r/AvatarMemes • u/Western_Echo2522 • May 22 '25
When Aang Kills
Not saying I don’t love Aang btw. I do, I’m just mentioning something I noticed on another rewatch. That Vulture-Wasp definitely fell in two different pieces. It kinda felt like Aang’s Mace Windu v. Jango Fett moment, and I think it makes him feel more human, because he was enraged for a justifiable reason, his oldest living friend having just been kidnapped and missing, and another friend was being taken too. It was the heat of the moment. I don’t think it takes away from his character at all, I actually think it adds to it a lot. I did, however, want to point it out, because I feel like it’s easy to miss
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u/conte360 May 22 '25
Proof that if the Firelord ever glanced at Appa the wrong way this show would have been over real quick.
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u/KenseiHimura May 22 '25
Also amusing to imagine Aang just not needing the Avatar State to beat Ozai in that scenario.
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u/Individual-Field-990 May 23 '25
Wouldn't even need bending at all, just Aang beating a man to death with his staff
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u/NinjaNate123 May 22 '25
That literally applies to all airbenders. If they think a sky bison's life isn't sacred, their life isn't sacred.
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u/One_Ad_4365 May 22 '25
In season one in the air Temple episode where he sent fire nation tanks flying off cliffs, I don't think all of those survived or came out uninjured, same with his giant Kaiju form at the end of the season. I don't think all fire nation soldiers were just gently pushed onto the water and could easily swim through tidal waves. As innocent as he's built to be , anytime he went into Avatar state in season one, he likely badly injured random cannon fotter characters
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u/danyboui May 22 '25
He also probably killed at least one of the guards protecting the earth kings palace when he froze them in water. They take their time bursting in and still have a conversation with Kuei while the guards are just there freezing in the moat.
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u/Shonnyboy500 May 22 '25
Wasn’t the harm he causes in the avatar state a big part of the show? Like he talked about fearing going into that state because he hurt people in it.
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u/Lilywhitey May 23 '25
That was just about him being scared of hurting the ones he likes... Like katara. Because he can't control who he hurts with it.
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u/Gussie-Ascendent May 23 '25
To be fair, I always figured water kajju was more moons lover freakin than it was anng
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u/NwgrdrXI May 22 '25
Unless you have proof these people were dead, then there is every chance they survived. This is a diffrent universe with diferent rules, you can't use the "it would happen like that in real life"
And frankly, in the air temple, the attack wasn't meant to kill, and he didn't went back to check. It makes complete sense he would say he didn't kill anyone.
In the case of the siege of the North, aang wasn't in control, Ocean was. Ocean most certainly didn't ask for aang's consent on killing those people, nor was there any indication he could simply stop. Blaming those deaths on him is not fair.
The bug might or might not have been killed either, but we don't know.
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u/Durbolader May 22 '25
I mean this is the character writing the show lived for and we loved of it.
Aang usually is an advocate for pacifism. At the same time he is a child thrown into a worldwide war. Having just lost his oldest friend and beeing trapped in a dessert, that was one of the worst mental states he's been in.
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u/alt_162 May 23 '25
Had to scroll a while to find this. You're exactly on point. These examples of his wavering/collapsed virtues give Aang more dimension. He's human. And human hearts are fickle. Intense emotional scenarios are enough to overwrite anyone's presupposed conviction.
What I really appreciate the most about this shows characters is their imperfections/inconsistencies.
