Avatar: The Last Airbender and the Corruption of American Youth

I finished watching Avatar: The Last Airbender last night, a TV show aimed at children much in the way an AK-47 is aimed at the heart of a patriotic American soldier.

The "heroes" of the story are members of a ragtag international terrorist conspiracy. Recruited from various corners of the developing world, they are united by an animistic witchcraft religion and an irrational hatred of their world's industrial superpower. Their goal is to impose an environmentalist world government on the unsuspecting citizens of the superpower; there's even an obvious metaphor for so-call anthropomorphic global warming, blamed on the superpower!

The head of the terrorists is the Avatar, the reincarnation of previous Avatars; Avatars are unique in that they can master all four forms of witchcraft, and are supposed to bring "balance" to the world. However, the last Avatar was frozen away in a glacier for a hundred years, and has now returned from hiding to rid the world of "tyranny." Apparently the writers couldn't be bothered to hide the fact they are inspired by the Shi'ite Islam vision of the Mahdi that is so vocally promoted by such figures as Iran's President Ahmadinejad. As Wikipedia explains:

Twelver Shia Muslims believe that the Mahdi is Muhammad al-Mahdi, the Twelfth Imam, who was born in 869 CE and was hidden by God at the age of five (874 CE). He is still alive but has been in occultation, "awaiting the time that God has decreed for his return". ... The Twelfth Imam will return as the Mahdi with "a company of his chosen ones," and his enemies will be led by the one-eyed Antichrist and the Sufyani.

What do we know about the Sufyani?

The Sufyani's army will go to Kufa; a city in Iraq, and from there he will launch an attack against the people of Khurasan. At the Gate of Istakhr, Shuayb bin Salih and the Hashimite under the black banners, will join forces and engage the army of the Sufyani. The battle will be extremely fierce with a tremendous loss of life and the army of the Sufyani will suffer a temporary defeat. It is at this time that a yearning for the Mahdi's appearance is on the lips of everyone.

So, to recap, the hidden Mahdi (Avatar) will return and fight two enemies, one of them one-eyed and the other a defeated general. And, what do you know, the main enemies of the Avatar (Mahdi) and his company of terrorists are a prince, who has had one eye damaged, and his uncle, who used to be a general but was defeated in his attempt to conquer a large city!

I am astonished that this TV show was ever allowed to air in the United States of America, especially since it's entertaining enough that it can be enjoyed by adults, expanding its propagandistic reach even further. Thankfully, the recent movie version is not quite as good as the TV series, so perhaps no more damage will be inflicted on the fragile psyche of our nation's youth.