Avatar Kyoshi's Mischaracterisation

The Atla fandom sorts Kyoshi into two categories,

- Monstrous, brutal, unsympathetic woman who kills with no remorse and has no morals

- Soft shy bottom

This pisses me off SO much. Kyoshi is so much more than that. Firstly, let's tackle the most common take, the fact she's brutal and has no morals.

Kyoshi as an avatar is shown time and time again to have empathy. An example of this is when Lao Gee sent her to assasinate the governor, and Kyoshi spared his life when seeing he was just a kid. Kyoshi understood this is just how he was raised and couldn't bring herself to kill him. She stood up against LAO GEE, an experienced assassin that could've killed her, to protect a stranger. Furthermore, in the VERY beginning of the second novel, Kyoshi is treated like a monster by the family she was protecting when she took extreme actions against the cops and was horrified by how they saw her, as she didn't want to be as violent force. And when she learned that Kelsang killed so many she was upset and hurt but understood his actions and regret and forgave him. 

A huge portion of Kyoshi's character is being viewed as a monster when she doesn't want to be, as it goes against everything she stands for. She struggles with being the avatar and its duties because she grew up in one of the most violent eras with the earth kingdom being filled with daofei, and we learn from Jianzhu's arc that he had to deal with so much corruption in the Kingdom and now it's Kyoshi'a responsibility. People forget she's only 17-18 or around that age and takes influences from her environment. The cops are trying to hurt an innocent family? She gags them with earth and then immediately regrets it. People in her era are extremely brutal and she doesn't know how to deal with these things diplomatically because people don't want to. She tried to reason with the cops and when she failed, resorted to violence. She has so much empathy and heart to people, and even when Yun caused so many awful events she still hoped she could help him. If Kyoshi really was this awful, evil, brutal woman people paint her out to be, why would she tell Rangi to stop beating Koulin? Why would she ever forgive and become close to Lek when he loved her parents whom she hates?

When we see Kyoshi's anger, it is mostly, completely internal. She loathes her parents for what they did, she despises Jianzhu for what he did. What we need to note is how Kyoshi nearly went down the path of anger, rage and revenge and nearly let it consume her if it wasn't for Rangi. And that is crucial to Kyoshi's character. She is an empathetic and kind person, but she is also a teenage girl who knows people who harmed her in unspeakable ways, she had the capacity to become a brute and let her anger take away her comapssion but ultimately it is her girlfriend who puts herself in danger and grounds her. It is a direct contrast to Kuruk, who didn't have anyone to pull him out of his pain and it consumed him as he lived in hedonism. 

She is a terrified, self hating teenage girl in a world of brutes and yet manages to keep her compassion and peace. Overtime as her role as the avatar, Kyoshi grew to become more mature and her motto "Only Justice will bring Peace" isn't necessarily a violent one. Justice varies in different forms based on different crimes. Kyoshi has been seen to constantly strive for peace and diplomacy. In her youth, trying to reason with the cop. Trying to reason with Chin the Conqueror. Creating the Dai Lee to bring order to Ba sing Se. Creating the Kyoshi warriors, seperating Kyoshi Island from the mainland. Kyoshi always tries to give a peaceful ultimatum with her foes, and when it doesn't work she acts. In her youth she was horrified at her own violence but when she grew up she learned that she could remain a kind, compassionate woman while keeping the peace even if she needed to kill. She makes all of her deaths quick too, she isn't evil. 

And finally, the Kyoshi warriors. The Kyoshi warriors were made to protect Kyoshi Island, we see in Suki's comics that they also provide for the Island by collecting food, like berries. And notice how the Kyoshi warriors have never killef anyone? If Kyoshi was such an evil brutal woman tell me why her warriors were taught to apprehend and spare their foes? Suki literally spares the girl in prison who betrayed her and ratted her out. And she is the leader of the warriors. There is no way that she'd do that under the brutal womans teachings.

And also connection and sisterhood is such an important aspect of the warriors, because Kyoshi most likely wanted them to have their own Rangi, people to keep them from losing their morals and becoming hate filled.

And also I don't wanna hear about the Roku books, because the Atla fandom has fallen into so much fan service. The older shows and Novels were made with visions in mind while new content decimates characters for the sake of protraying them how the fandom sees them and loves them. The Roku books assassinated Kyoshi'a character for the sake of fan service.