Representation in Avatar: The Good and The Bad 

Sorry I’m a little out of focus!!! The wasps were holding me hostage I couldn’t fix it

One thing I think is worth noting is that avatar the last airbender is also not perfect in its representation. It’s so obvious that the show was HEAVILY inspired by hinduism (avatar is literally a Sanskrit word) but in the show there are literally no references to this. Other than the fire bender guy that has the red dot on his head which says a lot. The closest Indian representation was a guy with a red dot on his head lol

"Cultures are dope as fuck" yeah, Saji! They are. Thanks for covering this topic. The blue Avatar series always made me uncomfortable and based on what you've said about the sequel I'm definitely not going to go see it

"They would have fought a lot harder." Like my ancestors didn't do just that. It's obvious James Cameron doesn't know true Lakota history. If he did, he would never have made that statement.

Missed opportunity to make the title “the good, the bad, and the blue”

thank you saji for talking about this and the nuances that come with the avatar (blue aliens) franchise! personally, as a mesoamerican indigenous woman, it's always felt very weird to see people defend James Cameron's films by saying "it actually does more to help indigenous people" or "it's obviously against colonialism" or "there are bigger problems in the native American community than this, get over it". and i know i'm not the only indigenous i know who feels weird about him (James) using native cultures, mashing them together, and using them as "inspiration" for his films about colonialism...and then him also saying that the lakota people would've fought harder if they knew their descendents were committing suicide at the highest rates in the usa. my brother feels the exact same way. he sees the obvious white savior problem the first avatar has and how that does a lot more harm than good. even if it may seem like it's a good thing. and my boyfriend who's native american (u.s region, i'm mexican indigenous) sees the problematic aspects of the movies as well. so, please, if you're not indigenous, don't talk over us or minimize our anger on his movies. listen and try to understand where we're coming from. because i've seen WAY too many non indigenous people talk over us and say that we should "just get over it since james cameron is doing a lot more good to bring attention to out cultures." edit: not to say that the avatar films aren't amazing and beautiful, they are, it's just very uncomfortable to see (as in indigenous person) how james uses native cultures in a fictional movie and doesn't really give those cultures the recognition or at least acknowledge them in a positive sense.

You said it. In terms of cultural rep, Avatar always rubbed me the wrong way because it felt fetishistic and Jake felt like a weird Mary-Sue. And then The Way of Water came along and while I enjoyed recognizing my culture (I'm mixed Māori), because there were elements from other cultures and it was made literally and figuratively more alien for the film, I felt very distanced from it. Moana was kind of similar because it jammed different island cultures into one thing so it didn't feel like true representation.

Love how Saji's video are soo honest and open it's feels very humane

Indigenous people: avatar kinda stole from us Avatar fans: but daddy james is an ally plus he went crazy deep in the sea🥺

Not only was the South Asian influence in ATLA poorly represented, but the sandbenders had some awful stereotyping. They were somewhat based off nomads/bedouins living around the Saharan desert that even had a little bit of middle eastern influences, but they were shown as ruthless, barbaric thieves. Which is interesting, to say the least, when bedouins and SWANAs are often stereotyped as being scary and barbaric.

Something else I find kinda odd is that avatar (the James Cameron one), is quite literally a CARBON copy of Princess mononoke!!! A story about industrialism taking over native land and destroying the environment while a man meets a woman who aids him stopping said issue. Mononoke diverges however in the way that ashitaka isn’t as much of a saviour, he’s more of a bystander than an actual hero

The audacity to say that the Lakota are a dead end society 🙄 James, have you even met a Lakota?? Native culture is alive and well-our ancestors never gave up in preserving our ways.

