Talk:Avatar/@comment-79.177.105.83-20120718163403/@comment-75.47.110.72-20120723022327

Evil is a matter of opinion; However there is no reason an avatar couldn't be. It would be troublesome and their past lives would advise against it and intervene, but at the end of the day nothing could stop an avatar from doing something terrible in all their power. Keeping the balance through having everyone fear and hate you is still keeping balance. Yangchen was said to have brought enough peace that Kuruk didn't have to deal with any conflict when he was avatar (atleast not any that wasn't on a personal level). She also states that she had to sacrifice her spiritual teachings to keep the balance of the world. Chiefly amongst the values of the air nomads is the belief that all life is sacred; This is likely the very value she had to violate. She would have had to have had a major, serious impact on the world to keep so much peace after her death.

Furthermore, to an extent all avatars keep peace through fear. It's not a bad thing necessarily, but it's very easy to turn into a very scary thing when done in the name of balance.