#avatar the last airbender analysis | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ilikepjo24 · 1 year

Text

I'm sick and tired of having this conversation so I'll put my opinion out there and if you don't like it, there the door 🚪

Zuko was the one to cheat at the Agni Kai, not Azula

And I can already hear the antis coming at me so before you start yelling, read the whole thing carefully.

Zuko cheated because he had a teammate in a one on one duel. And plz don't say Katara wasn't his teammate because she walked into the arena to defend him, changing herself from an observer to a participant. To make it easier to understand, I decided to draw it out to y'all:

Those are some screenshots from the final Agni Kai. Do you notice those little tiles around the clean ground? Do you wanna know what they mean (at least from my point of view)?

Do you see it? Yes? Good! Let's do that again!

Do you see it it again? Great! Let's do this one last time, just to be safe shall we?

I know you see it this time! It's clear as day! Katara wasn't supposed to be standing there. She's is forfeiting and since if she were to fight she'd work with Zuko and against Azula, she is considered part of Zuko's team. So her cheating is Zuko's cheating too.

And don't try to pull any of that "she was already there" bullshit because...

...she was nowhere around Zuko before the forfeiting scene.

Now, I know some people are going to say stuff like "there wasn't an official arena so Katara could walk there" and here is what I have to say to you:

If you don't want to count the area as an arena then you can't count the fight as an Agni Kai since a designated dueling space is necessary.

And if it's not an Agni Kai then there weren't any rules to be broken, so why exactly are you attacking Azula for breaking a non-existent rule?

However, if you want to believe that the fight was an Agni Kai, you have to accept that the clear ground was the arena. To accept that is to also accept that Katara forfeited, causing Zuko to lose, either by tramming up and making her cheating his also or by needing him to save her from the lightning Azula was allowed to throw at her since she was participant.

In the end of the day, Zuko did get burned, Azula didn't, Katara cheated, Azula didn't. So how come people still believe Azula wasn't the winner?

To sum up, this is my opinion on the subject. I'm not posting it to cause an argument but to make people aware as to who they'll have to deal with if they interact with me. If you agree, good for you. If you don't, suck it up or leave cause I'm in no mood to talk about this again when I have already said everything I had to say. Now don't bother me about this ever again.

#azula #zuko #katara #atla #Final Agni Kai Analysis #Avatar The Last Airbender Analysis #Azula won fair and square #fire lord azula #i said what i said

269 notes · View notes

ur-frndly-neighborhood-memer1 · 1 year

Text

WHY I LOVE ATLA- Part 2

-Symbolism

In the first part, I explained why characters were such an important part of the show. And we loved watching that well-written and brilliant characters.

And in this part, I'll be explaining the best symbolism examples I've seen in the series. A:TLA sure did an awesome job with using symbols in a meta way.

1-) Zuko's Fever Dream:

During the dream, we see Zuko scar-less and as the Fire Lord. We can assume that this version of himself is the best one he hoped to become.

No scar = No shame = Honor

Zuko isn't disgraced and dishonored since he doesn't have the scar. And he became the Fire Lord as he was supposed to be since he was the crown prince.

And not to mention, he literally looks like a younger and softer version of Ozai here. It's already comfirmed by the creators that Ozai was indeed designed to look like an older Zuko with no scar.

So basically, Zuko's idealized version of himself is Ozai. Just look at how cold and serious he appears here. Only until he sees his reflection in Ursa's eye...

And then, he "wakes up" as Aang. Not surprising considering the fact that capturing the avatar was the one and only way of restoring his honor.

2-) The Dragons:

The dragons, Ran and Shaw are the original firebending masters. And their dance somewhat reminds me of Yin-Yang symbol.

Which makes sense since Aang and Zuko also found out the true meaning of fire here. It's life. It's death. It's balance. Fire is destruction but it's also creation. There's a balance in it. And that's the point of true firebending. It's all about balance.

But it's also surprising that there was also red and blue dragons in Zuko's fever dream

The blue one, telling Zuko to sleep, was voiced by Azula's voice actress. And the red one, telling Zuko to get out of there, was voiced by Iroh's voice actor. They're whispering to Zuko's ears on the both sides of his shoulders, almost like a devil and an angel advising him.

