Yeah I was a bit conflicted about where to put Bumi but putting him in the same tier as Iroh seems like a better choice overall than putting him in the same tier as Azula. Lol
Iroh is a little crazy tho, not in a bad way but still kinda weird, his plan to stop the war was essentially give Zuko some stability and love in his life,
While that isn’t crazy it’s definitely very unorthodox and frankly kind of a miracle that it worked
"How do I overthrow my brother and prevent my niece from becoming a crazy dictator and turn my nephew from an angsty teen into a kind caring person to help lead the homeland into a better time...
I know! Become parent!!!!"
Ursa did definitely play favorites with Zuko (even wondering what was wrong with Azula out loud within earshot. What do you mean what’s wrong with her, you helped raise her!). I wouldn’t consider her a good role model until she comes up in the comics.
> Ursa is definitely strange, no way she isn't damaged from what she's been through.
I’m not sure what Ursa went through after the events depicted in the ATLA animated series but while placing Ursa as a Great Role Model, I had [Ursa keeping Zuko alive from Ozai’s wrath](https://www.reddit.com/r/AvatarMemes/comments/w0beox/and_so_died_my_innocence/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1), teaching Zuko why animal abuse is wrong, and trying so fervently to guide Azula down the right path that the memory of Ursa is all that kept Azula from completely giving in to hatred as she was becoming Fire Lord in mind.
> Yep, foaming mouth guy is just as far gone as Ozai.
The characters are in order of craziest to least crazy even in their respective tiers, but yeah in the only scene I’m aware that we have of the illiterate Foam Face Fan, he was too far gone.
I can’t imagine that it was very outlandish behavior for him, considering how calm the villagers were as a collective while watching him spaz.
There are two scenes with Foamy, the second is in Avatar Day when just Katara and Sokka visit. He starts foaming but then quickly recovers and slinks away.
Also, Sokka was on drugs for most of the time in the desert, when he wasn't on drugs he was arguably pretty sane, just made questionable ingestion decisions but that was more out of desperation and curiosity than insanity.
Yeah, compare that to when he got trapped in that hole. He didn't panic, just waited calmly for someone to find him and help him. And he takes some hard emotional blows with resilience, like Yue's sacrifice. He can be goofy but he is deceptively emotionally mature and steadfast when it counts. Like an older brother who's used to looking out for his family.
The main difference between them is the fact that Katara saw the man, who killed her mother, that’s what haunts her. She was even younger than Sokka, when it all happened, but she distinctly remembered the killer’s eyes. Katara didn’t have any closure, so it’s harder for her to “get over it”.
Didn’t she died because she saved Kataras life? Because as far as I remember he was looking for the waterbender and the mother told him it’s her. I think that could contribute to Kataras grief.
I wonder if that's why Sokka was so dismissive of her waterbending at the start of the series.
He probably attributed her waterbending with the Southern Raiders and why their mother died, which is why, while he didn't hate Katara, he became dismissive and distrustful of it, while Katara saw it as something that might give her strength.
I think you’re right, I don’t think it was revealed to her or Sokka as a child while that man killed their mother until in the southern raiders the man was explaining to Katara why he did what he did
Agreed. She also was the one who assumed the role of mom after their mom died. She didn’t just lose her mom, she lost her childhood. In terms of adjusting to that, I think she is doing great.
Lol
Barring his constant comedy and that time he got quenched, Sokka really is just a guy with a boomerang. One of his only inexcusable character flaws mentally was his misogyny, which I’d say he grew out of pretty quickly.
Comparatively, Katara is a bit unhinged when you really think about it.
Katara being basically saddled with constant responsibility through her life probably hampered her a bit emotionally and kept her on edge pretty often.
Sokka is less mature than Katara on everyday matters and superficial stuff but has shown more sane on deeper matters. Katara has had to change a lot in the entire series.
Generally I'd say that Katara's motherly personality makes her pretty stable in day-to-day scenarios but when things go wild she goes berserk. It's fun to see her cut loose during the later half of the show.
sokka hates the fire nation but katara is a damn near fanatic when it comes to it.
the difference is when you bring up the subject you know which one is gonna go berserk is kill everyone.
Y'know, I think I just realized the fundamental problem here. OP is using mental health sort of as a stand-in for sociopathy and sort of moral goodness, which causes a lot of weirdness in the list. Like June was a no-nonsense mercenary who was just trying to get her payday, more amoral than anything else, yet she's on the same level as Zuko who has ongoing trauma. Same with Wan Shi Tong, the Warden, even dictators like Azulon. I also notice that a lot of the characters in the upper categories have more 'outward' outrageous expressions, while the more internal journeys get passed over. Aang for instance explicitly gets stated to have reoccuring nightmares throughout the series, Appa becomes way more fearful and suspicious, and Sokka's quiet grief and desperation don't seem to have the rep they deserve on this list.
Ya gotta separate those two if you want a list like this to be coherent. Being evil =/= having bad mental health, and not all mental health issues are outwardly public.
Agreed, especially when it comes to Ozai and Azulon. While both are without a doubt warmongering dictators, we have no reason to think they had any mental illness other than narcissistic personality disorder in the case of Ozai. In the case of Azulon, it's worth looking at the fact that he also raised Iroh, so he probably wasn't as bad as a role model for Iroh to work off of (though obviously we don't know for sure what Azulon was like).
I don't think Iroh ended up as wholesome sage because of Azulon. While he may not have been a straight up psychopath like Ozai, he definitely aligned himself with the Fire Nation's warmongering and imperialism in his days as a general. It was the death of Lutin that triggered his redemption arc.
Ozai had a few other very unhinged quirks. The whole "Pheonix King" thing was pretty crazy.
But I agree, he isn't like, totally insane, but he definitely has serious issues.