As someone who is Asian and a huge fan of both shows since childhood, the cons I've noticed on both are: Atla (one of the best western animated series): - western-centric/waterdown perspective of asian and alaskan's socio-politics (centric-lib and libertarian white/kumbaya take on colonialism, imperialism, racism and the "solutions" to solve it esp. in comics. The comics are lowkey cringey romanticized and borderline problematic) - villainization/lack of nuance when it comes to punching-up situations/rebellion against oppressors (ex. villainization on Jet's and Hama's trauma. Portraying their trauma so shallow by making their hate all about a person being a fire nation instead of a fire nation citizen who supports the war and colonialism as the reason.) - Toxic positivity; gaslighting realistically negative emotions - several justified problematic decisions/actions/thoughts because theyre made by MCs - unfair morality-guilting ratio between oppressed and oppressor (ex. you're just as bad as the oppressors for hating them) - colonial mentality of oppressors being the most developed while oppressed nations are struggling/backwater hence the "justification" on Sozin's vision - watering down on Sokka's trauma and hindering the consistency to his character development in favor for him being a comedic device of the show (tbh his skills and his views on women were the only ones that consistently develops, the rest shifts.) - southeast asia and south asian cultures are represented but not much of it's people - portrayal of the middle east culture is pretty stereotypical - centralizing the entirety of asia and indigenous representation into sinosphere (sino-centric under western lenses) - it's spirituality and philosophy is pretty westernized (ex. concept of honor, enlightenment, buddhist monk's priniciples, martial arts philosophy, black-gray-white morality etc) - ironic ableism (hint: painted lady ep) - misrep of qing dynasty's sociopolitics - other indigenous cultures portrayed as mystic bygone civilization - lowkey panning the blame on the victims for suffering the war ( ex. putting earth kingdom's lack of unity and corruption on a hotseat for not being able to help their ppl instead of fire nation's divide and conquer tactic that worsens it, traumatized victims of the war who are rightfully angry are being seen as wrong cuz angry=bad, etc. Meanwhile fire nation citizens who supported the war and are contributing to the imperialism are labeled "innocent" just because theyre not in the front lines, as if we're told to sympathized with them because theyre humanized; a nuance that u barely get towards the victims. The thing is: humanization should not equate to justification on one's character.) - realistic af/close to home portrayal of PoC sociopolitical issues about imperialism, bigotry, privilege, colonialism, and war only to be answered with such unrealistically kumbaya-like solutions under the short sighted lens of privilege white men. And to be honest, it feels disrespectful af. (Ex: the only way to end war is through love and other white-black pov on such serious matters). Avatar (one of the best visually satisfying western movie cuz pandora at night looks mighty fine af👌🏻): - the director did an immersion with the native americans to help him visualize the movie but didnt give them any proper credit and compensation in return - indigenous ppl being portrayed as an alienized "primitive yet mystical creatures" who relied on nothing but spirituality as if indigenous ppl aren't capable of both being spiritual and innovative at the same time. Indigenous ppl have clothes, sturdy architectures, science and technologies too. - oppressor-savior complex - it's spirituality and philosophy is pretty westernized - western-centric/waterdown perspective of the indigenous culture - romanticized socio-politics - the world bldg is beautiful and all but why must always portray indigenous ppl like this? - indigenous cultures are not dead and are still thriving and evolving but the director thinks otherwise. - accessorizing indigenous cultures - what Saji said: pocahontas v2.0

My jaw dropped when I saw the amazing background oh my word :o Also, I was in the IB program too! I wrote my extended essay about cartoons

fellow IB program victim!! i wrote my extended essay on stephen king writing women horribly and being sexist :) also "avatar the least racist" is the best thing i've ever heard

One of the things I hated the most was the white savior complex Jake had and the dumbing down of the Navi people. This idea that only Jake knows what to do to fight the humans and the perceived ignorant resistance of the Navi just makes them seem "dumbed down" and more "primitive" I enjoyed the beginning where it seemed more like the forest Navi were all working together to create battle plans and tactics because they can all do that because they're all intelligent and don't need their pretend-Navi savior boy to come up with intricate and successful ideas because yeah, theyre people and need to be treated as such. One of the things I hate the most is the applied primitive take on cultures or groups that use things other than guns. "See, they are dumb and inferior since they don't even have guns 😏" this movie does a good job of really playing into it, but then trying to kind of back peddle with the "but they won!" Yeah but the main character still treated them as inherently inferior to humans because of the weapons they used.

