MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical, sociological* The third and final season of AVATAR presents me with a puzzle of categorization. The entire series falls into a general category I term "juvenile epic fantasy," and though I've encountered a lot of magical fantasies aimed at younger audiences, Tolkien's HOBBIT is one of the few well-known attempts at putting a juvenile spin on epic fantasy. That book then begat the author's more adult take on the same subject matter in LORD OF THE RINGS. AVATAR does not attempt to build a world as rigorous as that of Middle-Earth, but the series does utilize the dominant tropes of epic fantasy, depicting extensive conflicts between armed opponents, usually if not universally willing to fight to the death.
In THE HOBBIT Tolkien does not depict violent death as fulsomely as he does in LORD OF THE RINGS, but death is a reality in Middle-Earth. The creators of AVATAR, however, sought to convey epic fantasy into a cartoon dominantly aimed at older children, and AVATAR dodges that reality by chronicling large-scale violent conflicts between the rival nations of its fantasy-world without showing people die. I speculate that the producers knew that the parental units of their child-audience would have issues with a lot of dead bodies. I don't fault the producers for fine-tuning their product for young sensibilities. But sometimes the elision of death from the AVATAR world brought about some disjointed storytelling.
For instance, it's quite possible, even in juvenile fantasies, to allude to the deaths of major characters that occurred offstage. This seems to be the case with siblings Katara and Sokka, who as early as Season One were said to have lost their mother when agents of the Fire Tribe invaded the Water Tribe. Little is said about the mother's death until an episode in Season Three, wherein Katara gets the chance to find the man who caused her mother's death. This episode flashes back to Katara's childhood, and we see the child witness her mother in her tent, facing off against the Fire Tribe's general. The mother tells little Katara to run get her father. But by the time father and child get back to the tent, both mother and general are simply gone. Evidently the producers not only didn't want to traumatize audiences with even the implication of a dead body, they also weren't willing to imply that the character had been atomized by the general's fire-powers. Yet throughout the episode Katara is always totally certain that her mother is dead, in order to set up the story's conflict as to whether Katara will take vengeance on the villain. To say the least, her decision not to do so seems a foregone conclusion, since approving vengeance would be the wrong lesson to teach children.
Because it's not really feasible for any of the show's four main heroes to kill, even in self-defense, the season's central conflict is weakened. The plot-action set up in Season Two has the Avatar's allies seeking to attack Fire-Lord Ozai, the ruler responsible for his tribe's continued path of conquest, at a time when he and his tribe will be vulnerable. The attack fails, which helps stoke the audience's anticipation for the climax. Only Aang, once he's master all four bending-skills, can possibly counter Ozai at the height of his powers and prevent the world's conquest. But Aang was trained to be a pacifist, and the idea of killing revolts him. Ozai's son Prince Zuko makes his peace with Aang's group in Season Three and even provides the Avatar with the final step in his training. But Zuko himself sees no other way for Aang to triumph without killing. The writers do come up with a feasible way for the main hero to win without wreaking death, but still, the outcome seems somewhat forced. Parenthetically, I'll add that I never thought Ozai came "alive" as a heavy-hitting villain, and that Zuko's sister Azula provided the series with much more lip-smacking menace.
In my review of Season Two, I noted that in the episode "The Guru" Aang's training in a yoga-like discipline was interrupted by his need to rescue his friends, much like a similar episode in Luke Skywalker's career during the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK movie. I wondered if the abortive training would have any more consequences to the hero's overall mission than it did for Luke in RETURN OF THE JEDI, and the short answer is, no, it does not. One episode, though, provides a minor rationale to justify Aang's course of action, as a mystic forbear instructs Aang that it's his duty to forego spiritual enlightenment in order to save the world. This works out pretty well for Aang, who has no real desire to be an anchorite, and does end up "getting the girl" as a reward for his salvific act.
For that matter, the series concludes with Sokka getting a girl as well, though Toph, the late entrant to the group, really has no satisfying arc to end her adventure. I don't really think that any of the disjointed storytelling reduces the overall entertainment value, though. Interestingly, though I've suggested some drawbacks to the juvenile mode of epic fantasy, AVATAR as a whole viewing experience excels both in character-moments and in the choreography of both individual "bending-battles" and large-scale spectacle. Frankly, I cannot think of another animated TV show that even touches AVATAR in terms of action, with the exception of the 1990s BATMAN cartoon. I was occasionally frustrated by how often the producers felt it necessary to work in "comedy episodes" to palliate any downer-vibes from the heavier drama-episodes. But this arguable failing was certainly not one limited to juvenile shows, since I've frequently observed the same pattern in fantasy-shows aimed at adults, such as both XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. Lastly, as for episodes with a high level of mythic discourse, only "The Firebending Masters" scored this time.
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