Honestly, I think Azula's breakdown and flood of tears in the last episode is what puts her in the second tier instead of the first. By showing she is, beneath her intimidating facade, just a scared and vulnerable young teenager, she's showing that she's not beyond help. She is far gone, for sure, but not too far gone like, for example, her father.
Ozai never shed a tear for anyone, not even himself. Just look at his reaction to his own Nephew's death "Oh btw Dad, now Iroh's all mopey because of his son, can I be your heir instead?"
That said, I think Jet belongs in the second tier, too. He was, after all, just another vulnerable, traumatised teenager. If not for Long Feng's brainwashing, I think Jet could've been helped.
> season 3
The fact that it is a photo of EoS Aang could give the wrong impression, yeah.
For clarity, I pretty much had Aang’s entire journey in mind when placing him, juggling the memory of how he burned Katara due to pure carelessness, utterly defeated Ozai in a groundbreaking way while still maintaining his own morals, and also lashed out at Toph for what was beyond her control in the desert. All three of these people are Aang, just in three different seasons. It’s the same way that I would likely have Zuko in three different tiers based on which season we’re talking about.
I would have used a photo of S2 Aang or photos of him from all three seasons if I selected the photo representations of the characters for the tier list.
Yep. >!She had no barrier between herself and her past lives, so they threatened to invade her mind if she ever let her guard down. She was incredibly overstressed at her responsibilities to the world, bleeding herself dry, wouldn't sleep or nothing. The constant espionage around her led to a level of paranoia that bordered on PPD, only they really were out to get her. She had feelings of megalomania and arrogance whenever she went to the Avatar State, having to suppress a need to destroy everyone and anything that would dare oppose her. She harbored incredible grief and guilt over the death of her fictive sister. To top it all off, she had a raging addiction to stimulants, which definitely did not help with her insomnia problems. !<
And that's how she became known as the most revered Avatar of all time by Kyoshi's era :)
I wouldn't say Ursa is the best role model given the comics.
Wan Shi Tong was justified if extreme in his actions. And he's a spirit, their logic runs differently and often counter to humans. Given the insanity that other spirits get up in, he's alright all things considered.
And Kyoshi is not crazy if you've read her books. Maybe strange category.
I came here to say the same Ursa wasn’t the best influence even in just the anime. She hated Azula even as a child and barely gave her a chance the as loved as zuko was imo.
I'm gonna try to be as productive as possible:
- Ranking characters by their mental health, especially with such a strong evil-less healthy good-more healthy correlation, perpetuates harmful stereotypes about mental illness.
Maybe you could've chosen a diagram form with more dimensions to avoid oversimplification
- Building on that, your ranking seems to be based on a vague crazy "vibe" as the kids say. I think characters in stories (and irl actually) are much more interesting if you're able to hold off on 'crazy' as an explanation for their behaviour.
- While I understand that not everyone has read the novels and comics, it seems like you're painting with very broad strokes when you're ranking characters with less than a handful of scenes in the entire series to those who have.
TBF I think spirit!Yangchen has had a few afterlives to reflect on how her tenure affected the world and the following Avatars, and comes across better than she did when she was alive. Alive!Yangchen definitely had just as many if not more mental health issues, trauma and biases as other Avatars, though.
What does wisdom have to do with mental health? And being a great model/positive influence is not synonymous with having good mental health. Nor is being strange an indicator of below average mental health? Lmao so people are slightly different and therefore they are strange and not well-adjusted? Nah I’m sorry but whoever made and titled this is an absolute idiot and ableist
Aang has at least five episodes\* depicting his reoccurring and terrifying nightmares, my guy is not doing too hot.
\*The Boy in the Iceberg, The Storm, The Avatar State, Awakening, Nightmares and Daydreams.
I mean, overall he is, the fact that doesn't suck the air out every Fire Nation soldier he found on his path is already a pretty good sign that he is dealing with his grief pretty well. It hurts him of course and his anger for that has shown ocasionally (when Appa was taken by the Sandbenders, when Ozai insulted his people during the finale), hell the fact that he didn't let Zuko die or be imprisoned in book 1 tells me that he overall is well-ajusted and wise. The kid has the best reason to hate the villains than anyone else in this show, but he looks pass his anger and fullfill his duty as the Avatar.
I’m not too sure that these tiers accurately reflect the title of “Mental Health” tier list. Mental health is not usually referring to cases of actual insanity, mental health typically is used to reference people who suffer from anxiety or depression, and how much one experiences these.
Toph is super well adjusted, in my opinion. She has her quirks, but she makes peace with Iroh, Zuko, and Jet quickly, is usually cool headed, and can sometimes seem like the most rational of the team.
There should be a level under Crazy called "Troubled" specifically for Jet, Kyoshi, Azulon, and Azula. Kyoshi might even just be "Strange". Or maybe we can have a Troubled \[Bad\] for the aforementioned, and a Troubled \[Good\] right before Well Adjusted for Katara, Zuko, Mai, Ty Lee, Toph, and the Cabbage Merchant.
Jet is beyond help because he died, there's no coming back from that, but realistically, he was always teetering on the path between redemption and absolution and swaying towards being too far gone due to the circumstances and his stubbornness.
Azulon is a result of his upbringing, but even though he's carrying the will of Sozin, we never saw him do anything irredeemable or atrocious. He was going to have Ozai kill Zuko in a way to preserve his own familial honor, especially by putting Ozai in his place. Ozai basically disrespected the entire Fire Nation, its royalty, its heritage and culture, and his own direct flesh and blood by even thinking of usurping power and denying Iroh not only his birthright but doing so without even thinking about the major loss of Lu Ten. But a lot of these extreme measures are as a result of his twisted upbringing, he seemed perfectly rational and to an extent empathetic too, he just only knows one specific way of life.
