[PolarStarQuote]

Avatar the Last Airbender, and its Sequel, Legend of Korra, Have  achieved Potential for Whitelisting, Due to the Characters appearing as crossovers in Smite; Battlefield of the Gods.

Now, In these whitelist tests, we the staff need to see reasoning as to Why, or Why Not these characters should be added onto Li. We Primarily look for Aesthetic reasons 'Would these characters stand out/Look out of place on Li', 'Can these characters Add to Li and give Interesting materials for Li?', And of course 'Is this material suitable for Li.' We are not looking for, And will ignore arguments against the Whitelist System in general. Just Arguments for or Against the series!

[Maverick Hunter Zero]

Hoo boy... Who here could never forget watching this entire series from the first episode of Book one to the spoiler alert that is the final episode of this show, I sure as hell won't be forgetting that anytime soon, and nobody else would as well.

To those who want to make a character from this show, it would be EXTREMELY IMPORTANT AND WORTH YOUR TIME to watch this series and it's sequel series, Legend of Korra.

In terms of the lore however, without going into too much detail as per spoilers: the Earth Kingdom, Air Nomads, Water Tribe, and Fire Nation originally lived in harmony, with the Avatar being the one bringing balance to all four elements, however something would go wrong and the Avatar mysteriously vanished, setting up the fire nation to begin a campaign that would throw the elements out of balance, the current Avatar for this series is Aang, and Air Nomad and the last of their kind, who was discovered by Katara and Sokka, two members of the Southern Water Tribe, encased in an icy sphere. His adventures with those two would begin after they saved Aang from the exiled Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, and along the way they meet new friends such as Buumi and enemies such Admiral Zhao and later on, Azula.

In terms of allowing this to happen, I'm for it, it'd be fun to see who can make a character who can be able to bend an element.

[Jade Callisto]

I think ATLA and LOK have potential here mainly because both series follow the avatar and their friends in different wacky adventures. Now how does this fit in with LI you may ask? Aang and his era have a very less technical approach to the series and it has very little technology but the many different mixed breed animals and unique fighting styles all derived from actual martial arts could fit in quite well.

Each bending style is based on a different form of martial arts and that's just including bending by itself. Kenjutsu which is the art of swordplay has been in the series as well as other weapon usage. The fighting aspect is pretty much covered here already but what can the series add to Li besides fighting styles. Well I find it fascinating that the very prosperous worlds of ATLA and LOK would be completely different from LI as in the characters like most would have a tough time getting used to being in a very barren world.

The Avatar concept kind of comes to mind too. Once they die they come back as a new person but in LI death is never permanent so I imagine this would halt the Avatar Cycle completely until the character is truly dead or no longer being played. As such having multiple Avatars could prove troublesome for their universe but in here there would be no such consequences since like with other characters alternate versions of a character can exist at the same time as the other.

As for Legend Of Korra. That era is in a time where technology is starting to get off the ground and could prove interesting to see the characters from that era react to the super advanced tech of the life sphere as well. But what they can offer in terms of inventions and such could prove useful for travel in LI.

Like Avatar they have plenty of things to offer. The thing I've noticed the most in LOK is that they had their own form of stadium battles of their own for professional bending tournaments. They wouldn't feel out of place there since we have sort of our own going on too. I find it fun in concept to make these two series part of Li.

Thing is Avatar has a lot to offer in terms of food, fighting, culture and so much more. I vote to allow ATLA and LOK a pass in this whitelist test. That is my opinion on this, thank you for reading.

[TartoonHand94]

I know I’m no fun when it comes to this stuff. I know I’m opinionated and as liberal as my political ideals are, my opinions are ironically conservative when it comes to Super Smash Bros. I know my puritan values go against the grain and if my will were to be enacted, it would get in the way of the good time everyone else is already having. I know this, and it’s why I normally don’t get involved with the Whitelisting process.
I don’t Want to get in the way of other people’s fun. I stayed out of whitelisting anime and manga, I was merely a source of research material when whitelisting Disney properties for Kingdom Hearts, I made a statement on Steven Universe without casting a vote.

But for Avatar the Last Airbender and the Legend of Korra, I’m putting my foot down. I’m casting a vote this time. Because whether it gets rejected, or whitelisted after all, I don’t want to live with the regret of knowing I stood by and said nothing.

