This is so beautiful and true that it's hard for me not to splutter "WORD."
You say everything about Aang that I felt inadequate to explain, and which you'd think would go without saying. Aang had that thing, true goodness, which sounds so small when put into plain words. But really, "true goodness" is the hope of all humanity, the thing we all need and wish for. It's far more important than justice, but infinitely harder to achieve.
"But I believe? Aang can save the world."
Katara gives this to us in her monologue that has been with us from the beginning, and this comes just a few lines after she tells us that the Avatar vanished just when the world needed him the most. It is hard to believe in a world that has let you down, in saviors thave have been shown to be gold statues with clay feet, in a "true goodness" that can come forth from failure and disappointment.
People see this with Zuko. But it is a million times more relevant with Aang. He DID keep his promise. It took him 100 years, but he kept the faith. He might not have, either, except for the fact that one girl in a small village at the end of the world decided to toss out cynicism and fear, and GIVE him the belief that he needed, the little pulse of trust that was all that was required for him to fulfill the needs of an entire planet.
If this isn't what being a savior is about, I don't know what is. Avatar reminded me that faith in others is pretty much the only thing we've got that will keep us going, but also that it is enough. It is more than enough. And even though I will never be as good as someone like Aang, I can keep on striving, and nurture my faith in humanity, even if again and again it has generally proven faithless and heartless and seemingly unworthy of such trust.
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You say everything about Aang that I felt inadequate to explain, and which you'd think would go without saying. Aang had that thing, true goodness, which sounds so small when put into plain words. But really, "true goodness" is the hope of all humanity, the thing we all need and wish for. It's far more important than justice, but infinitely harder to achieve.
"But I believe? Aang can save the world."
Katara gives this to us in her monologue that has been with us from the beginning, and this comes just a few lines after she tells us that the Avatar vanished just when the world needed him the most. It is hard to believe in a world that has let you down, in saviors thave have been shown to be gold statues with clay feet, in a "true goodness" that can come forth from failure and disappointment.
People see this with Zuko. But it is a million times more relevant with Aang. He DID keep his promise. It took him 100 years, but he kept the faith. He might not have, either, except for the fact that one girl in a small village at the end of the world decided to toss out cynicism and fear, and GIVE him the belief that he needed, the little pulse of trust that was all that was required for him to fulfill the needs of an entire planet.
If this isn't what being a savior is about, I don't know what is. Avatar reminded me that faith in others is pretty much the only thing we've got that will keep us going, but also that it is enough. It is more than enough. And even though I will never be as good as someone like Aang, I can keep on striving, and nurture my faith in humanity, even if again and again it has generally proven faithless and heartless and seemingly unworthy of such trust.