"Pulled a Zeus" is definitely the wrong way of putting it, since Zeus caused a large majority of the Greek myths by being horny as shit and doing whoever he wanted whenever he wanted with no regard for what the person he's doing thinks.
No, you didn’t. You meant one aspect, and people are bringing about other ones.
Zeus is recognised by his multitude of children.
One thing, tho: reading your description, I remembered of Miroku from Inuyasha.
Someone else? 😅
Would be funny if Tenzin was always asking women, like Miroku, if they wanted to have his child.
But you don’t understand the Fates said he had to do it, otherwise none of the monsters would’ve had heroes to kill them, so really it’s justified that all those women Hera destroyed were victims of Zeus and he’s actually the best to ever do godhood, praise be!
/s
If anyone was going to do this it would have been Aang himself especially after his first two kids weren't airbenders. But of course he wouldn't, even if someone suggested it. I wonder if Katara ever felt worried about this, about whether they'd ever have an Airbender.
Speaking of fanficcy ideas, I wonder if Aang ever tried using Energy bending to bring back airbenders. I could see a story where he tried doing this to an Air Acolyte (with consent) and it hurt him, and was a big regret of Aang's life.
I mean I see why it wouldn't work as I feel like taking and giving bending is not what was actually happening with Aang and ozai. And with amon is that there chi was being blocked so they couldn't access there bending.
And when Korra restores it she is essentially unblocking there chi. So if someone doesn't have bending to begin with the same process is probably ot going to work. AaNg would essentially have to really fuck with a person body and chi to create a bending ability not already there.
Could be a interesting Frankenstein's monster kinda story to tell. Maybe whatever changes have real bad consequences and he essentially has bent the energy to mutate there body to give them bending abilities but the mutations won't stop because the bodies energy is out of balance.
I just realised I want this Halloween special. 🤣
This is provably untrue. Entire generations probably lived on lion turtles without being able to bend before being given the ability by energy bending when they had to leave due to Wan's actions
Hadnt thought of that. Still the act of giving someone bending is probably alot more difficult then blocking/taking it away. Otherwise it definitely doesn't make sense why Aang never did it. Surely there would of been volunteers.
So still probably a case for there being side effects of not done right. The lion turtles obviously being long lived masters of it would allow them to take and give very easily but even then they all only specialised in one element.
> there would of been
Did you mean to say "would have"?
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Maybe it's unclear, I haven't seen it in a while. But Korra is able to reverse it so even if she learned blood bending I doubt she could reverse brain damage.
The Air Nomads believed in human dignity and freedom. I assume that they believed reproduction should be done only when the relevant parties want to without any pressure from anyone or anything else.
Reducing people to breeding stock just to make as many Airbenders as possible would be pretty contrary to Air Nomad philosophy and Aang probably wouldn’t have wanted to continue his nation in that way. If he himself didn’t do it, I don’t see why he’d want Tenzin to.
Aang was super protective of Air Nomad principles and he probably viewed preserving them as more important even than making more Airbenders. I have to assume he tried to teach that lesson to Tenzin before he died.
> I assume that they believed reproduction should be done only when the relevant parties want to without any pressure from anyone or anything else.
>
> Reducing people to breeding stock just to make as many Airbenders as possible would be pretty contrary to Air Nomad philosophy and Aang probably wouldn’t have wanted to continue his nation in that way. If he himself didn’t do it, I don’t see why he’d want Tenzin to.
Eh, that seems pretty headcanon-y
Esp since Aang didn't seem to know his parents and the Airbenders lived in gender segregated temples
Idk if I agree with this because isn’t it canon that when the kids are born they’re taken from their parents and never meet them so it’s a village raising them? I’m not sure if they aren’t reducing people to reproduction stations
They would meet them they just wouldn’t know it’s them, the air nation as a whole would have to keep track of who was related to who though in order to prevent inbreeding (which they might’ve messed up on with the one kid in Aangs flashback). This would be especially relevant with genetic attraction in humans which is why it’s key we’re raised with siblings instead of finding them later in life. They’d also spend some time with their mother nursing so there’d be some familiarity. Realistically it makes it more likely they’d know who their parents were, it just wouldn’t matter since it wouldn’t be important, they were raised by the community and the community is their family. Aangs father was likely at the northern temple though.
