Please use subtitles. Also, please read the description in full.
This is an analysis video about some aspects of Avatar the Last Airbender that weren’t handled very well, and why they don’t work thematically. But it isn’t just me being relentlessly negative, I also talk about some of my favorite shows and why I like them! =^.^=
I don’t play Avatar footage in the video itself, because I don’t want to get accused of copyright infringement. Like, I know that it is fair use, but YouTube and Nick probably won’t see it that way.
Subject Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
2:27 What We Know
3:11 Morality Framing Issues
6:15 Madoka Magica Ramblings
7:24 A Poorly Constructed Moral Dilemma
8:16 A Response to Hello Future Me
11:23 The Third Way Out
12:45 The Meaning of Show, Don’t Tell
13:39 Showing Determined Characters’ Determination
16:39 The Owl House Ramblings
20:43 BuT hE’s A gEnOcIdE sUrViVoR!!1!
21:39 The Poppy War Ramblings
25:34 When the Character Warps the Writing
26:27 Energy Bending Is (Still) Bullshit
26:55 Yes, The Rest of the Story, Too
28:07 *advertising voice* BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!!!
28:46 Shitty Romantic Subplot Discussion
29:59 MaStErInG tHe AvAtAr StAtE
30:23 ~cleverly subverting your expectations~
32:25 She-Ra Ramblings
38:02 Conclusion
39:35 What Can We Learn?
Music Timestamps:
Here We Are by Toby Fox (slowed down)
Another Him by Toby Fox
Another Him by Amie Waters
Another Him by Toby Fox
Another Him by Amie Waters
White Palace by Christopher Larkin
Waterfall by Toby Fox
Intended Title (Too Long for YouTube):
Avatar: The Last Airbender Is Overrated (I’m Sorry) [A Response to Hello Future Me | Analysis | Theory | Deltarune OST]
Other Keywords: ATLA, A:TLA, Aang, Katara, Zuko, Analysis, the chosen one trope, TLOK. T:LOK, The Legend of Korra, the Avatarist, Overanalyzing Avatar.
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Alright, this is certainly the hottest take i have seen on this channel, i probably won't agree with most/all of it, i will edit this comment to include my thoughts once i finish the video
Thoughts: I do understand the fact that the writers getting aang out of trouble both with the lion turtle giving him a solution to his moral dilemma with the fire lord and the rock is quite, "annoying" (for the lack of a better word). About monk gyatso, I think that if he was surrounded by fire nations soldiers ready to take the lives of other airbenders, I don't think he would think twice about killing these people that are endangering his loved ones. But I do agree, elaborating a bit on his/gyatso's beliefs would have been interesting to see. I do also find it quite petty of aang for killing off all these people that are just serving their nation in a war, then having a whole schtick about "i dont want to kill fire hitler". As i said before, I don't like it when writers get protagonists out of situations through some lucky occurrence (lion turtle) because it makes the story less compelling. I have talked about this to my siblings, aang being literally the most gifted bender ever to live, having mastered airbending at 12, doing the rest of the elements in 1 summer, as i like to say a lot, makes the story much less compelling because even if fire hitler becomes the strongest bender alive bing bang boom avatar state and ggez. This is why i like Zuko's arc much more compelling, because he went through some really tough shit when azula was just gifted. He trained, looked for the avatar, got emotionally abused by his father and banished from the fire nation, and after so much pain and strife, he became a better person. Now yknow he didn't TECHNICALLY beat azula, but i think of it as him sacrificing himself to save katara as the completion of his arc, going from an abandoned teenager looking for his "honor" through any means necessary to sacrificing himself to keep one of the people he once prosecuted safe.
for the rest of the video i didn't have many thoughts, mainly just agreeing that yea, people should consume better media (also oneshot shoutout pog) and most of the other points. surprisingly good video on a show i haven't really thought much about since i watched it 2 years ago.
I’m so glad to see someone saying this. AtLA certainly has many well-executed elements, but it’s far from a masterpiece. Honestly, I felt like I was going a bit crazy because I rarely see people level even the slightest criticism at it.
