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

[ljwrites]

In Part 1 of this essay on Avatar: The Last Airbender as a political story, I discussed attempts to resolve the crisis of a worldwide war unilaterally, from the Earth Kingdom side. In that part and Part 2 I talked about the reasons why the attempt failed, and indeed that maybe it was best that it failed--because the solution had to come from inside the Fire Nation. Until a viable alternative rulership presented itself, outside intervention might have done more harm than good. Then I said that such an alternative existed in the Fire Nation due to the history of anti-war dissent starting from Roku onwards, and that the internal movement to end the war found its focus and leadership with Prince Zuko, both Sozin's and Roku's descendant, finding his conscience and his destiny.

 
So all the pieces are in place, and the goal is clear: Zuko would become the new Firelord, replacing his father and vanquishing his sister. He would then end the war and bring peace. His uncle and his Order of the White Lotus cohorts would retake the city of Ba Sing Se, something crucial to stabilizing Zuko's rule. Dissidents to the new Firelord holed up in the world's greatest fortress would be a headache and a nightmare for Zuko, and risked splitting his nation apart. And most crucially, the Avatar Aang would neutralize the current Firelord Ozai.

 

But why did it have to be that way? Once Zuko realized his father was wrong, couldn't he have just done away with the Firelord while he had no bending powers during the day of the invasion? For that matter, why did Iroh refuse to fight his brother in "Sozin's Comet, Part 2: The Old Masters?" Why did the means matter, when they clearly needed to dispatch of a megalomaniac tyrant and restore peace?

 

 My argument that the means did, in fact, matter if the war was going to end in real peace and justice, and not simply sow the seeds of another war down the line. The regime change couldn't simply be business as usual if it was to achieve its true aim. And in order to be above mere partisanship, the coup de grâce had to be struck by the Avatar as the embodiment of the common good.

 

"Only the Avatar Can Stop Them." Why?


He will save the world with the power of cute.

 

 At the beginning of every episode of the show, we are reminded that the Avatar is the only one who can end the war. That's a statement worth thinking about. What does it actually mean? Katara and those who long for peace seem to pin all their ultimate hopes on the Avatar, while the Fire Nation through Zuko, Zhao, and Azula pursue him with a single-minded determination. Why is there such a belief, on both sides, that only the Avatar can stop the war?

 

 Maybe it's because the Avatar is so powerful, and is the only one who could defeat the Firelord physically. Certainly that's true to some extent; the Avatar is the only one who can wield all four elements, and in the Avatar State wields power beyond that of any mortal. This bending prowess is a part of the reason why the Avatar is the only one who can stop the war.

 

 And yet, powerful as they may be, each Avatar is only one man or woman, and can only be in one place at a time. When situations are happening all at once, the Avatar is going to need help. So obviously it's not only the Avatar alone who can stop the Fire Nation's quest for world domination, though he will play a pivotal role. What is this crucial role, then?

 

 One thing the Avatar does is inspire hope in an otherwise hopeless situation. Katara was animated by that hope from the beginning, and that hope became her (and other characters') driving motivation. Similarly, others around the world were inspired by the Avatar's very existence. That gave them the motivation to fight, and gathered them under the Avatar's banner. Why did the Avatar give people such hope, though? Was it because of his military prowess? As I discussed above, that was probably a part of it. But could that really explain, by itself, why such different people were drawn to the Avatar?

 

 Spirituality can't be left out of the equation, certainly. The Avatar is the living bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds, and so has a direct connection to that other world. This means he can communicate with spirits, and we see Aang communing with them to gain wisdom and insight more than once, including from his past selves. His connection to the spirits, then, and his status as the go-between the worlds, should explain another part of the Avatar's appeal.

 

So far we have might, hope, and spirituality as the reasons only the Avatar could stop the war. The explanation feels incomplete, though. Could it explain, for instance, why Zuko and Iroh both declined to face and kill Ozai when they had their chance? They both insisted that fighting the Firelord was the Avatar's job, not theirs. Why was that? Because of squeamishness? Fear of being labeled a kin-slayer?