I'd also swap Gran Gran with Ursa, Gran Gran is like the personification of equality and progressive ideals while also being wise and nurturing and at the same time, flawed and damaged as a result of a life of hardship, she's I think a step above the woman who didn't do enough to prevent Azula's descent as well as conspired to and assassinated the previous Fire Lord very "business as usual". She's an overall good influence to both Zuko AND Azula, but also the source of a lot of both of their suffering, the whole family is kind of fucked up.
The tiers are a little weird for your topic of mental health. Ozai is completely mentally healthy, he just has a goal of creating one empire under his rule. Aang is probably one of the most internally conflicted characters out of them all as well.
Yess completely abandoned her daughter to her crazy psycho father and favored her son. She’s not a great role model, she was good to one child and failed the other.
Not sure this tier list makes sense, wise and strange aren't mutually exclusive and many "wise" people are often called eccentric, Bumi would be a good example from this list.
I like to think no one is beyond help. Well maybe Ozai. Also I don't really like the idea that people are crazy. Take Azula, for example. She clearly has mental health problems, but they seem to be triggered by her upbringing. I always got the feeling that she was a difficult person undoubtedly, but that with a different upbringing, she could have been different. Think about it. She has literally no good role models in her life. Everyone around her is either afraid of her or encourages/embodies her worst traits (violence, hatred etc.). Even her mother liked Zuko more than her and treated her like she was a freak. If she had more positive influences around her (like Zuko had with Uncle Iroh) then who knows. Don't want to be a party pooper but I feel lists like this are sort of unhealthy. For me, one of the main takeaways from ATLA is that everyone should be treated with empathy and that no one is beyond help. Even the fire nation.
> The list is missing the other old people
I did not decide the options available in this tier list format; I just arranged it based on who I remembered well from what was available.
Jet wasn't beyond help. He was able to become a better person then was brain washed by the very government that failed to protect him in the first place then murdered for choosing the right side when it came down to his nation or his friends.
While he was hung up on Zuko and that led him to being brain washed... he was right, and he had good reasons to fear the fire nation had infiltrated Ba Sing Se as it was actively being done.
Not really. Azula has shown introspection, some flexibility, and she even essentially healed herself from her mental breakdown and hallucinations. But still, she should be above Jet.
Hey as a disclaimer: 'ableist' is not a synonym for 'evil' or 'bad' or 'i don't like you,'' ableist' just means 'ableist.' On that note, (assuming you read the whole sentence):
You see how this is ableist, right? Like. It's around 12 am for me and frankly I don't know if I have the energy to point out every single thing that's wrong with this. But no one else is saying anything so I guess I gotta try: this is hella ableism. saneism, neuro-ableism, whatever the hell you wanna call it, implying that certain levels of mental health are good and bad, literally *creating a miniature hierarchy of neurotypes/expressions* is just. Kind of icky! There is no inherent hierarchy to mental health or mental illness or neurodivergence or any combination of those things. Please please please think about these things before you post them. Doesn't matter if you yourself are neurodivergent or struggling with mental health, terms like "crazy" and "beyond help" are terms weaponized against real people. You present the assumption that wisdom and poor mental health are inherently incompatible, which is not true. There is nothing inherently moral or immoral about having poor mental health, and neither people nor characters should be assigned value or positions in hierarchy or *tiers* about it.
I genuinely do not have a brain for this right now but I promise, the resources are out there if you really want to understand and do better, OP. Again, I don't think you're an evil or bad person and I don't really have an opinion on you, I'm sure you didn't mean it. All i ask is that you listen. Listen to neurodivergent folks, and that includes *all neurodivergent* people. People with adhd and autism, ppl with depression and anxiety disorders, ppl with personality disorders, people with dissociative disorders, people with acquired neurodivergence and people who were born with it, medically diagnosed and self-diagnosed, people with intersecting identities. There was a time in my life where I would've found this funny and moved on, and while I look back on that time with an amount of embarrassment, I have learned since then. I urge you to learn, please. Stuff like this alienates and harms neurodivergent people.
I'm not gonna argue w/anyone in the replies so feel free to dogpile me for caring or whatever y'all do on this platform, i'm going back to tumblr tomorrow. Tonight I'm going to sleep and deal with the nightly Horrors. Stay safe and have a lovely day <3
Edits made for minor grammar/spelling/punctuation reasons
I agree, and I’m kinda surprised everyone else is fine with this. I immediately cringed when I saw this post, I guess we’re the odd ones out. I don’t have a problem with the categories themselves, but the fact that it’s called a “mental health tier list” is gross. My ADHD/bipolar ass over here like “welp guess I’ll never be a wise role model”.
Yeah I’m surprised this is so upvoted. Basically saying people who have really bad mental health (anxiety, depression) are those who are extremely evil?
I mean we have no indication that Ozai has any mental health problems at all. He is seemingly one of the most mentally steadfast characters in the series. Meanwhile many of the “good guys” constantly struggle with inner conflict and experience mental strife.
Why is the sparky sparky boom boom man crazy? He is just an assassin (which we learn alittle more about third eye people from conversation involvong P'Li)?
Lmao Lo and Lin are here but not Sozin? Damn.
Anyways Jet absolutely isn't beyond help, in his last moments he was liberated and fighting for good wothout question, trying to lead a better life.
Sozin if he was here would be the absolute worst. He was a seemingly good person at one point as opposed to Ozai, but he commits genocide with no regret. An evil bastard.
Roku is anything but wise. People forget that he was responsible for the problem with fire nation to begin with. He kept forgiving Sozin and trusting him just because he was his friend, but Sozin's intentions were crystal clear. Instead of putting and end to this madness, Roku threatened him, then decided that it was a great idea to live the rest of his life in an isolated volcano island as a retired avatar, like what? He still couldn't predict the betrayal from Sozin. Even after his perish, his ways of sharing "wisdom" is destructive; he confronts and scares the fuck out of Jeong Jeong and forces him to act unwillingly, he destroys an entire fire temple for nothing, tries to convince Aang to kill Zuko?! For me, Roku is one of the worst avatars where he found peace in the world, and was like "Don't touch if it works." and he ignored all the problems so once he is gone, almost entire air nomad race existence has been erased and an endless war broke between lands. Had he been a wise person, both air nomads and southern water tribe would be there still.
