Why I Fight

Shipping. It's serious business.

You hear that all the time, am I right? Especially now, after Sozin's Comet, where ships have been crushed and lightened, or else totally forgotten. Saying that shipping is serious stuff is a joke, but it's also the truth -- we've had rants, foamed, and, as proved here, written essays about the characters involved.

Everyone has a different way of shipping. Some don't take it that seriously. Some do.

A few weeks ago Leila-Dinthalion showed me a small excerpt from the Sozin's Comet book. And it wasn't the Zutarian thing.

I nearly burst into tears.

"Kuruk tells Aang not to let Katara's face get stolen."

Kummi, the Kuruk and Ummi ship, the faintest mention of a romance in the Escape From The Spirit World game-videos, is a Taang thing. And don't you dare try to tell me otherwise. I have spent most of the Earth and Fire seasons fantisizing about the episode supposedly called "The Return of The Facestealer" simply because I knew it would relate to Taang. Maybe not in a blantedly obvious romantic way, but enough that my inner fangirl would be happy. I could imagine how the "Previously on Avatar..." voice would lead into a voiceclip of Hue's Swamp speech ("People we've lost, people we've loved."); how clips from The Seige of The North's Spirit World trip and Ummi's face would appear; how I'd end up screaming in joy. However, according to the magazine, I shall have no such conclusion.

But I dare you to find one way Kataang connects to Kuumi.

I've thought about it for a good long time. And I have come up with a very good argument. For all that it's worth, yes, the Facestealer episode will probably be a Kataang one. But I'm Taangese. I'm going to fight for what I believe in.

Remember that, Zutarians. My fellow Taangese.

There is always something to fight for.


Lifetimes and Reincarnation

Let's look into the whole Kuumi-Kataang relation, shall we? I dared you to find a relation. I can find one.

1) Katara is Water Tribe. So is Ummi.

There you go. If you're really going to reach, of course, you could also say that,

2) Katara looks like Ummi.

Because, obviously, looks are a big thing in reincarnation. Just take Toph's former life, Sud. He was tall and bulky, was a man, had a beard, dark skin, and wasn't blind.

And yes, I do believe that Toph was Sud. Take a look at the dialogue Roku uses in The Avatar and The Firelord, while relaying the story of his training -- he takes the time to explain Sud's personality; "...uncompromising, stubborn, and blunt... and a lifelong friend." And then we have the whole "Can friendships transcend lifetimes?" from Toph, which directly links her to that part of the episode, and, oh, did anyone else notice Roku say his training was "Bitter Work"?

But wait, if Toph was Sud in Roku's lifetime, then she couldn't be Aang's love this time around! And who was Katara?

Instantly, I bet you all thought of Ta Min. Roku's wife. And hey, you know, I'm not going to say much against that. Lives are never the same. Just because you were in love with someone in a former life doesn't mean you will be in every life. Heck, according to some religions, if you're an asshole, you'll be reincarnated as an insect, and will keep being reincarnated as things like that until you learn to be a better person! And just because you're a bug doesn't mean your love will be, and so they'll most likely fall for another person.

So we've cleared up that In Roku's life, Toph was Sud and Katara was probably Ta Min. We don't have enough information about Kiyoshi's personal life to say anything about her family, so let's go back another lifetime, to Kuruk's.


The Escape From The Spirit World

In the Escape From The Spirit World game, Aang ventures through the Spirit World while he's in Azula's lightning-strike coma. He talks to each of his most recent former lives, mostly about their pasts.

Roku goes through his trouble mastering the Avatar State, and tells Aang not to be too hard on himself about not being able to enter it.

Kiyoshi goes into a story much like the confrontation of Roku and Sozin -- the Earth King accuses Avatar Kiyoshi of betraying the Earth Kingdom by not following his orders. She beats the snot out of him and brings around a compromise. She also mentions that she created the Dai Li. Aang exclaims that they're the most corrupt earthbenders in the world, and Kiyoshi replies, "I thought I was doing the right thing. Our actions always have an effect. Sometimes positive, sometimes negitive... and sometimes not for many lifetimes."

I'll come back to this.

