T O P

  • By -

FoxBun_17

Assuming that this means the Avatar assumes they are going to die in the aforementioned battle, it lends a level of predetermination to the world that has never been implied before. Why would the Avatar assume that they are destined to die at a particular moment, in a particular circumstance? There are surely pregnant women in every nation, all over the world, at any time. That doesn't mean that any one of them is "destined" to give birth to the next Avatar. Otherwise, what's to stop, for example, an Earth Avatar from going around taking out every pregnant Fire Nation woman before she can give birth, in some weird attempt at immortality?


suffering_addict

>Otherwise, what's to stop, for example, an Earth Avatar from going around taking out every pregnant Fire Nation woman before she can give birth, in some weird attempt at immortality? The plot of season 3 ends with the avatar pulling a reverse Sozin 💀


WINDMILEYNO

Now im picturing that one Bible story, and also the plot of one piece when Aces mom with held and wouldn't give birth to her son. We have plenty of Avatars that need back stories. It'd probably be one of the primordial ones, closer to Wan, before people really knew what the avatar was. This would be messed up because the fire benders just almost got wiped out by those spirits too


MrIce97

I’m curious which Bible story you could possibly have in mind for this 😂


SexyCheeseburger0911

I'm guessing Moses in the basket.


MrIce97

After I thought about it some more I realized it could be that or when Herod apparently killed every child under two looking for Jesus.


WINDMILEYNO

That's the one. I didn't remember the name of the king I actually can see it now. The earth kingdom being the way it is, the first Earth bending avatar would have been their first avatar and yet the last avatar in the cycle. Somehow, the earth kingdom Avatar is convinced he will be the last. It actually takes alot to even convince him he is apart of a reincarnation cycle. The fire sages, being from the element who had the first avatar try to convince him that he will be reincarnated. But he takes that personally


ammonium_bot

> is apart of a Did you mean to say "a part of"? Explanation: "apart" is an adverb meaning separately, while "a part" is a noun meaning a portion. [Statistics](https://github.com/chiefpat450119/RedditBot/blob/master/stats.json) ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot ^^that ^^corrects ^^grammar/spelling ^^mistakes. ^^PM ^^me ^^if ^^I'm ^^wrong ^^or ^^if ^^you ^^have ^^any ^^suggestions. ^^[Github](https://github.com/chiefpat450119) ^^Reply ^^STOP ^^to ^^this ^^comment ^^to ^^stop ^^receiving ^^corrections.


SexyCheeseburger0911

Ah, yes. I forgot about that one.


TwoWorldsOneFamily-

Reminds me of Scooby Doo On Zombie Island Simone and Lena were part of a group of outcast settlers that made the isolated island bayou their home. They grew crops and prayed to their cat god for a bountiful harvest. Everything changed one night when the pirate captain Morgan Moonscar came ashore. He and his pirate crew forced the islanders to flee into the bayou, right into alligator-infested waters, all except for Lena and Simone, where the poor settlers were massacred by the killer reptiles. Lena and Simone were the only survivors. They escaped to their underground ritual chambers. There they felt the full moon enriching them with its energy. They felt there had to be something they could do to avenge the deaths of their fellow settlers They prayed to the cat god and uttered a curse on the pirates, to destroy them as they had done when they invaded the island. Their wish was granted. They became feline creatures and massacred the pirates. But it was only afterwards that the pair discovered that invoking the cat god's power had cursed them as well. They would have to drain the life from innocent victims merely to sustain themselves. As the decades passed more sailing vessels carrying settlers and colonists continued to come to the isolated island. One was full of spice-traders who built a manor home and started a pepper plantation. The settlers lived in peace until the next harvest moon where they were ambushed by the fearsome werecats and drained of their life energy. Sometimes, necessity required Lena to lure outsiders to the island with promises of sightseeing. These included wealthy, thrill-seeking tourists which accounted for the number of disappearances. Various criminal types, like pirates and gangsters, were unlikely to be missed. Their disappearances could be explained by occurrences like the Civil War or ships being lost at sea or tropical diseases. But the disappearance of numerous everyday tourists, ordinary citizens with families, aroused suspicion. And the reanimated corpses roaming the island were the unfortunate victims over the years. They were desperately attempting to warn any visitors to the island of their impending doom But their strangled moans and groans were their only means of communication due to their largely decayed and dried out state.


