All is fair in war and Avatar: The Last Airbender is a series about an ongoing hundred-year war. As previous generations know all too well, war changes people and brings the worst out of everyone; in The Last Airbender, no one is excluded-- not even the morally upright Team Avatar.
While they do have to adhere to the moral standards of a kids' show, Team Avatar has certainly committed countless crimes and morally dubious deeds. These do pale in comparison to what the Fire Nation and Team Azula did but they'll certainly raise some viewers' eyebrows especially since the rag-tag Team Avatar usually does their best to make sure they go to heaven. These 10 things they did might have just made that harder.
10 EVERYTHING ZUKO DID BEFORE JOINING
Formerly Team Azula and one of the main antagonists of Book One, Zuko had quite the record of transgressions against Team Avatar. There's the fact that he hunted Aang relentlessly and put the whole team in danger and near-death situations.
Even during his turning point, Zuko also hired an assassin in order to make sure that Aang is dead. This pretty much makes Zuko by far, the worst offender in Team Avatar by a technicality. Still, we'll let him off easy since he didn't do much harm and evil again once he switched sides.
9 LYING ABOUT JIN WEI AND WEI JIN
Not all lies are deplorable and have bad intentions; if a lie is able to stop a hundred-year-conflict from continuing, then it's a necessary evil in that regard. That's precisely what Aang did when confronted with the dilemma of dealing with the Zhang and Gan Jin tribes whose feud has been going on as long as the Fire Nation's war.
Aang just had to make something up such as the tribe's progenitors actually being friends and that the source of their conflict was a misunderstanding. The truth was that Aang had absolutely no idea what he was talking about and likely ruined their history.
8 STEALING
It's understandable why sometimes Team Avatar had to resort to thievery, especially against thieves since they're mission is of the utmost importance. However, that still doesn't excuse Katara's stealing of a waterbending scrolls as her primary goal was for selfish reasons.
Katara even put both Aang and Sokka in danger and also risked the whole team getting caught by Zuko all for a scroll. She did have a point that it belonged to the Water Tribe but nevertheless resorted to criminal activity to do what she thought was right.
7 BETRAYING WAN SHI TONG
Apparently mild thievery runs in the family, Sokka also did something a bit worse and more disgraceful than Katara. That would be lying, cheating, and stealing from Wan Shi Tong or the giant barn owl who owns a library in the middle of the desert because logic. Anyway, it was a full-blown betrayal by Sokka.
Wan Shi Tong was adamant that his knowledge should never be used for war which is a good point. Team Avatar's goal was also urgent and involved saving everyone from the Fire Nation which is also a good point. Lots of grey areas there so the betrayal was a bit justified but that poor owl will likely never trust anyone ever again.
6 TRYING TO RUN AWAY FROM A TRIAL
Since Aang is a reincarnation of all the past Avatars and is pretty much the same person, it's only logical that he also carries all their burdens. It just so happens that one of those was a long-standing trial for Avatar Kyoshi for killing an Earth Kingdom king long ago.
Aang/Kyoshi admitted guilt and was set to be punished for his crimes but Sokka and Katara thought of foregoing the law and nabbing Aang to run away from the trial. Thankfully, Aang had a better sense of justice between the three of them and faced his belated punishment for having a hand in the murder of a king.
5 BEING SEXIST AND ABLEIST
Most members of Team Avatar actually have good gender politics and a progressive view of rights, then there's Sokka who shamelessly belittles Katara in the early episodes just because she's a girl. Sokka was at his worst during the first episode where he even kept blaming Katara just because of her gender.
Even so, Sokka got a taste of his own medicine when Team Avatar kept expanding and he was the only non-bender human in the group. Toph notably and unapologetically took jabs at Sokka's "uselessness" in fights against Team Azula which is just wrong considering bending is genetically determined.
4 NEARLY KILLED ALL THE SANDBENDERS
Vengeance is never a good thing and that lesson has always been prevalent in multiple episodes and even in one character in the show. Team Avatar learned this the hard way as well when Appa was stolen by members of the Sandbender Tribes.
Aang went berserk, entered the Avatar state, and lashed out at the innocent members of the Sandbender Tribes. Truth be told, he would have eradicated all of them, including the rest of Team Avatar, if not for Katara's intervention. Those Sandbenders were also lucky that the cartoon aired on Nickelodeon.
3 SCAMMING
It took a while for Team Avatar to realize that they could have used their bending powers to make money. All they needed was a push from the unruly Toph and then everything spiraled out of control and they were scamming gamblers all over the Fire Nation.
It got so bad that even Katara had to remind everyone about morals and ethics especially since they've begun abusing their bending to get more than they need. Then Katara caved and joined them for a big heist. This was Team Avatar at its most conscious act of crime.
2 PROPERTY DAMAGE IN OMASHU
Too often, it's hard to remind ourselves that Team Avatar is just a bunch of kids. In fact, the oldest among them was Zuko at 16 and he joined late. So it's understandable why Aang, Sokka, and Katara saw Omashu's supply delivery system as makeshift rollercoasters. Even adult viewers probably viewed them as such.
So, they simply jumped in and rode the earthen delivery cards but also managed to destroy a chunk of the city due to their mischief. This time it was Aang's fault completely. They did get their punishment and besides, the damage they caused was easily repairable anyway.
1 DESTROYING CABBAGES
What's not repairable in Omashu are precious, perishable, and profitable cabbages. The one who took the brunt of Team Avatar's rollercoaster ride in Omashu was sadly a cabbage merchant who lost a significant supply of his cabbages just because some damn kids couldn't behave.
The cabbage merchant never got reparations for the cabbages he lost. Even as he moved out of Omashu, Team Avatar's adventures kept following him and ruining his cabbage business. If there was one person who hated the Avatar more than a Fire Lord, it would be the cabbage merchant, that's proof enough that Team Avatar is capable of evil.