The climax of the show was extremely disappointing, as was the immediate lead-up to it. I’m not sure if you touched on this in the video, but the biggest problem I had with Aang’s “struggle” with having to kill the fire lord was how out-of-the-blue it was. Never before in the show had Aang struggled openly with the idea of killing someone, and he wasn’t even presented as much of a pacifist in general. Yet suddenly in the last few episodes he just couldn’t even begin to come to terms with killing someone who was literally trying to do a genocide. It felt like the writers got to the climax, suddenly realized that their main protagonist was barely a character, and tried (and failed) to inject an internal conflict into his story.
Anyways, I really liked the video. Keep up the awesome work! <3
How do you not have more subscribers
4:10 Well, as you said, killing in self-defense seems to be okay, and also all the people in that air temple died, there isn't really a time where you are more pressed to kill, just under the pressure of survival, or to try and protect the people you care about.
4:45 I'm confused, how is the bug killing supposed to be bad writing? Aang is a human, and if he is pushed to the point of breaking, he can break his own moral code out of anger, like every person ever. The air temple point is fair though. And although it is supposed to be an important moment, I don't believe it got a real follow up, which is weird.
Anyways, I'm not entirely sure people like ATLA for Aang and his chosen one journey. They like Zuko and/or Iroh, they like the really fleshed out worldbuilding, etc. If you asked someone for their favorite episode, they'd probably say tales of ba sing se, for the iroh part.
I love how when someone comments a whole 500 word essay you reply with another essay
So glad someone finally said it. I liked Avatar, but I never saw it as the be-all-end-all. I’ll rewatch a couple episodes on Netflix, but only a couple small handful of episodes because so few of them actually stuck with me. I think it says a lot about my perception of the show when the only episodes I occasionally go back to watch are those that don’t involve Aang, those being Sokka’s Master and The Boiling Rock.
Let's admit Korra as a protagonist is much better.
I'll admit that I was half interested in this video and half hate watching it until the midway point, then the hate watching aspect faded away.
I disagree about Atla being overrated, or of it is, it's not by much. Aang is the protagonist, but all other characters are just as, if not more engaging and interesting than him. Yes, Aang has several flaws that are never taken into account and he's framed as the definition of morality (he still was many great attributes, tho), but virtually all other elements surrounding him and the story stick the landing for me. Katara's struggle with her femininity, trauma and revenge are amazing, Sokka has to come to terms with not being a bender and overall being the "normal" guy of the group, Zuko's story is simply, incredible. The highlight of the show in all honesty, so I'll dedicate some more words to it.
Zuko's arc is beautiful. How he goes from a teen that seeks to impress his father and restore his honor by capturing the avatar, to someone who sees first hand the struggle his nation causes on the rest of the world, to giving back to his instincts and regressing, to finally seeing the light and deciding to go against his nation, and his father. His reconsolidation with Iroh is so SO bitter sweet, and Zuko's arc parallels Aang's own arc, but better. It brings an interesting argument of nature versus nurture, that admittedly requires some context from the comics.
Azula is a banger villain, and way more active than Hitler. She fights, manipulates, captures and spies. The last Agni Kai between her versus Zuko and Katara both signifies the contrast between siblings and the sides of femininity. Although her mental breakdown is handled poorly and is way too rushed.
Lastly for our not-Aang characters is Iroh. For all of the show we see Iroh as a sweet old man and mentor to Zuko, but it's clear that he himself went through an arc similar to Zuko's before the start of the show. He was a general for the fire nation, the dragon of the west, the man who broke into Ba Sing Se's walls, but he's not that man anymore. The loss of his son Mako broke him like the walls and made him question the entire of his mission and actions. Actually I lied, some of the arc still occurs during the show, but it's much smaller. In the start he's neutral or even positive towards the fire nation, he simply doesn't partake in it. But over time he actively goes against the nation in order to protect Zuko, the avatar and the world at large.
Before talking about Aang, I'll type about non character aspects of the show, like the world building. The world building is very intricate and feels like it takes every single aspect of the world and societies and geography and everything into consideration, like how the earth kingdom has decentralized power because it's so big, there's a desert in the middle, and there's no way to effectively control such large area from the capital.
