This blog takes a look at the broad artifact of the Avatar The Last Airbender series and will take scenes or aspects of the series as more specific artifacts and will examine them through various methods of rhetorical criticism. Some of the specific artifacts covered with this blog are characters, specific scenes or events that take place, specific places, or other specified events within the series and the world of Avatar. This specific artifact was selected because I felt that there would be a wide array and selection of specific artifacts for me to be able to explore rhetorical criticism methods. Within this blog there are nine original posts that all examine different methods of rhetorical criticism. Additionally, there will be for revised posts where I will be expanding and editing the original post to sharpen the criticism given and clean up any loose ends that may have been present in the original.

Metaphor

Avatar the Last Airbender and Metaphor: Tea

The first post that I revised is the post that covers the method of metaphor. The link above is the original post. In this post I had made the claim that tea is a representation of balance and that it is a reflection of the Avatar. I made connections for each element of tea and how they connected to each bending discipline. In the revised post, link below, I expanded a little bit more on each element of tea and how it represents a different bending discipline.

(Revised) Avatar the Last Airbender and Metaphor: Tea

Visual

Visual Rhetoric and Avatar the Last Airbender

The second post chosen for revision was the post on visual rhetoric. This post looked at the visual presentation of Zuko from when he is first shown to the end of the show. Zuko goes through tremendous character development throughout the series and my post aimed to highlight the visual rhetoric used to show the changes that were taking place. The revision cleans up some of the elements of visual rhetoric that weren’t used in my analysis. I wanted to list them because they are still elements of the method but I also stated that they were not elements specifically used in my analysis.

(Revised) Visual Rhetoric and Avatar the Last Airbender

Place and Space

Avatar The Last Airbender and Place

The third post that I chose to revisit to amend some things was the post that covered Place and Space. This post analyzed the artifact of the library of Wan Shi Tong. Some of the factors that are taken into account with this method are Rules of Engagement and the target audience that’s such a place would attract or gain the interest of. I gave some history about the library and its creator in this post as well as covered the key components of the method. There’s not much needed for the revision except for making some edits to the videos that were embedded so that they were bigger and easier to observe and to amend some grammatical mistakes.

(Revised) Avatar The Last Airbender and Place

Metonomy

Avatar The Last Airbender and Metaphor. Volume II

The 4th and final post that I chose to revise was originally intended to revisit the method of metaphor and analyze a different artifact. However, I ended up accidentally creating a post that explained metonymy. Metonymy is when you break something down to its essential bits or central core. This post analyzed the similarities between the Avatar being a master of all bending disciplines and Sokka learning fighting styles from the different nations. The revision corrected the misidentifying of the method by changing the instances of metaphor with metonymy. The claims and the examples still fit but it was just that the method used was misidentified.

(Revised) Avatar The Last Airbender and Metonymy

Reflection

While learning these different methods for rhetorical criticism and applying them to the Avatar series, I had started to notice a commonality that seems to continue to get noticed as I would analyze and examine more specific artifacts. The concept of balance was a common notion that kept coming up throughout the series. There are characters whose identity is strongly connected to either establishing balance, gaining balance, or finding balance. Other concepts such as unity or peace come up quite a bit and can be found in different representations. The conflicts and chaos that we see within the show our forces that challenge balance and peace but by the end of the show we can see how it is not the elimination of conflict or chaos but the acceptance of them that will ultimately bring unity. I chose Avatar The Last Airbender because I felt it was a show that could easily be related to and highlighted common concepts and when I coupled them with the methods that I learned in this rhetorical criticism course I found deeper understanding and greater enjoyment of this show. I feel that if another were to use this show and applied these same methods to them that they would be able to find other connections that I had missed or had overlooked without having to hit on the same ones that I touched on. Perhaps they could even expand on them even deeper than I originally had. The four methods that I chose to revise are the ones that I was able to understand most clearly and felt confident in my ability to give a descriptive analysis utilizing them. There was a lot of material that I could have used to expand on if I felt like putting more time into them.

I think my favorite post and method was Space and Place. I really felt like I was diving into the place and getting to examine it first hand. Being mindful of each of the five senses and what I might take in with each one with the library. I have a pretty vivid imagination and that was able to help me really elaborate on the elements of what my senses would tell me about with the library. I enjoyed getting to go over the history of it and what the rules of the establishment was. I enjoy a good story and I feel like the library itself is able to tell a good story.

This blog should be enjoyable to any that found joy and entertainment in watching the series. Even if one does not much care for the series but enjoy rhetoric, I feel they would also be able to find something worthwhile with this blog. If neither one was enjoyable then hopefully I can leave you with at least this final trick in hopes of leaving you with some kind of entertainment.