I’ve been a devout fan of Avatar the Last Airbender as instantly as the night it premiered on Nickelodeon back in 2005.
I followed Aang and his friends every step of their journey across their war torn world. I’ve seen their highest highs, their lowest lows, even after the series ended and the sequel comic series began.
I paid to watch the Last Airbender (2010) with my own allowance money, just to see it with my own eyes and form my own impression of it.
Where most of my kind jumped ship, I even stayed onboard for Aang’s successor Korra and watch her navigate the world he left behind, and fell in love with her and all her friends all the same.

Some have Star Wars, others have Sailor Moon, some have Full Metal Alchemist, I have Avatar.
So, I know what I’m talking about when I say what I’m about to say this series does not belong on Li.

I vote No on Avatar the Last Airbender and the Legend of Korra’s whitelisting.

But obviously, any of you who know me, knows I wouldn’t make such a loaded statement without having arguments ready to back it up. I wouldn’t just say it because I don’t like the series, its genre, or its fans. And if I didn’t have a reason to say it beyond just me being no fun, I wouldn’t have said it.

[TartoonHand94]

Chapter 2: Avatar in its own World
Because of how few members on this site have actually seen either Avatar series, it’s hard to even talk about this story without giving away major plot points and spoiling surprises, so I’m going to avoid discussing the story itself whenever I can.

If you know the line “Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.” You know Avatar’s world is one engulfed in war. And despite its fantasy setting, it does not go easy on it. It explores the full extent of the real-life consequences of war. From colonialism, imperialism, the inevitable refugee crisis, cultural and racial genocide both successful and in-progress, and the societal and psychological damage it causes to those who survive. The fact that it tackles this in a way intended children is a feat in its own right. (I can tell you: because it doesn’t fetishize tragedy the way other series do.)
The least realistic thing it handles is how wars End, but the comics still take into account what happens to a world After a war ends with equal tact and nuance.

And then the Legend of Korra takes place in a world rebuilt after the war…grappling with the pitfalls of a newly civilized world with conflicting ideals of what said modern social structure should be.

But that’s not what we’re supposed to be think about when we consider a series for Li. What’s the magic system? How does Bending work?

Bending, Water Bending, Earth Bending, Fire Bending, Air Bending and Spirit Bending, are all a matter of manipulating said element using chi.
Chi’s not treated like a power source that can be charged and fired like in Dragon Ball or Naruto and its not a binary unit for power scaling, again like Dragon Ball or Naruto. It’s not a metric for who’s the best or most important character either. I only bring up chi at all because it’s about how in-tune the bender is with their own energy and the element that they’re bending.
Also, because Fire Bending is basically using your chi to ignite oxygen, but it’s the only one that works like that.

Water, Earth and Air bending each obey all the physical properties and limitations of said element.
Water bending can only accomplish what H20 can accomplish, Earth bending can only do what can be done with minerals and Air bending can’t let you fuse with your allies or turn into a log.
Benders aren’t Pokémon: they can’t manifest water, earth or air out of nothing. If they’re not surrounded by enough of their element to do something big, they can’t do something big. And if a bender’s chi isn’t flowing, they can’t bend either.

And every bender can only bend 1 element. That’s it. Only the Avatar can bend multiple elements, and there can only be one Avatar in the world at any given time.

That being said, even within these restrictions, Bending is extremely versatile when applied cleverly.
All forms of bending as seen in the series are each based on a real-life martial art that you can go out and learn yourself if you want to.
But how good you are at bending doesn’t automatically match how good you are at actually fighting, either. In fact, the Non-benders of the series are typically The best combatants. It’s like asking whether a professional butcher could defeat a trained swordsman.
Beyond bending as a concept, the world of Avatar and its inhabitants are grounded in the limitations of reality.
I bring this up to make the point that nobody in the Avatar world can disappear into thin air and appear behind you by moving faster than light. I’ll explain why this matters in the next post.

Speaking of which, the characters. Now I’m not going to list them all and describe them here, that’s what the wiki’s for. But I bring up the characters because I feel it relevant to mention; they’re not video game characters. As in, they’re not as open to interpretation as video game characters are. By design, everything a video game character does outside of a cutscene is up to the player’s interpretation. The game’s narrative only serves to contextualize the player’s behavior.
But Avatar is completely narrative-based. If an Avatar game isn’t adapting a previously seen storyline, it’s non-canon. In fact, out of all the video games spun off the franchise, only One has even had the creators’ involvement with its story.

