Chris Fritz's Blog - Posts Tagged "meta"
What Avatar the last Airbender means to me.
I started watching the show when it first came out in 2005. So I was there from day one. I can’t say that about too many things. I loved how kids were given these extraordinary abilities to bend the elements. I loved the animation style that built a world that you just want to live in. I loved the plot, the characters and the humor. I was so interested in seeing the extent of the bending abilities and I was entranced by the movement of the characters in order to use their elements. This show revolutionized the animated TV world with it’s depictions of martial arts. Back in the day I didn’t understand how television seasons worked so when I saw the season two finale I just thought the series was over and all the characters died. Twelve year old me was in a big state of shock back then. That show brought me up and took me down. It took me on an emotional rollercoaster. When I watched the series finale I had tears in my eyes. It made me feel so many things and to this day it still holds up as one of the best TV shows ever in my opinion.
But everything changed when they made the movie. The movie came out when I was sixteen and I’ll admit I was excited to see the characters I loved show up on the big screen in live action. When I left the theater the most of what I had to say was “They got a lot of the stuff wrong.” I can write forever about how bad the live action movie but I think that’s a task for another day. I can sum it all up by saying like most of the fans I hate the movie. Some of the fans even deny its existence and I can’t blame them for doing so in the slightest. So we all moved on with our lives until 2012 when Nick announced they were making a sequel series called the Legend of Korra. Even though the movie was crap this new series was a clear departure. I really like Legend of Korra. It was nice to go back to the world of avatar and the new series got the taste of the movie out of my mouth. I originally thought that nick would just do one season of Korra and it would just be a way for the fandom to say goodbye to the series once and for all. I was taken for a loop when they decided to do three more seasons of Korra. I was also thrown for another loop when I heard the final season wouldn’t be on TV but instead it would be on the Nick website. I could write more about the series but I really liked it. Some of the fandom doesn’t like the series and I don’t get those people at all. Over the years I bought both of the series on DVD and re-watch them from time to time. I even watched the series when it came out on Netflix and I was happy when it soared to the number one show on the streaming platform. I can probably keep watching the show as an adult and keep finding new things to appreciate or new meanings to find in the text. For example in season two when the gaang takes down Azulas drill she comes back and uses their strategy to take over Ba Sing Sei. The gaang takes down the drill from the inside and Azula takes down the city from the inside. That plays into a theme of fire nation defeat playing into their eventual victories. Theirs also a meta textual reading I found in it. In the episode bitter work Iroh explains a new fire bending technique to Zuko. To start off the lesson Iroh explains to him that he find influence from other bending forms. To become more powerful he should take wisdom from many different sources. Wisdom from all across the world will make him whole. He does this to explain that he developed his technique to redirect lighting from studying water benders. Meanwhile in the real world Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino were heavily influenced by Japanese anime when creating the Last Airbender. To create their fictional world they took inspiration from feudal japan, china, Buddhist monk culture and the tribes of the Inuit. Even though they were American animators their animation style for this was heavily influenced by anime from Japan. They fused that influence with western animation techniques to create their own unique art style. In the subsequent years a new kind of animated cartoon that I’ve heard some fans call Americanime arose. Some shows that would fit into this genre would be Samurai Jack and Teen Titans. These guys took wisdom from around the world and it made them better artists. Helped them make this groundbreaking show that the fandom fell in love with. Wisdom from all across the world made them more powerful just like Iroh in their show. The same way Iroh use his diverse wisdom to create his revolutionary technique Michael and Bryan used that same principle to create Avatar the last Airbender. I’ve also found a meta narrative within the Legend of Korra. In season 2 Bolin goes on a little side adventure of becoming a movie star. In their world they call them movers but it’s the same thing. In the movers Bo Lin plays a character called Nuk Tuk the hero of the south. The character is a water bending hero from the southern water tribe. Bo Lin himself has no genealogical connection to the Southern water tribe and he is not a water bender. Now lets go back into the real world. The crappy live action last airbender movie was the subject of a lot of criticism. A major talking point in that criticism was allegations of white washing. Specifically they had several Caucasian actors playing roles that would have been more loyal to the source material if they were played by people of color. For example in the movie the characters of Katara and Sokka are played by Caucasian actors when in the show they are portrayed as people of color. If the movie wanted to honor its source material more then they probably would have cast non white actors to play these roles. This point is just a drop in the bucket of criticism leveled at this movie. Now lets go back into the the legend of Korra. In Bolins movers it probably would have been better and made more sense if the character of Nuk Tuk would be played by an actor from the southern water tribe or a water bender. But instead it’s played by Bo Lin who is an earth bender from the earth kingdom. It played into the plot of the show but one could say that this character went through the in universe equivalent of whitewashing. It sure was subtle but I found an instance in the Legend of Korra where the creators of the show criticized the live action movie in a meta textual way. Just one final middle finger to M. Night Shyamalan.
