Why "Avatar: The Last Airbender" was ahead of its time

Avatar: The Last Airbender has seen a huge resurgence since it has been brought to Netflix. Many people who enjoyed the series as children, like myself, are watching the show as adults. This time, I’m starting to think that the show sparked the awareness my generation has for political and social issues. After watching the show through the eyes of an activist, I’ve realized that creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko pushed the boundaries of typical children's shows in the 2000’s. 

The entire plot of the show is a criticism of imperialism and colonialism. The Fire Nation is based off of imperial Japan, but replicates many dictatorships like Nazi Germany, but even shares some similarities with America. The Fire Nation began a century long war in which they violently expanded their influence across the three other nations-- the Water Tribe, the Earth Kingdom, and the Air Nomads. The Fire Nation is led by Firelord Ozai, a ruthless monarch who terrorizes the other nations. The Fire Nation has a sense of superiority disguised as patriotism. They go as far as committing genocide against the Air Nomads, a concept many children don’t understand until they're older. As a result of the war, people from war-torn communities flee to Ba Sing Se as refugees.

In the Fire Nation, there is strong nationalism, brainwashing, and censorship. In “The Headband,” Aang briefly attends a Fire Nation grade school, in which the children are forced to recite an oath swearing unwavering loyalty to their country. Sounds familiar, right? The education curriculum is tainted with hyper-nationalism and lies. In this episode, Aang throws a dance party to show the children a form of self expression “can never be taken from you by anyone.” This episode highlighted the importance of expressing yourself, even while under an authoritarian government. 

But even the Earth Kingdom city of Ba Sing Se, although not a dictatorship, has its flaws, much like America. When the kids arrive, Katara even asks an official, “Why are all of the poor people inside the wall, separated from everyone else?” It closely resembles the de facto segregation and classism in America, despite calling ourselves the land of the free. The government of Ba Sing Se is full of corrupt city officials who hypnotize citizens into believing that they are free and there is no war at all. The poor citizens and refugees are segregated into the densely populated lower ring, so that the outer rings containing the upper classes can live in bliss. The Dai Lee are described as the cultural authority, but instead keep the poor folks and refugees contained within their ring of garbage. The King is reduced to a mere figurehead, and the Dai Li assume power for themselves. The Dai Li ensure that the poor are pushed together in the lower ring. It is quite similar to America’s police force who keep communities in poverty. By including this, ATLA teaches children that law enforcement officials are not necessarily ethical. Many adults haven't understood this until recently.

Typically, children aren't taught subjects like imperialism, classism and tyranny until they are older, but ATLA portrays the implications of such issues in a way that children can understand. In doing so, ATLA exposes young children to advanced topics that they otherwise would not learn. Such topics are integral to developing efficacy in their later years, and perhaps this part of the show sparked some of my own activist tendencies.

The characters in the show themselves take on roles as activists. In the episode, The Painted Lady, the gang stumbles upon a poor fishing village, where a village is being polluted by a Fire Nation factory. The villagers are sick and hungry, and Katara feels a strong inclination to help them. Katara initially helps them by healing their sick with her waterbending, but ultimately solves the village’s problem by destroying the factory altogether. This episode disproves the notion that activists must be peaceful in order to make change, and sends the message that sometimes burning down the oppressor is a necessary action. By embracing real change, Katara rejects complacency and performative activism.

ATLA also demonstrates to children how to deal with complex emotions. Various characters deal with trauma, loss, and mental illness. Aang, a survivor of the Air Nomad genocide, returns to his temple after 100 years in an iceberg to find that his friends and families at the Air Temple, have been killed by Fire Nation soldiers. When he finds the body of his old friend, Monk Gyatso, Aang is devastated and is consoled by his friend Katara. The creators did not conceal Aang’s grief, but demonstrated healthy ways of coping with loss. Katara’s role in this scene served to highlight the importance of emotional support from friends.

Siblings Katara and Sokka have both dealt with losing their mother to the Fire Nation, and Katara continues to grieve the loss of her mother through her teenage years. When Katara gets the chance to confront the man who killed her mother, Katara instead chooses to forgive him rather than seek revenge. This scene demonstrated the importance of mercy and forgiveness, something that our society has yet to learn.

Zuko, son of the Fire Lord, was banished from the Fire Nation and burned by his father for speaking out during a war meeting. After this instance, Zuko is left obsessed with capturing the avatar to regain his honor. His obsessive nature and short temper were direct results of his father’s emotional and physical abuse. The creators depicted his struggles with his temper, but also showed how Zuko learned to let go of his anger, and turn a new leaf. Instead of living to please Fire Lord Ozai, he chose to join the Avatar and fight alongside them to end the Fire Nation's dictatorship and imperialism. Because of this choice, Zuko had one of the largest redemption arcs in the show. 

