The Perfect Musical Symmetry of Avatar the Last Airbender 

"Zuko is everyone's favorite character" This is blatant Cabbage Merchant erasure

Zuko: “for the last time Uncle, I’m not playing the tsungi horn!” Zuko’s theme: *is a tsungi horn*

“Everything that gives Team Avatar a problem gets its own leitmotif” *looks at momo*

I love that some characters don't get their own leitmotif but Uncle Iroh gets several, including one for doing "relaxing and tea-related activities". Absolute legend

"the fire nation gets a leitmotif, but the airbenders don't." Me: um, what airbenders?

It’s all fun and games until leaves of the vine starts playing

The fact that there's still no official soundtrack album available for ATLA is a travesty.

My favorite musical gesture? Easy, it has to be: SECRET TUNNEL! SECRET TUNNEL! SECRET SECRET SECRET TUNNEL!!!

I wouldn’t say Iroh’s theme being connected to the earth nation is odd. The siege of Ba Sing Se defined his military career, that’s where he lost his son, that’s what changed his outlook on life and his time in Ba Sing Se brought him closer to Zuko and was a turning point in Zuko’s character arc which was heavily influenced by Iroh. Plus, Iroh later re-liberate’s Ba Sing Se from the Fire Nation and settles there, going on to wear Earth Nation garb in the Spirit Realm in LOK. Makes sense to me that, at heart, Iroh is more Earth than Fire at heart and his theme subtly reflects that throughout the show.

The Southern Water Tribe not having a leitmotif but the Northern Water Tribe having one actually makes sense-considering there WAS basically no Southern Water Tribe by the start of the series thanks to the Fire Nation having wiped out all of their culture and benders save for Katara. So it makes sense that once they get to the cultural hub of the tribes, then that would show through the music.

The 4 nations aren’t strictly modeled after one culture. It’s a mixture. That’s why you find Chinese references in fire nation culture for example.

Just an interesting observation: Aang dances with the blue dragon, probably representing his internal journey of freedom and love. Zuko dances with the red dragon, representing his external quest to attend to somebody else’s expectations. When they finish dancing on the top of that staircase, Zuko faces the blue dragon and Aang faces the red one. Pretty neat, huh?

"Until she turns into a fish. This show is wild." "That's rough buddy."

The reason the Air Nation and the Southern Water Tribe do not have a leitmotif actually cinematically makes sense because the Fire Nation basically whipped both of these groups out, which is why they do not have a leitmotif, because it showcases just how completely the Fire Nation destroyed the cultures associated with these groups. This is why we do not hear the Water Nation leitmotif until we get to the Northern Water Tribe, because that is the only place left were the culture of the Water Nation is still thriving. For the Air Nation, you could actually consider Aang's leitmotif the leitmotif for the Air Nation, because he the only Air Nomad left, and thus the only representation of that culture left in this world. The leitmotifs for nations in the show are not for the nations themselves, but for the cultures that are associated with those nations, this is also why (imo) Iroh's music is so different from the rest of the Fire Nation, because it is to showcase the contrast between the openness of Uncle Iroh accepting and learning from other cultures around the world, compared to the Fire Nation that is steeped in tradition and is against outside influence.

"Listen to what we get when Zuko cuts his hair." Not even a second later I got a Geico ad with bagpipes playing

The thing I love about avatar is that even though I've *only* watched through it 3-4 times, I instantly know which episode I'm on due to the music at the start. I dont have to look at the title, dont have to remember what the last episode was. From the instant the music starts, I can sigh and say "damn it, not the great divide again"

broke: Yue turns into the moon woke: Yue turns into a *fish*

I’m kinda surprised he didn’t go over the final Zuko vs. Azula theme. Best musical and choreographical part of the show imo

It definitely makes sense that Aang’s kalimba theme represents his love for his friends/family, because that piece is actually called ‘The Avatar’s Love’

Yin and yaang. That’s a pun worthy of Sokka’s approval.