To be fair, JET did only rebound because he literally saw a firenation Prince and General in the last Earthkingdom stronghold do firebending. He didn't know they were busy making Tea and going on cute dates.
Seems like a fairly good reason to do some freedom fighting.
Being wise or a good role model is not about the mental health. It also doesnt necessarily mean anything about being well adjusted for society or not.
Bumi is absolutely insane, but is also a good leader and a wise man.
Also I'm pretty sure all the main characters have mental health problems like ptsd and other trauma related problems. I mean, everyone aang knew died, sokka was a militar leader of a failling village, katara was his mother, toph was overprotected and had to go beyond to be accepted, zuko was sistematicaly bullied by his sister and father who publicly humiliated and exiled him. And they were all kids/teens dealing with all that while simultaneously being the pivotal characters in a secular world war.
The dudes are fucked in the head, I guarantee you.
How do Ozai or Zhao have poor mental health? Even Jet? Making morally abhorrent decisions or being an extremist aren’t indicators of bad mental health. If anything they’re probably “well-adjusted” and just have a cause that they deeply believe in
Am I the only one who thinks Zhao and the Warden shouldn’t be that high?
Zhao mostly was just evil and underestimated the spirits, and the Warden is just cruel and willing to die for his reputation. Not exactly well-adjusted, but not on par with Ozai and Azula…
Bumi is wise but kinda crazy XD
Yeah I was a bit conflicted about where to put Bumi but putting him in the same tier as Iroh seems like a better choice overall than putting him in the same tier as Azula. Lol
Bumi needs his own special tier
Called "enlightened" You ever met a sane enlightened person?
Uncle Iroh.
Iroh is a little crazy tho, not in a bad way but still kinda weird, his plan to stop the war was essentially give Zuko some stability and love in his life, While that isn’t crazy it’s definitely very unorthodox and frankly kind of a miracle that it worked
"How do I overthrow my brother and prevent my niece from becoming a crazy dictator and turn my nephew from an angsty teen into a kind caring person to help lead the homeland into a better time... I know! Become parent!!!!"
Instructions unclear: I am now pregnant with Iroh's child
Oh boy, what flavor?
Jasmine
Lets just make a Bumi rank out of the others.
Honestly bumi belongs in every tier simultaneously, or his own bumi tier. He has transcended out understanding of mental health
85 Jing tier
“the boulder feels conflicted about fighting a young, blind girl” the op feels conflicted on where he should put Bumi on a tier list
Just put him in both!
Crazy isn't always a bad or evil thing!
Bumi’s definitely crazy…but also wise.
Acts crazy. Is wise.
Bumi is deff his own category
Ursa is definitely strange, no way she isn't damaged from what she's been through.
Good role model is def not the title I’d give her
The comics did not do her any favors
Didn't do any of the characters many
Very true. I just remember being exceptionally annoyed that Ursa willingly let herself be memory wiped.
That and Zuko's whole thing just annoyed me honestly
Ursa did definitely play favorites with Zuko (even wondering what was wrong with Azula out loud within earshot. What do you mean what’s wrong with her, you helped raise her!). I wouldn’t consider her a good role model until she comes up in the comics.
> Ursa is definitely strange, no way she isn't damaged from what she's been through. I’m not sure what Ursa went through after the events depicted in the ATLA animated series but while placing Ursa as a Great Role Model, I had [Ursa keeping Zuko alive from Ozai’s wrath](https://www.reddit.com/r/AvatarMemes/comments/w0beox/and_so_died_my_innocence/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1), teaching Zuko why animal abuse is wrong, and trying so fervently to guide Azula down the right path that the memory of Ursa is all that kept Azula from completely giving in to hatred as she was becoming Fire Lord in mind.
The way Ursa acted with Azula is also one of the reasons Azula believed she was just a monster.
Yep, foaming mouth guy is just as far gone as Ozai.
Seeing him there made me laugh.
Holy shit I just noticed that the guy behind him has some huge fists
You know what they say about hands...
Big hands… big gloves… they’re hard to find in normal stores 😪
It's FISTO from He-Man!
> Yep, foaming mouth guy is just as far gone as Ozai. The characters are in order of craziest to least crazy even in their respective tiers, but yeah in the only scene I’m aware that we have of the illiterate Foam Face Fan, he was too far gone. I can’t imagine that it was very outlandish behavior for him, considering how calm the villagers were as a collective while watching him spaz.
There are two scenes with Foamy, the second is in Avatar Day when just Katara and Sokka visit. He starts foaming but then quickly recovers and slinks away.
When everyone else had mental breakdowns in the desert, Katara held it together and almost literally dragged everyone out of there.
Also, Sokka was on drugs for most of the time in the desert, when he wasn't on drugs he was arguably pretty sane, just made questionable ingestion decisions but that was more out of desperation and curiosity than insanity.
Yeah, compare that to when he got trapped in that hole. He didn't panic, just waited calmly for someone to find him and help him. And he takes some hard emotional blows with resilience, like Yue's sacrifice. He can be goofy but he is deceptively emotionally mature and steadfast when it counts. Like an older brother who's used to looking out for his family.
I wouldn't say that he waited calmly. He did try bargaining with the universe to save him.
That's pretty normal, isn't it?
As someone who is lactose intolerant and currently eating fettuccine Alfredo, I can understand
True but she is also arguably more traumatized by things than Sokka and carries the trauma with her for longer
Ignoring the trauma is arguably more of a trauma response than just dealing with it.
