So that one thing

[jlh]

I know this is, for many, a pointless request to make of an SF-F or action/adventure genre canon, but I'm not a genre fan, so I feel okay pushing for the next level. This isn't a diss on Avatar by any means, just something that felt missing, that occurred to me after a few days of thinking about the finale.

Comments

[sistermagpie]

Exactly--It really seems like with the boys they just automatically thought okay, they need male role models. And then for Katara when she wanted a master they went with Katara having to fight for it because it's a guy who doesn't think girls should fight.

Her female master, as you pointed out, is a total dark figure. Not that Katara doesn't follow her at all--in SR she's bloodbending (and gee, how female is that with the blood bending once a month...).

But it seems like they totally went with the structure that mother/female=early life and father/male=adolescence, doesn't it? Zuko and Katara and Sokka's mothers all sacrificed for them when they were little kids so that they could grow up so they were gone by the time they were teenagers. I wouldn't be surprised if that's partly the reason for it, that they're unthinkingly associating female guidance with younger life, but of course for girls especially that's just not the case.

Ironically, one of the only hints we get of that is that when Azula is going crazy and is left alone it's her mother she hallucinates coming to give her advice. (Beginning with a very female opening at a female moment: What a shame. You always had such beautiful hair.)

I know the writers talked about Azula being crazy because of her mother, but I wonder if that relationship is worth exploring deeper...

[sistermagpie]

I know they were asked about her in the interview at the end of the book and that's where I read it...now I'm trying to find the exact quote...

Q: Is Azula really as evil as she seems? Or is there more to her?

M: As with all the Avatar characters, even Azula has a softer side, though it’s buried very deep. As “The Beach” and “Sozin’s Comet” showed, she has a lot of unresolved issues with her mother. She really feels that her mother didn’t love her as much as Zuko, and this drives her crazy, literally.

B: There are obviously some truly evil people in the world, but in the case of Azula, her repressed emotions and jealousies corroded her spirit and made her become that way. It is possible that she could have turned out better in a healthier environment, but growing up in the royal family of a nation seeking world domination proved to exacerbate her problems. But Zuko and Katara spared her life, and who knows, she might have a chance to heal.