Alternative Character Interpretation/Western Animation/Avatar: The Last Airbender
Examples of Alternative Character Interpretations in Avatar: The Last Airbender include:
- Uncle Iroh comes off as a buffoon as often as he does a wise old mentor. But the buffoonery is in such diametric opposition to a long and storied career in which he was, until Ba Sing Se, an extremely successful general that the simplest explanation is that he does it to distract Zuko from focusing on how awful his lot in life is and to mask that he's surreptitiously setting up lessons for Zuko. If the buffoonery is genuine, then Iroh's buffoonery may border on a trope of a different color... but the line between buffoon and wise man isn't usually that pronounced. In Season 3, he's explicitly shown using Obfuscating Stupidity; any earlier "buffoonery" can be attributed to attempts to look harmless so his psycho little brother Ozai won't try to have him killed and endanger anyone who gets caught in the crossfire.
- At least early on, 48% of Fanfic depicted Azula as a Psycho Lesbian who raped both her sidekicks and several of the Kyoshi Warriors; 47% depicted her as a Depraved Bisexual who also raped Admiral Zhao and her brother -- taking her standard character interpretation (that is, amoral sociopath) to a ridiculous extreme. The other 5% hunt for a Freudian Excuse or twelve (usually related to abuse as bad as or worse than what Zuko received) for being a Magnificent Bastard. Ironically, Azula does wind up having a Freudian Excuse at the end of the series, though it's only revealed through her Villainous Breakdown.
- There's a subset that was so moved by her Villainous Breakdown that they decided she wasn't a sociopath. She's shown in canon to be cold and manipulative, using fear as a weapon and then calling it friendship; in stark contrast, part of the fandom seems to have decided that she's lost, scared, and just wanted Mommy to love her -- as opposed to, you know, being a murderous bastard caught in deep psychosis. A few think it's both -- one led to the other. If Azula was so lost and scared as a child, then becoming so powerful, manipulative, sociopathic bitch would (in her mind) seem like an ideal solution to erasing all the pain.
- It's possible she was simply a spoiled brat who was used to getting her way (as she got it from her father and those who feared them). Her mother, Ursa, loved her but didn't indulge her the same way her father did. While her father made her think the world revolved around her; her mother brought her down to earth therefore (according to Azula) she "hated" her. Either way you would blame Ozai for her behavior. But perhaps she doesn't deserve as much sympathy as the fandom has given her.
- The real potential head case of the Avatar universe is Ozai. Viewing Zuko as a reflection of who he was as a child, a sensitive Momma's Boy who fails at every attempt to please Daddy, and his big brother whom everyone loves doesn't make things any easier. No Azula represents his idealized self,in THAT way along with her perfection as a Bender, intelligence and natural born leadership skills. He indulged Azula as he wished he could have been indulged as a child. Perhaps he genuinely loved Azula but spoiled her rotten for the reasons above, he tried to love Zuko but he couldn't due to his own self loathing.
- It's also known that Ozai inherited the Fire Nation well into the Hundred Year War; there's also no mention of military accomplishments on his part, at least on par with his brother's. It's possible that his overzealous pursuit of glory for himself and the Fire Nation stems from an Omashu-sized chip on his shoulder. The way Zuko goes to him for advice during the sequel comic, The Promise, also implies that there was more, and more complex, issues on his solid-gold plate than figuring out which people and lands to subjugate. Any chance for sympathy probably ends when he decides to raze the Earth Kingdom to the ground, though.
- Many viewers saw Zuko as a very troubled and sympathetic guy who legitimately struggles with various aspects of his life and himself, and sometimes has periods of whining (but understandably so), which thus makes his maturing a truly amazing story to watch. A number of others saw him as a pathetic, loser teen with serious anger problems and a general fuck-up who constantly causes unnecessary trouble for everyone, including himself.
- About half the fandom considers Sokka to be a sensitive genius with occasional moments of idiocy and assholery. The other half considers him to be just the reverse.
- Was Admiral Zhao's refusal to let Zuko try to rescue him from a vengeful Kaiju-class Ocean Spirit one last act of arrogant contempt for the boy, or a rare act of wisdom and honor in not letting the stupid kid get himself drowned too?
- Is Aang the kind, childlike Air Nomad that everyone (including he himself) sees him as? Or is he a selfish, power hungry --or Naive-- child who cares more about his own wants than the happiness of his family and friends or the needs of the world, even if it means destroying the balance he's supposed to maintain?
- Asking why Iroh never bothered to overthrow his murderous usurper of a brother and saddled his emotionally damaged teenage nephew with the job of running the Fire Nation will start arguments.
- Iroh's retirement to his tea shop: old man stepping aside to give the younger generation a chance to build a new world order or covert political hostage to the Earth Kingdom in order to secure a peace treaty?
- Is Katara a crazy bitch whose entire personality is mood swings and nothing else, or is she a very human teenage girl struggling to keep her head and everyone else's above water in dark times? Also, was her behavior towards Zuko mean and petty, or was it perfectly justified after what he pulled on her in season 2? It seems that the fandom will never be able to decide.
- Koh is the Avatarverse Anti-Christ. Or the Avatar version of Cthulhu.
- Was Ursa a perfect mother, a humanly flawed woman, or a bitch who blatantly played favorites and ruined her daughter forever? The show gives us the first characterization -- but it comes from Zuko's personal memories, making it possible that Zuko is simply idealizing her out of his love for her. Ozai and Azula would probably think of her as the second and third characterizations respectively.
- This trope was deliberately cultivated for most members of the Fire Nation Royal Family. The writers were afraid that anything they came up with would be too dark even for this show. They intentionally left details vague so the viewers could make their own ideas.
- Zutara shippers frequently portray Mai as a cruel, insanely jealous bitch, though she's just as easily a confused and possibly depressed teenager just as messed up as the rest of the Fire Nation characters whose character development, while less overtly stated than Zuko's, nevertheless paralleled his enough to give her a Heel Face Turn near the end of the series.
- Sozin/Suesan - Conquering the world in order to share the country's economic influences; or a boy named Sue who becomes a Monarch of Darkness and seeks revenge on the world for cursing him with a girl's name.
- Azulon - For a character that has had only a few minutes of screen time and a couple lines, there is so much debate about him and the ambiguous scenario involving him. Did he ask Ozai to sacrifice his son for a slight against his eldest? Was it a Secret Test of Character? Was Azulon speaking [1]? Did he even give that as an order or did Azula make it all up (for any various reasons) and Ozai went with it?
- Sequel Series The Legend of Korra has an unusually tongue-in-cheek interpretation of The Stoic and terse Mako, born out of Memetic Mutation: Fandom!Mako is an emotional crybaby tormented by his own good looks, obsessed with his beloved scarf, plagued by his raging Tsundere crush on Korra, and permanently tortured by the very thought of his worst enemy, Hasook.
- ↑ Ozai would lose a son because Iroh would adopt Zuko as his son and heir completely by-passing Ozai's chance to the throne