"Avatar: The Last Airbender" - "The Promise" analysis

Hopefully it goes without saying that there will be spoilers.

For about a year, I have been waiting to make enough money to buy the A:TLA comic books. Unfortunately whenever I did have enough money, I always forgot about them. One week, I got lucky enough to have about $30 to spend on whatever I wanted, so naturally, I decided it was time to buy some of the comic books. I bought one which was the collection of all the comics kind of just lying around, from Nickelodeon Magazine and such.

 

That was good fun, but I know I also had to get The Promise, and especially The Search - I mean who does not want to find out what happened to Zuko's mother?? The problem was...I only had enough money for either or. Because I am weird like this, I decided to buy The Promise because it came out before The Search. Yes, that is how my mind works. Sure, I will die a happy woman once I find out what happened to her, but chronological order is more important.


Maybe by buying The Promise first, I actually spared myself a few more months to live.

I had no idea I would enjoy it as much as I did - hence why I am writing this.

In order for you to know what I am even talking about, I will provide a synopsis for you - as a refresher if you have already read it, or do not ever care to read it (or you want to read it, but do not care about spoilers). After the war, Firelord Zuko and Earth King Kuei agree that is best that the former Fire Nation colonies are restored to how they once were, and Avatar Aang is recruited (or more like he volunteers) to make sure the transition is peaceful. It will be called "The Harmony Restoration Movement."

With a name like that, how could anything possibly go wrong??

Later, Zuko makes Aang promise him that if he ever sees him turning into his father, to "end" him. Reluctantly, Aang promises (hence, why this book is called what it is). A year later, a woman tries to assassinate Zuko, and he finds out that she did so because of her anger at The Harmony Restoration Movement, which is affecting her home - one of the colonies. The woman's father makes a point that generations of Fire Nation citizens have lived there, so they consider it home. After visiting with his father (which he does quite a bit), he decides to retract his support from THRM, which infuriates Aang, who seeks Avatar Roku's help. (In this case, Roku was as useful as he was when Aang tried to decide how to defeat Ozai without compromising Air Nomad morals.)

The Gaang goes to Yu Dao (that colony) where they encounter people, including the Freedom Fighters, protesting Zuko's decision. Speaking with Zuko, they discover that Yu Dao is the oldest Fire Nation Colony, where the first colonials settled over a hundred years ago. Because of the Earth Kingdom's influence, the citizens were able to develop some of the finest metalwork, making it one of the richest cities in the world, making it better for everybody who lived there. Not only did this help the economy and well-being of Yu Dao, the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation people started marrying. The woman who tried to kill Zuko is the child of such a mix. Zuko's explanation does not phase Aang because he believes that in order to be peace and harmony throughout the world, the four nations need to be completely separate from each other.

Let me tell you - once you read the first few pages of this book, you will never watch the A:TLA finale the same way again.

There is a sidestory about Toph and her school called "The Beifong Metalbending Academy" where she tries to teach a cast of misfits. However, due to THRM, a firebending school takes over the building, "reclaiming" it. They agree on having a match to see who is the better school...and Sokka seeing how much better the firebending students are, agrees to help train Toph's students. In the meantime, Aang and Katara land in Ba Sing Se and bump into the city's  chapter of the "Official Avatar Aang Fan Club." Katara gets jealous, but the Club provides them with a place to stay for the night.

Zuko, seeking advice on "pressures of the throne," visits his father, who tells him a story of an incident that happened during one of their family vacations to Ember Island. Young Zuko, no more than three-years-old, tried to rescue a turtle-crab from a hawk at the beach - he had an "odd affinity for the weak." Ozai says, "The hawk looked at you with hungry eyes, and you realized you were condemning it to starve." Before Zuko could make a decision on whether to side with the hawk or turtle-crab, a giant wave carried him out into the ocean and Ozai had to save him. After Zuko brings his father some tea, he figures he should have sided with the hawk - "It was strong and noble, much like the Fire Nation. It had earned its meal." Ozai does not accept his assessment, saying he is only partially correct, and tells him, "What I'm saying is this - there is no right or wrong apart from what you decide. Who you choose to defend deserves to be defended simply because you chose them." While Zuko is have an inner-battle between what is right and wrong, Ozai points out that the Earth King will send out his army to "crush" the Fire National colonials, "in an attempt to restore his own dignity." Ozai also believes that the Avatar is "an irrelevant relic of a bygone age" because he/she does not allow the stronger to triumph over the weak. Zuko defends Aang as his friend, but Ozai asks if he trusts Aang more than himself, and Zuko is unable to answer.

