Avatar: The Last Airbender

I just marathoned the entire series over last weekend and really enjoyed it. The first half of season one is a bit of a slog but it really hits it's stride near the end of season one and only gets better as it goes. It has some pretty deep themes about destiny and being able to change to be a show aimed at kids. I also like the fact that characters and people actually die, a lot of kid show shy from that but it does add more weight to the story when people actually die. I also must admit that it is kinda badass when Aang goes into the Avatar State and tears shit up.

I've gotten through Season 1 and most of Season 2, and I gotta say, it's pretty good. I had originally dismissed it myself when my little brother started watching it a few years back, only to be surprised at the quality on display. I agree that it's somewhat of a shock to see that Nickelodeon tackled something like Avatar, and I hope that they're a little more open minded in the future if it leads to television such as this.

Though, I have to admit, I'm not looking forward to the big screen adaptation. It's not so much the whitewashing of characters as it is the fact that M. Night's last few films have really disappointed.

My position on anime is "fuck anime", but this show is gorgeous to look at, has completely amazing fight scenes and the humor is juuuuust goofy enough. I like it a lot.

The movie will probably be poop because allegedly Shyamalan did away with all the humor.

When the racebending issue began get it commented on, I brought it up with a friend in a jokingly "lolz Shyamalan" way and he ended up recommending the series to me. I obliged half-grudgingly mostly out of procrastination and obviously ended up charmed by the series.

I think it was the episode with the prison ships for earthbenders that actually hooked me.

Anyways, no, you aren't the only one surprised this was on Nickelodeon. And something tells me it's likelier I'll do some rewatching rather than watch the live action adaptation.

Just a heads up for anyone who doesn't already know: Netflix is currently Instant Streaming the entire series. So really, no excuses for the curious to not check it out.

And yes, the first ten episodes wear their "this is a kid's show" origins on their sleeves, but once you get past the first half of season 1, it starts to gel nicely.

I'm a total fucking Avatar nerd, and like the rest of you it snuck up on me. I was fully invested by season two though, and remember making time for the show up to the end. I wrote insanely glowing reviews for the DVD sets and ended up being quoted on the wikipedia for it.

That said, those of you who haven't finished it yet, they did drop the ball a bit on the final 4 episodes. Thankfully Zuko's story is given the arc it deserves, but Aang's is not, in my opinion.

It's disappointing by the show's own standards, but every other non-Bruce Timm children's based animated series' standards, it's great. And the Zuko stuff is just beautiful. I'm not afraid to admit I got a little choked up by that third season.

God, as I typed that an ad for the Shyamalan movie played. Aang isn't just looking humorless, he's screaming in anguish. Fuck you M. Night.

...Yeah, gonna have to massively disagree with you here, Gabe. Aang's solution just feels right, and that finale is one of my favorite finales of all time.

Otherwise, you're totally cool, and I am also a "total fucking Avatar nerd".

Are they ever going to continue the series? What the next storyline is about after Season 3?

I just had a big problem with the Deus Ex Ma-Turtlelion, which allowed him to deal with the Fire Lord without really challenging his beliefs. I also think there should've been just one more episode in the middle there, all the other climaxes rocked.

Best moment in the whole series: The end of the two part prison break episode. I just about jumped to my feet and cheered.

Edit: Nooj, don't swipe the black!!

Yeah, after that episode they really enter end game, so I'd advise taking a break then. We marathoned the last 3rd of the season in one day pretty recently here.

I also completely disagree about Aang's character development. I don't want to spoil anything for mcnooj, so I'll just wait until he's seen everything to discuss that further.

But yeah, I love, love, love this show. I like how each season is one act in an overarching story. I love the many Eastern philosophies that it touches on. Most of all, I LOVE the depictions and philosophies of TRADITIONAL Kung Fu that Avatar shows. Right when I was getting really tired of seeing wu-shu in every Kung Fu movie, I started watching Avatar and never looked back.

Love this show. I saw a few episodes off and on years ago, but in March, I discovered the first season was on Netflix, and marathon'd it. Then I watched the rest within a week. It's far above the normal standards of children's shows, such that many adults could watch and enjoy it without getting bored. The Shyalaman thing not having humor means it's not really much of an adaptation, because while the show has really clever plotting and character development, it wouldn't be what it is without the oddball humor.

This is probably the best joke in the show:
Katara: The King is throwing a party at the palace tonight for his pet bear.
Aang: Don't you mean platypus bear?
Katara: No, it just says, 'bear'.
Sokka: Certainly you mean his pet skunk bear?
Toph: Or his armadillo bear?
Aang: Gopher bear?
Katara: Just, 'bear'.
(short pause)
Toph: This place is weird.

