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sophieinwonderland · 1 month

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The Plurality of... Avatar: The Last Airbender

Major Spoilers For Avatar: The Last Airbender ahead! And minor spoilers of related properties.

Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived in harmony. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished.

Welcome to the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender. A world where some people are born with the gift of bending, an ancient art that allows them to control one of the four elements. But only one. Even if they came from parents who were different types of benders, each bender only gets a single element.

But there exists a single exception to this rule. The Avatar. The one person in the world who can master all four elements.

But we're not here to talk about the Avatar's cool bending powers. We're here today to talk about…

The Plurality of The Avatar

Plurality: A state of multiple self-conscious agents, or "headmates," sharing a single body.

The Avatar isn't merely a jack of all trades bender. Simply knowing how to use the four elements is only a small part of their toolbelt. And perhaps one of the least important. Despite the series placing a strong focus on the need to master all four elements, perhaps the actual most important thing about the Avatar is that they reincarnate and are connected with their past selves.

This allows each Avatar to speak to and learn from the experiences of past avatars. This is most prominent in what's called the Avatar State, a sort of super form where their eyes (and downvotes) glow as they channel the skills and abilities of all the past avatars through them.

(Art by @joeyscomics)

Aang's avatar state is a sort of blending of the avatars without a distinct identity of its own.

Additionally, there were also a couple instances through the show where Aang, the current avatar, switches into other avatars.

During the season 1 mid-season finale, The Winter Solstice, Aang first contacts Avatar Roku, his firebending predecessor. Trapped in a temple with no way out, a group stands outside the door prepared to strike as soon as the avatar steps through. They expect to see a small child walk through the doors. But what they see instead is Avatar Roku.

Once the enemies have been defeated and fled, Roku turns back into an exhausted Aang, who drops to his knees.

In season 2, this happens again with Aang switching into avatar Kyoshi. Again, sure to spirit magic, Aang physically transforms into Kyoshi.

(Obviously, real plurals don't physically transform, as cool as that would be. But spirits in the avatar universe do have shape-changing capabilities, being able to alter both their own forms and the forms of others. There are many examples in Legend of Korra and the comics, but one big one we see in A:TLA is Koh The Face Stealer, who as you can guess, steals people's faces, physically transforming their bodies. Simply put, we can accept the Avatar Spirit as having the ability to naturally shapeshift.)

So there's the basics of the Avatar's plurality. We have multiple people sharing a body. We have system-like internal communication. We have switching. And we even have a state that could be best described as blendy.

In the plural community, a system that's formed from past lives is sometimes called Fenigenic or Phoenigenic, drawing its name from the phoenix; The mythical bird that dies and is reborn from its ashes.

From Pluralpedia:

Fenigenic is a system origin that describes systems who formed from past lives in some way. They may believe they left their past life and were reborn again as a system, came into the system from a past life into the body (causing plurality), were a system in a past life and were reborn again with the same one, and/or various other scenarios. This is an intentionally broad label that can describe many different experiences.

With these established facts, without a doubt, the avatar would qualify as a Pheonigenic system.

But I want to delve even deeper. Because at its core, Avatar: The Last Airbender isn't just a story about a kid who happens to be plural. It's a story about plurality. It's a story about dissociation. About connecting with and building connections with parts of yourself. And about taking responsibility for those parts, even when you aren't actually them. And all of this is what make the series so fascinating from a plural perspective!

The Avatar State as a "Self-Defense Mechanism"

At the beginning of season 2, Aang enters the avatar state while scared of losing his friends, and talks to Roku again. Roku explains to Aang what the avatar state is.

The Avatar State is a defense mechanism, designed to empower you with the skill and knowledge of all the past Avatars. The glow is the combination of all your past lives focusing their energy through your body. In the Avatar State, you're at your most powerful... but you are also at your most vulnerable.

At this point, Aang learns that if he dies in the Avatar State, the cycle breaks and the avatar will never reincarnate again.

Let's take another look at that wording though. "The Avatar State is a defense mechanism." It's a word choice that you wouldn't expect to find in a fantasy cartoon. "Defense mechanisms" are more a psychological term, having their origins in psychoanalysis.

Why does this matter?

Because the avatar state, at its core, is a dissociative state. And dissociation has often been described as a defense mechanism itself. From Wikipedia:

In mild cases, dissociation can be regarded as a coping mechanism or defense mechanism in seeking to master, minimize or tolerate stress – including boredom or conflict.