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u/Many-Activity-505 May 22 '25
He didn't cut it in half. Buzzard wasps have a big head and body connected by a long skinny neck. That makes it look like its been cut in half from a distance
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u/Black_Fury321 May 22 '25
just rewatch the clip and you can clearly see there is a line connecting the 2 halves. That being said, there is still a strong argument that Aang killer the creature in cold blood
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u/Many-Activity-505 May 22 '25
Go watch "over analyzing avatar" on YouTube and get back to me. He zooms in the footage and you can clearly see the Buzzard wasps is still intact
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u/Many-Activity-505 May 22 '25
Whoops misread your comment. My bad
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u/Black_Fury321 May 22 '25
No worries, I wrote "rewatch" instead of "rewatched" sounded like I was telling you off, my bad
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u/Many-Activity-505 May 22 '25
All good
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u/SproutedBooby May 22 '25
Just rewatched the scene. Overanalyzing avatar says he believes aang killed the wasp. I found no zoom in
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u/Maximus_En_Minimus May 23 '25
Parts of the internal organs and skin can still be attached, doesn’t have to be a clean cut.0
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u/Straaaangepuntang May 22 '25
Def not cold blood because that means out of nowhere
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u/Black_Fury321 May 23 '25
No, cold blood means without reason. As the creature had let go of momo and was fleeing, Aang had no reason other than emotion to take it down. His choice to still kill it was in cold blood. Out of nowhere would just be unprovoked aggression
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u/Straaaangepuntang May 23 '25
“In cold blood” means without emotion. It’s the opposite of the heat of the moment
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u/Black_Fury321 May 23 '25
"Without feeling or mercy/ ruthlessley"
It's got nothing to do with the heat of the moment. Aang at that moment mercilessly killed something with out reason.
Its similar to the way shooting a retreating soldier in war would be considered cold blooded
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u/Straaaangepuntang May 23 '25
There was reason and feeling though. He was furious and protecting Momo. Cold blooded would mean if he had no expression on his face, just walked up and killed it. I’m really not trying to be a petty bitch, but this scene was seriously the opposite of a cold blooded murder. You’re right that it was ruthless though. It’s called cold blooded because you’re not fighting or anything. Your blood is cold
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u/Black_Fury321 May 23 '25
That's the thing though, he didn't kill it to protect Momo, as the creature had let Momo go. You're focusing too much on the emotion bit. Cold Blooded means without the feeling of remorse, or empathy to what your killing, which at that time he didn't. It doesn't mean that you do not feel at all, as most cold-blooded killings are done out of vengeance or rage. The opposite of a cold-blooded kill would be if this thing was about to hurt Momo, so he had no choice but to kill it, and showed remorse after. He didn't need to kill it, did ant way, and showed no signs of caring or remorse after. This is literally textbook cold-blooded killing.
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u/Straaaangepuntang May 23 '25
Your own definition starts with “without feeling” , but Aang was acting out of rage. Cold blooded is like mobster shit like you just walk up on someone and shoot them. Aang’s rage plus the fact that they were all basically in survival mode makes this not cold blooded. But that’s just like my opinion man
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u/Black_Fury321 May 23 '25
"Without feeling OR MERCY / RUTHLESSLEY" like I said, you're focusing too much on 1 part of the definition, ignoring the 2 parts of the definition that show this was a cold blooded killing. The fact that Aang was angry does not stop this from being cold blooded, as he was still acting ruthlessly, and without mercy. You're entitled to you opinion though I guess
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u/lacmlopes May 22 '25
He didn't cut in half
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u/Firespark7 Airbender 💨 May 22 '25
But he definitely killed it
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u/lacmlopes May 22 '25
I don't think anyone can say this.
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u/Firespark7 Airbender 💨 May 22 '25
Let's say for the sake of argument that he didn't 100% certainly kill it.
It was still not "out of necessary defense", so his holier than thou attitude in book 3 is still ridiculous.
Also: in book 3, he blows away a fly with a concentrated gust out of boredom. Not 100% centainly a kill, but deginitely harm and in his beliefs an attack.
Aang's holier than thou stance in the finale is ridiculous, always has been.
