Avatar: The Last Airbender/Headscratchers/Fandom


 * When I Google Image Search "Katara", the first hit is a piece of fanart depicting a pregnant Katara, who moreover does not appear to be aged up at all. This bugs me. Why is this so?
 * Why does it bug you? Probably because it means a twelve year old and a fourteen year old...I don't even want to think about it. Fans will be fans. (Squick!)
 * How dare you, slanderer (libeler)! That was no Katara, that was Sapphire Fire, the illustrious and radiant wife of the eternally memorialized WANG FIRE! Wearing a Southern Water Tribe outfit. They went to a costume party, and they decided to go for the theme of "Refuge in Audacity". Really.
 * Well, actually, I was just bugged by the fact that it was there to begin with and liable to mislead anyone new to the series. On, um, multiple levels. (...The more I think about this, the more it is driven home to me that the Internet, in all its consequence-free, "information"-exchanging glory, is a scary place.) Dagnabit, why is that the first hit?
 * If it makes you feel better, when I googled it (out of morbid curiosity), I had to search 'Katara pregnant' in order to find it. Simply searching 'Katara' did not yeild an image of her pregnant on the first several pages.

That said, I can see why people would think it's anime. As mentioned, it has a ton of eastern, both Chinese and Japanese, influences, plus all the writing shown in the series is in Chinese characters, which makes it look like it's being translated from those languages.]
 * Why is the Great Divide episode so disliked? I like it actually. I've seen far worse episodes.
 * I think people dislike it because its filler and nothing really important to the overall plot happens. Plus the fact that Aang resolves the conflict by making up some story makes the whole thing a bit pointless.
 * Actually, I found that to be the biggest saving grace of the episode. I really hated Aang (I've grown to cordially dislike reluctant heroes. I'm just tired of the trope) early on. And I utterly hated the episode when it seemed like he was telling the truth. But once Aang revealed that he lied, I started respecting him a bit more. Aang resolved their stupid conflict by lying, simply because it doesn't matter what really happened in the past.
 * Like I said, I've seen more pointless fillers in the series.
 * It's so widely disliked because some fans are too obsessed with Moving The Plot Forward. Like the much maligned "Jack's tattoos" episode of Lost, this episode doesn't add much to the overarching war story, but when viewed in the correct light, it serves to flesh out the main character and his role in the story. It features him doing that whole "bringing balance to the people of the world" thing that he's supposed to exist for. As for the other criticisms: people really do start feuds over stupid crap that spirals out of control after generations, the show has actually indulged in satire on other occasions, and there's absolutely no rule that every episode of a TV show must be identical in tone to the others. Two off the top of my head are the light and funny X Files episode "Bad Blood" immediately being followed by a Myth Arc-heavy two parter, and Farscape's 3rd season had a very tragic episode where a character dies of severe radiation poisoning immediately followed by....the same character (it's complicated) in a coma imagining he's in a Looney Tunes world.
 * "The Great Divide" is NOT disliked because it's filler ("The Runaway" is one of the best episodes of the series, and it's completely filler). The fact that it's filler simply makes it easy to ignore. The episode would be perfectly normal quality on most other Western cartoons, but it's not up to the standards of storytelling and complexity set on Avatar. The Flaws of "The Great Divide" are:
 * 1) It's Anvilicious, the entire point from beginning to end being to hammer home the message that prejudice and holding grudges are wrong. It's not delivered the least bit subtly or enjoyably.
 * 2) The conflict this anvilicious plot requires is solved by lying. Hypocrisy.
 * 3) The conflict is stupid and executed inappropriately for the context. Two tribes hate each other over differences of opinion over cleanliness (and an ancient dispute between two people that should no longer concern their descendants). Yes, in some contexts like Dr. Seuss' The Butter Battle Book or the first book of Gulliver's Travels, a ridiculous, minor difference of opinion is intentionally used as satire, but Avatar is not a satirical work. A satirical approach to this problem doesn't fit in this context where elsewhere, serious cultural prejudices are shown to exist and one country is expanding its imperialist empire through conquest and systematic genocide. On that note...
 * 4) The conflict is juvenile compared to the other fare usually seen on Avatar.
 * 5) The things the show is normally careful to pay attention to are disregarded. Notice that Appa is treated as an Automaton Horse in this episode, suddenly effortlessly able to carry two tribes' worth of sick and elderly people across a canyon it takes two days to cross when carrying 7 kids is too much for him in "The Western Air temple."
