Could he have stopped the hundred year war if he hadn't run away?

I guess the air nomads were overwhelmed.

>pockets of vacuum
I think that's too advanced for the time they're in.
This just seems like Monk Gyatso's Last Stand in a classic 1 v. 100

Most likely. He would have escaped and either gone to the Southern or Northern Water Tribe to learning, headed over to the Earth Kingdom where the colonies would be around 1 generation old. Get his training from some master there.

Fire Nation loyalist to the Avatar probably would've been his master. Then he would have gone to the Fire Nation capital, Avatar state, push in his old friend's shit, dethroned him, and put in a new ruler and the colonies would disappear.

Maybe.
At the very least he could have helped to preserve the Air Nomads so that the Fire Nation would have to try and suppress 3 nations instead of two and stretched their resources even thinner.

To be honest the Fire Nation really wasn't gunning for the Water Tribe. The Southern Water Tribe literally ceased to exist, the Fire Nation did no colonization or anything. Just burned everything and left.

It seems like the Fire Nation just mainly wanted to conquer the Earth Kingdom. Because when the Earth Kingdom gone, they basically considered themselves to have won the war despite the Water Tribes still being around and untouched.

given the fact that ATLA was airing alongside shows like Spongebob it's really remarkable just how much adult content they got away with
>showing aang's adopted fathers corspe
>both Sokka and Katara practically being orphans
>having an entire race genocided
>the main villian (for most of the show) was maimed and then banished by his father for trying to protect a division from being slaughtered
>the entire concept of the show revolving around a massive war which has injured, killed and displaced millions
>killing off several big characters
>having a draconian secret police control an isolated city and by extension the entire country whilst the king is only a figure head
given how rampant censorship was at the time it's almost baffling how a show like it was both made and marketed towards children.

Maybe, but it would've been tricky. Keep in mind that for a while in ATLA, Aang's survival is merely a rumor and Zuko's sightings are dismissed by the Fire Nation brass since he's a disgrace. During the height of the war with the Fire Nation mobilizing to wipe out airbending entirely, he'd have had a harder time navigating the globe, much less finding experts to train him in the other three kinds of bending. Aang was very good but he'd have had a much harder time with a more motivated and energized Fire Nation after him.

Then again with the Avatar to rally around, we could argue the other nations would've put up a tougher resistance. You have to assume part of the reason the Fire Nation won for so long was the reasonable assumption they'd broken the avatar cycle

>>killing off several big characters
Only Jet died. Even then he was around for only like 1 episode previously.

They got Jet, General Zhao and Princess Yue who all played pivotal roles in the show. Even Aang technically died at the end of Season 2. That's a lot more character death than you would expect from a network like Nick

maybe, but don't forget that if aang didn't wake up when he did he wouldn't have met all of his teachers and the other people that helped him immensely
katara is one of the strongest waterbenders and taught him along with pakku. toph is the strongest earthbender of all time and taught him. zuko was probably the only one who could have taught aang firebending and also helped him get trained by the dragons. he also wouldn't have met sokka, iroh and adult bumi who helped him a lot

He would be fucked regardless. One of the main things established in the show is Aang's PTSD/Mental Block stopping him from mastering the elements and the Avatar state. Plus the Fire Nation would have major momentum, after all they committed a genocide and were not challenged at all.
Let's be frank. 2/4 of the nations arent build for war.
The Northern Water Tribe poses a genuine challenge, but the Southern Water Tribe isn't. After wiping out the air nomads, they can easily subjugate the Southern Water Tribe.
The Northern Water Tribe would try to declare war but it wouldn't matter, for some reason only the Fire Nation and Earth Nation are fucking hyper advanced compared to the others. The Earth Nation is the only real threat, but I'm sure the Fire Nation would take out take out the Earth Nation some way. Now thinking about it, The Fire Nation could've been dictators of the whole fucking world.
That's the hidden gem about the show. It presents things in a way a child can understand and not be traumatized by, but can still be equally impactful for teens or adults watching.

It Never happend

Of course not
Aang only know airbending
Going into hide was his best choice, considering the Fire Nation was going all in on all where he could even look up for a master

It only took us so long because we needed advanced instruments to create good enough vacuums. That they could do it with hand motions would greatly accelerate discovery of that science

The Fire Nation essentially was. Outside of crown hold out cities Omashu and such, the Earth Kingdom was pretty much occupied.

