Movies & TV

I just wanted to highlight this rather simple comment and suggestion from @@TraschcanOfIdeology@hexbear.net. This youtube series is a great watch.

Avatar: The Last Airbender might have some rather lib'd up parts, but there was so much more interesting philosophy in that show. Specifically surrounding the idea of rehabilitation regarding Zuko. It handles the nature of empire far better as well when dealing with the Fire Nation.

There are so many things about Korra that could have been interesting things to explore. It's mentioned in the video series, but the thing that has always stood out to me is the cheapening of bending as a form of both labor and cultural and personal expression.

In ATLA, there are many feats of bending that are held in extremely high regard, especially in terms of the skill required to perform them. Metal Bending is the result of Toffs extremely developed earth bending skills. Lightning Bending is a skill reserved for only elite fire benders, and the power to redirect lightning is held by only two characters in the whole series. Aang learns the power of the Avatar State through much struggle, and also learns the ability of energy bending from an ancent mythical creature.

There is this real sense of connection between Bending and Nature expressed on ATLA. The idea that some of the original benders were natural creatures, like Dragons, or Badger Moles or Lion Turtle drives home this idea that in order to bend an element, you must be in tune with that element, understand it in both a physical and spiritual capacity.

But in Korra all of that uniqueness is wiped away. Now, tossing lightning is the work of Power Grid laborers. Something your average fire bender can perform for a wage at the electrical company. Pro Bending is a kind of distillation of the bending art form into extremely narrow base components and movements that restricts the kind of creativity and expressiveness found in ATLA, and all performed in a hyper-competitive environment for the chance at becoming rich and famous. Blood Bending, once something only capable of being performed under a full moon, is something that can be trained to perform under any conditions. It's become a powerful bending tool that can even take away someone's bending. The implications of which are beyond the scope of what I'm writing here, but just another example of the cheapening of ATLAs feats. Even Aang is thrown into the mix, being shown to use his energy bending ability to punish low level criminals (by comparison).

In the case of lighting bending and pro bending, these are expressions of a kind of alienation we all understand to be a core attribute of Capitalism. This is an interesting idea that the show never explores. What does it mean to be an Earth Bender, in a world where the cultural norms associated with earth bending and the earth kingdom have been destroyed, or warped, by these new social relations? What kind of techniques and skills could have been lost under seeking this new, more efficient form of bending? And what does it mean to be a "master of all 4 elements" in world where increasingly, bending is being whittled down to only its most useful forms in support of this new industrial world?

One could imagine an avatar series that draws on similar themes to that of Princess Mononoki or Castle In The Sky. One that tries to find the "balance" between industrialization and our existence within nature (aka the connection to the elements). Instead, what we get is a show that undermines the achievements of its predecessor, while having almost nothing of value to say at all.