if there r no filler episodes in avatar then what about the great divide
Oooooh, I don't know if I want to go sticking my nose into potential Avatar Discourse, but I will just for this because I actually love this episode AND I have strong opinions over what people complain is "filler."
This probably isn’t going to be very organized or concise because if I try to make it too fancy, I’ll take forever to write it and never post it ahaha.
So, for starters, the only kind of episodes I refer to as "filler" is usually for when an anime series catches up to the manga chapters and the production team has to stall by making up new episodes to tide the audience over. To literally fill up empty space.
For example, Naruto episodes 143 through 219 are "filler" because they were never in the manga and they needed episodes while they waited before jumping into Naruto: Shippuden. Then they completely returned to the canon plot.
Filler is what I use to categorize new content written to act as a pause or spacer between canon plot arcs when they don't have enough canon content to work with. AND I usually tend to refer to episodes as filler when they are entire arcs, not just one episode or scene added for fun or to flesh out plot or characters. I'll elaborate on this later.
If a writer goes in, writes a script, and consciously makes the decision to have an episode as part of the story... that's not filler.
People seem so caught up on the Main Plot that they jump to label anything that doesn't technically contribute to moving it along as filler. These people aren't considering that it's not just Plot that makes up storytelling. Every episode of Avatar contributes to the overall experience in some way.
They flesh out the characters—either themselves as people or their dynamics with each other. We get to see motivations, how they think, how they handle different conflicts, who they are as people.
They contribute to world building—the world of Avatar is so rich and interesting, on it's own, but also in its current state of transition as a land shaped by war and refugees.
Immediately this episode visits 1.) the themes of Aang's role in solving conflict and 2.) Katara and Sokka's differing ways of doing things.
Aang is not above simple motivations. Custard tart. He's not some all knowing wise man, he's a person who gets hungry, gets driven by silly things. We also get to see something very important. Aang gets angry, but not very often, so it’s impactful to see what makes him angry. He's not above getting fed up with bullshit. He's realistic and rounded! He gets a chance to get angry at people selfishly putting lives at risk.
There's two rival clans who have the same goal and Aang agrees to protect them on their journey and help keep peace between them. The conflict between the two clans have origins so long ago neither of them can prove which origin story is true, but they are determined to cling to their hate for the other and refuse to work together to the point of endanger their own lives and the lives around them. And right when the fighting is about to come to a head, Aang steps in to say he knows the TRUE origin story and the conflict was actually just a big misunderstanding.
He... He LIES. Aang LIES to end this conflict that doesn't matter! And I think that's so cool. The first time I saw this episode, I thought to myself, "Ah, well that's really lucky that Aang knew those guys. I guess Being 100 Years Old plot point saves the day again. That doesn't bother me, but wow, it sure is a convenient thing." Then, out of earshot, AANG REVEALS THE TRUTH. He totally made up that story! There was no coincidence! That blew my mind as a kid! And that is so much more realistic and it gives us such cool, interesting insight to Aang's character. Aang's moral compass is very strong and he will fight for what he thinks is right. But he's also not unreasonable or stupid to get so hung up on what's "good" or "bad" on paper because, "Oh nooo, lying is baaaaad. We can't do thaaaaat it's wroooong." Which is something I feel like we expect out of characters like him. We see him lie, we see him steal, we see him cheat.
I really think this is a great example of how Aang believes in spreading joy and reducing suffering in the world above all else. Not black and white morality and rules of what a good person is or is not supposed to do.
I feel like shows that have morals to teach often rigidly set their "good" characters (especially characters like Aang) to Never Do Bad Things Ever (which is why Avatar is so good, because it challenges that.)
Lying was the right choice there! It was the smart choice! Aang's job is to keep peace and he made a choice to tell a lie that wouldn't hurt anyone in order to create peace. Between two rival clans! Who have been rivals for a century! And it having such a stupid solution really reflects how stupid the conflict was. It's also a good example on how history can get totally warped until no one knows the truth anymore, but these clans would rather cling to forgotten half-truths and hate each other than seek a solution for a better future.
This episode even lets us see a bit into Katara and Sokka as characters too. Katara sided with the Gan Jin because she believed they were the victims and had the moral high ground. Sokka admits to taking the Zhang’s side, "Because they fed [him]." That's still the show taking time to flesh out these characters for us and deal with a type of conflict they haven't before. We now understand the siblings better as characters!
This episode also gave us more inside into the lengths that people of the world have to go to in order to escape the war. It’s not just this one town or this one group of people. It’s everyone who is feeling the effects of the Fire Nation. We see examples of it over and over and over again and I feel like that is important.
The argument about fun, silly, or side plot episodes being "filler" makes me angry because if those episodes DIDN'T exist, people would complain about the reverse. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people critiquing shows or other media for having too many characters and not taking time to develop them all, for being all action and not taking time to breathe, for not showing us the characters domestic sides or letting them have fun.
Shows deserve to have down time, as do the characters, either literally or from the main plot. It lets us see fun new sides of them, see them dealing with situations we haven't before and in almost all episodes that I see people calling filler, but were written intentionally, we get so much fun character development or insight which is a GOOD THING.
Revisiting the anime thing, let me be clear, I don't think ALL extra episodes or scenes added that weren't in the original iteration is filler. In the Boku No Hero Academia anime, we see a whole pool scene added that wasn't in the manga, along with a scene of Bakugou and Kirishima walking together afterwards (I THINK that wasn’t in the manga, sorry if that’s wrong). These scenes give us just a bit more sense of the class's dynamic outside of school and the growing friendship between Kirishima and Bakugou, which becomes plot relevant later. These kinds of things help better establish the emotional ties between the characters and make it more believable and satisfying when high stakes emotional conflict happens.
In Spy x Family, the anime made a much bigger event out of Anya's school acceptance celebration, a whole episode. Just because they close to drag it out and give it fanfare it didn't get before doesn't mean it's filler. It was just fun! It was just breathing more life into what was there! And that scene gave us an exciting way to see the lengths Loid, Yor, and Franky are willing to go to make Anya happy, (even if Loid frames it as being part of the mission) while giving us the audience a darned good time.
The Owl House production got cut down and basically all the "filler" episodes had to be ditched. Luz pretty much says in the show that we lost out on a beach episode! And we were pissed about that! Everyone would have loved a beach episode! That's what happens when you cut "filler" stuff. We lose out on fun shenanigans and seeing our heroes and how the operate in domestic settings, because people can be very different people in the "battlefield" verses in a home. Or in a dangerous situation verses a fun or safe one. Hunter basically didn't know what to do at first in a safe environment. That's an important thing to learn about characters!
Characters just doing things has meaning. It has use. It has weight. Your story is as much your characters and world as it is your plot. Fleshing out any of those is worth taking the time to do so.
[Aang hate is not welcome on this post]
