Live Blogs Opinionated Guide to Avatar: The Last Airbender

Korval2011-06-17 20:09:14

Avatar: The Last Airbender. What is there to say, really?

A lot, apparently, since I'm going to walk through each episode of the entire 61 episode run. But first, some background.

Avatar: The Last Airbender was a cartoon show that ran for 3 years, from 2005 to 2007. It has become quite popular, particularly among its periphery demographic. It is often praised for having well-written characters, a story arc, good episode-to-episode continuity, and a well-developed world. It's also one of those shows you see on just about every TV Tropes page; it has a large fandom on this site.

It also had a recent film adaptation that was... universally reviled. But we're not talking about that horseshit now.

Each liveblog page will, in general, discuss a particular episode. Two parters will be handled depending on what kind of two-parter it is. If the two parter is really two episodes that chronologically flow from one to the next (ie: one starts immediately after the other, with a Sequel Hook), then I will review them as two episodes. However, if it's really just a single story told in multiple parts, then I will review it as one.

I also intend for this blog to be more analytical than humorous. I'll throw jokes in where I can, but mostly I'm here to point out what works and what doesn't. Because of that, there will be times when talking about something that happened in an episode at length would bog the actual liveblog down too much. In these cases, I will generally extract that section out of the flow of the text and put it in its own section after the episode synopsis. If you're not interested in such analysis, feel free to skip it whenever you see these sections.

Also, I will occasionally have an entire post devoted to some particular aspect of the series up to that point. These are for things that deserve a detailed calling out on, but don't fit into the season introductions. Usually, this is something that covers events from multiple previous episodes. These too are skippable, though you may be missing some interesting analysis.

For those who have not seen this series, there will be some light spoilers for later episodes. I'll minimize them somewhat, in case you're following along for the first time at home. And I won't reveal the most important ones, unless they have been heavily foreshadowed or are otherwise obvious. If I need to analyze a scene in context of something later, I'll generally only present as much as you need to know at that time to understand what I'm saying.

Also, please read the title. This is the opinionated guide to Avatar. You don't have to agree with anything I say here. You should find that most of these opinions do at least have some evidential support, even if you disagree with the conclusion. I welcome discussion where it happens, so if you agree or disagree, feel free to point it out in the comments section.

Lastly, particularly in the early episodes, you may get the impression that I hate this show. I don't. It's a good show, with quality writing and production values. It's well worth your time, and I even own the last two seasons on DVD (NetFlix lets me watch season 1 whenever I want). But that doesn't mean that I will let crap past, and it's hard to argue that the show started on its best foot. If the show does something wrong, I'm going to call it out.

Book 1: Water

The show's seasons are called "books." For some reason. I don't get it either; books do not prominently figure prominently within the show's overall theme or general milieu. Indeed, one main character is completely illiterate. In any case, season one is called Book 1: Water.

Normally, for the introduction to a season, I will do a look back at what transpired and a look forward, with some detailed analysis. My goal in such sections is to make some particular point about the show that you may not have thought about.

But, since there is no prior season as of yet, instead, I will go over the general concepts behind this world. That way, I don't have to clog up the episodes themselves with such minutiae.

The world of Avatar: The Last Airbender consists of several cultures, most of them drawn from Asian influences. In this world, there are elemental manipulators known as "benders:" Airbenders, Firebenders, Waterbenders, and Earthbenders. Bending, to varying degrees, relies on movements based on real-world martial arts. So when a firebender throws a karate-like punch, a fireball emerges from his fist.

There are a number of large nations that have arisen around bending forms. The Earth Kingdom occupies the largest landmass in the world. There are two Water Tribes, one in the North Pole and one in the South Pole. The Air Nomads occupied 4 hidden air temples in the north, south, east, and west (four winds. Get it?) of the Earth Kingdom's landmass. And the Fire Nation is on a large island to the west of the Earth Kingdom.

