I know it’s been said before, but one thing that makes the story of Avatar so beautiful, but also tragic is that this is a full-blown war they’re in. So many kids shows are the perfect example of the big good vs evil trope they’ve got going on, but in Avatar, these kids are living in a world that’s torn apart by war.
And the only one who can save it, is the one who was born in the time of peace.
But the war adds complexity of the story. It is still good vs evil, but balance more important. The Fire Nation is the enemy, and there’s no if or buts about it, the Fire Nation is the enemy. There’s not one moment of “oh boy, that Ozai isn’t that bad, he must have good intentions”.
Even though the Fire Nation is the “bad guy” without a doubt, a war makes the whole good vs evil thing different. Characters like General Fong and Hama show us how much war can corrupt people, even those on the “good side”. General Fong is so convinced that his ways of fighting the war are right, that he puts Aang’s emotional well-being on the line. Hama started out as someone fighting the bad guys, but years of war have turned her into something truely distrubing. I mean, she’s from the “good side” and the kidnaps people from the “bad side” so that they can rot away in a cave. And even though she’s from the Good Water Tribe and she attacks the Bad Fire Nation, she’s obviously the bad guy.
There are more of these moments where Team Avatar ends up helping the Bad Fire Nation. Aang gives Tom-Tom back to his Fire Nation superiors of a parents, Katara saves an entire Fire Nation village, Aang befriends his school friends in the Fire Nation, Sokka evacuates an entire Fire Nation village... Because that’s another part of the world of Avatar. Every nation is affected by this war.
The entire Air Normad has been brutally murdered. Not many kids shows handle actual genocide, and the moment where Aang realises that he really is the last one and that all of his people have been killed, is one of the strongest moments in the show. The Earth Kingdom has been plagued by poverty and it turns out that the capital is one big propoganda city where the king of the Earth Kingdom doesn’t even know there’s a bloody 100 year old war. The Water Tribes are so far away from each other that the Southern Water Tribe is barely populated and the Northern Water Tribe can’t help them, since they don’t know enough of the enemy.
Even the Fire Nation isn’t bad. The Fire Nation isn’t a big glory nation. People die from poverty, people are hurt, and the people who are well off are taught that they need to continue this war to spread the Fire Nation’s wealth. Zuko said it himself. He was taught to believe that his nation was invincible, but after being on his own, he realises how much innocent people have been hurt by the war, and he realises he’s been lied to. There are obviously Fire Nation citizens who strongly believe in Ozai and obey him and bla bla, but the most part of the Nation consists of innocent civilians.
Which is the worst of it. People die. People get hurt. Not to mention that kids die in a kids tv show. Kids are also victims of this war. Many kids show portray the war as something awful, but the adults handle it.
Not this show. Families are torn apart because of this war. Katara and Sokka lost their mother and their father is always out fighting. Haru gets imprisoned. Yue and Jet die. These are all kids. Kids die on a tv show. Kids who were friends with the main characters, who also had friends and family besides them, who had storylines and background and depth. And they died. You can even say that the Royal Fire Nation family is victim of the war, since Ursa was banished, Zuko was abused, and Azula slipped into insanity.
In the end, there’s peace, but as Avatar: the Legend of Korra has shown, that doesn’t last forever. But that isn’t exactly the point of Avatar. It isn’t: “We’ve won and it’ll never go bad again. The good guys are defeated!”, instead it is: “Problems will always happen, but in the end, balance will be restored!”
I can continue writing about this show, but that’ll take forever. Avatar is one of the best shows in the world, and this is one of the many reasons.