Let's talk Aang. Aang is the avatar, he has all the power, he will win, that's a given. He starts with an ability no one has, and he quickly masters everything else, but he still is just a kid. The show even points this out in the season one ending, he's the avatar but even himself can't take down a fleet. He's against an entire army with little help. At points it feels like Azula is more capable than him. Even his big boy mode, the avatar state, isn't something he can control, not until the final fight, where he is forced to make the difficult choice of letting go of Katara, and acknowledging that his duty to the world comes first. That does however contradict what the Guru says about the avatar state, that if he were to leave soon, which he did, he wouldn't be able to use it at all. Now, about his high horse 100% moral choice of not killing Hitler, it was about showing he's compassion. He knew nothing about that man, other than he was pure evil in everyone's eyes. Everyone, even his past lives were telling him to kill the fire lord, but he chose not to. Now, that ability to even have a choice came out of nowhere, and he never stuck to his code seriously, so he's not perfect, far from it, and I agree that energy bending is stupid, but when it mattered most, he still made the choice to spare a life. And for that he wins, he wins his internal conflict, that as a viewer, I could very much feel the intensity of.
In conclusion, Aang is still just one character, most of the rest are amazing ones with equality amazing arcs, and Aang being the chosen one doesn't feel cheap (for the exception of the lion turtles and energy bending as a whole), because the challenges he faces still are difficult for him to conquer. He was in an awful position in the start of season 3, and if Zuko didn't switch sides, he would have lost. Lastly, his moral code is very inconsistent and feels more like a moral suggestion but when it matter most, he still obeyed it, even if the paths to that choice were stupid.
Great video still, always nice to hear from another perspective
This is one of the many reasons I preferred Korra to Aang. Korra doesn't get handed much of anything. Also, LoK shows that Aang was a pretty shitty person and a VERY shitty parent.
Promo*SM
The funniest thing about the Avatar phenomenon is how people say it is super deep, and explores things like genocide, mental health, death etc etc… And then you go watch it and its all super bare bones and simple. Yes they show this things, but no they don't explore it thoroughly at all. That doesn't mean it's bad, just that it's very simple and 90% of what people write essays and make videos about is coming out of their own heads, and you could do that to any show.
But that's the thing, it's a simple show with a simple story for kids, and it's at its best when it does this. That's what people don't want to admit. And most of the time where it suffers the most is when it tries to overstep these boundaries, like in episodes that pretend to be more serious than the show was ever supposed or capable of being (like in The Southern Raiders for example).
When that happens there usually is a lot of contradictions, forced conflict/drama and no actual solutions to the conflicts at hand. Like, the ending is taken over by that dilemma about killing the bad guy, when that whole thing isn't a dilemma at all, and there are actually very straightforward moral solutions and justifications to it, but that could never be explored because it's a Nickelodeon show; so there was never a real dilemma because there was never a possibility that the child protagonist would kill the antagonist in that show in the first place, not to mention it's all forced drama when you consider that this question of killing was never brought up or thought to be necessary in regards to any other antagonist in the first place, and their situations were solved just fine (in fact, it can be seen in the ruina of the Southern Air Temple that even the monks weren't radical pacifists as it is later implied, with how many destroyed bodies of fire benders there is there, and this is just one of many inconsistencies in the writing that's never brought up).
The same could be said when people say that "it deals with genocide" when it really doesn't at all; it's just a backdrop for the setting, and it even hurts the tone of the show the fact the there's such a backdrop being contrasted with silly jokes all the time.
There are many other problems that come from it being essentially a kid's show, like the fact that war strategy and politics are basically non existent, and everything related to that is painfully oversimplified, or other problems like the need to manufacture conflict and drama by the end of the series, or, for example, that whole idea of the fire lord destroying the world at the end being absolutely stupid of a plan, and the fact that it's only there because they wanted to artificially raise the stakes even more at the end.
And I could be here dissecting every single episode all day and coming out with ratings and conclusions to all of them, but that's the thing, none of that means it's a bad show, just that it's very limited and it's not any more deep than the kid's show it was made to be, and that's what people don't want to realise. And it's because of the fact that people do not that it is truly overrated.