Your shirt is fucking gorgeous, also I'm literally dumbfounded by how picturesque the scenery behind you is.

You are so much calmer than id be if I found a wasps nest under my chair 😳

Great video Saji!!! The new avatar movie has been driving me crazy it’s so frustrating, kate winslett being the other tribes queen was wack and the two sully sons being played by very white actors was a very weird choice

The thing is James Cameron doesn't even know what he's doing with the Avatar movies. There's a video by Sideways where it explains how James threw half of the stuff & lore away because its to "alien" even though he wanted the Na'vi & Pandora to feel & look "alien". So yeah, it kinda explain the messy nature of the Avatar movies.

If anything, if you are going to incorporate indigenous culture or certain aspects from cultural traditions, I would assume that the directors would have included more people who actually practice those traditions and come from those certain ethnic groups in writing up the film. A simple google search obviously doesn’t do crap. But the one thing that really caught me off guard was the use of the pukana in the Avatar 2 movie. I really don’t want people seeing it as a stereotype for the Maui culture because there’s more to the pukana than just a mere face. Especially when it’s seen practiced by fictional characters, I don’t know it just kinda rubbed off the wrong way. Being Polynesian, there isn’t much correct representation of us anyway when it comes to Hollywood films so I was left torn from feeling like “oh cool at least they incorporated us” and “oh, is that how they really see us?”

Your content is so authentic and I find comfort in that. It’s so nice to see RU-vidrs talking about these kinds of topics in such an honest and non-controversial way.

i'm of the miniconjou band of the lakota nation of the oceti sakowin ('seven council fires' / our preferred identifier over 'sioux', by the way /nm), and i'm really thankful you addressed this and james cameron's statement in particular. what james cameron said about my people is so fucking backwards and incredibly hurtful. especially coming from a public figure like him, it perpetuates widespread misunderstanding of our history and even greater mockery of our struggle, which i feel is all i've experienced my entire life. it is really frustrating to see people completely disregard my feelings/the feelings of indigenous groups asking the public to boycott the film. so thank you for being one of the few non-natives i've seen show respect and consideration towards us.

did we all forget the avatar episode where aang gets upset that people are destroying his home and the other characters just tell him to get over it

I’m apart of the inuit from my mothers side, and when I heard that some of it was inpired by my culture I was really happy, because we don’t see alot of representation that comes from the ‘big world’, but only in our own communities.

ngl got a little jumpscare when you popped on the screen UR BALD.

hearing you talk about the ib program and the extended essay gave me flashbacks oh my god

Love the hair cut, darker colours look great on you! Any colour could look great on you I think a deep blue or purple could look really nice.

IB PROGRAM!! 🤝 hearing the ib program described two years after graduating is surreal

This video is so good! lol thanks saji for being able to put into words why i got the ick from james cameron. and, as a fellow ib survivor, good job on making a cool essay tho !!

He's getting ganged up on by wasps nooooooo

a fellow ib kid! i dropped dp during my first semester of senior year bc of the EE specifically 💀

I still have not seen either of the Avatar (blue ppl) movies and was planning on seeing both soon. After watching this video, I can’t imagine that I would be able to look past any of the concepts you detailed. I’m glad you brought this to light, as it will definitely change my perspective on the film. Incredible video like always Saji

I was also in the IB diploma program back in 2010-2012. I gotta be honest, the whole thing was a blur and I don't fully remember what my essay was about. Something about how music affects emotional regulation. It has also been about 10+ years, so I'll give it that too.

