>>124411824This. Aang's a fence sitter who doesn't practice what he preaches, and who cares more about a fantasy of what the world should be like, than reality. Despite traveling the entire world, he stays the same outside of not being a sperg as much. It's counter to the entire point of being an Avatar - to learn from multiple sources of knowledge and culture and many perspectives besides your own, to mature in more ways than one.
Aang SHOULD by all means have more going for him, but he doesn't. If anything, he should come across more like Superman or Goku and have more active drive and strong will in what he does, a backbone to PROVE that his way can work.
Iroh is a better "Aang" than Aang is, and it's why people love him so much, more than Aang. He's exactly what Aang should have been - a wise jovial person who sees the best in people and is always willing to talk it out and de-escalate, and exhaust every other method before using violence. Someone who doesn't affirm his own home philosophy as his core, but willing to listen, adapt, and learn from other people and places and merge his knowledge into a greater whole. Someone who is empathetic and compassionate and understanding, but not a wimp, a child, a coward, or a naive dreamer. Who's realistic, but ultimately still optimistic even so.