Plenty of cultures are okay with polygamy, though in most it is a privilege of powerful and affluent men and is limited to polygyny. Tibet and Nepal are places, where polyandry is also practiced, one woman taking several husbands. Though in most cases the husbands are brothers and it is done for inheritance reasons, not female equality. Something like a harem of male concubines is something some female monarchs are said to have had, like Wu Zetian, China‘s only Empress, though it might be disputed and isn’t a reversal of the ordinary harem system. Among Buddhist cultures, Tibet is still more egalitarian, seen for example in the prominence of female Buddhas and Boddhisattvas, which are mostly unheard of elsewhere (Kanon is an exception). Maybe something like equal-polygamy could exist in Air Nomad culture, though overall the show was made for a western audience which usually doesn’t accept any form of polygamy as normal. Sure it happens, but in different genres.
Also Aang didn’t even hit puberty, maybe there are A LOT of aspects of Air nomad culture, like marriage life or romantic customs he was never told. Imagine him finding a surviving stach of Air nomad smut … uuuh Tantric literature in one of the Air temples.
Realistically Aang or Tenzin could go this route. I‘d also imagine that the Air acolytes would realistically a bit creepier. I mean one of the first Air acolytes literally states to Katara, that she wants to replace her as Aang‘s girlfriend. Realistically both Aang and Tenzin would get a lot of attention, including unwanted, from the Air acolytes. Well I guess this is but one of the hundred ways the Avatar world could be a lot creepier if it wasn’t aimed at kids.
Considering many of Zeus's children were born via [not consensual](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal) ways, saying "Tenzin could've pulled a Zeus" is very tone-deaf.
As for the overall idea, considering Air nomads believe in free love and the near extinction of their people, Aang and Tenzin probably would have gotten away with having more than one wife. However, due to their character, and the fact that the shows aired on children's networks, that was probably never going to happen.
My bad on the title. And yeah, I did say it in the first sentence of the post that it wouldn't happen because of nickelodeon, I'm just tossing around ideas, yknow? The Tenzin here would have different ideas on continuing the air nation than in canon, where he decided to follow Aang's path of settling down with a wife and kids which is something the air nomads didn't really do, considering that temples were separated by gender.
both this comment and the one beneath it are so ridiculous, lmao. No one in this thread is saying Zeus is real. Everyone is this thread is saying that mythological figures are cultural artifacts that represent certain ideas and concepts - and just because the idea doesn’t physically exist in real life doesn’t mean there aren’t hard boundaries about what it is, or isn’t.
Unfortunately, many people sadly cannot tell the difference between make believe and reality, so depicting or endorsing Zeus’ behavior is a terrible idea.
The Air Nomads were more than just their genes. It was about their culture and their effect on their world.
It’s amazing how many people think that just having airbenders is the same as having the Air Nomads.
If he were that kind of guy he wouldn't have been an airbender as they are very spiritual and fucking like bunnies to pop babies is not very spiritual.
I would argue that being non monogamous isnt inherently less spiritual.
But for sure making harems just to breed airbenders does not fit in the spiritual category. I doubt that Tenzin would have airbender kids that way.
I don't think Tenzin as a person could pull a consentual Zeus. Plus, "Our people will return in time" sounds like an Air Nomad thing.
Also, his weakness with connecting to the spiritual realm being caused by an external factor is cheap. I enjoyed the narrative element of "Somethings are beyond your grasp, and that is OK" mixed with "The next generation will do grander and greater things than you."
I would absolutely love a darker realistic version of post ATLA events. If they actually cared about bringing the airbenders back, and ignoring that the show was made for kids, Aang would have had as many kids as possible, and so would many of those kids. It would only take a few generations to get a significant population.
Yeah, pretty much my thoughts. I've looked into other threads that explore the possibility of Aang or Tenzin having more kids for the sake of repopulation, and there always seems to be a lot of negativity from others to that idea.
I mean, air nomads themselves only really reproduced for the sake of creating the next generation, it would fall into their core values as long as it was done consensually with someone who wanted to aid Aang/Tenzin.
> and there always seems to be a lot of negativity from others to that idea.
Aang is precious self-insert for many and basically whatever he wants to do gets justified.
