Avatar:Gyatso's relationships
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| Gyatso's main article |
| History |
| Early life (c. late 70s BG - 67 AG) Lambak Island adventure (66 BG) Adult life (66 BG - 12 BG) Last years (12 BG - 0 BG) |
| Relationships |
| Gyatso's relationships |
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| Gyatso |
This page is comprised of Gyatso's relationships with other characters in the world of Avatar. As a result of his humorous and wise personality, he had many lasting friendships, most famously with Avatars Roku and Aang.
Relatives
Yama
Throughout his early life, Gyatso maintained a close relationship with his sister Yama who was two years older than him.[1][2] In 67 BG, Yama died on a relief mission when an entire Earth Kingdom village was swallowed by massive sinkhole caused by reckless mining of the Western Kingdom Trading Company. Her death greatly impacted Gyatso who felt not only great grief but immense anger. To some degree, his anger was directed at himself, as he had originally been supposed to accompany Yama's but declined to do so to focus on his airbending training. Gyatso thus felt that he might have saved her if he had not been selfish,[2] even though the sinkhole had been catastrophic and left not survivors.[1][2]
His inner turmoil over Yama's death led to a mental block of his airbending, affecting Gyatso until he was eventually able to work through his experience with the help of Roku and Malaya.[2]
Love interest
Malaya
Gyatso met Malaya by chance during the Lambak Island conflict, initially asking her about his friend Roku's whereabouts. Despite her distrustful attitude, he quickly opened up to the young islander and she humored him due to her own interest in non-Lambak people.[3][4] Before long, the two began to talk about such diverse topics such as relationships, philosophy, food, and riding gorilla-tarsiers, quickly developing a friendship.[4] They spent several days together, eventually growing so close that Gyatso told Malaya about his sister Yama, while Malaya opened up about her self-doubts and violent inclinations. The islander was gradually converted to the young monk's worldview, as she had never truly felt part of the Lambak clan.[2][5] Though Gyatso did not fully realize this at the time, he was falling in love with Malaya as they spent time together.[6]
Conversely, Malaya remained influenced by her upbringing and some vengeful tendencies, displaying great fury and even brutality when confronting some Western Kingdom Trading Company guards after they had destroyed her clan's village.[7][8] Gyatso was disturbed by his friend's ferocity, temporarily affecting their relationship as the monk was unsure how to approach Malaya after witnessing her nearly killing a guard.[8] Despite this, Gyatso continued to deeply care about Malaya. When Sozin stated that he would only allow Malaya to accompany him into the mountain caves to find Roku and Ulo, the Air Nomad initially refused to entertain the idea, correctly suspecting the Fire Nation prince's ulterior motives. He only relented when the islander intervened and agreed to Sozin's demand. The two parted after some kind words: Gyatso reassured her that she was not destined to be a violent, broken person – as the islander herself feared –, and expressed happiness about Malaya's desire to later visit the Southern Air Temple.[9]
Gyatso would not meet Malaya again, as she was killed in the caves. The monk correctly suspected that Sozin's claim about an accidental death was false, though he did not share his suspicions with Roku. Regardless, the young Air Nomad greatly grieved for his deceased friend.[10] Conversely, he managed to better cope with her demise due to experiences on Lambak Island, choosing not to focus on her end but her life and positive legacy.[11]
He continued to mourn her over the next years, eventually opening up to Roku about his romantic feelings for Malaya. Gyatso mused how she had positively impacted his life, yet also sadly accepted that he seemed destined to "lose everyone I love".[6]
Allies
Aang
Gyatso was Aang's father figure and mentor. The two shared a close bond and were often found having fun together. They used airbending to play pranks on the other inhabitants of the Air Temple, such as interrupting the Council's meditation by throwing fruit pies at them. Aang loved Gyatso like a father and was devastated when the Elders told him he was the Avatar and would need to leave Gyatso. This, in fact, was one of the reasons Aang ran away from home. The full extent of Gyatso's reaction to this is not known, but he was shown to be deeply worried when he read Aang's goodbye letter.[12]
