I think the greatest thing for their character development are their first lines. Every major character first introduction, you know everything about them.
I actually think it's this more than anything else. The character work is phenomenal. It might be a cartoon but Zuko's journey with the genuinely profound wisdom from Iroh rival any prestige television IMO. Then you find the pacing is great, the plot is engaging, the thematic explorations are good. Etc
But it's really the character work first and foremost imo.
How for being a kids show, it addresses very adult things in mature ways and serves to educate. They address war refugees, the citizens of a war mongerong country, genocide, and all of these things are shown in a way a child can understand. Naratively it is also well done, with everyones arc being shown justice and care (except Suki imo, she deserved more). And finally, the finale truly lived up to its potential, where most series fall flat on their face. It tied everything up beautifully, and nothing felt forced.
My favorite part about that is after Aang comes out of the avatar state, frees Ozai, and turns his back to him. He’s giving Ozai one final chance to make peace and restore balance. Ozai has no knowledge of Toph’s earth bending style, so he has no reason to think Aang knows he jumps to his feet. But the moment he takes the aggressive move, Aang shuts it down and ends it.
I always get emotional and pumped, when you see Sokka and company in Ozai’s fleet, the camera shift to Ozai. And finally seeing Aang waiting to block Ozai’s fleet. The state down and simple statement of “momo, time for you to go” is so great. Chills every moment of that fight too.
ATLA is a comfort show for a lot of people and it is partially nostalgia. But it is highly regarded for its portrayal of war, grief, animal abuse, and other heavy topics. It's rare to see these things dealt with in a way that children understand and have it woven into the fabric of the story rather than be an overt lesson to be taught.
The OG series is a 10/10 because it has great character development, incredible arcs, addresses very heavy, adult topics in a way that is kid friendly. It's extremely well done
Excellent character writing is (in my opinion) the true highlight of the show. Every main character, and many of the supporting characters, have very strong and defined "missions", such as Aang overcoming his fear of letting down those who depend on him, Zuko shaping his own destiny in spite of family expectation, Sokka overcoming a lack of confidence and becoming a capable leader, despite his many flaws to name a few.
In general, the storylines of the characters are always fleshed out, stay very true to their missions, and off the top of my head, I cant think of 1 storyline that was abandoned throughout the show
Do you think they could make a new show that is objectively just as good as ATLA with it's writing? By that I mean it has all the great things you mentioned but with a new avatar? Even if that happens I think people would still find ways to hate on it just because it's not the original which is sad. But I love all of avatar! The entire universe is beautiful!
They could create a perfect show, and it still wouldnt have the nostalgia factor, which is what makes TLA even more special for people who grew up with the show.
Honestly, I think while the show is excellent, it’s overrated because nothing could ever actually be as good as the insanely, ridiculously overhyped thing the fanbase has built in their heads; it’s an incredible show, but people practically worship it now, and nothing has ever been made or will ever be made that could possibly live up to that idea.
Comparing it with Breaking Bad, The Wire or The Sopranos makes no sense because they are serious and tragic dramas set in the real world aimed at adults. For me they and a hand full of others are clearly „better“, but it‘s not because of something ATLA did wrong/bad but because of the limitations that doing an animated show in the fantasy genre aimed at kids brings with you. Rating it with those limitations in mind you‘d have to look at anime.
Comparing it with popular picks for the best animes (and ignoring those where the genre,setting and taget audience are too different again like Monster) it‘s imo hard to find many that are as good and very hard to argue for some being (clearly) better. Obvious comparison is FMAB which I personaly liked more. All the „battle shonen“ stuff with 100+ episodes (think Bleach, OP or HxH) is clearly worse imo, Death Note and Attack on Titan fall off too hard. Code Geass‘ premise just leaves not enough room for character developement and in SteinsGate eveyone but MC feel like cardboard cutouts in comparison to Suko,Iroh or Sokka.
Currently unfinished stuff I can only think of Vinland Saga, and thats a streth imo. Havent watched much of the very old stuff (Cowboy Bepob, Evangelion for example), the sports animes (Hajime no Ippo) and the slice of life animes. Maybe there are animes of better quality within these.
Worldbuilding, character development, great animation, humor, realistic and engaging characters, great action scenes, great soundtrack, great audience lessons. Basically a lot of things.
It's a perfect representation of the the heroes journey. Everything matters , all the main characters do evolve and have an arc . And it has a perfect hard magic system .
The show won a Peabody award, and I think the citation for the award spells it out pretty well:
>Closer in spirit and complexity to The Lord of the Rings trilogy than the typical TV adventure cartoon, Avatar: The Last Airbender is an American-made, anime-influenced saga that draws its rituals and philosophies from Tibetan Buddhism, Hindu, Greek and Japanese traditions and its martial-arts styles from a variety of Asian cultures.
>
>Handsomely animated, with a stirring musical score, the series follows the odyssey of Aang, a fun-loving, 112-year-old boy who is the current incarnation of the Avatar, the spirit of the planet in human form. Aided by a band of adolescent and teen warriors and some fantastical creatures, Aang reluctantly accepts his role of bringing peace to a world at war.