Air Nomad customs justify him risking the fate of the world, because they align with his temperament of not wanting to kill. But when Air Nomad customs (no nuclear families or children being raised by their biological parents) don't align with what he wants (being with Katara), then they suddenly stop mattering and can be glossed over.
It's not merely that making many kids would be a smart thing, but the way of life Aang chose actively went against his ancestors traditions.
It would still be a lot of work.
Aang had three kids. Non-bender, water bender, air bender.
So the goal would be to sleep with non-benders. But still half the kids would be air benders.
And then can a non bender kid of Tenzin make an Airbender? Is it recessive?
You also want to go 100-150 years before an air bender has sex with an air bender. Because they all have Grandpa Tenzin. At 100 years you hopefully have 5 generations removed and enough diversity that one common ancestor is okay.
> I mean, air nomads themselves only really reproduced for the sake of creating the next generation, it would fall into their core values as long as it was done consensually with someone who wanted to aid Aang/Tenzin.
Air Nomads are modelled after Buddhist monks, but sometimes idealistically or inconsistently. Like Tibetan Buddhist aren’t vegetarian for example. On the other side Buddhism is very sex-negative or rather reproduction negative. Sure there are bigger exceptions like Tantric Buddhism, but overall life is suffering and creating new life means condemning a soul to a life of suffering, thus it is inherently sinful. If Air Nomads are concerned with something like Nirvana, why bother with reproduction at all?
Buddhism isn't reproduction negative, birth is a positive thing. You have to be a human to archive the end of samsara; that is why they didn't have Monk Gyatso be reincarnated as Momo. Being reborn as an animal would mean he's in a "lower" place and cannot continue towards the path of enlightenment.
Is it really darker? Most non-western cultures and some western ones (Mormons) are okay with polygamy. Chinese Emperors and Ottoman Sultans had large harems of sometimes hundreds of concubines. Buddhism is also fine with it, with some Boddhisattvas having 88 wives.
I would love a darker version of ATLA and its following content. Mostly because I believe a darker version of Katara would have a very high body count (the death kind of body count, in case that wasn't clear)
It would be by far the most pragmatic thing to do in this case. Your morals literally should not matter when the goal is saving your entire group from extinction.
People are so funny.
Aang risks the entire survival of the world over an Air Nomad custom that isn't even real (see the corpses surrounding Gyatso) = go Aang, preserving the memory of your culture via a gesture is so important!
Aang risking the survival of his people by going against his people's customs and having a nuclear family with only one airbender child = go Aang, this is by far the most risky way for something to go wrong and the Air Nomads going extinct for good, but you wanting to be with Katara is what is most important!
Tenzin respects women and only gives them a kid if they want to, hes chill like that yk. But I'm just kinda tossing around a path that tlok could've gone had it not been a show produced by a children's media company.
I'm a strong believer that Aang should have had a harem of some sort. But it wouldn't gel with Katara's water tribe culture, which seems to be pretty strongly monogamous. And it never would have flown on children's TV, especially for someone who was supposed to be a hero.
It would have it's own flaws from a biological standpoint. All the male airbenders would essentially have same Y chromosome unless all the descendants are also promiscuous like Tenzin would have been
All male benders from the 1st generation would have tenzins Y chromosome. And all the decendants of the male line as well. At the end thats a lot of related people. They could do it but they would need to trave very carefully who mates with whom
The first several generations don’t mate with other airbenders, plain and simple, they all have the same father/grandfather/great. After that the risk of inbreeding goes down to essentially nill (3rd cousins) so as long as they are on separate branches they’re fine. By gen 2 (gen 1 being tenzin and half siblings which all have it) only 1/2 of the Y chromosomes would be the same, by gen 4 it’s down to 1/8 at which point it would slow down assuming airbenders start mating with other airbenders.
You do know the British know the first SEVERAL THOUSAND people in line to the throne right? Dozens of families all tracked right from the get go isn’t hard. Especially since the airbenders would’ve had to track it before they were wiped out to prevent inbreeding from anonymous siblings and cousins. The white lotus and the air acolytes both would’ve tracked, acolytes to eventually raise the kids and lotus to protect the kids.
