INTRO
Created by Michael DiMartino and Brian Konietzko, Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the greatest animated shows ever created. Although originally conceived and marketed as strictly a "kids show" by distributing it through Nickelodeon studios and originally airing it on Saturday mornings; Avatar became a show for all ages with its complex layered story lines (involving season long story arcs,) and integrated rich character development while weaving religious (Buddhism) and Philosophical themes throughout its three season run. The show did not pander, and treated its audience like adults. To that end, Avatar: the last Airbender is an excellent example (if not the paragon) of a racial diverse, post modern, pro feminist show that deals with current social issues as told through the lens of a fantastical world.
PREMISE
Avatar: The Last Airbender is set in an ancient world heavily influenced by Chinese Mythology. In this world the earth is divided into four different nation based upon the four natural elements ( water, earth, fire and air). There is the Northern and Southern Water tribes, The Earth Kingdoms of Ba Singh Se and Omashu, The Fire Nation and The Air Nomads. Each of these nations have a culture and rituals that is influenced by their totemic element. Additionally, members of these nations are often born with the ability to manipulate their respective element. This behavior is called "bending".
The titular "Avatar" is a single person in the whole world who can "bend" and master all four elements. Having a life cycle of 170 years, the Avatar acts as a spiritual leader, guide and general force for peace in the world (i.e. The Dali Lama). At the end of an Avatar's life (by natural or unnatural causes) she or he is reincarnated into the next element/nation in "the Avatar Cycle" (see above).This not only allows the Avatar to live on throughout history, the cycle of reincarnation allows the Avatar the ability to tap into the power of all her/his past lives at a single moment. This is called "The Avatar State"
BOOK 1: WATER.
Plot
Book: 1 Water Begins 100 years after The Fire Nation declared war on the entire world. Avatar Aang (a 12 year old boy of the Air Nomads) and his animal spirit guide Appa, a flying bison, are released from a hundred year hibernation in an iceberg by Katara, and Sokka: siblings of the Southern Water Tribe. After some spiritual guidance from one of his past lives (Avatar Roku) Aang learns that he must master all four elements and confront Fire Lord Ozai before the end of summer which hails the return of Sozin's Comet which gives any Fire bender unbelievable power, a power that was previously used to wipe out all of the Air Nomads 100 years earlier to start the war.
Having only mastered the element of air, Aang and Appa, together with Katara, Sokka,and a flying lemur named Momo, must travel to the Northern Water Tribe to find a Waterbending Master so Aang can learn the next element in the cycle. Their journey is complicated by Prince Zuko the banished son of Ozai that seeks the Avatar in order to return to the Fire Nation and regain his honor.
BOOK 1: WATER ANALYSIS
A Rough Start
The beginning of any show is always a period of adjustment as the creators attempt to find their footing, solidify their tone in relationship to the theme they want to present, while creating and maintaining audience interest. Avatar was no different. In the beginning, (especially the first few episodes) the show focused on child friendly humor of sight gags, physical comedy and small amounts of toilet humor. There was also little to no reference to the story complexity, religious and philosophical themes that populated the later seasons. Additionally, the early episodes animation was blurred and unclear (as they weren't yet digitally producing the show's animation in HD). While this was a a bit rough on an older audience when it first aired, it was a hit with the younger audience.
Yet, in retrospect, it is refreshing to see the characters that you fall in love with at the beginning of their journey, full of hope, and humor considering all that will happen to them later. Thus upon multiple viewings, these earlier episodes are enriched with the audience knowledge of the future. You start to see all of the seeds that the creators planted that pay off one or even two seasons later.
Some of the best Seeds in Book 1:
Iroh redirecting Lighting for the first time in the series
Azula!!!!
Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors
Bumi
Jet and the Freedom Fighters
Wan Shi Tong's Library
The Bending Arts
In the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe all of the bending arts are based on different types of Chinese martial arts. The creators of the show had the martial art bending form be a representation of each Nations respective element. Therefore each martial art bending form represented one of the four bending elements. Tai Chi with it's focus on fluid movements is the basis for Water-bending. Hung-ga with its ideas of soft (Crane) and Hard (Tiger) power that is rooted to the ground is the basis for Earth-bending. Northern Style Shaolin with its dynamic movements and linear movement encompasses Fire-Bending Finally, Bagua has a lot of circular movements and deflecting strikes that makes it perfect for Air-bending.
Throughout the rest of the series other martial art forms are brought in to either explain a particular person's unique use or ability to bend the elements that maybe outside the standard styles listed above. Or they explain a form of fighting in the Avatar universe that does not involve the bending of the elements. In Book 1, one such fighting style is that of the Kyoshi Warriors. Their style of fighting is based upon the redirection of a persons momentum and force focusing on keeping their opponent off balance, they also use Fans, shields and Katanas; which makes their fighting style a combination of Aiki-juitsu, Tessenjutsu (war fan) and Battojutsu (art of the Katana). This also means that this is one of the few fighting styles in the Avatar universe that is based on Japanese Martial arts styles. Author's opinion: They are Bad Ass.