Towards the end of the show, Azula, daughter of the Fire Lord, is shown to have struggled with perfectionism and has a mental breakdown. Although Azula is an antagonist, she was also a victim of her father's abuse just as much as Zuko. It was shown that she was put on a pedestal as a child by her sociopathic father, and thus turned away by her mother. Throughout her childhood, her father rewarded Azula when she displayed his very own evil behavior. As a result, Azula was a perfectionist who used fear, like her father, to manipulate people. When things began going wrong for Azula, she gradually lost her sanity, and the creators vividly showed her having a mental breakdown at the end of the show. The creators did not hold back on depicting specific details of a mental breakdown, such as cutting her hair, hallucinations, and paranoia. It's important that the creators portrayed a mental breakdown in its raw form. Most people will experience a mental breakdown at some point in their life and thus it ought to be normalized among children.

The two characters, Zuko and Azula, show two children who grew up with a poor relationship with a parent. Zuko dealt with anger issues through his father’s lack of validation, and Azula dealt with perfectionism due to being resented by her mother and praised by her father. 

Representation is also an area in which Avatar excels in. Every single character is a person of color. Through clothing, appearances, and building style that each nation is based on a specific ethnic group. The Water Tribe is based on Alaskan natives, the Earth Kingdom is based on China, the Fire Nation is based on Japan, and the Air Nomads are based on Tibetan Monks. Additionally, the Sun Warriors take inspiration from Ancient Mesopotamians, Aztecs, and Mayans. The sand benders are based on North African and Arab cultures. Though less obvious, the Swamp Benders are inspired by overseas Vietnamese diaspora who moved to Southern states.

Every single group in Avatar is based on an African, Asian, or Native nation. Likewise, there is not a single white person in the series. Every character has an ethnic name, and appears as a person of color. During a time where children shows were often white washed, ATLA proved itself to be ahead of its time by creating a cast of all POC characters. Watching the show, children of color can easily see themselves in the characters.

The storyline also takes inspiration from Hinduism. The avatar reincarnation cycle is based on Hindu reincarnation, as well as the concept of chakras being aligned in order to reach the avatar state.

ATLA also pushes against gender stereotypes for both females and males. In the first episode, Katara literally calls Sokka sexist. In the episode, “The Kyoshi Warriors,” the gang meets the Kyoshi Warriors, a group of skilled female martial artists. In this episode, Sokka overcomes his misogynistic thinking, puts on a dress, and the Kyoshi Warriors teach him how to fight. This episode demonstrates that femininity and strength can go hand and hand. It is common for TV shows to fail to acknowledge the coexistence of femininity and strength. Part of Sokka’s character arc is swallowing his pride and rejecting toxic masculinity and misogyny. 

In the episode “The Waterbending Master,” the Northern Water tribe forbids women from learning waterbending to fight. Instead of conforming to outdated traditions, Katara challenges Pakku to a dual, and proves to Pakku that she is just as capable as male waterbenders.

The show also uses the two female characters, Toph and Katara to show female strength in different ways. Katara is more feminine and ladylike, while Toph is a tomboy who doesn’t mind getting dirty. Katara is a waterbending master, and Toph is an earthbending master. Femininity is often portrayed as weak in television, but Katara proves that you can be both feminine and strong. On the other hand, Toph demonstrates that it is okay for girls to be outspoken, loud and aggressive. Both are equally strong and respected fighters, but take on completely different roles. Children can take from this that girls do not need to sacrifice their femininity in order to be strong, nor do they have to conform to femininity.

Toph and Katara are just two examples, but every female character, Azula, Mai, Suki, Ty Lee, has a complex backstory and a distinct personality. The girls of ATLA are not passive side characters, but essential parts to the story. It is typical for female characters in TV shows to lack depth and complexity, but ATLA does quite the opposite.

The show even goes as far as normalizing femininity in boys. The main character, Aang, is the least masculine male character in the show. He does not have the buff physique that we typically see with male TV characters, he would rather talk things out than fight, and he upholds the peaceful teachings of the Air Temple monks. Still, Aang is a very powerful bender. He is a great example of a male who doesn’t need to be masculine to be a strong hero. Take that, toxic masculinity!

Finally, Avatar covers representation for disabled children. One of the main characters, Toph, is born blind, yet is a master at Earth bending. TV shows tend to misrepresent disabilities by portraying disabled children either as helpless and meek, or completely unaffected by their disability. Instead, ATLA does neither. Toph is bold and brash, and one of the most powerful benders in the show. But Toph also needs help at some points during the the show, and the other characters have no problem helping her around or being held onto for support. It’s a great source of representation for children with disabilities as it shows that although they may need help from time, they can be just as successful as anyone else.  

Another recurring character with a disability is Teo, an Earth Kingdom boy who is paralyzed from the waist down and is thus bound to a wheelchair. Although he is unable to bend air, his father constructed a glider that can attach to his wheelchair, allowing him to fly. Teo excelled among the other children with gliders and Aang even marked that, although he did not have airbending ability, he had “the spirit of an airbender'' and Teo was able to keep up with Aang. Teo served as a great aid in the gang’s efforts to end the war, and his disability was not at all a prominent quality of his character.

As a child, I didn’t realize how many advanced topics were presented in this show. Avatar: The Last Airbender served as a paragon of representation and a source of moral guidance for children of all ages. I’m grateful for this show’s influence on my childhood that may have been a major factor in forming my own passions.