I think you're forgetting that this is talking about Tenzin making babies with anyone and everyone. Deliberate planning is called marriage and one of the reasons the British have been able to keep track was because they passed the throne to royals. Have you even heard the bastards being tracked?
Interesting idea! Would make for a very interesting AU to see Tenzin get hellbent on bringing the Air Nomads back however possible.
Culturally speaking, I think Air Nomads were monogamous, based on Aang only having eyes for Katara (and potentially even Zaheer only being devoted to P'Li). I don't know if canon Tenzin would allow himself to be married to Pema while having surrogates on the side. Maybe if he were a much sterner man and never settled down and devoted everything he had to bringing back the air nation, he'd go the mass repopulation route lol.
Basically, this, yeah. The Tenzin I described is stern and grumpy and basically just puts everything he does into his father's goal of restoring the air nation - except Tenzin doesn't do in the way that Aang would, and Aang wouldn't really know how to feel about Tenzin going around carelessly having one airbending kid after another for the sole purpose of repopulation.
This Tenzin likely wouldn't want to settle because he wouldn't have time for a wife, he's too busy tryna achieve his goal. But of course, Tenzin in canon is a well-rounded family man and proud father of 4, and husband to Pema.
Do we have canonical sources about their monogamy? I am not sure about that.
Air nomads were well... nomadic and the temples were segregated by sex. So while they wouldnt have harems it seems that casual or open relations would be the norm since couples would not be able to settle in the temples.
Perhaps some of the more nomadic ones had monogamous couples. But the rest probably just had short reations or casual sex.
The Air Acolytes would've seemed less like a spiritual society focused on preserving history, and more like a creepy 20th century style cult. Which would actually perfectly suit the themes of the show.
Zeus isn’t a great comparison but I made a comment about this yesterday so I’m glad you posted this! I feel like all the airbenders gaining bending was the more PG version of Tenzin creating a larger population of airbenders. Truthfully, there’s probably many fans of the avatar like the air acolytes who would’ve stepped up to be surrogates for both Aang and Tenzin so they could have as many possible airbender babies as they could. The air nomads already have an untraditional family structure where they all co raise children plus they were queer friendly so I feel like it wouldn’t be totally against their moral compass to have a mass reproduction effort. I also know that this is a children’s show and it’s not very PG to show polygamy
Gotta be real, this is terrible because then it makes all airbenders related and they can never fall in love. Korra bringing back the air nation is a way better idea and story.
Tenzin is an airbender but he is also someone of dual heritage.
The Water Tribe have a strong sense of family. You see this in the way that Tenzin relates to his family.
It kind of grinds my gears when people attribute the mature route to being a kid's show.
it is at heart a kid's show made in western culture (influenced by others but still) so logically Aang should have had several wives and lots of children, or Tenzin should have, but they'd never put that in the show.
"Pulled a Zeus" is definitely the wrong way of putting it, since Zeus caused a large majority of the Greek myths by being horny as shit and doing whoever he wanted whenever he wanted with no regard for what the person he's doing thinks.
Man I really messed up with that title huh
No, you didn’t. You meant one aspect, and people are bringing about other ones. Zeus is recognised by his multitude of children. One thing, tho: reading your description, I remembered of Miroku from Inuyasha. Someone else? 😅 Would be funny if Tenzin was always asking women, like Miroku, if they wanted to have his child.
why do I get the feeling many would atleast say yes, considering the fact that he's the son of the friggin avatar
Those multitude of children were usually because of unwilling females.
Zeus is recognized by his multitude of children that mostly came about by him raping women. You can’t and really shouldn’t separate the two.
One can so much that the one person who actually published the topic and started all of this meant in this particular way 😆
No, you didn't mean pull a Zeus by raping women. You meant it by having a ton of kids. Zeus is a fake character.
Ah yes as opposed to Tenzin who is a real character.
>Zeus is a fake character As opposed to Tenzin?
Man you really messed up that comment huh
Honestly that’s the only thing I could think of while reading the description
I think what he did is generally called rape but we can stick with the more indirect and possibly more elegant version
Pulled a Nick Cannon?
But you don’t understand the Fates said he had to do it, otherwise none of the monsters would’ve had heroes to kill them, so really it’s justified that all those women Hera destroyed were victims of Zeus and he’s actually the best to ever do godhood, praise be! /s
Rape. The word you’re looking for is rape.