And later when talking about traumamatic dissociation, it goes on to explain:

Symptoms of dissociation resulting from trauma may include depersonalization, psychological numbing, disengagement, or amnesia regarding the events of the abuse. It has been hypothesized that dissociation may provide a temporarily effective defense mechanism in cases of severe trauma; however, in the long term, dissociation is associated with decreased psychological functioning and adjustment.

What's interesting about the avatar state is that, while there are some times Aang goes into the Avatar State to protect himself, often he enters it as a response to stress in general.

The first couple times we see Aang go into the Avatar State, it's to physically protect himself. Once to freeze himself. Then again to fight Zuko. But the next time he enters the Avatar State, there's no danger. There's no need to use it.

This is when he's at the Southern Air Temple, and sees his old friend Monk Gyatsu. It's when he really learns and has to process that he's the last airbender and everyone he ever knew is dead.

Aang doesn't use the avatar state as a physical defense mechanism here. Rather, he enters the avatar state as a psychological defense mechanism.

It takes over because he's disengaging. He just learned something traumatic and he can't come to terms with it. He shuts down, and his friends have to reach him through the pain.

This becomes a pretty common theme throughout the series from then on. Sometimes, it's the physical danger that causes him to transform. But other times, he's triggered into this state by his friends being in danger, or from losing Appa.

Time and time again, we see the Avatar State as being triggered by extreme mental stress more often than by any sort of physical stress.

A big part of Aang's journey though the series then becomes learning to master the Avatar State and the dissociation that comes with it. To take control of it instead of letting it control him.

Avatar's Take on System Responsibility

"System responsibility" is the concept in the plural community that if one headmate does something, then the entire system of headmates is responsible for it. Some feel this is unfair, but for practicality, it makes sense. If someone steals something, then obviously you can't send only one headmate to prison. So a big part of being plural ends up having to accept that if someone else you share a body with does something wrong, even if you don't agree with it or don't even remember it, you're responsible for it.

And Avatar has its own form of this, where all Avatars have a single spirit that is reincarnated, and are therefore responsible for the actions of their past lives.

This is most exemplified in the episode Avatar Day.

In this episode, the Gaang wander into a town that's celebrating the titular Avatar Day. They see a parade with massive wooden floats of the past three Avatars. Aang, Roku and Kyoshi.

What appears to be a nice festival that the Gaang is enjoying is quickly turned on its head when a villager sets fires to the figures and the crowd begins chanting "down with the Avatar" while the figures burn.

It turns out, this town believed Avatar Kyoshi murdered their leader, Chin The Great.

In order to prove he wasn't a murderer, Aang volunteers to stand trial. Even though Aang and Kyoshi are separate people in a way... in another, they aren't. And Kyoshi being a murderer is something that would continue to follow Aang around.

So he agrees to go on trial, and refuses encouragement from his friends to escape. And he could escape if wanted to.

When viewed through the lens of a plural system, what we see here is a demonstration of system responsibility, where Aang is showing himself willing to take responsibility for the actions of past Avatars.

Later in the episode, Katara decides that they need to call Kyoshi herself to prove their innocence, and dresses Aang in Kyoshi's clothes to "see if it might trigger something."

And it actually does! This stunt causes Kyoshi to take front! (With a full body transformation because spirit stuff.)

In the end, Kyoshi confesses to killing Chin, who she calls Chin the Conqueror, and Aang is willing to accept the outcome of the trial.

It's not just this one episode though. It's a running theme of the series.

The franchise even.

In season 3, Roku reveals that the whole reason the world was in danger was because of his connection to and weakness in stopping Fire Lord Sozin, who went on to wipe out the Air Nomads. Aang is left with the responsibility of making up for Roku's mistakes.

In the books, it's revealed that Avatar Kyoshi's earliest trials were a direct result of the failings of Kuruk, the avatar before her. And his were a result of Yangchen's mistakes. And in the sequel series, avatar Korra is left to make up for the mistakes of not just Aang, but also Avatar Wan who started the cycle.

The Avatars are people who share a single soul. Each new avatar can be viewed as a new host in the same system. And each one therefore is responsible for making up for the mistakes of those that came before.

This is what the avatar franchise, at its core, is about. A single system making mistakes through life after life, and having to fix those mistakes in the next, hopefully making the world a better place and keeping balance along the way.

