Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ transports the audience to a world where people have the power to harness the four elements, based on which the world is divided into four parts. There is only one person who can control all four elements, and that’s the Avatar. The show follows the journey of a 12-year-old Airbender named Aang to become an Avatar. Through it, we get to see different sides of his world, and sometimes, we get a peek beyond it. Apart from the regular world, Aang is also in touch with the Spirit World, which is an entirely different thing in itself. Very few people can access both worlds, and Princess Yue of the Water Tribe in the North is one of them. SPOILERS AHEAD
Yue’s Fox Form Indicates Her Connection With the Spirit World
In the fifth episode of the season, titled ‘Spirited Away,’ Aang and his friends, Katara and Sokka, end up in the Spirit World while trying to help a village that has been ravaged by the Fire Nation and is suffering the consequences of the imbalance created by war. Aang was supposed to go to Spirit World alone, but by mistake, he pulls his friends in with him as well, and this is where Sokka meets someone peculiar.
After being attacked by a monster, Sokka finds himself face to face with a three-tailed white fox that can talk. The fox takes Sokka by surprise, but he soon realizes that the animal doesn’t mean any harm. Rather, the fox, who talks in a woman’s voice, is very friendly and even tells Sokka that the thing he is calling a monster is not actually so. After a brief conversation, which strikes as weird to Sokka, the fox leaves. But this is not the last time he sees her.
Later, when Sokka arrives at Agna Qel’a with Aang and Katara, he is introduced to Princess Yue. While they are in each other’s presence for the first time, Sokka has a feeling that he has seen or met Yue before, but he cannot place his finger on it. Meanwhile, Yue is very friendly to him, and an attraction between them is palpable. Yue’s white hair and calm demeanor keep poking at Sokka, and eventually, he remembers where he has seen her before.
While talking to the fox, Sokka says he is “discombobulated.” He also notices a ring on one of its tails. Later, Yue also uses the word “discombobulated,” and Sokka notices the same ring in her hair, which he last saw on the fox’s tail. This confirms to him that Yue is, in fact, the three-tailed fox he met in the Spirit world, and she confesses it was her. But how was she, a human, in the Spirit world in the form of a fox?
Yue reveals that when she was a child, she fell very sick. Her parents tried everything, but whatever was ailing her didn’t heal. Eventually, they turned towards the Moon spirit and prayed to it for help. The Moon spirit bestowed upon Yue its own essence. It gave a part of itself to Yue, which healed her completely. The essence of the Moon is also the reason why she has her signature white hair. But that’s not the best part.
Because the Moon spirit belongs to the Spirit World, having its essence in her means that Yue also, at least partly, belongs to the Spirit World. As a human, she belongs to the normal world, but the Moon spirit inside her allows her to have a foot in the other world, where she sometimes goes to see what that side looks like. Instead of going there in her human form, Yue takes the form of a three-tailed fox, mostly because of the Moon spirit inside of her and perhaps also because it makes her feel more like she belongs to the Spirit world in fox form.
Being in touch with the Spirit World allows Yue to see things in a different light. This is one of the reasons behind her calm and caring personality and her empathetic nature that eventually allows her to sacrifice herself for the common good. When she eventually merges with the Moon spirit and loses her human form, there is a good chance that she stays in the Spirit World in her fox form.
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