It's not even that. We see them make nifty little gadgets to jerk around with, but it's like they stop. On all accounts, their "science" should've progressed way more than we were shown in the show. My guess is that they willingly stopped and as nomads tried to live as simple as they could. Which is why in Korra there was such a big internal conflict with modernization and technology when they were rebuilding everything with the new airbenders

God, how the fuck did they fuck up the sequel so badly? I know they didnt have the same writers, but jesus christ with the foundation they had a literal 5 year old could have written a goos follow up. Its almost like they were deliberately trying to make Korra bad. They had an endless wealth of potential stories. They could continue with the Gaang, they could have had a good story right at the outbreak of the war, they could have had a good story leading up to Aangs return, they could have gone to a primitive past, they could have gone to a distant future, they could have expanded on the lore, they could have explored an infinite number of options, they could have gone literally anywhere - yet they fucked it all up.

>for some reason only the Fire Nation and Earth Nation are fucking hyper advanced compared to the others
The other two don't have resources
The water tribes literally only have ice to work with.

1000% the Air Benders ran. Gyatso's last stand is literally one body among the wreckage.

they would have fucked all that up too. Avatar is not terribly special in any one regard and it's quality was just a product of a once in a lifetime confluence of talent and public perception. Hell if you released the exact same show now it would be torn apart for its narrative faults and political messages. Avatar can never happen again in our lifetimes

what does Katara know

Considering the fire nation launched a suprise attack at their maximum power exactly as sozen's comet buffed virtually every grunt to the level of a master firebender? With the express purpose of killing SPECIFICALLY the avatar before he could be strong enough to stop them? Probably for the best ang was away at the time

Not at all. At best, he runs away and waits for about 60 or so years to lead a giant war that wipes out 40% of the world. At worst he dies and the next Avatar has no way to learn airbending.
Think about how the war ends: The firelord is a whiny brat whose one stratigic moment in his life was getting his wife to kill his dad when his far more talented brother was distracted after sieging the greatest remaining city. He then decides to invest ALL of the resources into what, fly over an entire contenent shooting fire down really, really slowly? And then what, he's completely in the middle of nowhere while his 12 year old daughter is running an entire country.
Firelord Azulon was right in having Ozai pick dingleberries out of his butt at home while Iroh was out learning how to lead. Ozai has a ton of firepower but his strategy starts and ends at "Throw a bunch of ships at it" compared to Azulon's stratigic raids on the southern water temple and figuring out how to not only ambush the bulk of 4 entire capitols worth of airbenders, and then subsequently hunt them down by luring em out with relics. And that doesn't even get into how the war "ended". Aang just waited until the bratty firelord punched his kid and then let the upset child get taught strategy and philosophy by his far more talented brother for several years, setting the stage for a valid coup of succession.
tl;dr Ozai is a retard, Azulon is a strategic genius, and the war only ended because Ozai had a heated gamer moment.

It's elaborated on in the comics, but they systematically rounded up, tricked, trapped, and executed all survivors around the world.

I mean all you need is one goon with a sword to counter that.

Adding to , Iroh's entire character arc is that his son got crushed to death, and Zuko's story starts with his mother murdering his grandfather and then presumibly being killed herself.

Ozai was too high T for his own good. He just loved being in power and wielding it. So he was kind of blind to everything else. Which fits with him symbolizing the destructive and uncontrolled side of fire.

*southern water tribe
Yeah it's a pretty fucking grim way that the survivors were rounded up. Azulon's forces looted the air temples for relics and other stuff that could suggest the existence of other airbenders in the area. The troops would then lure airbenders into traps with the thought of comradery before executing each airbender, one by one. Tbh it's a little fucking farfetched that not a single Air Nomad was in Ba Sing Se or Omashu or the northern water tribe during the genocide and hanging tight instead of getting fucking murdered. But fucking F for airbenders who just happened to be hanging out in the fire nation during the genocide. We always hear about Aang's friend Kuzon, and likely there were a lot of other firebenders who were friends with airbenders. What was Kuzon's life like after thinking his nation roasted his friend to death?

