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Avatar: The Last Airbender is a popular animated series that aired on Nickelodeon from 2005-2008. It is my favorite animated series, as I’m sure others would agree, for many different reasons. For a children’s show (or at least targeted for a child audience), it addresses a lot of real-world concerns like genocide, power, privilege, and war just to name a few. It is for these reasons that it is such an important show that everyone should watch at least once. And now that it’s finally on Netflix, those who haven’t seen it can watch it!
Our Avatar’s Beginnings
We meet Aang, our Avatar, in the very first episode of the show when he emerges from an iceberg and runs into two of our other main characters, Sokka and Katara, siblings of the Southern Water Tribe. They don’t know that he’s the Avatar immediately. He seems like just a normal twelve-year-old boy. However, they soon realize that he is not. This innocent young boy is (or will be) the most powerful person on the planet.
Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that Aang ran away from the air temples when he was just twelve years old to escape his fate as the Avatar. As the Avatar, he was expected to save the world from all and any danger. In this case, the danger is the Fire Lord who has expanded his territories and conquered almost the whole world. Normally, the Avatar’s identity isn’t revealed until the Avatar turns 16 when they are old enough to bear the burden and start training to learn all four elements.
However, because of the impending war, Aang learns his identity much too early. Because of this revelation, Aang runs away on a stormy night on his flying bison, Appa. Because the weather was so extreme, they crashed into the ocean. Aang manages to surround himself and Appa in a safe bubble before they sink to the bottom of the ocean. Aang doesn’t reemerge from this bubble for 100 years.
Once Aang is back in the world, he realizes how much time has passed and how many things he has missed. The world he lived in is much different than the world he is in now. He quickly learns that he needs to master all four elements as fast as he can so he can defeat Fire Lord Ozai and help free the many people and lands he has taken over.
Connections To The Real World
Like I mentioned before, Avatar discusses a lot of serious and heavy topics relatable to the world we live in today. From the second Aang is out of the iceberg, he must prepare for war: war against the Fire Lord and war against the entire Fire Nation. This twelve year old child is who everyone will look up to to stop the Fire Nation from taking over the world.
Aang is immediately thrust into this chaotic world. He’s not asked if he wants to be the Avatar, but it’s a responsibility that is thrust upon him. He has no choice. For these reasons, he is forced to grow up more quickly than a kid should ever have to. One of the first times Aang has had to step up into the role of Avatar is in the second episode of the series. He leaves Sokka and Katara’s tribe because the villagers don’t want any attention or trouble.
However, trouble is already on its way as Zuko and the Fire Nation fleet find the village. He demands the villagers to bring the Avatar out, but since they sent Aang away they know he isn’t there. Aang sees Zuko coming and returns to the village to defend the people. He fights Zuko and his soldiers, but during the fight, he sees the danger to the village people and surrenders peacefully, telling Zuko he will go with him if he leaves everyone else alone. Zuko agrees and takes Aang. From the very beginning, Aang is sacrificing himself for the lives of strangers!
Important Messages Of The Show
A prevalent theme throughout the show is power or privilege. The Fire Nation has become the most powerful nation because of the Fire Lord. They have taken over almost every other land and expanded their reaches anywhere they can reach. If you are in the Fire Nation, you have nothing to fear or worry about as long as you are conforming to the ways of the Fire Lord.
We see this in an episode in the third season where Aang secretly attends a Fire Nation school. He goes to class just like every other student and learns with them. For the first time in the series, we see these citizens of the Fire Nation simply as people. They are innocent, just like everyone else from every other nation. It’s not their fault that they are being fed false propaganda telling them that the Fire Nation is better than all the other nations.
Their teachers are being forced to teach them this information and they have to listen or they could be jailed or worse. The teachers don’t even know that the information they are giving their students is inaccurate. We see this in the episode when Aang tells the teacher that she is wrong about a question on a pop quiz. She tells him that unless he was there, he couldn’t know more than their history books.
Obviously, since he is Avatar and was there over a hundred years ago, he does know the truth. This is just one way they control the youth. Another method the Fire Nation uses is prohibiting dancing. We see this in the same episode when Aang starts dancing unintentionally while playing an instrument. The teacher stops him and tells him that dancing is prohibited. Obviously Aang finds this a bit strange. Why would something so simple as dancing be prohibited?
