The Perfect Musical Symmetry of Avatar the Last Airbender

this video is brought to you by people like you thanks for all the requests avatar the last airbender was a show that i missed out on growing up i don't know how i just never watched it and now that i finally finished going through the series that i bought on blu-ray netflix has decided to add it to their streaming service because of course they have yay physical media and missed out i did because like everyone on youtube and everywhere else on the internet i really like this show it's like cool and stuff but there's something that this show did musically that i've never seen before and even though i've seen what feels like several years worth of avatar content i still don't fully feel like i've grasped the full online presence of the avatar fandom so if someone else has covered this somewhere in their blog or something like that let me know just so i have someone to talk to because the quarantine's really starting to get to me okay so like i know that i'm preaching to the choir here but just in case you aren't super up on the avatar discussion one of the cool things about avatar the last airbender is the thought that they put into the world building like each of the four nations are inspired by real-life cultures and architecture the air nomads are based off of tibet the water nation is based off of the inuit the earth nation is based off ancient china and the fire nation is based on ancient japan similarly there are different real-life martial arts styles that the different benders use the airbenders use bhagwa zhang or the eight trigram palm waterbenders use tai chi earthbenders use hangar and the firebenders use a northern shaolin-style wushu like just to be crystal clear a lot of thought went into the world building for the show which is something i think that a lot of people resonate with it's what makes for the fan fictions and such with the original characters and everything else that makes me too scared to go on tumblr so when it comes to the four nations and their people you expect to see some similar patterns in their musical themes like you're going to expect that these different cultures are going to have their own genres of music and their own unique musical instruments based off real life analogs and then they're going to end up having some kind of system where you're going to be able to tell where certain characters came from based off of the instrumentation of their theme and yeah none of that happens like okay i'm being a little unfair here there are some themes and light motifs for some nations like the fire nation does get their own light motif and while the earth nation doesn't have their own theme i don't think there is this little gesture for bossing say [Music] [Applause] [Music] and while i don't think that the southern water tribe has their own light motif there is one for the northern water tribe i think unless i suck at my job and i miss something [Music] and in terms of the instruments also like um let's just look at a case study like look at uncle iro he's fire nation right he's actually fire nation nobility and the fire nation is modeled after japan so you'd expect to hear some japanese instruments to go along with him right well here he is singing alongside an instrument that looks a lot like a pippa which is a chinese instrument and jeremy zuckerman one half of the track team the other being benjamin wynn has gone on record saying that he used a goo zhang to represent uncle ira which again is a chinese instrument so maybe ira's like a secret earthbender okay so you think like maybe i'm just being too nitpicky here i'm just splitting hairs but let's look at saku's light motif now men it's important that you show no fear when you face a firebender maybe that's a water drum which is a traditional instrument used in native american music so maybe that's a real life connotation to like the inuit first nations that the water trades are based off of except that i don't really think that's the case it could be a water drum it might be okay well let's look at the land motif for the blue spirit [Music] that's actually an instrument called a duke which originates from armenia which is totally out of left field for the rest of the show so maybe that helps make the blue spirit feel like he doesn't really belong in this world sort of or like i guess you could look at this piece of music that we hear a lot with aang [Applause] that's actually a kalimba or an embira or a marimba or a thumb piano depending on who you're talking to which is an instrument that comes from sub-saharan africa so maybe that like yeah you know what i actually don't know okay so avatar the last airbender has a lot of thought put into the world building but i'm gonna let you know a little secret here okay tv music tends to suck and that's not like a jab at anyone a lot of composers that work for tv do 10 times the work of video game and film composers just because of the time constraints it's not unheard of for tv composers to have a week to score a half an hour show now that doesn't mean that you get to have a week to sit in front of your computer and work everything out and then play around with two illegal legends and then wake up with a hangover from drinking because you ended up playing league of legends that means that you have to write what you're gonna do for that half hour show then it gets sent out to the orchestrators then you have to get it scored and then it gets mixed and then it all gets approved by the showrunners in just one week so you have one maybe two days max to write about a half an hour of music every week for several months on end it is an insane expectation for these composers and even then the music team might still not be in the loop for what happens in the show you might get some concept art maybe a general idea of what the show's doing but for the most part it's completely possible that you're finding out what's happening in the