Next Aang visits Avatar Kuruk, in the realm of Koh. Kuruk asks if Aang has seen a "beautiful woman with long brown hair" around -- his wife. Aang's oblivious to who this woman is even though he saw her in The Seige of The North (Part Two) and noticed something familiar about her. During this scene, where Aang is speaking to Koh about his former incarnation trying to kill the spirit, Koh puts on Ummi's face to try and get a reaction. Aang's facial expression doesn't change, but the camera lingers on him for a few moments, and if you watch carefully, his eyes are glittering. Aang knows that this woman was important to him before, but has no current attachments to her. Still, something subconciously makes his eyes sparkle. Aang subconciously still loves Ummi.

The spoilers have told us that Aang will, at some point, speak to his former selves in the canon storyline. I'm in all my glory about this, because I'll actually get to hear and see Kuruk on the mainscreen, but I digress. To quote Marianlibrarian of Livejournal,

"Kuruk tells Aang to "shape his own destiny", and not to let Katara's face get ripped off by a spirit, 'cause, you know, that's no fun.”

Now, before everyone loses heart (and possibly dies), I have a theory about this. See, the little books for the Avatarded kids not only have the tendency to leave things out, but the habit of summing things up in as few words as possible. Spirits know they want to make the story as simple as possible for the poor developing kids' minds.

Let's assume that the book is drastically overviewing the Kuruk-Aang interaction; what actually happened?

I believe Kuruk doesn't tell Aang "not to let Katara's face get ripped off," but to "protect those he loves from Koh". Kuruk doesn't know Katara, and so he wouldn't talk about her specifically. He would, however, tell Aang to take care around Koh -- not only is Koh a danger to those in the Spirit World, but he already has a grudge against the Avatar. Kuruk tried to kill him nine hundred years ago. He will try to get revenge any way he can. And seeing as he already has Ummi's face, he has no need to go after Kuruk. Besides, Kuruk is dead. Any hunter will agree that dead prey is no fun.

But Aang is alive.

Aang is alive, and the people he loves are alive. By going after one of Aang's family members, he can get more revenge. And hey, what better time to steal a face from the Avatar than right before a massive invasion that the Avatar has to lead?

Let's look back at that thing Kiyoshi said in her part of the Spirit World story; "Our actions always have an effect. Sometimes positive, sometimes negative, and sometimes not for many lifetimes," -- this is a very simple way of saying that something that Aang has done in a past life is going to come back and either kiss or kick him, eventually. Judging by the setup of the Kuumi-Aang relation, I'm going to say it's a kick.

So if we assume that Kuruk will just say to protect whom Aang loves, then why would the book say it was Katara? Because Aang will automatically think of her. That's what Aang does -- he's proved it time and time again. When he was trying to master the Avatar State with the Guru -- "Let go of your earthly attachments," -- who is the only person he thinks of? Aang is so obsessed with the romantic love he feels for Katara that he forgets about the family love he has for everyone else.

Family love. That's the big thing.

Just because Toph isn't the girl Aang is in love with doesn't mean he doesn't love her.

And Koh will go after a person that Aang loves.


Taang-Kuumi Foreshadowing

But wait, just because Kuruk doesn't say Katara's name doesn't mean she won't ultimately be Koh's prey. So what makes Toph a better candidate for facestealing?

Foreshadowing.

And yes, there is foreshadowing for this.

Let's start with The Seige of The North, where Koh is first introduced. As I've said before, Aang speaks with Koh and Koh shows him Ummi's face. Although Ummi's story isn't explained in this episode, the later canon Escape From The Spirit World short tells us that she was dragged down into the Spirit Oasis on her wedding day. Koh stole her face.

And might I mention that Koh says, as Aang is leaving, "We'll meet again."

I'm going to jump to Nightmares and Daydreams to make this easier to understand. We all know that NAD was a rediculus episode, mostly there to make us laugh. But there were points of seriousness, one of which being Aang's third dream. In the vision, as he is entering the Firelord's palace, the first thing he sees is what? Toph. The fact that she is there is not of too much importance -- all of his family is there, including the not-yet-initiated Zuko. It's what's happens to her that we have to make a great note of. When Aang first notices her, it's from the inside of his eye; the eye leads directly to the brain. What are stored in the brain? Memories. What memories does Aang have of Ummi? Subconcious ones.