It is because they don’t want the kids to be able to express themselves. If they express themselves, they could start coming up with crazy ideas, ideas that don’t align with those of the Fire Nation. The students and citizens of the Fire Nation are already living better lives than most, but not necessarily willingly. They are taught from an early age that the Fire Nation is the best and is forced to conform to these ideas without any freedom to express themselves.
How Loss Affects Our Favorite Characters
Another theme in the show is death and loss. War inevitably leads to death, as we see throughout the whole show. Once Aang finally returns home, he finds that the Fire Nation invaded and killed everyone there, all the monks and air benders have been wiped off the earth. He is the only one left. Aang’s initial reaction was one of anger. He goes into the Avatar state, ready to destroy everything and anything in his way until Katara calms him down.
She holds him and stays with him as he mourns the death of his friends and family. Being the only air bender left in the world is an immensely lonely feeling. We are shown Aang being and feeling lonely at different times throughout the show. In another episode, he is separated from his bison, Appa, and isn’t reunited with him for a few episodes. Appa has been with Aang since Aang was a child.
He got to choose Appa himself and the two were always together. So to be away from him for the first time in his life, Aang has trouble focusing on anything else. He already has more responsibilities than any twelve year old should ever have. Adding the loss of Appa to it is enough to make even Avatar give up hope for a while. Sokka and Katara also lost their mother in a Fire Nation raid. She was taken from them and killed when they were children.
All Katara has left of their mother is a necklace that she always wears. She loses it a couple of times throughout the show, but it always ends up back with her. Sokka and Katara also struggle with the loss of their mother throughout the show. In one episode, we hear Sokka talking to Toph about how they lost his mother when they were really young and how he didn’t really remember her. Instead, he sees Katara as his mother because she is the one who took care of him and raised him. We also get to know Sokka who is first seen as immature at the beginning of the show.
However, once we learn more about his character, like how he lost his mother and had to see his father leave him and his sister to go fight off in a war that he might not return from, we are again able to empathize and realize that there are much deeper layers to all of these characters. Although they are children, they have all already been through more than they should have had to. Once we are able to learn more about each character, we can understand why they are the way they are.
The Human Side Of Zuko
All of the characters have experienced death and loss in some kind of way. Even Zuko, the Fire Lord’s son, was only a child when his cousin died and never came home from the war. And then, when he seems to need her most, Zuko’s own mother mysteriously leaves without any explanation.
His mother was the parent who nurtured and cared for Zuko since his father is an emotionless man who only cares about his title as Fire Lord. Zuko’s father was abusive, both mentally and physically – and he was the one who gave him the scar on his eye after he challenged Zuko to an Agni Kai to fight for honor.
Because of this, Zuko spends the next few years of his life obsessed with restoring his honor. After his father banishes him, he hunts down the Avatar for years, thinking if he can find him and capture him, his honor will be restored and his father will welcome him home. Each character deals with their losses in their own way. Some have been forgiven and let go while others are still raging and furious with what happened to their loved ones, seeking revenge or closure.
Each character is extremely complicated and has many layers that run deep – such as when we see Zuko as the bad guy at first, but once we understand the things he’s been through, we are able to empathize with him more.
Why You Should Watch It!
Avatar: The Last Airbender is a classic for many people. Many of those who watched it when it first aired on TV are binging it again now that it’s on Netflix. People keep coming back to it because it’s relatable. It provides characters that are funny and going through so many different struggles. Each character is unique and has their own complex storyline and background. The comic relief balances out perfectly with the more serious and intimate moments of the show.
Because this show is so diverse and covers so many topics, it has something for everyone. There are funny characters, like Sokka, angry characters, like Zuko, and characters that you love automatically, like Aang. Everyone can find something to enjoy in the show. With everything going on in the world, this show may be more relevant now than ever. Many of the topics and themes in the show are visible in today’s world: from war to genocide to power and privilege to loss.
The themes reverberate strongly throughout the show and throughout our world. Seeing how these characters deal with these heavy topics may even help people deal with the current events of the world. Fresh perspectives can change anyone’s thinking so why not try something you’ve never seen before?
