tbt to when the atla comic discussed cultural appropriation and absolutely nailed it
But that wasn’t the final word that the book gave on the
subject.
To present that scene without further commentary goes
against the entire point that Avatar: The Promise was making.
Consider: you’re looking at a comic written
by a Chinese-American author (Gene Luen Yang), drawn by two Japanese women (Studio
Gurihiru) that primarily illustrate American books, based on an American
cartoon that was done in a style reminiscent of Japanese anime (which in turn
can be partly traced back to American cartoons), helmed by two Caucasian Americans (Bryan
Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino), who drew heavily from Inuit, Japanese,
Chinese, and Tibetan cultures for inspiration.
The Promise was about Aang trying to clean up the mess left
when cultures that had been traditionally separated ended up being mixed (by
force), with a particular emphasis on the colonies that the Fire Nation had
left in the Earth Kingdom. His initial
instinct was to just try to put things back the way they were and make the Fire
Nation citizens leave, but he ultimately he realized that wasn’t possible,
because he was dealing with actual people and not abstract concepts. There were children raised in two cultures,
people from different cultures in love, people who had never set foot in the
nation they were being told they had to return to in order to make everything
neat and tidy. Aang ultimately rejected
the calls to keep every nation/culture separate and instead created Republic
City, where people could share and mix their cultures.
As for the Air Nomad Fan Club?
There are absolutely jackasses out there making a mockery of
other cultures, or who want to just exploit a culture for profit, discarding it like gum that’s lost its flavor when they can’t get any more money out of it. But when you go beyond condemning that and decide that only the
most dominant cultures can be shared, appreciated, reinterpreted, and spread,
then you effectively hand a death sentence to all other cultures.
Cultural exchange and expansion should be made
with respect, empathy, and genuineness, yes, but it cannot be simply shut down point blank. Genuine appreciation and interest needs to be accepted and guided in a positive direction. The point of
The Promise was ultimately that people cannot be neatly put into boxes and told
to stick to their own nation and culture.
They will make friends, they will fall in love, and cultures will mix,
change, and adapt. That’s human nature.
(The OP did touch on some of this in a later post, but it’s worth expanding on)
Avatar: The Last Airbender has three central characters: Aang, Zuko, and Katara. These three characters share a lot of parallels and connections, and we see each of them interact, develop, and grow during the course of the series.
With that said, Katara and Zuko are two very different, but at the same time very similar characters. And, just like with Aang and Zuko in my previous meta, we can look at the parallels between them to see how exactly the thematic parallels between these two characters play out. And, just like last time, I won’t look all the parallels (like this one), since not all the parallels are of thematic significance but, I will look at the really important ones that help tie them together.
That said, I will be doing something a little different this time around. While I’ll mostly be focusing on Katara and Zuko, I’ll bring in a couple of the parallels between Aang and Zuko as well since Katara kind of helps bridge these two characters, and because so much of the Katara/Zuko parallels are parallels between the narrative three and actually help to better develop both Katara and Zuko’s respective story arcs. Thus, it is my hope that. by the end of the meta, both the readers of this meta and myself will have a better understanding of just how this dynamic works.
Stop talking and start doing: My Fallout Shelter for my Tumblr blog 