Avatar: The Last Airbender and Philosophy

              As a child, my siblings and I would watch Avatar: The Last Airbender together every single time it showed up on cable TV. Ever since then, I wonder what I would be like if was born in a world where people could bend elements at their will. But growing up since that little age, it’s made me reflect on what influenced that show to be what it is.

The show is mixture of a bunch of different ideologies, observations, and culture. But just for now I will focus on three ideas: the use of the classical elements, the presentation of Taoism, and Buddhism.

The classical elements of nature is the base of this show. Earth, air, fire, water: each element is represented as their own civilization with their own specific styles of fighting and characteristics, with the exception of air as it is portrayed as a dying race. On the last episode of the series, aether (historically seen as the element of stars, space, and heaven) as the fifth element was introduced through a technique called energy-bending. The classical elements were an important topic to the Greek philosophers and Chinese culture, and the concept of the five elements provided a way of life, particularly for the Chinese in the Han dynasty (although the Chinese used wood instead of air and metal instead of aether). Aristotle used an image of the burning log to demonstrate the four tangible elements. Fire rises off, smoke in air rises slower, charcoal falls into the earth, and water bubbles out from the logs. 

Again, there are many influences of certain religions and culture, including Hinduism, but I’m just going to touch on Taoism and Buddhism. Now, the classical elements as a way of life for the Chinese was organized under the principle of The Wu Xing, a discipline closely associated with Taoism. The whole premise of this series is there is the spirit of the Avatar in which reincarnates into a person after the previous Avatar dies. The person who holds the Avatar spirit as a variety of abilities (ability to enter the Avatar state to meditate and talk to previous Avatars) but is called for one purpose: to maintain the peace of the world by learning each bending technique. Through the whole series, we see the main protagonist Avatar Aang develop the ability to bend each element and balance his power, which is physically-demonstrated Wu Xing by feeling the properties of each element, like the earth is solid and resists or that fire is aggressive and destroys. Aang develops this attitude when learning each element, and at the end of series when he has mastered each element, he is left with an attitude that helps his decision-making and way of life.

How the show ties into Buddhism might by now be obvious. If not, well let me explain it to you. You know how I said earlier that the Avatar could reincarnate into different people? That’s mainly why but it goes beyond that. The appearance of Avatar Aang and other Airbender is reminiscent of Tibetan monks. The red and yellow color scheme of clothing is shared, but rather than red being the dominant color, yellow is the dominant color in the show. Other than appearance, Buddhist philosophies of nonviolence and self-restriction are explored through Aang. The main conflict of the last season is Aang’s dissonance on whether he should kill Fire Lord Ozia, and the result is Aang taking his powers away. This is an important tie in with Buddhist philosophy as Buddha said “Though one may conquer a thousand times a thousand men in battle, yet he indeed is the noblest victor who conquers himself.” The concept of self-restriction is shown through the series: in many episode we see Aang meditating and eventually coming to the conclusion that the only way to achieve his full potential is through getting rid of desires (especially his desire to fall in love with one of his companions, Katara). Zen Buddhism, which strong emphasizes self-control and meditation, is explored as theme through the show. But rather to break the zone of life and reach Nirvana, meditation for Aang is used to bolster his focus and power leading up to his final clash with Ozia.

Quiz questions:

1. What are the classical elements?

2. What scenario did Aristotle use to justify four of the five elements?

3. What Taoist principle was used as inspiration for the way of life of each nation? Which Chinese dynasty was notable for its integration into everyday life?

4. Aang’s method of self-control is based on ______ Buddhism.

Discussion questions:

-Do you have a base image or idea that helps you find balance in your life?

-Since the discovery of atoms, the idea of the classical elements has, since then, been dismissed. However, many shows and card game universes base the world revolving around the classical elements. Why do you think that is?

-How do you think you reach your full potential? Do you even know what your full potential is?