Also in the season two episode the Guru guru Pahtik explains to Aang the seven chakras of the body. They explain it accurately and exhibit a cornerstone of yoga and meditation that originated in ancient India. This makes the show deeper and more vital. I love things like that, it was interesting to learn about chakras in an interesting way that played in perfectly to the narrative.
Now a days I hear of a deal to make a new live action series on Netflix rebooting the Last Airbender. Now I’m not to excited to hear the words live action when I think about this franchise and I heard the news that the original creators were attached to the show but they recently left because of creative differences. That doesn’t give me a lot of confidence in the upcoming series but I’ll probably watch it anyway. I don’t even really want a live action series that much I kind of want a third animated series following the adventures of the next avatar in the cycle. There’s a part of me that thinks stories should be updated and remade to relate to a new audience and a new generation. But maybe I’m straying away from that belief. I think the last Airbender is the Star Wars of my generation but the franchise has had a lot of missteps. It’s only until recently that I realized the stories and the Last Airbender and Star Wars are very similar.
Now I have to ask myself how has this story influenced my own story telling? I think the most important way is on a world building level. Like a said earlier the Last Airbender has a rich and vibrant world that feels so real. I even think that there should be an open world RPG based on the show. The world building is also tied in perfectly with the magic system of bending. Bending is integrated into the world in a way that it affects every character on the show. When I wrote the Universe Key I wanted to create a world that someone would love to live in and a magic system that had a major impact on the world as well as the people living in it. Both the Last Airbender and the Universe Key both have a war as their backdrop and my characters Brilan and Clara are loosely based on Sokka and Katara. Also I can’t help but admit the fact that some of the magic weapons spit out elements is based on bending. So I can say that the Last Airbender has influenced me heavily in my writing and my creative life. I hope that the franchise will become more popular in the pop culture zeitgeist. As time goes on I hope its influence will become deeper and richer.
But everything changed when they made the movie. The movie came out when I was sixteen and I’ll admit I was excited to see the characters I loved show up on the big screen in live action. When I left the theater the most of what I had to say was “They got a lot of the stuff wrong.” I can write forever about how bad the live action movie but I think that’s a task for another day. I can sum it all up by saying like most of the fans I hate the movie. Some of the fans even deny its existence and I can’t blame them for doing so in the slightest. So we all moved on with our lives until 2012 when Nick announced they were making a sequel series called the Legend of Korra. Even though the movie was crap this new series was a clear departure. I really like Legend of Korra. It was nice to go back to the world of avatar and the new series got the taste of the movie out of my mouth. I originally thought that nick would just do one season of Korra and it would just be a way for the fandom to say goodbye to the series once and for all. I was taken for a loop when they decided to do three more seasons of Korra. I was also thrown for another loop when I heard the final season wouldn’t be on TV but instead it would be on the Nick website. I could write more about the series but I really liked it. Some of the fandom doesn’t like the series and I don’t get those people at all. Over the years I bought both of the series on DVD and re-watch them from time to time. I even watched the series when it came out on Netflix and I was happy when it soared to the number one show on the streaming platform. I can probably keep watching the show as an adult and keep finding new things to appreciate or new meanings to find in the text. For example in season two when the gaang takes down Azulas drill she comes back and uses their strategy to take over Ba Sing Sei. The gaang takes down the drill from the inside and Azula takes down the city from the inside. That plays into a theme of fire nation defeat playing into their eventual victories. Theirs also a meta textual reading I found in it. In the episode bitter work Iroh explains a new fire bending technique to Zuko. To start off the lesson Iroh explains to him that he find influence from other bending forms. To become more powerful he should take wisdom from many different sources. Wisdom from all across the world will make him whole. He does this to explain that he developed his technique to redirect lighting from studying water benders. Meanwhile in the real world Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino were heavily influenced by Japanese anime when creating the Last Airbender. To create their fictional world