I certainly agree that it is a fusion of cultures, predominantly Asian, and that Asian concepts of mythology and quasi-spinoffs therein dominate the narrative.

Maybe it's just the way I personally took it, though, but I got a sense as a new viewer of the cultural lineage to be not just Asian but everything under the sun - so no one child, Asian, Latin, African, Native American, black, white, what have you, can look at Aang or Sokka or Katara, with their varied features, colors, and naming, and definitively say, "that's me, but that's NOT me." Everyone can potentially see themselves in there, I think. I saw Avatar as removed from any extremely specific or conventional definition of race - it's a fictional world with history different from others, where culture is something entirely new.

As I said, I do think they cast too white overall, given the rich cultural background of the show, but I was not surprised or appalled when a white child was cast as Aang, anymore than I was offended when people would offer up white actors to play roles in, say, a live-action Cowboy Bebop (another show where I felt cultures fused together in a new world).

Anyway, that's where I leave this.

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