This episode, we shall see if it will pass the Bechdel Test or not
Are there women in the episode:
- Katara
- Toph
- On Ji
- Azula
- Mai
Do the women talk to each other:
- No
Do they talk about something other than men:
- No
This episode didn’t pass the Bechdel Test, but a common theme for this show is the amount of named women that appear in each episode. While they don’t talk to each other, it is still nice to see the representation of both genders and being a prominent role in the show as well. But this episode had a huge theme of cultural imperialism with the Fire Nation to their own people. Aang was caught and sent to school because some Fire Nation people thought he ran away from school since he was dressed in a uniform. While he was there, he learned that the history books of the Fire Nation bent the truth about the battle between the Air Nomads and the Fire Nation. The history books told of a way between the two armies, but Aang pointed out that the Air Nomads had no military and they were attacked in an ambush. The teacher called him out for it saying “how can you know more than our history books … unless you were there 100 years ago.” Another time during music class, Aang was dancing and told to stop by the teacher because students need to be rigid and show no emotions. So Aang fought against this and invited all of the students at the school to a dance party and showed them traditional dances of the Fire Nation from 100 years ago. This showed the kids that you can express yourself and you don’t have to listen to everything that adults tell you. This was a cool thing to see in this show since it showed a younger audience to express themselves how they want to and you shouldn’t always listen to what adults tell you to do all the time.
Shared by: Gabriel Olsen
Image Credit: IGN.com