Clever way to get Aang and Katarra together.
Indeed. You knew it was coming a couple of episodes into it....but it was a good tie-in...
The episode
"The Great Divide" was really amazing in what it set the stage for as well - all of the dynamics of warring Earth tribes fighting against one another even though they have a larger nation (Fire Nation) coming against the Earth Kingdom - and seeing how Aang chose to deal with it. The fact that he lied to solve the problem and yet Katara and Sokka were taking sides respectively - I was amazed to see how complicated their relationship was...
Yeah, he finally takes Iroh's advice to be himself so he reveals his real identity and the replies, "I hate you!". I could feel that punch in the gut.
That was unfortunate to see what happened - in light of how much the village was being bullied by their own kind (Earth Benders) - and yet when Zuko tried to save them and revealed his Fire Bending, the very people who asked him for help and thanked him.....they turned against him with the same prejudice they complained on. That's very similar to the ways that nations often have people within them acting out the same things they are upset at others doing to them and yet they don't even realize it...
I was expecting some kind of alliance between the Fire Nation and Dai Li.
In a sense they did so - even though it was not explictly with both working on the same side. There is corruption in all nations and what occurred with them was a matter of two nations both having corrupt parties trying to control things for their own ends within their respective nations - leading to others respectively being oppressed even as both sides hate one another. The Fire Nation dealing with aggressive imperialization and the Earth Kingdom dealing with subversive control (just like many governments have done to their people when they want to keep them in ignorance to global events and end up spying on others/manipulating them and those in power for their own ends...to the point where they become nothing more than a figurehead).
There were so many parallels to the real world that can be seen in the Earth Kingdom. Outside of the fact that
Ba Sing Ses walls are based on the Great Wall of China (and the history of
Long Feng matches what occurred similarly with Eunuchs in Imperial China), the introduction of the
Dai Li was very profound - in light of how stories and poems in ancient China refer to secret polices that pretended to guard the emperor but, in the end, betrayed him and joined the enemy. ...
And as it concerns their origins, they were named after
Lieutenant General Dai Li - a top Chinese government official during the first half of 20th century,
and one of the most feared men in China. He was infamously the leader of Chiang Kai-Shek's secret police and the paramilitary fascist Blue Shirt Society. Additionally, the number of agents in his organization is said to have been over 50,000 at one point, and their assignments included surveillance, kidnapping, apprehension, and assassination. Consequently, it was because of his "legacy" of oppression that the creators chose to name Ba Sing Se's secret police after him
Of course, others have felt that the parallels the Dai Li have can be found elsewhere - as seen in how others feel the Dai Li are based on the
Jinyi Wei.
According to one source:
Founded in 1368 the Jinyi Wei started out as the Hong Wu Emperors body guards, but quickly seized power. Just one year later they were authorized to overrule courts, and had the permission to arrest, interrogate and punish literally anyone, including royalty. The Hong Wu Emperor is the founder of the Ming Dynasty. After he conquered what is now Beijing and founded the Ming Dynasty the Hongwu Emperor doubted his subjects loyalties towards him and was constantly on guard against possible rebellions and assassinations. One of the early duties of the Jinyi Wei was to help the emperor spy on his subjects, the Inyi Wei started out with just 500 members, but grew in size to over 14,000 within the next three years. They lasted 262 years as an organization
The "Secret Police" aspect of the Dai Li is again something reflected well in Chinese history. This goes in addition
with what the Dai Li used to control others - as it concerns the Episode called
"Lake Laogai" (where
it showed others being taken to be brain-washed/controlled - one of the creepiest moments being when they passed that room full of others known as Joo Dee - the guide who existed to neutralize unwanted outside influences - and found a room of Dai Li agents with whom they then engage in a fight) ...that being based on the
Lao Gai Prison Camps...the Dai Li's actions on Lake Laogi being used to harm others being a parallel with Lao Gai being a real life place.
As
another noted best:
After the setup of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949, the Laogai was established under the tutelage of Soviet experts, who as was to be expected used their knowhow of operating the Gulag camps. The Gulag had been in existence since the 1920s. In addition to a number of infrastructure projects, these experts helped the Chinese Communists to establish Qincheng Prison in Beijing Municipality in the 1950s. Qincheng is isolated and highly secret. Most inmates are political prisoners. It was then designed and funded entirely by the Soviet Union. In the early 1950s the news was widespread in China that there were 156 Socialist Construction Projects underway, fully supported by Chinas Big Brother the Soviet Union. The 156 projects included steel plants, railways, river dams, etc. However, it was not until 40 years later that people learned there were actually 157 projects, not 156. The 157th project was Qincheng Prison. It was the first Laogai General Brigade in Beijing Municipality.
Trippy, IMHO....
For more info on the ways Avatar spoke on real life issues within Asian history, one can go here to
A:TLA Annotations
As another noted best,
For a cartoon aimed at children ATLA touches on some very dark parallels, parallels whose real world issues remain unexplained, and go over the head of most of the target audience. I personally feel that when drawing from dark real world events/situations (especially if you are using the real term and are not substituting i.e. Air Nomads - Tibet vs. Lake Laogai), and if those events are not that well known to your audience, you are obligated to give context, be it in the form of interviews, the art book, on the website (there are loads of options). Why? Because it is disrespectful.
.