Still, females and males could still have interacted outside of the temples, and generally when they weren't meditating.
They could. What we need to know is wether or not they would have some kind of code of conduct to stop them from being, you know, intimate.
Gyatso had a father-like relationship with Aang.
It was also shown that they could easily decide to separate Gyatso from Aang if they thought he wasn't doing a good job of guiding the avatar. Remembering that Gyatso spent all that time with Aang because he is the avatar, he didn't spend time the same way with the other kids. He wouldn't even have time anyway to spend it individually with each kid.
(wasn't it Penma? Oh well...)
Nah, it's Pema.
I suppose since she wasn't born as a part of the air-nation, she had other... views on not being allowed to raise her kids.
And i suppose that Tenzin took her views as more important than the tradition of his nation. So using him is not really a good idea, both because of how LoK is contradictory and how he changes the AN's traditions all the time.
Did they exist before the original Ai Nation fell?
They existed before the Air Nation was made. If you mean the Air Nomads, then no.
Do they abide the laws of the original Air Nation?
They abide by whatever laws or cultural norms Aang taught them. Even before they met Aang they would act according to books left behind and stuff(even train airbending moves without the bending part, wich made Aang angry for some reason). I guess it wasn't good enough that they abandoned their families to live in temples and study AN culture, they couldn't be AN without being airbenders. The information we do have about them is that they are not considered to be the air nation, but a bunch of shmucks that know nothing about the culture the acolytes spent years of their lives studying, are considered part of the Air Nation. Because they have airbending. And that is all we need to know.
Everything that you wouldn't leave behind without hesitation is a burden and a worldly bond, is it not?
Yeah, but somehow it was only Katara for Aang. Not even Appa.
The problems you have with couples are the same you have with friends, although at a larger scale.
Again, as seen with Aang, they can easily meditate and get rid of grief, shame, etc. It was only when letting go of someone he had romantic feelings for that he couldn't do it. The large scale is the problem, because smaller scales are easily dealt with by meditation.
The monks understand that, as humans, we can't help but feel all those feelings but we must strive to get rid of them. Love itself doesn't get in the way of spiritual growth, it is the intensity of said love that does. Detaching yourself is not about stop caring or stop making bonds, it's about the realization that everything is temporary and you can't control anything. The reason monks live ascetic lives isn't because pleasure is bad per se, but because it is addictive. If you can't imagine yourself living without that pleasure, then it is an attachment.
Now, you can say that they can just do whatever and not get too into it. But can they(and wouldn't it bring back the question about hippie monks doing free love and stuff? seems counterproductive to spiritual growth as well)? Can someone use drugs from time to time and then just stop doing them whenever they want without even thinking about the drugs? And this goes for everything, since people get addicted to literally anything, including smelling cow shit. So, really, having them live separatedly to stop actions that greatly attach people would seem like an obvious thing to do in a culture like the AN's.
If you want kids to become detached, have them kill their best friend once they're 13 or something
Do i really need to point out how this is counterproductive to spiritual growth?
Yes, but the picture in the comic showed people holding their palms against each other, not kissing or... mating...
Did they need to? I thought it was pretty obvious by the way they were looking into each other's eyes that they had more than friendship going on. If you look like that into the eyes of any of your friends you should really think about your life and what you want to do with it, because your friendship will not be the same anymore.
Seriously, is there no way to create children mechanically or something? I really want kids, but the creation-process seems disgusting.
I don't know. Are you a man? If yes, WHAT? It's not disgusting at all, what are you talking about? Are you a virgin? Because if yes, i can see why you would think that, but don't worry. As long as you are with someone you love it will be an amazing experience. And i really don't recommend you to have kids without a proper familiar structure to raise them, or economic stability.
Are you not a virgin? That's weird then.
Are you a woman? Well, you could get a donation and don't go through the creative process. Still don't recommend it.
we have no prove that the Air Nomads had the same concept of love as we did.
I don't think it matters, really. We are discussing our concept of love, if theirs is different, then i don't see how they would be making couples anyway as this is something we do. Even because taking into consideration all the things i cited, it makes little sense for them to even consider romantic love to be something.
As you said, they loved everyone and each other and I already said that Kya wasn't really precise on how exactly insane-flying-monk-love works.
Again, the image of the monks staring at each other's eyes was telling a lot.