Why Avatar: The Last Airbender is a good show

(no spoilers in this post, because I want people who don't watch Avatar to read this, so I can possibly try and convince them of this show's excellence)

With this recent sequel-series to Avatar now airing on tv (The Legend of Korra), I thought it would be an opportune time to chat about why Avatar (the original series) is such a great show in the first place. For people who are unfamiliar with this, it's completely unrelated to James Cameron's Avatar movie that came out last year (or was it two years ago).

And for god's sake DO NOT see the M. Night Shyamalan live action movie called "The Last Airbender"-- it is a god-awful movie in so many ways that it would take the entire internet to count them. And if you have seen it, pretend like you haven't. Don't even talk about it. It's embarrassing.








So I will point out three things about the show that I think make it so wonderful, and maybe somebody will decide to try it out. Here is a site where you can watch the episodes for free (scroll down until you see the list of episodes-- the first one is called "The Boy in the Iceberg"); you'll usually have to get through an ad before it starts.

Like Titanic, except nobody will crash into this iceberg.
They just walk into it.

1. The first thing I would like to mention about this show is the plot. Where a lot of tv shows go wrong is the lack of direction they have after one or two seasons. This show has a clear direction from the two-part pilot episode, finishes the third season in a way that you could only assume the writers had been going there from the very beginning.

Here is a brief description of the world that this show takes place in:

There are four groups of people, each representing a certain element: the Fire Nation, the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, and the Air Temples. There are certain people in each nation who have the power of "bending" an element (according to the nation they're in); they have the ability to control their specific element, to varying degrees. Bending is farily common among people, but not everybody has this ability. Each generation has one "avatar," who is the only person with the ability to bend all four elements; once the avatar dies, a new one is reborn. Other than the avatar, however, any one person can only control one element, and it always is based on the nation that they are born into.

It's even color-coded!

Here is where we are when the show begins:

The Fire Nation has started a war with the other three nations, and the Firelord is trying to take over. The avatar, who has been strangely missing for 100 years, has recently been found again, and he is the only one who has the power to stop the Firelord. He is an airbender, so while he is kind of an airbending prodigy, he still has to learn the other three elements before he can confront the Fire Nation, and the Firelord. In the meantime, he is being hunted by the Firelord's son, and not everybody is glad that he is back, after abandoning the world for so long.

The Kyoshi warriors, home of the former avatar. 

As I said, what makes this plot so wonderful is the circular nature of everything. There are almost no loose ends, and each episode has a clear purpose in furthering the plot (or serious character development), and the story itself really keeps you interested. There are no, "Why couldn't he have just..." questions, and if you're one of these kinds of people who (like me) initially feels kind of silly watching a cartoon, you rapidly get over that after a couple episodes. The nature of the show is not childish. And I will also add that it's kind of funny, too. My suitemate last year who would occasionally glance over to see what I was watching would often laugh out loud at some of the scenes.

Appa and Momo! 

2. The character development is wonderful. Again, the few episodes that don't directly advance the plot create a more three-dimensional portrait of the characters, which really adds to the show. Many of the "favorite" episodes have nothing to do with the plot, but instead, focus on certain characters that people love to know more about. You really grow to like the characters more and more as you learn about them. In particular, I would like to point out two episodes in the first season of the series called "The Storm," and "The Blue Spirit"; anybody who wants to test this show should watch it up until these two episodes (Blue Spirit comes right after Storm). If, by the end of these episodes, you have no interest in the series, then this series is not for you. But if you're watching with mild interest, and these episodes pull you in even more, then it has done its job. These are two of the earliest episodes where you really begin to understand that there is much more to everything than you first may think.

The mysterious "Blue Spirit"

We have our main character, Aang:

Silly, dedicated, lovable, and freaking awesome in Avatar state.

As well as the two water tribe siblings who find him, and accompany him on his travels, Sokka and Katara:

If you can't tell by the picture, Sokka provides our comic relief.

And, finally, our wonderful fanfic-magnet Prince Zuko, the primary antagonist we open with:  

Drinking game: sip every time he talks about honor. 

3. The last thing I would like to point out about this show in my quest to convince people of its awesomeness is what I like to see as the "gray morality" of the show. Yes, we have our protagonists and antagonists, and there is a "good" side and a "bad" side. But as the show goes on, you find things on the "good" side that aren't so good, and things on the "bad" side that aren't so bad.  This show proves that you don't need blood and gore to have an incredibly dark side to a story. Not that I'm against blood and gore, but it's refreshing to have a show that is able to achieve multiple dimensions while still following a decent plot. Maybe I shouldn't be saying this if I'm an English major. But the thought and effort put into the nature of the characters and plot to avoid giving the readers any easy answer is striking. I'll mention the episode "The Blue Spirit" again as one that adds a new layer to the show, and possibly even changes what you hope or guess for the outcome. Despite the fact that the show revolves around a monk and a tyrannical overlord, you will find surprisingly little that is black and white. 

Uncle Iroh...how is that for a three-dimensional and character?
(the answer is yes, mostly because he is unquestionably my favorite character)

Hopefully I have convinced somebody to at least try a couple of episodes...it's only three seasons of twenty minute episodes! Click on the first episode, and try it out! Really, though...it is a wonderful series. If you're ever out of things to do on the internet, it's worth your time to check into this.