y'know, i’ve always kinda held the belief that morality is what makes us human. the concept of right and wrong is a human invention, other living things just do what they have to to survive. like obviously that’s a very simplified version of my actual take, but that’s the basics of it. which is why i find tma’s apparent take on morality and its relation to humanity so god damn fascinating.

like, if you think about what it means to become an avatar. to let go of your morality, and, in that same process, lose your humanity, because the two are inherently linked. an avatar is no longer a human once they let go of the idea of doing what’s right or wrong, and instead start doing what they now consider their nature.

that’s why i don’t really consider jon a proper avatar; he never lets go of that idea of right and wrong. he never lets go of the idea that there’s the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do. now, that knowledge never stops him from doing the wrong thing, but he still holds onto it.

that’s also why i find the idea of gertrude as something akin to an avatar so interesting, because she was so obviously closer to that point than jon ever got. but she never accepted any of the fears either. she was sort of becoming an avatar of herself. by the end, she’d probably started viewing sacrifice as her own nature, the way a hunt avatar sees killing their prey not as an act of cruelty but as a natural thing with no specific moral alignment.

jonah magnus saw himself as an extension of the eye’s will, therefore everything he did was just the eye’s nature, exempt from human morality. that’s what made him an avatar.

so like. what the hell does that make gertrude. if she sees her actions as exempt from human morality, but still sees herself as entirely human, she’s something new entirely.