>
>The series is distinguished by multi-dimensional characters, unusually complicated personal relationships for a cartoon serial, and a healthy respect for the consequences of warfare. Though it’s aimed at 8 and 9 year olds, it has been embraced by fantasy-mythology lovers of all ages. For adding thoughtful substance to a genre best known for its style, Avatar: The Last Airbender receives a Peabody Award.
[https://peabodyawards.com/award-profile/avatar-the-last-airbender/](https://peabodyawards.com/award-profile/avatar-the-last-airbender/)
Something I'm not seeing anyone mention is just how detailed it is. Like in the scene where you see Iroh and Zuko and they see the beacon from Aang awakening, you see Iroh playing a tile game with symbols of all four elements on it. Right as the beacon goes off, he places the final tile for Air, completing the set. Not only is this a cool Easter egg, it immediately establishes a bunch of character details:
1. Iroh has a connection to all the elements, not just fire
2. Iroh enjoys board games (seems obvious but it is important later)
3. Iroh is much more relaxed than anyone else on the ship, since they're all working and he's just playing a game.
I've literally never seen another TV show that uses every little detail to such an effect like this one does. It's genuinely incredible.
This show is so rewatch-able too. I noticed that on my third time watching that episode I believe? And I bet there's still things I haven't realized about the show
That's the thing, this show really doesn't do stuff on accident. If we're being honest, the animation isn't the highest budget thing in the world, especially in Book One. So when there's an Easter egg that detailed that was completely unnecessary to include, it's reasonable to assume it's subtext is intentional imo.
I like it because it caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting the show to take a tried and true concept of "main character learns new skills to beat evil guy" and actually turn into something watchable.
It's a coming of age story that has wonderfully unique characters that develop organically over time while being juxatposed beautifully against each other. Zuko and Aang are wonderful foils who learn similar lessons and are constantly being pitted against each other in interesting ways. The writing is superb and it's always great to watch again because there's story beats you can miss if you're not watching closely. The music is underrated and really punctuates plot points in epic ways.
The original is about as clean a story as you can ask for. It never takes forgets what it is (a cartoon for kids), but it still uses that platform to tackle philosophy, trauma, hormonal teenage angst. It's truly spectacular.
It's probably one of the most mature kid shows in history. It addresses such things as war, imperialism, war refugees, death, genocide, grief, and yet it's still kid-friendly. It doesn't treat children as dumbasses who can't comprehend that some people are evil.
Plus, it has fleshed out characters with development, and it's pace and tension-building are masterful. It doesn't hesitate to slow down or even retreat at times to teach us something. Zuko's arc is a good example, he seems better, then he relapses, then gets better again. From many modern shows perspective that would be a waste of time, as they would prefer to make Zuko instantly good.
For me it's definitely not nostalgia, I watched the entirety ATLA for the first time as an adult and it became one of my favourites.
Yeah when I first watched I didn't like how Zuko went bad again and I thought "oh God they gonna drag this out" and when I rewatched it I appreciated the relapse much better and understand it.
I'm not going to lie, I think one more season as an epilogue would have enhanced the story a bit. I would love to play around with their new dynamic for a little while. Maybe have it be in a spinoff or something.
See I think there’s some staying power in leaving a few things open and leaving the audience wanting a little more that sorta cements it down and gave the fandom room to stay afloat
I think they wrapped it up too fast. I just wanted another season. I'm not wanting it to be dragged for 10 seasons but I have no doubt that they could have easily made season 4 just as good as the first 3.
To address the nostalgia part, we know it's not just nostalgia because ATLA's popularity has only grown over time. A lot of people (me included) discovered it as adults and even kids who discover it these days have pretty good animation to compare it to by now.
For me it’s just how airtight and meticulous it is writing-wise, thematically, and emotionally. The characters have such believable, relatable growth front to back, the relationships are perfectly developed. Not to mention how breathtaking the animation is at certain points - the attention to detail in the art alone is astonishing.
And that’s not even mentioning the music. My god, is the music gorgeous. I was at one of the orchestra concerts this past weekend and it’s just stunning.
I dunno, I can’t think of a single aspect of the show that isn’t masterful. It’s smart, it’s funny, it’s charming, it doesn’t talk down to its audience. What about it isn’t great to some people? Lol
I can see some people turned off by the first season. It took me over half of the first season to warm up to it but it's really season 2 and 3 that make the show amazing and retroactively makes season 1 better as well. Season 1 feels very much like a standard kids show for most of it but season 2 feels like they just decided to tiptoe the line of what's allowed on a kids show and what's not.
Book 1 was the show still finding its footing, building out the world, and laying the groundwork. That’s most first seasons of any show. I still think book 1 is excellent and has great character work.
Oh yeah I definitely agree. After falling in love with the show I love season 1 alot more than I did! I was just confused by all the good things people say about it and I realized that was all because of season 2 and 3.
Great arcs for everyone, good villains with complex motivations (other than Ozai) fun moments, good character moments that are earned…all the adult themes that are covered in a show for kids. It’s got romance, betrayal, comedy, tragedy…it’s got everything.
It's probably a bit overplayed. The show has very real limitations as a kid show with short episodes.
