I started to watch Avatar : The Last Airbender, when Netflix tweeted about it in May. Like any other series, I followed it at snail’s pace but without striking my attention I endlessly binged all three seasons. It is an animated adventure series which was originally aired for three seasons on Nickelodeon during 2005-2008.
Avatar: The Last Airbender takes place in a fantasy world set up in Eastern Culture. The undertones of the series follow the Ancient Chinese philosophy of Yin and Yang. Human civilization is divided into four nations : Air, Water, Earth and Fire. Each nation has its natural element, on the basis of its society, and within each nation exist people known as “benders” who have the innate power to play and the ability to control and manipulate elements of their nation. The show’s creator has assigned each bending style its own martial art form. This world is menaced by Fire Nation, who attacks and exploits every other nation and land to form a totalitarian regime.
Avatar can restore balance to nature, who in correspondence of the story is reborn as a different member of the four nations. During its lifetime, Avatar has to master the prowess of all the four elements. In this series, Avatar is a 12 year old monk named Aang, who was born to two Air Nomads. Shortly before the 100 years of war, Aang froze in an iceberg for hundred years. He emerged, still biologically 12 years old, into the world engulfed by war.
Aang teams up with two members of the southern water tribe — Katara, the waterbender and Sokka. They travel the world in the search of masters of elements to end the war. Paralleling this, Zuko, abandoned prince of Fire nation aimed to defeat and capture Avatar and restore his pride. Meanwhile, Aang meets secondary characters who helped him master all the elements to bring back harmony to the world.
Aang and his friends along with his six-legged flying bison practiced martial arts and went on expeditions. The world of the show is full of fanciful places — A jungle denser than amazon, rocky terrain, upside-down temples carved under cliffs, a vast desert with a library of limitless knowledge, and even an island on the back of a beast.
Avatar managed to embrace all the movements taught by the masters while still following his cultural appropriation. Being a monk he has never killed any living being. As Sozin’s Comet approaches Earth, the fire nation fledged to full power and aimed to capture the world. Worried he might have to kill Firelord, Aang meditated into Avatar State to gain knowledge of all the past Avatars. Confused by the wisdom but determined by his principles, Aang refuses to kill Firelord Ozai. Aang used elemental bending to take away Ozai’s firebending power, removing his ability to wage war. This marked the end of the war. During the coronation, Prince Zuko, who fought for purity promised to aid the world in the postwar reconstruction.
Avatar the last airbender is full of small acts of kindness. It paints the value of hope and empathy while in the world which is full of terrible things — war, imperialism, genocide. Although the world does not face a threat as clear as fire nation, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t issues that are meant to be addressed — climate change, corruption, political divides. Aang and his friends have shown us that despite the scale of our world’s issue, we all play a role in solving them.