The world of Avatar: The Last Airbender is incredibly rich in detail and lore. With so many facets to the story and world, it is easy to overlook one of the most basic details of the series: color. On the surface it would seem that the color assignment in the series is rather cliché and basic. Each nation is assigned a color that reflects the predominant bending element in its culture – for example, the Water Tribes wear blue whereas the Fire Nation wears red. On a basic level this helps viewers differentiate between different groups of characters, such as protagonists and antagonists.
However, I argue that color plays a much stronger role in the series than would first seem – especially red and blue. Rather than just serving as basic identification, color in the Avatar world is symbolic of each nation’s cultural identity, and even transcends into the realm of spirituality and the driving force behind their world view. Furthermore, while when used in harmony with their appropriate element, red and blue stand for the cultural ideals of the Fire Nation and Water Tribes, when the colors are swapped they represent a perversion of these nationalistic, spiritual, and personal ideals. For instance, in the final season when Katara is introduced to blood-bending, a skill which she considers repugnant, she is dressed in red Fire Nation garb. And subsequently we never see her blood-bending while she is openly wearing blue. The ability is introduced while she is clad in the color directly opposed to her element, personal beliefs, and way of life, and only ever used again while wearing black to suppress her true colors. This and many other examples show an intentional treatment of how colors are presented to the viewer far beyond simple associations with good and evil.
About the presenterDaniel Nesmith
I am an independent scholar, currently an administrative assistant at the College of Charleston’s Studio Art Department. I graduated with my B.A. in Art History from College of Charleston in 2013. I am hoping to go to graduate school in the near future. My research interests are contemporary art, video games as art, and the use of technology in contemporary art. I presented at the Southwest PCA Conference in February 2015.