While Kyoshi is briefly seen in The Avatar: The Last Air bender and The Legend of Korra, she is known to be calculated and to never hesitate. Throughout her 230 years as the avatar, she has mastered the avatar state, restored peace and order to the world by preventing the Yellow Neck uprising.
Earth Kingdom’s King Chin the Conqueror wanted to take over the fire nation and colonize their land. Kyoshi created the women fighting group called the Kyoshi Warriors that would protect her homeland while she put a stop to King Chin’s imperialistic plans.
While she is very beloved by the ATLA fandom, I genuinely believe if she was shown in her youth, before becoming the avatar she is now, she would have been one of the most hated. How Korra is viewed is how they would view Kyoshi. Both avatars are hotheaded, stubborn, rushes into action before assessing the situation and not in touch with their spirituality which is needed since the avatar is the connection between the physical and spiritual world.
Kyoshi’s entire run as the avatar was unconventional compared to Aang’s because she was born to a parents of criminals, Jesa, a air nomad and Hark, a local thief, who later abandon her for dead at the age of five.
Kyoshi was rescued by a Air munk and sent to be a servant to a rich family in the Earth Kingdom, she wasn’t discovered to be the avatar until she was sixteen after the seekers who find the avatar in every lifetime announced the wrong person as the avatar. She was discovered by the man who rescued her who was also a close friend of Avatar Kuruk, the previous avatar.
Due to the intense war that was happening, Kyoshi had to learn the elements from a group of criminals and an assassin. Many view criminals in a negative light, but Kyoshi’s story shows that just because some people resort to the life of crime doesn’t mean they are inherently bad people.
Kyoshi also broke boundaries by being the first confirmed bisexual avatar. While we weren’t able to see her relationship with her long-time friend Rangi develop in a romantic manner on the big screens. She still paved the way for Avatar Korra and Nickelodeon to show same sex relationships.