Kind of wild that one of the first Asian people to have any major creative say in the Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise was... M. Night Shyamalan

(prior to him I think one episode of the show had an Asian director, and another had an Asian co-writer two season later)

It’s a show I enjoy, but the cultural conversation around it rarely mentions how orientalist it feels — even if one doesn’t want to be harsh about it for whatever reason, its cultural/aesthetic influences don’t seem to come up much beyond a passing mention either

Much as I occasionally take issue with the cultural perspective from which it’s made, how one can talk about it without so much as hinting at Buddhism, Tibetan persecution and the Dalai Lama is beyond me. This is recent real-world history baked very overtly into its creative DNA

This feeds in to the larger topic of the default POVs of western criticism. A re-incarnated monk recognized by picking toys from his past life, on the run cause his people are slaughtered by an industrial nation... isn’t some reach or deep cut. Look to other global perspectives!