The Last Airbender Series: Imprisoned and the "Help Me, Sue You" Effect

This is a sad, yet sometimes true, scenario. You see someone in dire need of help, be it CPR or otherwise. As a Good Samaritan, you go and help this person, but by saving their life, you also accidentally cause harm to them. Rather than thanking that person for what they did, they do the unthinkable. You expect someone to show gratitude for saving their life or doing good for them. But more and more, you hear stories about Good Samaritans not being thanked, but being sued for what they did. This blindsided move is demonstrated in this episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Our Aang gang found themselves in a Earth Kingdom village taken over by the Fire Nation, and the Fire Nation has banned all earthbending. Haru, an earthbender, sees an old man trapped by a rockslide, and Katara and Haru decide to help the old man, despite the illegality of earthbending. Since Haru saved that man's life, you'd expect him to thank Haru for his generosity. Instead, the old man informed the Fire Nation that Haru was earth bending. This does differ from the real world examples in that saving a person's life is typically not illegal. But this does not seem like the ideal situation or the right thing to do in this scenario. If you are saved by someone, do you thank them or try to exploit them? You thank them, you treat them as a hero. You don't throw them under the bus, but this still happens. And that is unfortunate.

So what is the message the Avatar is showing now? On one hand, they could be enforcing a cynical opinion. When you see someone who needs your help, don't help them unless they explicitly ask. Essentially, you're not supposed to go out of your own way to help someone. That's a pretty gritty message for a kid's show, but that's only one way to construe this event. The other is a commentary on people who take advantage of good, kind-hearted people. Does the audience ever think that Haru did the wrong thing? No, they don't for the most part. But it's a general consensus that the old man did the wrong thing. The message here is gratitude. Whether or not you know the person, if he helps you, you owe them. They don't owe you anything. And unfortunately, this is a message that needed to be delivered, rather than a moral that should be naturally assumed.