Avatar: The Last Airbender - TV Show Review

Throughout any form of history there are landmarks, great events or scenerios that happen that can change a generation. TV, movies, and games are no different. From Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom inspiring the PG13 rating to the Nintendo Wii beginning a new age of consoles to The Red Wedding in Game of Thrones. There is a show from over 15 years ago that changed television in ways that are still felt today. Possibly without this show we wouldn't have gotten shows like Adventure Time or Game of Thrones or any of the other grand epics that have popped up over the years. This show is Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is about a Katara and Sokka, two young villagers from the Southern Water Tribe who discover a boy trapped in an iceberg. That boy is named Aang and soon they discover he is an airbender, a group of nomads able to control the air around them who were believed to have gone extinct almost 100 years ago. Soon though a member of the imperial Fire Nation, Prince Zuko, finds them at their village and both Katara and Sokka discover that Aang isn't just an airbender, but also the Avatar, a single chosen being able to control all four bending elements: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. After rescuing Aang the two Water Tribe members begin to help Aang on his quest to master all the elements and a grand adventure begins.

Recently this show was added to Netflix and for a while it was the most watched show on the streaming service. That's honestly not that surprising, considering the fanbase for this franchise is massive and full of dedication. When I was younger my brother and I used to watch the show every week, excited for what came next in the story. The animation was full of fluid life, the action was heart-pounding awesomeness, the characters are incredibly entertaining to watch, there was great comedy, and the story and writing... My god they were amazing. I didn't realize it because I was a lot younger, but I was watching history being made.

Avatar did something different from most cartoons at the time. Before Avatar, most western cartoons were often comedic shorts. Spongebob, Ed, Edd, 'n Eddy, Dexter's Laboratory, Hey Arnold!, all those and more mostly consisted of episodes that didn't have a grand, overarching story to them and we're made for children. But unlike all those shows, Avatar had a bigger picture in mind. Yes, it was also made for children and had some great comedic parts, but as an adult I see a lot more of what the show was going for and how much effort was put into it. I'm going to be going through a lot for this show, including some spoilers, but I'm writing this review for those few people who don't know of the wonders of Avatar.

As an adult there are themes throughout the show I don't see appearing in the regular children's show, or at least not so openly. Yes, newer shows like Adventure Time and Steven Universe have mature elements such as relationships, depression, and morality, but Avatar also has moments of great loss, abandonment, gender discrimination, spiritual enlightenment, totalitarianism, fate, free will, and, here's the kicker right here, mass genocide of certain ethnicities. You heard that right everyone. As I mentioned previously, in the first episode of the series we find out that Aang is the last living Airbender. That's because all of his people were murdered by the Fire Nation in order to prevent the Avatar from reincarnating. It's brought up multiple times throughout the show and seeing it through adult eyes it amazes me how Aang is capable of holding himself together after finding out everyone he ever loved was killed. All from a show rated Y7, as in ages seven and up. Then some episodes later we hit the episode called "The Storm," which reveals how Aang escaped the wrath of the Fire Nation and why Zuko is desperate to capture the Avatar. That episode made a lot of people realize this show was going to be a lot more than what many thought it was.

Now let's get into the nitty-gritty with one of the big positives of the show: The world and characters. There is so much diversity for the characters of the show in appearance, beliefs, cultures, and personality. Companies like Disney proclaim that they are diverse in what they do, but when you compare the "diversity" in their work compared to Avatar, they don't know what they're talking about. The four main factions of the world, The Fire Nation, Water Tribe, Air Nomads (or just Aang really), and the Earth Kingdom, are all based on some form of culture. For instance, The Water Tribe are inspired by the Inuits, with fur coats and snow/ ice homes while the Fire Nation are clearly inspired by a militarized Japan in style, looks, and beliefs.

With these factions we have a wide cast of characters with incredible personality to them, both good and bad! Not only are all the characters instantly recognizable through silhouettes, but their non-physical traits instantly make them stand out. I could spend hours upon hours discussing the characters in this show because there's so much to talk about. The show, down to its very core, is about children torn apart by war in different ways coming together to end the fighting for good. Along the way they grow and develop into better people. Sokka at the start of the show is kind, brave, and funny, but he's also rather ignorant and definitely sexist. As the show progresses though and meets more and more people he starts to realize more about himself and of others like how some women are just as capable, if not more capable, of beating him up or doing great things. When you have character writing like this you're giving the characters real stories and real development.

To get further into the characters, my favorite characters in the show are oddly from the Fire Nation: Prince Zuko and his Uncle Iroh. Zuko goes the biggest personal journey of the whole show. Yes, Aang is the Avatar and has the master all of the elements, but Zuko has a deeper story in him and goes through some incredible struggle throughout the show. I won't go into too much detail on Zuko, but he changes a lot from the short-tempered, continually furious prince to the character he ends up becoming. Iroh is almost of the opposite of his nephew with great patience and wisdom always spouting from him when he's not a little goofy. He's kind of like Yoda from Star Wars, both in importance and his teachings. Unlike Yoda though he is around a lot longer and has more impact on the characters of the show than Yoda did on just Luke.