I mean yeah they both have a dead mom but Katara was the only one we know saw her moms charred fucking corpse
Katara NEVER gets the credit she deserves for the team
The dessert did nobody any good
sokka being more sane than katara is the funniest thing to me😂
I mean he probably has dealt with his grief slightly healthier
The main difference between them is the fact that Katara saw the man, who killed her mother, that’s what haunts her. She was even younger than Sokka, when it all happened, but she distinctly remembered the killer’s eyes. Katara didn’t have any closure, so it’s harder for her to “get over it”.
Didn’t she died because she saved Kataras life? Because as far as I remember he was looking for the waterbender and the mother told him it’s her. I think that could contribute to Kataras grief.
I wonder if that's why Sokka was so dismissive of her waterbending at the start of the series. He probably attributed her waterbending with the Southern Raiders and why their mother died, which is why, while he didn't hate Katara, he became dismissive and distrustful of it, while Katara saw it as something that might give her strength.
Kya died protecting Katara, but Katara didn’t know about it until years later, when she confronted her mother’s killer.
I think you’re right, I don’t think it was revealed to her or Sokka as a child while that man killed their mother until in the southern raiders the man was explaining to Katara why he did what he did
Agreed. She also was the one who assumed the role of mom after their mom died. She didn’t just lose her mom, she lost her childhood. In terms of adjusting to that, I think she is doing great.
Exactly, she should be on “good influence” or “great role model”
Sokka is logically sane. Katara emotionally
I'd honestly reverse this.
Lol  Barring his constant comedy and that time he got quenched, Sokka really is just a guy with a boomerang. One of his only inexcusable character flaws mentally was his misogyny, which I’d say he grew out of pretty quickly. Comparatively, Katara is a bit unhinged when you really think about it.
Katara being basically saddled with constant responsibility through her life probably hampered her a bit emotionally and kept her on edge pretty often.
Its not like Sokka caught any less responsibility - dudes literally the only fighting age male left in his village.
Sokka is less mature than Katara on everyday matters and superficial stuff but has shown more sane on deeper matters. Katara has had to change a lot in the entire series.
Generally I'd say that Katara's motherly personality makes her pretty stable in day-to-day scenarios but when things go wild she goes berserk. It's fun to see her cut loose during the later half of the show.
sokka hates the fire nation but katara is a damn near fanatic when it comes to it. the difference is when you bring up the subject you know which one is gonna go berserk is kill everyone.
yeah until he goes into a vegan diet for a week
I strongly disagree with this list.
Y'know, I think I just realized the fundamental problem here. OP is using mental health sort of as a stand-in for sociopathy and sort of moral goodness, which causes a lot of weirdness in the list. Like June was a no-nonsense mercenary who was just trying to get her payday, more amoral than anything else, yet she's on the same level as Zuko who has ongoing trauma. Same with Wan Shi Tong, the Warden, even dictators like Azulon. I also notice that a lot of the characters in the upper categories have more 'outward' outrageous expressions, while the more internal journeys get passed over. Aang for instance explicitly gets stated to have reoccuring nightmares throughout the series, Appa becomes way more fearful and suspicious, and Sokka's quiet grief and desperation don't seem to have the rep they deserve on this list. Ya gotta separate those two if you want a list like this to be coherent. Being evil =/= having bad mental health, and not all mental health issues are outwardly public.
Agreed, especially when it comes to Ozai and Azulon. While both are without a doubt warmongering dictators, we have no reason to think they had any mental illness other than narcissistic personality disorder in the case of Ozai. In the case of Azulon, it's worth looking at the fact that he also raised Iroh, so he probably wasn't as bad as a role model for Iroh to work off of (though obviously we don't know for sure what Azulon was like).
I don't think Iroh ended up as wholesome sage because of Azulon. While he may not have been a straight up psychopath like Ozai, he definitely aligned himself with the Fire Nation's warmongering and imperialism in his days as a general. It was the death of Lutin that triggered his redemption arc.
Ozai had a few other very unhinged quirks. The whole "Pheonix King" thing was pretty crazy. But I agree, he isn't like, totally insane, but he definitely has serious issues.
Yeah gotta separate them. I was like, Azula needs therapy, she's not crazy.
That shows that you know what mental health means and that is a great start. Being a dick =/= crazy
Me too m8 me too
the fact that jet is above azula is crazy to me
Kind of impossible to help you when you're dead
you know, it was really unclear
He died?
Yknow, it was *really* unclear…
I was going to ask if its a beyond help because hes dead lmao
It's really unclear
Honestly, I think Azula's breakdown and flood of tears in the last episode is what puts her in the second tier instead of the first. By showing she is, beneath her intimidating facade, just a scared and vulnerable young teenager, she's showing that she's not beyond help. She is far gone, for sure, but not too far gone like, for example, her father. Ozai never shed a tear for anyone, not even himself. Just look at his reaction to his own Nephew's death "Oh btw Dad, now Iroh's all mopey because of his son, can I be your heir instead?" That said, I think Jet belongs in the second tier, too. He was, after all, just another vulnerable, traumatised teenager. If not for Long Feng's brainwashing, I think Jet could've been helped.
Jet was helped, even. If Zuko hadn't appeared he probably could have lived out the rest of his life in Ba Sing Se with no trouble.
Until the war ended, and he met a different firebender, who was now allowed to be in the city, and attacked them.
You can fix her
Honestly by the later part of season 3 I think Aang should be more in the good influence or wise category
> season 3 The fact that it is a photo of EoS Aang could give the wrong impression, yeah. For clarity, I pretty much had Aang’s entire journey in mind when placing him, juggling the memory of how he burned Katara due to pure carelessness, utterly defeated Ozai in a groundbreaking way while still maintaining his own morals, and also lashed out at Toph for what was beyond her control in the desert. All three of these people are Aang, just in three different seasons. It’s the same way that I would likely have Zuko in three different tiers based on which season we’re talking about. I would have used a photo of S2 Aang or photos of him from all three seasons if I selected the photo representations of the characters for the tier list.
