Gyatso is the only Air Nomad elder who never achieved enlightenment because he couldn’t let go of Aang. He was willing to be exiled just to stay with him. To Gyatso, Aang mattered more than the Air Nomads, and this actually tells us alot about Gyatso’s backstory (thread)
ㅤㅤ❝ He has been through quite a lot in his lifetime. Too much for any boy his age to have experienced and gone through. ❞
Gyatso's gaze hardened, a disappointed and angry stare as he looked down at jet. Despite being a man of peace, Gyatso took out soldiers without ╰➤
ㅤㅤ❝ I'm proud he's gotten to grow up, to be the man I've always known he'd become..it pains me he had to do it so young. ❞
There was a sad smile among his face, gaze tender and grateful as he looked to Toph.
ㅤㅤ❝ thank you, for helping him. There's too much cruelty ╰➤
https://t.co/GQHcPCwJlw listen the way Aang does not fuck about with appa is the way gyatso is about aang. He will forget his teachings in a matter of SECONDS when it comes to aang !!!!
ㅤㅤ❝ I had planted it there, in order for the soldiers to believe they had truly won in taking us nomads out. I had left not long after the soldiers came upon me placing it... I had to take matters in my hands, and I'd have done it again if it meant finding you. ❞ ╰➤
》 there, amidst the ashes and bones. "
his weeping had turned him incoherent by that point, the weight of his guilt finally being shared by another that was his kin-- by gyatso, lucky as he was.
" I didn't mean to run away. I'm sorry. "
ㅤㅤGyatso pulled back to hold Aang's face in his hands, a tender, fatherly look upon the old man's face.
ㅤ❝ Don't apologize for what has happened, you were a child, aang. It is foolish for anyone to expect a child to act rationally when placed with the burden of knowing ╰➤
before I escaped on my dear bison...the storm back then had been so dangerous..Merky, it was hard to travel. But..I had to try, for him. All this time..I had believed they had killed him....- ❞
ㅤㅤGyatso's eyes opened at that, solemn brown hues almost hopeful as he looked at Toph in shock.
If she knew about him, then....
❝ He's alive.ᐣ Aang is...he's 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦.ᐣ ❞
He couldn't control the wavering emotions as his mind recalled that young boy, his ╰➤
enthusiasm, his laugh, the tricks they played on fellow monks.
ㅤㅤ❝ I had left when Aang had disappeared, when the fire nation....I was petrified they would find him...in order to not be tracked, I left my beads behind on a fellow fallen monk...took several soldiers out ╰➤
ㅤㅤGyatso had been the first to move, to take Aang into his embrace, to hold him tight like he could finally shield him from the world, from all the pain he's suffered that Gyatso wasn't there to keep him safe from.
❝ Oh, Aang....shh..you don't have to cry anymore.. ╰➤
aang looked as equally devastated, but rather the opposite of hope.
there was guilt.
he spent many years thinking he was the last of his kin, and by some miracle, here before him stood his mentor, his ...
" gyatso ... "
he lip quivered 》
I'm here. I'm real, little one. ❞
ㅤㅤHe couldn't even mask the crack in his voice as gyatso soothed the boy, like he had when Aang walked for the first time, to falling on his poor little bottom and cried to be held, something's just didn't change. Tears ran down his face,╰➤