And it makes complete sense because Iroh and Azula are the most influential people in Zuko's decisions. Azula is the devil here, manipulating Zuko, leading him to darkness and destruction, and to the negative side of the fire. Iroh, on the other hand (or on the other shoulder that is?) is the angel, actually caring for Zuko's well-being, leading him to kindness and creation, to the positive side of the fire.

And this dragon symbolism really reaches the top tier point when we see Sozin and Roku's dragons.

Sozin's dragon is blue, just like the one in Zuko's dream which was voiced by Azula (Grey DeLisle) whereas Roku's dragon is red, just like the one that voiced by Iroh (Greg Baldwin).

So the whole red-blue dragon thing actually symbolizes Zuko's inner struggles and bloodline. Iroh, Roku and the red dragon are his conscience. The side that leads him to positive use of fire.

Azula, Sozin and the blue dragon are his ruthlessness. The side that leads him to negative use of fire.

3-) Zuko's Grunts

Before learning the true form of firebending from dragons, Zuko's source of his bending was anger. He used to rely on anger and agression when he was firebending. So whenever he was firebending, we were hearing him grunting and screaming.

And it's also because he was using his muscles during bending, not his breath as Iroh was trying to teach. So no wonder he had a body like that in book one.

But after learning the true form of firebending, Zuko learns to control his anger, and no longer relies on his muscles.

That's why he no longer grunts during firebending. And it creates a great contrast between his agni kai fights.

When he fought Zhao, he was pretty aggressive and angry. But when he fought Azula, he was calm and collected.

And what makes this development even more impressive was Azula's fall. Because once a cold and calculating princess has now fallen from grace.

Zuko fought with the confidence and grace that Azula once had.

Azula fought with the anger and agression that Zuko once had.

And this contrast is both impressive and tragic at the same time.

4-) The Lightning and Abuse

In the Fire Nation, lightning is described as a rare gift that only really talented firebenders are capable of.

We haven't seen Sozin lightning bending, but he does a similar move with the volcano instead. So we can assume he could generate lightning as well.

It's the same case with Azulon. We never saw him bending lightning (we didn't even see him bending though). But he's known to be an extremely powerful firebender. So much that Ozai named his favorite, powerful kid after him. Therefore we can assume he was capable of bending lightning as well.

But what we know for sure is Ozai and Azula were perfectly capable of generating lightning.

Right after the eclipse, Ozai was able to bend a massive lightning very quickly with little sunlight. Showing how powerful he is, which is scary.

And only creating a much greater one when he faced Aang during Sozin's Comet.

Azula also bends lightning perfectly. She was even able to bend it during a severe mental breakdown, despite the fact that Iroh stated, lightning bending takes full concentration and a clear mind.

Not surprisingly, Azula was able to control its voltage as well, she hits Sokka with very low voltage in The Search.

And she can create lightning balls in The Search too, used it againts a giant wolf spirit.

And of course, she learned how to redirect it in Smoke and Shadow comics too.

But what about Iroh and Zuko?

We know Iroh can generate lightning too. But he never uses it. And Zuko has never seen to bend it.

But instead, they specialize in redirecting it.

Because in the Fire Nation Royal Family, lightning is the symbol of abuse.

From Sozin to Azulon, from Azulon to Iroh and Ozai, from Ozai to Zuko and Azula. Each generation carries the toxicity and abuse in the family. And lightning is a very spot on metaphor for this situation.

->Ozai tried to kill his own son with a lightning, so did Azula.

->Ozai tried to kill Aang with lightning, Azula made it.

->Both Ozai and Azula tried to kill Zuko with lightning, but both failed due to Iroh.

->And Azula's lightnings gave both Zuko and Aang scars.

But if lightning is a meta symbol for abuse, then it means redirecting it must be breaking this cycle, right? Absolutely.

Because if Iroh didn't teach Zuko how to redirect it, he would be dead.

And if Zuko was dead, there would be no one there to teach Aang lightning redirection. Which means Aang would also be dead.

5-) Ozai and Azula's Resemblance

In my previous posts, I already said that Zuko looks nearly identical to his father whereas Azula seems to be similar to both her parents but resembled her mother more...

Except for a certain moment.

Lightning is Azula's signature move (along with her iconic blue flames). But it's only too meaningful that her father looks so much like her after doing her signature move.