show as you're scoring it week by week so trying to plan things ahead of time when you're scoring for a tv show can sometimes feel like the first 15 minutes of saving private ryan if there's a twist in the show or some character ends up disappearing and then reappearing a couple seasons later there's a good chance that you won't know until it actually happens which makes using a technique like light motif or giving all your characters and places and ideas musical themes exceptionally valuable if everything has a super recognizable theme then instead of having to write a brand new half hour of music every week you can copy and paste music that you've already written to both save time and give your show a common thread for the audience to grab a hold of which is exactly what they did in avatar now bear with me because even when singing its praises there are still parts of the music in this show that get a little funky like this four season song that ira sings ends up becoming soccer in ua's love theme so i'm still hoping we can see more of each other do an activity you mean [Applause] [Music] now why does that happen i don't know but theodore morris has a whole video talking about it go check it out so like saka gets his own theme but katara doesn't momo gets his own theme but oppa doesn't the fire nation gets their own theme but the air nomads don't azula gets her own light motif but toff doesn't now i know that some people say that toss theme is what we hear when she's wrestling the guys in the plays the rocks and everything but it never really comes back so it's tough to say like i said you've got to give tv composers like a grain of salt or however that saying works when it comes to the scoring like you can tell that during the first season they were kind of flying by the seat of their pants but by season three everything had its own light motif and they were flying in perfect formation but the way that they got from point a to point b was that instead of just giving everything a light motif they ended up scoring adversity everything that gives team avatar a problem gets its own reoccurring light motif in the show so even though we the audience have already been introduced to zuko when aang and the group are introduced to zuko in the fire nation we get a motif that sticks around for the entire show they're the villains and it's super easy to recognize the avatar oh no [Music] when aang is confronted by the blue spirit he gets his own light motif when they get to the northern water tribe team avatar has to deal with master paku the jerku so the northern water tribe gets its own light motif [Music] arguably saka and uh wanting to be together is another problem that the team has to wrestle with up until she gets turned into a fish because this show is wild when they go to boston say the city gets its own theme because the problem is that they're having to deal with the city's ignorance which is different from the secret police force the daily which again get their own light motif to represent them when they're doing some shady stuff and right about here is where the light motific system really starts paying off because when we're introduced to azula we hear the fire nation light motif but it's in a different arrangement and immediately following that big statement of the fire nation light motif were accompanied by this metallic gamelan percussion that becomes azula's light motif for the rest of the show [Music] princess i'm afraid the tides will not allow us to bring the ship into port before nightfall i'll follow this trail we are the earth king's humble servants [Music] and i can't quite figure out what it is i think it's a bonang but it could also be a gender a peking a sauron or slent them and i'm not super strong in the gamelan world and i couldn't find any distinct answer from the track team and i'm trying to pronounce these instruments as good as i can without sounding like a dr seuss book i'm really sorry it's just not my area of expertise so the real advantage of having this arsenal of light motifs is that it actually helps the audience parse all that information that the show expects you to keep track of over a long period of time remember this is a show designed for kids to watch once a week you want to do everything in your power to help them remember and keep track of the story that you're trying to tell have you ever tried to get a 13 year old hyped up on sugar in minecraft to try and focus on anything i'd rather try and get a greased up ferret in a kennel don't ask how i know that that's a difficult task just run with it so check out this moment at the end of season 2 when iro asks the team for help when toff talks about ira being a friend we get this little flute light motif i met him in the woods once and knocked him down then he gave me tea and some very good advice this is one of the many light motifs for uncle iro he tends to get this little flute line or something from guzeng finest tea and bossing say oh jasmine please immediately following that though when they mention azula being embossing sei we hear the fire nation light motif she must have katara she has captured my nephew as well but at the beginning of that fire nation light motif we hear a single strike of that metallic gamelan percussion instrument that's used for azula's light motif followed by that fire nation light motif princess azula is here in boston say it isn't just a zula it's a zula representing the fire nation who snuck into bossing sei then when aang tells saka that all of bossing say could be in trouble we hear the main theme for the show it's their call to action this is the main cast being the heroes of the show qatar is in trouble all of boss things say is in trouble working together is our best chance then just to top this all off when iro shows them the captive daily agent we get the light motif for the daily [Applause] all these musical associations help the audience keep track of everything that's happening