I kinda agree here, but also kinda not. I think Deus Ex Torterra kinda works because it allows you to fill in the blanks of what happens after the story ends, particularly the issue of balance after war without air nomads, but I do remember feeling that the series strained hard at coming up with a way to defeat the fire lord without having to either compromise Aang. Personally, I think the main problem is unavoidable by design, which is that the turtle solution would have worked better if the firelord had been characterized as something more than "the bad guy", which I think inevitably hurts the tension of those scenes. The conflict with Zuko wasalways more interesting precisely because we knew him and, to a point, the same kind be said of Azula

Anyways, am I the only one that totally loves the let's summarize the story so far by way of theatre episode?

Oh God, "The Ember Island Players" is BRILLIANT. It's a hilarious deconstruction of the show itself and its fans, and I love every minute of it. And it even has some good non-funny parts, like the weirdly tense finale or Toph and Zuko's conversation.

Okay, I just gotta get in on this InvisotextTM conversation here.
/*SPOILERS
Okay, Aang's character development could be considered deus ex machina, but I think it works, because it was basically telegraphed by the philosophy of the show over EVERY season. You had the giant tree through which Aang could use his spirit to detect his friends, because everything is connected. You had Toph figure out metalbending, because Earth and Metal are connected. Iroh shows Zuko a lightning redirection technique that he learned through studying Waterbending. The mountain top Guru can locate Aang's spirit through Appa, because everything is connected. Katara can bend blood (blood and water are connected). By the end of the second season, we're pretty much told that the divisions between the nations (and therefore bending techniques) are artificial. I think the end result of Spiritbending being the original point of all these different martial arts is kind of profound.

Also, Aang risked his entire existence as the avatar to spiritbend the Firelord. He took this risk upon himself because he refused to kill (unlike EVERY other avatar spirit that advised him to be violent). I think it works really well.
END SPOILERS*/

I'm not talking about the character's development as a young man, it's the off handed super important plot point that rubs me the wrong way. Aang does end up in a great place. I shouldn't have said anything, I just thought it weakened an otherwise great wrap-up. I actually can't think of a more satisfying finale outside of maybe Y: The Last Man or Lord of the Rings.

I just had a flashback to about 3 years ago when the creators were rumored to be hired onto The Clone Wars series. That show ended up pretty good, but I'd like to see them mess around in the Star Wars universe for a couple of seasons before moving on to something new. I really hope this movie doesn't totally sour the show for people.

Yeah, I feel the exact same way. I'm really dreading what Shyamalan is going to do to this franchise, especially the martial arts philosophy. He's already missed the boat on the obvious racial tones going on in the series too.

Favorite Sokka quote:

"Can your 'science' explain why it rains?"

"YES! Yes it can!"

I love the heck out of this show--thanks for starting this thread, mcnooj. Glad to know I'm not the only "grownup" who watches it! In fact, the husband & I are doing a rewatch right now--AFTER the kids are in bed, so we can enjoy it to ourselves!! I discovered Avatar when it was still playing live on Nick and I was immediately sucked in; it's such an amazingly textured world (one of the most fascinating fictitious worlds since Lucas' Star Wars universe, IMO), with a really well-visualized magic system.

Better than that, though, are the characters, which are (mostly) a lot more three-dimensional and dynamic than on most shows of this type. They learn, grow & change--especially Zuko & Uncle Eyro (who is one of my favorite characters of any show ever). Plus I have a soft spot for Toph, who is quite the little badass.

I'm VERY torn on the movie. It's going to be visually pretty, I've little doubt of that. But aside from all the "racebending" issues, it looks quite humorless, which is a darn shame, as the humor is one of the show's strongest traits IMO. ("TEE HEE! Did I mention I'm an INCURABLE PRANKSTER???" for all you Ember Island Players fans).

Sokka is one of my favorite characters in anything. So is Toph for that matter. I love when they play off each other:

"The universe just loooooves proving me wrong, doesn't it?"
"You make it too easy!"

And Sokka's follow-up: "Thank you, universe!"

I quite like the show but have only seen a few episodes here and there due to a lack of time. Really wish they'd hurry it up and release the whole thing in a complete boxset or something already.
As it is I believe they're still(?) releasing the series in individual dvds. That's how I found them whenever I go looking for them in the shops.

Edit: No wait, I see it on Amazon. Don't know why I don't see it in any of the shops I go to.

Sokka is a great character, and the humor he brings is a large part of that.

Which makes me apprehensive about the movie, because in everything I've seen for the movie so far, I'm not seeing the 'Meat and sarcasm' guy that was so enjoyable in the series.

All I know is that the movie had BETTER have one thing from the first season finale: Fish punching. Aasif Mandvi needs to punch a fish to death. Even if the movie winds up being a humorless slog, that one moment would at least put a smile on my face.

Hahaha he's gonna get so much shit on The Daily Show for that.

Any word on a particularly unlucky cabbage vendor?

EDIT: A sequel? Maybe...

