasion beyond Zuko knowing where Aang's group is heading.

And come to think of it, Zhao's knowledge from the library backfired and ended up losing the entire fleet to an angry spirit.

If that angle were played up just a little bit more in the actual show, that would go from mere fan speculation to some great Fridge Brilliance.

I dig your theory.

In the short and intermediate term, Wan Shi Tong had absolutely no reason to care about if the Fire Nation won or not, so I don't blame him for that. If Humans Are Bastards, then let them fight. If they can't use knowledge for anything other than killing each other, then you don't owe them anything. If they can't come into your library without lying to you, after you tentatively let them in with one rule, you should be able to take your books and leave. He owed them nothing.

The only thing he asked was "Don't use my collected knowledge as a weapon." I'm not gonna say "fuck him" for not bailing humans out of a fight they picked with each other.

Edited by wanderlustwarrior on Mar 21st 2021 at 10:12:45 AM

I never really had an issue with Wan Shi Tong, atleast in the original. Hes a spirit and spirits obviously don't really think the same way as humans. For we all know those books have far far more meaning to him then just be mere books. Considering the circumstances the Gaang got off pretty light. Wan Shi Tong got mad because they still lied to him and the last time an human lied to him they not only stole his knowledge but burnt that part of the library down. He has no reason to believe the Gaang is any different from Zhao.

I only take issue with him in Legend of Korra but Korra in general had a lot of issues when it came to depicting the spirits. The spirits in the original felt like they had a far more mysterious air to them whilst in Korra they felt like they were either just mooks or joke fodder.

Edited by Wispy on Mar 21st 2021 at 8:23:58 AM

I feel like Hei Bai is one of the more animalistic spirits. Sure you can reason with him, but it’s not like he ever showed himself as capable of actually talking to people?

As for why people respect spirits...well, spirits are powerful and dangerous beings that don’t necessarily think like you and me. I think it makes sense that people are taught to treat them with respect when fucking with them ends very poorly indeed.

Edited by KarkatTheDalek on Mar 21st 2021 at 11:31:44 AM

I actually liked that Korra had some everyday spirits that weren't some huge powerhouse.

Though... What spirits actually showed up after Korra left the portal open? Because human-spirit interaction would've been a good thing to show, outside of the spirit vines and Bumi Jr. And being weaponized.

I've got this that the events of the Turf Wars Korra comic will lead to an arms race of sorts as humans and spirits both realize the potential that comes with fusing together.

It's a shame that Korra doesn't really go into what happens with that new portal in the middle of the city. It's a huge issue when she leaves, and by the time she returns, the issue seems to have basically been resolved off screen.

It’s funny. In the original the spirits had a mysticism cause the ones we meet were sort of a big deal. A nature spirit protector, the keeper of an ancient and hidden library, and an infamous face-stealer.

While in Korra we meet everyday common spirits and they become more loathsome in a human sense. Hei Bai and Wan Shi Tong had justifiable reasons for their behavior towards humans and posses some level of power and authority, while lemur guy is basically just some racist prick nobody, about as valuable or unique as a pebble on a road.

Edited by slimcoder on Mar 22nd 2021 at 1:40:45 AM

Actually, we had the uppity Buddhist spirit in the first series, the one that refuses to help Aang in the spirit world. That one was definitely being an unhelpful ass.

Ooooh I don’t remember that one.

Definitely sounds loathsome.

Edited by slimcoder on Mar 22nd 2021 at 1:45:40 AM

"Buddhist"?

Buddhism isn't a thing in the Avatar verse.

You're presumably talking about the meditating Baboon Spirit who shows up in "The Siege of the North, Part 2".

Edited by M84 on Mar 22nd 2021 at 4:52:15 PM

Well, when I see a spirit meditating, I automatically think Buddhist.

Thing is, more than one religion features meditation. There's Hinduism for one thing.

There really isn't much else to suggest that the Baboon Spirit is intended to be Buddhist coded. The prayer beads around his neck might suggest that, but prayer beads are sometimes seen in Hindu attire as well.

I guess so. You'll have to excuse me for not being an expert on Eastern religion.

Hinduism is not an East Asian religion. It originates from India, which is South Asia.

Hell on the Record of Ragnarok manga, I thought Buddha was Chinese, not Indian.

Buddha was a Prince from Nepal I believe.

There's a reason Buddhism has a Germans Love David Hasselhoff entry.

For all the human knowledge Wan Shi Tong was collecting, he didn’t seem to give a shit about the humans he was collecting that knowledge from. And given that he sends his foxes out to collect it, a lot of it was probably technically stolen. Wan Shi Tomg claimed to be running a library, but it seemed to be something more like a museum.

One thing to note is that libraries generally allow one to check out books. I guess if they were one of a kind tomes and scrolls then it'd be justified. Real life libraries also don't allow people to check out Reserve or Reference books.

There is such a thing as private libraries with restricted access. Not all libraries are public.