Each nation has a loose basis in some real-world culture. The Earth Kingdom bears a striking resemblance to Imperial China. The Water Tribes are Inuits as they live on the ice. The Air Nomads seem very typically Buddhist monk-ish. And the Fire Nation is some kind of hybrid between Imperial Japan and China with some Indian (India-Indian) influences thrown in.

The nations are also color coded. The Water Tribes wear blue, the Earth Kingdom wears greens, the Fire Nation wears reds, and the Air Nomads wear tans and browns. This extends to just about everyone's dress in these nations; rare is the person who dresses out of color for their nation.

The titular Avatar is a perpetually reincarnated being. He/She is the only individual capable of bending all four elements (or even just more than one), and he/she is charged with defending the world and maintaining the "balance". Exactly what that means is never really explained, but it generally means that each nation stays where it is and doesn't invade another. Or something.

Comments

Ghilz Since: Dec, 1969

Jul 13th 2011 at 11:49:08 PM

This obsession is based on nothing more than the purely physical. They aren't soul mates. They aren't alike in any way. They don't share any personal interests. Indeed, we never even find out what R&J's personal interests are.

Dude, you ever even read Shakespear era theater? Romances were never written based on what the participants interests were. It was always on the purely physical level. Heck, look at Romantic Comedies (to contrast with Shakespeare's tragedies) like The Barber of Seville by Beaumarchais, again the attitude of the time was to accept Love At First Sight as a fact (and that there's nothing creepy about a man stalking the girl he saw one across all of Spain to eventually get her to marry him. Coz you know. True love and shit).

Point is, you are applying fairly modern standards of love and romance to a story written in a time where such notions were less than common at best. So saying "we never even find out what R&J's personal interests are" is a completely hollow criticism, like saying that your action movie does not include a complete cooking show-like recipe of the salad that one mook was seen making before being gunned down by the hero: it's not relevant to the plot. Similarly, in 16th century theater, the respective interests of the two lovers and how they match was rarely a factor in the story.

A sad side effects of those stories being written at a time where... well let's say people cared even less about strong female protagonist than they do now (and they don't care nearly enough now). So (paraphrasing the words of the times( why would WE care about Juliet's interests? And why would Romeo care? It's all woman's stuff.

And for a question, why all the talking about shippers and their creepy crap? Whats next, a discussion on the A:TLA cosplayers?

Korval Since: Dec, 1969

Jul 14th 2011 at 9:28:06 PM

"Point is, you are applying fairly modern standards of love and romance to a story written in a time where such notions were less than common at best."

The author is dead. There's nothing wrong with looking at art from a contemporary perspective. Indeed, the most long-lasting art is universal. The reason Romeo and Juliet survives as a play is because contemporary audiences can still find meaning in it.

Also, the point I'm making is that contemporary people keep holding up R&J as an idealization of how love should be, rather than looking to more realistic forms of love. Look at how the writers here idealized Oma&Shu as Bending Romeo&Juliet, only without the double-suicide at the end. You know, R&J without the tragedy.

"And for a question, why all the talking about shippers and their creepy crap?"

1: It's a substantial part of the fandom.

2: It influences the writing of the show. The writers have explicitly written romance into the series. Katara and Aang. Suki/Yue and Sokka. And the many, many women that follow Zuko around. Shipping isn't just a part of the fandom; it is a part of the show.

3: I felt that people would find it interesting. I didn't even intend to write the last couple of paragraphs of the digression; I mostly wanted to talk about the deification of R&J and why it pisses me off so much. But somewhere in writing it, I realized that R&J really symbolizes and explains the hardcore shipper mentality.

JusticeMan Since: Dec, 1969

Aug 8th 2011 at 4:05:47 PM

Nice point although Oma & Shu ''do'" get screwed over at the end. In retrospect it does seem their story was a shakespearen tragedy along your lines. Teens given great gift for love, squander it on yiffing, one winds up dead, learns mistake and founds city. Pretty deep if you ask me.