What if the Avatar was evil? [ The Last Airbender l Legend of Korra ]

a long time ago I made a video exploring the philosophy of zaheer the villain from season 3 ah Legend of Korra explaining why he might want to kill the ever give me second this one just one shut up so I'm just gonna hold them for a bit explaining why is he here might want to kill the avatar it's essentially the Superman question but what happens if the next Superman becomes a terrorist and forgive me for using anything from Suicide Squad I'm still suffering flashbacks from that terrible exposition see he believes that the avatar was given undeserved Authority and by killing her he was guarding against the avatar becoming tyrannical the most common response I seem to get to the sacrament was that but Tim the avatar can't be evil because of rather the spirit of goodness and this got me thinking is the avatar inherently good are they capable of being evil it's a strange idea I mean the writers would never ever be so stupid as to write a storyline where a dark avatar was involved but this being the last video of the air I thought I would make it a bengis so we're gonna Nels down to three questions one what do we mean by evil in the Avatar world two is raava actually inherently good and three even if she is can rather moderate how the avatar acts so first question our conventional understanding of morality as a binary choice between good and evil somewhat rooted in Christian theology doesn't quite fit within the world and lore of Avatar and this will be no surprise given how much we know it draws on Eastern philosophy and religion which does have some binary morality but it's not quite as heavy as it is in Western philosophy and there are moral codes in the Avatar world but they're often rooted in stoicism or personal spirituality list so then divine universal doctrine the monks always taught me that all life is secret I know I'm even a veg arian I have only had to use violence for necessary defense but the monks taught me that I had to detach myself from the world so my spirit could be free but even these principles espoused by characters like Eng and moral imperatives for everyone they're not the only and one way to live a truly moral life in fact Avatar yang Ching points out that living that way for the Avatar would be immoral but this isn't about you this is about the world because your sole duty is to the world do whatever it takes to protect in other words it's not a universal law now they have a term might be an exception but even so the writers never present the nomadic moral code as the one moral way to live one's life instead it's presented as one method towards personal enlightenment and enlightenment itself doesn't make you virtuous so here achieved the highest level of detachment by letting go of all as earthly tethers and flying but if you're sitting his morality as the high Bhavan men maybe we should have a talk about what you're considering good and evil in the first place beyond this just like in our world morals vary from nation to nation like the Fire Nation has strict codes of conduct around loyalty and my honor but none of these moral codes are treated as coming from a divine omniscient doctrine in fact they're all treated as kind of equally valid and equally true and in the story they're portrayed as far more cultural fundamentally across the story there's no top-down declaration of right and wrong no omniscient omnipotent being that can declare the moral code for everyone and no natural law that we know is true so the Avatar can't be objectively good or evil and he's not in those terms quiz number two let's say that rather could influence the avatars morality that she could stop the avatar from acting in a way that wouldn't be in accordance with the principles of her being does rather represent pure goodness or moral spirituality well at the end of beginnings part two we learn there one rava fused together to become the first avatar because of this some people are under the impression that the avatar is inherently good because rather is inherently good and the Sahir must be wrong that the avatar could ever become tyrannical or evil but the first point is this the avatar has been born into each of these four cultures over and over each with varying morals often contradicting morals and they have often netted in accordance with these changing morals the Mars that they were born into like egg follows the nomadic code because he was born in Airbender while Kyoshi followed a strict utilitarian code more akin to an earthbender this must mean that if robert does represent pure moral goodness then it's a broad enough morality to encompass all of these different often contradicting moralities across different cultures giving us and thus the avatar very little definition in terms of what is good or evil so to build on this the actual quote that were given in the series is this he is the force of darkness and chaos I am the force of light and peace and the question that I've been left asking is is peace inherently good well no not necessarily peace could mean the suppression of opposing political views it could mean the segregation of society along the lines of race six wealth or who likes fruitcake and who doesn't all in the name of stability and peace though there would be no one in the part of the city that likes fruitcake if you do like fruitcake go down as a comment and give me your honest defense of that hideous abomination the concept of peace sees everything about the ins of society but nothing about the means which can be destructive tyrannical or evil to use the word lightly and the show also treats both raava and vaatu as equally important parts of the universe since the beginning of time we have battled over the fate of this world I have kept darkness under control in the world in balance the world hasn't been imbalanced because the force of light and peace has been winning but because the forces of peace and chaos have been fighting