You know, I always call Ozai a retard, but maybe I'm the retard for not catching on to the fact that Ozai's just like untamed fire. He is absolutely rolling in testosterone, good for him absolute chad when it comes to that, but it's hard to deny that he's a total retard at times. Hell, the fire nation KNOWS that the eclipse saps them of power 100%, and they're pretty good with astrology considering how they can predict when a comet comes around from space to the minute, but it wasn't until Azula was handed the black sun plans that they realized that oh fuck, what if an invasion happens while they have collectively zero power anywhere.

Possibly, it depends how soon Sozin's comet hit afterwards and how they handle it.
Gyatso was also seemingly coming to spirit Aang awa when he learned that Aang was going to be taken from him.
So it's possible that Aang could've just done his Avatar training in a mostly safe Earth Kingdom & Water Territory. Only issue is finding a Fire Master but the Fire Monks were probably a lot more on the Avatar's side than the Fire nation's probably having living memory of Roku.
Also since there's no real time crunch they could've waited however long they needed until he had perfected the Avatar state.

That reminds of the old "ANIME ISNT FOR CHILDREN" austitic screeching.

>Tbh it's a little fucking farfetched that not a single Air Nomad was in Ba Sing Se or Omashu or the northern water tribe during the genocide
it's headcannon, but I like to imagine that the survivors just ended up being integrated and assimilated by wherever they fled to and that the reason why there aren't any airbenders is because either they don't have access to the training or because they just got absorbed by other benders. In particular I quite like the theory that Ty Lee is the decedent of fleeing air nomads and that's why she looks like she does and is so athletically gifted. At the very least you'd imagine that the nomads would be, well, nomadic - and would just appear all over the world.

The question is, however, even if you master the avatar state, how does Aang stop the war without anyone to take the throne. If he murks Azulon, then what, the world would be sketched out by the Avatar taking the throne, or otherwise appointing his pawn to the throne. And just because you kill the leader of a nation, there's still a dozen generals who now have a bone to pick with the rest of the world personally, and are all vying for the throne. Sure, Iroh and Ozai are probably at most 6 when Aang is at his bending peak, but the war goes on until the firenation and all of the army and generals surrenders.

IIRC, typically 100% of airbender genetics produce airbenders due to them being so spiritual (Korra doesn't count). But also I can absolutely see whatever remaining airbenders being so utterly spiritually broken that the cycle just dies with them. I really, really like the idea of Ty Lee being partially airbender, it adds an unexplored depth to not only the character but the whole idea of the decendant of a genocided race being best friends with the decendant of the one who ordered the execution. But it will forever be pure headcanon. (Also man was Ty Lee wasted in any regards beyond "Quirky nonbender who hangs out with Azula until suddenly becoming a part of the plot for one single scene until the last part of the post-finale")

It would've been so easy for Korra to say "these new airbenders are actually the descendants of the air nomad diaspora", but no, they pulled spirit world shenanigans out of their ass

Well, they had pretty much won by the time that he woke up, so on the first side of the war effort he could have done some serious shit. Still, Zuko's meddling might have bought him time by moving him out of the way of people that would have fucking murdered him. Hell, Azula only needed one try to put a nearly fatal blow into him.

No, because the Air Nomad genocide didn't happen and the whole "spent a century in an iceberg" thing was a crock of shit. It's all a hoax invented by Avatar Aang and propagated by Tenzin and his cronies. Let's look at the facts here for a second. Allegedly, Fire Lord Sozin launched a massive simultaneous attack on all four air temples during the passing of Sozin's Comet (a window of just a few hours, mind you). It's absurd on its face to suggest that such a level of military coordination on a global scale was possible well over a century before the invention of the radio, let alone the telegraph.
Nevertheless, let's move on. Supposedly, Sozin's motivation was to kill Avatar Aang before he was a fully realized avatar. Yes, that's right, the very same Aang who led the coup against Fire Lord Ozai a century later. They actually expect us to believe that he conveniently fled just before the attack and FROZE HIMSELF IN AN ICEBERG FOR A CENTURY. What the fuck is this, a science fiction novel? Might as well have said he was hiding on the moon for fuck's sake.
Fine, let's pretend we believe that for a second. Avatar Aang's subsequent "proof" of the genocide were his own findings at the Southern Air Temple, which are attested to only by his future wife and her brother (whom I'd like to note would go on to receive numerous political favors from the avatar after the war and become a councilman for the [[[United Republic]]]). That's a bit convenient if you ask me, but let's play along for a moment.
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So what is this "proof" they found? Here's the official picture right here:
They say this is the century old corpse of Aang's mentor, Monk Gyatso, surrounded by the remains of Fire Nation soldiers. I'm not fucking kidding. They seriously expect us to buy that an old, pacifist monk killed dozens of comet-empowered firebenders all by himself. Even if we believe that, it doesn't add up with the rest of their story. Sozin's army was supposedly committing rigorous, systematic genocide, but you're telling me that not only did they not retrieve the body of an important Air Nomad leader, but they also left the bodies of their own soldiers just laying there? Ridiculous.
And to top it all off, as if the story weren't already incredulous enough, suddenly airbenders start cropping up all over the world nearly two centuries after they were supposedly wiped out. Tenzin and his cronies will try to spin you some yarn about how Korra's spirit world bullshit (don't get me started on HER) somehow turned a bunch of regular people into airbenders, miraculously resurrecting the Air Nomads from extinction. Yeah, right. I think there's a more obvious explanation: the airbenders were never extinct to begin with and all these new airbenders are just the descendants of the original Air Nomads. Now they're flying around as Tenzin's personal "peacekeeping" force, acting like they own the place, and whenever anyone says a word about it they all start screeching "MUH MILLION BILLION PEACEFUL MONKS BURNED ALIVE" until you apologize by approving their funding for the next year.