"You might even go so far to say that these two are like..Yin and... *Y-aang* " Me: Did he just-

I loved the moment when Zuko tried to firebend and almost nothing came out, and the music did a wimpy version of the firenation theme

I love how Sideways is fairly aware that telling the internet ATLA is really good is akin to telling people at a car show that cars can go fast

my little child brain years ago hearing that chant in the episode was blown away. like, all that time, the music we hear for firebending and the end credits was the music of the original firebending masters?? that moment felt magical

I'm sad that he did not talk about how amazing the song SECRET TUNNEL is

Iroh being connected to the Earth Kingdom through music is actually REALLY genius: he lost his child attacking the Earth Kingdom, he spent time hiding from the Fire Nation in the Earth Kingdom, and he helped liberate Ba Sing Se in the finale. Not to mention he is an INCREDIBLY GROUNDED character like most Earthbenders are.

so we’re just not gonna talk about the fact that the first time we hear the entirety of Avatars love is at the end of the series finale when aang and katara kiss??

"Let's talk about everyone's favourite character" But you just spoke about Iroh... "Zuko" Oh yeah...

He better talk about the Final Agni Kai theme or imma throw some hands. EDIT Imma throw some hands.

I've always been super impressed by the fact that Azula's leitmotif can be reduced to a single note. *chord

I think its also really cool that iroh teaches that firebending comes from the breath, and musically firebending is represented with like the only "vocal" performances of the soundtrack expressed through quick exhales

I think the "Four Seasons" song is redone for Sokka & Yue because the song is about love and how it passes on, like the seasons (if I am remembering correctly).

"Zuko is, uhh...having trouble performing" "...they're....yin and y-aang" these puns be written with cactus juice wtf

Zuko is everyone's favorite character?!?!? Nah fam, you need to take a step back and realize that iroh is the real best boy

The biggest misconception is “each of the four nations is perfectly analogous to a real culture”-that’s just not true. Yes, certain groups take more inspiration from certain cultures, but the entire world is created as a blend of inspirations and cultures. Trying to strictly associate certain real life cultural themes to the ATLA nations-like Japanese music = fire nation-will always be futile, because the fictional world isn’t structured that way. The music is written for the entire aesthetics of the show, not based on the real world connections of the instrument/musical style. Xiran Jay Zhao has a fantastic series going over the cultural inspirations of ATLA

Yo that analysis of Aang and Zuko's opposite journeys being reflected in the music was MINDBENDING. I am straight up blown away.

“Okay, but listen to what we get when Zuko cuts his hair.” * USAA commercial plays * “I don’t remember that part”

cabbages

One of the best songs in AtLA? Leaves From the Vine 🥺 it's not that it's technically perfect, or classical in any way; because it certainly isn't. It's raw emotion; an expression of loss, and boundless grief. It wouldn't win any awards; not even a hometown competition. But it serves its purpose in spades, and is so emotionally evoking. Definitely my personal favourite piece of music from AtLA. It still brings tears to my eyes when I hear it, all these years later. 🥺

The fact that after this many years people still find new details in the show that show just how well it's made is insane

"Everything that gives Team Avatar a problem gets its own recurring leitmotif in the show." Well that explains why Momo has one then.

Iroh singing 4 seasons just makes sense to me. It adds to the world building. It's a widely known love song in the Avatar universe, and then is used in another place at another time to show the love between two people. He happens to know it and sing it. Not really surprising.

What I've learned from you: successful movies and tv shows use leitmotifs (and they have them in mind way ahead of time), because whether the audience realizes it or not, the subconscious definitely picks up on the added emotional emphasis.

"and they were narrative foils" "omg they were narrative foils"

SIDEWAYS AND AVATAR LETS GOOOOOOOO

Azulas 'clang' is such a recognizable sound effect

2:30 - probably because Fire Nation, aesthetically speaking, is heavily Chinese-inspired, from their clothing, architecture, weapons, etc ... so it's not out of the norm for their musical instruments to be Chinese-inspired too. To go further into this, all four nations are a mix of variety of cultures. So no single real-life culture would accurately reflect each of the four nations.

"Everyone's favorite character, Zuko" The Iroh fanbase: I'm sorry, what now

Zuko is everyone's favorite character. Uncle Iroh: am i a joke to you?

