Avatar: Transmedia and Fandom (An Essay)

Introduction -

In 2005, Nickelodeon released the first episode of a series that enthralled it's audiences globally. Spanning Three seasons, Avatar: The Last Airbender had a following that built up slowly, only to become one of the most beloved Animated TV shows of all time. Tackling mature themes, displaying diversity, and passion with which it was made. It is a show with a plot heavily reliant on the world it is set in which's culture is based on the Eastern Asian cultures, and with it's familiar art style making people question whether it can represent a Western Anime.

"It’s hard to imagine lore-heavy cartoons Adventure Time or Steven Universe, which began in 2010 and 2013, respectively, existing without Airbender proving that there was a US audience for sophisticated narrative animated series." (Romano, 2020) As Romano said in her case study, it has been an inspiration for other successful shows which focused on their heavy lores.

It has also been adapted into a Live-action film by M. Night. Shyamalan, which has made it to the list of the worst films ever made, however, there is a new Live-action show coming to Netflix, being made by the original creators of the Nickelodeon show, giving the audiences hope that maybe there is a chance for a good Live-action adaptation of their favourite story.

Context, case study and core conceptualisation -

As aforementioned, the case study I have picked mentions the show has been adapted into a Live-action Movie, and also, extended into a Four-season sequel series called "Legend of Korra". This allowed the audience of the original series to interact with the world it was set in for longer, and find out more about it, getting the fuller experience, and more developed opinions on the lore.

This is an exaple of Transmedia. "Transmedia storytelling involves telling a story using multiple distinct media. The remit of stories that fall under this broad definition is vast, consequently causing theorists to examine different phenomena using tools that are not suitable for all forms of transmedia storytelling." (Javanshir, Carroll, Millard, 2020, p1). Transmedia means that stories are being told across multiple platforms, just like the quote above says, It allows compaines to grasp a higher amount of audiences through introducing their stories as Films, books, even music. Even a Film with a soundtrack is an example of Transmedia, meaning that the stories do not always have to be separate.

The wide range of media that the world of the Avatar is accesible through is for the Fans of course. As the audience of the show developed, and began to formg groups where all the fans could interact, a Fandom got established. "Fandom is a rich and vibrant culture of networking - A formation of media spaces and audiences that come together online and off-line." (Lamerichs, 2018, p11). The Fandom of a media text is important for a multitude of reasons. One being that the members of the audience can find likeminded people virtually, and outside, immediately having topics to talk about. This is one of the ways that people living in the modern world establish relationships, be it romantic or platonic. The other reason is that the creators themselves gain information about how their media text is received, gaining motivation to make more for the audience, or learning about things they need to improve.

"In my experience, most viewers don’t merely like Airbender; they love it, the kind of love that usually gets reserved for shows with much broader critical and cultural clout." (Romano, 2020) As Romano said, the fandom of Avatar: The Last Airbender is a passionate one. Every installment of the new series: Legend of Korra, had the bar set high, and pulled through, having the audiences split in opinions about which one is better. The Live-action adaptation however, failed, and there are many reasons why, from bland acting, to bad choices made at casting.

Analysis of the case study -

The Case study by Aja Romano gives an in-depth explanation of the plot of Avatar: The Last Airbender. "a 12-year-old who’s also a monk who’s also a reincarnated superhero needs to singlehandedly save the world from encroaching conquest by an aggressive military nation." (Romano, 2020) Is the basic premise of the story, the fact that it is aimed at the younger audiences is understandable, since the characters are young enough to be identified with by the young people watching the show, with it's magic system as well, basing itself on the control of the four elements. "Within the show’s universe, different societies cultivate their natural ability to manipulate, or “bend,” one of the elements, an ability known as elemental bending: airbending, waterbending, firebending, earthbending, etc." Romano, 2020)

"The series is widely believed to have started a “golden age” of serial animated TV which, while aimed at children, dealt with complex, nuanced themes that also gave the shows wide appeal among adults." (Romano, 2020) The show handled mature themes that many would not think would let the show make it to the channel it aired at: Nickelodeon, which mainly aired shows like Spongebob Squarepants, or Rugrats. However, it gained so much success, it opened a gateway for shows like Adventure Time and Dragon Prince, which are very lore-heavy Shows that many people across the globe enjoy, Dragon Prince being a show made by the team behind the Avatar series.

The series aired around the times when shows like Naruto, Shaman King and Beyblade were airing on Jetix and Cartoon Network. Those three shows are Japanese Anime, and Avatar's art style is very much aesthetically similar. It comes to no surprise that people were eager to class it as that knowing that the world that the show takes place in is also heavily based on the Asian cultures and aesthetic. "Its main concept of the reincarnated Avatar and the harmonization of the four elements draw heavily upon Buddhism and Taoism, and its settings were mainly based on real-world Asian cultures." (Romano, 2020) It brought the fans closer to the Asian culture than many movies and many more media texts that tried to represent it. "That was a big deal in 2005, when most attempts to represent non-European cultures on TV were still mired in Orientalism. But Airbender very carefully and respectfully built its bender societies around specific cultures." (Romano, 2020) What makes it even more impressive is the sole fact that all the cultures in Avatar are not real, yet they display themselves as the real ones very faithfully.

