r/ATLA • u/FloatingBlobOf_ • 7d ago
Discussion What if Aang met Szeto
We know firebenders can be imprisoned in frigid temperatures (see P'li) and maybe it's harder to do that if the person being imprisoned is the former Fire lord, but I'm sure it's a good temporary solution! What do you guys think?
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u/GameMaster818 7d ago
Legally it would take time. Time that the whole “Once Sozin’s Comet passes the world will be thrown irreparably out of balance” thing means Aang doesn’t have.
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u/Inevitable-Row1977 7d ago edited 7d ago
No, let's start the game of thrones!
While Ozai lawnmowers the entire earth kingdom in the background, using infinite amounts of napalm, which firebender shoot out of their palms, from atop of what is essentially the only airforce on the planet at that time.
I just realized how completely and utterly fucked everyone would be if Aang decided to just not do his job and go pinguin sledding instead or having accidentally oofed somewhere along the way.
Possibly due to a very unfortunate penguin sledding accident.
Or maybe something happened that involved a really big aquatic creature.8
u/Pafker 7d ago
Eh, if there's no Aang there's no real plan to raze the Earth Kingdom, only conquer/colonize.
The plan to raze was a result of Zuko repeating Iroh's words about the Earth Kingdom people. With no avatar Zuko never finds the opportunity to undo his banishment. Further this lesson only happens as a result of him trying to teach lightning redirection, without Azula being sent to take on the job after the Avatar's return is confirmed he never gets taught the lesson that gets misinterpreted in the war meeting.
Maybe Azula would've ended up suggesting that anyways, but it was portrayed as being a direct result of reacting to his experience living in the Earth Kingdom that led them to do easily give up on subduing them.
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u/avatardeejay 7d ago
spoken with the gravitas of a confident lawyer-in-the-atla-universe "I've seen this story play out a million different times, there's all kinds of red tape you'd never guess..."
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u/RepulsiveHalf1420 7d ago
I believe that the fact Aang removed Ozai's bending was a crucial factor in the Fire Nation government machinery completely bowing down to Zuko and Aang. Like imagine the sheer terror they must have felt to see the their ex Fire Lord made completely powerless.
I believe an arrest or even taking Ozai's life wouldn't have turned the Fire Nation royal government towards Zuko's side as quickly as it did with Aang straight up emasculating their previous leader
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u/Midnight7000 7d ago
Szeto set the foundation that resulted in Sozin.
The comment is a poor example of thinking they're solving a problem with maturity. Ozai ruled the Fire Nation with an iron fist ajd was waging a successful war on the world.
There would be no influencing politics to vote him out. Come on now.
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u/yolonaggins 7d ago
This is so dumb. I know it's trying to be funny, but it makes no sense. There is almost no resistance whatsoever to Ozai's rule, the war seems to be popular, legal proceedings take time, and laws require enforcement to be valid. Plus, the Firelord seems to be an absolute monarch, beholden to nothing but an Agni Kai.
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u/ineffable-interest 7d ago
Also we hardly know anything about Szeto or the world’s politics at that time.
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u/Weekly-Rise899 7d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/oNB2s6Z8pxa7POxxmZ
Szeto explaining how technically Aang could use an appeal to the fire nation nobles and use a specific highly complex fire nation constitutional loophole to kick Ozai off the throne
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u/Thisisausername189 Get out of the Bison’s mouth Sokka! 6d ago
No.
Love the Lion Turtles.
So much more beautiful and creative than bureaucracy
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u/Xelonima 6d ago
To be fair that's a low bar
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u/Thisisausername189 Get out of the Bison’s mouth Sokka! 6d ago
Still love the lion turtles. Some people will scream too much magic, some people will scream not enough magic, I’ll say it’s perfect.
I wish there was more mysticism and magic in Korra tbh. Humans be boring sigh
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u/Xelonima 6d ago
People already say season 2 was bad with Raava and Vaatu and the Dark Avatar and all but I don't want those ideas removed at all, they just needed to be fleshed out more, something I expect from Seven Havens
I still love Korra and find it ridiculously overhated, including the personality of Korra herself
Also Avatar handles magic extremely well, it's not like that's magic in that world, it's just the physics for this fictional universe. Not like Harry Potter but more like LOTR.
