Of the two of them, Zuko is totally on board with what she's doing, but she's even more gung-ho than he is. Zuko is there to enable her and helps get her to where she's got the guy in her power, but even his bringing the information to her isn't presented as Zuko pressuring her or telling her this is what she must do. So when she backs off the guy Zuko sees that as fine too. Making this better for Katara is his goal more than needing to see her get revenge.
You’re forgetting one thing: On board the Southern Raiders’ ship, Katara walks away after finding out that she got the wrong man. It is only after Zuko tortures the man for information about Kya’s murderer, that Katara is now back on her path for revenge.
In fact, Zuko’s role to Katara’s revenge story is even creepier because of the passive enabling. By putting her on that path and making sure she doesn’t derail from it, it’s as if he’s living out his own issues/revenge fantasy through her because he knows he’d never be able/have the guts to kill anyone in an act of revenge.
She says she's forgiven Zuko, so it seems like she's gotten somewhere with the concept.
I just wish I knew why she forgave Zuko, since other than bring out the worst in her and enable her almost commit murder, he hasn’t really done anything to counteract her fears of him.
I think of idealists being active in trying to change the world--I'm using the word in the way I took Iroh to be using it, to refer to a leader, as opposed to just somebody who likes to see the good in things. Aang seems more about live and let live and seeing the best in people--sometimes his optimism is more about avoiding necessary action. Zuko to me seems more like an idealist in that he wants to actively change things to make them better. Maybe I'm just using the word differently, but Zuko's line to Aang doesn't necessarily make him seem less of an idealist to me. I guess I think of that attitude being the thing that would push him to shape the world into the way he thought it should be.
OK, I’m interpreting idealism in the extreme sense: someone whose beliefs border on romanticism, on impracticability, on unreality. Aang’s own ideas of changing the world are – at the surface and even now to most people – very unrealistic: fight a war without killing anyone? Not take out the most dangerous man in the world even when he’s actively trying to destroy you?
But actually, none of the Gaang members could really be cynics – all of them do believe they can change the world. (Except maybe Toph, who when given the choice in Ba Sing Se, would have preferred to flee rather than try to face the King). Zuko’s own decision to stand against his father because of the invasion into the Earth Kingdom (and how I love the writers for letting us know the turning point and that it was something like that that made him turn – not love for Iroh, not guilt, but the principles he’s always had all along, the same principles that caused him to be banished in the first place) is idealistic. However, what separates Aang from the rest, is the “do whatever it takes” attitude that they lack.
Maybe I'm just using the word differently, but Zuko's line to Aang doesn't necessarily make him seem less of an idealist to me. I guess I think of that attitude being the thing that would push him to shape the world into the way he thought it should be.
I think in the end, that they are going to ply their different strengths to change the world together. One thing I maintain about the finale is that we’re not told unequivocally that what Aang did was right or wrong or even more merciful or not. What was more important was that Aang fulfilled his destiny on his own terms, and in the same way that Zuko, banished Crown Prince, also fulfilled his destiny on his own terms. That, to me, was the lesson to take from that.
And lest I forget this equally interesting discussion…
You’re forgetting one thing: On board the Southern Raiders’ ship, Katara walks away after finding out that she got the wrong man. It is only after Zuko tortures the man for information about Kya’s murderer, that Katara is now back on her path for revenge.
In fact, Zuko’s role to Katara’s revenge story is even creepier because of the passive enabling. By putting her on that path and making sure she doesn’t derail from it, it’s as if he’s living out his own issues/revenge fantasy through her because he knows he’d never be able/have the guts to kill anyone in an act of revenge.
I just wish I knew why she forgave Zuko, since other than bring out the worst in her and enable her almost commit murder, he hasn’t really done anything to counteract her fears of him.
OK, I’m interpreting idealism in the extreme sense: someone whose beliefs border on romanticism, on impracticability, on unreality. Aang’s own ideas of changing the world are – at the surface and even now to most people – very unrealistic: fight a war without killing anyone? Not take out the most dangerous man in the world even when he’s actively trying to destroy you?
But actually, none of the Gaang members could really be cynics – all of them do believe they can change the world. (Except maybe Toph, who when given the choice in Ba Sing Se, would have preferred to flee rather than try to face the King). Zuko’s own decision to stand against his father because of the invasion into the Earth Kingdom (and how I love the writers for letting us know the turning point and that it was something like that that made him turn – not love for Iroh, not guilt, but the principles he’s always had all along, the same principles that caused him to be banished in the first place) is idealistic. However, what separates Aang from the rest, is the “do whatever it takes” attitude that they lack.
I think in the end, that they are going to ply their different strengths to change the world together. One thing I maintain about the finale is that we’re not told unequivocally that what Aang did was right or wrong or even more merciful or not. What was more important was that Aang fulfilled his destiny on his own terms, and in the same way that Zuko, banished Crown Prince, also fulfilled his destiny on his own terms. That, to me, was the lesson to take from that.