A Story of Connection and Balance

With all of this in mind, Aang begins his journey is a system cut off from his headmates.

A central theme of the story is restoring that connection. This story really begins with Aang entering the avatar state in the Southern Air Temple. This is the first time he loses control and nearly hurts the people he cares about.

The avatar state here is something powerful, yes, but also something to be feared, making him a danger to his friends. He doesn't understand at the time what that state is exactly. It's something that leaves him confused and scared.

Through the series, he gradually learns more about the avatar state and his past lives. He begins to learn from avatar Roku. Then from Kyoshi. He learns about their lives, and has to reconcile their past mistakes. He also has to learn to accept himself as the avatar. Something which he struggled with throughout the series, and led to him fleeing his people.

At the end of season 2, Aang nearly dies in the avatar state. In a canon webgame called Escape from the Sprit World, while unconscious, Aang enters the spirit world and goes on a journey where he has to reconnect with the past avatars in order to prevent the avatar cycle from being broken, going back all the way to meet Avatar Yangchen, the airbender before him.

After meeting and learning from all these avatars, he's able to awaken with a new connection to them. (Albeit with no memory of this side quest.) Although he's told he won't be able to enter the Avatar State for the time being.

After this, on the Summer Solstice, he was able to meet with Roku once again to learn about Roku's own past, and his history with Fire Lord Sozin.

All of these events laid the groundwork for a final realization in the series finale. That the past avatars were always with him. He's able to meditate and reach out, and commune with each of them.

Finally, Aang has become a fully-realized avatar, tearing down barriers that kept him separate from the rest of his system!

And in the final battle, Aang is able to access the avatar state with full control over it for the first time.

Some would say that this was because of a conveniently-placed rock. Which, yes, that might have been the literal trigger that unblocked his chi. But narratively, I would argue that it was the connection with the past avatars that truly allowed him to access the avatar state again. That finally connecting with them all was how he truly earned this ability!

Conclusion

So there we have it! The story of Avatar: The Last Airbender is not just an incredible story, but an incredible story of plurality and connection between headmate.

This was really fun to write about, and I enjoyed talking about the plurality of the Avatar.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read!

I think with that, I've covered everythi...

Oh... right...

I guess I didn't cover everything about the plurality of the Avatar, did I?

Guess I need to plan for a Plurality of The Legend of Korra in the future! 😁

(And if you're interested in more of my ramblings about plural representations, you can check out my post about the Plurality of Batman. Or you can read about The Plurality of The Hybrid Chronicles: What's Left of Me, where I analyze a novel about a world where everyone is born with two souls.)

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writing-plurals · 5 months

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i'm writing a system whose host is multilingual as they've lived in various countries within their lifetime. is it plausible for some alters to only know/speak one of the host's known languages? e. g. the host lived in paris for some years and learned french, and one of their alters is exclusively a french speaker as a result

Yeah, this makes sense, especially if those specific headmates were around the most during the time they spent in the various countries. There likely to be at least a little multilingualism if there's crossovers with headmates and new countries they don't take point in.

-Mod Tick Tock

#plural representation #actuallyplural #plural gang #writing plural characters

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circutive · 2 months

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Plural rep audiences be like: [TW: brief mention of programming]

Yin-Yang (Inanimate Insanity): Plurality for autistic danganronpa fans Cube & Cubic (The Pink Corruption): Plurality for people who are way too concerned with their aesthetic Circubit (The Pink Corruption): Plurality for gender non-conforming EDM fans ENA (ENA): Plurality for Mitski fans, or plurality for WCU fans. Alfred Alfer (Alfred's Playhouse): Plurality for people with problematic introjects who could never catch a break Toko Fukawa (Danganronpa): Plurality for people who want to reclaim the stereotypes [if you're plural and not just "uwu DID = quirky hehe"] Hajime Hinata (Danganronpa): Plurality for BPD mfs Geiru Toneido (Ace Attorney): Plurality for people who wish they could change their appearance to whoever's fronting GLaDOS (Portal): Plurality for RAMCOA-survivor mfs who said they kinned GLaDOS only to find out they genuinely relate to her due to her trauma Eda Clawthorne (The Owl House): Plurality for mfs who want to communicate with their more destructive headmate Crystal, Shyra (Undertale): Plurality for ENFPs who wish they were heard Memoryhead, Reaper Bird (Undertale): Plurality for people who probably saw Head I and were like "mood ngl" Endogeny (Undertale): Plurality for ENFPs who wish they were heard, and are tired of endo discourse. iCEY (iCEY): Plurality for people who want to break free from programming Octocube (Geometry Dash fanmades): Plurality for chaotic-neutral, most likely ENFP, neurodivergent (autistic, schizospec or both) mfs who probably have religious trauma and want to reclaim the evil narrative that was put on them by the rest of society

