Is Avatar the Last Airbender a masterpiece or a flawed work?

This is a series on Avatar the Last Airbender. This first part will cover some of my general thoughts, while future posts will feature a more in depth analysis. Spoilers will abound.

So I finished watching Avatar the Last Airbender for the first time. I can feel all the bandwagon comments headed my way, but the simple accessibility of it being on Netflix and its reputation meant I had to give it a go.

The first question you might have is..what did you think? Did it live up to the hype? And the answer to the first question is I really enjoyed it..and the answer to the second question is…complicated. Let’s get right into it to see what worked and what didn’t and whether Avatar the Last Airbender is a masterpiece or not.

What worked

First of all, you really got to give it to the main cast, because they are all extremely strong characters. Aang is a solid lead, a fun loving kid with a strong moral compass who struggles with his responsibilities and his feeling of inadequacy to the task at hand. I love that this character isn’t the stereotypical Zen monk in most Western media. You know the type, they’re filled with wisdom and platitudes and disconnected from the pleasures of the world. Aang isn’t like that. Sure he embraces the philosophy of pacifism and vegetarianism, but he’s still a normal kid deep down.

Katara and Sokka are also solid characters. Katara is a great example of an empath(a deeply empathic person) in fiction. She cares deeply for her friends and family and will do anything for them, including giving them some positive reinforcement when they need it and knocking their heads together when they get out of line. I also love that her empathy also makes her a highly vindictive character. Because she loves her friends and family so much, she absolutely despises those who hurt them. Sokka is also a solid character who starts as comedic relief but grows much stronger as the series goes on.

I also adore Toph, a character who never lets her disability define her, or stifle her sense of humor. In most media, disabled characters are these idyllic angels, but Toph is a tough, snarky, independent fighter.

And of course we all love Uncle Iroh, that wise compassionate, forgiving man. A person who never abandons his nephew, but is with him every step of the way, guiding him as best he can, but also allowing his nephew to make his own mistakes and come to his own conclusions.

As for other things that work in the show, the world building is also quite impressive. It’s interesting to see how each style of bending would influence the cultures of the four tribes, and how certain traits are encouraged within each nation, such as stubborn independence in the earth kingdom, compassionate tradition in the water kingdom and so forth.

Finally, this show does a good job of showcasing rather complex topics in a way that kids can understand. It handles topics ranging from abusive parenting to genocide to totalitarian governments. Not to mention it shows how certain forms of bending can be misused, such as waterbending being turned into bloodbending, which in turn offers an interesting message on how even good things can be corrupted by wrong motives.

What didn’t work.

But alas, now we have to get into a few things that really….didn’t work. And this is where we get into some firery hot takes.

As you might have guessed by that pun, the Fire Nation characters have some issues when it comes to storytelling. Let’s start with everyone’s favorite crispy boy Zuko. He starts as a fairly straightforward character. He’s a kid desperate for his father’s approval and to win back his honor after his father banished him when he expressed a conscious(and also burnt his face). In season 1, Zuko only has a single ship and his uncle. In season 2, however, even that little bit is taken away from him and he and his uncle have to live as refugees.

He is greatly humbled during this time and begins to undergo a bit of character development. He realizes that the Fire Nation’s way of doing things was perhaps never right and he learns that his obsession with hunting the Avatar was never really what he wanted, but was just his father’s desires projected upon him, and he makes a crucial decision to return Appa(Aang’s flying bison) back to him. When he does this, he gets a fever..because apparently having two competing desires gives one character development flu. But then, he appears to be on the right track. He even claims to have changed.

But then, Azula shows up to fight the Avatar and in a scene where it appears that Zuko will attack his sister, he attacks…Aang instead. He betrays his beloved Uncle Iroh and the Avatar and Azula “kills” Aang.

Then in Season 3, he is accepted back into his father’s court, because his sister Azula decided to tell her father that Zuko killed the Avatar(this doesn’t make sense because Azula has expressed only disdain for Zuko at this point, but we will get to Azula soon). Zuko’s father, who has shown he is an abusive parent who favors Azula and obviously wants her to be his successor…accepts Zuko with open arms.

At this point, Zuko’s character development is back to square one. He’s an angry punk again who thinks his uncle is an idiot and he has to go through the whole character arc again of realizing the Fire Nation’s goals are bad. And then he finally joins up with the Avatar about five episodes before the finale. Yes that’s right…five episodes before the finale.

Zuko really isn’t given time by this point to develop his new identity as a decent person because the show is on a breakneck pace to the finish line.

In essence, my big issue with Zuko’s redemption arc is that it just straight up resets in season 3 for flimsy reasons, and the creators have to rush to get it through in time so Aang has a firebending teacher. I suppose the logic of it was to give Zuko all that we wanted so that he would realize it wasn’t actually what he wanted, but it ends up just wasting time that could be spent with Zuko interacting with and developing relationships with the rest of Team Avatar(Toph literally makes a joke out of this later of not getting time to have a life changing field trip with Zuko).