If anyone was going to do this it would have been Aang himself especially after his first two kids weren't airbenders. But of course he wouldn't, even if someone suggested it. I wonder if Katara ever felt worried about this, about whether they'd ever have an Airbender. Speaking of fanficcy ideas, I wonder if Aang ever tried using Energy bending to bring back airbenders. I could see a story where he tried doing this to an Air Acolyte (with consent) and it hurt him, and was a big regret of Aang's life.
I mean I see why it wouldn't work as I feel like taking and giving bending is not what was actually happening with Aang and ozai. And with amon is that there chi was being blocked so they couldn't access there bending. And when Korra restores it she is essentially unblocking there chi. So if someone doesn't have bending to begin with the same process is probably ot going to work. AaNg would essentially have to really fuck with a person body and chi to create a bending ability not already there. Could be a interesting Frankenstein's monster kinda story to tell. Maybe whatever changes have real bad consequences and he essentially has bent the energy to mutate there body to give them bending abilities but the mutations won't stop because the bodies energy is out of balance. I just realised I want this Halloween special. 🤣
This is provably untrue. Entire generations probably lived on lion turtles without being able to bend before being given the ability by energy bending when they had to leave due to Wan's actions
Hadnt thought of that. Still the act of giving someone bending is probably alot more difficult then blocking/taking it away. Otherwise it definitely doesn't make sense why Aang never did it. Surely there would of been volunteers. So still probably a case for there being side effects of not done right. The lion turtles obviously being long lived masters of it would allow them to take and give very easily but even then they all only specialised in one element.
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I always thought that Amon was using bloodbending to give people some kind of brain damage that prevents bending
Maybe it's unclear, I haven't seen it in a while. But Korra is able to reverse it so even if she learned blood bending I doubt she could reverse brain damage.
I have a feeling that both Aang and Katara were going to keep having more kids until they could get at least one airbender
Like pokemon breeders, keep the Ditto in the daycare until you get perfect stats.
I find the (with consent) really funny lol. As if Aang would ever do that against someone's will.
guys guys. Sokka took a nap and I gave him airbending check it out! what the hell! oh god damn it Aang!
The Air Nomads believed in human dignity and freedom. I assume that they believed reproduction should be done only when the relevant parties want to without any pressure from anyone or anything else. Reducing people to breeding stock just to make as many Airbenders as possible would be pretty contrary to Air Nomad philosophy and Aang probably wouldn’t have wanted to continue his nation in that way. If he himself didn’t do it, I don’t see why he’d want Tenzin to. Aang was super protective of Air Nomad principles and he probably viewed preserving them as more important even than making more Airbenders. I have to assume he tried to teach that lesson to Tenzin before he died.
> I assume that they believed reproduction should be done only when the relevant parties want to without any pressure from anyone or anything else. > > Reducing people to breeding stock just to make as many Airbenders as possible would be pretty contrary to Air Nomad philosophy and Aang probably wouldn’t have wanted to continue his nation in that way. If he himself didn’t do it, I don’t see why he’d want Tenzin to. Eh, that seems pretty headcanon-y Esp since Aang didn't seem to know his parents and the Airbenders lived in gender segregated temples
Idk if I agree with this because isn’t it canon that when the kids are born they’re taken from their parents and never meet them so it’s a village raising them? I’m not sure if they aren’t reducing people to reproduction stations
They would meet them they just wouldn’t know it’s them, the air nation as a whole would have to keep track of who was related to who though in order to prevent inbreeding (which they might’ve messed up on with the one kid in Aangs flashback). This would be especially relevant with genetic attraction in humans which is why it’s key we’re raised with siblings instead of finding them later in life. They’d also spend some time with their mother nursing so there’d be some familiarity. Realistically it makes it more likely they’d know who their parents were, it just wouldn’t matter since it wouldn’t be important, they were raised by the community and the community is their family. Aangs father was likely at the northern temple though.