they took inspiration from feudal japan, china, Buddhist monk culture and the tribes of the Inuit. Even though they were American animators their animation style for this was heavily influenced by anime from Japan. They fused that influence with western animation techniques to create their own unique art style. In the subsequent years a new kind of animated cartoon that I’ve heard some fans call Americanime arose. Some shows that would fit into this genre would be Samurai Jack and Teen Titans. These guys took wisdom from around the world and it made them better artists. Helped them make this groundbreaking show that the fandom fell in love with. Wisdom from all across the world made them more powerful just like Iroh in their show. The same way Iroh use his diverse wisdom to create his revolutionary technique Michael and Bryan used that same principle to create Avatar the last Airbender. I’ve also found a meta narrative within the Legend of Korra. In season 2 Bolin goes on a little side adventure of becoming a movie star. In their world they call them movers but it’s the same thing. In the movers Bo Lin plays a character called Nuk Tuk the hero of the south. The character is a water bending hero from the southern water tribe. Bo Lin himself has no genealogical connection to the Southern water tribe and he is not a water bender. Now lets go back into the real world. The crappy live action last airbender movie was the subject of a lot of criticism. A major talking point in that criticism was allegations of white washing. Specifically they had several Caucasian actors playing roles that would have been more loyal to the source material if they were played by people of color. For example in the movie the characters of Katara and Sokka are played by Caucasian actors when in the show they are portrayed as people of color. If the movie wanted to honor its source material more then they probably would have cast non white actors to play these roles. This point is just a drop in the bucket of criticism leveled at this movie. Now lets go back into the the legend of Korra. In Bolins movers it probably would have been better and made more sense if the character of Nuk Tuk would be played by an actor from the southern water tribe or a water bender. But instead it’s played by Bo Lin who is an earth bender from the earth kingdom. It played into the plot of the show but one could say that this character went through the in universe equivalent of whitewashing. It sure was subtle but I found an instance in the Legend of Korra where the creators of the show criticized the live action movie in a meta textual way. Just one final middle finger to M. Night Shyamalan.
Also in the season two episode the Guru guru Pahtik explains to Aang the seven chakras of the body. They explain it accurately and exhibit a cornerstone of yoga and meditation that originated in ancient India. This makes the show deeper and more vital. I love things like that, it was interesting to learn about chakras in an interesting way that played in perfectly to the narrative.
Now a days I hear of a deal to make a new live action series on Netflix rebooting the Last Airbender. Now I’m not to excited to hear the words live action when I think about this franchise and I heard the news that the original creators were attached to the show but they recently left because of creative differences. That doesn’t give me a lot of confidence in the upcoming series but I’ll probably watch it anyway. I don’t even really want a live action series that much I kind of want a third animated series following the adventures of the next avatar in the cycle. There’s a part of me that thinks stories should be updated and remade to relate to a new audience and a new generation. But maybe I’m straying away from that belief. I think the last Airbender is the Star Wars of my generation but the franchise has had a lot of missteps. It’s only until recently that I realized the stories and the Last Airbender and Star Wars are very similar.
Now I have to ask myself how has this story influenced my own story telling? I think the most important way is on a world building level. Like a said earlier the Last Airbender has a rich and vibrant world that feels so real. I even think that there should be an open world RPG based on the show. The world building is also tied in perfectly with the magic system of bending. Bending is integrated into the world in a way that it affects every character on the show. When I wrote the Universe Key I wanted to create a world that someone would love to live in and a magic system that had a major impact on the world as well as the people living in it. Both the Last Airbender and the Universe Key both have a war as their backdrop and my characters Brilan and Clara are loosely based on Sokka and Katara. Also I can’t help but admit the fact that some of the magic weapons spit out elements is based on bending. So I can say that the Last Airbender has influenced me heavily in my writing and my creative life. I hope that the franchise will become more popular in the pop culture zeitgeist. As time goes on I hope its influence will become deeper and richer.