I've always wondered how Avatar (blue people) is supposed to be considered positive representation given the fact that they literally give the Na'vi animalistic characteristics. Like dawg how do you expect to not feel dehumanized when your culture is made into a literal alien species that hisses like cats at potential threats

It's always been weird to me how the main villain plot in Avatar was these WHITE soldiers being "transformed" into indeginous coded characters. They said to blend in with the 'avatars' they need to speak, act and look like them. It just felt weird tbh

Oh my god you did IB too 😭 the collective extended essay trauma brings us together around the world 🤝

to hear the thoughts I’ve been having since CHILDHOOD be put into such perfect and articulate sentences, free from gaslighting by idiots, THANK YOU

Thank you! I knew the blue people avatar movie always felt a off to me but I never knew why, so thank you for putting it into words!

i saw this comment on this TikTok about their cosplay of katara. this creater was black and the commenter had said something along the lines of "katara is white". Katara is very obviously a young indigenous girl. the representation wasn't crude. the portrayal of native tribes will always be jumbled when produced by non indigenous peoples. an amazing show that did a beautiful job of native representation is rez dogs (reservation dogs). the cast the directors producers and even props all of it are done by natives. so all the jokes aren't white man made. they hit right and don't have a "undertone" of prejudice. i haven't seen the newest season since i moved away from my dad and siblings. just feel like my white grandpa would say something if he saw me his native grandaughter watching natives watching natives watch natives on TV. (smoke signals reference). he likes to say things he thinks are funny and i just hafta *°____°* i got way off topic. this was a good video Saji! to whoever read this far thank you? don't forget to like and subscribe to Saji and ring the bell. i know it always makes my day seeing Saji Sharma pop up! Edit: I think i was gonna go on a tangent about how these are characters so if someone wants to cosplay it isn't an ißue but what is an issue is not having more orginal diverse cultural representation in media. that was a mouthful but we figured it out in the end lol. have a good one. Editedit: katara idk where i got Guitara from 😢

i watched avatar 2 and the worst part for me is how they tried to make it look as tho spider saw neytiri as savage in two scenes and though that can add to the story of him possibly turning on them in the future, but even depicting it to the audience that neytiri looks savage feels wrong it feels like they were saying "hey these native people are savage look at these poor skypeople" even though in avatar the skypeople (humans) are literally colonizing them and are the cruel ones, for the wrong audience it pushes a bad stereotype

ONCE I HEARD IB I GOT SO SCARED LMAO. im a sophomore rn and im only doing the ib certificate program bc it has visual arts and i wanna go to an art school 👍

i don’t think custer choking on his own blood after him and his men were effectively molly whopped by the Lakota and their allies was thinking “these guys just aren’t fighting hard enough”

as a (mixed) indigenous person i felt the same abt it

Omg you’re the first creator I’ve seen that did IB too! My EE was a nightmare 💀

Weren't the plant benders also Maori/Aboriginee inspired? That was such a cool way to implement more cultural impulses! AATLA was certainly not *perfect* representation, few things are. But it demonstrates a lot of the most important groundwork one should lay down for good representation: solid research, poc centered in the narrative, wide variation of alignments in the depiction and especially *attention to detail in how the cultures interact!* If the Air Nomads or the Earth Kingdom had been chosen as the villains, that would be horribly uncomfortable considering the history of Japanese imperialism and aggression towards China, and China's oppression towards Tibet. But the creators made sure to pick the Fire Nation, echoing Japan's real world history as an aggressive imperium. This is a vital detail few people mention, but that makes a huge difference! Yet even the Fire Nation is carefully humanized. The war affects the citizens too. Propaganda is shown, and it's explained how public opinion is shaped from an early point in life to fit the requirements of a warring nation. And at the same time, there is a waterbender whose trauma has shaped her into something borderline monstrous. Something some people who grew up with veteran parents or grandparents might recognize. We see plenty of counter examples to her, we understand that her existence does not invalidate the general distribution of power and who we should side with. But we are shown that cruelty is not exclusive to any one culture. Same with propaganda, considering There Is No War In Ba Sing Se. AATLA tells us very clearly that a conflict can have clear sides, while still keeping nuance in play. Which is so incredibly important. Also, AATLA just straight up left out white people, which is an absolute power move because this way no white characters can do problematic shit. I love it tbh.