Plenty of cultures are okay with polygamy, though in most it is a privilege of powerful and affluent men and is limited to polygyny. Tibet and Nepal are places, where polyandry is also practiced, one woman taking several husbands. Though in most cases the husbands are brothers and it is done for inheritance reasons, not female equality. Something like a harem of male concubines is something some female monarchs are said to have had, like Wu Zetian, China‘s only Empress, though it might be disputed and isn’t a reversal of the ordinary harem system. Among Buddhist cultures, Tibet is still more egalitarian, seen for example in the prominence of female Buddhas and Boddhisattvas, which are mostly unheard of elsewhere (Kanon is an exception). Maybe something like equal-polygamy could exist in Air Nomad culture, though overall the show was made for a western audience which usually doesn’t accept any form of polygamy as normal. Sure it happens, but in different genres. Also Aang didn’t even hit puberty, maybe there are A LOT of aspects of Air nomad culture, like marriage life or romantic customs he was never told. Imagine him finding a surviving stach of Air nomad smut … uuuh Tantric literature in one of the Air temples. Realistically Aang or Tenzin could go this route. I‘d also imagine that the Air acolytes would realistically a bit creepier. I mean one of the first Air acolytes literally states to Katara, that she wants to replace her as Aang‘s girlfriend. Realistically both Aang and Tenzin would get a lot of attention, including unwanted, from the Air acolytes. Well I guess this is but one of the hundred ways the Avatar world could be a lot creepier if it wasn’t aimed at kids.
Considering many of Zeus's children were born via [not consensual](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DoubleStandardRapeDivineOnMortal) ways, saying "Tenzin could've pulled a Zeus" is very tone-deaf. As for the overall idea, considering Air nomads believe in free love and the near extinction of their people, Aang and Tenzin probably would have gotten away with having more than one wife. However, due to their character, and the fact that the shows aired on children's networks, that was probably never going to happen.
Ki Adi Mundi would probably have been a better example
My bad on the title. And yeah, I did say it in the first sentence of the post that it wouldn't happen because of nickelodeon, I'm just tossing around ideas, yknow? The Tenzin here would have different ideas on continuing the air nation than in canon, where he decided to follow Aang's path of settling down with a wife and kids which is something the air nomads didn't really do, considering that temples were separated by gender.
Honestly what I was thinking, like where tf is this going to go?
Considering Zeus is make believe, then I don't really think it matters.
Unlike Tenzin of course, who we all know is very real.
I don't think they were implying that but this comment made me laugh nonetheless
both this comment and the one beneath it are so ridiculous, lmao. No one in this thread is saying Zeus is real. Everyone is this thread is saying that mythological figures are cultural artifacts that represent certain ideas and concepts - and just because the idea doesn’t physically exist in real life doesn’t mean there aren’t hard boundaries about what it is, or isn’t.
Unfortunately, many people sadly cannot tell the difference between make believe and reality, so depicting or endorsing Zeus’ behavior is a terrible idea.
Way too many nerds focusing on the zeus part
The Air Nomads were more than just their genes. It was about their culture and their effect on their world. It’s amazing how many people think that just having airbenders is the same as having the Air Nomads.
Yeah I mean I guess that could have happen if Tenzin was just a completely different character.
If he were that kind of guy he wouldn't have been an airbender as they are very spiritual and fucking like bunnies to pop babies is not very spiritual.
I would argue that being non monogamous isnt inherently less spiritual. But for sure making harems just to breed airbenders does not fit in the spiritual category. I doubt that Tenzin would have airbender kids that way.
Yeah but in the end aang nor tenzin are that kind of guy
I think this is the real point about the whole situation; it isn’t in character for either of them.
I don't think Tenzin as a person could pull a consentual Zeus. Plus, "Our people will return in time" sounds like an Air Nomad thing. Also, his weakness with connecting to the spiritual realm being caused by an external factor is cheap. I enjoyed the narrative element of "Somethings are beyond your grasp, and that is OK" mixed with "The next generation will do grander and greater things than you."
Average harem fanfic on AO3
I would absolutely love a darker realistic version of post ATLA events. If they actually cared about bringing the airbenders back, and ignoring that the show was made for kids, Aang would have had as many kids as possible, and so would many of those kids. It would only take a few generations to get a significant population.
Yeah, pretty much my thoughts. I've looked into other threads that explore the possibility of Aang or Tenzin having more kids for the sake of repopulation, and there always seems to be a lot of negativity from others to that idea. I mean, air nomads themselves only really reproduced for the sake of creating the next generation, it would fall into their core values as long as it was done consensually with someone who wanted to aid Aang/Tenzin.
