u/Individual_Duty_3831

This just randomly popped into my head, and my memory on how widely known the effects of the avatar state are kinda foggy so bear with me. Since we know that if the avatar gets killed while in the avatar state the cycle is broken and there won’t be anymore avatars, did people think that had happened in the air nomad genocide?
Maybe the avatar state had gotten triggered, then the avatar was murdered by the fire nation and died, forever ending the cycle? I just imagine people waiting 100 years for the avatar to show up and it never occurring; maybe some people had that knowledge of that specific weakness of the avatar state.