The Last Airbender Series: The Southern Air Temple and the Importance of Sports

With the latest hoopla with the US's run at the World Cup or Derek Jeter's 3000th hit, it seems more and more obvious that sports are a mainstay in society. But if you look at related news surrounding these incidents, you can see that sports are not just spectacle for us. There is definitely something important about sports that changes and affects people. If you look at the Avatar game mentioned in this episode called "Airball", you see that sports separates people from real life. It transports them into this perfect world where we can escape the trouble of the real world.

Aang returns to the southern air temple for the first time since running away. He first acts excited about finally returning to the air temple and seeing all of the monks, air bison, and flying lemurs. But he walks into a lifeless temple, and he sees the airball field and he convinces Sokka to play. Of course, there are many interesting questions during this scene. One of the big ones is how Sokka managed to get on top of the pole. Another is how the game is actually played. But in that moment, Aang is completely and utterly happy. This scene, seemingly pointless or merely fun, is juxtaposed with Katara hiding the Fire Nation helmet. Though this is almost certainly reading way too much into this scene, it seems that the writer is suggesting that airball is a way to hide the truth. It is a way to avoid realizing that the Fire Nation army destroyed the Air Nomads. But isn't there some truth in this? The concept that sports are a way to escape from our everyday problems is a common idea and something actually discussed in How I Met Your Mother. But how about bigger problems like this genocide? Well according to this, it seems to be true. And today seems to be the best example. Japan won the World Cup. This win is so important because of what happened to Japan, still recovering from the devastating earthquakes and tsunamis. Though they still have to rebuild, Japan could celebrate their team's win despite all of the tragedy.

Like life, the story of Aang continues when he realizes what happened to his people. It shows that sports are merely a distraction, a diversion from the troubles of the real world. We can't wrap ourselves around sports or else we will never return to the real world. Sports are not supposed to consume our lives, but sometimes it's nice to escape from it all by immersing ourselves in sports. It gives us peace of mind, if even for that one game, that one championship, that one moment.