 They come to your home, to your land, they strip you of your culture and drain you of your resources, separate you from your loved ones. Your parents gone right in front of you. You try to fight back, yet slowly you watch your friends get taken away one by one. The one ability you have to defend yourself, those who teach it, get taken away methodically. Until you're left alone. Until you might not even know who you are anymore. There's decades of your life gone. Forced to take refuge in the home of your enemy. How do you carry on living if you are the last remaining tie to your culture in a foreign land, in enemy territory? What then is the right way to fight back? What does fighting back then look like? The stories of Hama and Jet are fascinating in the Avatar world, as parallels to our favorite gang and tragedies in their own right. They are reminders and possibilities. They are the what ifs of the Avatar world. And most of all, they continue to show us the ruthlessness of colonialism and the incessant impact of the Fire Nation on the elderly and on the youth alike on a more minute level. Jet represents the raging passion of you, that anger, that energy that is important in rebellion. A kid whose family, whose community has been raided by the Fire Nation and everywhere he turns, their reach is felt. All of the freedom fighters that he's rallied, that he continues to inspire and rile up, they too have been victims of the Fire Nation's hand. His own family, his parents were killed when he was only 8 years old. Smellerbee, Longshot, the Duke, Pipsqueak, they too are all orphans. They all share the same pain. The freedom fighters were led by a 15 year old Jet. At heart, they are good kids. They are angry kids. It's hard to even call them kids because this war has forced them to grow up so quickly. And they have nobody to guide their burning desire for revenge. That rage just builds and builds to the point where Jet and the rest of the freedom fighters are ready to sacrifice the innocent as their way of fighting back. Saka and Katara share the same sentiments that the freedom fighters do. They know better than most what Jet has gone through. But there are a few key differences. Saka and Katara had grand grand to mentor and to guide them, to guide their anger. She shared their pain. And the second is that the Fire Nation attacked the Southern Water Tribe a few times and left. In Jet's case, the Fire Nation has taken over this part of the Earth Kingdom and is actively occupying their home. It's a constant presence, a constant rain over their autonomy every single day. And so, Jet genuinely believes that taking down the few Fire Nation troops that live in their town is the right decision as it will inevitably free that village from the Fire Nation's control. I think another aspect of this belief stems from the lack of power and control that the Fire Nation and that colonialism generally presents. This idea that freeing their town, even if innocent people have to die, gives Jet and the freedom fighters just a bit of power back. It gives the people a bit of power back. And it gives them a semblance of control in their lives back. Though, of course, Jet turning his back on the people of that village goes against everything he supposedly fights for. Those people are Earth Kingdom citizens. It goes against the name of his own team. Death of the innocent in this case brings freedom to no one. Fire Nation soldiers are easily replaced. The community, the people, they are not. After a season and a bit, Jet is reintroduced in the Serpent's Pass as a still rebellious yet changed man. But in Jet's case, healing with all the pain inflicted on him by the Fire Nation isn't easy. Jet's heart seems to be in the right place, and he seems to have changed, but his anger and overall hatred of the Fire Nation get in the way of what his mission should be. Jet has a lot of mental baggage and trauma, so much so that even the sight of firebenders is simply too much for him, considering the way he attacks Zuko and Iroh and Basingseh for simply firebending. And I say simply firebending because in the context of these episodes, it does seem a bit much from Jet. Why should they be arrested for simply possessing the ability to bend fire? But consider Jet's experience with firebenders. Parents killed at 8 years old by the Rhino Raiders. By firebenders. That nation has destroyed his life, his home, and has consumed his sense of self. That element has ruined him. So it's not simply firebending. It's not the simple fact that a man heated his tea with his firebending. It's that the Fire Nation, that firebending, their existence is not fair. They should not be allowed to just roam around the world. Not after everything they've done to him. It's just not fair. In Hama's case, there's so much rage inside of her. She's been treated so unfairly. Hama lived the repeated attacks of the Fire Nation on the Southern Water Tribe, and with each attack, the Fire Nation's chokehold on their tribe grew, and their waterbenders, their culture, was slowly ripped away. Isn't that so terrifying? Not knowing when the next attack will be. Not knowing which of your family, or your friends, or even children will