Another great thing about the moment in "The Firebending Masters" is that the music is, or at least is partially, diegetic. The sun warriors, who see firebending as a source of light, warmth, and life, a philosophy Zuko will embrace and has been striving toward throughout the show, are performing the music at that moment. This is sun warrior music. The sun warriors are the progenitor culture of the fire nation, but the fire nation has become corrupted and lost their way. And Zuko has been working to understand his place in the world, as a person, and as the prince of the fire nation throughout the show. Now he has found it. And, like you said, this is hinted at with his firebending. He was banished because he wanted to protect his people, he was fighting for their lives. So not only is Zuko regaining the lost meaning of firebending, he is finally figuring out who he is and his place in the world; and connecting that back to his lost heritage and his people, by reconnecting with who he always was, which is associated with his firebending. By having the music be explicitly a sun warrior song it ties this piece of music that is so heavily associated with Zuko, specifically with his firebending and fighting, to this culture's ideals of firebending being life affirming and good. this music shows firebending is not a bad thing, but a good one, and indicates where Zuko and the fire nation fall in the world, what they should be, and what Zuko will help them to be again, by reaffirming his culture, heritage, and himself.

I know I’m really late here, but I think that the instrumentation for Uncle Iroh was spot-on. Iroh was always very impressed by and respectful of the Earth Nation’s culture after his failed siege of Ba Sing Se and the death of his son, Lu Ten. It’s why he gave Zuko a dagger from Ba Sing Se, and it’s why he was able to harness neutral king to escape from his prison in the Fire Nation. I think it makes perfect sense that he would have taken after their style of music, too.

Re: instruments not "matching" nations, this doesn't strike me as all that inconsistent. Thing is, none of the ATLA nations are based on *only* one real-world culture. Air Nomad culture draws heavily from Tibetan Buddhist traditions - but also from Hindu traditions, and their architecture resembles Chinese Shaolin pagodas; the Water Tribes draw heavily from Inuit and Native American culture, but their facepaints and ships are based more on Polynesian traditions, and the architecture of the Northern Tribe capital draws heavily from the canal systems in Venice; the Earth Kingdom incorporates a lot of Korean influence into its predominantly Chinese aesthetic, with significant and variable contributions from many other cultures across the vast and diverse empire (including Japan, Egypt, and temporal variation within Chinese culture - elements are pulled from Tang, Song, Ming and Qing era Chinese empires); and the Fire Nation is a hodgepodge of Chinese, Japanese and Southeast Asian influences set on a geography based largely on Iceland - as well as in-universe remnants of Sun Warrior culture, which itself is a hybrid of Cambodian and Mesoamerican influences. It seems to me that the creators of the show very consciously integrated elements from all over the real-life world into each of the four nations, avoiding any strict typing in favor of more vague and broad similarities. The lack of specific instrumental identification with each nation fits that pattern, IMO.

When Zuko was crowned fire lord, a redeemed fire nation theme played it was so great. It only happened once in the show, which was fascinating to me

Iroh: "This is just hot leaf juice!" Zuko: "That's what tea is, Uncle." Iroh: "How could my own nephew be so cruel?"

“ but listen to what we get when zoko cuts his hair “ a grub hub add

me, knows nothing about music, watching this: yes.. yes, exactly.

18:21 "..But eventually learns that what he needed to do was look within himself..." to save himself from his other self? Only then would his true self reveal itself.

I literally said “whoa” out loud and had goosebumps when he showed his final point. So awesome.

Iroh's just someone who loves travel and learning from other cultures, and couldn't fully indulge this until his old age because of the direction his nation was going in. (And all the nations pulled elements from a variety of nations: Sokka has a Maori war club in some of the earlier episodes...not to mention the signature boomerang...; the Fire Nation has a fair bit of Thai sartorial drape and style; the Earth Kingdom has Mongolian and Korean touches in certain episodes, and is canonically outright stated to be multicultural; and there's a bodhisattva that shows up later to teach Aang, et cetera. The creators state often that the Four Nations are based on "cutures of the Pacific Ring.")