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u/FinlandIsForever May 22 '25
There is the difference though that those are bugs, not sapient humans. If I kill a cockroach that’s running around my house, does that automatically equate to me wanting to slaughter a man on the street? Imagine the cockroach is 100x the size and steals your dog; does killing the cockroach (assuming he did kill it) out of defence and vengeance for taking the dog put me on par with a murderer? Of course not
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u/Firespark7 Airbender 💨 May 23 '25
"The monks taught me all life is sacred, even that of the tiniest spiderfly caught in its own web" - Aang defending his holier than thou attitude
"I've only ever used violence for necessary defence" - Aang explaining his holier than thou attitude
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u/Eggsalad_cookies May 23 '25
You missed the line where he said, “and certainly to never take a life”
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u/Ghost_of_the_141 May 22 '25
I’m just saying if the Airbenders were not as peaceful as they were in the show, the fire nation wouldn’t have been able to get within 5000 feet of the air temples. Even with the comet
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u/Luciano99lp May 22 '25
I wish this moment came up more in book 3 when aang is struggling with having to kill the fire lord. What if he kept having flash backs to that buzzard wasp and feeling guilt, knowing that his guilt would multiply tenfold if he were to kill a human like ozai.
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u/Echidnux May 22 '25
Doesn’t he technically kill Zhao anyway?
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u/meghan143m May 22 '25
people bring this up but I wouldn't credit Aang for anything he did while joined with the Ocean Spirit, it was La that killed Zhao. The people he knocked off a steep mountain with an avalanche is harder to excuse
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u/Odd_Remove4228 May 23 '25
No that was the water spirit and Zhao wasn't killed, he actually was granted immortality and then dropped in the Fog of Lost Souls.
He will never die, he will never leave and he will never truly remember who he was.
It's a fate worse than death if you think about it: forever tortured until the end of the universe, with only a fleeting grasp on reality
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u/sweetpotato_latte May 22 '25
Zhao in the Netflix live action reminds me so much of an Asian Elon musk
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u/The_Almighty_Duck May 22 '25
I'm not saying I agree with him, but I understand. Imagine having your best friend you've known all your life kidnapped with nothing you or your friends could do to stop it. I don't know about you, but I'd be angry beyond belief, and nothing would stand in my way to get them back.
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u/ThroawayJimilyJones May 23 '25
Except he already got momo back. He killed the wasp in pure revenge
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u/unluckyknight13 May 23 '25
I felt that scene was partly done to establish if Aang TRULY wanted to kill others he honestly could and it’d be stupidly easy but Aang doesn’t think he should most times
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u/Eggsalad_cookies May 23 '25
To everyone saying he didn’t kill or cut the buzzard wasp in half… yes he did.
If you watch the scene you can actually see it separating before it hits the ground. He absolutely killed it and knew he did. Which is fine. It just makes Aang more human. The whole idea you should never ever kill is stranger than the idea that killing can be necessary when you have to do it
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u/GalvantulaRulez May 23 '25
Did he have to do it though? The wasp was already beat and running, that's why it was so far away. It was no longer a threat, Momo was already free, Aang was just pissed off.
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u/Eggsalad_cookies May 23 '25
Definitely didn’t have to, but I think, between a lot of us growing up watching and Aang being so wise in general, we forget that he is just a twelve year old boy that’s in over his head
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u/GalvantulaRulez May 23 '25
Oh yeah for sure; I thought that that was an important distinction to make that sets this apart from the alleged firebender killings when blasting them off a mountain (I'm inclined to say they didn't die for narrative purposes, but even so). There's an argument for that being necessary, here it's just pure rage, and that adds a lot to his characterization imo
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u/Jacksontaxiw May 22 '25
This was canonically the only time Aang killed a living being (yes, all these other examples given by the fandom that "Aang killed someone" are not canon, we don't see any of them actually dying, in these cases cartoon logic is used), and it is very symbolic. In this moment, Aang lost the last link he had to his life as an Air Nomad, losing Appa meant so much more than losing a friend, and I feel like some people don't understand that. This hatred that Aang felt had something much deeper behind it.
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u/ThroawayJimilyJones May 23 '25
There were probably a lot of people in the fire lord zeppelin when it crashed down. Just sayin
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u/Jacksontaxiw May 23 '25
Man, it was explicitly shown that they survived when Aang used the Avatar State to put out the flames at the end of the battle.