be taken next. Just a heightened sense of paranoia waiting for the soot to fall, until you are the last one standing. And for decades, Hama was locked away in that fire island prison. And while the Boiling Rock was the max security prison of the Fire Nation, these conditions seemed so much worse. At least in the Boiling Rock, they got to see the outdoors, and they even got to interact with each other. From what we saw, Hama's prison was close to solitary confinement for decades. A metal dungeon, suspended in the air with the tiniest bit of light peeking into their cells. Surely, as the most dangerous waterbenders on the planet, there were no interactions. There was no letting these people out of their cells. Their hands and feet were bound to even drink water. Hama says that any sign of trouble was met with cruel retribution. They were tortured for nothing, with no end in sight. Just her, her mind, a dirty cell, rats, and all the other waterbenders lined up right beside her. A culture almost completely erased. When she escaped, she was forced to take refuge in the Fire Nation. Hama's home, the Southern Water Tribe, is now basically unreachable. She's not able to go back home. After decades, how do you fight back now, for all the years of her life taken from her? For all the people that she's lost? Kidnapping Fire Nation villagers and secluding them in a small cave, just as they did to her. That was her version of payback. Hama's mindset and her views have been completely warped. Decades of that soul-crushing prison and a lifetime of control by the Fire Nation will do that to a person. The Fire Nation took her freedom, her autonomy. In order to retake said freedom, Hama developed the ability to take theirs. Hama knows that there are likely very few waterbenders, if any, left from the Southern Water Tribe in the world. She thought she was the last one. So when she has the incredible luck to come across the last one, she teaches her how not to defend herself, but how to fight back. With any means necessary, she says. Hama has nothing else to teach her. She's been so removed from her culture for decades, but what she does know, the depths that the Fire Nation will go to when this war, how terrible they are. She's experienced it first hand. In bloodbending and by force, she passed on her work to Katara. That way the Southern Water Tribe still has one waterbender left, even if she gets captured. This is Hama's fight. This is her anger manifested. Jet and Hama's stories are tragic. They've lost their way. Hama lost at the moment she began to generalize all of the Fire Nation people for the deeds of their army, when she decided to kidnap the innocent. And Jet, when he was ready to sacrifice innocent lives to recover an Earth Kingdom village. Was it for the right reasons? Absolutely. These two were understandable and should be sympathized with, but their actions are not justified. These are two people who are so deeply scarred by the Fire Nation, so deeply hurt by them. After everything that the Fire Nation did to them, to their people, to their culture, their rage is understandable. They've developed legitimate mental conditions as a result of what has happened to them. Trauma, post-traumatic stress, all of these things impair your judgment, your decision making. So no, their actions are not that of healthy people. They've done bad things to those who did not deserve them. I do know, though, that I can afford these two with a bit of sympathy, knowing that Hama is what Katara could have become, and Katara is what Hama could have become. Knowing that Jet is just an angry kid, fifteen years old, who was remorseful. If I can afford Zuko, who burned down villages and repeatedly tried to capture the Avatar, the one hope for the world, and Iroh, who was one of the Fire Nation's greatest generals, if I can offer these two grace, then surely I can afford to give two victims of this story some as well. The gang certainly did for Jet. When Ang is fighting a brainwashed Jet, he calls the freedom fighter his friend. He's clearly forgiven him for what he's done. While they don't have positive endings, Jet and Hama's stories were important, and their perspectives were important. Their anger is important. This depiction of their tragedies is necessary. This war and all of its consequences will not always manifest themselves in ways that are understandable or digestible. Not everyone will just be able to heal, and to move on with their lives, and to make rational decisions. Not everyone had loved ones to go back to. Not everyone had a place to put their grief and their pain. Not everyone heals. These are decades of trauma, lives that have been ruined, cultures forced to be buried. Years of rage don't just go away in an episode. They haunt people. They change people. It makes them do terrible, awful things. Sure, they must take the blame for it, but this is a realistic look at how war affects people. They become vengeful, filled with indiscriminate hate like Hama and Jet. But they are not the root cause of the issue. They are but symptoms of it. The root will and always will be the perpetrators, the oppressors. For Jet and Hama, the root cause has always been the Fire Nation.