r/LastAirbenderLore • u/Angela275 • Apr 15 '20

Kyoshi

I been thinking Kyoshi died at 230. At that old age how did she fight. Or was it possible she like Bumi kept in shape?

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u/Meii345 Jul 04 '20

Makes me think about the fact that Kyoshi would absolutely use the dark side of the force

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u/bihuginn Jul 22 '20

Another reason the whole raava light spirit thing is bullshit. Like Avatar Wan is pretty cool but the later half of season two reads like fanfiction.

You can't represent balance if you're only half of a whole. It's like if each avatar only had two elements.

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u/Vic-VonDoom Sep 17 '20

Balance doesn't always mean holding the scale. Sometimes it means being the weight. Thats what Raava and the Avatar did. Raava is on one side of the scale, while Vaatu is on the other. If Vaatu escapes, the scales become unbalanced. So, the Avatar does keep the balance by keeping Vaatu and other benders in check.

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u/bihuginn Sep 23 '20

Locking up one aspect and freeing to achieve balance is a very western view.

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u/Vic-VonDoom Sep 23 '20 edited Sep 23 '20

Not really. Wan upset the balance by untangling them. What happened next was acceptance of the natural process of change. Balance was no longer able to be achieved through Raava and Vaatu being locked in eternal combat. So, Wan and Raava adjusted when one aspect of reality was left unchecked by its other half. So, I don't think it was westernized, I think it was just an example of nature's ability to adjust to the chaos that human beings often introduce into the system. It was totally Wan's fault, but he couldn't have realistically known though.

EDIT: So, I don't think Vaatu was evil or even that Raava was "good." I think Vaatu just represented the destructive aspect of reality while Raava perhaps represented the creative aspect. Vaatu was reacting logically to the absence of his other half.

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u/bihuginn Sep 28 '20

The issue with that theory is that vaatu is shown to be irredeemable evil and raava perfectly good. They have huge (us centric)christian themes and subtext essentially making the avatar a Jesus allagory too. While we can make all sorts of theories on how it makes sense, the issue is we have to do that to fix shitty writing.

I wish they were shown to be creation and destruction in a balanced yin yang esque type deal, but they're just good and bad, poorly written and poorly introduced. I really like LOK but sometimes the writters just fucked over everything else.

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u/Vic-VonDoom Sep 28 '20 edited Sep 28 '20

All Vaatu did was turn spirits more aggressive, which had a negative effect on humans. Thats seen as evil to us because we're humans. However, to a cosmic force, its just engaging in rational behavior- again, he represents destruction. And Raava was never shown to be perfectly good. She just maintained balance by battling with Vaatu. Both entities were defined solely by each other. Humanity was simply in the way- or a co-occurring thing or something.

(EDIT: for better clarity and grammar) It's like Jupiter's magnetic field and cosmic radiation. Radiation and electromagnetism don't care about our planet, but Jupiter's magnetic field "saves" us from cosmic radiation by diverting it nonetheless. Its accidental, yet essential for our survival. Like Raava fighting Vaatu. It has nothing to do with good or evil (or us). It just is. Our survival is one of many results.

I think the religious connotations seem like more of a personal perspective than the writers' intent. I just saw two cosmic entities trying to find balance again by doing what they'd been doing for 10,000 years- opposing one another while accidentally maintaining cosmic balance. The "good vs evil" thing is more a westernized translation of a eastern philosophical concept. IMO, the issue was maintaining balance in a changing world, not neccesarily Jesus vs the Devil.

And, I don't think it was bad writing. I think it was just something that was inevitably going to happen in a world defined by spirituality, but moving toward industrialization. There was eventually gonna be a spirituality vs technology storyline because LOK has always been about finding balance between seemingly opposite concepts.

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u/bihuginn Oct 10 '20

Look I really can't be bothered to cite the countless references from the bible and torrah that relate to this. But one

That fact that it needs explaining - shitty writing

Two- Vaatu was very clearly designated evil by the writers, there's nothing in his writing or character that's anything but. Anything else is headcannon (which is honestly better than cannon but his point) unfortunately he's pretty heavily coded evil.

Three- as for it being personal, I've been studying relgions as a hobby since I was a child (I had weird interests) now I'm getting a degree in theology, I've looked at how spiritualism is represented in LoK from multiple perspectives and along with much of the show it's been simplified and westernised. They also fucked the timeline but that's a separate issue.

Sorry if this seemed lazy or dismissive, I really shouldn't be on reddit rn I'm pretty mentally exhausted but I needed to respond to this for reasons.

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u/Vic-VonDoom Oct 11 '20

I still don't think it was shitty writing. I think thats an opinion that can swing either way. And I think that the idea of Vaatu being evil or representing the devil is just as much headcanon as the opposite being true.

And just so that you know, I study religion/mythology/spirituality as a hobby as well. I could understand how you might see Raava vs Vaatu as Good vs Evil, but it isn't wrong to look at it as Yin vs Yang either. Because the show is based in Eastern philosophical thought, so I'm pretty sure thats literally just what it is. Yin vs Yang. Neither of those concepts are good or evil. They just are. And idk how they fucked the timeline, so I won't get into that.

I feel you on that. It's been the same way for me lately. Current events- public and personal- have been difficult to sit with lately. So, I don't know what you're going through, but I hope you're alright. Best of luck on your journey.