Avatar: The Last Airbender (Not Just A Kid’s Show)
Avatar: The Last Airbender delves into some seriously deep themes that go beyond just being a kid’s show. The show is set in a time of war between the three of the four nations and the fire nation being the dictators of the war. There is no peace as long as they have control.
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Avatar: The Last Airbender chronicles the adventures of a 12-year-old and albeit goofy kid named Aang who also happens to be the Avatar, the only person able to manipulate all four of the natural elements, air, water, earth, and fire. In order to defeat Fire Lord Ozai and stop him from completely taking over and destroying the world, he has to master all four elements in only a few month’s time. He goes on this adventure with his newly found friends Katara and Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe.
Grief
Katara’s Story
One of the things we learn early on in Avatar: The Last Airbender is that one of our main characters’ Katara’s, mother was killed when she was approximately 9 years old. Katara’s mom, Kya was confronted by a fire bender while hiding in a tent during a Fire Nation raid of the Southern Water Tribe. The men in the village fought to protect their home, including Katara and Sokka’s dad Batu. Katara mentions her mother’s death multiple times in the series showing just how much anger and grief she carries from it. In a way, this event shaped Katara’s character. She felt helpless the day the Fire Nation invaded her home and so she doesn’t let anything slip through the cracks on her journey, helping everybody that needs it no matter how hopeless it seems or how hard it is.
In the episode The Southern Raiders we learned that Kya died to protect Katara. The Fire Nation attacked their tribe because they heard a rumor of one Water Bender being left there. Years ago they wiped out all of the Water Benders taking them prisoner. They were there looking for the Last Water Bender of the Southern Water Tribe and Kya said it was her, but it was actually Katara. We discover that she has been carrying this around for years and her grief was masking her guilt.
When Zuko switches sides and joins Team Avatar Katara has a hard time trusting him because of what the Fire Nation did to her. Zuko then asks Sokka what happened to their mother in an attempt to find out who killed her in order to help Katara. Sokka describes that they had flags on their ships with sea ravens on them and Zuko recognizes this as a sign of the Southern Raiders.
Zuko and Katara’s adventure
Zuko and Katara head off to find the leader of the Southern Raiders so that Katara can get her revenge, but not without a warning from Aang. Aang tells Katara that she needs to let herself grieve and then she needs to let it go and forgive the man killed her mother. Katara claims she can never forgive him and goes after her revenge anyway. Aang recognizing that she needs to take this journey allows her and Zuko to take Appa and go.
When Katara finally finds and comes face to face with the man who killed her mother at first she lets out all of her anger at him. She sends shards of ice flying his way, but then she stops unable to finish the job. Katara leaves him there in the rain. She returns to Aang and Sokka and admits she can’t forgive him, but she couldn’t kill him. Then she finally forgives Zuko.
Iroh’s Story
Iroh, Zuko’s Uncle, and former war general, sometimes called the Dragon of the West displays another example of grief in the episode titled tales of Ba Sing Se. In this episode we see our characters taking their own journeys and Iroh’s is to celebrate his late son Lu Ten’s birthday. Lu Ten died during the 100-day siege of Ba Sing Se on the outskirts of the city. It is said to be Iroh’s biggest regret. Iroh walks through Ba Sing Se, the great Earth Kingdom City modeled after China, and picks up various items for his small memorial. He picks up a guitar, a cloth, and some candles. On this journey, he runs into a screaming child where he strums the guitar and calms him with a song. Then he comes face to face with a mugger and basically helps him learn how to mug better while giving him advice.
Grieving Lu Ten
The most important part of this episode was when he gets to a hill on the outskirts of Ba Sing Se. Iroh slowly sets down the cloth under the tree and then he places a picture of his son on it. Lastly lighting two candles and placing them in their holders. He then says “Happy Birthday my son, if only I could have helped you” before tearfully playing a tune.
Leaves from the vine, falling so slow, like fragile tiny shells, drifting in the foam, little soldier boy, come marching home, little soldier boy, come marching home.
Then he begins to sob. This is one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the show that shows the opposite side of grief to that of those seeking revenge.
The actor who played Iroh up until this point actually passed away in real life and so at the end of this segment of the episode, it says in memory of Mako. He later gets a character named after him in the sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender titled The Legend Of Korra.