Now, this seems like a mostly irrellivent and childish way of looking at it, but then you have to think about why Aang would dream about Toph in the situation she's in. Katara's and Sokka's make sense; Sokka being pulled into darkness, into the unknown, like Suki was; Katara is surrounded by fire, Aang's enemy for many reasons (the adversaries of the war being firebenders, him burning her, Zuko being a firebender and being susupiciously close to her during the Earth finale). But what about Toph? She doesn't need eyes anyway, so why does she have none in his dream and why is that such a frightening thing (I'm going past the obvious shock, here)? And what sort of thing would make him imagine her falling through a dark hole in the floor?

Starting to fit, isn't it?

Kuruk, upon seeing the woman he loved, watched her dissappear into the Spirit Oasis -- a pit filled with water -- and have her face stolen. He hasn't saved her.

Aang, upon seeing a girl that he loves, watches her dissappear into a hole in the floor of the Firelord's palace -- a place governed by fire -- and she's missing parts of her face. She hasn't actually been stolen yet, but we all know that,

A) Bryke love parallels (the Aang-Zuko/Roku-Sozin story, for example),

and

B) Toph can't die, because besides being the embodiment of strength in the Gaang, there is not a single fan that does not love Toph,

so Aang is undoubtedly going to save her.

"Hold on a second," you may be saying. How could a woman whose face is stolen be reincarnated? If she was pulled into the Spirit World and her spirit ripped apart, how could she be free enough of Koh to be reborn?

Let me answer that question with another question: do you remember the monkey outside Koh's lair?

I believe that the images in the Spirit World are impressions; that is, part of a dead person's soul is left behind in the World, and the rest moves on. Why is this? Well, let's look at the former Avatars; they're still hanging around in the Spirit World, but they have clearly been reincarnated as Aang. You could say that they only appear when Aang needs them, but Kuruk said in The Escape From The Spirit World that he hasn't stopped looking for Ummi since he died.

So let's assume that there are leftover images of people in the Spirit World; their souls move on. In Ummi's case, where part of her has been taken out of the cycle of reincarnation, there are bound to be complications. Seeing as Kuruk is still searching for her soul (or perhaps just her impression), part of her is obviously still in the Spirit World, but part of her might have moved on. This part would be a little broken, of course -- perhaps enough that the reincarnation would be a little bit... faulty?

Canon evidence tells us that Toph is blind due to cataracts in her eyes. But we've seen that things in the ATLAverse usually have more than one explination; a spiritual, and a physical one. In this case, Toph's physical explination is the cataracts. The spiritual, Ummi's missing face. Part of her impression couldn't move on. But part of it did.

Continuing with where I began, the next episode that makes mention of Toph is The Swamp. How many times have Taangese gone over this episode? From the very beginning of it there are little Taangy hints; Aang talking about listening to the earth, and when he ignores it, being pulled down by a whirlwind (were the former Avatars pushing him in the right direction with a little bending?), for one. But the big thing that all Taangese have picked apart is Hue's speech.

During the episode, when the swamp starts attacking the Gaang, weird apparations start appearing. Katara sees a vision of her mom, someone who died in the past. Sokka sees Yue, someone who, at the time of this episode, had died in the present. Then Aang sees Toph.

I shouldn't even have to say it.

But I did say that Toph couldn't be killed off, right? She's the embodiment of strength in the Gaang, just as Sokka is of quick-wittedness, Katara of acceptance, Zuko of understanding, and Aang of perserverance. This is still a show for children, no matter how much we argue that it isn't, and a children's show would not tell you that, "No matter how strong you are, some things can easily kill you." We know for a fact that that's the way that life works, but that's not the sort of thing you tell a six-year-old.

Anyway, Hue's speech. When Katara asks about their visions, Hue begins, "In the swamp we see visons of people we've lost. People we've loved. Folks we think are gone. But the swamp tells us that they're not. We're still connected to them. Time is an illusion, and so is death."

After he speaks, Aang asks about the vision he saw; "It was someone I had never met."

"Time is an illusion, and so is death." -- the fact that Toph is someone Aang hasn't met yet has no meaning here. She is someone he has met, will meet, and already knows.

"...we see visions of people we've lost. People we've loved. Folks we think are gone." -- this is almost more intended to Aang's past lives and their lives in relation to him. Kuruk's, in particular. Kuruk lost his wife. He loved his wife. He hasn't been able to retrieve his wife from Koh, and he's sure he's lost her. That she's gone.

But Hue, and the swamp, say she's not.

              And we all know better.