and why it's important why is azula a threat because she represents the fire nation fire nation light motif who's this guy that i are captured oh right he's daily they're the secret police that's the daily light motif and when you really start paying attention the music starts adding to the show like right here katara's just supposed to be wandering around bossing say what do you say momo but that goozang music we hear is frequently associated with uncle iro doing something like relaxing or tea related this is what i've been missing sure enough a few seconds later we could see that she's bumped into ira and zuko at their tea shop by knowing that iron zuko have a tea shop somewhere embossing sei and knowing that qatar is wandering around the upper level and then hearing the light motif for iro and his t you're given all the information for what's gonna happen before it actually happens which makes the whole scene that much more tense it's that alfred hitchcock show the audience that there's a bomb under the table thing and you can see this whole system pay off again in scenes like this right here when zuko is discovering that he'd be really great at hosting a youtube drama channel because he can't tell jokes and isn't funny the punchline is leave me alone i'm bushed but as he's handing out the tea to the team just like ira might do listen to what we hear no one can make tea like uncle but hopefully i learned a thing or two he's channeling uncle iro and we can feel it in the music now this is by no means a comprehensive list of all the light motifs in the show or all the best scenes that have all the light motifs in them i'm sure that everyone has their favorite scene with their favorite little musical gesture but now's the goodness time as any to talk about everyone's favorite character zuko oh my god people love zuko i haven't seen fans this rabbid since i talked about hitting lalaland on twitter so i'm going to start stepping really carefully in terms of how i characterize him so to quickly recap back in the beginning of the show when zuko has to have his real first moment as the villain we hear this [Music] and for the entire first season this is what we get that is zuko's theme i want the avatar alive and whenever zuko puts on that blue spirit mask we hear that duduk again [Music] all clear cool i mean hot fire nation high five i don't know i'm getting too old to be relatable so everyone just follow my lead and stay cool or as they say in the fire nation stay flaming okay but listen to what we get when zuko cuts his hair [Music] as the story unfolds and zuko separates from the fire nation there's a divergence of themes we hear zuko's old theme for the first season used to just represent the fire nation and as we watch zuko grow and develop that dudu comes back to symbolize zuko's independence from the fire nation you did the right thing nephew he isn't an agent of the fire nation like his sister he's become his own person demonstrated by that rebellious blue spirit theme okay so these two pieces of music the fire nation light motif and the blue spirit light motif represent the conflicting voices in zuko's head being a descendant of both avatar roku and firelord sozen zuko is told that he basically has to pick which path he's going to commit to firelord sozen represented by the fire nation light motif or avatar roku represented by that blue spirit duke light motif except that fans of the show will know that this isn't actually a duke it's a tsungi horn [Music] that horn that ira plays during both the episode where we're introduced to the blue spirit and at the very end of the series is called a tsungi horn in fact we even get to see ang play it for a little bit and zuckerman has actually said that in order to get that sungi horn sound he had to mix in some d'duke with trombone this is actually its own instrument and really when you think about it zuko's entire internal conflict was fostered by ira's presence and encouragement and begin asking yourself the big questions who are you and what do you want you can literally hear ira's influence in zuko's musical identity mirroring how iro helped zuko grow and realize his true potential which strangely enough is almost exactly what we get with aang like i said before normally when we see team avatar especially in the first season we get this kalimba line you me and abba are all that's left of this place while i was going through the show this was the point where more or less felt like it was an after-school special like sonic was going to jump up on the screen and give me my daily lesson or something like that very clever no offense but i hope this has taught everyone a lesson about not relying too much on fortune telling in reality this is the theme that symbolizes aang's connection to his friends sure when you get down to it aang is just a carefree kid who wants to hang out with his friends and have fun literally the first words we hear out of aang is him asking if katara wants to play with him will you go penguin selling with me uh sure this is contrasted to the avatar theme a piece of music that solidifies by the end of the series that we hear whenever ang goes into the avatar state or whenever he does something spiritual or just generally avatar related all the past avatars all their experience it represents his responsibilities what the world demands from him and aang's journey to be able to shoulder the responsibility of the avatar like zuko's transition from being the prince of the fire nation bearing the weight of his family to becoming his own person and goes from being so independent that he runs away from his responsibilities to becoming the avatar and saving the world but where aang and zuko differ musically speaking is strangely enough the main theme for the show frequently you'll hear the main theme for the show the music that plays over the title whenever the team's doing something heroic now at first i thought like yeah it's a kid's show you