Gyatso

"air"

- The only mistake they made was telling you before you turned sixteen. But we can't concern ourselves with what was. We must act on what is.

Monk Gyatso was Avatar Aang's guardian, mentor, and closest friend before The War, as well as a member on the Council of Elders. According to Aang, he was the greatest Airbender alive at the time, though this may just have been pride for his guardian.

Gyatso was noted for his kindness and sense of humor. Though Aang learned Airbending under him as part of his Avatar training, Gyatso always allowed time for fun and games. Gyatso also had a strong friendship with the previous Avatar, Roku.

Gyatso was killed in the beginning stages of The War; however, he is noted to have defeated a large number of comet-enhanced Fire Nation soldiers before expiring.

Background
Not much is known about Gyatso's early life other than that he grew up in the Southern Air Temple. When Avatar Roku needed to learn his second element, air, he became close friends with Gyatso during their training sessions (leading Roku's spirit to comment in "The Avatar and the Fire Lord" that some friendships are strong enough to be able to transcend lifetimes as Aang, the next Avatar after Roku was also a close friend of Gyatso). In a glider lesson, Gyatso and Roku attempted to beat each other in skill. Roku made loops, and Gyatso got on top of his glider and used it for air surfing (Aang, viewing this in flashback, claimed that Gyatso was a genius and that he had never thought of that). Gyatso soon lost control, however, but was saved by Roku, who then crashed into a group of student Airbenders on the land below.

Eventually, Gyatso became a master Airbender and was promoted to one of the five head monks at the Southern Air Temple. Monk Gyatso was highly respected, a great baker, kind, and very wise; but he remained a bit of a prankster. At some point, Gyatso also befriended a younger Guru Pathik, although the details of this are not known.

Befriending Aang
Twelve years after Roku's death, Gyatso was present when Aang was informed that he was the new Avatar, and Gyatso was appointed as Aang's personal teacher and guardian. He became something like a father to Aang, as well as a close friend and confidant. Gyatso helped Aang with his Airbending training, played games with him and overall just made his time at the temple more enjoyable for Aang, when life was hardest on him.

Even though Aang was training to be the Avatar, Gyatso believed that Aang should grow up as a normal boy. He refused to accelerate Aang's Airbending teaching, and ensured that Aang was content and had time for play. The other monks disagreed with this, believing that Gyatso's compassion for the boy was clouding his judgment. They decreed that Aang was to be sent to the Eastern Air Temple to continue his training. Aang overheard this and, having already been ostracized by his peers after his identity as the Avatar had been revealed, was shocked that the monks wanted to isolate him from his last, and best friend. Not realizing that Gyatso intended to fight this decision, Aang fled the temple with Appa and was subsequently frozen into an iceberg for a hundred years. Gyatso never saw Aang again.

Death
Although the details are unclear, when the Fire Nation somehow found a way inside the Southern Air Temple, they managed to kill Monk Gyatso along with the rest of the temple's population. Gyatso, however, managed to fend off and defeat many Firebenders before his death, regardless of their enhanced abilities as a result of Sozin's Comet.

Legacy


Gyatso's memory lived on in the form of Aang, who grieved his death greatly, going into the Avatar State upon discovering his corpse in the rubble of a destroyed building within the Southern Air Temple, and only came out after being comforted by Katara. He was also one of the things keeping Aang from controlling the Avatar State when he could not let go of his past, his love for Katara and the death of his friends and Gyatso. Eventually, Aang was able to cope with his death and let go of it, finally letting him enter the Avatar State. A statue currently resides in the wall of the Southern Air Temple, celebrating his Airbending prowess.

Trivia

 * Though hundreds of Airbenders, and others, died in the war, Gyatso's skeleton was the only one shown during the whole series.
 * His remains are surrounded by the armor of a large number of Fire Nation soldiers. This was the first indication in the series that Airbending can be lethal, and used to kill.
 * 'Gyatso' is the Tibetan word for "ocean", and is the name given to each incarnation of the Dalai Lama (Full: Tenzin Gyatso).
 * If his name is based off of Tenzin Gyatso, then Aang's son, Tenzin, could be made in homage to his late mentor.
 * Gyatso may have been a member of the Order of the White Lotus, as the Order Of the White Lotus has been around for a long time and he was shown to play Pai Sho with the White Lotus tile.
 * Gyatso is voiced by Sab Shimono, who also voices Master Yu.
 * Near the end of the series, Aang is seen wearing beads that look exactly like Gyatso's.
 * These strings of beads, in Buddhist tradition, are used to create a necklace called a 'Mala'. These are used to count Prayers for monks (or any practitioner who wants to use them).
 * In early drafts, Momo was supposed to be Gyatso's reincarnation. This idea ultimately went unused.