tl;dr - Sozin did nothing wrong, the Air Nomad genocide didn't happen, but I wish it did
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Attached: Tenzin hears his budget got approved.gif (500x281, 538.26K)

Yeah. He'd probably have stopped the air temple genocide, and with teachers present he'd be able to train quickly. Sozin was old, maybe even dead by the time aang was around. He'd be in a much easier fight that Ozai during the comet finale. Either A young Azulon or an old Sozin.

Besides he's have a huge army to martial. Had the other 3 nations acted as a unified front they'd probably have crippled the fire nation. I mean the water tribe alone should really have decimated them if they'd have taken an offensive position since the fire nation is composed of islands. Naval dominance is the prerequisite for all global spanning empires, especially one that's a fucking archipelago.

Aang probably could have just stopped them with the water tribe's help and maybe an avatar state tsunami and just restrained them navally until they agreed to a truce and reparations for the earth kingdom.

Avatar State can use all the elements, but the whole point is that it should not be some permanent chimp out mode. Even if Aang stayed and tried to meet them with force, best case scenario is that he dies and the cycle continues, worst case is that they just lightning blast him while in the AS.

or bow and arrows, or crossbows, hell even just slings would work (the spinny kind, not slingshots as seen today)

>6 million in one day?
>Avatar, your words are flattering but enough of this Nomad nonsense! Even with Sozin's comet and our superior technology we could not possibly have accomplished such a feat.
>And really? are your people really foolish enough to fall for such base traps?

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It he had stayed at the air temple he would have been killed during the genocide.

>Tell me, Avatar. How exactly did the Fire Nation army scale the cliffs of the Northern Air Temple one hundred years before tanks or war balloons were invented?
>And then there's the Western Air Temple. I suppose they must have lowered themselves on ropes over the precipice. I can only guess how many countless soldiers would've fallen to their deaths even attempting such a maneuver. Do you suppose we'd find their armor piled up at the bottom of the canyon?
>Really, the soldiers back then must have been made of sterner stuff than they are now to face such incredible odds and achieve such apparent success.
>And don't you think it odd how much of the temples remain intact despite the fierce fighting that must've taken place there? I'm sure you're very familiar with how much collateral damage firebenders can cause in the heat of battle. I would have thought the power of the comet would leave the Air Temples as little more than smouldering ruins once the fighting was done, yet somehow they still stand in remarkable condition.
>Curious, isn't it?

>old ty lee somewhere with old azula and mai after they made up in the decades after the war
>accidently air bends in front of them after convergence
could've been a fun little gag

Nice prose nigger.

The world needed the fully realized Avatar, but he was only 10 and untrained when the genocide came for him.

no,he wasn't strong enough

If his life was truly in danger his Avatar state would have triggered, as in OP's image. Imagine if he were even to see the most impatient monk slaughtered in front of him. The switch would flip and the Fire Nation army would probably learn to fly or die trying.

I dont think science advanced far enough that that became common knowledge.

The funny thing is he'd have been genocided and the avatar would just been born a water bender.

Really don't get Sozin's plan here.