Our first reading covered the topic of criticism and judgment with rhetoric. Criticism is more or less defined as drawing a line in regard to what is better or worse about a given thing. This is where rhetoric comes in because rhetoric is what is used to explain the thing and criticism is being used to express what could be better about it or what is worse about it. Judgment is the tool used for ascribing value to one’s criticisms. Arguments are made and value is given to the arguments through judgments. Criticisms and judgments are both subjective to the individual.

To connect this to Avatar The Last Airbender, we see situations in which judgments and criticisms are being practiced with each of the differing kingdoms. The Earth Kingdom has their judgments about the global conflicts just as the Fire Nation does for taking the actions that they have and ultimately starting the conflicts. The Water Tribes have their judgments about the war and the conflict that drives them to act in certain ways. In a general sense we can say that both the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes share similar criticisms and judgments of the Fire Nation for taking the offensive and aggressive position in the war. The Air Nomads have been nearly eliminated by the Fire Nation and this could be the situation that the other nations are criticizing and making their judgments of the Fire Nation with.

The Earth Kingdom has decided to close themselves off from the other nations and hide behind their walls as if to ignore the war altogether. They have used taking the situation of the elimination of the Air Nomads by the Fire Nation and made the Judgment that the Fire Nation is the aggressor but since they have not directly involved the Earth Kingdom that they are simply going to stay within their walls and try to stay out of the war.

The Water Tribes are not as fortunate as they are keeping them to be able to have the resources into wall themselves off from the Fire Nation and ignore the war and since the water tribes are split into two primary tribes, one at the North Pole and one at the South Pole, it makes it that much harder for them to defend themselves because they are not able to communicate with one another to be able to cooperate in order to resist the Fire Nation. They are more susceptible to the Fire Nations forces and as a result are more oppressed by the war all together.

The Fire Nation sees the world as needing their help which is why they justify their actions as spreading the strength of the Fire Nation to the other kingdoms. The Fire Lord at the start of the war also felt that their actions were justified because the Avatar of the time was from the Fire Nation. When the Avatar opposed him the Fire Lord tried to force the Avatar to side with him.

When we look over the situations of each kingdom we can see the situations that called for criticism and judgment. We can see examples of how rhetoric was used in these situations in order to explain them and decide what the best action to take would be and what the worst actions to take would be. Each situation called for a different response and criticism of the situation is what would dictate that response. We see one response to cloister, another to resist, and in terms of the newest Avatar we see the response to run. The advancement of the Fire Nation upon the other kingdoms was the situation that and demanded criticism and judgment for the other kingdoms.