this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2024
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I wouldn't claim ATLA is leftist, but I wouldn't really call it blatantly Lib either.
I agree. The sequel is mega mega lib though.
The tankie did nothing wrong until she went aggro on the environment and, for some reason, really hated that the world's capital was in her territory.
Also after the monarch dies everybody immediately starts burning shit. The anarchists who did do it never bothered to try and make parallel power or really implied they had any theory behind them.
Wasn't it literally a former fire nation colony that was made independent rather than rightfully returning to the earth kingdom? It's like the Hong Kong of Avatar if the libs had their way.
Given that it was Hong Kong , but like a super effectual HK, I guess I imagined it like if everybody had to come to the earth kingdom for the Olympics. You get to control how food and every other logistic gets to them. There's so much upside to having everyone come through the earth kingdom to get to the capital. If cooperation was at all, even a little bit, of your strategy you could cook something.
Kuvira had internment camps too
Yeah the thing that bothered me about Kuvira was that she was very fash coded, had internment camps, was gonna spirit nuke everybody etc., but was treated more sympathetically by the writing than previous designated villains who had way more reasonable and sympathetic causes
It's blatantly lib
I haven't watched it in a while, granted. Outside of Aangs pacifism, the resolution of which is, I would agree, very lib and one of the weaker parts of the show, I don't recall anything particularly lib. I think it's one of those works where the political messaging in vague enough you could read a variety of interpretations into it.
Honestly I think this need to label all media either "leftist" or "lib" or what have you, is a weird and time wasting obsession of people these days. Yes there's blatant examples of each, Legends of Korra for example is undeniably Lib, but in between those there's a sea of stuff that's open enough for there to be alternative readings. Plus while you can do political analysis of all media, that doesn't mean all media had explicate political messaging.
Overthrowing evil monarch and installing his good bean son on the throne fixes everything
Well... if you read the comics set between ATLA and LoK, it didn't fix everything
Im talking about the show, comics are extended media and have no bearing on the show as a piece of media
glad to hear that tho
Elements of it are incorporated into Korra pretty seamlessly, so I'd say it's "canon-lite"
I don't consider Korra canon
I don't consider Lion Turtles canon then
Thats fine I guess
Since we're in the writing comm, I'd like to press you with curiosity. What are lib elements of ATLA? I'm having trouble coming up with examples lmao easily as I could LOK. I know usurping the fire lord's throne with his son is cringe. Aang never questions the monarchy as being central for the earth kingdom. The idea of people being born into bending and your people with this border being the stewards of this art sort of imply a natural separation of people. Though Katara overcoming the cultural sexism on the northern water tribe and Sokka breaking the cycle was cool. Zuko and Iroh go hard in the paint.
Well you covered most bases,
I mean it's pretty blatantly lib, zuko would at best be a Bernie sanders replacement of a leader of a horrifying system of violence
Not to mention the cop out of magically not having to kill the fire lord
If it wasn't lib that fucker would have been executed for his crimes
I mean, yeah, but I kinda give that a pass cuz it's a kids show. Idk if 12 year olds really want a whole seasons of Nuremberg trials being held in Ba Sing Se.
I would agree if it werent for the entire episodes devoted to aang trying to find any way not to kill him and even all his past lives are like kill that fucker, and then its resolved with a deus ex machina of him hitting that rock and unlocking the super state and inventing this power. Could ahve worked, but the show painstakingly set up the OPPOSITE
No, I agree that I think the way they resolved Aang's pacifism was lazy and seems to contradict everything else the show was telling us up to that point. It's one of the weakest things about the original show, and the most lib. However I get why the network maybe didn't want a kids show to end with the protagonist straight up killing someone, so I'm curious how much of that ending was the writers vs the network.
It definitely doesn't feel like the ending the people making the show thought they were heading towards