We learn about blood bending in the episode titled the puppet master where an old Water Bender learned how to manipulate the fluids inside a person’s body while in a Fire Nation prison in an effort to escape. The Water Benders in this prison were subject to harsh treatment. They were kept in cages and dry air was filtered in through the vents. When they needed a drink of water their arms and legs were bound so that they could not use their bending. She first practiced on the rats and then when she mastered the skill moved onto the big plan, the guards. She then escaped and had been living in the Fire Nation ever since.
Mysterious Stranger
This episode is more on the creepy side. It starts with Team Avatar huddled around a campfire telling ghost stories. Toph mentions that she thought she could hear people screaming under the mountain, but the group brushes her off thinking it was an attempt to scare them.
When Hamma meets Team Avatar she finds them camping in the woods and she recognizes that Katara is a Water Bender and seeks to befriend her. Hamma offers to take the three of them back to her inn. She and Katara get along well, but Sokka is suspicious of the woman. Everyone else says she is just a sweet old lady. She reveals to them at dinner that she is a Water Bender from the Southern Water Tribe by making them food that is native to the tribe and also demonstrating her Water Bending. She then offers to mentor Katara.
Mysterious Disappearances
The group discovers that people have been disappearing under a full moon and they think the spirits are the cause and so they investigate the disappearances while in town asking around. They talk to an elderly man who was almost taken but managed to escape. He described the experience as he lost control of his limbs and started walking up towards the mountain, but then the sun came out and he gained control of himself and was able to run home.
Katara graciously accepts the offer and Hamma teaches her how to adapt to her environment. She explains that water benders are highly adaptable because they have to be. There isn’t water everywhere you go. Katara prior to this point has shown just how adaptable she is using sweat for Water Bending. Hamma teaches her how she can use the plants to gain a source of water and even pull water out of thin air. She goes through all of this before teaching Katara to BloodBend.
When Hamma begins to show Katara Blood Bending she first explains that it can only be done under a full moon and to Katara’s horror she learns that Hamma is the one responsible for the missing villagers. Hamma uses Blood Bending on Katara when she refuses to help her and Katara quickly overpowers her influence and so she uses it on the others in an attempt to get them to kill each other, but more so to get Katara to stop her using Blood bending and Hamma succeeds before being arrested for her crime.
Genocide
Fire Lord Sozin, the Fire Lord that is responsible for the 100-year war used a comet that grants Fire Benders unmatched power every 100 years to wipe out the Air Nomads in an attempt to rid the world of the Avatar. He knew the Avatar after Roku would be born an Air Bender and his plan was to wipe them all out and then search for the next Avatar in the Water Tribe to find them before anyone else and capture them, but he realizes the Air Nation Avatar evaded him and spent his life searching for him.
Aang’s Realization
When Aang realizes that every single other Air Bender is gone because o the Fire Nation he is filled with unbelievable grief. The only reason I did not put this under grief is that I thought the topic of Genocide to be more relevant and important here.
Fire Lord Ozai sought to repeat these events when Sozin’s comet returned only this time on the Earth Kingdom. He is stopped by Aang, but the point is he was in the process of doing it.
Child Abuse
Ozai was always really hard on Zuko and never treated him like a son. Zuko’s mother on the other hand spent ample time with Zuko and valued him as a person. Zuko spent so much time and energy trying to make his father proud of him, but his sister Azula was a Fire Bending prodigy and had a similar way of thinking as Ozai so she got most of his affection, if you can call it that.
Iroh Comes Home
When Iroh came home after the 100-day siege on Ba Sing Se after his son died and admitted failure, Ozai saw this as a weakness and pleaded with Azulon to make him the next Fire Lord instead of Iroh even though as the oldest it was Iroh’s birthright. He called Iroh weak and claimed he was more worthy and so as punishment for his ignorance of what it feels like to lose a son he ordered Zuko to death to show Ozai what it would feel like to lose a firstborn.
Azula overheard this and told their mother by bragging about how Ozai was going to kill Zuko, a true psychopath just like her father and grandfather if you ask me. Their mother confronted Ozai who bargained for her banishment instead of Zuko’s death. He still never treated Zuko as a son and with his mother gone it made things worse for him.