->Both are tilting their heads with a similar angle,

->Both are surrounded with their flames,

->Both have shadows on their faces,

->Both have mad, pissed off expressions,

I believe it's one of the many moments connecting father and daughter, and pointing out their similarities.

133 notes · View notes

selenestarmoon · 2 years

Text

It's interesting to think that, in some way, Touya is what Zuko would have been if he hadn't had Ursa and Iroh's support and never left the Fire Nation and that Azula is what Shouto would have been if he hadn't had his mother's support and if he hadn't met to Izuku.

If Zuko had stayed in the Fire Nation, and by extension not had the experiences of other people, and had Ursa to love him and Iroh to advise and support him, he would have sought Ozai's recognition to extreme degrees until he injured and nearly killed himself and at the same time he would have wanted to take revenge on his father in the worst possible way for the abuse towards him and his family as Touya did.

If Shouto hadn't met Izuku and hadn't had his mother's support, he would have focused on his personal goal to surpass his father to an obsessive degree that would make Shouto become extremely perfectionist and would have repressed and controlled his emotions an extreme degree to achieve his goal that would make having relationships with others irrelevant and in case he wanted to have relationships with others he wouldn't be able to socialize or express himself with them in a healthy way just like what happened to Azula with her personal goal (be recognized by her father Ozai and unconsciously, by her mother Ursa).

Zuko and Dabi were the failures who wanted their fathers' love and recognition while Azula and Shouto possessed great power and talent that their fathers wanted to make them the perfect tools for them to achieve their ambitions.

37 notes · View notes

skipppppy · 21 days

Text

I love how despite not being a bender, Sokka is the biggest embodiment of everything the Water Tribe values in the show, both good and bad.

Change. Sokka who humbled himself when the Kyoshi warriors proved him wrong and took their teachings to heart. Sokka who always had a plan, a few hundred backup plans, and could still get out of a sticky situation on the fly. Sokka whose friends became bored and aimless without his quick wit and initiative.

Kindness. Sokka who went to save Aang before Katara even had to ask him to. Sokka who saw the humanity in an old man from the fire nation. Sokka who gave Jet a second chance despite being the first one to be suspicious of him. Sokka who showed Zuko to his room and held no resentment against him. Sokka who shielded Toph from falling debris with his body.

Ingenuity. Sokka who invented airships and submarines. Sokka who took down the drill. Sokka who broke into a Fire Nation prison rig and out of the highest security prison in the country. Sokka who levelled Ozai’s entire sky fleet in one tactical manoeuvre.

Love. Sokka who couldn’t remember his mother’s face but carries the grief of her death so deeply that he protects every woman he meets with the same unhealthy hypervigilance. Sokka who instinctually jumps to defend his sister despite their constant bickering.

Community. Sokka who gave up his childhood to become the sole protector of his village and dedicated his time to training the younger boys in combat. Sokka who learned to let go of his hypervigilance and put his trust in the people he’a afraid of losing so they can protect him like he protects them. Sokka who stood alone guarding the gates of his home as Zuko’s ship towered over them.

#sokka is the best avatar character okay. i just have thoughts #avatar the last airbender #atla #atla analysis #sokka #water tribe

5K notes · View notes

aangarchy · 3 months

Text

Ok now we're just taking the piss right? Right?

Once again this sort of thinking is removing a fundamental character arc that makes this story what it is. A big part of Aang's journey, especially in season 1, but tbh it does return in later seasons too, is accepting that he is the Avatar, and that he's the only one who can end this war. During the whole first season he is in complete denial about who he is and what he's supposed to do, which is why in most of this season there's no sense of urgency, and then once Aang gets faced with a very real, very close deadline he panics. This makes it even more brutal when in season 3, after accepting this responsibility, he gets faced with the reality of failure. He runs away again, this time not because he doesn't want responsibility, but because he knows how heavy his responsibility is and he doesn't want to burden anyone else with it. Removing the first aspect, aka running away and denying responsibility, it in turn also removes the heavy emotion from his later arc.

It keeps surprising me that people who claim to be such fans of the original seem to completely miss the point of most of this story? Like how could you look at Sokka learning about women's rights, Aang learning to accept responsibility, and Katara's motherly warmth which happened because how young she was when she had to step into a motherly role, and think "well we should remove that." You're taking out all of character development and going purely off of plot (which isn't gonna be nearly as good without the character development!)