they've been equal they have been in balance with one another what that tells us is that when either party gets too powerful it is a bad thing we see that when vaatu gains too much control the world itself becomes darker and more filled with chaos given that it's important that they remain equal the inverse of this would be that if raava gained too much power there would be a harmful effects on the world as well the spread of too much order and peace could mean the loss of individuality or a rise in epithelial Kaldur and I think that has something to do with her being that who might have been imprisoned in the tree of time but he was still just as strong as rather had we know this well we see if one gets more powerful than the other then the other shrinks and loses magical power hence white raava ended up looking like a pathetic six-year-olds kite and to the understanding of both raava and vaatu as neither and he rly good nor inherently bed also fits better with the Taoist principles that we know the show regularly draws upon one cannot exist without the other he cannot destroy light any more than I can destroy darkness neither are inherently good because raava even has a part of var2 inside of her darkness will grow inside me until he emerges again and in much the same way vaatu has a part of raava inside of him [Music] they are equally opposite and dependent on one another much like a yin and yang represent life and death light and dark the Sun and the moon order and chaos the world needs both raava and vaatu to survive but tomb robber is also the spirit of light and Votto is the spirit of darkness quite right you sheep slaughtering Menace yeah so people who have watched my channel for a long time will know that I don't focus on the criticisms of Legend of Korra much lots of other youtubers have done plenty of that somewhat obsessively and blindly at times but I try to keep a little positive edge to my channel and discuss the stuff that I know I love and the fandom loves but I'm going to go into one criticism here because it's very relevant to the discussion I do personally have a big problem with raava and vaatu 's existence or at least how they were written season 2 of Legend of Korra not only demystifies the origins of the avatar which I've always felt would have been best kept left mysterious but the story of raava and vaatu can also be easily read as imposing a dualistic moral binary theology on the shown that was never there before and for good reason in The Last Airbender there were plenty of old ancient and fundamental spirits but none of them were ever inherently good or evil forces in the world and the designs for raava and vaatu being white and blue and red and black with a softer feminine voice and an evil rumbly male voice who can turn beautiful creatures into violent demons of darkness it can be easily read as that dichotomous view of morality introducing a an objectively good thing and an objectively bad thing which to me takes away from that beautiful ancient complexity that we got in the last airbender particularly in regards to the spirit world and it's because of this that I choose to interpret the more ambiguous terms of light and dark not as meaning good and evil but associating them more the terms of peace and chaos that we have been given which do have a more exact definition and both peace and chaos have their place under the Sun to draw on Ecclesiastes ultimately it wouldn't fit within the law of the Avatar world to have rather and var to being the good and evil spirits of the universe so I try to come up with an interpretation that better fits within that broader scheme that broader understanding and with this understanding of morality in the Avatar world and the inexact morality of rather the prospect of an avatar acting tyrannical II isn't just a hypothetical anymore it becomes a believable reality if the individual has a spirit driven towards peace above all even if that means oppressing others now we have never had a Nazi avatar before that we know of but let's play today's game the avatar more like the evil Tarr am I not funny no you have to have a really high IQ to understand my sense of humor first up avatar correct a steadily good-looking young man with a fiancee with a stunningly gorgeous oh my gosh she has no face Couric has an avatar was known to be empathetic he didn't care enough about the things going on in the world people seem to work out their own problems and there was peace and good times in the world I lost the woman I loved too cold if I had been more attentive and more active second up on today's lineup we have Avatar Roku who you might know is avatar Smoak ooh oh gosh hyah think I hurt myself with my own joke Roku refused to act even when he knew the risk of that Fire Lord Sozen posed he forgave him when sozin had already invaded a foreign nation probably killed people probably ripped people from their families I'm letting you go in the name of our past friendship I'm sparing you sozin you know I'm not sure I'd be able to forgive my friends if they invaded a foreign nation depends of was Australia those guys deserve to be invaded by our mighty New Zealand Navy currently comprised of six sheep in a boat in a piece of driftwood now this doesn't make a Vitara coup immoral but it does show us that even the most experienced and powerful avatars are easily affected by personal experiences and emotions that they can be driven to make decisions along those lines they are certainly not impartial when they could be motivated to anything if they felt emotionally that it would achieve peace and our third contender for tonight we have avatar Korra perhaps the most shocking example so in civil wars part one and two we see her support the occupation of the Southern Water Tribe by the Northern Water Tribe for a long time even in the removal of the government of the Southern Water Tribe and the suppression of its people's and the thing is is that she only changes her mind when she