There is No War in Ba Sing Se

About

"There is no war in Ba Sing Se" is a phrase from the 2005 American animated television show Avatar: the Last Airbender. The phrase has become a sarcastic expression that implies the aforementioned statement is undoubtedly false.

Origin

The phrase was first mentioned in the 14th episode of the 2nd season of the show, titled "City of Walls and Secrets," released in 2006.^[1] Jet, a drifter and acquaintance of the protagonists, engaged in a brawl in a tea shop, behavior that disrupts the artificially designed peace within the city walls. He is captured by clandestine Ba Sing Se city officials and is subjected to brainwashing while in captivity under Lake Laogai During this scene, a hypnotic lamp revolves around a Ba Sing Se official who repeats, "There is no war in Ba Sing Se."

Spread

After the 2006 release of the episode, the catchprase continued to appear online, primarily within Avatar: the Last Airbender fandom threads and forums. However, the scene of the Dai Li official created the first known meme using the phrase on July 1st, 2014, when Tumblr^[5] user Avatar Parallels juxtaposed the gif with one of a woman saying "There are no airbenders in Ba Sing Se," which fans of the show would recognize as a clear denial of facts, implying the two statements are equally false (repost shown below). The post earned over 9,400 notes in ten years.

The phrase became more mainstream in the following year, becoming frequently tagged on Tumblr^[4] posts and being listed as a meme from Avatar: the Last Airbender on TV Tropes.^[3] In February 2015, a subreddit was created, revolving around the Avatar: The Last Airbender city Ba Sing Se and its false sense of security, as well as the catchphrase and meme. The subreddit, known as /r/LakeLaogai, gained over 2,800 subscribers before being walled off from the rest of Reddit as a private community, with a message from moderators reading, "Here we are safe. Here we are free."^[2]

In 2019, the catchprase also began to trend as an image macro meme featuring Avatar: the Last Airbender character Joo Dee, a citizen of Ba Sing Se who acts naive and blissfully unaware of the surrounding world. For instance, an August 15, 2019 tweet by Twitter^[6] user @jpbrammer (now deleted) uses the image of Joo Dee to reference an Amazon workplace controversy (seen below, left). Another example is a 2022 post from /r/AvatarMemes on Reddit,^[7] posted by /u/Beerad122880, which received 1,500 upvotes in two years (below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References