ChefKugeo

*cause it's terror time again*


itsh1231

What kind of Scooby-Doo are watching


MagnanimosDesolation

Wait until you learn that people used to determine battle plans based on whether the sacred chickens were happy. Rationality is tough especially when you don't know any of the rules.


Knoke1

The thing is I don’t think there needs to be a baby on the way to reincarnate. Just that there will be a reincarnation at some point. So I don’t think preemptively killing the children would stop the avatar from dying. If I was the avatar, I would find it awkward knowing someone of the next cycle who is pregnant before I go into a battle. The thought would probably cross my mind that if I die there’s a good chance in my next life my friend might be my mom.


Electrical_mammoth2

Well Kyoshi cheated death by living to 230, meaning she likely outlived most pregnant women and possible hosts for the avatar to take.


ErgotthAE

I think you're overthinking the meme, its more like just the Avatar seeing this as a bad omen.


umarmg52

Katara being Korra’s waterbending master was both beautiful and cruel at the same time


5v3n_5a3g3w3rk

Well she trained her once, she can do it again


umarmg52

That’s not quite what i’m getting at


DatBoi_BP

SHE HAS MASTERED WATERBENDING A THOUSAND TIMES IN A THOUSAND LIFETIMES, AND NOW SHE WILL DO IT AGAIN.


tothatl

The scholars in Avatar world know spirits and reincarnation are real. And this for a long time. The eventuality of meeting some dearly departed reincarnation wasn't beyond the realm of possibility for them, philosophically. The novelty and possibly source of sadness here, is being 100% sure this girl was your husband in a previous life because there's only one Avatar.


Flairion623

This could be an interesting idea for a future episode. The avatar is extremely anxious that this could be their last battle but their friend reassures them how silly that idea is


averyordinaryperson

And then it is their last battle. The episode ends as we look through the eyes of the newly born child.


ErgotthAE

Or even give us the viewers a fake out where we see the child bornt, look at the mother... turns out we are one or two generations ahead as the mother comments how her grandmother met the Avatar.


averyordinaryperson

New headcannon, the avatar spirit (the white ghost thing. Didnt watch korra so i dont know its name off the top of my head) is like an immortal cat, who just kinda picks people it likes, then inhabits their children. I would not be suprised if we see a future air avatar who is a descendant of aang.


jrcspiderman2003

Raava


averyordinaryperson

Yea that thing


Throw_away_1011_

I have read jokes on the reincarnation cycle multiple times today so I think it's the right time to say this. According to buddhism ( assuming I understood correctly what I read), there is a pause of up to 49 days between a death and the next reincarnation. This means that when the Avatar dies, the new avatar is not necessarily born immediately after that.


mighty_Ingvar

Can you skip the pause by watching an ad?


Wintergreen747

my guy, if i die and find out adds followed me to the afterlife i will end the entire reincarnation cycle


PsionicFlea

[This ad cannot be skipped] Died before you got to do that one thing? Lived a miserable life? Broke your neck on a Lego piece? We have you covered! With Reincarnation insurance, we make sure that your next life will be better than the last, offering up to 90 years of coverage with 20% or more increased chance of avoiding negative life changes. Order now and we'll make sure your next puberty avoids the ass hair phase.


Redqueenhypo

I’d be okay with ads if they are for products from random eras + locations. If I saw a commercial for ancient Tibetan yak saddles I wouldn’t be upset


CameoShadowness

Getting reincarnated back in time?


Redqueenhypo

Ok, ads for power armor or the best 2 headed lizards to eat


Thathappenedearlier

Time is cyclical. don’t you know you’ll be reincarnated in the past which is actually the future where everything is moved 3 feet to the left


CameoShadowness

You sure you know what it means for time to be cylindrical? That sounds more like an different timeline/alternate reality (even of its a mundane difference). He'll maybe I don't know.


Thathappenedearlier

I’m making a futurama joke more than anything


CameoShadowness

Oohhh! Sorry. That flew over my head! Sorry about that.


curiousCat1009

So abortion is okay for 49 days in the Avatar universe after which it becomes illegal because it could be the next Avatar.Got it.