Another thing that is dumb and problematic (and this is something that will gather a lot of hate if the fans see it) is Iroh's character. They want to make him play the "wise sage" archetype, but while that would traditionally mean that this is someone who achieved enlightenment, someone detached from carnal pleasures and material concerns, they also show him scamming people for their money by gambling (The Waterbending Scroll), stealing and lusting after women (Bato of the Water Tribe), among other things. This is because his "wise sage" archetype is in conflict with his "funny old man" trope that they took from anime (and that is also stupid and problematic in anime).
Also, his "wisdom" is no Wisdom at all if considered from the point of view of the traditional doctrines that inspire the show. Despite how they want to portray him, his saying that "perfection is overrated" would be completely absurd in the context of any traditional religion, since for all traditional doctrines the goal of men is none other than to achieve perfection, enlightenment, detachment from this world and unity with the spiritual principles; the same could be said about him standing for the idea that Aang doesn't have to detach himself from the things that limit him in this world, and so on. But the creators are completely oblivious to that, so they make Iroh stand for completely mundane perspectives (like living a mundane life with no deep motivations being somehow honourable) while ginving an air of wisdom to trick people into thinking it's actually very deep what he is saying. For example, his saying that "hope is something we give to ourselves" sounds very good to modern ears that are used to individualistic ideologies prevalent today, but it is complete nonsense in any eastern doctrine that inspires the show's aesthetic's (I say aesthetics because in reality the show is very western and very modern in everything beyond surface level stuff), as what they teach is that we in our mere human state are completely insignificant, and we can only find any strentgh in what is beyond ourselves (the spiritual principles).
But again, that is pure ignorance from the creators. In Star Wars, for one, Lucas clearly went to traditional sources to write the dialogue of characters like Yoda and Qui-Gon Jinn, and their dialogue is very distinct because of that. The writers here clearly didn't do that, and it's all obviously just what they thought would sound good.
And as a side note, this whole problem of understanding with the creators goes to manifest itself in many other aspects of the show. Like the difference between atachment and love, that is related to what I said in my other comment (about detachment vs forgiveness): the writers don't understand that in traditional doctrines attachment and love are two very different and many times incompatible things. So in the Guru episodes with Aang and the Avatar State, they manufacture this whole stupid dilemma where Aang has to let go of Katara to achieve the Avatar State, where in reality that doesn't mean at all that he would have to stop loving her, much to the contrary. It only means that he cannot put her above his destiny, his mission as Avatar; he cannot put her as his ultimate goal; he has to be completely free of that, but that doesn't mean he can't love her. I mean, the other Avatars all controled the Avatar State, and most of them were married!
Other than that, there are some things that are problems just for the virtue of it being a kids show really. Like the fact that it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever that most of the world's biggest problems would be at the hands of and ultimately solved by a bunch of children lol. But anyway, that's another question entirely.
Oh, but by the way, you got a lot of stuff wrong about certain specific points. I agree that there's a lot of dumb stuff, but for instance, in regards to Aang's relationship to Katara and the "letting go", he in fact does what he's supposed to at the end of season 2 (this contradicts what the Guru says, that he wouldn't be able to do it at all if he didn't do it now, but that's another issue), and it is the injury from Azula's lightning that blocks his chackras (again this is yet somewhat contradicted later by Aang's explanation of the problem, but that's also another issue).
Also, it seems you're being a lot of your criticism in things that are not right and wrong whatsoever, but just a personal perspective and judging of things, like the justification of certain characters actions or behaviour. That wouldn't be a problem of course, but you're taking your own personal subjective and flawed moral and ethical values as absolutes to present as objective criticism, and that just doesn't fly.
For example, saying most people consider Aang and Katara's subplot as bad bears no weight at all, and in fact there's nothing to suggest that that's actually true, besides your own anecdotal experience with the fanbase. Also, deeming Aang's behaviour as "non supportive in Katara's worst moments" is just a matter of your own biased worldview determining if you consider that right or wrong, as there are plenty of other people that would say Aang was in the right in those moments and concerned with leading Katara to do the right thing.