Omg yes IB was hell and now it is such a blur, thankfully. I felt like most of my teenage years went down the drain. College was awesome and incredibly easy though

I don't understand how u don't have 2mil subs

It’s been great finding this channel, and I’m so excited where you go with your content! Also, you should dye your hair pink!!!!

This was a great video Saji! Also, the end made me giggle! 😂 I, too, am afraid of bees and wasps. I scream like a little girl and get up and run whenever they're around or even slightly near me, so you did a way better job than I would have. No way in hell I could have sat there and finished the video, lol! Go Saji!! And that view is absolutely stunning! Your dad sounds awesome! What a rad Christmas gift! I hope you and your family are having an amazing time!! Finally, I dig your haircut! You look great! Much love! -xoxo t.🖤

First saji sighting of 2023. Truly historic

Nooooo Saji I was in IB too ;_; I feel your pain friend

6:01 thats fucking insane wtf

also the term locs is more accurate than "dreads"

Super interesting topic, I never would have thought I'd see someone compare avatar and ATLA! But I think that it was a great example and very informational! Overall great video!

The way that the Avatar was written always made me feel really uncomfortable how the protagonist just kind of turned into the blue alien species was strange. It also really does feel like a gross oversimplification of many different cultures built up into one heterogenous mess of story telling. It would be great to see a writer do actual research on what they're talking about so they can portray some kind of accuracy in the ethnic group they are portraying.

The way I froze when you said IB, pure trauma

I've been trying to say this. you did it perfectly!

saji is so cute omg

naurr because u know ur dead wrong for having hair in ur thumbnail then just having a full buzz out of nowhere in the video ☠️☠️

"im surrounded by wasps, has this been happening the whole time?" feels so ironic LMFAO, using WASP as an acronym means "white anglo-saxon protestant"

One thing I was really hoping Saji would mention is the blatant copying of atla in the newest movie. There was the whole issue with atla having to rename despite the show releasing four years prior to the movie, plus the atla creators voicing their discomfort at the use of similar plot lines- a fire tribe/subculture attacking others and being fought by their counter water parts.

I sent this video to my friend just because she was also in her school’s IB program and she just subscribed lol. Loved the analysis in this video!

i think in wordbuilding, combining real world cultures is literally the only way to create a new culture, but james cameron’s worldbuilding feels uninspired and too close to real life to feel unique but not close enough to be true representation

nah because i was so excited to see māori rep in the new avatar, but then it took the moana route where it took all the different polynesian and pasifika cultures and combined them all like brooo come onn

This is by far one of my favorite videos of yours

Happy new year saji!!:) hope 2023 treats you well

You look handsome by the way. ☺️ Also, in school my social sciences teacher thought it was a great Idea to watch this instead of something historically accurate 💀

OMG VIDEO ON MY BDAY WOOO HAPPY NEW YEARS BALD SAJI !!

the hair looks good! very cool:) really good points on both, im really frustrated seeing the weird resurgence of blue avatar. im still learning alot abt this kind of knowledge and action and writing, so i can strive to not make the same mistakes. ive also been learning on what shortcomings bending avatar has by, wow how shocking, ACTUALLY listening to the people whose culture was being depicted (Inuit specifically), weep-womp. what that man said was horrible and enraging. on the topic of wasps im not an expert but try bringing water out for them? i heard wasps can recognize faces like bees can, don't smack or swat them, and keep in mind they're just looking for sugar, water and protein. i am working on my own phobia of wasps and staying very very still maybe closing eyes helps me and helps the wasp not get hurt. giving them random names whenever u see them can help too i think? im also not a phobia expert just works for me. i also hope this is new information and im not over explaining bugs to a stranger online. happy new year good luck with all your creative or fun endeavours:)

Finally another person who knows about the IB program, I have to explain it to everyone.

Oh my God, yes, I immediately thought of the Disney Pocahontas movie too when I rewatched the first movie years later!!!