always got to do that in fact if you want to get into the debate about whether or not this is technically an anime it's a really common trope in anime to play the main theme whenever the hero's about to do something cool [Music] so initially i just dismissed hearing the main theme that was until i saw my favorite episode of the series and perhaps my favorite tv show listening experience of all time season 3 chapter 13 fire bending masters now brace yourselves because this is like really really cool okay brief recap so in this episode zuko's lost his mojo he's um he's having trouble performing okay so in order to figure out fire bending and zuko have to go back to the original firebenders to try and figure out how to fire bend again they end up doing this mirrored dance together that's totally a reference to fusion and dragon ball then they get stuck they bump into the locals screw up the ritual and then they come face to face with two dragons but when they begin the ritual we get one of my favorite musical moments in all of tv history we hear this now in case you're one of the peons who always clicks the next episode button because you have no patience for shame because this is the music that plays during the end credits of the show and in this moment where aang and zuko are performing this mirrored dance together we have the completion of a perfectly balanced musical system aang's internal wants his want to just be a kid and have friends represented by the kalimba theme is reflected in how the fire nation light motif represents zuko and how he just wants to be accepted by his father aang's wants are entirely internal he just wants to be himself while zuko's wants are all external he wants that validation from his father both of these wants are represented by their own light motifs but these wants are entirely contrasted by the needs of these characters on each of their journeys while eng just wants to be a kid he needs to be the avatar which we hear represented in the avatar theme his internal want to just be himself is countered by an external pressure and necessity to save the world and fulfill his role as the avatar compare that to zuko who has this external pressure and want to seek his father's validation but eventually learns that what he needed to do was look within himself and figure out who he really was all along which we see represented in the blue spirit sunkee horn theme aang moving from an internal want represented by the kalimba theme to an external need represented by the avatar theme is paralleled by zuko transitioning from an external want represented by the fire nation light motif to an internal need represented by ira's tsungihorn both of these characters have traveled through an equal and opposite journey to find each other and in this single beautiful moment where as zuko completes his training he becomes the thematic equal and opposite to aang on a meta-narrative musical level whenever aang is doing something heroic he's represented by the opening theme arguably the main theme for the show but where aang is represented by the music that opens the show now zuko is represented by the music that ends it but somehow against all odds zuko's destiny was hinted to us from the very beginning of the show every time he had to fight with his fire bending lemons i'll need more than basic fire bending to defeat him you will teach me the advanced set revealed in a moment where the two now have to rely on each other to both grow and finish their personal journeys about confronting the legacy of their birthright again equal opposite and now complete you might even go so far as to say that these two are like yin and yang thanks for watching i like that my patrons make these videos possible with an extra special thank you to abe wintersheit alec kulkowski alex klinkert always posh anthony de donato bentastic captain casey charlie hawley christian clara tan darren almgren elise and thomas constantine gregory holdenness google it gus sanchez heptonian i want you to tell me if my fear is justified that no one will pay attention to me if i'm honest about my addiction to ice cream izabo bisa fife fofisa jason kim joe engel john egbert jordan adams joshua park julian dubois karen rosenel hayden elza keltierre major zladwina elizabeth iv the lanyard y wedge michael hubbard mike wisnick myth like dennick mohammed own myron john tatarn nicholas cohen praylock taliver heath tara femira panic power hour rafael martinez sales rick osborne ryan vick sydney fox who am i in wisdom inari i'd also like to thank everybody who requested that i talk about avatar the last airbender there are just way too many of you to actually put you up on the screen like i normally do sorry but thank you everybody who's wanted me to watch this series it was tons of fun um if you like what you saw here be sure to subscribe and check out my other videos follow me on twitter and twitch to have your musical questions answered live and if you really like what i'm doing then consider supporting the channel on patreon but that's all i got for now thanks for watching drink cactus juice it'll quench you

Channel: Sideways

Views: 803,614

Rating: 4.9651389 out of 5

Keywords: Avatar, Airbender, Earthbender, Firebender, Waterbender, Aang, Katara, Sokka, Zuko, Iroh, Guzheng, Pipa, Duduk, Kalimba, Leitmotif, Music Theory, Avatar the Last Airbender, Toph, Ba Sing Se, Fire Nation, Soundtrack, Zuckerman, Wynn, Azula

Id: Rzf_sTuDcX8

Length: 21min 33sec (1293 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 31 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/NaiadoftheSea]

I love Sideways' videos!

[u/SimonRichardsYT]

Not sure if I’ve seen this video but this guy is great. Most of his essays have to do with music theory and they’re very fascinating (even if you don’t know much about music theory).

[u/ZemeOfTheIce]

Sideways makes great stuff. You should also check out Adam Neely if you like more pure music theory and wierd jazz stuff.