Converting to Avatar

I'm going to have to do a whole series of posts on the Avatar series, because just like Downton Abbey, I have nobody to talk about it with. Yeah my kids watch i t too but their questions are like, "Why can Zuko fire bend?" or, "When did Korra Learn fire bending?" Basically ignoring the politics, religion, relationships and beauty of the series for minor details that I really could acre less about.

Also, I tried to get other parents to watch the series for various or basically promote this series as something their kids SHOULD watch even though it's technically not educational. But I believe I h ave to hash through all these ideas myself first,  on my blog.

Also, I have been looking for something for the kids to watch that will help them pick up Kung Fu but the old TVB series can be too boring for them, or culturally too, well a lot of harmful stereotypes are re-enforced whereas, this series seeks to go against those stereotypes in many ways.

Finally, in terms of religious stories, this made up one is free from the burden that a lot of the real religious stories have because it is made up and everyone knows it. It draws from Buddhism and Hinduism and Taoism, but there are a lot of differences too. And just because it is a cartoon and made up, I wouldn't call the creation stories in this series inferior to real religious creation stories.  In other words, if you need something pretend to bow to outside of Science, the spirituality in this series is pretty good.

Finally, Earth, Fire, Air and Water bending is a great thing for a kid to imagine doing while doing moves from Southern Shaolin, Northern Shaolin (Even though the fire nation bows like Bak Mei, that's where the similarity ends), Pak Gua and Tai Chi. And then In Korra's series, all the newer martial arts are mixed in there too. I mean if you are imagining punching someone in the face while throwing your punch, that might be good for your Kung Fu, but you have a particularly violent imagination, which isn't what Kung Fu is all about.
But if you are imagining you are moving air (not chi but air or water, earth and fire, because they do talk about Chi in the Avatar series, but it isn't fantasized into magic. Which is cool.)  you aren't being particularly violent, and you can engage you imagination.

I tried this with the star wars stuff, but this series, put so much effort into making sure te martial arts moves look real that it very well may beat the hell out of any instructional video for the real martial art.
I mean I was glancing through some Tsing Yi stuff and Grace came into the room and said, "Are we all being punished? Why are we watching this?"

It's true. Martial artists and real masters and be too full of themselves and too strict (like Tenzin) It doesn't mean their not good or not good people. But you need the story to engage the imagination. And in the real traditions, the stories often were developed later, after the death of the master, and not only are they fictitious, but may have been created by people who didn't even do Kung Fu. But in many ways it is the story that holds more truth than the "real" martial art itself.