Film Theory: Avatar Aang is a BAD Dad?! (The Last Airbender)

I also always got the sense that it was less Aang putting all of it on Tenzin and more Tenzin putting it on himself.

Ngl, the moment they made Bumi a non-Bender and Kya a water bender, I knew there was going to be tension within the family. Just having to teach Tenzin Airbending would have required Aang spend more time with him.

Another thing to note is that Aang is a child soldier who didn't really grow up with parents. The only one we're really shown when he's young is Gyatso and once he returns from being frozen, almost everyone he's cared about is dead. And then he had to immediately grow up to fix the problems of the world.

My evidence that Aang was NOT a terrible father is that there's a line somewhere about how the kids did go at some point with Aang and Tenzin, or at least were talked to about the air nomads. They found it boring, they weren't interested. Aang and Tenzin had a responsibility to teach/learn the history and culture. So, regardless, Tenzin HAD to go, they didn't. They were bored with the topic, and thus didn't go. Because they didn't go, they didn't get side tracked the way the nomads would, and thus missed out on the fun parts. Lastly, they're biased, unreliable narrators. They see Tenzin as an Airbender, and Aangs responsibility to him, and were jealous. They can't defend Aang, because they can't understand it, because they only looked through their own lenses

I literally SCREAMED when Lee mentioned Cinema Therapy 😆 Alan and Jono are literally some of my favorite creators and I'm so happy to see this collab

As a tremendous fan of ATLA, I personally love the idea that Aang was a well-meaning but ultimately not a great dad. Effectively a war orphan at age 12, a victim of genocide, raised outside of a "traditional" family unit (monks), and with the weight of the world on this shoulders. The notion that he could save the world but not "save" his kids from childhood trauma is incredibly humanizing to me.

Also remember that Aang's lifespan was cut short due to spending so long frozen in ice. Bumi and Kya aren't resentful because their father was abusive but mourning they didn't get more time to spend him the way that Tenzin's training allowed him to

I am not a parent but I had a actual bad parenting and Aang isn’t a bad parent but he isn’t a good parent. That’s not bad writing, that’s good writing because it’s realistic. Aang was raised by a community which I can relate to, my neighbors watched me so I don’t have the same mindset as other people about parenting. Aang had to grow up at 12 and had no more parents. If you met kids who had no parents by teen years, you would understand there would be a learning curve. Aang is actually the true statement doing the best he could. He had to learn how to be a parent and made mistakes but made up for it along the way.

Aang is a flawed father, but not a bad one. He loved all his kids

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