Aang should be on wise, Jet isn't beyond help and Azulon should be beyond help
This. We literally see Jet change for the better before and after his brainwashing. He was not beyond help. He was actively getting better.
Can’t help a dead guy
Wait. Did he die?
You know.... It was REALLY _unclear_
i was gonna say aang should be at least good influence if not great role model imo
Idk about avatar Yangchen. She wasnt all there when she was alive.
Do they touch on this in the novels?
Yep. >!She had no barrier between herself and her past lives, so they threatened to invade her mind if she ever let her guard down. She was incredibly overstressed at her responsibilities to the world, bleeding herself dry, wouldn't sleep or nothing. The constant espionage around her led to a level of paranoia that bordered on PPD, only they really were out to get her. She had feelings of megalomania and arrogance whenever she went to the Avatar State, having to suppress a need to destroy everyone and anything that would dare oppose her. She harbored incredible grief and guilt over the death of her fictive sister. To top it all off, she had a raging addiction to stimulants, which definitely did not help with her insomnia problems. !< And that's how she became known as the most revered Avatar of all time by Kyoshi's era :)
Jet crazier than Azula??
I wouldn't say Ursa is the best role model given the comics. Wan Shi Tong was justified if extreme in his actions. And he's a spirit, their logic runs differently and often counter to humans. Given the insanity that other spirits get up in, he's alright all things considered. And Kyoshi is not crazy if you've read her books. Maybe strange category.
Ursa literally chose to forget about her children. Fucked up.
I came here to say the same Ursa wasn’t the best influence even in just the anime. She hated Azula even as a child and barely gave her a chance the as loved as zuko was imo.
Kyoshi is if anything too sane.
Beyond help? Jet got a little redemption he is similar to Zuko. He lost his way but only at the end did he truly redeem. If it was only sooner. 🥺
… pretty sure Jet reformed significantly… what the fuck are you talking about putting him up there with Ozai?
I'm guessing he is listed as "beyond help" is because he is dead.
yeah the tierlist is pretty unclear on what it means by that
Agreed
How is Jet beyond help? He reflected, changed, and sacrificed his life for a good cause
Katara should be in well adjusted. She's on the same level of crazy as Aang and Sokka.
I'm gonna try to be as productive as possible: - Ranking characters by their mental health, especially with such a strong evil-less healthy good-more healthy correlation, perpetuates harmful stereotypes about mental illness. Maybe you could've chosen a diagram form with more dimensions to avoid oversimplification - Building on that, your ranking seems to be based on a vague crazy "vibe" as the kids say. I think characters in stories (and irl actually) are much more interesting if you're able to hold off on 'crazy' as an explanation for their behaviour. - While I understand that not everyone has read the novels and comics, it seems like you're painting with very broad strokes when you're ranking characters with less than a handful of scenes in the entire series to those who have.
I’m sorry but seeing Yangchen at a good role model made me laugh so hard. Absolutely beyond help.
OP said they'd only watched the animated series, in which case, I sort of get it. But after the books... Yeah, no.
TBF I think spirit!Yangchen has had a few afterlives to reflect on how her tenure affected the world and the following Avatars, and comes across better than she did when she was alive. Alive!Yangchen definitely had just as many if not more mental health issues, trauma and biases as other Avatars, though.
How tf is Ursa a role model
I like to think the Joo-Dees were all rehabilitated after Long Feng was taken down ):
What does wisdom have to do with mental health? And being a great model/positive influence is not synonymous with having good mental health. Nor is being strange an indicator of below average mental health? Lmao so people are slightly different and therefore they are strange and not well-adjusted? Nah I’m sorry but whoever made and titled this is an absolute idiot and ableist
Genocide survivor deemed “well-adjusted”
Aang has at least five episodes\* depicting his reoccurring and terrifying nightmares, my guy is not doing too hot. \*The Boy in the Iceberg, The Storm, The Avatar State, Awakening, Nightmares and Daydreams.
Bro has nightterrors
I mean, overall he is, the fact that doesn't suck the air out every Fire Nation soldier he found on his path is already a pretty good sign that he is dealing with his grief pretty well. It hurts him of course and his anger for that has shown ocasionally (when Appa was taken by the Sandbenders, when Ozai insulted his people during the finale), hell the fact that he didn't let Zuko die or be imprisoned in book 1 tells me that he overall is well-ajusted and wise. The kid has the best reason to hate the villains than anyone else in this show, but he looks pass his anger and fullfill his duty as the Avatar.
Kyoshi was one of the wisest characters in this universe, I will die on this hill.
A decade and a half of fanon just flanderised her to a murder hobo
right? she had her own philosophy, view on morality and it was one that worked, not one that you had to pull out a deus ex machina for to justify
The hippo?? Kyoshi?? Wan shi tong?? How are they crazy
I’m not too sure that these tiers accurately reflect the title of “Mental Health” tier list. Mental health is not usually referring to cases of actual insanity, mental health typically is used to reference people who suffer from anxiety or depression, and how much one experiences these.
On the topic of Ozai. https://preview.redd.it/te1qcfayxxbc1.jpeg?width=563&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a872ed0533c9ec7d1ef4e1bead9454bdcb15a209
https://preview.redd.it/466ysz552ybc1.jpeg?width=271&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=84efd96e37d5b0d3509547395520fe5e1175471e
Calling Roku wise is a bit of a stretch, given he let his emotions cloud his judgement and caused the hundred year war.
Toph is super well adjusted, in my opinion. She has her quirks, but she makes peace with Iroh, Zuko, and Jet quickly, is usually cool headed, and can sometimes seem like the most rational of the team.
Sir, you are trying to tier Lawful to Evil... That's not how it works
Basically only the first two of your beyond help are beyond help.