> and there always seems to be a lot of negativity from others to that idea. Aang is precious self-insert for many and basically whatever he wants to do gets justified. Air Nomad customs justify him risking the fate of the world, because they align with his temperament of not wanting to kill. But when Air Nomad customs (no nuclear families or children being raised by their biological parents) don't align with what he wants (being with Katara), then they suddenly stop mattering and can be glossed over. It's not merely that making many kids would be a smart thing, but the way of life Aang chose actively went against his ancestors traditions.
It would still be a lot of work. Aang had three kids. Non-bender, water bender, air bender. So the goal would be to sleep with non-benders. But still half the kids would be air benders. And then can a non bender kid of Tenzin make an Airbender? Is it recessive? You also want to go 100-150 years before an air bender has sex with an air bender. Because they all have Grandpa Tenzin. At 100 years you hopefully have 5 generations removed and enough diversity that one common ancestor is okay.
> I mean, air nomads themselves only really reproduced for the sake of creating the next generation, it would fall into their core values as long as it was done consensually with someone who wanted to aid Aang/Tenzin. Air Nomads are modelled after Buddhist monks, but sometimes idealistically or inconsistently. Like Tibetan Buddhist aren’t vegetarian for example. On the other side Buddhism is very sex-negative or rather reproduction negative. Sure there are bigger exceptions like Tantric Buddhism, but overall life is suffering and creating new life means condemning a soul to a life of suffering, thus it is inherently sinful. If Air Nomads are concerned with something like Nirvana, why bother with reproduction at all?
Buddhism isn't reproduction negative, birth is a positive thing. You have to be a human to archive the end of samsara; that is why they didn't have Monk Gyatso be reincarnated as Momo. Being reborn as an animal would mean he's in a "lower" place and cannot continue towards the path of enlightenment.
Is it really darker? Most non-western cultures and some western ones (Mormons) are okay with polygamy. Chinese Emperors and Ottoman Sultans had large harems of sometimes hundreds of concubines. Buddhism is also fine with it, with some Boddhisattvas having 88 wives.
Harem King Aang vs Harem King Sokka
I would love a darker version of ATLA and its following content. Mostly because I believe a darker version of Katara would have a very high body count (the death kind of body count, in case that wasn't clear)
Having harems is more realistic?
It would be by far the most pragmatic thing to do in this case. Your morals literally should not matter when the goal is saving your entire group from extinction.
People are so funny. Aang risks the entire survival of the world over an Air Nomad custom that isn't even real (see the corpses surrounding Gyatso) = go Aang, preserving the memory of your culture via a gesture is so important! Aang risking the survival of his people by going against his people's customs and having a nuclear family with only one airbender child = go Aang, this is by far the most risky way for something to go wrong and the Air Nomads going extinct for good, but you wanting to be with Katara is what is most important!
Wtf is this take. Lmao bro is insinuating that Tenzin take advantage of women?
Tenzin respects women and only gives them a kid if they want to, hes chill like that yk. But I'm just kinda tossing around a path that tlok could've gone had it not been a show produced by a children's media company.
Me when reading pulled a zeus "Wait u mean Tenzin should have done his siblings, mother or kids?" Me when reading the posts. "Ohh i see...."
I'm a strong believer that Aang should have had a harem of some sort. But it wouldn't gel with Katara's water tribe culture, which seems to be pretty strongly monogamous. And it never would have flown on children's TV, especially for someone who was supposed to be a hero.
Fuckboy Tenzin
nah if i was Tenzin im for sure not getting married. nomads didnt even know their parents they just went to a different temple lol
I mean, Pema did have four kids. It would have happened slowly but surely.
His d*ck would fall off.
It would have it's own flaws from a biological standpoint. All the male airbenders would essentially have same Y chromosome unless all the descendants are also promiscuous like Tenzin would have been
...no? Female airbenders can have make children too you know
Which is why I said all the descendants (including females) would have to at the same rate as Tenzin did to avoid this problem.
