Avatar the Last Airbender Great Divide Uploaded
Avatar: The Terminal Airbender - The Importance of The Neat Divide
The most scorned episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender by far is the eleventh episode of the get-go flavour, "The Slap-up Dissever." Many fans concur the policy of omitting the episode from their rewatches, and some fifty-fifty encourage get-go-time viewers to skip information technology. Common pejoratives in the discourse surrounding the episode are "slow" and "filler," the latter so much and so that it has coined the phrase, "the just filler episode in all of Avatar." The purpose of this blog is to investigate the accurateness of these polemics, to meet whether the most loathed chapter in an otherwise beloved show is truly as worthless equally is often claimed, or whether there is more to it than meets the eye.
The first perspective I volition await at is that of the plot. The goal of the Gaang in the commencement season is to travel to the Northern Water Tribe so Aang may learn waterbending, which will, in the overarching narrative of the show, help him become a fully-realized Avatar so he may oust the Burn Lord and restore balance to the world. Does "The Great Divide" advance this plot indicate? Well, it certainly moves the Gaang physically closer to their destination, so in some sense it does. However, as the Gaang cull to walk across the canyon instead of flying on Appa's dorsum, the episode actually merely hinders their progress past making them eschew the most expedient method of travel they had available. The episode does non build upon secondary plot points either, nor does it set up up any new ones - the conflict between the Zhang and Gan Jin tribes is forgotten nearly for the rest of the show, and none of the characters introduced here ever appear once more. From the standpoint of the plot, "The Bully Split up" is wholly unimportant.
All the same, although an episode may not be plot-relevant, this doesn't automatically render it filler. After all, some of the most cherished episodes in the serial include "The Tales of Ba Sing Se" and "The Beach," neither of which advance the plot in the slightest, instead serving as sublime vessels for character insight and growth. But tin the same be said for "The Dandy Divide"? Not actually. The disagreement between Katara and Sokka over the necessity of erecting a tarpaulin is entirely artificial and is only used every bit impetus for Sokka bonding with the Zhang tribe, and Katara doing the same with the Gan Jin tribe, which in itself doesn't serve whatever real purpose as Aang orders them to accompany the tribes regardless. Sokka and Katara also accept the reasoning that the other tribe must be doing the same equally valid justification for smuggling nutrient into the coulee, making the siblings seem remarkably petty and idiotic as nowhere in the remainder of the show is it indicated they ever learned from this; this plot point is only used as a way of getting the tribes to piece of work together against the attacking coulee crawlers, just even that is ultimately worthless as afterward they are nearly to slaughter each other anyway until Aang convinces them not to. The lie he spins to practice so makes Aang appear equally if he's one for the saying "the ends justify the means" when it comes to engendering harmony and fulfilling his duty as the Avatar, although the series finale clearly depicts otherwise; perhaps it could exist construed as grapheme development, but as this incident is never touched on again, I'm doubtful. All in all, the characters in "The Great Divide" exist equally if in a vacuum - the canyon guide and the Zhang and Gan Jin tribes quite literally so, as they are never again fifty-fifty mentioned, only even the master trio behave in a fashion that is non as much antonymous to their personalities every bit it is inconsequential. Every bit far as label goes, aught is gained by watching it and nothing is lost by skipping it.
Thematically, "The Great Divide" does not fare much better either. The conundrum proposed by the tarpaulin consequence - whether it is better to rely on probability for the sake of efficiency or whether information technology is better to set up for the worst just in case even if information technology is unlikely and takes more piece of work - is not properly answered. It may announced that the show endorses Sokka's side as it ultimately does not rain, just the characters accept forgotten nearly the quarrel by the end of the episode, and most likely the viewers accept as well. Generally, if the evidence does not call explicit attending to something, and so that is non the focus; the tarpaulin conflict is used for building (irrelevant) graphic symbol dynamics, not for thematic exploration. The real emphasis of the episode is on the dispute between the Zhang and the Gan Jin, the thematic potential of which is squandered by Aang fabricating the abortion between Jin Wei and Wei Jin. How apropos information technology would have been for the history of the 2 tribes to take been distorted from an innocuous game between friends to this hateful extravaganza, when that is later revealed to be almost exactly what has happened to the Fire Nation. Instead of a message about human fallibility and the dangers of historical revisionism, which could have been tied to the show'due south chief antagonistic force to weave a cohesive thematic tapestry, nosotros get a completely unnecessary subversion of expectations for the sake of information technology.
