Book: Avatar the Last Airbender: The Search Vols. 1-3
Author: Gene Luen Yang
Trigger warnings: emotional and mental abuse towards spouse and children, violence between siblings |(if you spotted any I missed please let me know so I can add them, thanks)
Sub-genre: Otherworld graphic novel
Page count: 228 total (76 each)
Points of Diversity: People of color, Women of color, woman w/ mental disorders, interracial couple
Intersectional Diversity?: yes
Would Recommend?: yes
(sidenote: Due to illness and fatigue I’m afraid this review runs shorter than my usual. I hope to be back up to speed next week.)
The last Avatar graphic novel I reviewed went over a lot of elements and as a result, while still good, felt rather fast paced. Avatar The Last Airbender: The Search is much more focused, and as such doesn’t have the same problems with pacing that The Promise had. Overall it is a much more tight knit and well put together story.
The focus here is on the search for Fire Queen Ursa, the mother of Fire Lord Zuko and his sister Azula, who went missing before the events of the TV show. Throughout The Search we find out where she is and what happened to her, as well as more about her backstory. Both Zuko and Azula travel together on this journey despite the rough history between them. Zuko is seeking to patch up his broken family by reconnecting with his sister as well as his mother. We meet Azula bound in a straight jacket due to events at the end of the show but as part of the journey Zuko agrees to let her travel “unbound, with dignity.”
Azula was a primary villain in the cartoon but takes on a different role here. She’s highly antagonistic but is revealed to be just as much a victim of her father’s upbringing as Zuko was. We learn more about her past and it becomes clear that from childhood she showed symptoms of Antisocial Personality Disorder. Couple this with a father who nurtured and encouraged the problematic elements that come with such a disorder and it’s easy to see how she became as ruthless as she did. However, just like with real Antisocial Personality Disorder, she is not unfeeling.
Towards the end we see moments where she begins crying, despite her efforts to fight it. Events in the show left her broken and now she displays symptoms of Schizophrenia and/or PTSD. She has hallucinations that her missing mother is out to get her, delusions of grandeur about the throne, anxiety, and extreme paranoia. She honestly believes everyone is out to get her and that her mother is at the heart of it all, trying to take everything that she believes is rightfully hers.
She becomes a tragic character who sees everyone around her as an enemy, even her own family, due to a combination of untreated neurodivergence and the emotionally abusive upbringing from her father. This is a very welcome change that was touched upon in the show, but not given the full room to breathe that it needed. All too often, people with mental disabilities like Antisocial Personality Disorder are simply painted as villains in stories when they are just as much a product of upbringing as anyone else. Azula was raised by a father who encouraged her to be arrogant, self-centered, and uncaring towards “commoners” and anyone else outside the royal family. We have seen through stories and history how this sort of treatment can bring up even non-neurodivergent individuals to do horrific things.
Here, Azula is not a villain; her actions make sense given the mindset she’s in. Zuko is trying to bridge the gap between them, and based on what Azula does at the end of the story I feel like he succeeds, somewhat, and I hope there are more stories out there that bring her back and continue her character arc. Based on my own admittedly limited knowledge of these types of mental disorders I feel like this was a very good representation. It’s certainly better than most of what we see in stories.
There is also a parallel given with Zuko and Azula’s relationship between Katara and Sokka’s, who are a brother and sister team who have some friendly rivalry with each other. They argue a lot but there is never any doubt how much they care about each other. Zuko has a lot of admiration for their family ties and tries to kindle the same bond with Azula through the compassion and respect he shows her. Azula’s mental disorders make it difficult for her to see this but he doesn’t give up and slowly it does have an impact.
All in all I think this was a much better story than The Promise was. About the only negative I can come up with is that Toph wasn’t present, however it makes sense that she would be busy with her metal bending school due to events from the previous novel. Also, Toph isn’t the most sensitive of people and given the dynamics of the journey taken, I don’t see her going along with the idea of Azula traveling free. As such, her absence makes sense. The Search is a very strong story and easily makes it on my list of recommendations.
Next week we’ll be moving away from Avatar so I can take a look at Kayla Bashe’s latest novella Graveyard Sparrow, who donated an ebook copy for me to review. See you all then.
Mars WaterDragon 