 * 6) Aang's job of keeping peace and solving conflicts is treated way too lightly, like a comedy, when the show otherwise tries to show that his job must be taken seriously.
 * So, what episode do you feel is worse, for instance?
 * The Beach. Why does no one else find this episode, a piece of Beach Episode Fan Service in which each character's actions drip with needless angst and teen drama that wouldn't be out of place in a fan fiction (the cutthroat, calculating Azula bashfully asking Ty Lee for advice on getting a boyfriend?) As abhorrent as I do? Not even touching on how they give every character there a flaky Freudian Excuse in lieu of actual plot progression.
 * I'm with you on The Beach. You know how sometimes when someone is doing something embarrassing on a TV show you feel embarrassed too? Yeah, that pretty much sums up the entire episode for me. I know they're supposed to be awkward, poorly socialized teenagers and all, but the sheer level of awkwardness is just overwhelming. I would agree it feels more like a fan fiction than a real episode of the show. Not only that, but the supposed "character development" at the end felt tacked on just to give the episode some sort of point, because it was either something we already knew (You mean Zuko is angry and conflicted? Who would have guessed?), or entirely unimportant (Was anyone really dying to know why Ty Lee is so kooky?). The only sort of interesting one was Azula admitting she was in fact troubled by what her mother had thought of her.
 * You know that these people that you are talking about are teenagers, right? And teenagers don't always have problems that most people deem "serious," right? And on some bease level, they are concerned with who they will end up with and what their friends think about them, right?
 * The Beach is more than just a fanservice-y episode. It sets up Zuko beginning to doubt his decision to side with Azula, which ultimately leads to him joining the Gaang, and shows that Ursa's low opinion of Azula actually bothered her, which becomes crucial during the finale. It's an important episode in terms of setting up the plot.
 * While I personally feel the episode wasn't particularly amazing, some of your points aren't exactly accurate. I'll focus solely on three since it's the most inaccurate: the two tribes didn't dislike each other over cleanliness. That was merely one of the things they chose to hate about each other due to the much deeper-rooted issue of their mutual history. Secondly, saying the feud is the result of an "ancient dispute" that shouldn't concern their descendants completely dismisses human nature. Many real-world peoples and cultures violently hate each other for things that happened thousands of years ago. If anything, the feud would have gotten worse over time if not for Aang.
 * Well, speaking personally, the reason I hated the episode had nothing to do with the fact that Aang lied - he was dealing with a dangerous feud and the truth of the matter had been lost to time, so it was a pretty effective solution. I thought the episode was stupid because the lie in question was so freakin' ridiculous. I could understand a 12-year-old coming up with a lie like that; what breaks the episode is that everyone else believed such a stupid explanation.
 * When I saw that, I also thought it was weird, but if you think of this as a contrst to other problems in the story that can't be so easily solved- the annihilation of the Airbenders, Firebender imperialism, Katara's unwilling ability in bloodbending- it was a big change to see a big problem with an easy fix. I felt at the time that they were trying to make a point.
 * In truth, by the end of the episode both sides did seem reasonably willing to let bygones be bygones already after what they'd been through recently. I never thought Aang's story ever simply fully convinced them; rather, it gave them the excuse they needed just then to be able to set aside their differences without losing face to the respective other side.
 * Well, Aang is the Avatar and he was alive at the time of the original dispute, so it's not so unlikely that they would swallow his story without questioning it.
 * Calling Avatar an anime. Technically it is one since it's animation (anime = the JPN word for animation) but they use the western meaning. It's a western cartoon. No one calls Teen Titans an anime.
 * Yeah, no excuse for that. People who say that are probably 1) pretentious gits who use "anime" to mean "all animation" because they say that in Japan and Japan is obviously better, or 2) idiots who haven't seen any actual anime and therefore can't tell the difference, but are trying to sound smart online.
 * And some (if not most) legitimately think it's the English translation of a Japanese series.
 * I imagine that the obvious eastern influences present in the Avatar world add to the confusion. Teen Titans is from an obviously western source, regardless of art style. Avatar looks, superficially at least, like something that could have come out of Japan.
 * It does not "make perfect sense" to call Avatar anime, because it isn't anime. "Anime" does not automatically mean "high quality." Nor does "western cartoon" automatically mean "low quality". That's like saying that it makes perfect sense to call The Lion King a live action film because it's so good. Anime just refers to the production being Japanese animation, full stop.
 * You guys do realize that it is an anime right? Ignoring all the connotations of the word, Avatar is, by definition, an anime. People who claim otherwise are just idiots pretending to know Japanese.
