THE MESSIANIC AVATAR
This is a sort of “let it off my chest” post. It has been bubbling in my head for a while and I really need to organize my thoughts. There is definitely going to be a future post on this, as I plan on watching the entire Avatar series again, both The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. For now though, this is what is on my mind. Avatar has always been a fascinating series to watch, ignoring all the goofy stuff (Yes I mean Sokka and Bolin) and awesome fight scenes, the world itself is beautiful, the concept of bending, the weird wild life, the geography, and very weird also, the spirit realm. All this comes to a climax in the concept of the avatar, one person called to keep the “balance” and lead the world, both spiritually and in political affairs. The word avatar is gotten from the Sanskrit word avatara, which means “descent”, and is used to describe the descent of a god to earth, and sometimes in human form. I’m sure those who are familiar with the term will know that this is similar but not the same with the Christian concept of incarnation, but for these purposes, I want to use that analogy as they are similar, and what I’m about to describe relates in very familiar ways to my faith. In the world of the avatar, the avatars are the balance between realms and kingdoms, they are above and at the same time apart of the kingdoms they represent, they also balance the physical and spiritual realms, helping both spirits and men alike find peace. I’m sure some of you are already seeing where I’m going. I’m going to relate it to what is true about the Christian faith. Let the magic begin. First of all, Aang didn’t really explore the spirit realm, especially not as much as korra, Aang pretty much stayed on the physical sides of things. Spirits, even though he had encounters with them, weren’t that much of a problem, he dealt with more politics and war. Korra on the other hand, to her credit, had a lot more problems with spirits, probably due to her attitude, and also to the times in which she lived, she dealt with war, but war was often (especially towards the end of the series) intermingled with spiritual matters. Both avatars provide a messianic perspective on their world. Both are, in some sense, messiahs, and they learned the hard way that messiahs are not always liked, and a lot of times they are even despised. Even when they do bring peace, there are those who do not want it. Paradoxically, peace can be hard to accept. And that’s on both sides of the realms, both spirits and men are very stubborn. Avatars are the hinge on which both realms turn, and without them, the realms and kingdoms will fly apart into chaos and death. Here comes the messianic part, for those of you Christians that don’t know, Jesus is messiah, and his example very clearly follows God’s example in the Old Testament. When the old system, “heavens and earth” (government and covenant), or “world” is in decay, he takes a hold of it, destroys it, and after breaking it, puts it back together in a new “heavens and earth” (government and covenant). In this process, there’s reevaluation and judgment. Evil doers are punished and the faithful are rewarded. What I’ve observed is that, whether knowingly or unknowingly, the writers of avatar have chosen to use a very similar pattern, in weirdly similar circumstances and results.
In Aang’s story, after coming out of a "baptism of ice", he saw that the political and social structure of the world had gone nuts, the rise of industrial age technology had created an imbalance of power, one nation was invading the rest, he had to do something, and something he did, something big might I add. As the “Judge” of the nations, he judged the old world as inadequate, its rulers were replaced, starting with his defeat of Fire Lord Ozai, and the natural passing of power of the other nations over time.
He took the old order, and broke it down, there were four nations, now there was a fifth, Republic city was something new, something profound, a sort of micro model of the four nations in harmony as one nation, this is the beginning of the great reassembly, but Aang could not see his vision complete, he died early. His death put a halt to the great reassembly in a new order, and everything began to unravel, this time the stakes were higher, the spirit realm was being affected as well.
Korra was given a world in some serious trouble, it first manifested as chaos from anti bending terrorists in Republic city, but even benders like Zaheer were endangering the order. The problem was deeper than just technology causing imbalance: The people had lost interest in or disrespected the spirit realm, either they wanted it gone, or they seek to manipulate it, by technology or otherwise. Unalaq is the climax of this crisis, actually managing to be an anti-avatar. Korra’s patch management of the problem only made it worse. It was until she realized the old order had to go that she could finish what Aang started, by opening the veil between spirits and men, she has created a new order, a new “heavens and earth” united by the messianic acts of the avatar (sound familiar?). I actually want them to continue the series, if they can, it’ll be interesting to see the avatar in a really high tech setting, and how this new world developed over time, it’s a technologically advanced world with spiritual beings, the storytelling possibilities are endless.
All images gotten from deviantart.com, check the description for the url.