Sorry if I'm bothering you but can you share why you think avatar is bad?
ur asking for a lot bc that show is a complete and utter mess. first my tibetan ass wants u to think about the fact that its a show using asian/indigenous ppl and their devastating histories made by ignorant weeaboo white men. I wanted to write about it in detail bc i’ve always wanted to say something about this but never rly got around to doing it. avatar was a big part of my childhood (that did make my father uncomfortable) so I’m speaking from a place not entirely out of hatred or spite. maybe ill send this in letter format to the writers lol. anyways im going to split this up into parts. I’ll put a readmore bc its kinda long
@bryankonietzko i really hope you take a nice long look
1. Unexplained, Stereotyped, and Insensitive/Uneducated Political Parallels
avatar uses cultural and religious elements of different asian/indigenous cultures and sorta smashes it all together to create a very superficial fantasy world. The first thing you need to know is that the air nation is an obvious but flawed representation of my home country, Tibet. Air nomads are devout pacifist monks/nuns who live in the high mountains, an extremely common and one-dimensional racial stereotype of tibetans and the religion of tibetan buddhism by westerners and western media.
The complete genocide of the peaceful air nation by the technologically advanced fire nation directly represents the invasion and occupation of tibet by the peoples republic of china (PRC) in 1959. the PRC directly caused the deaths of millions of Tibetans through murder, warfare, pillaging etc. Tibet is now one of the most oppressed countries in the world (https://www.freetibet.org/about/human-rights), with no freedom of speech/religion, mass internet and media censorship, prison torture, forced assimilation into han society, police brutality, and cultural destruction and erasure by the chinese government. (Its so bad that hundreds of Tibetans are committing mass suicide through self-immolation https://savetibet.org/tibetan-self-immolations/) while geographically avatar’s fire nation might resemble japan, while earth nation seems more similar to China, the fire nation government and mission to conquer and colonize are in direct accordance to the approach of both imperialist Japan and the PRC. The Tibetan population numbers have been severely reduced bc of chinese occupation, with the threat of cultural extinction through murder and assimilation being a big concern in the community. With Tibetans having a very sensitive history of oppression, genocide, and constant brutal suffering, having media content for children about tibetan-like people being completely massacred to extinction bc they’re too peaceful isn’t exactly tasteful.
One of the main faults of the show I cannot forgive is the use of “cool flashy asian” words/names used in the show that in reality have tragic political context, like lake laogai: Laogai 勞改 (https://laogairesearch.org/laogai-system/) are real Chinese prison camps that hold hundreds of thousands of tibetan (and chinese, and other minority groups of china) political prisoners (normally activists who protest for justice and freedom). they “reform” people through unethical slave labor, and many prisoners have painfully starved to death. Thousands of real people (including family members and friends of mine) suffered and died without right to fair trial and humane living conditions, and the treatment of human beings in the laogai is an extremely horrifying and obvious abuse of human rights.
I feel like a response to this might be “why are these representations offensive? you can make a show that addresses and promotes awareness of issues and its not offensive! its a good thing that helps!” but the problem with avatar is that the real world comparisons that the show makes are never actually explained or clarified to the viewers. with most of the target audience knowing absolutely nothing about tibet/asia and these real political issues, all of these references go right over their head. The average viewer will believe this show is using original ideas when its actually desensitizing a real and horrible history. Using politics that reference the real suffering and deaths of millions of people and not having the courtesy to properly acknowledge it isn’t funny or cute. And even worse, using stereotyped caricatures instead of a more accurate representation of the culture you’re “borrowing” from just makes your content outright disrespectful.
tumblr user atla-annotated said this in a post about the use of laogai in avatar which I think better words my point:
“I personally feel that when drawing from dark real world events/situations (especially if you are using the real term and are not substituting i.e. Air Nomads - Tibet vs. Lake Laogai), and if those events are not that well known to your audience, you are obligated to give context, be it in the form of interviews, the art book, on the website (there are loads of options). Why? Because it is disrespectful. Bad shit happened to real people, real people suffered in those camps and having fans off and online referring to said camps without knowing what they are saying is not cool.”
