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I just watched Avatar: the Last Airbender and it was awesome (see my lj for squee) but something struck me in the third season, when the teenage characters started to interact more with their adult allies en masse.
While many of the teenage/child characters are female, and are written really well, hardly any of the adult ones are. There's a lot in the world, in the form of off-screen or dead mothers etc, or characters who show up for a single episode. But I can think of hardly any female characters over 20 who appear on screen for more than one episode, and none who really DO anything apart from the grandmother who is only at the very beginning of the series.
We have Gran Gran, who is pretty cool but only at the beginning of the show.
There's Zuko and Azula's mother in flashbacks, and I'm not sure that counts.
There's Azula's handmaidens who do very little apart from act as a sort of greek chorus (though I did like their final scene).
There's Joo Dee, the brain washed attendant, who is an interesting character but by definition has no motivations of her own and is also fairly young.
There's possibly a few in some of the double episodes, like the female guard at Boiling Rock, but I'm not sure they count (she didn't even get a name)
And...?
Meanwhile, we have the Water Nation troops, the Fire Nation leaders, the Earth generals, the swamp benders, the tea shop owner, all the gurus and teachers, uncles and fathers. I can think of ten or twelve off the top of my head. The entire Order of the White Lotus seem to be male.
You could argue that it's a sexist society so women don't get to do those roles (which doesn't bode well for the female characters future, and somewhat contradicts their present). But I think it goes beyond that. The fact that the closest thing we see to a female master is an evil witch (in a VERY similar role to that of Gwen's grandmother in Ben 10, very archetypal "Young women with power must not let it turn her into an evil witch" stuff going on there) was a bit creepy imo.
It doesn't ruin the show for me or anything, it's just annoying.
While many of the teenage/child characters are female, and are written really well, hardly any of the adult ones are. There's a lot in the world, in the form of off-screen or dead mothers etc, or characters who show up for a single episode. But I can think of hardly any female characters over 20 who appear on screen for more than one episode, and none who really DO anything apart from the grandmother who is only at the very beginning of the series.
We have Gran Gran, who is pretty cool but only at the beginning of the show.
There's Zuko and Azula's mother in flashbacks, and I'm not sure that counts.
There's Azula's handmaidens who do very little apart from act as a sort of greek chorus (though I did like their final scene).
There's Joo Dee, the brain washed attendant, who is an interesting character but by definition has no motivations of her own and is also fairly young.
There's possibly a few in some of the double episodes, like the female guard at Boiling Rock, but I'm not sure they count (she didn't even get a name)
And...?
Meanwhile, we have the Water Nation troops, the Fire Nation leaders, the Earth generals, the swamp benders, the tea shop owner, all the gurus and teachers, uncles and fathers. I can think of ten or twelve off the top of my head. The entire Order of the White Lotus seem to be male.
You could argue that it's a sexist society so women don't get to do those roles (which doesn't bode well for the female characters future, and somewhat contradicts their present). But I think it goes beyond that. The fact that the closest thing we see to a female master is an evil witch (in a VERY similar role to that of Gwen's grandmother in Ben 10, very archetypal "Young women with power must not let it turn her into an evil witch" stuff going on there) was a bit creepy imo.
It doesn't ruin the show for me or anything, it's just annoying.
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I've heard that, originally, Toph was meant to be a guy.
Also haven't you heard the Zuko's mother is the Earth King's bear (~*~Ursa~*~) theory? That makes her a much more visible character.
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Ahaha.
Oh, well then. I take it all back. Yay strong female characters!
(..who's June?)
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June's the bounty hunter Zuko hires to CAPTURE THE AVATAAAAR in the Bato episode, and she comes back at the end. I've always thought of her as more of an adult than a teenager.
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Sometimes when I am down I read the "Wild Mass Guessing" page at Tv Tropes, I love crack theories :) And hey, I haven't read the Avatar one!
June's the bounty hunter Zuko hires to CAPTURE THE AVATAAAAR in the Bato episode, and she comes back at the end.
Ahhhhh.
Yeah, she counts. She's still a spring chicken compared to the Order of the White Lotus, though.
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But that might mean that Sokka is a reincarnation of Sozin??? D:
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That is a good theory (I mean I don't know that it's true, but it's interesting to ponder)
Maybe the only ones who get reincarnated are the Avatar's teachers? So friends like Sokka who aren't also teachers are new. And if Sozin is anyone I'd say he's Zuko.
Also teehee your icon. I keep noticing how many icons I've been seeing around are from the show :)
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