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u/ThroawayJimilyJones May 23 '25
Some survived or all survived? Cause if they all survived a crash against a cliff following by several dozen of minutes burning inside I’d be very impressed
Also, even if they did all survive, did Aang knew it would be the case? Guy still casually shoot a giant zeppelin in the middle of the sky
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u/Revolutionary_Lead28 May 23 '25
Kinda reminds me of Yakuza Zero. Throughout the game it's said once you take a life there's no going back, later on there's a car chase where Kiryu is using a gun and definitely killed several people but they act like that didn't happen because at the climax of the game Nishiki is begging Kiryu not to "cross that line by killing Shibusawa"
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u/Topher_McG0pher May 22 '25
He's the avatar, not Jesus
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u/Eggsalad_cookies May 23 '25
Side note: Jesus himself, at least definitionally, could fall into the category of an avatar: n: “a manifestation of a deity or released soul in bodily form on earth; an incarnate divine teacher.”
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u/lazy_phoenix May 22 '25
Aang when it comes to a genocidal monster: All life is sacred
Aang when someone threatens someone he knows personally: I am now become death, destroyer of worlds.
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u/youarenut May 23 '25
How does this have 1.4 k upvotes? The wasp was still intact. It had a thin body and neck but it wasn’t cut in half at all..
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u/Important_String_412 May 22 '25
If you rewatch the scene, he doesn’t cut it in half.
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u/DLRjr94 Grand Lotus 🪷 May 22 '25
We don't know that. From our perspective it just looked like he knocked it out for the sky, there was no confirmation that he killed that buzzard-wasp... Is it possible he killed it? Of course, but I choose to believe that wasn't his intention...
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u/Intelligent-Stuff814 May 22 '25
Judging by the way that thing fell down when it got hit, there's a good chance he killed it. It's just like Jet's case, the death was implied
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u/whimu May 23 '25
not that it matters, but he just wacks it with airbending, it doesnt get cut in half
The extra blip that looks like a part of the animal is its head, and its attached by a long thin neck that doesnt show up very well, so it looks like he cut it in half.
I actually like interpreting it that way better though
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u/New-Mango7595 May 24 '25
The fly that's buzzing around in the episode with sokka's master is another likely death
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u/Aggravating-Bid346 May 27 '25
He also killed at least one canyon crawler the same way during The Great Divide
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u/Mishy_l0ver238 May 23 '25
I probably need to rewatch the scene, but I thought I remember that in the distance you see the creature get up and fly away, meaning that even though it was a very violent attack, the creature still survived it?
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u/Sudden-Dimension-645 May 22 '25
This moment was so impactful because it showed in this moment Aang's true motivation to finding Appa. It wasn't enough for him to get Appa back, he cared way more about getting revenge on the sandbenders. And yes, in this moment he was 100% intent on unaliving them without holding back.
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u/Black_Fury321 May 22 '25
I strongly disagree with this take.... He wasn't more focused on getting revenge on the Sandbenders, it showcased the rage of a peaceful man when pushed too far.
It reminds us that whilst Aang is a peaceful person, brought up to believe in the best in people, he is still just a child thrust through time into a war, who is capable of losing his temper. Also, he definitely wasn't intent on ending the Sandbenders. If you watch the episode, he purposefully only destroys their vehicles in a show of force, before losing himself to the avatar state due to extreme emotions, at which point the Sandbenders are able to make a run for it, he never actually attacks them directly.
Also, you have to remember that when this happens, he does not have control over the Avatar state, and is subject to the whims of previous Avatars who have no issues with killing, as seen when he fights Ozai, although at this point he has control over the Avatar state so he pulls himself out of it before the other Avatars kill Ozai.
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u/that_1weed May 22 '25
I don't believe Aang would kill no matter how angry. He wanted revenge, yes, or more like justice for what they did to Appa. Even when he was in the Avatar State all he did was scare them while scaring his own friends.
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May 22 '25
This right here is why it bugs me so god damn much when he is being a little bitch on taking out the firelord.
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u/Gnos445 May 22 '25
He knocked dozens of men off a cliff with an avalanche back in season one.