Spoilers Off applies to all Tear Jerker pages, so all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
No one said that being the Avatar wasn't a harrowing and heartbreaking experience.
- While it had been inferred in previous Avatar material, just having to be reminded that Kuruk was likely the youngest Avatar to die at only thirty-three years old.
- The reason for his death: Yangchen got so popular with humans by neglecting the spirit world, throwing things out of balance. Kuruk had to travel around to appease the spirits alone and in secret to preserve Yangchen's good image. The exhaustion eventually caused his death, and he was remembered as a slacker.
- Yun. Poor Yun. Being relied on as the Avatar and pushing himself to be the best Avatar he could be despite the pressure for so many years, and he has to find out that the girl he has a crush on and his closest confidant is the true Avatar absolutely breaks him. Not only that, but his father-figure/teacher immediately is fine with sacrificing Yun to Father Glowworm the moment he confirms that Yun is just a normal earth-bender and is dragged off to the spirit world. Kyoshi is forced to watch all of this, drugged by an incense to paralyze her and she screams in agony as she watches her friend disappear into the tunnel.
- Kyoshi watching as her father figure is killed by his close friend Jianzhu which triggers her Avatar state and she creates a small crater on the small island.
- Then when she finds Kelsang's bison, she cries into the animal's fur, as they likely felt the bond with Kelsang being severed.
- Lek's backstory. He and his brother were only doing what they could to survive, and yet his older brother was arrested as a criminal and left to hang in a cage in a desert, with no food or water. Lek does all he can to break the chains and free his older brother, but he can't reach and refuses to move from his spot. His brother ends up dying anyway, leaving Lek tired, dehydrated and wondering if he should follow suit.
- Just as Lek has finally become something akin to a younger sibling to Kyoshi, Jianzhu shoot her, Rangi and Lek with a poisoned Shirzu dart. While Rangi is kidnapped, Kyoshi is once again paralyzed, unable to do anything as she's forced to watch as Lek slowly succumbs to the poison and then dies in front of her.
- Kirima is the one who takes Lek's death the hardest as she weeps over his corpse.
- In a way, Kuruk's companions. Particularly Jianzhu. Yes, Jianzhu.
- Kelsang seems at first to be the less affected by the ordeals put upon him. He is still the gentle, friendly man who traveled with Kuruk years ago. However, his heart is scarred by the extreme measures he took to contribute in upholding peace and balance in Kuruk's absence. This has caused him to fall from grace as an Air Nomad and the guilt of causing death, pain and fear still makes him cry. Tagaka's provocation made him break into tears the moment he got out of sight.
- Hei-Ran has kept her discipline and energy from the years as an Avatar companion, but without much of the kindness hinted at. Her love is dedicated to her daughter and she is clearly fond of Yun, but she has become Jianzhu's staunchest ally and fellow conspirator, helping him mold the Earth Kingdom as he sees fit. After Jianzhu kills Kelsang in a fit of anger while trying to take Kyoshi from him, Hei-Ran laments to Jianzhu how low they had both sunk, knitting their plots instead of mourning the death of their beloved friend. Jianzhu cannot disagree, even if he prefers to keep his mind focused on the political game.
- Jianzhu was Kuruk's first companion, the first among the great friends the Avatar loved so much and probably the one who was closest to Kuruk. They traveled together, learnt together, lived together. But then Kuruk died and his companions promised to keep balance and peace in his stead and do everything on their power to help the new Avatar. Jianzhu took the reins of the Earth Kingdom and dived into the muddy waters of politics and economy. He became a cruel, cold and fearsome man, willing to kill thousands single-handedly in the name of peace, eliminate any obstacle or foe to keep his power and his vision of stability, cheat, lie, use, and betray anyone for his own benefit. But the worst part of all is: he is clearly not a psycho. Jianzhu does feel emotions, guilt and sadness. This means that his inner corruption and drive for power in the name of his lofty goals is strong enough to overcome anything else. When killing his dear friend Kelsang, for a moment, Jianzhu is surprised and saddened at his own actions and, when walking through his estate and being reminded of Kelsang, he felt pangs of grief. When he poisoned Hei-Ran (along with himself) in a political move, he watched over her as she recovered and guilt almost made him weep. But alas, it wasn't enough. Kyoshi often thinks of him as a monster or a demon, but reality is much worse.
- This bring to the table a harsh truth. We all change with time. Of course, this is nothing bad in itself, but it goes to show that the happy group of friends who loved each other and travelled the world together, and made the solemn promise of bettering the world, can turn into... this, after shouldering the world's weight for too long. There is barely anything left of Kuruk's dear friends by the time the story gets going. It is a heartbreaking subversion of the whole Team Avatar idea.
- The worst part is that Kuruk probably had to watch (or at the very least hear about) his closest friends killing each other through his reincarnation.