Yeah, count me among the admirers of the show. I remember having the exact same reaction as mcnooj when I first stumbled upon the series by accident, but then I saw the fight sequence where Toph takes out all comers at the earthbending tournament (one of the few instances where they show off her Daredevil vision) and I was impressed enough by the visuals to give the next few episodes a shot.

There's so much I love about the show that I don't know where to start, so forgive me if I ramble incoherently from here on in. The world-building that strives to give the place a real sense of history through art design and background detail, offhand references that are later built upon, and the emphasis on philosophy and spirituality when it comes to the different schools of bending. The fact that bending isn't magic, but the result of hard physical training and a focused mind - you have to know the basic breathing techniques to learn it, but you need to understand the way it connects to the larger universe around you to become a true master. The strong characterisation and character development, especially for the main antagonists (although I would say that "Avatar" is as much about Zuko's story as it is Aang's, especially after the mid-season one-two punch of awesome that is The Storm and The Blue Spirit), a quality that makes the show a spiritual successor to one of my other all-time favorite animated series, Gargoyles. Another element it has in common with that show is the ambition to build long, involved story arcs, although it admittedly outshines Gargoyles in that respect.

I could go on and on like this, but suffice it to say that what I liked best was how the show used all of the above (and more) to continue to pleasantly surprise me - there was at least one scene in every episode, sometimes quiet little character moments or an unexpected artistical flourish (like the watercolor sequence in Cave of Two Lovers), sometimes particularly slick, cinematically staged fight scenes or just epic badassness, that made me go "In a kids show? Really?" Not that I thought it was too dark or mature for a younger audience, but this level of dedication to excellence is just unheard of in today's kids entertainment. It denotes a show that takes itself and its fiction seriously, without being overly serious or dour - in itself a great achievement.

With all that said, am I the only one that thought the overall quality of the writing really slipped in season 3? There just seemed to be a lot more filler episodes, particularly in the first half, that added nothing to the proceedings compared to similar episodes in earlier seasons, where even the standalone chapters introduced elements that would gain more importance later on. The character development lost a lot of its subtlety (you can't get more blunt than having your characters sit around a fire and talk about their motivations in great detail, like it's an impromtu group therapy session), and the emphasis on "shipping" was much higher than before. All in all, much of it felt more like bad fanfiction than the show I had grown to admire (and no, the goofy meta stuff like the Ember Island Players and Nightmares and Daydreams didn't help either), and I have to wonder why. Were there changes in the writing staff, or was it that the creators were having too much fun pleasing their fanbase (or cruelly toying with their emotions, depending on who you ask) to focus on what they did best? Or did they simply run out of story to tell? Whatever the cause, season 3, while still outclassing the competition by a wide margin, was a disappointment to me, littered with lazy writing and bad decisions (How can you reveal the connection between Avatar Roku and his friend, the Firelord, and not have him initially support his campaign of cultural expansion? Why is the confrontation between Aang and Ozai a Dragon Ball-esque slugfest, when you have clearly stated that a violent solution is not an option?)

Maybe I'm being too harsh, it is a kids show after all, an amazingly ambitious one at that - and if I'm being honest, that's the only reason the weaknesses of its last season stood out to me like that in the first place. It may not be perfect, but it comes a lot closer than any other show I've seen.

As for the adaptation, I hope it gets more people to check out the show, but I'm afraid the opposite reaction seems more likely at this point.

The "DBZ slugfest" doesn't bother me in the slightest for two big reasons:
1. It's an AMAZING fight.
2. If you pay attention, Aang is mostly focused on not getting his ass killed prior to going into the Avatar State, and most if not all of his attacks are based around defense or taking out Ozai's ship.

Seriously, Book/Season 3 is actually neck-and-neck with Book/Season 2 as my favorite. There are still some flaws ("The Painted Lady" and "The Beach" have their strong points but are overall weaker episodes, for instance), but the highs outweigh the lows to such a degree that I can't help but love it all.

As far as the "filler" episodes in Book 3 go, I think they're important because they show us sides of the Fire Nation that we haven't seen before, and need to know about in order to become invested in its salvation.

To be honest, it's been a while since I've seen the 3rd season, so you're probably right about the Aang/Ozai battle. And to see Aang really cut loose for once was what everyone was waiting for at that point, so it makes perfect sense on that level. I was just looking for something a little more inspired (and no, I can't even tell you what that could've looked like ;-).

Yeah, I get that, and I thought they handled that really well in the first season, when they go to a Fire Nation festival complete with propaganda puppet show for the little ones (chilling stuff). But that's not the main focus of these episodes (nor should it be, really): Normally they deal with a flaw or need of one particular character that didn't exist before the episode begins and is resolved at its conclusion, never to be brought up again in any meaningful way (Sokka's sword being the exception, barely). In other words, these episodes felt like your typical animated fare, with not much of interest happening plotwise or structurally, instead of building towards something. Compare that to the 2nd season, when Aang enters his emo phase after Appa was kidnapped: That was explored over the course of several episodes, his character development felt natural and the resolution earned.

