No in TMA understands what’s going on less than The Desolation cult members.

They never seem to realize the irony in burning other people’s lives down in an act of “worship,” only to then do nothing but whine when their own plans go up in flames. The entire series is them going: “Agnes wasn’t the chosen one like we thought she’d be! How did this all go wrong?? What did we ever do to deserve this??!!” without a hint of awareness.

Like, they’re just objectively bad at this whole “worship the God of destruction” thing.

And look. You can say what you will about will about other Avatar’s, but at least they commit to the bit.

(From a story telling standpoint this is a really smart writing decision because who better to fed the Desolation with their despair then people who are supposed to worship it? However, the the sheer lack of awareness from the cultists is as insufferable as it is honestly kind of funny.)