It's been a while seen I watched the show, but the guru is the most egregious example iirc. It also leans heavily into "oriental mysticism" which in and of itself is gonna be difficult starting point, especially without robust connection to the cultures/religions/mythologies. In AATL, there is a bit of colonial apologia in the fact that aang is unwilling to kill the fascist strongman. I know its a kid's show but look at the monk gyatzo scene. If you are telling a story, even to kids, about the horrors of imperialism you can't shy away from killing the fucking hitler-analogue especially when there has been no apprehension for Aang to ostensibly kill a ton of people throughout the show. IMO korra is much much worse in this regard though. At least aatl doesn't explicitly apologize for fascism.
Absolutely, the politics of korra is utter dog shit. Somehow they managed to fuck up almost every political theme they were exploring throughout the show. Couldn't even get the gimme that is "fascism bad" lmao.
My interpretation of Aang not killing Ozai is that he wants to end the war on his own terms and in a way that aligns with the teachings of the air nomads. I haven't seen the show in years but I don't remember Aang having a body count, though he arguably should considering all the people he throws around.
idk I guess after Steven Universe, I'm willing to give ATLA more leeway for its ending because I don't think it's nearly as apologetic towards fascists.
Steven Universe is not as story about fascism, it was never meant to be a story about fascism. The gems are explicitly stated to be non-organic aliens with a perpendicular relationship with and understanding of the universe. They are so incredibly naive that all it takes is one human child in the right place to utterly break their society. That premise has no use as an allegory for fascism, and it was never sold as such.
It's a story about familial estrangement, the expectations we put on ourselves, and learning to love oneself; it just happens to have a space opera back-drop.
They colonized entire galaxies though. Complete with gem slavery, a militarized society, live experiments, and (likely) genocides.
I agree that the show portrays the diamonds as an analog to an abusive family, but I think it really fumbled it by trying to have it both ways. I mean, you can't make the 3 diamonds be Steven's estranged sister-moms and turbo Hitler if you want an ending where their relationships get repaired. Did they ever even address the gigantic trillion-gem mutant they created in the Earth's core?
Gems are von Neumann born into their roles -- yes, they did all those horrible things, but they did them thinking of themselves as tools for tasks, not people. Even the diamonds though of themselves in terms of the (very privileged) task they were born into. The gems' very existence is so prescribed, the thought to re-examine their roles does not occur to them. It's more speculative fiction than political analogy.
Did they ever even address the gigantic trillion-gem mutant they created in the Earth's core?
haha no, not really. (I think Yellow dimond has a offhand line in Future where she says she wants to try and help the cluster in some way?) I'll admit, i'm pretty apologetic for this show, cus I like it a lot. Cartoon Network really screwed them over, cutting them off from new seasons after freaking out over the gay coded Ruby/Sapphire wedding. There was supposed to be a whole season spent on homeworld, fleshing things out more. They realized the mistake after the finale, and hurriedly green-lit the Future series. But by that point a lot of material had died on the cutting room floor.
I guess it doesn't matter to me that the diamonds bought into their own propaganda - they still did what they did and for thousands of years. It's unbelievable that they went from diamond supremacists to cosmic Jesuses within like a week of meeting Steven. Or at all, tbh. Bismuth was right to shatter them.
And I like the show too! It's why I was so upset that all the political intrigue got abruptly dropped without any resolution. The invasions, the rebellion, the collateral damages, gem hierarchies, and fusion discrimination... Steve just had to chat with some giant women for a bit to solve everything. It felt insulting ngl
It's been a while seen I watched the show, but the guru is the most egregious example iirc. It also leans heavily into "oriental mysticism" which in and of itself is gonna be difficult starting point, especially without robust connection to the cultures/religions/mythologies. In AATL, there is a bit of colonial apologia in the fact that aang is unwilling to kill the fascist strongman. I know its a kid's show but look at the monk gyatzo scene. If you are telling a story, even to kids, about the horrors of imperialism you can't shy away from killing the fucking hitler-analogue especially when there has been no apprehension for Aang to ostensibly kill a ton of people throughout the show. IMO korra is much much worse in this regard though. At least aatl doesn't explicitly apologize for fascism.
Korra doing the both sides thing was fucking intolerable
Absolutely, the politics of korra is utter dog shit. Somehow they managed to fuck up almost every political theme they were exploring throughout the show. Couldn't even get the gimme that is "fascism bad" lmao.
Korra even makes a reference to that shitty "Escape from camp 14" North Korea expose that turned out to be largely made up
My interpretation of Aang not killing Ozai is that he wants to end the war on his own terms and in a way that aligns with the teachings of the air nomads. I haven't seen the show in years but I don't remember Aang having a body count, though he arguably should considering all the people he throws around.
idk I guess after Steven Universe, I'm willing to give ATLA more leeway for its ending because I don't think it's nearly as apologetic towards fascists.
Steven Universe is not as story about fascism, it was never meant to be a story about fascism. The gems are explicitly stated to be non-organic aliens with a perpendicular relationship with and understanding of the universe. They are so incredibly naive that all it takes is one human child in the right place to utterly break their society. That premise has no use as an allegory for fascism, and it was never sold as such.
It's a story about familial estrangement, the expectations we put on ourselves, and learning to love oneself; it just happens to have a space opera back-drop.
They colonized entire galaxies though. Complete with gem slavery, a militarized society, live experiments, and (likely) genocides.
I agree that the show portrays the diamonds as an analog to an abusive family, but I think it really fumbled it by trying to have it both ways. I mean, you can't make the 3 diamonds be Steven's estranged sister-moms and turbo Hitler if you want an ending where their relationships get repaired. Did they ever even address the gigantic trillion-gem mutant they created in the Earth's core?
Gems are von Neumann born into their roles -- yes, they did all those horrible things, but they did them thinking of themselves as tools for tasks, not people. Even the diamonds though of themselves in terms of the (very privileged) task they were born into. The gems' very existence is so prescribed, the thought to re-examine their roles does not occur to them. It's more speculative fiction than political analogy.
haha no, not really. (I think Yellow dimond has a offhand line in Future where she says she wants to try and help the cluster in some way?) I'll admit, i'm pretty apologetic for this show, cus I like it a lot. Cartoon Network really screwed them over, cutting them off from new seasons after freaking out over the gay coded Ruby/Sapphire wedding. There was supposed to be a whole season spent on homeworld, fleshing things out more. They realized the mistake after the finale, and hurriedly green-lit the Future series. But by that point a lot of material had died on the cutting room floor.
I guess it doesn't matter to me that the diamonds bought into their own propaganda - they still did what they did and for thousands of years. It's unbelievable that they went from diamond supremacists to cosmic Jesuses within like a week of meeting Steven. Or at all, tbh. Bismuth was right to shatter them.
And I like the show too! It's why I was so upset that all the political intrigue got abruptly dropped without any resolution. The invasions, the rebellion, the collateral damages, gem hierarchies, and fusion discrimination... Steve just had to chat with some giant women for a bit to solve everything. It felt insulting ngl