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schizospecgenic-culture-is · 5 days

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❀ Pinned post ❀

Hello this is a blog dedicated the culture of those who are plural because of some schizospec disorder, such as schizophrenia, schizoid, schizoneiform, schizoaffective, psychosis or delusions disorder etc.

Send your ask: ex deligenic culture is, or delusional plural culture is.

It’s known that schizospec disorders can cause multiple voices in your head, but what people don’t know is that they’re able to have their own choices and feelings, making the host a plural person.

Researches about schizospecgenic multiplicity

What can auditory hallucinations tell us about the dissociative nature of personality.

The multiplicity of consciousness and the emergence of the self. Pg 107.

Blog made by @belinhagamer999 @belablog134.

Tagging special ppl: @collectivesystems-world @plural-culture-is @ix-c-999 @endo-haven @petrichorvoices

There’s no dni on this blog.

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korya-elana · 5 months

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If anyone needs good plural-coded books to read, from Tamsyn Muir:

-Gideon the Ninth -Harrow the Ninth -Nona the Ninth (+ trans rep!) We're only a few chapters into Nona and are blown away. Lesbian necromancers in gothic space with plural and queer rep? Fuck yeah. You can't do better.

I will put up a warning for Harrow the Ninth, half the book addresses YOU the reader as one of the characters. Lots of "You said, he stabbed his sword at you, you took off down the hall" type of language so if you're a System that splits fictives easily, I'd be careful. We were worried we'd get a new fictive but thankfully it seems we're safe ^_^

#did osdd #did system #plurality #system things #the ninth #tamsyn muir #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth #plural representation #trans representation #lesbian representation #queer representation

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cambriancrew · 3 months

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Just finished watching a movie that has interesting plural representation - not exactly positive but definitely not negative either, though not entirely unproblematic - but I can't even say the name of the movie without the whole "Plurality is involved" being a huge spoiler.

So it's below the cut...

"Sweet Girl" starring Jason Momoa, about a man named Ray who loses his wife to cancer and pharmaceutical greed, and he and his daughter Rachel get caught up in trying to get justice.

One of the twists is that Ray actually died early in the movie and the things he and Rachel did, including fighting and killing hit men and two pharmaceutical company higher ups, she actually did all on her own just believing the violence was being done by her dad. There's a line from a side character about how Rachel "went mad" from trauma after her dad died, but other than that I don't think it was all that problematic. It was a really well done twist, and we really enjoyed the whole movie.

10/10

#Plural representation

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plural-culture-is · 2 years

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Not plural culture is, but I'm writing a series about an evil species that can control people, and I'm wondering if making a character who got caught by one of the creatures, but that creature didn't want to be evil so it basically becomes 'headmates' with the victim is like. Okay to do?

The creature acts as a spy to secretly help the survivors, but lets the other person step forward most other times. I'm just wondering if that portrays systems badly or something.

I think that would be okay! If that creature still wanted to be evil that would play into the evil alter trope which isn’t okay, but since that’s not something they want, I think that’s good, also I’m assuming the evil ones aren’t acting like headmates with the person they control? And the rest of it sounds good as well.

also if you want a blog that specifically answers questions about writing plural characters, there’s @writing-plurals!

#not plural culture #writing plural characters #plural representation #other plural blogs #plurality #actuallyplural #plural system #anonymous #[mod klaus]

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pluralwives · 1 year

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The Failures of Plural Representation

Tw: mental health, abuse, torture, plural vilification, neurotypical shit.

My dad... (I don't want to say 'made me') invited me to watch The Lord of the Rings from a very young age. You know, like any good gen X parent would. And of course I fell in love with it! I was raised a nerd after all.

My favorite scene ofc has to be the part when Eowyn goes all Mulan and bitch slaps the Witch King to death saying "I am no man. I'm a woman!".

For a long time these movies became the gold standard for what good story telling looked liked. It sparked my passion for storytelling, cinema and writing.

