Anime Lectio: Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA)

                                                            1. Why do Anime Lectio? 

Anime Lectio is a time for us to stop and take a breath. Between work, activities, family life, and social media, our minds are always moving. We rarely take time to contemplate and ask, why am I watching this anime? What’s the point of all this? And, how is this making me feel? 

2. Put away all distractions 

(phones, work, etc.)

We are so enslaved to things that stimulate our minds. Let this be a moment for us to free our minds, look inside of ourselves, and be at peace. The only device you need is the one you use for this blog.

3. Deep Breathing - Open yourself to God’s Presence

Take several deep breaths. Let your mind relax. If you’ve had any questions, desires, or struggles that

you’ve been hiding or stuffing away, let them rise up to the surface. Remember God places all our

thoughts and desires inside of us, and He uses them to draw us closer to Himself. God gives us a

community to help us understand who we are and what He is calling us to do. The faces of people you

know and don't know are like signs of God’s presence. 

4. Think About What’s on Your Mind in Relation to the Anime

Think about what’s been on your mind in relation to the anime.  The following is an example of such thoughts written by me. 

There's a lot of debate as to whether Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA) is an anime or not.  While this does create interesting discussion in terms of what anime is and isn't, as well as not universally defined in a way that everyone can accept, which is why I think anime is subjective, I think this is just a distraction from what anime can be and say.  Whether you think ATLA is an anime or not (I think it is - people tend to forget that anime without a manga is a thing), it definitely has a lot going on with its story and what I think is the most important part of that story is self-realization.

5. Brief and written explanation of the anime

Pay attention to how the brief and written explanation of the anime seen on this blog, as well as seeing the anime for yourself since I think that's better than any explanation, might “speak” to you or shed light on the things that have been on your minds.

After a boy freezes himself in ice for 100 years, and being freed by two siblings who happen to find him, he realizes that he has to save the world from a war started during the time the boy froze himself. Only this boy can do this because he is the only one who can master all four elements of water, air, earth, and fire. At the time he's freed, he only knows how to master the element of air due to the fact that he's an air nomad, which he eventually finds out were all killed during the war when traveling with the two siblings who freed him in order to help him save the world. The two siblings are from part of the water tribe that is currently located at the south pole and one of these siblings can control water while the other one fights normally, so they start their journey by traveling to the other water tribe in the north pole to learn how to master the element of water.

During their travels, they are pursued by the banished prince of the fire nation, which is the nation that started the war. This banished prince thinks the only way he can restore his honor is by capturing this air nomad, known as the avatar, so he can go back home and have his honor restored by his father, the fire lord. This banished prince is accompanied by his uncle and guided by his wisdom, which the banished prince thinks about a lot, even after he betrays his uncle after siding with his sister in order to help her stop the avatar. However, he ends up helping the avatar and his friends fight the fire lord, or his father, in order to help save the world, which he realizes that he needs to do by teaching the avatar how to master the element of fire (there's also another friend in the group at this point who teaches the avatar how to master the element of earth). He also realizes that they need to find his uncle in order to help them do that since the avatar has left them in order to think about what to do about stopping the fire lord since he doesn't want to kill him, even though everyone else thinks he has to do that. Anyway, this banished prince finds his uncle, with the help of his uncle's friends, and despite betraying him, his uncle forgives him, telling him that he has restored his own honor by doing all of this. When the avatar does return to fight the fire lord, he ends up defeating him with a technique that he learned while he was away that takes away the fire lord's strength and power, thus saving the world in his own way.

6.  Reflect on the anime

Has this brief and written explanation of the anime shed any light on what's been on your minds?  The following is an example of a reflection on the anime from me.

Despite people thinking if this, as well as other things, is an anime or not, ATLA definitely has a story to tell and that story involves self-realization, mainly the self--realization of the two characters mentioned in the paragraphs in step 5. While the self-realization journey of the banished prince tends to be more interesting, as well as more popular, than that of the main character, both journeys involve these characters achieving what they need to do for themselves in their own ways despite thinking they initially have to achieve it in a certain way. This is also true for us when realizing what we need to do like these characters. There may be ways we are told to do it, which influences how we think about it, but what matters is that we do it for ourselves by what we do and think. It's called self-realization. Not realization-self (or something like that).

7. Final Prayer

Please voice any prayer intentions for friends, family, or people around the world that relate to this anime.  The following is an example written by me.

Let us pray that we can understand how we can achieve our own self-realization.