Who Are Aang’s Parents | Avatar the Last Airbender Film Theory

Who are Aang's parents? Heeeey, Brotheer! Okay, guys, so the new live action Avatar series on Netflix has just dropped, and I finally finished it. And I have to say, I really enjoyed it. I thought it did a mostly good job of telling the same story, but kind of, like, mixing up the story elements which kind of reminded me, like, of our own what if's here on the channel. I thought it gave the show kind of a nice fresh feel, with the end results still being something of a mixed bag. Like, some g

ood things but some meeeeeeeh. Like, I absolutely loved spending more time with Kyoshi and Kuruk in season 1, but unfortunately, that meant that, like, Roku got downplayed, like, a lot. Then there's King Bumi who I, uh... What do you think of my new outfit? Uhhhhhhhh. Whyyyyy? But adding Azula and Ozai in season 1? Uh, yes, please. But maybe the thing I enjoyed the most was just getting to spend more time with the Air Nomads and seeing what their culture really looked like before the Fire Na

tion attack. In the animated version, we do get the occasional flashback to Aang's childhood. Or, you know, like, 100 years ago. I guess he's still a child. Whatever, you understand what I mean. But we never get to, like, see the Air Nomads in full swing until now. And personally, I was just, like, drinking it in. But despite seeing the Air Nomads pre-attack, and despite spending time with Aang beforehand, the live action show still doesn't answer a question I feel like fans have been wonderi

ng about since the very beginning of the show, which is just, who are Aang's parents? I mean, what happened to them? Well, I mean, I guess... I guess we can assume what happened to them. [cartoon slip noise] My leg!! But seriously, we get an entirely new iteration of the show and not a single mention of them? Like, what gives? Who were they? Could they have been related to Gyatso? Or maybe it just doesn't matter at all, because they didn't even know Aang. Well, today, we get to the bottom of i

t. [Intro Theme Music] Hey, Brother! So, what's really interesting to me about the identity of Aang's parents is that, the entire time I watched the animated show the first time, like, it never even crossed my mind. Maybe it's just because the answer to what happened to his parents is pretty obvious. I mean, they were definitely killed in the attack by the Fire Nation, along with everybody else. And yet Aang never dwells on them at all. Never reminisces about them, never remembers any specifi

c lessons with them or games they played together, or just anything. Which, the more you think about it, the more it stands out a lot from pretty much every single other character on the show, who are all almost exclusively unpacking parental related childhood trauma of one form or another. Sokka constantly feels insecure about his ability to  live up to being the kind of leader and warrior his father is. Katara is haunted by the loss of her mother, which fuels her anger and sense of justice. S

omething- I'm just going to say- was sorely missed in the live action version of the show. Like, where's the anger, Katara? And then you got Zuko. Like, I mean, oh boy. Zuko's entire personality is just to try and get his father to restore his honor after, you know. Being abused and burned and banished by his father to go complete an impossible task. You know, not- not to mention the time his mom agreed to self-exile herself to stop Ozai from killing Zuko as a boy. So, yeah, he's got some Daddy

issues. That's rough, buddy. [laughs] Ben, off screen: Awww. Even Toph runs away because her parents are just overprotective and refuse to treat her like anything besides a fragile little girl. I am Melon Lord! Like, do you see what I mean? All of the characters are motivated by their parents in some way, except the main character Aang, who never even mentions his. But that's not to say, like, Aang doesn't reminisce about any specific people from the Air Temples. Like, he talks a lot about h

is friends and specifically Monk Gyatso, who seems to have been the closest thing Aang ever knew as a father figure. But if you ask me, I think that's because Gyatso was the closest thing Aang ever had to a father figure. Because I think the real reason Aang never mentions his parents is that he never met them at all. Or, at least, if he did, he didn't know they were his parents. Nor would they have known he was their son. Let me explain. Hey! Now it's time for an ad! I'm good. Oh! Hi! Whoa.

