A fundraising update!! Thank you Lord! Someone anonymously donated $5,000 towards my fundraising goal! Another donor donated $3,000! I am now 85% towards my goal! Thank you everyone who has donated! And now onto the post!
Hello viewers, and welcome to the other part of last week’s analysis of Steven Universe and Avatar: The Last Airbender!
Last week, I talked about how much I love the diversity, lessons, and animation of these two shows. This week, I’m talking about how much I love the arc and story! Enjoy!
4. Arc
I think the best shows that have ever been done feature character arcs. According to Dictionary.com, an arc is a “continuing storyline in a television series that gradually unfolds over several episodes.” I especially respond to younger characters who mature through trials, finding their ways through their lives and discover themselves. Steven Universe and Avatar: The Last Airbender both utilized seasonal arcs and character arcs within the same episodes, but it’s the character development that I really enjoy.
Within Steven Universe, one of my favorite examples of a character arc is the main character’s discovery of the truth about his mother. From the beginning, Steven is taught that his mother sacrificed herself to have him, leaving everything she knew. She had been built up almost godlike to him, taught by his surrogate family. He feels the pressure of living up to her example.
By season three, they have slowly revealed that just like the rest of us, she was flawed and wasn’t as altruistic and selfless as everyone had told him. They reveal she was originally one of the bad guys, rather than the good guys. Later she transformed herself to save Earth and humanity. Steven comes to the realization that he needs to be the savior, not as a way to live up to his mother’s example but to actually fix the problems that she had created. Coming to terms of the realization of her sins, his transformation is almost like being born again.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old is gone, the new is here! ~2 Corinthians 5:17
In Avatar: The Last Airbender, I find the character arc of Zuko as one of the most transformational. Zuko is originally portrayed as one of the bad guys, seeking the main characters demise. If Zuko can defeat Aang, the Avatar, he can regain his honor, return to his family home and return to the good graces of his father. His uncle, who is on the side of Aang, the Avatar, tries to enlighten him about his father, that it is not all that it seems in his home kingdom with his father. While traveling with his uncle, who was the only person in his family that treats him like a human being, he begins to wrestle with the decision to side with good or evil.
By the beginning of season three, he has had Aang in his grip a few times, and finally chooses the dark side and returns to his father. While he is able to reclaim his honor and to return to the side of his father, he realizes that what he had idolized was not all that he had hoped for and comes to terms of the betrayal of his uncle. The transformation of Zuko from being portrayed as a rigid bad guy with a narrowly defined pursuit of honor to a seeker of the right choices, remorseful over his sins is compelling. I’m not sure what the final choices Zuko chooses, as I’m not finished with the series. Please, no spoilers!
If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters–yes, even their own life–such a person cannot be my disciple. ~Luke 14:26
PS: My mom thinks that the greatest shows featuring character arcs and redemption are Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, both by Joss Whedon. If you are not a fan of animation, please check these shows out (my mom made me write this.)
5. The Story
Both Steven Universe and Avatar: The Last Airbender are superhero shows. They both feature a main character with extraordinary powers and a destiny thrust upon them that they don’t want, but end up embracing. Even Christ asked God to take away his need to be sacrificed.
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” ~Luke 22:42
However, Steven Universe is a tale of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Avatar is a show of people’s complex natures. Yet their main characters are both reluctant saviors who eventually embrace their role as a savior, while still fearing the unknown.
There’s a reason we all like superhero shows. This is obvious in the recent surge of box office hits made from DC and Marvel comics. We all long to find our calling, and to be extraordinary in our ordinary lives. We all feel the need for a savior, and often feel like we need to be the saviors in our own lives.
Average children shows are just about humor, laughs, and rudeness. BothSteven Universe and Avatar: The Last Airbender approach kids as if they have a working brain. As a result, these shows gain new followers young and old.
A good show can teach kindness, diversity, and different kinds of choices and the consequences. A good show needs talented coordination between all the different artists. Just like the body of Christ, we all of a purpose to play and we have to do it together. A good show needs teamwork, from the director to the interns.
Since these shows, particularly Steven Universe, touch on mature themes and diversity, there are some who may dislike this show. I’m called to be in the world, not of the world; yet the world is not as Christ wills it. I’d rather be aware of these relationships and form my own opinions based on Christ’s word, rather than just ignore them.
PS: Mom never allowed me to watch Spongebob Squarepants because she didn’t see any encouraging lessons in it. I am fully glad that she made this decision and regret nothing.
See you guys next week!
Signing off,
Sunny.
“I get it. I know you didn’t want me to deal with your problems. You’re a part of me now. I have to deal with what you left behind.” ~Steven Universe [to his mom, Rose Quartz], S4 E17, Steven Universe
“Anyone’s capable of great good and great evil. Everyone, even the Firelord and the Fire Nation, have to be treated like they’re worth giving a chance.” ~Aang, S3 E6, Avatar: The Last Airbender