Atla is probably one of the most analyzed and picked apart story, has one of the most long running loyal fanbases, people are STILL making thinkpieces about this show, and you manage to still misunderstand so much???

#i'm telling you media literacy is DEAD #like this fanbase's analysis comes close to that of the lord of the rings fandom #and yet you seem to have completely ignored it #wild #atla #atla netflix #netflix atla #netflix #atla live action #avatar the last airbender #avatar

5K notes · View notes

bellwethers · 22 days

Text

Oh. Poor child

#I neeed angst #I need anger. sadness #I need to read character analysis #fanart #atla #atla fanart #avatar #avatar the last airbender #the last airbender #azula #atla azula #princess azula #azula avatar

2K notes · View notes

zukoshotleafjuice · 4 months

Text

should not have rewatched atla during finals because now all i'm thinking of is sokka and the concept of return. sokka, who is emotionally defined by the fact that his dad chose to go away and leave him in charge. sokka, whose weapon of choice is a boomerang because he knows he can trust it to return to him. sokka, who barely trusted that the return of the avatar meant that the world could ever be set right. sokka who left his home without the kind of hope that katara did, without real faith that he'd get back. sokka who lost yue and sees his first love every time he looks at the night sky, even though he knows he will never see her again.

and then sokka, who in the finale looked death in the eye and said I don' t think boomerang is coming back this time. he threw his boomerang and he dropped his sword and he knew that he was right the whole time, because at the end of the day things leave him and so do people.

except suki, though. suki came back.

#im chewing glass about this and am running on 4 hours sleep #atla #avatar the last airbender #sokka #suki #sukki #yue #toph beifong #sokka analysis

1K notes · View notes

count-horror-xx · 22 days

Text

I actually like zutara as a concept, it's a ship I'll casually read fics about them sometimes.

it's just zutara fans are fucking delusional. Stop treating their Canon partners as abusive when it's the complete opposite. Especially Mai.

Aang isn't a misogynistic monk that forces katara to be his house wife. If he did katara would leave him in a millisecond. He actually cares so much about her. It's actually Canon HE cooks and accommodates his cultural food with kataras.

And Mai was literally ready to die for zuko. Even when they just broke up, she was ready to get electrocuted by azula if it wasn't for ty lee chi blocking azula.

I'm aware it seems like she doesn't care about him the way she's quiet and aloof but I understand where she was coming as someone who somewhat has similar tendencies of being a little awkward when trying to show emotions and it coming off as being uncaring or rude. But at the end of the day she really shows she loves him, so people saying she's abusive is completely inaccurate to her character.

Her bottling up her emotions was taught by her parents as she explains in the beach episode somewhat where she had to worry about her father's reputation all the the time, forcing her to be quiet as a form of behaving.

Personally I think her quiet personality fits with Zukos loud ass, especially giving him a reality check during the beach episode calling him out for being angry all the time and how he needs to keep it in check.

Zutara is a nice ship I agree but you can ship it without mischaracterizing tf out of thier Canon partners.

856 notes · View notes

adriancatrin · 1 year

Text

just a reminder that azulas hair arc is just as important to her character as zukos is to his

her first real intro draws attention to the perfection of her hair (“only one hair out of place”)

after ty lee and mai betray her, while she’s attacking the western air temple & zuko, her hair frays and she eventually pulls out her hairpin to catch herself on the cliff side, a hint at the self destruction she’s willing to endure to achieve her goal

and ofc when she becomes firelord and has her psychotic episode, she cuts her hair into a ragged mess

zukos arc is about rejecting the original idea of what honor is and coming to and achieving your own sense of honor, and azulas is about failing to achieve perfection and losing control of yourself in the process. the evolution of their hair shows this so well—zukos is just more obvious

#azula #thoughts #idfk #atla #is this meta? tbh idk what meta actually means on this site lol #i’m too old and i was away too long #what ppl call meta to me is just analysis? why’s it meta #lolol #avatar the last airbender #zuko

8K notes · View notes

pokidokieships · 1 month

Text

Excuse my Zutara fangirlism but I’m on my hundredth ATLA rewatch and I just noticed another one of those scenes that could have made for PERFECT foreshadowing… it’s really crazy how this ship wrote itself in the show!

