The Promise: The Omnibus (Parts 1-3)

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism, graphic violence, and death. In particular, this section deals with issues of colonialism, cultural appropriation, and genocide.

As Aang and his allies set out to undo a century of global trauma inflicted by the Fire Nation’s century-long campaign of conquest and genocide, they discover that these problems cannot be easily resolved. For most of the book, Aang and the Earth King Kuei are convinced that the best solution is a simple one: Fire Nation citizens should be required to leave the Earth Kingdom. This position is an extension of Aang’s fervent belief that “Harmony requires four different nations to balance each other out! You can’t have balance if one nation occupies another!” (66). When enforcing the Harmony Restoration Movement’s plan to evict Fire Nation citizens from the Earth Kingdom, Aang is oblivious to any potential harm he is causing to the individual residents. He tells some wary Fire Nation colonials who are being repatriated to the Fire Nation, “You’ll learn so much about your past by living here. And you’ll have fun too!” (32), revealing his overly simplistic view of what the novel reveals, over the course of the