Avatar: The Last Airbender

Be reminded that there were people in the Earth Kingdom who made a point of seeking out and preserving Air Nomad cultural relics and teachings- that’s where the Air Acolytes come from and why Zaheer knew so much about Guru Laghima. I’m sure there were some bending form scrolls and such that could have been dug up.

Edited by SalFishFin on Feb 17th 2021 at 6:50:04 AM

Right, everyone can learn to swing a sword on their own, even without training, and they'll generally be a threat to the unprepared. And an Avatar would likely have the advantage of having an intuitive feel for what to do, even if they can't quite identify any specific technique on their own.

I just rewatched the Ember Island Players scene about Jet, and thought of an interaction I'm glad never happened:

Zuko: "Did cousin Lu Ten just die?"
Iroh: "You know, it was really unclear."

I was watching Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Jen reminds me a lot of Toph. Did they base her on Jen, by any chance?

The movie came out before Avatar's first season (film came out in 2000), so maybe

Edited by VengefulBale on Feb 18th 2021 at 5:48:00 AM

Jesus, I had a heart attack thinking that Avatar came out in 2000 for a second.

You should probably get some cardio, man.

Edited by HailMuffins on Feb 18th 2021 at 8:42:21 AM

This comment! Of course Toph would achieve the "impossible" in Metalbending. Her family crest is a winged boar!

Granted, winged pigs might be an actual animal in that verse, considering how prevalent Mix-and-Match Critters are.

The closest we actually see are pig-chickens, which can't fly because...chickens.

Edited by M84 on Feb 19th 2021 at 2:17:10 AM

They are winged pigs though so they fit the family sigil.

Though a chicken isn't exactly the most dignified animal one could pick for a sigil.

Unless it's Ultra Mega Chicken.

I know using the four elements is a deviation from the Asian cosmology Avatar takes influence from, but for me it's worth it for that moment.

Also, Toph does indeed rule.

So recently, I saw someone on Tiktok discussing Avatar and how it treats the political ideologies of its villains, specifically asserting that its narrative tends to punish the Left extremists much more harshly than the Right. For example:

On the Right:

• The Fire Nation Royal family are imperialists who either get redeemed or just imprisoned.
• Kuvira is a nationalist who slips into straight up fascism, but still gets a redemption arc.
• Monarchs like Earth Queen and Unalaq can be considered exceptions, but both of their monarchies get to live on much like the FN's Royal family. Also, both of their heirs get subtle redemption arcs.
• Varrick is a full-blown right-wing libertarian capitalist (and a war profiteer) that also gets a redemption arc.
• The Dai Li remained active despite Long Feng, a traditionalist, basically receiving an unknown fate.

On the Left:

• Amon, essentially a communist, dies in a murder-suicide.
• The leaders of Red Lotus, an anarchist group, die in brutal ways after being put in inhumane prisons for over a decade, while Zaheer goes back to prison for the rest of his life.
• Hama is an indigenous woman who is a survivor of genocide, but then she gets imprisoned for the rest of her life for seeking revenge.
• Jet, a freedom fighter and a survivor of colonialism, was abused, manipulated, and ultimately killed by Long Feng which cut his redemption arc short.

Any thoughts? ^note I'm nowhere near a political scientist, so if I get something wrong in my interpretation please let me know. I should mention that some of these I agree with but other ones seem to blatantly ignore context. Although, I do view The Puppetmaster very differently as an adult.

I think the Red Lotus’s harsh treatment in particular is justified since they tried to kill the Avatar, one of if not the most important person in the world, as a kid no less.

That Tiktoker forgot the caveat that Ozai wasn't just imprisoned. He had his Bending taken away.

They actually wanted to kidnap, teach, and groom Korra into the Red Lotus, which is still horrible (and stupid).

I think another thing is that the main characters in general (on both shows) are pretty Left-leaning, especially the indigenous characters like Katara, Korra, and post-season one Sokka. Aang, Mako, Bolin, and Tenzin could also be considered pretty leftist as well.

Then again, Avatar is really good having its characters experience and navigate all sides of the political spectrum.

The trope of “every (typically left wing) revolutionary just becomes as bad as the oppressor” is a noticeable pattern, (and not just in Avatar.) The case in Season 2 of Korra with the plot of Southern Water Tribe terrorists impersonating attacks by Northerners felt like the most shoehorned example of the trope because literally every other episode showed the North was clearly aggressively invading so no faked claims were necessary (and it amounts to nothing because the President refuses to get involved anyway.)

Edited by Tuckerscreator on Feb 19th 2021 at 9:29:52 AM

Honestly, it's the logical conclusion to make given the setting they're in.

Setting aside that the Red Lotus are a terrorist organization devoted to the dumbest possible ideology, they live in a world where this one person is the absolute arbiter of all things. They have unilateral authority over all world governments. The Avatar can even overthrow a nation's government and everyone will agree that this was just and support the new ruler that the Avatar said is in charge.

The Avatar decides what is right and what is wrong, and everyone just has to go along with it. They don't govern directly, but they have ultimate veto power and can call the shots for every nation. If you want to change the world, change the Avatar.

The Avatar did just change, and the White Lotus immediately isolated her from society to control her upbringing and enshrine their values in her. The Red Lotus were attempting to steal her from them so that they could do the same.

The Red Lotus's values are awful, but what they were trying to do is fairly sensible as a means of affecting global change. If they'd succeeded, they may well have been able to accomplish a bloodless revolution of all four nations (at least, after the blood spilled in acquiring her, anyway).

Edited by TobiasDrake on Feb 19th 2021 at 10:01:09 AM

An Avatar raised by the Red Lotus would have been an interesting idea, actually. Probably be a little too dark for this series, though.

There's inevitably at least one fanfic exploring that premise (I haven't gotten around to reading it myself yet).

There is one somewhere. I remember seeing a trope page of it on this very website.

From what little I read of it it sounded interesting

So, why is Ozai being imprisoned for life considered "less harsh" than Hama or Zaheer being imprisoned for life?

I think it's because the latters' prisons are more complex and restrictive, though that's more due to Hama and Zaheer having bending while Ozai having lost his so his cell can afford to be less complex.

I don't really know about Zaheer, but Hama is a victim and a survivor of the genocide that Ozai and his forefathers enforced. It's not that she didn't deserve imprisonment, it's just unfortunate because she spent the majority of her life in prison. One could argue that she warrants a lot more sympathy than Ozai.

It should be mentioned that the argument wasn't just about Ozai. Iroh was a war criminal that was part of the same colonizing family as Ozai but he got a redemption arc. Same with Zuko. Azula had a mental breakdown, but she ultimately got to live. While characters like Jet and Hama don't get redeemed and just die instead.

I think that's why the Avatar is more often than not, pretty left-leaning because otherwise they would be seen as a threat to ideals that are often associated with the Left.

Hama doesn’t die, she was just according to the villager leading her away “locked up forever”.