Avatar: The Last Airbender

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Nickelodeon

2005-2008

Creators: Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko

Starring: Zach Tyler, Mae Whitman, Jack De Sena, Dante Basco, Jessie Flower, and Mako

Rating: TV-Y7

Grade: 4.5/5

Water, Earth, Fire, Air. Long ago the four nations lived in harmony, then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Dun dun duuuuuuuuun.

Let’s queer a TV show!

Because this is a TV show, there’s a lot more material to cover. I’m going to do my best to get to everything, but I’m mostly going to look at the characters. Please add comments with anything I’ve missed. I know there are some rabid Avatar fans out there, so have at it.

Here are the three queer big ones:

Aang. The two-part pilot really gives him a nice queer foundation. 

Not only is he the one and only Avatar, he’s also an Airbender, an essentially extinct population wiped out by a mass genocide led by the fire nation one hundred years ago. He is literally the last of his kind. He is completely unique in this world, which he would be any way if he were just the Avatar, but his Air Nation heritage puts him over the edge for intersectionality. Being the Avatar might not seem like it is a queer position, but it totally is. He’s completely outside of the norm (single-element benders). What’s counter-intuitive here is that his queerness is celebrated, even worshiped because his queerness makes him more powerful than other benders. Aang is essentially this world’s version of a superhero. I have a theory that all superheroes are queer in some way. Superheroes are a utopian version of queerness where, for the most part, their differences and deviations from the norm are widely celebrated because they use those powers (special skills, whatever) to help normative people and better society through their queerness. Cool, right?

Back to Avatar. We also hear Aang say things like, “I never asked to be the Avatar.” Aang just wanted to be a “normal kid” like the other Airbenders he grew up with. Sound familiar? A lot of the first season is dedicated to Aang learning about being an Avatar and embracing his true identity in order to reach his full Avatar potential to take down the Fire Lord and save the world! That’s a queer coming of age story if I’ve ever heard one.

Next there’s Zuko. By far my favorite character. 

His journey throughout the series is a beautifully crafted arc of the redeemed anti-hero with lots of wrong turns and revelations along the way. His backstory is rich and complex. Let’s look at that for a sec. When we meet Zuko, he’s the epitome of the angry young man.  The notorious banished prince wears his public shame one his face in the burn scar he got from the duel (Agni Kai) he lost against his father. Zuko gets exiled with his Uncle Iroh (who also has a ton of queer potential), the sage zen master. 

Who else gets banished for standing up to their parents and losing? That’s right. Queer kids.

Finally, there’s Toph. Her queerness is far more obvious. She’s blind. She’s differently abled. She’s also crazy feminist. She gives zero fucks. And she has SO MUCH AGENCY. Gotta love a girl with agency. I mean, we do meet her as The Blind Bandit in a bender version of a cage fight. She’s seriously so badass. 

Did I even mention that (Spoilers!) she’s the first person to figure out metal bending!?! You go, girl. What’s cool about Toph and her queerness is that her blindness is what makes her better at Earthbending than anyone else. The whole thing where she can see through Earthbending is incredibly empowering. And this is a thing that can actually happen in real life! (Not the Earthbending part, obviously. I wish.) There’s this guy, Daniel Kish (nickname batman) who is a blind man who can ride a bike because he taught himself how to echolocate! Listen to the podcast about him. It is mind-boggling. The podcast talks about this a lot, and I think Avatar was trying to get at this too: blindness and differently-ablednesses are societal constructs. People who are blind can adapt to the world around them and their inability to see but they usually do not because their ability status immediately positions them as lesser than those of us who are able-bodied. We are all conditioned to help a blind person cross the street because we believe that they cannot do so safely without our help. Daniel Kish definitely does not need help crossing the street. And Toph does not need protection (unless she hurts her feet somehow). Avatar provides a fresh take on how we perceive and treat people who are differently-abled. It’s about time.

I also wanted to give a quick shout-out to the Kyoshi Warriors. 

We meet them really early on in the first season and they immediately challenge Sokka’s/the audiences’ preconceived gender roles. Avatar Kyoshi is also pretty cool. I can’t remember if she’s the only female avatar who comes up before Korra. Whatever, female avatars are awesome!

MVQ: Gotta go for a tie between Zuko and Uncle Iroh. They’re the perfect pair.

OTP: I always really wanted Katara and Azula to get together. Kind of a weird one but I’m gonna go with it.

Favorite moment:  Ugh there are so many! I’m gonna say my favourite episode instead. “Zuko Alone,” Book 2, Chapter 7. It’s a really important episode for Zuko’s arc and we learn about his mother and a huge chunk of his backstory. Also, the animation on this one is gorgeous!