Evidence:
SOCIAL ANALYSIS
Race and Ethnicity
Avatar is one of the few american shows with a principle cast of characters that are all non-white. Each nation in this world is based on an Asian and Pacific Islander Ethnicity (API). Through a careful analysis of the way each character is drawn, and the cultural customs and rituals they adhere to, it is clear that each Nation's ethnicity has the following primary cultural influences: The Fire Nation are Chinese, The Earth Kingdoms are Mongolian, The Water Tribes are based on the Inuit and Eskimo cultures and the The Air Nomads are Tibetan. Additionally, as previously mentioned, Kyoshi island is proxy for Japan.
However, even though each nation has a primary culture that they draw upon many other diverse Asian culture practices. From ideas of filial piety, honor, shame, cycle of life, and the balance of nature that we see in the series all come from eastern philosophical teachings (Taoism, the I Ching, Buddhism etc). Additionally, some of the practices performed by certain leadership the Avatar Universe such as a coup, totalitarianism, censorship of information often parallel governmental practices of China and North Korea.
Looking more deeply into these real world parallels it becomes clear that there is an allegorical similarity between The Fire Nations genocide of the Air Nomads and the current real world conflict between China and Tibet. The historical conflict between the Mongolians and China is inverted in the Avatar universe; positioning China (The Fire Nation) as the Invading army and the Mongols (The Earth Kingdom of Ba Singh Se) protecting themselves behind a "great wall". (* though alluded to in Book 1, these become major events during Book 2) Thirdly, the size and political social power of the Inuit and Eskimo cultures in the world today ( only 120,000 people identify as such in only three countries: Greenland, Canada and the United States) is paralleled by The Water Tribes in the world of Avatar.
Unfortunately, when the film adaptation of Book 1 was produced, written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan all of the protagonists were portrayed by white actors and the antagonists were portrayed by middle eastern or Indian actors. A gross misrepresentation of the diversity of the show this lead to a huge public outcry and resurgence of activism around the "white washing" of racially diverse characters in film and TV now re-dubbed Racebending
Feminism
Throughout the whole of the series, Avatar: The Last Airbender consistantly, (and pretty excellently) defys socialized gender norms, stereotypes and promotes gender bending outside of the binary system of gender classification (otherwise known as The Gender box model). Many of the protagonist show a layered and contexual gender identity that is a part of their personality Consistently, the show features multi- faceted male and female characters that move beyond the socialized male/female, masculine/feminine dichotomy. Three prime examples are the Book 1 protagonists of Aang, Katara, and Sokka.
Aang is written and portrayed as a non-violent pacifist (given his training by the monks) who is emotionally invested in the balance of nature and its animal inhabitants. Aang's masculinity is not based in violence,or bravado but in caring and compassion for all life. This compassion is his reason to fight when he has to (in self defense) but only when all other avenues of diplomacy have been exhausted. In Book 1, we see Aang's natural airbending nature is to avoid and evade. And in later seasons he has a problem with facing a problem head on and standing his ground. (more on that later).
Katara is the heart of the group she perfectly balances the complexities of modern femininity. She is the person that actively challenges the archaic sexism that her culture is steeped in the ways that she openly argues with her brother and, at the end of Book 1, challenges an old (male) waterbending master's sexism, by dueling him...and is able to change his mind. Katara is fiercely loyal to her friends and family she is able to both stand her ground and fight but also be a healer.
It is through Sokka that the show really expresses its feminist message in Book 1. It is Sokka's reformation from sexism to gender equality that solidifies the show's egalitarian message. In the first few episodes of the series he expresses the socialized sexism of his culture. As the episodes progress, and his sexist notions of the "weakness" of women are proven inaccurate time and time again, (by his interactions and relationships with (Katara, Suki, and Yue) Sokka slowing starts to embrace the show's message of feminism (even going so far as training with the all female Kyoshi Warriors and protesting the lack of female agency of arranged marriages) by Book's end.
The Feminism of Avatar has been written on extensively and This section will be expanded on in a separate post about Feminism in Avatar after the three book review has been completed. Until that time, read This, This and this.
Favorite Episodes in Book 1:
1) King of Omashu (BUMI!!!)
2) The Warriors of Kyoshi ( 'Nuff said)
3) The Waterbending Master (See fight above)
4) The Blue Spirit ( character development and great action)
5) Siege of the North parts 1 and 2 (Season finale Show finds its footing)
CONCLUSION
While I believe Book 1 of Avatar to be the weakest of the show's three seasons, it is still better than 95% of material that has been produced. Its shaky start gives way to a solid foundation by books end. That foundation, at its core is about character, feminism, equality and diversity. This foundation that is built upon with the superb Book 2: Earth that is considered the shows equivalent of The Empire Strikes Back.