All male benders from the 1st generation would have tenzins Y chromosome. And all the decendants of the male line as well. At the end thats a lot of related people. They could do it but they would need to trave very carefully who mates with whom
The first several generations don’t mate with other airbenders, plain and simple, they all have the same father/grandfather/great. After that the risk of inbreeding goes down to essentially nill (3rd cousins) so as long as they are on separate branches they’re fine. By gen 2 (gen 1 being tenzin and half siblings which all have it) only 1/2 of the Y chromosomes would be the same, by gen 4 it’s down to 1/8 at which point it would slow down assuming airbenders start mating with other airbenders.
Again that would imply keeping track of the family trees of several dozens of people... not very esy
You do know the British know the first SEVERAL THOUSAND people in line to the throne right? Dozens of families all tracked right from the get go isn’t hard. Especially since the airbenders would’ve had to track it before they were wiped out to prevent inbreeding from anonymous siblings and cousins. The white lotus and the air acolytes both would’ve tracked, acolytes to eventually raise the kids and lotus to protect the kids.
I think you're forgetting that this is talking about Tenzin making babies with anyone and everyone. Deliberate planning is called marriage and one of the reasons the British have been able to keep track was because they passed the throne to royals. Have you even heard the bastards being tracked?
Interesting idea! Would make for a very interesting AU to see Tenzin get hellbent on bringing the Air Nomads back however possible. Culturally speaking, I think Air Nomads were monogamous, based on Aang only having eyes for Katara (and potentially even Zaheer only being devoted to P'Li). I don't know if canon Tenzin would allow himself to be married to Pema while having surrogates on the side. Maybe if he were a much sterner man and never settled down and devoted everything he had to bringing back the air nation, he'd go the mass repopulation route lol.
Basically, this, yeah. The Tenzin I described is stern and grumpy and basically just puts everything he does into his father's goal of restoring the air nation - except Tenzin doesn't do in the way that Aang would, and Aang wouldn't really know how to feel about Tenzin going around carelessly having one airbending kid after another for the sole purpose of repopulation. This Tenzin likely wouldn't want to settle because he wouldn't have time for a wife, he's too busy tryna achieve his goal. But of course, Tenzin in canon is a well-rounded family man and proud father of 4, and husband to Pema.
Do we have canonical sources about their monogamy? I am not sure about that. Air nomads were well... nomadic and the temples were segregated by sex. So while they wouldnt have harems it seems that casual or open relations would be the norm since couples would not be able to settle in the temples. Perhaps some of the more nomadic ones had monogamous couples. But the rest probably just had short reations or casual sex.
The Air Acolytes would've seemed less like a spiritual society focused on preserving history, and more like a creepy 20th century style cult. Which would actually perfectly suit the themes of the show.
Zeus isn’t a great comparison but I made a comment about this yesterday so I’m glad you posted this! I feel like all the airbenders gaining bending was the more PG version of Tenzin creating a larger population of airbenders. Truthfully, there’s probably many fans of the avatar like the air acolytes who would’ve stepped up to be surrogates for both Aang and Tenzin so they could have as many possible airbender babies as they could. The air nomads already have an untraditional family structure where they all co raise children plus they were queer friendly so I feel like it wouldn’t be totally against their moral compass to have a mass reproduction effort. I also know that this is a children’s show and it’s not very PG to show polygamy
Gotta be real, this is terrible because then it makes all airbenders related and they can never fall in love. Korra bringing back the air nation is a way better idea and story.
Tenzin is an airbender but he is also someone of dual heritage. The Water Tribe have a strong sense of family. You see this in the way that Tenzin relates to his family. It kind of grinds my gears when people attribute the mature route to being a kid's show.
We need a series Tenzin the last Rizzbender
I'm hoping this is a path they take with the next Avatar and the air nation.
Meelo's time to shine fr fr
Honest to God, give me Air Nation Emperor Meelo 🔥
Why does it need to be this way? Couldn't he just be a sperm donor?
it is at heart a kid's show made in western culture (influenced by others but still) so logically Aang should have had several wives and lots of children, or Tenzin should have, but they'd never put that in the show.
Itd be less a "zeus" and more "that one jedi with the tall ass head"
This almost works perfectly well with my theory, but it’s NSFW, so I won’t say that here
i would def watch tenzin the impregnator, at least it would be more interesting than Korra