Every culture has stories, myths and legends that are passed down from one generation to the next, over and over again. As time goes on and the storytellers change, oftentimes the stories themselves change and get remade.
In modern media, these stories are used for references to many different characters. Pokémon takes references from around the world to fill out their ever-expanding Pokédex of creatures, and Avatar: The Last Airbender folds many Eastern myths into its expansive tale. These connections bring together stories in ways many people overlook.
While not well known in western culture, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is a very popular Japanese story. The story tells of a bamboo cutter who, when cutting open a bamboo stalk, finds a little baby inside. Deciding to bring her home and raise her as a daughter, the baby grows into a full-grown woman with long, beautiful hair. Despite having many men asking for her hand in marriage the woman, named Kaguya-hime, rejects them all. Eventually, her mysterious origins are revealed and she admits that she is from the moon and must return.
There are many Pokémon based on Japanese myths, but there is one in particular that fits this myth almost perfectly. Celesteela is a Pokémon (actually it is the Ultra Beast UB04 Blaster) that takes its designed like a rocket ship, in both looks and how it moves. Its body is shaped like a rocket, with its head acting as the nosecone and its arms as the thrusters. In the Pokémon anime, Celesteela is shown launching itself with its arms like a rocket towards the moon. Celesteela also looks like it's made of bamboo, and its back either can be interpreted to resemble long flowing hair, depending on how you look at it. The neck of this Pokémon is thin and long, with ridges running down it as if it was a bamboo stalk. The arm thrusters are green and also have bamboo-like ridges running down them.
Avatar: The Last Airbender, like Pokémon, takes references from many different cultures. While The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is not directly referenced in the show, a particular character might have some inspiration from it. Princess Yue first appeared in the episode "The Waterbending Master" as a member of the Northern Water tribe. Unlike Kaguya-hime in the story, Yue is not from the moon originally. Instead, she is given life from the moon after being born sick and weak. This lifeforce gives her strength and turns her black hair a pure white (which later mimics the long beautiful hair of Kaguya-hime). During the episode "Siege of the North" and the death of the Moon Spirit, Yue gives her life force back to the moon, essentially becoming the Moon Spirit herself. What Yue does have in common with Kaguya-hime is her hesitance to marriage. Kaguya-hime refused anyone who wished to marry her since she was destined to go back to the moon. Although Yue is engaged to Hahn, her heart is not in it, she is willing to marry only for the good of her people, not for herself.
While Pokémon and Avatar: The Last Airbender are vastly different stories with different fanbases, they still have a little something in common. Even if the characters are told differently and look differently, they still started out as The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.