Recently I've been rewatching the trilogy, the extended versions on HBO. And I hadn't watched them in so long, they felt like new and yet... they felt like home.

There aren't many things that have made me feel like home ever since I left my body...

But tonight I finished watching the two towers.

Began with a vat full of mousse cake and my wife by my side!

Finished sad... with a bad taste in my mouth that won't leave.

(No, it wasn't the mousse. My Alesha could never make anything that wasn't perfect)

And it's funny. Bc I remember that on the original cut that my dad and I rented from a Block Buster, the story of Smeagol seemed so sad to me.

But what I just saw was far from sad, it was cruel!

And not like some dramatic tragedy or anything like that!

It was a joke!

Smeagol was a joke!

His pain was just some passing slapstick! Sauron tortures him! The humans too! Sam harrasses him! And Frodo betrays him!

"You have shown your quality, sir. The very highest."

"You left out one of the chief characters: Sawise the Brave."

"There's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it's worth fighting for."

Oh! Why don't you go fuck a po-tay-toe, Sam! You bastard half-ling!

Faramir gets the girl!

Sam gets revindicated for misstrusting Smeagol!

And Frodo goes to the eternal shores or some shit!

And Gollum?

To the flames where he fucking belongs, the freak!

"But he was too far gone! The ring had taken control over him! He couldn't be trusted!"

👆

(Windows 10 seeks to censor me)

Yes, obviously. He is a flawed character. Just like almost everyone in the movies.

But you just don't see Boromir getting the same treatment. No, he gets the bitter-sweet flashback with his brother.

And Smeagol proves to get better and get rid of his toxic counterpart and be happy again! (100 times the strength any soldier has ever had in my experience) But still... No.

He's still just a freak.

The creature Gollum.

But alright. So J. R. R. Tolkien sucks at mental health representation. I don't think that's such a hot take if I know the internet.

But here's the catch:

It is worth remembering.

Cuz history has a funny way of tripping you over and kicking you in the gut for the bad memory of others.

(Split 2016)

A bad movie? Yes! But a popular movie? Also yes!

And that's why I'm currently mad enough to write a Tumblr blog at 4 in the morning. Bc popular media seems to mostly just show pural folks as monsters and not people you can empathize with!

And that's fucking scary bc, guess what?

We don't want to be treated like fucking monsters!

Big surprise there!

...

It's just... I sometimes forget how scary it can be.

To think that you can't be who you are in public because people will look at you... and see nothing less than a creature.

I didn't choose to be this way, and yet I'm trying to love myself for what I am...

And then you look at me and... What? Do I matter so little? Do you see me as lesser? ... Am I not even a person? ... Is it even a crime to harm me?

Fuck...

...

It's not all bad news though.

Maybe as part of the recent trend towards mental health acceptance, or maybe just bc of some rando guardian angel writer. or just for the f'ing lols, we're starting to see for the first time the representation of characters with multiple personalities that is not only accurate and sensible, but also effective and heartfelt from a storytelling pov.

I didn't finish Moon Knight, but for what I saw it gives me great hope that this will become the standard for talking abt multiple personalities on popular media from now on... bc that would honestly get rid of so much my daily stress.

...

I just want a family at the end of the day.

I want a stable job, I want my own small business, I want a house for my wife, and I want a child that feels free to become whatever the want to, and need to be. And I want heroes they can look up to.

Bc I'm running out of mine...

I'm really sad I have to leave this part of my childhood behind.

I could start trying to split hairs and defend the movie as something far away from Tolkien's nastyness... but something tells me that it's just not gonna be the same ever again.

I'm not gonna stop my rewatch or ban TLOTR from my home. They're still cool movies. It's just that the same enjoyment is no longer there. And I just don't feel like indoctrinating my family to these movies just like I was, even if some of their lessons are important.

For that I have Moon Girl and Devi Dinosaur!

