There are a lot of assholish nations that could easily take that place, but imo there are enough references to Dalai lama in the show to assume that the fire nation is china

[–] archomrade@midwest.social 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Imagine seeing a brutal depiction of genocidal imperialism in media and referring to it as 'assholish'

[–] Siegfried@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Being "just a cartoon" I never thought of the dimension of it, but they literally wiped out an entire nation. Suddenly, comparing the fire nation to any current superpower seems wrong.

[–] archomrade@midwest.social 5 points 5 months ago

?? The US famously wiped out the native population within its borders. I'm not sure what history you were taught but genocide is a very common topic.

[–] OscarRobin@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

The Dalai Lama references are from the Air Nomads, not Fire Nation

[–] Leviathan@lemmy.world 8 points 5 months ago

Yes, that's how the metaphor follows through. The fire Nation destroys the air nomads the way the Chinese destroyed Tibet.

[–] Kalothar@lemmy.ca 8 points 5 months ago

That’s because the air nomads are basically Tibetan monks, also annexed by China in the 1950s