Kori, the woman who tried to kill Zuko, is training with her cousins when her boyfriend, Sneers, a member of the Freedom Fighters shows up. After learning that Sneers was a part of the protestors, she gets mad and they argue. He tells her she either has to choose the Earth Kingdom or Fire Nation. She replies, "Choose, choose, choose! All my life, people have been asking me to choose! I am an earthbender and a Fire Nation citizen, and I live in Yu Dao! That's what I choose!"

After Katara and Aang break the news to the Earth King about Zuko's refusal to continue with THRM, Earth King Kuei thinks it over and decides he is "tired of being weak" - he is going to send his army to Yu Dao, and the colonials have the options of  leaving peacefully or facing "the most dire of consequences," much to Katara's and Aang's horror.

When the Gaang goes to Yu Dao to warn the Fire Nation to leave because of the Earth King's army, they find out, just like Zuko did, that the situation is more complicated than they originally thought. The president of the Yu Dao chapter of the Avatar Aang Fan Club, Xing Ying, enters and introduces herself to Aang, who is impressed by her and her club members' attire ("Your clothes look just like the uniforms the Western Air Temple students used to wear!...And the arrows you've painted on your foreheads look almost exactly like real airbender tattoos!") However, to his frustration, he finds out that the tattoos are real, which ends up in this exchange:

"What?! But air nomad tattoos have to be earned though years and years of airbending practice! They're not-"

"Oh, we know, Avatar Aang! For a fan club member to receive her tattoos, she must master of airbender-like forms!"

""Airbender like"?! Those tattoos are sacred to my people! They describe who we are and how see the world! You have no right to tattoo yourselves like that!"

"I assure you that our members go through the most rigorous of study programs! By the end, they-"

"But how could you study air nomad philosophy at all and still do something like this?!

Despite Katara trying to reassure Aang that it was an honest mistake, he continues with, "For you to treat our tattoos like a part of some...some costume...! My costume isn't a game!"

After Aang flies off, Katara finds him in a miserable state, and he relays to her his thoughts, "I think I figured out why the nations have to be separate for harmony. Whenever two nations come together, the stronger one can't help but hurt the weaker one. They'll conquer or burn or, at the very least, make a joke of the weaker nation."

Katara replies with, "You once told me that separation is an illusion. Guru Pathik taught you that. The Four Nations are really one and the same."

Aang is caught up with preserving the world as he knows it, and feels that he has to see THRM through the end, even if that means fulfilling his promise to Zuko and going against his air nomad philosophy.
 
