ATLA being amazing as usual, or how “the boy in the iceberg” establishes fire nation views (S3, ep. 17 - the ember island players)
SPOILERS FOR S3 EP17 OF AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER
Background: with the renaissance of ATLA happening recently, i introduced my friend to my childhood favorite show. so we watched the final episodes of season 3 this week. ep. 17 was always one of my favorites - i mean, i was a kid and it was funny. i never really looked into it. THEN, everything changed when the reading-too-much-into-stuff (or attention to detail, whatever you decide) attacked.
when we got to the siege of the north pole in the play, i noticed something weird. the whole aang vs fire navy fight scene was reduced to actor aang in a costume kicking TINY fire nation ships and waving around an action figure of zhao. the whole thing was SO SMALL. like, look at this.
so that made me wonder... how the heck was ANYONE in the audience supposed to see any of that? for reference, i took the only close-to-full shot we get of the stage in the north pole setting (of sokka and yue) and inserted aang into it in about the right scale (i compared the actors’ height).
i’d be surprised if even the first row managed to see any of the ships, let alone zhao’s action figure, or any of the other details of that scene. some of the attendants might have not seen actor aang at all.
but that’s just the thing. they weren’t meant to.
unlike other fight scenes in the play (like the drill from s2, for example), this scene doesn’t have noticeable set pieces or effects. with the drill scene, you can clearly see everything that’s going on on stage - even from the back rows. compare that to the siege of the north.
why this distinction happens, you may ask. well, the north pole was clearly a great defeat for the seemingly unbeatable fire nation. i mean, sure, the drill was also a failure, but at least it was an expected one. the fire nation tried to conquer ba sing se without success for the last 100 years, so what’s another failed attempt? at least this one was a close call for them. take into account that the drill also symbolized a technological feat for the fire nation, so it wasn’t a complete waste.
on the contrary, take the water tribes - the loss to them simply can’t be explained. a seemingly backwater (lmao) civilization, without noticeable resources or technology, and with a dwindled group of benders. this defeat is a burning one (i’m on fire with these puns today).
the fire nation had already beaten the southern tribe pretty much to dust, and i bet their prejudices and expectations regarding the northern tribe were pretty much the same. BUT NO, they got their asses kicked by a lone, 12-year-old bald monk.
so of course they couldn’t just show that.
instead, they decided to ridicule aang and his victory. they presented him as a child, who treats the war (and the world, for that matter) as no more than a game.
in doing this, “the boy in the iceberg” established three things.
the fire nation tries its best to hide the humiliating defeat at the north pole and to play it for laughs.
they also paint aang as an irresponsible, overpowered hazard that needs to be terminated.
they highlight the feats they have achieved against the other nations.
of course, all of that is taken from about 20 seconds of the episode. an episode which, mind you, was meant to serve as the comic-relief recap right before the finale. lmao, yeah right. and there’s probably so much more that flew over our heads.
this goes to show how deeply everything in this show is planned out - these few seconds give us so much. they give insight to the lives of fire nation citizens, while ALSO serving as a textbook example of propaganda in and out of universe, while ALSO giving viewers a good laugh, while ALSO driving the plot, while ALSO making me stay up until 2am to write this post.
avatar is the best, i have spoken. good night.
