Avatar: The Last Airbender: A Fully Realized World

First up, I want to say that something pretty cool happened yesterday. I recently started taking Kung Fu lessons, and my Sifu told a few people in the class yesterday that he recently saw the film version, The Last Airbender, and that he liked it and thought that the story was true to Daoist notions of balance. In addition to the fact that the creators hired a sifu trained in various styles of Chinese martial arts (each bending style was modeled after a different kind of martial art) to act as consultant to ensure the animation accurately reflected the different styles, this shows that the creators tried to bring a level of legitimacy and accuracy to a "kids show," a genre not always known for realism or accurate portrayals.

This is further evidence of the show's maturity and ability to create a believable world, despite the presence of people who can manipulate the elements, flying bison, and active spirits. People still act like people, and are driven by various motivations, such as pride, greed, nationalism, morality, and survival, and the various world of the the series reflects this. Much like Joss Whedon's Buffy or J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter, the fantastic elements of the series reinforce the realness of the world, rather than detract from it. For example, bending is not an inherently known skill, but rather benders must train and hone their skills. How people approach their training informs how they will use their skills (compare Aang, who is a reluctant fighter, with Zhao, a firebending soldier with little control over his skills and less desire to achieve control).

Avatar examined a lot of things that are relevant in our world but were presented in fantastic ways in the series. Similar to The Wire (though nowhere near as deep, gritty, or realistic, obviously), Avatar examined the "everything is connected" statement. The world of Avatar is divided into four nations: the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads. Each nation produces people who can bend their nation's element (not everyone is a bender, though), and each has its own culture and sub-cultures (for example, the Earth Kingdom capital city of Ba Sing Se has a metropolitan culture, while the island of Kyoshi in the Earth Kingdom has its own culture, based on the teachings of Kyoshi, a previous Avatar). Yet, the four nations are all part of the same world, and what happens in one can have drastic effects on the others. The most drastic example came in the Season 1 finale. Without going into specifics, the aforementioned Admiral Zhao tried to strike a blow to the Water Tribes that would likely have destroyed the world had he succeeded. His short-sightedness and desire for victory at any cost blinded him to the fact that his plan involved fundamentally altering the way the world operated.

Another example, which isn't explicitly stated in the series, but was addressed by the creators, has to do with one reason why the Fire Nation started the war that is at the center of the series. The Fire Nation is much more technologically advanced than the other three. The creators noted that it was experiencing a kind of industrial revolution; whereas the other three nations were still using wood ships powered by wind, the Fire Nation had created iron ships powered by coal. They developed tanks and other weapons of war with which the other three nations could barely compete. But the Fire Nation isn't that big, and most of its land is volcanic, so it needed resources. The Fire Nation believed that its needs justified a war, and in the process of acquiring more resources, people's lives were torn apart. A shortage of resources in one place led to catastrophic consequences elsewhere.

But as the years went on (the war had been going on for nearly 100 years by the time the series started), another justification was needed for the war, which brings me to another thing the series portrayed: motivation. The Fire Nation created an extensive propaganda campaign to convince its citizens that the culture of the Fire Nation was superior to that of the other nations, and that the purpose of the war was to "enlighten" the other nations. Of course, this created a strong backlash against the Fire Nation in the other nations (another example of connections and how every action has an equal and opposite reaction), and many, including lead characters Katara and Sokka, saw the Fire Nation as nothing but evil. Their history with the war motivated them to join Aang in his quest to take down the Fire Nation. Toph, another of Aang's companions, had never been affected by the war, but chose to join him in response to her oppressive home life. Two of my favorite characters, Zuko and Iroh, are Fire Nation royalty, and their stories may be the best in the series. Zuko is the exiled prince of the Fire Nation and Iroh is his uncle. Zuko begins by desiring nothing but to capture the Avatar, hoping that doing so will allow him to return home and "restore his honor," but as time goes on he is affected by the world around him, including Iroh. Iroh is a former general (among other things) who has grown tired of fighting and
joined his nephew in exile. Various tragedies in his past have brought Iroh to where he is as the series begins, and his outlook on life and the world, much different than those of Zuko, help guide their journey.

One of my favorite things the series did was humanize the citizens of the Fire Nation, many of whom didn't know better and were treated just as poorly by the Fire Nation army as was "the enemy." The series made sure to remind us that not everyone in an aggressor nation agrees with the aggression and is culpable (see also Persepolis). On the other hand, another character I really enjoy watching, Princess Azula, deserves all of the anger and hatred directed at the Fire Nation. I'm kind of shocked that the creators were allowed to include a psychopath like her into a "kids show" (on the other hand, her violence was strongly tempered). She is manipulative, unfeeling, and calculating. She lusts for power, and does everything to please her father, in hopes that she will one day ascend to the throne of the Fire Nation.

As I've said, even though this is a kids show on the surface, it has depths unheard of in most shows aimed at children. In many ways, it's almost Pixar-worthy (but not quite). The themes are very relevant to our world, and the characters are fleshed out and "real."

Up next: Welcome to 1965...