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Bending. Hah! Just like magic! One of the things they don't really touch on in the show is how the four Air Temples work. Like, are they just the four different home bases you could grow up at as an Air Bender? Well, yes and no. Because what you might not know- or at least I just learned it this week- is that the air temples are actually self-segregated by gender. So, the North and South temples house all of the males while the east and west house all of the females. And actually I also lea

rned this this week, that if you're nonbinary, you just go wherever makes you feel most comfortable. Ben: That's cool. Yeah, I was like, hey, they address that! But the fact that they're segregated this way is very interesting because it makes you start to wonder how things like marriages or families would work. Like, are you raised by your parents? Or just by the monks or the nuns of the temple you're at? And based on how Aang appears to have no relationship with his parents, I think it's th

e latter. And you might think, well, maybe it's just different for Aang specifically because, you know, he's the Avatar, so special care had to be taken for him. But no, look around. All of his friends- all male, by the way- are also being raised by the monks. The more I thought about it, the more this makes sense for the Air Nomad way of life. And could even explain the very reason they have the four temples. Like, yes, because they're nomadic, this does give them home bases as they travel t

he world. But it also serves as a system for raising children in the more collectivist-minded Air Nomad culture. Because part of being an airbender is to try and let go of your Earthly attachments so that you can more selflessly serve the world and your community. But letting go your Earthly attachments is, of course, easier said than done. But if you are able to achieve such a state, it will unlock the [DEEP] ultimate air bending technique[/DEEP] of weightlessness, AKA flight. But, actually

, in all of history only two airbenders have ever unlocked this. And one of them's, like, a super bad villain. So, it makes you wonder whether or not that particular mindset is worth... uh... reaching for. It actually kind of reminds me of, like, how the Jedi in Star Wars don't want their members to fall in love because it gives them something to lose. Something to put first before their duties, before peace. I mean, heck, part of the reason the elders want to send Aang away in the show is be

cause Gyatso is getting too close with Aang, which, you know, just cannot be allowed. But so the Airbender solution is just to eliminate any concept of parenthood from their existence. Which is not to say, like, they don't experience the love of a family. It's just that, in their culture, every other person would also be considered family. Which then, in turn, means it's everyone's responsibility to help raise and take care of everyone. But so then, here's my theory. I imagine it works somet

hing like this after a new Air child is born: that they are sent to whatever the appropriate temple is based on their gender, and where their parents are from. And you'd always want to send the child to wherever their parents won't be. So, like, for example, if a Northern male and an Eastern female have a baby boy, it would be sent to the Southern Air Temple. But if they had a girl, it would be sent to the Western Air Temple. That way, the four Temple structure always allows for the children

to be raised away from both parents. Which then also does make me wonder about, like, the relationships of the parents. Like, would they be married or would just marriage fall under its own kind of attachment? Obviously it's just really hard to say. Like, love doesn't seem to be like a wholly forbidden concept, or anything. It's just that, you know, marriage doesn't seem super practical in a culture where everyone is, you know, self-segregated all the time. But the end result would be that no

particular child would know who their parents were, nor would the parents know who their kids were. So even if they came across each other, they probably wouldn't know it. I do suppose it's possible that, as nomads, if you're married, maybe you'd just, like, not live at the temple. Because, again, it's not as if love is forbidden. Aang himself, who seems pretty well-versed in most Air Nomad culture things, has a crush on Katara from basically the moment he opens his eyes. And while he does s

truggle with how to navigate those feelings, he's never concerned that love is wrong or against his culture. He's just concerned that, as the Avatar, having someone he loves puts them in danger and could prevent him from entering the Avatar State. Getting back on track here, not having families or marriages could also explain, then, why Aang has no last name. He's just Aang. I guess, to be fair, like, that's also true for Sokka and Katara and even the royal prince Zuko. And yet Toph has a last

 name. Beifong. Weird. Although, actually, for Zuko, I think we could explain it away as, like, just being part of the royal family. Like, I bet he does have a last name, they just don't ever use it. Similar to how, like, the British royal family has a last name, but you never use it. It's Windsor, by the way. Toph, on the other hand, seems to fall into this weird category inside the world of Last Airbender where, like, the only characters with last names are all, like, super rich industrial