"He becomes the thematic equal and opposite to Aang on a meta-narrative musical level" I had to listen to that twice lol

Fun Fact: Nicktoons often cut off the actual credits of the show, and just showed a little box of credits in the corner while it played a preview. So, the reappearance of the credits theme may have been lost on a lot of people.

Actually fire Nation is not "Japan", well, conceptually it is: a small bunch of islands and imperialism, but culturally they have sooo many influences that just can't be summarized in Japan, the clothing has nothing Japanese in it (especially the shoes that actually seem turkic or Persian), the architecture looks like SE Asian way more than it does Japan, and of course the music.

Avatar’s Love is one of the best songs ever. Depending what mood I’m in, it can make me really emotional.

Sideways a few months ago: Avatar's scoring sucks. Sideways now: But the REAL Avatar's scoring rocks.

"Both of these characters have traveled to equal and opposite jouneys to find each other." That's very romantic, not gonna lie.

I think they made a conscious effort to blend a lot of cultures within each nation. Gets confusing but it's still kinda cool

I love how he gives us recaps, like most of haven't already memorized all the episodes

“Master Pakku the Jerku” Lol I like this guy

They play that Avatar's Love kalimba theme and I just curl up into a ball and feel warm and fuzzy feelings and cry. It's like the opposite of cringing.

“these two are like Ying ang Y-aang” The Ying and Yang thing is talked about in the Water Tribe battle back in season 1. This is the first time where we see Zuko feeling confused about his destiny when he kidnaps Aang.

The blue spirit mask theme contrasting with the fire nation theme is even more effective when you know that Zuko’s mom wore those masks when she was an actress before marrying the fire lord. This further emphasizes the Roku side (Zuko’s mom) and the fire nation side (Zuko’s dad) at war in his mind. Great analysis!

2:40 "So maybe Uncle Iroh is a secret earthbender" - Remember that Uncle Iroh spent years on campaign as a military general in the Earth Kingdom and laying siege to Ba Sing Se, and afterward his spiritual journey took him through all four nations' cultures. Plus he seems most in his element while he and Zuko are hiding in Ba Sing Se, so it makes total sense that his musical themes would reflect their instrumentation

It's such a sin that this TV show never got an official soundtrack release, let's hope that the new live action one keeps the best themes

Am I the only one that for some reason started crying when he explained the start and end themes for anng and zuko?

Not gonna lie, the hearing uncle Iroh's leitmotif during the Zuko handing out tea made me cry

me the entire video: yeah hes just reiterating stuff most people know sideways: oh btw zuko's firebending theme is the same as the one for the shows conclusion *proceeds to flex on us with knowledge* me: WAIT WHAT

I'm still angry about that yin and yaang joke.

As someone who is a huge film production nerd and big on visual motif the whole fire bending and the end of the song and the yin yang thing blew my mind

I'm literally getting goosebumps every time he shows a clip of the music

Oh man the “I just bought this on blue ray and THEN Netflix released it” hit hard because I also had that happen 😂

Aang's kalimba theme is called "The Avatar's Love." What makes the Avatar the Avatar is their connection to the world and it's people. Their deep and profound love for life itself. A love strong enough to unite and fuel external change but is first born from within one's basic humanity. It starts as something gentle and personal like a lullaby and grows into something so much greater that it can't be represented by just one individual. Yet that innocent spark of affection never really goes away no matter how the scope of surrounding events may change. I think it's such a remarkable little piece.

Also, toph uses a special type of earthbending bc she's blind- so it's a different martial art if you look closely.

Fire nation theme :exists Me: SIDDEWAYS IT’S DIIEES IIIIRRRAAAEEEE

Four Seasons is essentially a love ballad-simple enough for amateur musicians like Iroh’s crew to plunk out to blow off some steam, but its original meaning as a LOVE Song is highlighted by it being Sokka/Yue’s Theme-especially since Iroh sang the lyrics for us (and has been shown to be a romantic in simple pleasures and life’s “seasons” as well as literally a romantic with his flirtations with various women and encouragement of Zuko on his Ba Sing Se date) Which...what is most associated with seasons is...the Moon. The Moon and its phases marks the passage of time as well as influences the Earth’s tilt to even HAVE seasons at all. So, this use of a reused song always made sense to me. (Unlike the mismatched cultural instruments...although I like the music aesthetically it’s still snarly culturally)

Dont you just hate it when your girlfriend TURNS INTO A FISH TURNING INTO THE MOON

Dude I got goosebumps with the Sun Warriors' drums here. Every single time. Damn, you're right.

