Previously in this series, I have discussed the subject of war in
Avatar: The Last Airbender. In this post, I'd like to discuss the larger context of the war and how it was handled as a political situation in the show, making it truer to life and more interesting.
At first blush, politics might seem like the polar opposite of what good fiction is made of. All good fiction is about truth, genuine emotion and plausible events. Fiction is the point of the knife where the soul is tested and shows its true mettle... or the lack of it. Politics, on the other hand, is disingenuous and dishonest, all about mouthing insincere slogans that don't mean anything while grubbing for self-gain. Politics, it seems, is about avoiding responsibility, playing it safe and not doing anything meaningful.
So how can a story like Avatar be a political tale? Can it even be a good story if (as I believe) so much of it is about politics? For that, I will talk a little about what I think politics is, before I move onto the role of politics at Ba Sing Se, in the Fire Nation, and for the world at large.
( Reasons I Love Avatar 4, Part 1 (in which the Earth Kingdom kind of sucks) )
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