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A. Havnes
11-30-2008, 07:55 PM
Inspired by the thread about Star Trek promoting a NWO, which you can read here (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=170542), I decided to do a thread about a children's show that seems to advocate national sovereignty. It's probably the only kids' show I've seen in a long time that doesn't dumb things down; it deals with war, death, and moral values in a way that's not too traumatic for kids, but is great viewing for older audiences as well. What show is this, it's Avatar: The Last Airbender. I don't think my interpretation is necessarily what the creators intended, but here goes. This is a great way to teach national sovereignty to kids!

This is going to be a very lengthy post, so please bear with me. Firstly, the show is seeping with Eastern mysticism, and its themes are remniscent of Hayao Miyazaki's works, but it's not anime. Each nation's culture is based off of a group of people. Fire Nation = Japan, Earth Kingdom = China, Air Nomads = Tibet, and Water Tribes = Eskimos.

Here's how things work in the show. You've aready noticed that it draws upon four elements usually used in Eastern traditions. The people of each nation have the ability to "bend" certain elements, or control them. There's also plenty of non-benders in each nation with the exception of the Air Nomads.

The Avatar is the only person who can bend all four elements, thus keeping balance between the nations, and he is also the bridge between the real world and the spirit world. When the Avatar dies, his spirit is reincarnated into the next nation in the reincarnation cycle. Sound weird? It gets better, trust me.

Over one hundred years before the story starts, the Fire Nation was well on its way to becoming the most industrialized and wealthy nation of the four. It's Lord, Sozen, decided to share its wealth and democracy with the world. Sounds benevolent, but he'll turn into George Bush in a second. He went about this by building bases and colonies throughout the Earth Kingdom, thus inciting the hatred of the citizens there. Avatar Roku saw what was happening and informed Sozen that the four nations should remain seperate. Some time later (skipping a bunch of little details), Roku was killed by Sozen.

The Avatar was reincarnated one of the Air Temples (the Eastern one, if I remember correctly), and he is the protagonist of our story. His name is Aang, and he was supposed to be unaware of his identity as the Avatar, but Sozen's war had begun, and so he was told when he was 12, not 16. Do to a bunch of other little details, he ran away, but was caught in a storm. The life-threatening experience triggered the Avatar State (a defense mechanism), and he and his flying bison were encased in an iceberg.

More in just a second.

A. Havnes
11-30-2008, 08:00 PM
Meanwhile, Sozen was aware of that the Avatar would be reborn among the Air Nomads, and one airbender gave him the means to invade the Air Temples in exchange for a high ranking position amongst the Fire Nation nobles (not mentioned in the series). Shortly after Aang left, Sozen attacked and brought genocide to the Air Nomads.

One hundred years later, no one has any idea if the Avatar was ever reincarnated, and the Fire Nation is on the verge of toppling the other nations rulers. They have occupied their lands, imposed their own martial law on many places in the Earth Kingdom, and are basically acting like our soldiers in Iraq. In fact, a lot of it mirrors our war in Iraq, except that the Fire Nation seems to be "winning".

Two teenagers from the Southern Water Tribe are out fishing when they come across Aang in his iceberg. He is freed and is devastated to learn that a war has been going on for the past 100 years and that his people are long dead. The story is that he has to set out to learn all four elements and stop the new Fire Lord, Ozai, from declaring himself a world-wide ruler.

More in a sec.

A. Havnes
11-30-2008, 08:09 PM
What's interesting about all this is how it can be used to teach kids about foreign policy. Sozen's/Ozai's certainly mirrors George Bush's, especially since the original intentions at least, were to bring about a bright and wonderful new age. It especially mirrors it in that the civilians certainly don't enjoy it, and they are willing to fight for their own nation. In other words, the Fire Nation is forcing their own way of life upon them through the barrel of a gun, as Ron Paul once said.

The Fire Nation is also fascist. They impose martial law on people, places curfew on them, forbiding bending, and rounding people up to hall to camps and prisons. Meanwhile, the civilians living in the Fire Nation are oblivious to the horrors being sanctioned across the globe and live in their own mindlessly patriotic fantasies.

The entire series is just interesting, and it could have very easily been reformated into a story for adults instead of children. Either way, it's enjoyable for both, and one of the great ways to get kids interesting in our foreign affairs is just to bring the show up.

One of the things that really caught the ears of both myself and my brother is when one of the main characters confronts Ozai and says that he knows the war began with good intentions, but that the other nations hate them, "and we deserve it."

I'll think of more later. It's almost impossibe to catch on TV, though, especially since the series ended. It used to come on Nickelodeon, but they pretty much disowned it in favor for more mindless shows like Spongebob. Buy the series if you can, or just download some episodes off the Internet to get a good idea of the show. The first few episodes are kind of corny (a good way to draw kids in, though), but they get a lot better.

jmag
11-30-2008, 09:28 PM
Avatar rules. My daughter and I are regulars.

Agent CSL
11-30-2008, 10:07 PM
Avatar is a great show, and the end is very unexpected. It's the only show I've seen where the creators didn't bastardize it for profit. They stuck to a magnificent storyline and art style. My sister, mom and myself are all fans.

And I know the fire nation is the US. :)

Roxi
11-30-2008, 10:38 PM
my daughter loves avatar, and i watch it occasionally with her, it is pretty good... i will start paying a little more attention now thanks :)

Conza88
11-30-2008, 10:55 PM
wth.. gimme some pics or a clip.. :eek:

angelatc
11-30-2008, 11:21 PM
http://www.hulu.com/videos/search?query=Avatar

A. Havnes
12-01-2008, 08:10 AM
You can watch them here (http://www.watchshowsonline.net/cat/174-Avatar_the_Last_Airbender.html) as well. I think this site is a little more organized. As I said, it takes a while for the show to really kick off, and I personally like season 2 the best, but check it out anyway.

Someone asked for pictures as well. I don't have much, but here's a picture from the Fire Nation's wikipedia site showing a typical Fire Nation classroom, complete with a poster of Ozai in the back, staring at the students and the teacher in a kind of Big Brother fashion.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3c/Fire_Nation_school.jpg

A. Havnes
12-06-2008, 09:28 PM
Speaking of Big Brother, if anyone has seen or watches the episode "City of Walls and Secrets" could you please let me know if it's bashing socialism and/or communism. I haven't quite figured that episode out, aside from knowing it's one of my favorites. The whole Ba Sing Se arc is, actually.