It really sucks that Katara didn't get any leitmotifs. It would have made her incredibly more iconic

when he ended with the Sun Warrior/end theme I just..... Everything clicked and I started crying. Avatar the last Airbender is legit the best show I've ever seen

Won't you analyze the masterpiece that is “Secret tunnel, trough the mountain: or a tale of two lovers.”

I'm lowkey in tears because of his pronunciations for some of the instruments from certain languages I know, but A for effort

Other shows: "Thinks the music helps convey the plot." ATLA: THE MUSIC IS THE PLOT.

That zuko percussion part at the end made me say “holy shit” out loud

The Fire Nation is actually not based on Japan. In terms of clothing, architecture, and culture, It's a combination of Tang Dynasty China, Thailand, and Vedic India. And the Earth Kingdom isn't just "China", it's specifically combination of Qing Dynasty China and Korea. Of course, the political situation of an industrialized militaristic island nation invading the mainland is similar to Japan IRL, the actual culture of the Fire Nation is not Japanese. One of the ground rules the creators made when they were building the Avatar world was "no Japan." Or rather, none of the 4 nations would be Japanese. There is actually one place/people in the original series based on Japan: Kyoshi Island and the Kyoshi Warriors. But that's it.

I would really like it if you did a video on the Coraline Soundtrack for Halloween. It's such a great piece of scoring and there are a few things that would be really fun for you to discuss: -Coraline's "Exploration" leitmotif and how its instrumentality is affected by the story -The Other Mother's theme and how it connects to the Ghost Children -The residents of the Pink Palace and their Other World counterparts having different interpretations of the same theme -The "Dreaming" leitmotif and how it's sung by the Other Mother diagetically, symbolizing her grip on the story -Wybie's theme and its interesting use of instruments No pressure tho, plus it would be way easier if I just analyzed it myself, but I really like your videos and I'd love to hear you talk about one of my favorite soundtracks and possibly help me discover something I never knew was there. You do you, tho.^^

"You have to give the composers a grain of salt" There's wisdom in these words

“master pakku the jerku” IVE BEEN MAKING THIS JOKE FOR 10 YEARS THANK YOU

The realization that Iroh's relaxing tea theme plays when Zuko's making tea for Team Avatar hit me wayyy harder than it should've.

Zuko is canonically a gifted tsungi horn player, as revealed by avatar extras. Nice touch to add it to his theme

I'm pretty sure every aspect of this show has been dissected as a perfect execution in it's field in multiple video essays. the story, the characters, the animation and now even the music. it's as sure a sign as any that Avatar has deeply affected anyone who's watched it and is undeniably a masterpiece

Hi again, gamelan nerd here. Love the analysis - the dragon dance scene is also one of my favorite TV music moments! Believe it or not, there is actually another cool detail to that scene. Gamelan is indeed used for Azula's theme, which was made to sound strange and evil because of the dissonant way that the gamelan contrasted with the choir. Gamelan later reprises in the sun warriors episode and plays during the dragon dance scene. However, when Zuko and Aang perform, the gamelan accompanies an uplifting and harmonious choir in contrast to Azula's theme. So not only does the music represent Zuko and Aang’s journey coming together, it also implies that Zuko gains an immense power (symbolizing ‘good’) to contrast Azula's power for the last Agni Kai. The ending credits and Agni Kai theme is also based on Indonesian music called kecak (the singers literally chant “kecak, kecak, kecak”). It’s really cool that the modern fire nation is based on Japan / Imperial China /etc. but it's roots and spirituality is inspired by Indonesia and a little meso-America (which makes sense as Indonesia is a big volcanic collection of islands, just like the Fire Nation).