Avatar the Last Airbender: The Best fictional World building

When talking about movies, T.V. shows and pretty much any story based medium, world building is the general term for explaining what exists in that story outside of the story itself. Some stories don't need much world building, some need a lot, But very few are as good and expansive as the universe of Avatar the Last Airbender. An example of anther of these massive universe building ficional works Star Wars. In 1977 there was no Sci-Fi movie on the scale of star wars except maybe 2001 A Space Odyssey, which was still grounded in the idea that it was the future of our own world. In the opening title crawl of A New Hope, it is established that this is an entirely different galaxy with different species, planets and political structure than our own. In the Star Wars galaxy there are eleven movies, and a handful of T.V. Shows. Also in the Star Wars universe there is what is called the “Legends” a non-canon collection of stories. These Stories made by star wars fans expands over twenty thousand years of Star Wars history. The expansiveness of the galaxy that was created in just a few movies, and shows is phenomenal since all of the history in legends goes off of the canon in the shows and movies. Making a good world in a fictional story is not always necessary, some stories only work because they are small and fit in our own world. Some movies have a base in our own world but with a few major changes, typically Sci-Fi Movies will use our own world and change it like Blade Runner and 2001. Depending on what changes on our own world qualifies as world building. Phenomenal world building is when a world allows for almost endless movies and T.V. shows to be able to be made out of the world that has been created. There are several fictional worlds that exist that could be considered the best and most expansive, but in my mind, nothing can beat the simplistic but deep world of Avatar the Last Airbender.

The famous intro of the show that sets up the whole show and plot is just fifty four words and a few shots. This intro sets up, bending, the fire nation attack, the avatar, reincarnation, Aang, and his mission to save the world. If you look at what is being shown and what's being said it purposely sets up the basics of the world and then goes to the events. Simply saying the elements while showing someone bend them is a very simple introduction. To Compare a good and a bad example of that kind of introduction. Take Episode 1 and episode 4 of star wars, episode 4 was the first to be released in 1977 and the force is introduced. In a meeting one of the officers says something about the ancient ways that lord vader still follows, in the same scene he force chokes him, displaying that the ancient ways can allow you to do things from a distance with your hands. In phantom menace the force is never really explained like that and in the opening sequence Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon use the force in multiple ways. It is never established who can use the force or what it does, since in that sequence they use force speed and that ability is never used again in the movies. If you don’t know what the force is and you watch the phantom menace you would be a little confused. Not with this intro, which always plays before anything happens in the episode. From there it shows a map of the world we are being introduced to, with each nation colored differently. Later in the show we are told more about the map, but because we see it in the intro so many times we are subconsciously familiar with it. From there they start into the events of the show, the fire nation attacking with their large grand army. Then when they introduce the avatar they do it very carefully, saying that only the avatar can control all four elements and shows Roku bending each of them, and they say the world is waiting for a new Avatar, after the last one vanished. This is probably the most subtle line in the intro, it implies that once an avatar is gone a new one appears. Without saying directly that there is a reincarnation process and relating it better to the events of the show, which has the flow of the intro better. There is a different intro for the first episode because we haven’t met aang. If you want to write your own world and take the world down to the bare essentials, Avatar the Last Airbender has different political background, history, sub bending types, wars, and genocides. They just introduce, bending, the evil fire nation, and the avatar that's all it needs.

What makes the world of Avatar so rich is how it relates to our own world indirectly. In school talking about the holocaust is always seen as an adult topic, but when school got to talking about the holocuast I was already familiar with the concept of one race wanting to take over the world, control the world government, and is willing to kill an entire race for that pursuit. Three episodes into the animated Nickelodeon show these topics are addressed. Fire lord Sozin is a pretty direct correlation to pretty much any authoritarian leader. I refuse to believe that Roku just giving warnings and not stopping Sozin is not supposed to relate to how Will Chamberlain did the same thing to hitler. Each of the four nations are based on a different real life culture, being Inuits, Chinese, Japanese, and Nepal. The differences between the cultures cause some friction between different characters, and people learn how to accept the different cultures while the antagonists don’t embrace the other cultures and become more radicalized to their own. Zuko only starts his path to be good when Iroh explains to him that to fully master fire bending and lightning redirection he needs to learn and utilize other bending techniques. Teaching kids that learning about other people are different and learning and utilizing their differences is a valuable part of the show and a fantastic part of the world. The world is never to direct to our world so that it no longer appeals to kids but maintaining that connection so it can appeal to the older audience.

Going past the intro and into the show and its sequel show the world has slowly expanded into one where there are different kinds of sub bending and a deep 10,000 year history of avatars. That has expanded the one time period in the world to a long and complicated history that can be tapped for future shows and movies. Not only do the avatars provide the deep world of Avatar but the culture as well. There's a story in the universe of Avatar about an Airbender who was raised to be an air nomad, but rejected the lifestyle so she ran to the earth kingdom, and changed her air nomad tattoos into snakes. This is the story of a past avatars mom, which is something that most other universes can’t do, making me want to watch a show based on the main characters' past lives, mother. With the recent announcement that the original creators are going to make more movies, shows and books with nickelodeon for years in the future, thousands of people are excited about the dozens of different shows that could come out of this. From a writer's perspective this massive expansive universe lasting tens of thousands of years, this world that has been created is so far out for most people and me for a long time to imagine creating a similar world.

With the two existing shows and more along the way, one question that has come to light with the future of avatar studios is Animated Vs. Live action. Since Disney started doing live action remakes that pretty much contain the same scenes as the original. Now any animated show or movie has to go under the Live action remake question. In the case of Avatar the last airbender there's already been a movie and a show is in pre-production to be a netflix original. The issue that comes with live action is the uncanny valley. An uncanny valley is when something looks very close to real but not quite so it just feels wrong, even when most people can’t tell what's wrong. In animation there is none of that, because clearly your brain isn’t telling you it looks fake, or wrong because it's animated, it obviously isn't real. The Avatar the last Airbender movie, directed by M. Night Shyamalan wanted to make the bending be more difficult because he felt it would be more realistic that most or all of the characters were not expert benders. While basically everything in the movie was flawed in some way, from the casting, to the dialogue, to the editing, the drastic decrease in bending action killed the movie more than anything. With the live action netflix show still going and the original creators of the show leaving it to work on avatar studios, I personally believe that live action shows purely because of the nature of bending and the grand scale of the action in both Avatar the last Airbender and its Sequel show The legend of Korra the chances that every fight scene and the bending will look good in every shot. Animation allows for a more unique and fantastical visual experience. Even if many people will not watch the shows or movies because of the “Childish” Animation. With the next project coming fast out of avatar studios I hope that the show handles all its potential and it gets the support it deserves.