no tea but why didn’t Katara’s sons have melanin? and the water bender daughter was the one who inherited the darker skin?
also Aang is literally white with this character design. Idkkk it’s a little odd how Bryke loves to claim that no one is white but then design characters like that + the cast of both shows is overwhelmingly white.
disclaimer: I full heartedly believe no one is white (tho as an asian myself, it is sus that the two white creators used Asia as an aesthetic for their show..) tho Bryke’s actions don’t reflect their words.
The creators didn’t “use Asia as an aesthetic for their show.” I am not being mean here but this is a criticism (at least conceptually) I’ve seen from a couple different places. They created a fantasy world. Fantasy world’s necessarily have a a period and regional genre. That historically has always included or just centered Europe, like Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings. Those stories aren’t set in Europe, obviously, but their period and genre are defined by Europe. AtLA specifically omits Europe, which isn’t necessarily in itself groundbreaking. But the commitment to the omission and the decision to include 40-50% indigenous influences in the world building, that is groundbreaking.
Each of the four nations is a very hybridized culture, drawn from several cultural influences. I’ll focus on the air nomads since you think Aang’s light skin makes him look white. The air nomads have three obvious cultural influences and a few more subtle ones.
The first is Tibetan monk, the robes and pacifism is are notable features, you could be a little regionally general and say Bhutanese, the nation of Bhutan has many Tibetan monks.
Next would be Native Plains tribes, this is a large and diverse group of cultures that have a variety of different cultural traits but many things usually in common including nomadic clans, urban complexes from which the nomadic clans revolve, deep spiritual relationships with bison, classless societies, and a cultural emphasis on freedom and independence remarked upon even by other Natives.
The third would be Mongolians, who despite plenty of stereotypes and a nasty bit of history have spent most of their last few centuries being normal+ the very sick nomadic Buddhist segment of traditional Mongolian society in rural Mongolia just chilling in spiritual harmony. Very airbender, very rad. Also it’s not uncommon for Mongolians to just look like this:
Make either dude ripped and bald and tat him up, dress him like a fictional monk, put him on a fictional bison= bang he’s Air Nomad.
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. The only time a European/white cultural element got in avatar was the pro-wrestling gag and to lampshade the whole thing, calling it Earth Rumble “IV” even though all the text in the show is in Chinese in every other instance.