Like the characters, the season had two big goals, first the midseason two-parter and then the confrontation at the end, and spent much of the rest of the time meandering around aimlessly. As a result, it lacked the depth and sense of direction that I admired so much about the show up to that point, trading in graceful self-assurance for self-aware meta shenanigans with fanservice and shipper-bait galore. Again, it felt like they had turned over the writing duties to the fans instead of sticking to what had worked until then. It left a bad taste in my mouth, and that taste is what I remember most about the season.

Ugh, I make it sound like the show did a complete 180 and turned to shit, which is absolutely not the case. Overall, the season gathered some steam around the halfway point. Azula's arc was particularly well done; probably the element I loved the most about the season finale. And there were certainly enough neat little moments sprinkled throughout to make it worthwile, I guess after the first two seasons I was just hoping for more than "worthwhile".

See, I thought the Aang/Ozai fight was WAY better paced than anything in Dragonball, and the sheer artistry on display is hard to dismiss for me.

Anyway, I can see I'm not convincing anyone else, and Aeglos brings up some good points, but I have to massively, respectfully disagree with them.

Anyhoo! Back to positive thinking: who are everyone's favorite characters? Obviously, two of mine are Sokka and Toph, but Zuko totally surprised me by becoming a favorite thanks to his sheer awesomeness in Book 3, Iroh is made of awesome from beginning to end, and Azula is one of the greatest villains ever. Aang is also a great hero, never seeming bland or uninteresting just because he's the "audience viewpoint" character, and like the rest of you I'm afraid at what they appear to have done to his fun personality in the movie. Adding trouble is the fact that I can't see/hear anyone else in the part except Zach Eisen, who's consistently great from the start to the finish.

Katara is a great character as well, and Mae Whitman's voice work for her is astonishingly good. Hell, I'd wager it's Whitman's best performance in anything, although I do still need to see her Arrested Development appearances. As nooj observed above, Andrea Romano is a voice directing goddess, and everyone here is at the top of their game. I'm still amazed she got JASON FREAKING ISAACS to voice Zhao in Season One.

Also, this show has one of the best supporting casts ever, with loads of great secondary characters and one-shot roles, all of them memorable in some way. I particularly like Wan Shi Tong, even though he's kind of a douche, and Hector Elizondo brings some real menace to the role.

Aang and the Fire Lords fight is one thing, but the music only Zuko/Azula fight was fucking beautiful. What other kid's series would cut to a music only track for such a cathardic moment? The full orchestrations in those last 4 episodes really make a difference.

Here's a fun game: watch the season two finale and add up the Empire Strikes Back analogs.

Also, am I the only one that totally fucking lost it during the Tales of Ba Sing Se episode? The 'dedicated to Mako' title card and poor fucking Momo weeping over Appa's foot print fucking killed me.

Now *that* we can agree on. Wholeheartedly. And yeah, the ESB analogs are hard to miss, but thankfully it's all awesome enough to justify it.

"Tales of Ba Sing Se" as a whole is not one of my favorite episodes, but Iroh and Momo's tales completely justify its existence. The other tales are fun, but not nearly as much of a punch to the gut.

Also, I have to give some massive props to Greg Baldwin for his performance as Iroh in Book 3; I can't be the only one who thought Mako was irreplaceable, but Baldwin nevertheless does a great job, especially in Iroh's reunion with Zuko.

Yeah, you're right, there are some muted effects in there.

Cutting together the climaxes is a great way to do a finale. It's part of why the last act of Return of the Jedi still works for me, and a big reason the final act of Matrix Revolutions doesn't work at all.

Tales of Ba Sing Se also features the Sokka Haiku slam, so it still remains a favorite.

I also now remember I lost it a bit when Zuko apologized to Iroh. This show made me well up a lot more than most serious motion pictures, which I think means I have issues...

Man, Azula shooting Aang in the back in the season 2 finale was just so...awesomely evil. It's kind of a pity she had to go insane.

Oh no WAY man! That single fight was better than any fight I ever saw in DBZ, because it was a payoff of everything the series had been promising. You see Aang seamlessly blend the arts of all four nations. I think I was more invested in the fight than any DBZ fight.

Maybe I read way too much into that moment, but it seemed to me that Aang finally realized deep inside himself that the problem wasn't going to resolve itself and that he was truly the only person capable of doing anything about it. He had to take responsibility and stop this madman from literally destroying everything.

I think that was the whole point of his avatar state being reflexive for such a long time: he didn't want to grow up and take the responsibility that he hadn't ask for.

I'm pretty sure it was just a rock in the back that opened up his Chakra.

Acutarpuncture?