–Tal

#Damn Disney you're on a roll rn!#Didn't want my first post to be me complaining tho #plural #plurality #actually plural #multiplicity #multiple #plural stuff #system pride #system stuff #endo safe #endo friendly #small rant #plural representation #media representation

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wispforever · 1 year

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just system things

#this is wisp #dissociative identity disorder #other specified dissociative disorder #DID #OSDD #functioning as a system the way a potato functions as a battery #had a fit of rage about DID representation in hollywood #had to draw this #enjoy #the they/them system #plural and also nonbinary lmao #multiplicity #plurality #system posting

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spooky-something · 2 months

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No, because can someone PLEASE explain to me why no one ever seems to acknowledge or even mention the fact that Jackson Jekyll and Holt Hyde are LITTERALY A SYSTEM???? Like, the blackouts, the triggers, the discrimination, the alter favoritism, the struggles with inner communication, the lack of belonging, confusion with self, THE QUOTE "Look, I dunno what comes over me! I mean, sometimes, I just feel like there's another person inside of me just, y'know, trying to get out! Stupid, huh?" DROPPED BY HOLT. LIKE, WHY IS NO ONE GONNA MENTION THIS??? WHY HAVEN'T THEY MADE THIS CANON FOR GEN 3???? IF GEN 3 IS ALL ABOUT MORE REPRESENTATION, LIKE GIVING TWYLA AUTISM OR MAKING FRANKIE NON-BINARY, THEN WHY NOT OSDD/DID TO HOLT AND JACKSON??? ESPECIALLY WHEN THERE'S NOT ENOUGH REPRESENTATION FOR US SYSTEMS OUT THERE THAT ARE OFFICIAL OR, WELL... GOOD 💀

Holt Hyde and Jackson Jekyll would quite litteraly be INCREDIBLE for Gen 3's representation, especially when we never hear about trauma based disorders portrayed well in media

Instead of making Holt and Jackson essentially a system because of their mom, why not change that? Maybe dudes do have the Jekyll/Hyde body transformation shit, but that never came with the completely different people seen in the Gen 1 Holt and Jackson, maybe it's more like the original novella where it's two bodies one mind. The completely different people come via trauma they experience as a kid, which each manifest into different alters and physical forms, therefore, keeping them as "monsters", while not being fucking ableist for the hell of it 💀 (Plus, Mattel, if you take this idea and make it to where each alter, besides Holt, manifests as a different physical form you can make more merchandise based on each alter, and therefore more money... You know... If you ever want a "real" reason to make them a canon system...)

Like, dudes... Come on... They're literally a system. No I won't argue on this. Thank you.

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sophieinwonderland · 10 months

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The Plurality Of... Batman! (Failsafe)

An anon mentioned this arc to me which they said depicted Batman as a plural character. So I decided to give it a read!

The Beginning

The actual plural stuff doesn't really start until the third issue of the arc, but this was something that popped out at me immediately.

We never really paid attention to it before, but Batman does this in a lot of things, doesn't he? Referring to "Bruce Wayne" as a separate person. Especially while dressed as Batman. There are other phrasings of this that could have been used. "I often used him to cement my playboy status," being the most obvious or even "I often used him to help cement my playboy status as Bruce Wayne."

Other superheroes don't do this as often, do they? I know it occasionally comes up when living a double life, but it doesn't seem nearly as common when talking to people who know both identities as it does with Batman.

Anyway, Robin is worried about Bruce not having happiness in life, and mentions that the Bat Family is concerned about him not being just "Bruce Wayne" anymore. That he's always Batman all the time.

Probably not the best thing for a secret identity when Batman starts appearing out in the day right after Bruce Wayne loses his day job... but when has he ever cared about keeping his secret identity secret?

This sets up an important conflict in the story. That Bruce needs to be Batman and Bruce Wayne both. He needs that balance in his life.

After being framed for a murder, a Failsafe is activated meant to kill Batman.

Bruce fights it, it seems familiar, but he can't place it. Which Bruce realizes is very wrong for somebody who has a perfect memory. (Because of course he has a perfect memory.)

That leads us to...

The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh

The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh first appeared in the silver age as an actual alien Batman. He was later reintroduced in the modern era as an alternate personality in Batman R.I.P. from 2008. I haven't read that so won't be able to comment on it, but if enough people like this, I might check out RIP and do a post on it too!

The third issue of this arc opens with a flashback that took place after the Tower of Babel storyline. This is the famous storyline where Bruce created plans to deal with all members of the Justice League in the event they went bad. Part of the flashback again highlights the duality of Bruce and Batman as almost being separate individuals.

Again, none of this is actually presented as a plural thing, but I do think it's interesting to note. If only to contrast the clear plurality we see with Zur.

Superman challenges Bruce, asking how the Justice League can be contingencies when Bruce has planned for everything.

Then the story returns to the present.