Anyways notice how Katara reacts to Jet seemingly wanting to join the gaang and Toph calling her out on it:

(Excuse the bad quality Netflix didn’t allow me to take screenshots bahah)

And then:

She’s blushing because she obviously had feelings for Jet, a canonical love interest of hers.

But doesn’t this scene strike you as familiar in any way…..?

She reacted the same way with Zuko, these scenes are so identical it’s INSANE! The subtext!! *screams*

But this time Zuko is genuine and works to gain her trust back!! And then we see him risk his life for her like a couple episodes later…. AHHHHH

How are they not a canon couple again??

#zutara #Zuko x Katara #Prince Zuko #Zuko atla #Katara #katara of the southern water tribe #jet atla #zutara analysis #this ship has me in its shackles like please release me!#atla #avatar the last airbender #netflix avatar #avatar live action #natla #rambles #also the fact Jet and Zuko have similar vibes… Katara I know you was crushing baddd #Bryke tried to silence you but I know the truth #jet

612 notes · View notes

chunkula3 · 2 months

Text

Someone else has probably said this better by now, but I think the biggest reason why the new a:tla show seems so wooden and kinda dead to me is that the characters are already “perfect”. They don’t have any flaws or quirks or notable character traits. They’re all perfect and moral and upstanding and boring as hell. Beyond the fact that all the filler episodes were cut (which is a whole other issue that I find annoying. Showing us who the characters are in their downtime, when they’re relaxing, is how we get to know characters. We don’t get that in the new show and it suffers) any defining moments of the characters that HIGHLIGHT WHO THEY ARE are gone. Poof. Vanished. The characters are boring and generic. They’re already perfect ideals and there’s no room to grow.

#atla #the last airbender #live action atla #analysis #I’m just pissed #THERE WAS ALREADY A GOOD SHOW #WHY ARE YOU ADAPTING IT #AHHHHHH #avatar the last airbender #a:tla

486 notes · View notes

theweeklydiscourse · 1 month

Text

It’s really funny how much people misremember certain aspects of ATLA and then proclaim to the internet stuff that either never happened or is extremely distorted with absolute certainty. For example, today I saw a person claiming that whole point of Katara’s character arc was unlearning the parentified behaviours she developed in wake of her mother’s death. That a huge part of Katara’s arc was a confrontation of how that trauma fundamentally shaped her maternal tendencies.

The thing is though…WE the audience, can recognize that the parentification Katara experienced was something that was really straining for her, but the TEXT doesn’t. The audience (or at least certain parts of the audience) can identify that her maternal tendencies were indicative of a responsibility that she took on far too young and subjected her to unnecessary pressure and stress. There are flashes of recognition maybe, but for the most part, the show doesn’t actually confront the negative impact that Katara’s maternal role had on her.

Katara never truly unlearns the maternal behaviours that put so much pressure on her because the text doesn’t see it as a bad thing. Arguably, the text doesn’t see much of a problem with the emotional labour Katara takes on and how that labour goes unreciprocated for the most part (particularly from her canon love interest). We see some reflections, but it’s not enough to support a reading of the text where that element is actually extremely obvious and a prominent point in her character arc.

We’re not the ones “watching the show with our eyes closed”, I think you’re just misremembering the canon progression of Katara’s arc to avoid confronting a real issue in the text.

#Katara #pro katara #avatar the last airbender #atla fandom critical #atla discourse #the gaang #character analysis #atla fandom discourse #zutara #atla critical #anti bryke

414 notes · View notes

thenadnerb02 · 3 months

Text

Ty "Lee"

We all remember that Ty Lee has six identical sisters and joined the circus so she wouldn't be part of a matched set forever, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone talk about one specific sentence in that moment (I certainly hadn't thought about it before today)

And then I realized.

It's well-established that Lee is the most common, generic name anyone can have in the Avatar Universe. The perfect no-effort name to dump on a child you weren't expecting to have because no one expects to birth 7 babies in one go.

6 though? That's a sensible number. The rest of 'em can have more meaningful given names.

Thus, Ty Lee had the double burden of being part of a matched set and being the singled-out runt of said set.

That's why "Circus Freak" is a compliment. Not because she preferred the circus, but because it's a more creative name.

Ouch.

