Comments | ljlee: Reasons I Love Avatar 4: Politics (Part 2 of 3)

ljlee

Reasons I Love Avatar 4: Politics (Part 2 of 3)

Apr 30, 2011 12:32

Part 1 of this essay on Avatar as a political story talked mainly about the Earth Kingdom and its political attempts to end the war, and the root causes of that failure. Here in Part 2 I will discuss another effort to end the war unilaterally from the outside, specifically the coalition invasion in "The Day of Black Sun." Then I will discuss the ( Read more... )

roku, iroh, reasons i love..., politics, avatar analysis, fire nation, zuko

Comments 9

amanda_violet April 30 2011, 07:51:19 UTC

I think it was necessary not just from a political point of view, but from a story point of view as well for the invasion to fail. If it had all gone well and Aang had successfully defeated the Firelord and everything was wrapped up all nicely ten episodes in... then what? Don't tell me the season ends there ( ... )

ljlee May 1 2011, 06:19:56 UTC

You're absolutely right, that the failure of the invasion was necessary for story and character reasons as well. The brilliance of the writing is that the story reasons and the in-world reasons were all integrated with each other. So from a political point of view, it was a good thing politically that it didn't work out, and it was a good writing decision (more like inevitable, really) from a story and character point of view, as you point out.

I think Zuko and Aang are parallel to each other in their relationship to their situation and free will, as their juxtaposition in "The Storm" shows. Zuko was born a Fire Nation prince but could never quite conform to the mold, while Aang was born the Avatar but didn't want to be one. For Aang it was pretty clear from the start what he was supposed to choose, but not so for Zuko. He labored for most of the show under the illusion that conforming to the external (his father's) ideal was the "good." It took him a while to realize his true path was something entirely different.

anonymous May 2 2011, 19:58:24 UTC

Deuteragonist. It's such a lovely word isn't it? I love all those fancy writer terms for stuff like this. Avatar is really as much Zuko's story as it is Aang's. The key to Zuko's character is that he is a patriot first and foremost, but not at the expense of his fellow nations. Had the invasion succeeded I see the civil war option as the most plausible outcome of that scenario. I really love how the show stresses that there are no shortcuts to success and that destiny and free will are not mutually exclusive concept. I have my own ideas on why Aang had to be the one to kill Ozai (some of which will be in the next chapter of my fic which will be up soon), but it's mainly in line with ( ... )

ljlee May 3 2011, 02:36:56 UTC

I think the true patriot is the one who seeks peaceful coexistence for his country, because that's the only way any country can prosper in the long term and maintain its moral core. That's what Zuko's always been even in his darkest moments, and his complete dedication to his country is one of the reasons I admire the character as much as I do ( ... )

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ljlee August 10 2011, 01:35:33 UTC

I didn't think of how thoroughly devastated Japan and Germany were by the war, silly me. Although I wouldn't be too sure the war is a walk in the park for the Fire Nation either--the centers look fine, sure, but the picture at the peripheries looked pretty bleak (e.g. Painted Lady). If fighting a worldwide war really doesn't make the FN break a sweat, then there's no ending the war--Zuko would be deposed or puppetized quickly and it'll just flare up again ( ... )

emletta February 12 2012, 23:40:59 UTC

Well part two was as stunning as part one ( ... )

ljlee February 13 2012, 13:28:28 UTC

Yeah, the invasion could possibly have been militarily successful with a bigger force, say Ba Sing Se, behind it, but even then I believe it would have been ultimately a political failure without an internal Fire Nation coalition to support anti-war leaders. Worst case scenario, it would have been a military success and political failure touching off even more chaos and bloodshed.

I agree the FN would probably have conscription. To get an idea of how hard it is to get qualified recruits for an all-volunteer army when the citizenry doesn't believe in a war, I highly recommend the Vanity Fair article The Recruiters' War about the struggles of U.S. Marine Corps recruiters. It's really heartbreaking. On the flip side, conscription as you have pointed out is a surefire way to raise domestic resistance to a war with the burdens falling disproportionately on the middle and lower classes. Heck, even in a conscription-based army like Korea's the burden of armed service falls on the middle and lower classes ( ... )

emletta February 15 2012, 06:00:51 UTC

on a side note: I just finished reading your recommendation, the ground on which I stand and I found it breathtaking! any other recommendations for me, because that fic was epically perfect. I will definitely give your fic 'shadow of the dragon king' a go as well ( ... )

ljlee February 15 2012, 11:20:36 UTC

Oh, I recommend everything Amy's written, though The Ground on Which I Stand is particularly good even among her stories. If you like a good exploration into Azula's psyche and don't mind explicit slash I also recommend her Azula/Toph story, You Don't Stop Running 'Til You're Dead. Her whole archive is worth going through, really, though You Don't Stop... isn't in her regular archive ( ... )