Video game characters are good for roleplay because by their design they’re built to be looser defined and bend to the player’s whims.
But nobody’s in Avatar is a blank slate to be filled in. Everyone with a name is meticulously crafted with a fully dimensional personality, a fleshed-out backstory, present situation and future to aspire to. I’ll explain why this matters in the next post.

[TartoonHand94]

Chapter 3: Avatar on Li
And here is the most important post for my argument, how would Avatar work if it came to Li?
Short answer: it wouldn’t.
Long answer:

Li is not an environment that is hospitable to characters from a series like Avatar.
This is not because of the technological culture shock or all these different creatures from different worlds wandering about. That’s part of the nature of a crossover like this and it’s not what I mean.

Planet Li is defined by its state of desolation. A state made perpetual by the way its story is told: missions focused on doing something about fixing it, rarely survive to make any progress.
As our most influential members would rather fool around in trivial matters instead, those are the events that survive into being canon. That works for video game characters who usually don’t have much agency beyond “reach the goal at the end of the level and beat the final boss” because fixing the world’s problems isn’t as fun as saving it from one big threat you could fight.

Nobody from the Avatar world will be content to just bum around at the mall or watch an arena battle while the whole world is crumbling around them.
The pollution, the plague, the famine, the fact that hell’s literally open and leaking into this world, these are all problems these characters are going to actively want to do something to solve. They wouldn’t be satisfied until the hellscape that we know as Li is restored into something we don’t even recognize.
Anything less would be an injustice to their characters.

But okay, even if you ignore the heroes and app an OC, there’s a still the matter of limitations everyone from the Avatar world adheres to.
Benders can only bend 1 element (plus Spirit Bending if you wanna get technical about it) without being a reincarnation of Aang or Korra.

The Avatar world is too grounded in reality to mesh well with the inherent slapstick of Super Smash Bros and the series that make up it.
Avatar doesn’t participate in Cartoon Violence (Violence with a logic-defying lack of consequence) nor engage in Anime Violence (Violence inflicted through logic-defying means.)

People and animals from this world take real damage from things. The grotesque burn scar on Prince Zuko’s left eye was the result of just One fire ball. In a single battle with any fire-wielding character on Li, enough failed dodge rolls would be enough to completely disfigure him, if not outright kill him.
Characters have been killed by being crushed, stabbing, explosions, drowning, electrocution, asphyxiation, dragged body and soul into the spirit world,
They couldn’t survive the most routine antics in a Mario sports game.

And again, like I said, all characters in this world are subject to the limitations of the human body. Amazing feats of strength and agility are amazing by the standards of Our world, but nobody jumps thrice their height, and floats gently to the ground without Air bending.

It’s the inverse of why we don’t let the likes of Dragon Ball Z characters on Li: The standard of strength is too strong for a fair fight against the average Li character. The strength standard of Avatar is too weak for a fair fight against an average Li fighter.

[TartoonHand94]

Chapter 4: I Rant No More.
Despite being a stickler for authenticity, I’ve successfully repressed every impulse I’ve had to police the way people play their characters since joining Li.
...But I just don’t think I’m strong enough to keep from doing that when it comes to Avatar. All I know is letting it out will hurt, and holding it in will hurt even more.

And normally keeping the authenticity up is a Lore Keepers job, but given the medium Avatar is native to, getting up to date on the lore involves watching 7 seasons, totaling 113 episodes across two shows, reading 8 comic book trilogies, or spoiling the entire series for yourself by reading the wiki.

But if all I’ve said is not enough, and I could understand why you don’t think it’s enough to make it not worth a try, I’ve saved my most important argument for last:
What Qualifies Avatar for Whitelisting?

Aang, Zuko and Korra’s appearances in SMITE, right? Don’t crossovers like this only count if its canon to both series involved?
Aang, Zuko and Korra are nothing more than DLC cosmetic skins for Merlin, Susano and Skadi respectively. This crossover is not even canon to SMITE.

Just the robes Aang’s wearing in the trailer while allied with Zuko is enough evidence to prove it’s not canon to the Avatar timeline either. After the climax of Book 2, he Never wears those robes again. No really, you can check.

In conclusion, I reiterate again, my vote is No, Avatar the Last Airbender and the Legend of Korra should not be Whitelisted.
I hope with these three posts I’ve made clear that my stance is not one rooted in bias, nor contempt for anyone or any desire to ruin anyone’s fun. My stance is based in objective truths about both Avatar and Li, because I take both seriously. I take them so seriously I love them too much not to.
Thank you for reading.
結束