2. Promotion of Cultural Appropriation and Insensitivity
if you’re a poc who is very close to your culture, it will become pretty obvious to u that this show is written by white people. you can especially tell in episodes that address culture/religion and appropriation, bc they have absolutely no idea what they’re doing. one thing that stuck with me since I was a kid was that northern air temple episode. aang saw those earthbenders destroy and deface the air temple and got rightly upset, but it was treated as the wrong way of thinking. even when i was a dumb kid i never understood this. when i projected onto this character I did feel like aang (despite being a racial caricature) had every fucking right to be angry and hurt?? these temples are a part of his religion, his culture, his faith and his way of life? seeing the last remnants of your extinct people and culture being destroyed and defiled by sewage would obviously be offensive? but his feelings are disregarded bc that guy who’s making tech for the fire nation, the literal murderers of the entire air nation, is important too or whatever. instead of the message being “appreciate past cultures and their religious artifacts/temples and live alongside them respectfully”, it was “cultural preservation is stupid if it stands in the way of better technology” which feel like a very colonial way of looking at culture, esp by the PRC, bc of how communism considers religion to be a hindrance to revolution. also the fact that the prc destroyed thousands of holy tibetan monasteries for chinese shopping malls and parking lots.
Also in legend of korra the whole “neo non-airbender airbender” cult on that island parallel real western cults (white hippies with dreads) obsessed with living what they think is a “tibetan lifestyle”. they appropriate and fetishize tibetan religion and culture, to the extent of being condescending, racist, and disrespectful towards real tibetans and invading tibetan spaces (”it might be tibetan culture, but tibetans just dont get it like we do”). I remember my sister reading a comic where tenzin or someone was upset at these non-airbender’s blatant appropriation, but his feelings were shut down for the message “anyone can be a part of this culture bc tibetans airbenders r all dead lol!!1! we keep it alive!!” like, wow, Mike and Bryan, ik u think all tibetans are doomed for extinction but thanks for that.
Last, about the fans. Because the show’s previously mentioned lack of educating/raising awareness towards what this show references, many fans tend to be very (sometimes unintentionally) racist and insensitive towards aspects of cutures/tradition that avatar borrowed from the real world (the most common I see is fans butchering pictures of his holiness the dalai lama, the most sacred religious figure for tibetans to make a shitty avatar joke. He’s the reincarnation of an enlightened being, even his photographs are supposed to b treated with RESPECT). Because of this, praising the show to high heaven bc of its racial “representation” when its actually racist caricature feels kind of shitty.
also this isnt necessarily “problematic” but the “are u named tenzin after the guy from avatar” line from nerds is literally SO ANNOYING and SO COMMON, especially when its the name of his holiness the Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso, both his auspicious first and last name were used in the show) and the most common tibetan name ever (We have a tradition of high lamas giving their names to our children as a blessing, which is why every other Tibetan you meet will be named Tenzin). so if you like avatar and you’ve never met a tibetan before, please dont ask weird shit like if their name is from avatar or if tibetans are like the funny blue arrow monks (i’ve gotten that one before) its fucking irritating.Â
Honestly, I normally don’t really have such a big problem with white ppl writing tibetan characters. Its all stereotypes and monks and ignorance, but im so desperate for representation i usually halfass accept it anyways. but i just couldn’t handle the way the writers of avatar are so obviously insensitive and idiotic while going out of their way to try and use “~huge political messages~” that they dont understand and dont want their fans to actually learn more about. If the writers did some actual research and made avatar respectful towards Tibetans and raise awareness about tibetan/PRC politics I would have definitely appreciated it. But they didn’t.Â
also the movie is just its own shitshow, but I hate how everyone thinks the cartoon is okay when it really isn’t.Â
also a plug for the crew https://studentsforafreetibet.org/
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