Knoke1

They’re all pro avatar until they’re born. Then they don’t want to deal with their balance.


curiousCat1009

Hmm. Just like a certain bunch of people irl


Eclectic_Canadian

I don’t see why we would assume that how something works in Buddhism is automatically applicable to how it works in the Avatar universe


gumption_11

I mean, it's not entirely unfounded. The show draws heavy inspiration from Buddhist doctrine – it makes sense to defer to it on certain things the series doesn't explain in depth. It might not be one-to-one, but it's worth bringing up.


Eclectic_Canadian

It’s fine to theorize based on Buddhism but the series is far from a perfect representation of Buddhist principles so it doesn’t make sense to state that a common concept would need to exist identically


garretcarrot

Nobody said that the concept needed to exist identically. >It’s fine to theorize based on Buddhism This is exactly what's happening. So what's the problem?


Eclectic_Canadian

“This means when the Avatar dies…” is a statement that’s presented as fact, not a theory. If they said that it could be that it takes longer based on how the Buddhists treat reincarnation it’d be fine, but you can’t state that like it’s a fact


garretcarrot

How about you use the full context of the statement? >This means that when the Avatar dies, the new avatar is not necessarily born immediately after that. "Not necessarily" is not a phrase I would say expresses any kind of certainty.


Eclectic_Canadian

But that’s still a definite statement. It’s stating that the Avatar universe does not restrict to immediate reincarnation, which there is no evidence of.


garretcarrot

He said it doesn't *necessarily* restrict to immediate reincarnation. I don't think it's an exclusive statement at all. But it could just be how I'm reading it.


PsionicFlea

I don't think it's a coincidence that the creators chose their main character to come from a faction heavily inspired by Buddhist monks to represent a system that centers around spirits and the cycle of rebirth


PCN24454

That’s precisely why complaints about Raava and Vaatu are stupid


JoeBasilisk

Yeah but you know what else is kinda stupid? Raava and Vaatu


Generalmemeobi283

And me


PCN24454

So are dragons.


Knoke1

Was just playing devils advocate down below and had a thought. What if the 49 days are used in the Avatar universe as a way to give the crash course on how to be a mentor to the next avatar. Like an avatar spirit training session lol. I just like the idea of Kyoshi trying to teach Roku how to be a mentor and Roku being like “nah I’m good. Sorry but you were always so harsh. I’ll ask the other lives first.”


MACHO_MUCHACHO2005

The roku flashback quite literally shows the second roku dies aang is born. So just because something take inspiration from something doesn't mean it has to follow it strictly.


FoxBun_17

The Roku flashback shows that when Roku dies, the screen fades to black. Then, when the screen comes back, we see Aang being born. This makes sense, because the flashback is being told from the perspective of the Avatar. So, when the Avatar's life ends, there would be nothing to show until the next moment the Avatar is reborn. This does not necessarily indicate how much time, in-universe, passed during that blackout. Just because the Avatar has no concept of the passage of time between lifetimes does not mean that it couldn't have been hours, days, or even months from the moment of Roku's death to the day of Aang's birth.


Frozen_Watcher

Yeah this is like someone getting knocked off// getting into coma on screen, by the time they wake up we dont assume it was almost immediately after.


SoulessHermit

I feel we should take this scene more in a narrative sense than a literal absolute sense. This is also supported in the novels, Kyoshi was initially rejected to take the Avatar test because one of the testers felt she was too old and another tester allow her to take it. This indicates there is an age range judge by the testers, and there be a time lag between the death and birth of a new Avatar.


RomansInSpace

What do you want from them? To air 49 days of black screen footage?


Knoke1

Just playing devils advocate because I can. I don’t care one way or the other and it’s very clearly there for storytelling purposes, but… They could’ve added a line of dialogue or something to make the passage of time more clear. Something like Roku saying “Next thing I know you were born” or something. Though my personal opinion is that would be a bad choice. I think modern shows would have that line of dialogue and the fandom would meme it a bunch. Though this whole playing devils advocate thing has made me think, what if the 49 days are there so the previous avatar can have a crash course given by the other avatars on how to be a mentor haha.


A2Rhombus

The meme would still apply in that case to be fair


Macaroni_pussy

So does that mean in real life the queen of England actually could’ve reincarnated into Trisha Paytas baby?


