Avatar: The Last Airbender has its fair share of straight and queer ships, something that the fandom has endlessly debated about within both The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. While The Last Airbender was usually lagging in the canon queer relationship department, it seems that the live-action adaptation of the series amended that with its first season.
The first season of the show covers a lot of ground. It has a lot more freedom compared to its animated iteration, given that it is a completely separate medium with a different audience in mind. This allowed the story to explore other themes that could only be alluded to in the animated version or had to be wholly absent thanks to the time it was made in and the audience it catered to.
The Story of the First Earthbenders got a Queer Update in Avatar: The Last Airbender
The story of Oma and Shu is considered to be the founding myth of Omashu, which talks about the tale of two lovers who belonged to separate tribes, who met covertly. However, Oma’s death during the war between the tribes prompted Shu to fight both tribes and force them into submission. Oma then went ahead and unified the tribes to create Omashu, which stood as a testament to their unity.
While this was a heterosexual couple in the animated series, the creators of the show chose to make it into a queer story. Showrunner Albert Kim, speaking to Nerdist, had this to say about the change:
“It was a subtle thing because it wasn’t the type of thing we wanted to hammer people on the head with. There is a tendency to try and pound messages in, especially if you’re doing an update of a story, and that’s not what we wanted to do. But when we took a look at the story of Oma and Shu, it occurred to us that this was really a story about forbidden love in a time when it wasn’t looked upon well.”
The idea of transforming the relationship, one that is defined by its forbidden nature, into a queer one would have made the most thematic sense This sort of subtle representation can go a long way in normalizing such ideas in stories, rather than using them as a gimmick or a ‘feature’ of the story.
Albert Kim felt Oma and Shu should have always been a queer romance
In his interview, Albert Kim had more to say about the change that he made to the relationship between Oma and Shu, and how that stood up against the original depiction of the couple in the animated series. He said:
“It was like it felt right, and once you put it into place and you saw it in the show, it feels like that’s what it always should have been. That’s the feeling we had with it. So I’m glad you picked up on that. I hope others do as well. It’s a good example of a change that we hope gives fans a new way to look at something they already know about and maybe deepen their understanding of.”
The idea was always there but might not have come to fruition thanks to the time and the demographic of the show. However, such changes could be forthcoming later in the show as well, which could change some things in the plot and characterization of the future characters for the sake of the modern sensibilities of today’s viewers.