realizes unalaq orchestrated the imprisonment of her parents in other words the avatar was not naturally opposed to removing sovereignty and the identity of a people group she did so in the name of order in unity I am their chief I'm uniting not invading I know but I'm just afraid if something doesn't change there could be a civil war this example is only a couple of steps removed from the Avatar imposing their personal will with violence if only in the name of peace and unity if they can do this then they can kill who they see as an oppressive leader and take power themselves in the name of peace they can lead populist revolutions where they are the central figure they can take down governments in hope of a regime change or changing the structural way that society is run the way resources are organized and this becomes even clearer in the example of avatar kyoshi otherwise known as Kyoshi has big boots and you know what they say about woman with big boots technically he thought it was only doom because he was too stubborn to get out of the way you didn't really kill I would have done whatever it took to stop chin personally I don't really see the difference confronted with the prospect that she murdered she's just like you what me I'll do it again I swear on me mum Kyoshi took out a popular political figure without a qualm when it came to protecting her own one there was even more popular than the earth King at the time and even hundreds of years later retained a following Qin conquered most of the earth Kingdom but he was well loved by the people and those embossing say saw him as a liberator not a conqueror from the oppression of the earth King obviously chin wasn't entirely good many saw him as a tyrant as well chin was expanding his army to all corners of the continent I killed the chin the Conqueror a horrible tyrant those sort of sentiments it was mixed it wasn't black and white and if the Avatar is willing and able to do this then what's to stop them killing important even positive leaders and politicians who threaten their interests the avatar has the capability to draw lines in the sand wherever they want against whoever they want and they have the motivation to do it but even so even if raava was the personification of everything good and right in the world if she was cookie dough in Mishka and fireworks that I can buy a store and own personally and let off and sorry I just really like fireworks can rather even control moderate or influence the avatars actions or morality because the problem is I'm not personally sure that there is much evidence to suggest that rather can do that there is no instance in the series where we know that raava actively interferes with the avatars actions stopping them acting a certain way in fact when Korra was pinned down by unalaq it was only with the power of the Avatar state that she could escape but rather couldn't activate it by herself raava could encourage and talk to the avatar but she couldn't make the avatar do anything the avatar themselves has to choose to do it and rather only ever talks in the sense that the agency is all with the avatar that she's really just long for the right and by all indications Korra is the first avatar in a long time to have any meaningful relationship with raava at all though couric does no robbers name which does suggest that he at least met her at some point while the other avatars only ever refer to her as the avatar spirit meaning they might be vaguely aware but they don't have any personal connection to him and if most avatars don't even know about her then she certainly couldn't have influenced to them overtly and even if rather does passively affect how the Avatar thinks and acts then we've already addressed how sharehouse killing supporting civil wars taking out world leaders and giving a pass to tyrants that you've known since childhood so can the Avatar be evil well they can certainly act tyrannically they can oppress others they can kill with impunity and they can disregard cultural norms and human rights I guess and even if they were affected by rather than they would have the motivation to do so all concerned with the inn's of peace and not how they get there but christmas is upon us and so from the bottom of both supreme leader Mishka and my hearts I want to say Merry Christmas but I also want to say you know thank you this has been an incredible year for me we have tripled in size since February you'll January to 300,000 which is incredible but also I kind of want to say that um you know I'm very lucky to be in the position that I am and I want to encourage you that if you do have a few dollars to spare to give it to someone donate it to two people who don't have much around Christmastime people who aren't gonna get gifts people who might even not have Christmas dinner there are groups around everywhere that do this sort of thing and I'm sure we mean a lot to them even if you don't get to see the smile on their faces we spend a lot on ourselves and on those close to us around this period but let's not forgive those who don't have anyone to do that at all I'm taking a break until January in 2019 but I'll be back with lots of really exciting stuff there were so many things like a video on the philosophy of Blade Runner 20:49 that I really wanted to do but never quite got around to it so you'll see all of that next year hopefully and while this is my last kind of law focused video I have decided to put out one more video which will just be a beautiful clip of this baby but until then stay nerdy and I will see you next year

Channel: Hello Future Me

Views: 1,453,470

Keywords: explained, theory, lore, analysis, how to, avatar, aang, korra, mako, katara, toph, sokka, kuruk, yangchen, roku, unalaq, scene, legend of korra, lok, atla, tla, evil, Mishka, zaheer, ozai, zuko, fire nation, water tribe, earth kingdom, air nomad, moral

Id: wA4QvJISA54

Length: 19min 7sec (1147 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 15 2018