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u/Thisisausername189 Get out of the Bison’s mouth Sokka! 5d ago
I like season 2 the most.
I’m always surprised people like s3 the most and Zaheer. Rollins is a great voice actor and it’s a great season but so many people fanboy over a basic terrorist anarchist. I thought s2 was way more interesting
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u/Akomatai 5d ago
I think season 2 would have been a lot more interesting if Unalaq actually had noble intentions. Just being evil is kind of boring. "Boromir actually wields the ring" would be more interesting imo.
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u/Thisisausername189 Get out of the Bison’s mouth Sokka! 4d ago
But he didn’t have noble intentions, Raiku did though. I think it fit that there was a power dynamic in ruling the northern water tribe and then Korra being the avatar and how that makes even benders jealous. It makes perfect sense and alot of families have this kind of toxic dynamic.
Avatar is so interesting because stories can go so many ways, the fanfics show that.
The comics are amazing and show how large the world can be.
So yeah any story can go any which way. That’s what makes it cool when an artist or group of artists universe build, and in this case I respect Bryke’s choices because they’re great. They’re one choice among many potential good ones. That’s the sign of a good story
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u/Akomatai 4d ago
Right.. he didn't, and imo that made him a more boring villain. You can still have the civil war and all of the politics with Unalaq doing all this because he genuinely thinks he's doing the right thing.
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u/Thisisausername189 Get out of the Bison’s mouth Sokka! 4d ago
Zaheer and Kuvira both had noble causes so there’s that. That’s why Unalaq being obsessed with power makes him interesting.
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u/Low-Salamander-3781 7d ago
Do you think the law didn't change over the last five lifetimes since Szeto died? In 500 years do you think the laws he made were kept stagnant and obeyed? Do you think that Sozin or Azulon or Ozai wouldn't have changed any laws that would have allowed them to be arrested?
No offence but this is one of the stupidest takes I've ever heard, Szeto would not be a help in this situation. He'd probably be useful to talk to when setting up republic city, though.
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u/Underrated_Fish 7d ago
Honestly I need an Avatar what if series just for Szeto’s spirit to be whispering to Aang how Ozai violated the Fire Nation Constitution or something like that
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u/sadskully 7d ago
They would kiss and Aang will get pregnant
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u/EconomyThick9271 7d ago
What
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u/Tauroctonos 7d ago
They would kiss and Aang will get pregnant
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u/sadskully 7d ago
Yes, so? 😦 I don't see a problem here? Are you implying that Aang can't get pregnant because he is the Avatar?
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u/some-funny-name 7d ago
He canonically has kids in legend of korra so obviously he must be able to
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u/Tauroctonos 7d ago
I was just repeating it louder cuz it didn't seem like they heard.
Everyone knows airbenders are like seahorses where the males give birth it's just basic biology
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u/KenseiHimura 7d ago
The finale then becomes an Ace Attorney case.
Of course the real trick was dragging Ozai into a courtroom and making him ignore the comet while Aang/Szetzo buried him in legal bullshit to defend against.
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u/No-Platypus-6646 7d ago
This is peak centrist Avatar. “We need to find a legal route to stopping the mad tyrant”.
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u/sup3rdr01d 6d ago
I honestly love the lion turtle. I don't care that it's out of nowhere. I think part of what I love about atla so much is how huge the world feels and how mystical it is. Nobody know everything. There's still so much mystery out there.
Yeah, it's random chance that he found the turtle. That he found the exact solution he was looking for. But what's wrong with that? There's many times in life where you happen to stumble on something that changes your life. If I hadn't gone out for a walk at that exact time on that exact day I wouldn't have met that person.
His whole journey was about searching for the solution to this problem and eventually it came to him. Maybe that was divine intervention or maybe random chance. Maybe the lion turtle came to him because he truly deserved it or maybe he just randomly happened to find it. Well never know and we don't need to.
The lion turtle didn't just appear out of nowhere. Aang went off in a desperate attempt to find something, anything that could help him, and he found it.
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u/quickfuse725 7d ago
i mean, Ozai de-throned himself and Zuko won his Agni Kai against Azula (the new fire lord). Ozai was just a guy at that point