 
The morality of the act mattered, as Iroh pointed out in "Sozin's Comet, Part 2: The Old Masters,". He talked about how his killing Ozai would be received, a brother killing a brother for power. And though neither he nor Zuko said as much, a son killing his father for the throne would have been an even tougher sell. If Zuko or Iroh had gained power in such morally questionable ways, there's no question that their legitimacy as rulers would have been seriously questioned. 

 

 
The Trouble With Fratricide: Common Good versus Private Interest

"You see Zuko, killing your dad would be totally awesome if only future historians would understand."

 

Here, then, we run into the question of justice and the common good, a recurring theme in political thought and reality. We see the common good and special interests clash in the Avatar universe as well, with Ba Sing Se and its long policy of ignoring the war, and then the Dai Li's collaboration with the Fire Nation. The same was probably the case with the Fire Nation waging war. The benefits of war tend to be shared by only a few, while the majority either have little to gain or actually much to lose, as we saw with the village in "The Painted Lady." It's why the Fire Nation needed all that propaganda and repression: If the people were following voluntarily, such controls would not have been necessary.

 

The undermining of the common good by private interests has serious consequences. Once there is a widespread view that the political process only works for the private gain of a few at the expense of the public, political cynicism sets in fast. People start thinking that the state is a tool of a few privileged few and they have no stake in it. In these circumstances, working and sacrificing for a community comes to be seen as something suckers do, the naïve people who bought into the rhetoric. The majority, perhaps rightly, conclude that the political process has nothing to offer them and tune out.

 

So it's important not to let private interests overwhelm the common good, but it's not always easy to tell what the common good is. All factions have the tendency to say that their group's interest is also in the interest of the public, and that kind of rhetoric can be very self-serving. The Fire Nation itself, for instance, framed the war of conquest in terms of making the world a better place. So did Long Feng when he justified his repressive policy. And so common good and justice and all the rest become just words, buried under layers of partisan bickering and selfishness, and people become even bigger political cynics.
 

The Fire Nation, in ending the war, also faced this problem. I said in the previous essay that the only true solution to the war could come from the inside, and the possibility of such change existed in the form of an anti-war faction. But even if they took power, how could the new leadership maintain legitimacy while deposing of the old one? Iroh and Zuko could insist until they were blue in the face that they killed Ozai for the greater good, but it's really hard to say something like that and not sound self-serving. Iroh is correct in saying that their actions would not be viewed sympathetically by historians. More immediately (and I think Iroh was putting this point delicately), Zuko's rule would lack legitimacy and that would hamper his ability to govern, and to bring peace. How could either of them persuade a troubled Nation that their act had been for the greater good and not their personal gain?

 
Enter one Avatar. As noted before in Part 2 of this essay, the Avatar is above national divides and therefore beyond factions and private interests. His handling of all four elements is a physical manifestation of that unity.* The Avatar is also connected to the spirit world. In other words, the Avatar's action would not be seen as selfish and exploitative, but universally right--even divine, due to his spiritual qualities. The Avatar, in other words, could act in the common good, and be believed as doing so where almost no one else could.

 

* It's  interesting to note that the Badass Grandpas of the Order of the White Lotus were taking Ba Sing Se back at the same time that Aang is facing Ozai, and the way they fought together combining the different elements achieves an effect very similar to Aang's all-elements battle. Again, the motif is unity, in fighting for a cause that people from different backgrounds and with different interests can agree on. Same goes for Aang's own group. The Avatar wielding all four elements, and working with people of other elements, is the living embodiment of that commonality
 

So Aang, in his position as Avatar and the representative of the common good, was the only one who could end Ozai without tainting the Fire Nation's new leadership. Aside from the fact that he was probably the only one powerful enough to do it, he was also the one who could make it the right thing to do. Because the only interest the Avatar had was the common good. If anyone else killed Ozai, the rancor and resentment that could sow the seeds for another war, including a possible civil war in the Fire Nation. With Aang, there was a chance to make it a lasting peace that everyone could agree to, however grudgingly.