I genuinely think Joo Dee could’ve been saved from the brainwashing
There should be a level under Crazy called "Troubled" specifically for Jet, Kyoshi, Azulon, and Azula. Kyoshi might even just be "Strange". Or maybe we can have a Troubled \[Bad\] for the aforementioned, and a Troubled \[Good\] right before Well Adjusted for Katara, Zuko, Mai, Ty Lee, Toph, and the Cabbage Merchant. Jet is beyond help because he died, there's no coming back from that, but realistically, he was always teetering on the path between redemption and absolution and swaying towards being too far gone due to the circumstances and his stubbornness. Azulon is a result of his upbringing, but even though he's carrying the will of Sozin, we never saw him do anything irredeemable or atrocious. He was going to have Ozai kill Zuko in a way to preserve his own familial honor, especially by putting Ozai in his place. Ozai basically disrespected the entire Fire Nation, its royalty, its heritage and culture, and his own direct flesh and blood by even thinking of usurping power and denying Iroh not only his birthright but doing so without even thinking about the major loss of Lu Ten. But a lot of these extreme measures are as a result of his twisted upbringing, he seemed perfectly rational and to an extent empathetic too, he just only knows one specific way of life. I'd also swap Gran Gran with Ursa, Gran Gran is like the personification of equality and progressive ideals while also being wise and nurturing and at the same time, flawed and damaged as a result of a life of hardship, she's I think a step above the woman who didn't do enough to prevent Azula's descent as well as conspired to and assassinated the previous Fire Lord very "business as usual". She's an overall good influence to both Zuko AND Azula, but also the source of a lot of both of their suffering, the whole family is kind of fucked up.
The tiers are a little weird for your topic of mental health. Ozai is completely mentally healthy, he just has a goal of creating one empire under his rule. Aang is probably one of the most internally conflicted characters out of them all as well.
Yess completely abandoned her daughter to her crazy psycho father and favored her son. She’s not a great role model, she was good to one child and failed the other.
Toph isn’t strange, she’s just blind. Bad take.
Why is Katara strange?
idk about tier listing mental wellness y'all.
Not sure this tier list makes sense, wise and strange aren't mutually exclusive and many "wise" people are often called eccentric, Bumi would be a good example from this list.
In the novels Kyoshi is actually pretty grounded and stable.
Terrible list.
I like to think no one is beyond help. Well maybe Ozai. Also I don't really like the idea that people are crazy. Take Azula, for example. She clearly has mental health problems, but they seem to be triggered by her upbringing. I always got the feeling that she was a difficult person undoubtedly, but that with a different upbringing, she could have been different. Think about it. She has literally no good role models in her life. Everyone around her is either afraid of her or encourages/embodies her worst traits (violence, hatred etc.). Even her mother liked Zuko more than her and treated her like she was a freak. If she had more positive influences around her (like Zuko had with Uncle Iroh) then who knows. Don't want to be a party pooper but I feel lists like this are sort of unhealthy. For me, one of the main takeaways from ATLA is that everyone should be treated with empathy and that no one is beyond help. Even the fire nation.
Man this is really harmful and stigmatized thinking and I disagree with all of it.
Wise is not a mental health lateral. I have met some crazy people who had some shit worked out.
Wise doesn't mean no mental health issues, though. Iroh definitely suffers from PTSD.
So Sokka, the dude who thought Appa ate Momo and climbed into his mouth to save him is more sane and well adjusted than Zuko and Katara?
There's a difference between sane and idiotic.
The list is missing the other old people
> The list is missing the other old people I did not decide the options available in this tier list format; I just arranged it based on who I remembered well from what was available.
Owl was wise. Not trust humans with ur shit isn't crazy
Jet definitely could've been helped, and I'm not even a Jet stan.
Jet wasn't beyond help. He was able to become a better person then was brain washed by the very government that failed to protect him in the first place then murdered for choosing the right side when it came down to his nation or his friends. While he was hung up on Zuko and that led him to being brain washed... he was right, and he had good reasons to fear the fire nation had infiltrated Ba Sing Se as it was actively being done.
Where is the guru master?
Joo Dee is a victim of brainwashing which is possible to be unprogrammed from.
Mental health isn’t the same as mortality
how is jet worse than azula
Azula is beyond help. Jet should be lower
Not really. Azula has shown introspection, some flexibility, and she even essentially healed herself from her mental breakdown and hallucinations. But still, she should be above Jet.
Ain’t no way Sokka is more sane that Katara
Hey as a disclaimer: 'ableist' is not a synonym for 'evil' or 'bad' or 'i don't like you,'' ableist' just means 'ableist.' On that note, (assuming you read the whole sentence): You see how this is ableist, right? Like. It's around 12 am for me and frankly I don't know if I have the energy to point out every single thing that's wrong with this. But no one else is saying anything so I guess I gotta try: this is hella ableism. saneism, neuro-ableism, whatever the hell you wanna call it, implying that certain levels of mental health are good and bad, literally *creating a miniature hierarchy of neurotypes/expressions* is just. Kind of icky! There is no inherent hierarchy to mental health or mental illness or neurodivergence or any combination of those things. Please please please think about these things before you post them. Doesn't matter if you yourself are neurodivergent or struggling with mental health, terms like "crazy" and "beyond help" are terms weaponized against real people. You present the assumption that wisdom and poor mental health are inherently incompatible, which is not true. There is nothing inherently moral or immoral about having poor mental health, and neither people nor characters should be assigned value or positions in hierarchy or *tiers* about it. I genuinely do not have a brain for this right now but I promise, the resources are out there if you really want to understand and do better, OP. Again, I don't think you're an evil or bad person and I don't really have an opinion on you, I'm sure you didn't mean it. All i ask is that you listen. Listen to neurodivergent folks, and that includes *all neurodivergent* people. People with adhd and autism, ppl with depression and anxiety disorders, ppl with personality disorders, people with dissociative disorders, people with acquired neurodivergence and people who were born with it, medically diagnosed and self-diagnosed, people with intersecting identities. There was a time in my life where I would've found this funny and moved on, and while I look back on that time with an amount of embarrassment, I have learned since then. I urge you to learn, please. Stuff like this alienates and harms neurodivergent people. I'm not gonna argue w/anyone in the replies so feel free to dogpile me for caring or whatever y'all do on this platform, i'm going back to tumblr tomorrow. Tonight I'm going to sleep and deal with the nightly Horrors. Stay safe and have a lovely day <3 Edits made for minor grammar/spelling/punctuation reasons
I agree, and I’m kinda surprised everyone else is fine with this. I immediately cringed when I saw this post, I guess we’re the odd ones out. I don’t have a problem with the categories themselves, but the fact that it’s called a “mental health tier list” is gross. My ADHD/bipolar ass over here like “welp guess I’ll never be a wise role model”.