The only attribute in which "The Great Divide" is non substantively void is in its world building, merely fifty-fifty in this aspect its triumphs are miniscule for the simple reason that the earth doesn't feel whatsoever bottom without it; everything new additions similar the eponymous Great Divide, the canyon crawler animal species, and the Zhang and Gan Jin tribes bring to the table is present elsewhere. Information technology's important that the people of a nation the size of a continent aren't culturally homogenous, but this diversity is witnessed plenty of times in the different settlements such every bit Kyoshi Island, Omashu, Gaoling, and Ba Sing Se, among others, so two new tribes aren't necessary for it to be conveyed or felt. Too, Avatar already had an extensive catalogue of fauna unique to its globe, and a formula for easily inventing new species - knowledge of the canyon crawler's existence doesn't practise anything for the viewer. Similarly, geographical and topographical variation is seen in the multitude of forests, deserts, mountains, lakes, rivers, swamps, badlands, volcanoes, and and so on - one doesn't demand to be shown a coulee to believe that the Earth Kingdom could be a real identify. The storytelling dominion applicative to all these cases is that not every trivial detail needs to exist shown or explained; if peering into the globe through a keyhole, and then to speak, is enough for the viewer to understand and appreciate the story, then the balance can be left to 1's imagination - sometimes that may even help the viewer to appoint with the fiction more intimately. "The Great Divide" is not worth watching solely for these smidgens of trivia; without any plot relevance, character development, or thematic heft, its world building elements fail to carry it on their own.
So, I have just spent four paragraphs lambasting this episode from every narratological angle, finding practically no value in it. How, then, tin can this essay be titled "The Importance of The Groovy Divide"? The answer is simple: information technology is not the episode that is flawed, but rather the very principles of narratology itself - and in a broader sense, our perceptions altogether. In his talk, "Nature of God," theologian Alan Watts expounds Eastern religious concepts to a Western audition. The crux of his argument revolves around the idea of the substance, the underlying foundation, of reality. To borrow some of his analogies, when we read a volume, we focus on the printed text merely ignore the folio; when nosotros peer into outer space, nosotros focus on the stars and planets but ignore the ubiquitous blackness. Still without the paper, without the blackness, without the so-called nothingness, the and then-chosen things on them could not be or be observed - instead of existence singled-out and diametrically opposed, thingness and no-thingness are manifestations of a greater whole, yin and yang. The aforementioned applies in the example of life and decease: upon nascency, i'due south consciousness blossoms, and upon death, it dissipates. As everything we perceive is only movements of consciousness, then without information technology reality equally nosotros know it collapses; expiry is equivalent to never being born at all, in which example all things in existence - all concepts, categorizations, and divisions; consciousness, time, and space; and indeed narratology, story structure, and objective quality in fine art - are but emptiness on a timeless sail, the imaginary figments of an inscrutable godhead.
Consider now a less esoteric explanation. I looks at the body ane'south consciousness inhabits, declares it to be "me," and everything else to exist the outside world. Withal even the trunk can be divided into smaller segments, into organ systems, organs, tissues, cells, molecules, atoms, nucleons, unproblematic particles, strings, and so on. Can 1 say whatever of these is still "me"? I can skin autonomously the man body into every bit many pieces every bit possible and one will never find the cocky. The sense of self is real, sure, but not any physical object i can point to and telephone call "the self" like ane tin a chair. Information technology is entirely arbitrary to demarcate between the exterior of ane's skin and everything else - the body responds just the same to things outside it as it does to things within it; there is no difference between an interaction such as the chirapsia of the heart and the flow of blood, and the interaction of light from the sun striking the retina and the retina sending a nerve impulse to the encephalon where a visual image that impels the body to react appropriately is formed. Taken to its conclusion, this of course means that one is all and all is ane - distant galaxies at the border of the observable universe are merely as much "y'all" as your brain is. Therefore, the underlying foundation of the omniverse, God, is likewise you.
In conclusion, you are already in touch with God. And, considering the separation between yourself, fourth dimension, infinite, and God is a fiction, you are God. One thing cannot crusade suffering and another happiness because there is no departure between them. Thus, every moment, including every moment spent watching "The Great Divide," is perfect.
Bibliography:
- Avatar: The Terminal Airbender (Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko; 2005 - 2008)
- "Alan Watts - Nature of God" (Alan Watts; audio uploaded in 2015)
Source: https://comicvine.gamespot.com/profile/azronger/blog/avatar-the-last-airbender-the-importance-of-the-gr/162837/
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