#avatar the last airbender #ty lee #ty lee atla #ty lee's sisters #lee #atla analysis #atla meta #circus freak #atla the beach

468 notes · View notes

thethiefandtheairbender · 2 months

Text

as a lifelong ATLA fan who narrowly had ATLA dethroned as my top show by The Dragon Prince steadily over the past 5 years, the similarities between the two have very little to do with the surface level parallels that get regularly drawn between them.

Like ATLA, TDP has Books for seasons and chapters for episodes, but unlike ATLA, which only touched on storytelling sparingly as a theme, TDP is obsessed with interrogating storytelling and history and the presence of unreliable, biased narrators throughout many of its episodes (most notably 2x05, 2x06, 3x06, 4x04, and 4x07 among them). Half of what you learn in the 1x01 intro ends up being a lie once you reach S3, with more being steadily deciphered.

Yes, TDP has different magics with people living under those umbrella terms... for the elves. Humans are coming culturally at things from a completely different angle, and the elves' connection to their primal sources are discussed philosophically in detail, informing their practices and their culture first hand, including the way they chafe against humans, who are arcanum-less. Many animals in the world are also connected to magic, which influences both their design and which ones get hunted for humans' more 'clever' solution in dark magic, including each other.

The core issue of the Puppetmaster, down to being a coercive magic formed by someone deeply resentful of their imprisonment? Said puppetmaster is the main endgame antagonist of the entire show with all of S4 onwards being exploring the ethics of controlling people against their will in various methods, and the entire show itself being a thematic battleground of fate (imprisonment) vs free will for virtually every single character.

Where ATLA mostly concerns itself timeline wise with ending the war, very little thought is shown by any of the characters as to what they'll do after the war. This isn't a problem (as it reflects the sheer domineering scope of the conflict) but even Zuko being firelord is only ever really addressed with 2.5 episodes left till the finale. TDP, meanwhile, ends its 'war' in s3 and s4 opens up with dealing with the old wounds festering between people with centuries of history, the struggles that come when people aren't able to let go and believe they're safe or mourn in a healthy manner, and the religious/cultural clashes that may occur when trying to integrate different groups of people.

TDP also has an evil father with a devoted daughter and a brother who eventually defects, but it explores the reality of an abusive parent who loves/will sacrifice for you and your right to leave regardless, even if that means leaving the sibling you truly deeply love and who loves you in turn. Which means that when you and your sibling are on opposite sides of a deep ideological conflict, it actually really fucking hurts bc we've seen first hand just how much they love each other and also how and why everything fell apart not in spite of that love necessarily, but also because of it.

Is this to say that TDP is a 1:1 with ATLA or that it's better? No, not at all, and the latter is subjective. I prefer TDP, but I think they're about on equal ground when you look at each show currently as a whole (although TDP has two seasons left to go).

But TDP takes a lot of what ATLA was doing thematically with some of its most interesting beats and then builds or expands upon them further. It talks further and more consistently about the cycles of violence; in many ways, Jack De Sena's character, Callum, begins the series largely where Sokka had ended (and he's not the most like Sokka anyway; very much his own thing); we get Faustian bargains and centuries' long grief and fucked up people who are trying both succeeding and failing at not doing fucked up things. There are antagonists, but it is very hard to actually label anyone at this point a straight up villain. Moral greyness is where the show starts, and it just continues from there.

That's not to say the show is nothing but dark and depressing - like ATLA, there's a steady thread of hope and humour even as the show gets steadily closer and closer to its 11th hour point - but the show is usually emotionally heavier. There's more blood and potentially disturbing imagery with body horror and on screen death. There's so much foreshadowing you basically can't go more than 5 minutes into any episode without having something that's going to come back around or be referenced again like 3-5 seasons later.

Just to be clear - TDP is like ATLA, but it's like ATLA in interesting ways beyond the more shallow surface level that usually gets attributed to it, while still very much being its own show and its own thing. And that is why I tend to recommend it to people who like ATLA.