Attempting to gain love leads to banishment
Through an attempt to win his father’s affection Zuko tries to sit in on a war meeting. Not taking no for an answer Iroh warns him not to speak during the meeting. Within the meeting, Zuko learns that some of his friends who were new recruits in the fire nation army were going to be used and killed. He spoke out against it without thinking. in doing so he showed disrespect and was to be punished. He was ordered to fight an Agni Kai a one on one Fire Bending duel. Zuko was only a kid. He accepted declaring he was not afraid. What he didn’t realize is that while he spoke out against the general’s plan. He did so in the Fire Lord’s war room. It was the Fire Lord he would have to fight.
When Zuko turned around and discovered his opponent was his father he pleaded and begged and refused to fight. Ozai burned his face and banished him. He could not return home unless he captured the Avatar.
Toph’s Story
When Toph was born blind her parents were devastated and ashamed. They were a very wealthy family in the Earth Kingdom and well known. The Beifongs had to keep up appearances and so they hid Toph away. Never telling anyone except those in their inner circle that they had a daughter. They kept her locked away and restricted her from doing even the most mundane things herself. Like blowing on her own food. She was expected to be well mannered and proper.
Running away
One day when she got mad at her parents for their restrictive ways she ran away and hid in a cave. She was sad and scared and alone, but then she met the badger moles. They understood each other because they were both blind and she learned Earth Bending from them. She also learned how to use Earth Bending to see. Toph could sense the vibrations in the earth and know where everything is. She used her newfound skills to sneak away to an underground Earth Bending ring. Here she matched up against and won the toughest benders in the Earth Kingdom
Showing the truth made things worse
When Avatar Aang finds her. Aang and Toph nearly get captured by the two Earth Benders that Toph won against. She is forced to show her true abilities to her parents. She then explains to them that she isn’t as helpless as they think she is. Instead of allowing her more freedom and realizing she can be just like everybody else they restrict her even more. Assigning a guard to her for a 24/7 watch. This prompts her to run away with Aang and teach him Earth Bending.
Her parents then claim the Avatar kidnapped their daughter. They hired the two Earth Benders from earlier to capture her and bring her home.
Azula’s Story
Azula’s treatment is also child abuse. She was neglected by her mother, but even more so shown the wrong way to be by her father. The way she was taught in and of itself is child abuse.
Mental Illness
Azula was no doubt a psychopath. More than she was a person who had feelings that under the way she was raised were deemed weak. This was something she struggled with and it became her downfall later on. She felt neglected by her mother. Azula felt like her mother didn’t love her and then abandoned her. She felt the few people she did trust were going to abandon her too. She kept them around using fear to control them.
Everyone is untrustworthy
The Boiling Rock
In the episode titled the boiling rock When Zuko and Sokka are trying to escape using the gondola. Azula shows up and attempts to stop them. Mai helps them escape. Azula is furious with her because she thought Mai was loyal to her and only her. Just as Azula attempts to lightning bend Mai Ty Lee blocks her using Chi Blocking. They both get arrested and this betrayal sets Azula over the edge.
Azula quickly catches up to the team again and this time with the intent to kill Zuko. We see her becoming unhinged. They all escape of course.
Sozin’s Comet
During the last episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender the events of the final battle begin to unfold. We see Azula preparing to become the new Fire Lord, but this time something is very off about her. Azula is in her room getting ready and she ties up her hair. A few strands get caught and her hand gets stuck in the hair tie. She lashes out at her haircutting a big chunk of it off. She then sees a hallucination of her mother in the mirror who Azula begins having a conversation with.
Azula takes the throne
Later in the throne room surrounded by the blue fire, she begins banishing everybody. She can’t trust them she says they will just betray her as Mai and Ty Lee did.
During her battle with Zuko Azula goes full-blown psychotic but gets beat in the end by Katara’s cleverness. Katara uses the water from the grate to freeze her and then tying her up. She throws a fire breathing hissy fit and cries.
Later we discover from the comic books that Azula was sent to an asylum.
These are just a few of the many dark and intense themes in Avatar: The Last Airbender. If you wish to know more then feel free to start watching the series on Netflix. Let me know what you think in the comments.
Originally published at https://jessicalovescats.com on June 19, 2020.