NOOOO NOT THE IB EE. I’m having war flashbacks lmao. I’m about to graduate college and I still think about that experience on a regular basis. On the bright side, IB made me really good at writing, research, and making up convincing bullshit, but it also gave me some really bad study habits that I still haven’t managed to break (and also depression) so idk Edit: mine was philosophy, Hannah Arendt’s “banality of evil” and how that relates to digital misinformation (yes, I was, and still am, a massive nerd). Yours sounds cooler tbh

Hi the IB program ruined my life we were forced to take part starting in sixth grade at my school, no exceptions. I was so extremely stressed I had a mental breakdown by December and did not step foot in a school much again. Thx International Baccalaureate program

The Last Airbender is so fricking legendary, I love it so much! Also, darn you wasps! 🤣

consider doing more video essays similar to this format in the future please!! even if it’s once in a while since ik it takes a lot of research. wishing you a happy new year :) 💗

When Jake tried to mount the big Dragon creature it should've bit his head off for his arrogance. Then we follow the real Protag for rest of the movie, Neytiri.

“if you don’t know what the IB program is, good” yes, this, the most correct possible take

Reading way too much into it. There’s a 30 minute video James Cameron made talking about his vision for avatar and all the ideas behind it and it is not supposed to be about Native Americans. The Navi are supposed to be a representation of what humans could have been if we were more in tune with nature

Fam I DREADED the international Bachelorette programme. They scammed me out of a year of my life

i also buzzed my hair on a whim mind you it's an undercut but a fresh cut in the new year feels pretty good :P

last year was only 3k :) congrats!!!!!!

Saji really went to a jungle for the Avatar video

I love your video essay type videos, and this has literally been on my mind with all the new avatar movie coming out.

my best friend (who is white) took me to see the 2nd avatar movie a while ago, and I hadn't seen the first one in a LONG time, but something really didn't sit right with me about Jake sully (and spider, who I also DESPISED) being the token white guy in a group of POC. I was expressing my feelings and my friends brushed it off as "nah, dude, he's one of them now." So, when I was watching this and you started talking about it, I got SO excited because I KNEW I wasn't crazy. (I am also white, for context) EDIT: I also really wanted to point out how like every colonizing white dude, Jake Sully brings destruction to native people with him. everything that went wrong in Avatar 2 was ENTIRELY his fault, in my opinion.

happy new years, Saji !

i was also in the ib program! except i didn't choose to write an essay, i did a creative project, and wrote 3 connected short stories about 3 teens living in the streets. it is not my best work though

Saji with another great vid :)

thank you for making this!

I'm barely 3 mins in and the talk of the extended essay really had brought so much latent trauma of being an IB diploma survivor 😣😳 fuck EEs and IAs and the bloody TOK presentations and essays. Absolutely not, no thank you 😌 Edit: the video was very dope, too 😌 preach 🥲🤌🏽

i saw atla and immediately clicked

Ofc this dude did the IB 💀

Happy to find this video with one view. That's pretty crazy.

your hair looks so good

Great video! Thank you, Saji. I thought I was going insane! I am not as articulate or well informed about this topic, but even I was able to recognize all the white savior nonsense, the cultural appropriation, the way indigenous people are presented and treated? the way female characters are presented? the white kid in dreads??? I'm not American, I'm not white; I come from a country that's been heavily affected by white colonialism and I was sitting in the movie theatre so angry at.. everything! and I was going mad at how EVERYONE, from my own family to my favorite youtubers were just praising this movie as the best shit ever made. I thought I was the crazy one for being mad at this movie, even more so now that I know of the actual cultures that were being appropriated. and all of that without even mentioning the horrible writing and the cliche lines and the plot that doesn't make any sense. I don't watch a lot of movies but I genuinely never disliked a movie this badly.

im not sure what this says about me but i was rooting for the military the entire film through

bald saji with a different bg threw me REALLY off guard also, the blue alien avatar films always made me feel weird bcus... idk.... the exotification of any fictional mish mash group of people and acting like white ppl "discovered" them is weird

What a banger of a video

Happy new ear !!

this video was great I would love to see more like this in the future !!