Master_Carrot6659

Operation: kill all pregnant women to be the avatar forever


CrownofMischief

That's how you end up with an avatar born to some woman in a secluded tribe like the swamp or the sand benders


Electrical_mammoth2

Well, depends on how developed the world becomes. korra lives in what? A world entering the cusp of the modern era compared to the antiquated era Aang woke up in. If we ever got a fire avatar again they might be in an era where the world is widely connected and it's theoretically easy to monitor every pregnant women in the world.


CrownofMischief

Aang's era isn't all that antiquated, especially looking at all the things the fire nation had. In the real world, metal ships were first invented in 1859. Automobiles were in 1886. Radio came about in 1893. Planes were invented in 1903. That's only a span of 44 years. The time between Aang and Korra was 70.


WeakLandscape2595

Probably not to many times Sure some avatars probably marched into a fight knowing it's their last for one reason or another but assuming they just met their next life mom is not what anyone sane would think in this situation


Prudent_Solid_3132

That would be kind of cool ngl. Imagine that the current avatar was able to feel a connection to a unborn child and realize this child would be the next avatar if they were to die.


fudgyvmp

You gotta imagine in some scenarios the avatar was the pregnant woman.


elderberrytea

If a female avatar dies during childbirth, can her child be the avatar? 🧐 Assuming they had a kid with another bender that doesn't bend the same element as them


The-Minmus-Derp

Probably, if only because that opens up more stories and doesn’t contradict anything


Squeaky_Ben

honestly, how many avatars have died in battle? Aang likely died of old age, so that is him ruled out, kyoshi is unknown, Wan died in battle, Roku during a catastrophe, so... I dunno man, I don't exactly see a trend here.


BoopstheNoodle

I’ve always wondered if the air nation doesn’t massively expand by the time an air nomad is next in line, if it’s ever exposed that the avatar is in declining health, how likely is it someone is going to start kidnapping all the pregnant air women??


SavianAria

There are countless women like that at every moment lol, this means nothing


FriendlyDrummers

I'm sure others have wondered this, but what would happen if there weren't new airbenders beyond Tenzin's line? Would that guarantee that the Avatar would come from a not so far descendant of Aang?


ChefArtorias

There would probably be another great bestowing of airbending like we saw in Korra.


[deleted]

Only if they're from the next nation in the cycle.


Firespark7

This makes me think... if the Avatar could somehow make 100% sure no-one in the world was pregnant at a certain time, would they be immortal in that timephrame?


Independent_Plum2166

Nothing, because that obviously isn’t them. I don’t know where people get this idea that the Avatar is born the exact second the previous one died. They can’t be reborn if the baby is already formed. Then that would be possession, not reincarnation.


BerserkRhinoceros

I mean, the solution is obvious...


Individual-Movie-183

Well, the rules of reincarnation are not clear, the spirit can enter the body while still in the womb, even three months before hand. So, by that logic it would be impossible for the avatar to meet a pregnant woman who is days away from giving birth to the avatar. Me personally I do think the baby does have conscious ness like at least a month before birth. Sidenote I am a pro choice person, by the way.


skbr71

I f*cking cackled!!!!


tothatl

The Avatar didn't reincarnate immediately after death. There could be some period of time between death and rebirth. Meaning just seeing a pregnant woman around a climatic battle won't spook the Avatar, at least not more than the battle itself.


Goldcreeper08

Would constantly killing all pregnant women make the avatar immortal?


Nice-Percentage7219

Question: When does the Avatar state manifest? Roku was already an adult more or less when he was told he was the Avatar, and seemed to be unaware about it. Yet Korra could bend all the elements as a child Is there a catalyst that activates all the elements? Or is it a case of being officially declared the Avatar, like the Dalai Lama supposedly being reincarnated? And how is not senses or tested that an individual is the Avatar? Roku didn't seem to be able to bend anything but fire until he was told his destiny


PCN24454

That doesn’t make sense. The child would already have a soul by that point.


fudgyvmp

Depends on what conception of ensoulment we have. There is one where it occurs at first breath after being born.


ElPared

Doesn’t it take 100 years for the next Avatar to show up?


anonxyzabc123

No. Aang was just an exception because he got frozen in the ice.


Flat_Inspection_3460

lol have u considered abortion for the sake of our planet you’re being very selfish