It would have probably been great if this song existed in the Avatar world.
Katara reveals to Aang that the first time Zuko showed them around Yu Dao, she "saw Kori and her family standing in the street, staring at us like we held their whole lives in our hands," leading her to change her mind about THRM. Their session is interrupted by Smellerbee's protestors, and after quelling some of the action, Katara goes on to say that what she wants is to find a peaceful way for Yu Dao to go on the way it has for the past century.  Aang wants to end things peacefully too, but with the Fire Nation leaving Yu Dao peacefully too. She knows that it is not an option anymore when both the Zuko's and the Earth King's armies arrive.
After getting out of the way of most of the action, Katara tells Aang that when she saw Kori's family, she also saw their future. "If the nations have to be separate, what will that mean for us?" Aang decides to go find a quite place to help himself make the right decisions.
Sokka sums up the situation perfectly: "Let me see if I got this, the protesters and the Earth Kingdom army want the colonials to go, the Fire Nation army wants the colonials to stay, and the Yu Dao resistance just want their city to be left alone?"
Katara makes her way into the Earth King's hot air balloon, where he is cowering, and he remarks with, "Who knew Yu Dao would be like this?!"
"You've never visited Yu Dao?" Katara responds.
"Up until a year ago, I'd never even visited my own city's outer ring."
She extends a hand to him to show him the people "who have had to live with [his] decisions." After the Earth King gets to see how Yu Dao actually is, all ends well...although Roku warns Aang in meditation that if he continuing to make indecisive action, he continues to put the world at risk. (Is this from Roku's own regret on not killing Sozin, and/or have we seen repercussions in Korra?)
Even the Yu Dao Avatar Aang Fan Club earns Aang's respect, as he tells them:
"I have to admit, I'm a little nervous about this. I love my people's culture and I don't want to see it corrupted. At the same time, it can't just belong to history. Air Nomad culture has to belong to the future, too. According to my friends, many of you led the way to peace on the battlefield, putting your lives at risk for the sake of others. I 'm deeply impressed. You already have the hearts of Air Nomads, so I've decided to teach you the ways of the air nomads. But you can't just be a fan club anymore. From now on, you'll be known as the Air Acolytes!"
They seriously need to make these comic books into TV movies.
Anywho, now that I am done with providing you all with practically the gist of the entire book, let us touch upon the themes...
While The Harmony Restoration Movement sounds good on paper, as we can see, it did not play out well in real-life. Little did anyone expect two nations living in one area not only cooperating with each other, but starting families. The idea of the four nations has been around for so long that they cannot see through the illusion of the separate nations. I would be willing to bet all of my money (which is not saying much, since I am literally broke while writing this) that this series of events with THRM and Yu Dao were a precursor to the establishment of Republic City. Not only were the"Fire Nation" and "Earth Kingdom" citizens cozying up with each other, but their economy is pretty damn good. Is this a precursor to global capitalism in the Avatar world, and that it makes people's lives better?
By reading this, I felt we got to know Ozai a bit better , and not necessarily in a bad way (adds a bit of dimension). Ozai's story about Zuko connects with the theme of Roku's disapproval of Aang being "indecisive." When Ozai says that the Avatar is the "irrelevant relic of a bygone age," it reminds me of the Red Lotus' beliefs on keeping nations separate. We get to see that a ruler can set out their armies on a whim, also keeping in tune with the Red Lotus' ideas that leaders and governments cannot be trusted. It also foreshadows the topic of the relevance of the Avatar that Korra is struggling with in her series.
Through learning that story of Zuko and the discussion he has with his father afterwards, I can see a theme that makes its way into Book 3 of Korra - the absolute power of the leader, whether or not the people of the kingdom or elsewhere agree with it. According to Ozai, if Zuko has to make a choice, by making that choice, he makes it the correct one. Bumi points out in Book 3 of Korra that the Earth Queen had the right to treat her citizens in the dastardly way she did. I kept procrastinating while writing this, but we see the same thing (it's actually a major theme) in Book 4 of Korra.
It is only when the Earth King actually sees the people of Yu Dao, he and Zuko decide not to go through with THRM. Because of Katara wanting to one day form a family with Aang, she knows that THRM will do no good for anyone. Too often in the world (yes, including ours) we separate ourselves from other groups of people and label them as "others," an unfortunate side effect of human's natural tendency to collectivism, which is not a bad thing. Nevertheless, in a changing world, behaviors that have served us well in the past can turn their backs on us. With wars being waged around the war, it can be too easy to isolate ourselves from other groups. By letting individuals on all sides connect with each other, we can see that not all members of that certain group are bad.
The last social topic I ever thought that A:TLA would touch upon is that of cultural appropriation. Despite the Yu Dao Avatar Aang Fan Club's sincere attempt at reviving the Air Nomad culture, Aang is infuriated at their (unknowing) lack of respect. I find discussions on cultural appropriation to be quite sticky and headache-inducing at times because of many individual agents trying to define the term - where is the line crossed from cultural appreciation to appropriation? When in time does wearing a costume become appropriation to historical reference, and does it depend on the group? (For example, is a samurai costume a historical costume or a stereotypical reflection of Japanese culture?) Very basically, I think it can be defined as people wearing costumes that superficially display a certain culture, especially sacred garments, in a way that contributes to the objectification of the attire and that culture.
People try to tack on other aspects to the definition, but this is what we will stick with right now because this is a topic that deserves its own post. Not only does Aang have to deal with children appropriating the sacredness of his culture, but he has to, again, face the reality that his people are gone. While his feelings were probably justified, the way he went about scolding them was not. All too often in real life, I see people shaming others who engage in cultural appropriation (think Halloween). Realistically, the people who wear "geisha" costumes or dress as an "Indian chief" do not realize the impact of dressing as these characters. It is important to try to patiently educate them on why what they are doing is potentially harmful. Of course, Katara is able to sympathize with the Avatar Aang Fan Club. The formation of the Air Acolytes is a good compromise in this situation, but I doubt it could be employed in the real world for several reasons. What were some of your thoughts about this story? Which themes have you noticed in this that are also seen in A:TLA and Korra?