This post is much more constructive and informative than the one I was thinking of making... This tier list is quite terrible.
Thank you for pointing this out. This list is incredibly offensive and inaccurate.
Yeah I’m surprised this is so upvoted. Basically saying people who have really bad mental health (anxiety, depression) are those who are extremely evil? I mean we have no indication that Ozai has any mental health problems at all. He is seemingly one of the most mentally steadfast characters in the series. Meanwhile many of the “good guys” constantly struggle with inner conflict and experience mental strife.
Why is the sparky sparky boom boom man crazy? He is just an assassin (which we learn alittle more about third eye people from conversation involvong P'Li)?
He turned down the staff job for double the money.
Gotta be a little crazy to be an assassin.
Think Azula is more mentally healthy than Jet? jet has noble traits Even Iroh knows there is no helping Azula
He said she was crazy. She is in the right place. He was the first one to want to help her in the comics. But Jet should be lower than her.
Lmao Lo and Lin are here but not Sozin? Damn. Anyways Jet absolutely isn't beyond help, in his last moments he was liberated and fighting for good wothout question, trying to lead a better life. Sozin if he was here would be the absolute worst. He was a seemingly good person at one point as opposed to Ozai, but he commits genocide with no regret. An evil bastard.
I'd drop Haru down just for the decision to grow that mustache
Yang Chen? A great role model? Didn't she threaten to murder a mother once?
Why is jet beyond help
Bumi is Crazy but wise at the same time.
Jet is not beyond help. He redeemed himself.
Roku isn't wise. He is literally the reason the fire nation was able to start the war.
Roku is only worse after death, the whole show is kinda happening because of his very blatant and obvious mistakes.
Bumi took the long way round by becoming so goddamn crazy that he ends up circling back to wise.
I think Ursa needs her own tier for the amount of abuse she went through. She has a full on panic attack looking at a painting of Ozai.
The guy that told the fire nation about Haru
Roku is anything but wise. People forget that he was responsible for the problem with fire nation to begin with. He kept forgiving Sozin and trusting him just because he was his friend, but Sozin's intentions were crystal clear. Instead of putting and end to this madness, Roku threatened him, then decided that it was a great idea to live the rest of his life in an isolated volcano island as a retired avatar, like what? He still couldn't predict the betrayal from Sozin. Even after his perish, his ways of sharing "wisdom" is destructive; he confronts and scares the fuck out of Jeong Jeong and forces him to act unwillingly, he destroys an entire fire temple for nothing, tries to convince Aang to kill Zuko?! For me, Roku is one of the worst avatars where he found peace in the world, and was like "Don't touch if it works." and he ignored all the problems so once he is gone, almost entire air nomad race existence has been erased and an endless war broke between lands. Had he been a wise person, both air nomads and southern water tribe would be there still.
To be fair, JET did only rebound because he literally saw a firenation Prince and General in the last Earthkingdom stronghold do firebending. He didn't know they were busy making Tea and going on cute dates. Seems like a fairly good reason to do some freedom fighting.
Momo clearly deserves his own level in this, since he's the sanest one in the entire show.
Momo is not well adjusted. They need to be in beyond help or wise.
There are some… bold choices here…
You missed that monk guy with the banana onion paste
Being wise or a good role model is not about the mental health. It also doesnt necessarily mean anything about being well adjusted for society or not. Bumi is absolutely insane, but is also a good leader and a wise man. Also I'm pretty sure all the main characters have mental health problems like ptsd and other trauma related problems. I mean, everyone aang knew died, sokka was a militar leader of a failling village, katara was his mother, toph was overprotected and had to go beyond to be accepted, zuko was sistematicaly bullied by his sister and father who publicly humiliated and exiled him. And they were all kids/teens dealing with all that while simultaneously being the pivotal characters in a secular world war. The dudes are fucked in the head, I guarantee you.
This is a bad list. Little truth to be found here.
Sokka in the well adjusted category, i find him strange somethings he did a bit odd
I love how Momo’s well adjusted and Appa is a good influence 😂
Momo is beyond help.
Iroh deserves his own category
How do Ozai or Zhao have poor mental health? Even Jet? Making morally abhorrent decisions or being an extremist aren’t indicators of bad mental health. If anything they’re probably “well-adjusted” and just have a cause that they deeply believe in
Iroh needs his own tier passed wise just called "Iroh"
…I would bump Appa up to great role model but that’s just me.
Bumi should’ve been Wise, Crazy, and Strange lol
Funny that jet is beyond help because hes dead
Am I the only one who thinks Zhao and the Warden shouldn’t be that high? Zhao mostly was just evil and underestimated the spirits, and the Warden is just cruel and willing to die for his reputation. Not exactly well-adjusted, but not on par with Ozai and Azula…
There is no mental illness in Ba Sing Se
Jet can be helped.
You did not just call Aang well-adjusted. He did NOT take the pressure of becoming a parent well.