Another thing about the characters in this show is that the female representation is amazing. I read a comment on Youtube recently saying that Hollywood seems to think that when audiences want a strong female character they want a woman with the personality of a testosterone fueled man. That's... very wrong and why characters like Rey from Star Wars and Captain Marvel from the MCU aren't given a lot of positive feedback while women like Wonder Woman are given a lot of praise. We don't want strong women in film and TV, what we want is independently interesting women, as in women who on their own and without others around them are interesting and have stories and goals we want to follow. Avatar does this so well, both for the female protagonists and antagonists of the show. Katara for example is kind, motherly, and brave, but with some overbearing moments and at times a lack of... fun. On villain side of the spectrum we got Azula, who is cold as ice, calculating, and cruel to the bone. As I kid I found Azula to be unnerving. As an adult I am terrified of her because of how dangerous and manipulative she is. Both characters have their own traits that make them interesting and they have interesting chemistries with the people around them and being isn't really a defining trait for them that they parade about. That's what I want to see more when it comes to women in media and people really need to study Avatar to truly get it.

But you know what's just as good as the character? The animation. There's a lot to go through on the animation because even now, almost 15 years after the show ended, the animation is still really great! Through my newest viewing I did notice that the lip syncing was off in a few moments, but those moments were rare and the I'm sure some people might not even notice through the excellent dialogue. Along with said dialogue the expressions on the characters are very lively. Emotions of multiple degrees are easily understood on the faces of characters, I barely ever saw an error in the animation, it's very fluid and smooth, and the backgrounds look very good. I think some might say they have aged a little, but I don't see that personally. Plus of course the bending in the show.

The elemental bending in this show is off the charts. Each of the four elements have a unique fighting style inspiring by the martial arts of our world; Airbending is inspired by Ba Gua with its continual movement and circular motions bringing in great power; Waterbending is inspired by Tai Chi with its smooth movements, breathing, and body structure; Earthbending is inspired by Hung Gar with it's rooted stances and solid, strong blows; Firebending is inspired by Northern Shoalin Kung Fu with its uses of propelling oneself about and using powerful blows to deal great damage. At least one master of each martial art was brought in during production of the show to provide artists and animators with references to show and it shows.

The action and fights with bending is amazing and exhilarating. Most shows, especially anime, have great fights littered throughout, but often what those fights lack is a sense of weight, a sense of worth if the fight is a victory or a loss. All throughout the show the fights feel powerful because there are consequences to the wins and losses for the heroes and villains. And not every fight is a victory for our heroes. There are a number of losses and are horrifying to the characters and the audience. I won't go into details, but even when I was young and inexperienced in the world I saw some of these losses and just became numb with shock. That's how important the fights are.

Saying what I said about anime though the fights are visually amazing. The study of said martial arts brings a whole new life to the combat with characters using water whips, flinging boulders and statues, sending out strong gusts of wind, and letting loose fire blasts from their kicks and punches. It's both beautiful and exhilarating to watch. Along with the way the characters show the effort their putting into their combat also adds a whole new level of worth to the battles. Often during my recent binge I was standing up with eyes bulging in excitement as I watched the action unfold. There are just so many creative ways to show bending and it can get incredibly intense at certain moments. I don't think any western animation has ever done combat so well and to be honest I feel very disappointed in that.

Lastly, the biggest part of the show that really keeps it all together is the writing. As I said the show as its core is basically a group of war-torn children/ teens coming together to end the fighting for good. The way the writers were able to balance out the serious moments with the light-hearted moments is very well done. It feels like a kids show while having those adult elements mixed in. Not just that though, but a majority of the characters in the show, whether small or large, have a bigger part than what we originally think they have. For instance there are a lot of characters in the first season that come back for a certain moment in the third and final season and seeing them all back did, I am not ashamed to say it, make me squeal in excitement. Everything is used to its fullest and a majority of the content was able to loop back in a later episode to make the world feel full of importance and life.

Additionally with the writing is the voice acting. There's lot of effort thrown in with the characters, from Mako as Uncle Iroh (for seasons 1 and 2) to Zach Tyler Eisen as Aang to Dante Basco as Zuko to Jessie Flower as Toph to frickin' Mark Hamill as the main villain, Firelord Ozai. Big or small, everyone seemed to be having fun with their roles while putting on strong performances. I never felt like there was a single voice actor half-assing it. There was easily definable emotion from the voice acting and it felt like a lot can be shown through the character through just their voice work. I mean again, we got Mark Hamill, a man who voiced one of the most recognized versions of the Joker, voicing our main villain. He is going to put on a very evil and cruel performance. But still somehow one of the nicest people in real life.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is legendary. It is without a doubt one of the best animated shows ever made. It has incredible, heart-pounding animation, wonderfully writing, fantastic characters, and a story that'll grip your soul. There is nothing else like it out there and its sequel/ side show, Legends of Korra, and the live action remake from M Night Shaymalan couldn't capture the true magic that is Avatar: The Last Airbender. There are people who can probably and have probably nitpicked the show apart, but that's really it. Even if they have though there are too many positive elements that go above and beyond that overwrite the nitpicking. For fans of the show and newcomers alike, Avatar will fill you with wonder, joy, sadness, anger, and everything in between.

Tentative Score: 10/10

Definitive Score: 10/10

It literally should be a requirement to watch this show if you're a fan of animation or story in general. It'll be watched for decades to come and I would love to see new generations watch the show as well.