 

When Katara and many others around the world awaited for the Avatar's return, they were hoping for that kind of just and lasting peace, not just the domination of nation or one faction over the Fire Nation. Even if the Earth King had prevailed over the Fire Nation, that would just invite Fire Nation resistance and retribution. If it had been a simple coup by the internal dissenting faction, the Fire Nation could have fallen into civil war and the world could have descended into chaos as Fire Nation garrisons stationed around the world started acting independently. Only when external and internal forces worked together, led by the Avatar in his unique authority as arbiter of the public good, could the peace be widely accepted. This was why the Avatar was the only one who could stop the war for good.

 

That was why it had to be the Avatar, and he managed the task magnificently. Aang not only deposed Ozai, but did it in a way that upheld his own moral principles. His showing mercy to the tyrant became even more proof of the rightness of the Avatar's cause. I also believe it might have been even more effective a way to remove Ozai than killing him, since the Fire Nation alone of all the nations seems to place emphasis on bending powers for their top man. Dead, Ozai could be a martyr for the cause, but alive and languishing in jail without bending, he became a much less potent figure to rally around. Much as Zuko saved his country by finding himself, Aang was the more effective an Avatar because he was true to himself, the humanity that Gyatso and Katara had cherished and nurtured in him.

 

 
Rebuilding the World You Saved: Avatar, and The Avatar, in the Postwar Years

So you just saved the world, kid. And now for the hard part...

 

Of course, the future of the Avatar world is still difficult and uncertain. A hundred years of war would have left many scars, and there will be resentment and calls for revenge. All that land the Fire Nation conquered in the Earth Kingdom will be a huge problem, since there will be both Earth Kingdom claimants and current Fire Nation residents. The Fire Nation and the rest of the world will have to work out some way for it to pay reparations without destroying its economy, and that economy itself will have to adjust to massive changes as the war draws down. An economic downturn could result in a worldwide depression and more violence. And there are so many losses that can never be made up for, the loss of entire cultures like the Air Nomads and the grievous harm down to the Southern Water Tribe, so many lives lost, so many communities ruined. These are all burdens for the new generation, the sins of the fathers.
 

But rebuilding, while hard, is at least possible as the world rallies to the cause of a common good. We have seen the excitement and hope Aang generates as the Avatar, how he was able to bring the war to an end not only because he was powerful in himself, but because people around the world believed in him. The same will hold true after the war as well: Despite their differences, the peoples of the world have a visible symbol and spiritual leader that they believe in, and who can be a rallying point.

 

In some ways that story of rebuilding has already been told on a smaller scale, through the main characters. Zuko's journey from angry jerk victim to a responsible, conscientious young man is the Fire Nation's own story as he leads it towards the future. His friendship with Aang and his group shows that past wrongs can be forgiven, and friendship is possible between former enemies. Aang's diverse group became close friends and allies despite their many differences, rallying to his cause and authority. Not only is that a good microcosm of the world they will make, but it's worth pointing out that the main characters are all elites in some position of leadership. That means their friendship will have direct effect on the way they work together after the war. It's a masterful integration of characters and relationships into the larger story of the world, and both the characters' stories and the stories of the world are ones of hardship and hope.

 

I have said before that Avatar is, at heart, a story about relationships. Politics are simply relationships on a larger scale, all about how we will relate to each other and live together. The political story of Avatar is about the world finding a new way of coexisting, going from strife to harmony, from a rule of strength to a rule of values. With the Avatar leading the way and the nations of the world working together they have a chance for real and lasting peace. Of course changes to the world will bring new challenges, and new problems, but there's hope for resolution as long as people work together. At its best, that is what politics is all about.

 
 

Thank you for reading that monster of an essay. That concludes the fourth essay of the Reasons I Love Avatar series, and ends the main body of the series. I could end it right here, but I'd like to deal with a few more aspects of the Avatar world before I finish this particular series. Call them "miscellaneous notes" or whatever, but just to be grandiose it will be named "World."

 

To that end, the fifth essay will be  was to be about various aspects of the Avatar world that add depth to the story or were just plain interesting, and will not be as organized as the first four. Right now I'm thinking about doing the different cultures in the world as Part 1 of the essay, the Order of the White Lotus and the role of spirituality in Avatar as Part 2 (this one will be highly speculative by necessity), and the relationship of benders and non-benders and how advances in technology affect that balance in Part 3. These plans are not set in stone, though, and I'm very open to suggestions about subjects and their organization.