In “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” the 12-year-old Aang is charged with preserving peace among rival nations. (Nickelodeon)
Sarah Rohani Drepaul, a 22-year-old in Queens, graduated from college in the spring and found herself stuck back home. She wanted to watch a TV show that would be a balm for the pandemic summer without wholly disconnecting her from current events. So she turned to Avatar: The Last Airbender, an animated series which aired on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008 and relaunched on Netflix in May.
“I remember specifically starting it because there was talk about it, but also I needed something that is lighter,” Drepaul told The Washington Post.
While seeing the spiraling news about the novel coronavirus and the protests for racial justice, she found that watching Avatar became a way to digest those events. The show “didn’t feel like escapism,” she says — but in a good way. “It felt like a lens that I could better understand my society.”
For months, Avatar has consistently appeared in Netflix’s top 10 most-watched shows, the company says. Forums dedicated to the show have been active since its initial run, and since the spring, fans new and old have taken to social media platforms such as TikTok, Reddit and Twitter to discuss their favorite characters and moments. But its immense popularity isn’t just the result of a wave of nostalgia. Fans say its reflection in current events has been a grounding force in a tumultuous time.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is set in a fictional world of four nations: fire, water, earth and air. Certain people in each nation have the ability to manipulate the elements, a skill called bending. The title character is 12-year-old Aang, the sole surviving airbender after a Fire Nation-led genocide. He’s also the latest reincarnation of the “Avatar” — a person with the ability to bend all four elements and the responsibility to keep the nations balanced to preserve peace. Aang finds a way to restore that balance, all the while the show tackles themes of war, teamwork, collective trauma and corrupt governments.
Tanvi Yenna, 24, a new fan from Ottumwa, Iowa, was struck by episodes set in Ba Sing Se, a city in the earth kingdom with strict wealth-based social stratification, and where officials deny that the 100-year war against the fire nation is still taking place.
There’s no coronavirus in Ba Sing Se. pic.twitter.com/Mwag8PftLH
— Joo Dee (@joodeeavatar) March 14, 2020
“There’s very visceral connections to people being in denial of very concrete realities. Things like police brutality and racism, but also the global pandemic,” she says. “Even just the fear of talking about the war in Ba Sing Se reminded me of being gaslighted when you do wear a mask around” by people who don’t believe masks help the spread of the COVID-19 (coronavirus), despite evidence to the contrary.
Another parallel to today's world is the megalomaniacal imperialism of the Fire Nation subjugating anyone they encounter being eminently recognizable in violent and corrupt police arresting, assaulting and murdering people for the crime of suggesting that they shouldn’t be routinely arrested, assaulted and murdered.
The series is also notable for its wide ensemble of characters being deliberately absent of white people to reflect the melting pot of Asian and Pacific cultures that inspired it, which counters the perceived wisdom that white people can only relate to other white people and any attempt at representation is doomed to failure, the diversity instead better reflecting the world in which we live.
“In some ways, I’m surprised by how relevant the show still is to people, but in other ways, not at all,” one of the creators, Michael Dante DiMartino, told The Washington Post via email. “The major issues in the stories — genocide, totalitarianism, systemic injustice, abuse — sadly, these have been pervasive issues throughout history and continue to be. The show is a reflection of our world. But now, we happen to be living through a time in which all these problems have been exacerbated.”
Some fans are even making protest posters featuring a former Avatar, formidable earthbender Kyoshi, and her haunting advice to Aang at the end of the show: “Only justice can bring peace.”
That being said some #BLM protestors have been using Kyoshi signs and THAT rules. #AvatarTheLastAirbender pic.twitter.com/tYDxoZ2eFA
— Joanna Robinson (@jowrotethis) June 22, 2020
That’s Jade Tyra’s favorite line. The 17-year-old from Hilo, Hawaii, is a new fan who graduated from high school in the spring — only to find her plans derailed by the coronavirus — and has watched the whole series three times since May. Tyra is involved in community activism efforts, and the show has been a great way for her to explain big issues to her younger siblings.
“This show has a really incredible perspective on the way that we do justice because it frames it in this easy-to-manage and easy-to-comprehend format, which is a children’s cartoon,” she says.
Co-creator Bryan Konietzko figured that the rerelease of Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix would resonate during the lockdown for that reason.
here’s another one of her songs they’re amazing!! https://t.co/drdRvY3PDr pic.twitter.com/E1PqmWKE8k
— savi ᵏᶜ (@kirismiles) July 16, 2020
“The feedback we’ve gotten from parents over these many years is that this is a show they cannot only watch as a family, but also one that presents a solid set of ethics in an engaging way and helps them introduce difficult topics to their children,” he told The Washington Post via email.
He adds, “The spirit of the show has always attracted a core group of fans who are compassionate toward their fellow humans and passionate about social issues.”
Some fans are especially taken with a story line featuring Prince Zuko, who has been exiled from fire nation and tries to regain his honor by capturing the Avatar, but instead joins him in fighting his native land.
Sydney Rae Chin, 23, an intuitive sex educator in Philadelphia and longtime fan, says that Zuko’s arc is a model for mental health. Viewers watch Zuko process his traumas — the emotional and physical abuse from his father and subsequent banishment — while he transforms from enemy to ally. “Looking at someone who has been harmed and is doing that inner work . . . it’s nice to have a media representation of that.”
Priya Dadlani — who co-created a collective for activism, art and publishing led by women of color and queer/trans people of color — watched the show for the first time in May and says Zuko’s defection to Team Avatar reminds her about community accountability.
“You’re seeing someone unlearn their history, sacrifice privilege, family and social standing to stand up for what’s right,” says the 25-year-old from Brooklyn. “I feel like that whole process is happening now.”
“I’m in awe and gratitude to all those courageous people out in the streets, making calls, speaking truth to power, and working to make this world a more just place,” says DiMartino, the co-creator, of the activism over the past couple months. “And if ATLA had a tiny amount to do with that, I am humbled to say the least.”
Since ending its original run in 2018, the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender has been translated into a successful ongoing graphic novel series, which includes 25 volumes and counting, continuing the story of the Avatar. A combination of the titles has spent 70 cumulative weeks on the New York Times Graphic Books Bestseller list since 2012. The DVD and Blu-rays are a successful consumer products business, with the Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Complete Series generating nearly $5MM since its 2018 release. Additional consumer products include toys and video games.
Its success led to the creation of a follow-up series, The Legend of Korra, that returned to the world of Avatar years after Aang's death to follow Korra, his successor as Avatar. That series ran between 2012-2014. In 2010, the series got its first feature-length film, the live-action The Last Airbender. The Legend of Korra will be adding The Legend of Korra to its programming library on August 14.
Netflix is currently in the midst of producing a live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender with original show creators, DiMartino and Konietzko.
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originally published: Tuesday, August 11, 2020.
H/T: Winter Is Coming; Additional source: We Got This Covered
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