Here we have a Batman who is talking different, acting different, dressed different. Even his speech bubbles are colored differently to signify the switch.

And he is using plural pronouns when he speaks.

He declares himself better than Bruce. A Batman without a Bruce Wayne who was intentionally created by Bruce.

I love the use of "our mind" here, showing that he thinks of them as separate individuals.

It's revealed that the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh was the one who created Failsafe. Bruce suspected that, which was why he switched. Zur takes over for a little bit, and is focused solely on the mission and defeating Failsafe, no matter what.

One thing that I like about the above panels is that they lead to another possibility other than what the story presents. We're told that Zur is Batman without Bruce. But as Tim points out, he doesn't really act like it. Batman is always thinking ahead. He's always thinking strategically. It's what makes him Batman.

I don't think Zur is literally meant to be Batman without Bruce... but perhaps he's Bruce's idea of who Batman would be without Bruce Wayne.

Later, during the fight, Failsafe tells Zur that fighting only causes his family pain. Zur responds by saying that they're not family. They're his soldiers. Leading to this fascinating exchange with internal communication...

That morphs into an Inner World.

It's not for long, but it's amazing to see these characters interact inside their head.

With that powerful line, Bruce takes control again. Failsafe recognizes him as having switched despite still wearing the same costume.

After that issue, Zur is sadly not brought up again in the Failsafe arc.

In the next issue, Bruce describes Failsafe as being made by his subconscious when talking to alter.

Which isn't how a subconscious works, Bruce.

A subconscious is, by definition, not really conscious. Sorry, but Zur is a completely self-conscious entity you made in your head. 🤷‍♀️

But I guess that works for an explanation for Arthur.

And that's it for... Wait a second...

Zur-En-Arrh YEAR ONE

Turns out, the story of Zur isn't just in the Failsafe arc itself, but also in a B story that shows Bruce mentally training himself to create a new personality after a mental attack.

I want to say that Zur-En-Arrh might be a tulpa, but I think there's more going on than that. The name was a distorted version of something Bruce heard from his dad as a child on the night his parents died.

Bruce might not have made an entirely new headmate, but just fed something that was already there. Something that he had repressed.

After the Joker murders a bunch of people, Zur coaxes Bruce to let him take over so he can kill the Joker.

Zur does takeover and Joker, like Failsafe, immediately recognizes.

While Zur tries to kill Joker, he and Bruce are also communicating in their inner world.

After this, we see other characters appear in this inner world such as a version of the Joker meant to represent him before going mad, and a version of Bruce's mother.

Placing either of these as plural headmates is difficult. They don't front, and don't appear more that I'm aware. I'm inclined to classify them as only Ephemerals. Although, if there are more times they appear... and especially if they retain autobiographical memories between appearances, then I might want to look more deeply into that.

Martha unmasks Zur and shows what's underneath...

The appearance makes sense to me. If Zur is supposed to be the perfect Batman, then what does he need anything under the cowl for? And at the time, he wasn't very developed, only fronting the one time and not really existing much before that.

I wouldn't describe Zur as nothing but hollow anger though.

Yes, the anger is there, but so is a purpose. He's willing to kill because he views it as the right thing. Anger, yes. But he's also doing what he was made to do, what Bruce created him for, in his own way.

Bruce saves the Joker, and continues developing Zur... but he instills his own moral code into him, making certain that Zur won't be a killer after that. Which we can tell works since Failsafe was programmed by Zur to not kill anyone but Bruce.

It's unclear how this actually works. But I like that the solution wasn't just getting rid of Zur. Ultimately, Zur wasn't evil. At least, no more than Red Hood who had similar goals and methods.

Conclusion

There you have it! Batman is canonically plural!

This was a really fun read and I'm a huge fan of Zur's dynamic with Bruce for the little bit of time we get to see it in Failsafe.

There are also a lot of ways to play around with this that I hope we can see someday. A situation where Bruce actually has to work with Zur would be really cool. Maybe fighting against some invader breaking into their mind to extract information, forcing them to team up to face it together.

I also would love to see a story where Zur is frontstuck and has to work with Bruce's allies and build his own unique relationships with them. Or even has to pretend to be Bruce Wayne in public without giving anything away.

There are a lot of fun places to go with the character if the writers don't decide to put him on ice for another decade-and-a-half!

(For more discussion of plural DC characters, see The Plurality of... Blue Beetle.)

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