Courtesy Toon Zone News
Color Coding: How "Avatar the Last Airbender" Uses Color (Part 1)
There are many tools that Avatar the Last Airbender uses to characterize each of the four nations that form its world. Just in time for the Day of Black Sun, Toon Zone News will take a look how at the show associates specific colors to each of the four nations, and then examine some of the exceptions to show how color is used to send subtle messages about characters and their true allegiances.
As a rule, you can examine the use of color into "on-screen" reasons and "off-screen" reasons. "On-screen" uses of color are the instances where color has meaning or value to the characters in the show itself, such as when Suki explains her costume's symbolism to Sokka in the episode "Warriors of Kyoshi Island" (right). These reasons are targeted at the characters, and detail what the color means to them. "Off-screen" reasons are targeted at the audience, and can have a variety of uses and purposes. For example, a classic film technique is to costume a character in a different color to make them visually distinct from other characters on-screen, often to provide subtle clues to their inner motivations or allegiances. These two broad categories are not mutually exclusive, but they will be identified here up-front to ensure that they don't get confused with each other.The first section of this article will cover the costume colors of the major nations of Avatar, while the second discusses the exceptions and any on-screen or off-screen explanations or interpretations. Whenever possible, discussions are kept in the abstract, but this article does contain multiple spoilers for the show thus far