When Aang returned to the Southern Air Temple one hundred years later, he accidentally stumbled upon Gyatso's skeleton, causing him to cross over into the Avatar State, overcome by rage, grief and guilt. Aang would continue to feel guilty about running away and "not being there for his people when they needed him most" until Guru Pathik helped him to deal with this pain and to let it go. A mirage of Monk Gyatso and the other airbenders played before his eyes when he thought of them and they disappeared into the clouds as Aang let them go.[12][13][14]
Disha
Sister Disha was Gyatso's airbending master in his youth, and he held her in high regard.[2][15] In turn, Disha knew Gyatso well enough to encourage his friendship with Roku, correctly believing that the young monk and Avatar could learn from each other.[15][16] Conversely, Disha did not understand Gyatso's inner turmoil after the deaths of Yama and Malaya, with the young airbender not always disclosing his beliefs and feelings to her.[15][17] Furthermore, he was willing to disobey her to help Roku sneak out of the Southern Air Temple.[18]
Roku
Avatar Roku first met Gyatso when he journeyed to the Southern Air Temple in order to learn airbending. The two shared a small rivalry with each other, each of them trying to outdo the other by using air gliders to race each other. Eventually, however, they became great friends, even later in life. When Avatar Roku was showing Aang how the Hundred Year War started, he noted that "some friendships are so strong that they can even transcend lifetimes", citing his experiences with Gyatso as evidence.[14]
Throughout the events of Lambak Island, Gyatso repeatedly challenged Roku's more imperious and forceful perspective of the world, presenting solid arguments as well as pointing out Roku's blatant privilege in having grown up as part of the Fire Nation nobility and how it had left him disconnected from other people whose labor was directly responsible for the wealth that Roku had enjoyed while growing up. The two butted heads several times due to clashing cultural values. However, the two managed to begin seeing eye-to-eye when they discussed what their experiences with losing a sibling were like. This common grief allowed the two boys to better understand one another's cultures and allowed them to work toward letting go.[2]
Peers
Gyatso had a good relationship with the other Air Nomad boys, who were rather fond of him. He was regarded highly as an excellent airbender and was chosen among the other men to be on the Council of Elders. However, the other monks believed he was holding Aang back in his training, which resulted in Gyatso being forced to separate from Aang.[13][12]
Pathik
Guru Pathik mentioned to Aang that he was a close personal friend of Monk Gyatso.[19]
Ta Min
Gyatso first met Ta Min in his youth when the Fire Nation noblewoman visited the Southern Air Temple to deliver a letter by Sozin to Roku. The Air Nomad saved the lives of her and the Avatar when they were ambushed by an earthbending assassin, gaining Ta Min's gratitude.[20] When the trio subsequently organized and carried out Roku's plan to sneak out of the air temple to venture to Lambak Island, Gyatso developed a good relationship with Ta Min; for instance, the two shared jokes at Roku's expense. Conversely, Gyatso considered the obvious romantic attraction between Roku and Ta Min a bit off-putting.[18]
Enemies
Western Kingdom Trading Company
Gyatso despised the Western Kingdom Trading Company due to its callous treatment of its employees and bystanders. In particular, he resented the company's tendency to value profit over human lives, a policy which resulted in the death of Gyatso's sister Yama.[2] Regardless, he hated the company as a system or "the machine", not its individual members.[7]
Sozin
Even before first meeting him, Gyatso already started to distrust Sozin as he suspected the prince of abusing Roku's trust. Over the course of the Lambak Island conflict, Gyatso became increasingly suspicious of his motives.[21] Upon actually encountering Sozin in person, the Air Nomad's dislike grew even further due to the prince's arrogance, aggression, underhandedness,[22][9] and display of xenophobic beliefs regarding Air Nomads and Earth Kingdom people. Gyatso made no secret of his own views, and thus initially refused to allow Malaya accompany Sozin due to fearing for her life. At the time, he was seemingly ready to fight the prince, and only backed down due to Malaya's intervention.[9] When the girl's corpse was later found in the caves and Sozin claimed that she had died due to falling rocks, Gyatso rightly suspected that this was not the entire truth.[10]
Over six decades later, Gyatso was killed during the Air Nomad Genocide organized by Sozin.[14]
References
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