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.
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.