In 2010 however, the film titled The Last Airbender came to be. It was a perfect example of how not to adapt a film. The representation of the Asian culture was what the film failed to do. Where the original series prospered, the film failed. Not only did it lack the representation, it's poor choice of actors did not stop at the political correctness, the actors were bland as well, and the film itself felt more like a montage than a solid feature. "One of the most game-changing things in all of entertainment that Airbender anticipated was its fandom’s response to the live-action adaptation’s infamous whitewashing of the show’s diverse cast." (Romano, 2020)

The casting choices for the film have been shared two years before the release of the film in 2008, and fans did not react positively. "Paramount’s casting for the film erased all four of the distinctive cultures in the show in favor of casting white actors in the lead roles and dark-skinned actors for the villains from the warlike Fire Nation. When word of these casting choices reached fans in 2008, they revolted, spending the next two years until the film’s 2010 debut boycotting the production until the controversy overshadowed the film itself." (Romano, 2020)

The case study briefly mentions the sequel series Legend of Korra. The show which pushed the fans to focus more on the politics of the current world. "Its sequel Korra pushed many of those themes even further, adding intersectional feminism and critiques of capitalism and structural privilege to the list — all while hinting at a lesbian romance for its main character." They managed to fit in more mature themes into a show while it still aired on Nickelodeon, however, during the runtime of season 3 the series got removed from the TV channel, and became a series you could only view online, for unknown reasons. That's another example of Transmedia within Avatar, the technological accessibility, and talking of which, one thing that the case study fails to mention are the Games, of which there was a couple. They did not meet with the best critic reviews, they proved themselves to be successful with the audiences, not any of them scoring less than 7 stars on IMDB.

Another thing would be the graphic novel series, which spawned a lot of entires, following the adventures of Avatar Aang and his friends, as well as filling in the gaps between the episodes. There were stories that couldn't be fit inside a whole season since it had a specific amount of episodes planned out, but they were enjoyed greatly. In 2012, as the Legend of Korra was being released, the publications of Avatar: The Last Airbender comics began. Those were aimed at the same audiences as theones that watched the series from 2005, so the stories focused on more mature characters, being set a couple of years after the events of the series.

Reflection -

Whatever was written in the case study I have agreed with. As an existing fan of the series I can agree that everything written in the case study is correct. It tells you about the show's achievements, and how it affected other animated TV shows aimed at the younger audiences. It hasn't however said everything there was to know about the show, but it made me go out of my way to do my own bits of research, tying in the transmedia aspects and the fandom to it.

Throughout my reading of it, my opinions haven't changed, they were more reinforced. It is a case study with an aim to persuade people to watch the series, and await the soon-to-come live-action series, talking about the previous failiure of the live-action 2010 film what I completely agree with. I have played the games as well, and read some of the comics, and it would have been great to read about them, however this case study gave me more knowledge into how far an active member of an audience/fandom can go and still remain a faithful fan.

Conclusion -

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a series that has achieved global success across multiple platforms, mostly through its TV and Comic book iterations. It has tackled mature themes that remained with its fanbase, and has also kept its title of one of the best animated shows of all time, winning rewards and spawning a hardly Mediocre film, but a sequel TV series so respectable that it was by many acclaimed as a series that is just as good as it's predecessor. The case study perfectly explained the story, themes and the impact the series has made on its audiences, and this is good, however it has left out a lot of details about the expanse in which the series developed across different platforms. It was not completely necessary however, because the points raised within it said enough about the success of the series that was not an expected addition to a TV channel which nobody would think would air a show that would tackle the themes of genocide, industrialisation and warfare. It was a brave move, and many people are thankful for it.

It also mentions the upcoming Live-action series that will air on Netflix next year, in an attempt by the original creators to faithfully remake their original series beat by beat, erasing the 2010 Live-Action Last Airbender film from everyone's memory.

References:

Romano, A., 2020. Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the greatest TV shows ever made. Now it’s on Netflix [online].

Available from: https://www.vox.com/2020/5/15/21259004/avatar-the-last-airbender-streaming-on-netflix-why-you-should-watch-series-guide

Javanshir, R. and Carroll, B. and Millard, D., 2020. PLoS ONE Vol. 15 Issue 1 [online]. Southampton, University of Southampton.

Lamerichs, N., 2018. Productive Fandom : Intermediality and Affective Reception in Fan Cultures [online]. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.