ists. Like, we know that's true of Toph's family, but then you've also got Varrick of Varrick Industries. But that's his last name. His full name is Iknik Blackstone Varrick. Really rolls off the tongue, if you ask me. And then you've got Asami Sato, whose dad owns Future Industries. But, like, otherwise, yeah, not a lot of  last names flying around in this world. I have no explanation for Sokka or Katara. I suppose the other thing to note about Aang, as far as, like, last names go, is that th

e Air Nomads are based on Tibetan Monks, who also give up their last names, like, here in the real world. So, that could also just sort of be the explanation for why Aang wouldn't have a last name. Either way, though, one of the many things Aang has to deal with after the 100 years war is trying to preserve Air Nomad culture in the world. But obviously, as the only Airbender alive, the segregated lifestyle just isn't feasible. Instead, Aang has to preserve as much as he can. But then also end

s up pioneering an entirely new kind of Air culture with, like, more traditional families. I mean, I just feel like Katara, in particular, I'm sure, wanted to be around to raise her children, like, in all the ways that she had stolen from her. Think of all the things Aang had to consider on this particular front. Like, even after he passes on, there's still only one airbender left alive- besides, like, the next Avatar- but it's his son, Tenzin. Who then has all sorts of responsibilities, becaus

e he's literally the only person alive who can train Korra about airbending. And it's completely up to him to try and preserve Air Nomad culture, which he never actually got to live through at all. He just had to, like, learn all the teachings from Aang. You'll get to shave your head. Yeah, can we get a moment of love for Tenzin? That's rough, buddy. Tenzin, of course, goes on to follow in his father's footsteps by marrying Pema, but, again, he has no option at all for resurrecting the, like,

segregated lifestyle of the Air Nomad culture. And honestly, I doubt it ever comes back, because it's going to continue to be a problem for the next generation, as well. Like, yes, Tenzin does produce three Airbender children, but obviously they can't marry each other. And that issue will continue for a good while, I imagine, before you feel like the gene pool is diluted enough. Which is just... This is already wandering  into weird territory. Although what's kind of interesting is that even, li

ke, ten generations later, every single Airbender in that situation would be able to trace their lineage back to Aang.  That's cool. But, alas, that's not even actually the situation we find ourselves in, because Korra does this thing where she causes harmonic convergence and then, like, returns Airbending to the world at large, at which point it's just then up to Tenzin to try and rebuild what is lost. But at least he has a lot more people to do it with. The real question will be, like, how s

uccessful will Tenzin have been here? Like, what will Air Nomad culture look like during the next Avatar cycle? Which we are getting a show for, by the way. But, like, will they resegregate themselves or will they adopt this new style of living pioneered by Aang? Although, actually, you know what, scratch that. The real real thing to consider is that if our theory that the children are always sent to a temple not occupied by their parents is true, then it would mean Aang's grandfather probabl

y does live at the Southern Air Temple with him, which means it's possible that even if neither of them know it, that Gyatso could be Aang's grandfather. Which I would just, like, love. [Outro Theme Music] Hey, Brother! Guys, thanks so much for watching today's video. Don't forget to leave a like on it, if you haven't already, and subscribe so you don't miss any future Avatar: the Last Airbender action from us. What did you think of the live action show? Let me know in the towel section down

below. And if you want to see some more bending knowledge dropped your way, you can check out this video where we explain every single type of sub bending. But otherwise, Ben, until next time, I will see you in another life, Brother. [super sped up] Oh come on!! There was smoke! Just hitting it's half the battle, man. I'm getting worse. [Your friendly captioner is doing her best, people] We'll get it. Yeah. Ugh. Uggggggh. [Someone off screen] Need a fresh match? Maybe. That one doesn't look

like it has enough juice. This one has juice. Yeah. Ugh! HOOO WAH! HO!!!!