Thank you and goodnight

(Also, the fandom doesn't have any ship wars, and the show is queer as fuck)

#tdp #atla #the dragon prince #avatar: the last airbender #mine #parallels #analysis series #also betrayal. tdp talks a lot more about betrayal #now im trying to think if there's any character in tdp who hasn't felt or been outright betrayed #i. DON'T THINK SO??#atla meta #tdp meta

391 notes · View notes

xan-from-space · 2 months

Text

Damn, the Ember Island Players were actually kind of radical, weren't they? The more I think about it, the more it feels like the only way it makes sense in-universe is if being Fire Nation propaganda wasn't the point of their play at all. Aside from a barely tacked on ending where Ozai kills Aang, the play is remarkably sympathetic to the Avatar and a bunch of enemies of the Fire Nation, even framing them as being heroes. Even at points in the story where theyre literally killing Fire Nation soldiers, the narrative still seems to be on their side; they're the underdogs, the relatable ones. Its true that the Fire Nation values strength, but still, you'd expect that in a propaganda play they would be portrayed as at least a little bit more sympathetic... And sure, to some extent the gaang's characters could be seen as defamatory caricutures (the slander on Iroh specifically was probably intentional), but that also might be due to the Players getting a lot of their information from the cabbage man, someone who actively hates the gaang and only ever really sees the worst of them. (And notably, that also means that the Players had worked with an Earth Kingdom merchant to produce the play.)

Mocking the gaang is also just clearly not the point of the play or what people are there for. Sokka's actor says that he's constantly being approached by fans; people genuinely love these characters. The gaang have built entire dedicated fanbases in the Fire Nation because of this play. Honestly, the fact that they're on a remote island is probably the only reason they're able to perform the play the way it is. I imagine it would get shut down pretty quickly on the mainland. Considering all the propaganda in the Fire Nation that we've seen so far, I wouldn't be surprised if the ending was only written that way because it's illegal to write a story where the Fire Lord doesnt win. The play reads less like propaganda and more like 'we're doing the bare minimum to get this story past the censors.'

I'm really curious about what it's like behind the scenes for the Ember Island Players. Are their shows just simple, shlocky entertainment, or could they also be deliberate political commentary? With no recording technology, a play is easier to slip under the radar than something like a book: it's impermanent, stays in one theatre, and performances can be easily tweaked if, say, Fire Nation royalty happens to come by. It's interesting to me that Ursa seemed to like them, while young Zuko had a disdain for them, saying they 'butchered' the story of Love Amongst the Dragons; in all likelihood the version of the story Zuko grew up with in the palace was heavily propaganda-filtered itself. Although, to be fair, they're arguably just not very good playwrights. When it comes to the characterization, I do think some of it only seems bad because we know what the actual characters are like, but a lot of it is just bad writing clearly meant for cheap entertainment. For example, they sexualize Katara quite a bit (and there's other, better analysis out there I've seen that examines how they fetishize her as a Water Tribe girl). And, of course, all of the characters are reduced to shallow and stereotypical comedy.

Still, I think they're worth commending for doing their research and telling a story about enemies of the state that's both sympathetic and surprisingly accurate to actual events, if not the characters' personalities, amidst the Fire Nation's rampant propaganda and misinformation. From the little amount of information about them we can extract from the show, they seem like honestly very interesting people. They're walking this tightrope line between being very close to the heart of the Fire Nation but also separate from it; between being cheap, inconsequential entertainment and being a source of actual news for Ember Island citizens; between telling the underdog story about a ragtag group of children and still trying to make it look like Fire Nation propaganda. I'm not trying to make any big argument on whether they were 'actually good people' or whatever, I just want to know more about them. I kind of wish we could see their production of Love Amongst the Dragons now...maybe I'll write something about them someday

#I wrote this in a haze after randomly catching the episode while my sister was watching it #I'm so fascinated by the inner lives of these people. What does it look like to write and produce these plays?#What does their day-to-day look like? How do the actors feel about their characters?#Actually if anyone has any fanfic recommendations in this vein please tell me #atla #avatar the last airbender #ember island players #the ember island players #atla analysis #zuko #uncle iroh #katara #ursa atla #cabbage man #cabbage merchant #fire nation

225 notes · View notes

yourhighness6 · 18 days

Text

Accidentally glanced at an anti post and apparently zutarians analyzing the show is annoying now. Antis are literally ridiculous I can't even.

#analysis is part of being in a fandom sorry #like you don't have to engage with it but its ridiculous to say that giving reasons for shipping something is “annoying”#atla #avatar the last airbender #zutara #anti kataang #anti anti zutara

191 notes · View notes