 * No? Unless the definition of Anime (animated cartoons written and produced in Japan) has changed, no, it is not, by definition, an anime.
 * Anime just means animation. The real problem here is that there's some Values Dissonance on whether anime should be specific to only Japanese animated cartoons OR involve all forms of animation, regardless of where it came from. It's original meaning - one still used in its native language - is to cover all forms of animation. Whereas in the West, it's used to only refer to Japanese animated cartoons. So it's more of a question of what the person's meaning of "anime" is when they're using it. If the person is using the Japanese definition of anime, then yes, Avatar the Last Airbender is by rights an anime. If the person is using the Western definition of anime, then no, it's not an anime, it's just a Western cartoon. Other than mistaking Avatar as something Japanese when it's not, whether it's referred to as an anime or not isn't really an issue here, and I believe that's what the original poster of this point was addressing anyway - that the wrong country was getting credit for this series just because of its appearance. (Excuse me if I seem redundant or am not making sense, I am just writing this at a bad time of the night... well early morning)
 * I think it's pretty safe to say that the original question was referring to Japanese animation. I have yet to meet an English speaking person who knowingly refers to anything other than Japanese animation as "anime."
 * Yeah. Of course. Because pizza is only pizza if it's made by an Italian in Italy. It's an airplane only if it's made by two bike makers in their spare time. Anime boils down to a 'style' of animation, which originated in Japan. As Avatar is drawn and animated in this fashion, it is Anime.


 * Jet and Zuko. Why is it so hard to find a fanfic about them that isn't slash?
 * You might want to ask why it's so hard to find a fanfic about ANYONE that isn't slash. Rule of thumb: If they like each other, they will be paired together. If they hate each other, they will be paired together. If they don't know each other at all, they will be paired together.
 * Why do people keep saying that bending is genetic? Nothing in the show suggests that that genetics and bending are connected in any way. Word of God even says that the ability to bend is spiritual, so there is no reason to think this.
 * Because anyone using episodes as their sole source of research on the topic wouldn't be able to see it any other way. I don't remember any specific mention in any episode telling the audience that bending is solely and undoubtedly spiritual. And really, using our world as our basis, genes seem the most logical thing to acquire bending through. If you then think "Then where do they think Katara gets her bending from?" I'd actually point to Harry Potter, since in that series it's fairly common for a magical child to be born to non-magical parents. It's not genetic, but it's not outright spiritual. I dunno, that's all I can come up with in their defense for that case.
 * I'll respond your question with a question: If bending is truly spiritual, then how come non-benders, such as Sokka or Suki, can't gain bending powers? If "spiritual" means "religious" then non-benders should be able to obtain bending powers. if "Spiritual" means "personality" or "core beliefs", then again, why can't someone who's changed radically gain (or completely lose) their bending abilities? and if "Spiritual" means "a specific type of soul", well, why do all special-souls seem to stick to the same culture--why aren't waterbenders randomly born into firenation households, or vice versa? All this, thrown in with the nature/nurture debate, and you might see why people prefer to refer to bending as a recessively genetically inherited trait. At least that makes SENSE.
 * It's partly genetic and partly spiritual. That's the official word.
 * Another way to think about it is that it's like genetics and epigenetics. Genetics give you the ability to bend, and the epigentics (reacting to your connection with the spirit world) attach methyl groups to the genes that allow you to bend.
 * Why do people constantly give Katara a new engagement necklace? That isn't the point of her necklace at all! It's specifically stated in-series that the betrothal necklaces are a Northern Water Tribe thing -- one that Kanna clearly has not explained to her granddaughter, given that Katara had no idea what else the necklace could symbolise other than "this thing given to me by my mother who got it from my grandmother".
 * Because it's a nice romantic gesture which parallels our culture's engagement ring, so people understand it and it makes a good device in fanfics. And since it's only really stated in the one episode that it's a Northern thing (and Katara's lack of knowledge about it in the same episode is the only evidence that it's not a Southern thing) a lot of people forget that inconvenient fact and have Aang/Zuko/Whoever-the-heck-else give her one to show they care about her culture's traditions. Or, alternatively, the Southern Water Tribe does do the betrothal necklace thing and Katara just had a bout of (OOC) cluelessness about it because Bryke needed to have someone be unaware of that tradition for story purposes/her mother died before teaching her.
 * Also, the only guy in her tribe anywhere close to her own age is her brother--marriage is probably a topic that simply never came up for her because there were no available options.