"Yeah. The relationship of my special Avatar privileges and the actual legal system has firmed up a little since a few Avatars ago and I have to care about public opinion even after I'm trained up to the point where I can look at anybody who might try to stop me and go 'meh, I could take them' unless I want to be, you know, evil. Avatar Aang - who is both my preincarnation and literal ancestor, which is fun - was basically the last avatar who could act like he was a free agent acting orthogonally to the law. He didn't exactly abuse the privilege, but if I decided to have very strong opinions about the leadership of the Fire Nation or the defensive preparations of Ba Sing Se or something I'd have to pay a little more attention."