The animated Nickelodeon show, Avatar: The Last Airbender is about a lot of things, but first and foremost it is about genocide. Like all great fantasy, Avatar: The Last Airbender sounds ludicrously complicated from the outside and makes perfect sense on the inside. The opening credits for the show get across a very complex idea in a perfectly simple manner: they show people manipulating water, fire, air and earth, and go on to say that people who were able to manipulate these elements lived in different nations who lived in relative peace. This peace was encouraged by a person who could manipulate all four elements, known as the Avatar. A hundred years prior to the TV show, the Avatar, a generational spirit who changes between elements every lifetime, disappears and the Fire Nation attacks, changing everything.
If that sounds like a lot, don’t worry: it’s all handled in the first minute of the show. It then zooms a hundred years into the present, where the show deals with its protagonist, the young, new avatar Aang, and his friends. Aang has been, essentially, in an ageless coma for these hundred years, and the Fire Nation has moved forward with its war on the three other nations in the world, taking advantage of the imbalance. Like many fantasy stories, the world of Avatar depends greatly on a single individual. Aang has the ability to enter a state of great physical power, known simply as the Avatar State, where his eyes glow and he gains the strength of generations past. His ability to enter this state is dependent on his knowledge of the other forms of material manipulation, known as bending, each of which resemble a form of martial arts (the entire world of Avatar is heavily indebted to Asian and Inuit cultures). The show’s greatest trick is its closed loop: its three seasons are dedicated to Aang learning each form, as well as understanding each culture, all with the stated goal of defeating the Fire Nation’s Army. Everything is with purpose. The show’s second greatest trick was to show its stakes by announcing that Aang’s entire people had been wiped out when he vanished.
The scenes of Aang finding his childhood home strewn with the bones of his former friends and teachers are quiet and disturbing, to say the least. The show repeatedly emphasizes that he is, in fact, the last airbender, the sole survivor of vicious murders he survived by chance. How does he compensate? It’s tough for any kid to do that, but Aang does the best he can by embracing the fact that he has a concrete mission in life — to defeat the Fire Nation — and by taking on a new family, a brother and sister he befriend, siblings from the Water Tribe named Sokka and Katara. They offer to take him around the world to perfect his skills, and the journey straight out of Joseph Campbell is born.
Aang and his friends face many adventures and monsters and enemies, all of them bright and colorful and dangerous. But one of the most interesting challenges Aang faces is one without a clearly defined face, one of trust and self-confidence. Early on, the three run into an adult friend from their tribe, Bato. Left out of this culture, Aang starts to feel excluded, no matter how unintentional the feeling. As Aang is a person of singular importance in this world, he also separately receives documents revealing a crucial location for the now-renewed war efforts. The location would mean Sokka and Katara would reunite with their biological family, and due to Aang’s fear of loneliness he lies about the map. The truth comes out, and feeling are hurt worse than ever before.
On one level, this sounds like teen drama. On another, though, it’s a crucial understanding of how to operate in a small company. An office culture is crucial, as is a recognition that other cultures will seep into your office. Shared stories and experiences are bound to pop up, these can strengthen bonds and are to be encouraged. However, it’s equally important to recognize that other cultures can alienate as easily they can provide comfort, and the responsibility is on those who are already comfortable to look out for everyone else lest the problem spiral into poor communication.
Katara, Sokka and their friend eventually come across a lone wolf, hurt from an attack and separated from his pack. They start to share stories of their own isolation, this leads them to realize their poor choice of words around Aang. They return to the young boy destined to save the world and help him get on his feet. For his part, Aang comes to realize that his differences might separate him, but the bonds of friendship are greater than that. Team Avatar, truly a team once more, goes on to save the world.