When Aang Kills

[u/Western_Echo2522]

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

[u/Eggsalad_cookies]

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

[u/GalvantulaRulez → u/Eggsalad_cookies]

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.

[u/Eggsalad_cookies → u/GalvantulaRulez]

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

[u/GalvantulaRulez → u/Eggsalad_cookies]

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

[u/Eggsalad_cookies → u/GalvantulaRulez]

Ghat makes sense