As for the other fire nation characters, they have some issues as well. For example, Azula is a competent villain who rules through fear throughout the story. She treats everyone like an underling. But all of a sudden in season 3, she’s…somewhat kind to Zuko. And during the finale, she loses her mind because her dad ordered her around a little bit. In addition, Mai, one of her companions, randomly becomes Zuko’s girlfriend in season 3 and has a deep relationship with him despite the fact they barely had any interactions at all before that and Zuko spends most of his time being a jerk to her..even after his redemption.

Then you have the Fire Lord himself. Fire Lord Ozai is built up as a Dark Lord type of character. We never see his face until season 3 and when we do it’s….kinda disappointing.

If you are going to create an intimidating dark lord character who is never seen, they need to have a strong presence that’s felt throughout the entire story and when they do reveal themselves, they need to make a strong impact. Other than Ozai’s final battle against Aang, he never really does anything. And he’s hardly an intimidating figure. He’s just a normal looking dude. I get the impression from the story that Ozai just leaves the planning up to his bands of goons while he sits back and waits for the comet to boost his powers. This issue would be easy to fix. Just have a few scenes where he discusses(from the shadows) how to lure out the Avatar and suggests a devious plan. Or make him appear more intimidating or more conniving(the only time we see him conniving is during Zuko’s flashback scenes).

Other than the fire nation, the show has other issues too, such as how it wastes time with pointless filler(the great divide, the environmentalist episode, Aang getting fangirls) and how it flip flops on whether to actually tackle serious topics(like death) due to it being a kid’s show. In addition, the show often waits till the last second to bring up critical plot points that should have been present since the beginning(such as Aang not wanting to kill the Fire Lord) But now it’s time to get into my final thoughts.

Does Avatar master the elements?

I could go on about other minor stuff I like, such as the excellently animated fight scenes and other stuff I dislike like how the finale has Aang pull not one but two asspulls so he doesn’t have to kill Lord Ozai, but this post would be wayyyy too long if I did that.

I think Avatar does a fantastic job at what it set out to do, which is tell a serialized coming of age story of a young man and his friends learning to master the elements and claim their destiny. It has a great cast that is very memorable(even Zuko). And it has a really cool world to boot.

But despite being a serialized show with only 61 episodes, it wastes a lot of time. We spend so much time on filler that the show never gets to resolve more serious questions such as whether Toph ever gets closure with her parents or if Zuko ever finds out what happened to his mom. I’m aware comics ATTEMPT to answer these questions, but that’s no excuse for the main story leaving this loose ends.

The show seems torn between two identities. On one hand, it wants to be an adventure of the week kid’s show, but on the other hand it wants to be a serious serialized fantasy epic. I wonder if it would have done better if it had run on adult swim on Cartoon Network rather than Nickelodeon.

All that being said, I still think Avatar is a great show, just not perfect. I would definitely recommend others watch it, regardless of your age. It’s worth it just for the great characters and world.

Next time, we will get into some more in-depth analysis, looking at how Avatar tackles culture, power, politics and pacifism.

 

 

Rebelling against the spirit of exhaustion

Shit has been crazy man. 2020 might be the wildest year of my life, with my own personal changes(got a house, having a kid) and all the stuff going on around me(pandemic, racism).

What’s interesting to me about this time is that while it is unprecedented by our standards, it certainly isn’t by any historical standard. Medieval Europe went through multiple pandemics, and so did many other regions of the world like China. Racism in America is certainly nothing new either. The real difference between then and now is that we all know about these events instantly. And even if you don’t go looking for it, it’s gonna get shoved in your face one way or the other.

Let me be the first to say I certainly don’t want to demean the importance of any of these events. And to be clear, the virus is real and Black Lives Matter. That being said…

Me personally exhausting myself absorbing and flying into a panic over all that information doesn’t do jack shit. It helps no one, certainly not me.

In our culture, we have an obsession with exhaustion. Whenever you meet someone, the first thing they will usually say is humble brag about how busy they are, as if someone filling every hour of their days makes them a superior person.

Worse, we are constantly flooded with information that demands our attention and tries to make us feel bad if we don’t pay attention to it.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t care about issues, or understand them. Hell, I’m the first to call out people if they refuse to do a basic Google search and just believe whatever biased source tells them.

But we can’t live our lives in constant exhaustion. You are not meant to live life that way. You don’t get extra woke points for being in a state of constant panic.

This is where I think the whole idea of a peace that passes understanding in the Bible really sort of comes into play. It’s not about denying that the world fucking sucks sometimes, but it’s about holding on to what is true throughout all of it, and not allowing yourself to be dragged down as if you have no hope.

