By Alex Coonce
If you’ve ever watched Nickelodeon, you’ve probably seen Avatar: The Last Airbender at least once. The show takes place in a world with four sovereign states: the Northern and Southern Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation. Each is home to a specific type of “bender”, or someone who can control one of the four elements: the Water Tribes produce waterbenders, the Earth Kingdom earthbenders, and so on. Although the show features people producing fire out of thin air and a giant floating bison, it also contains a lot of real-world parallels, not least of which is its relevance to historical economic systems.
The large, industrialized Fire Nation is a classic example of an imperialist nation. Much like Great Britain for the brunt of its history, the Fire Nation has invaded its surrounding nations in order to mine their resources and boost its overall world power. As a result, the Fire Nation is disproportionately rich while previously stable economies such as the Earth Kingdom’s collapse. 
If you look at these two maps of 20th-century trade routes and the British Empire, you’ll notice that Britain controlled almost every major trading port in Asia and Africa. By essentially monopolizing world trade, Britain cut down the competition from other nations and became the most powerful nation in the world. This is the same method used by the Fire Nation on the show, and the nation is able to thrive and sustain its huge military-industrial complex at the expense of the rest of the world.
The Earth Kingdom is a large nation with an agriculture-based economy, bolstered by the kingdom’s complex system of trade and commerce. The people of the Earth Kingdom possess advanced technology suited for transporting goods and services back and forth across the kingdome. In this regard, the Earth Kingdom has an economy closer to that of the United States during the early 20th century-- laissez-faire and good for big business. As a result, much of the kingdom is impoverished even while the economy itself is strong. This is made worse by the heavy taxation placed upon its citizens by the invading Fire Nation. However, overall, the Earth Kingdom’s economy is considered one of the strongest and most stable in the world and remains the primary producer of goods and resources in the world.
The Northern and Southern Water Tribes are two tribes of waterbenders located at the Northern and Southern poles. As the Water Tribes are relatively isolated from the rest of the world, and lacking the resources to create a fully trade-based economy, trade is kept within each respective tribe. As the Northern Water Tribe is more technologically advanced and has a higher population, it is more prosperous than its southern counterpart, participating somewhat in world trade. However, the Water Tribes rely primarily on their own natural resources, so their economy is relatively self-sufficient.
The Air Nomads are a small group of airbenders who live nomadic lifestyles, with temporary homes in the four air temples located on each side of the world. They are also only faction without a fully-fledged economic system. Like many of our world’s early civilizations, the Air Nomads are completely self-sufficient, relying on their own resources and practicing sustenance agriculture. The immaterialism of their culture and lack of permanent home makes it nearly impossible for any type of consumer-based economy to develop; in fact, the Air Nomads don’t even have a monetary system. In this regard, they are the stark opposites of the Fire Nation. It is also the reason their population is so much smaller than the other three nations. However, their small economic bubble is ultimately the reason the Fire Nation is able to wipe out almost the entire race without making a dent in the world’s economy.
The need for me to comment on this was high, why because i love this show. But back to the subject, although this may be wrongful of me to say, i enjoy the intentions of the fire nation and the older Great Britain because they take what they want and in the end it only further boosts their economy. It isn't if the other nations didn't have the money to bounce back and though it may seem as if all is lost from them, the fire nation mostly stole from those who were able to handle such a loss, somewhat similar to robin hood.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to disagree with you on this one, Trivelle. If the Fire Nation only did things to boost their economy, what was the point of wiping out an entire race of people that really didn't practice monetary trade and consumption? The Fire Nation was a bloated industrial power that exerted negative externalities to the rest of the world, and, furthermore, not everyone in their country was better off. It seemed like most of the glory, power, and money went to the royal family. Sure their economy was somewhat stable, but empires never last. Trying to control the world is like trying to play twister after two of your limbs have been amputated. You'll eventually fall flat on your face.
ReplyDeleteI love the show, “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and so I was really excited that you picked this topic. I’ve seen every episode of that show, but made no connection that it is like real life economics. But then as a kid, the last thing you’re thinking about is school, so that could also be why I made no connection. But now that you brought to light how there is a connection between economics and that show, it makes a lot of sense. The Air Nomads were really easy to get because they were so small, much like much of the other countries that were overpowered by population and war. The Fire Nation gained power so easily because they were stronger then most of the Nations, but the Earth Nation wasn’t as tragically changed as the other nations because they could still survive on their own. Because of these similarities between the show and Econ, I don’t think I will ever be able look at this show the same way ever again.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you related a fictional tv show to the economy of our real world. To be honest, I didn't even know "Avatar: The Last Airbender" was still a continuing series. I haven't watched "Avatar: The Last Airbender" in a long time, but my brothers seemed to have it on a lot a few years ago, so I definitely can understand these connections. I agree with Patrick on his opinion of the Fire Nation and the older Great Britain. Overall, this was a unique and "out-of-the-box" post. Well done!
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how you were able to take a fictional show, and take all of this out of it. I never realized how much these shows actually relate to our world. I used to watch this show myself, and I never really thought beyond what I was watching. I like how you separated the nations into different groups that compare to the way that our economy is run today. I really like the fact that you chose a different topic than what we typically read about. Good job!
ReplyDeleteThis was the only show I watched regularly when I was a kid, and it's really fun that you decided to do your blog on the series. Obviously, when I was in grade school I didn't process any of the economics behind Avatar; your post brings up numerous parallels that I had not noticed at all. I also didn't realize the huge disadvantage the Northern and Southern Water Tribes were at, due to their lack of resources. What countries in today's world have a similar hindrance?
ReplyDeleteP.S. Keep rocking the Airbender hat!
good afternoon, I see your post as a very interesting maner to explain how (maybe) the authors reflect a reality of our world in an imaginary world, but also as other people have said I think the Fire Nation would be the UK is wrong, I believe the Fire Nation more like Germany, actually all the Fire Nation´s caracteristics are exactly the same Germany had Between 1800 and 1945. A "Small" Nation Compared to others, No colonies, a quickly insdutrial development, a very strong feeling of "nacionalism", and the thirst of coquer territories as colonies because (In the case of germany) the believed thay had the right to expand and prosper just because the felt "superior". and technically the germans were unstoppable and the Avatar Plays the USA role, because is the only force that can actually stop them, not defeat them... the Earth Kingdom would be more like Russia and China in the 1880-1930 era, very large countries based on agriculture and not well comunicated within its own important and distant cities. the air nomads would be countries like Buthan,Nepal and Tibet... culturally and geografically. the Water Tribes the North would be Maybe Iseland or Sweden or Even Finland because they were never defeated by the Germans. and the Souther Water Tribe would be Antartica, not actually important but a remaining territory that maybe worth to be claim.
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