So the next time the news and people on social media gets you down, say fuck that. Read a book, have a beer, tell friends and family you love them. Pray to God if you believe in a higher power. Go outside and breath in the fresh air and realize the world is still here and so are you.

You can’t control what happens tomorrow, so love yourself and love others like yourself. You don’t have to be a savior.

Sorry if this post seemed a bit rambly. It’s definitely more of a stream of consciousness for me. Love you guys.

My Hero Academia: Is it actually good?

Yes, yes I know, it’s a clickbait title, especially with a show as popular as My Hero Academia. But it’s something I’ve mulled over a bit recently. Because while I do enjoy My Hero Academia, it also frustrates me at times. I find certain beloved characters from it a bit intolerable(Bakugo). I often find myself cheering for the villains in the story more than our plucky Deku and his friends.

Yet, at the same time, I love My Hero Academia. I love all the goofy powers in it. All Might’s mixture of Superman and Captain America makes me grin. Whenever Deku overcomes some big hurdle, it’s a lot of fun to watch.

So, why do I sometimes find myself not really “enjoying” My Hero Academia? Well, that’s simple. Because the show takes place in a dystopian reality, but it tries to convince you it’s a high school superhero romp. I like the characters, but I hate the world they inhabit.

In this world, superpowers are par for the course for the average person(save for the 20% unlucky enough to not be born with a quirk), but as the show is quick to remind us, not all quirks are created equal. Some are relatively useless, while others are immensely powerful. And all of them can be made stronger through training(much like muscles).  Yet, not everyone can use their quirks willy nilly. The only ones truly authorized to use their quirks are state sponsored superheroes.

These superheroes in turn usually work for companies, and the economy of superheroes demands they compete for top spots. It’s not enough to save people, you have to be a commercial success and a media sensation. Actual morality isn’t really an important consideration.

Now of course you don’t have to be a huge media hit to be a success in the superhero industry. You can also just be really powerful, like Endeavor, a wife beating abusive piece of shit who gets the second place ranking in Hero Society(yes Japan loves to rank stuff, so heroes get the rank system too)

In this society(insert Joker joke here), villains can run the gamut from basic mob types to outcasts to goofballs. In the manga spinoff Vigilantes, it is straight up said that a villain is anyone who uses their quirk without being registered, and this system is fairly standard throughout the world, not just in Japan.

So this hero system sounds a lot like an initiative by the government to keep people in line by creating these ubermenschs who beat anyone who steps out of line with their quirks into submission. However, this system can’t succeed without a symbol. If all the heroes are just brand obsessed jackasses, no one would really believe in it right? Well, that’s where our boy All Might comes in.

All Might is the symbol of peace. He is the ideal superhero, an all loving, all powerful titan who acts as the moral compass for many heroes. He inspires children like Deku to want to become heroes in the first place. He is a media darling, but he doesn’t do it for the money, just for the justice. And he is a useful idiot for the system.

All Might never uses his clout to try to reform the issues of Hero Society at all. He simply stands above it all and tries to lead by example. This by itself isn’t a bad thing, but by allowing himself to become this symbol, he either consciously or subconsciously helps create this false image of Hero Society, as this shiny, glorious thing, rather than its true form as hyper-commercialized beast that grinds up people like Gentle Criminal and spits them out.

This dichotomy between the illustrious All Might and the rotten core of the Hero Society is what creates people like Stain. The Hero Killer Stain sees the contradiction between All Might on the one hand and egotistical heroes on the other and he decides to lash out by killing heroes he deems unworthy. His subplot is interesting because it forces the characters to come to terms with how maybe the system isn’t perfect, and maybe they should have a stronger moral backbone. But at the end of the day, nothing really changes about the way they operate the hero system.

But then you have Deku. The quirkless kid, blessed by the also quirkless All Might to become the next symbol of justice. Deku was relentlessly bullied by Bakugo and others for not having a quirk. In a system where having a strong quirk is one of the ultimate symbols of value, Deku is an outcast. But because All Might reached down to him and helped him, he’s able to rise to become the next big hero.

But then, Deku just embraces the system wholeheartedly. A system that would have never accepted someone like him. A system that probably would have him kicked out if word got out about his little arrangement with All Might. A system that would let his psychotic tormentor Bakugo become the top hero simply because he’s the strongest.

In this world, might literally does make right. It is Nietzsche made manifest. I can’t help but cheer when villains like Shigaraki just want to tear it all down and humiliate the heroes, even though Shigaraki is a psychopath himself.

At the end of the day, I simply can’t support the world My Hero Academia is based on. Maybe that’s because it reminds me too much of our world. All that being said, it’s still a fun show and it does explore some of the darker issues in a way that many other shows won’t.

In conclusion, I think My Hero Academia is actually a pretty good show. Also Momo is best girl.