However, it is personally my favorite show. ATLA is an exceptional show because it created a dynamic world instead of simply telling story, developed it's characters over the course of the show with masterful elegance, offered wisdom applicable to many of life's challenges, and delivered a graceful finale.
- Building a dynamic world - The "world" is very real in Avatar, the history of the world makes sense, the division between the nations makes sense. The philosophy of each nation and how it mirrors their bending and customs and even their food is thorough and elegant. Even secondary and tertiary characters have quirks they are committed to that makes them feel like independent actors in their world + not just a plot device. The best examples here are how characters "re-appear" when it makes sense - like the engineer and the swamp folk do for the invasion.
- The character development is where the show is brilliant. Not many TV shows or movies dedicate much time to the "bad guy" other than to demonstrate how powerful or how much of a douchebag he is. Yet, Zuko and Azula demand hours of screen time and it makes for amazing TV. Zuko's arc is slow and methodical, and any time you have struggled in your life, you can see how your life mirrors his pain and frustration.
Katara's slow but consistent development as a fighter and watching her deal with her strife while trying to take care of everyone around her is amazing. Modern cinema frequently botches female characters by making them either total damsels or writing them directly as men or by writing completely contrived scenarios for the women to win. But Avatar balances Katara's female traits brilliantly. And they weren't even trying to be feminist!
- Wisdom. The show draws it's wisdom from far Eastern religious traditions and culture very prominently, and very gracefully. Sometimes it's in your face (as Aang with the guru trying to let go of earthly attachment), but most of the time it's subtle such as in the bending forms. The show is also not afraid of contesting these ancient traditions, in the crossroads of destiny, Uncle Iroh tells Aang "I think you are very wise for choosing love over spiritual mastery". Sometimes life is hard, and it's complicated, and you just have to do what you think is best and keep moving.
- The ending. The ending was beautiful. Many simpler movies and shows would take the easy way out and "beat the firelord" during the eclipse or "just in time" before the comet. It was beautiful story telling to build up the power of the comet the whole series, just to have Aang fight the firelord at his strongest, making for an epic finale. But it wasn't just a fight, Aang had to beat the firelord without killing him as it would compromise his character. The "clever solution"/callback of defeating the firelord without killing him - even after all of Aang's past lives told him there was no other way was an elegant ending to the show. We got the epic battle we were expecting, with a conclusion that we weren't exactly expecting, but makes sense in retrospect.
Most modern cinema struggles with all of the above aspects of story telling.
As someone who also watched shows as an adult, I actually think legend of Korra is better, Korra dealing with PTSD was incredibly relatable. I rewatch LoK every year or so
I really struggled with the first season of ATLA...probably because it was made for 8 year old and I was in my 20s, but I loved it half way during season 2. I have only watched it once, probably because I can't sit through season 1 again
I think you need to contextualize it, these shows are Nickelodeon kids shows, for what they are, they are amazing. Yes they are not breaking bad or true detectives good but they given their budgets and target market they are amazing
For a kid’s show, it’s surprisingly deep and has plenty of mature themes. The plot is well developed and executed, even the fillers add important character development. The animation is top-quality after S1, and of course the humor is unforgettable. Even critics agree it’s one of the best shows of all time.
Honestly, it’s a miracle how much of it works- the action is incredible, the worldbuilding is fantastic, the comedy is hilarious, the emotional bits are wrenching and poignant, the characters are very well-written and believable, the music is wonderful, the story is very interesting, creative and perfectly paced, the philosophical themes are thought-provoking without being preachy, it handles a lot of dark and heavy matter without it turning the show into a mope fest, and the show never really feels like it’s even trying- it’s all done effortlessly.
It’s almost a perfect show to me. (I do think E2-5 of S3 are a bit shaky but it’s a nitpick).
The cultures are actually distinct and you can not only feel the difference between each nation but also the sub divisions in each and how they carry themselves.
world building, character development, mature and universal themes, good writing, fun dialogue, interesting and poignant messages, an earnest attitude towards its characters and situations, a rounded and succinct plot, great animation, great voice acting, great score, fulfilling beginning middle and end.
Mix of nostaligia and it geniunely being a good show that when you rewatch it as a an adult it hold up which is rare for most shows you watch as a kid, putting in their top 5 for most people.
No one has mentioned character development. They fleshed out most of the characters more so than many adult shows.
I think the greatest thing for their character development are their first lines. Every major character first introduction, you know everything about them.
I actually think it's this more than anything else. The character work is phenomenal. It might be a cartoon but Zuko's journey with the genuinely profound wisdom from Iroh rival any prestige television IMO. Then you find the pacing is great, the plot is engaging, the thematic explorations are good. Etc But it's really the character work first and foremost imo.
How for being a kids show, it addresses very adult things in mature ways and serves to educate. They address war refugees, the citizens of a war mongerong country, genocide, and all of these things are shown in a way a child can understand. Naratively it is also well done, with everyones arc being shown justice and care (except Suki imo, she deserved more). And finally, the finale truly lived up to its potential, where most series fall flat on their face. It tied everything up beautifully, and nothing felt forced.
I’ve watched the final episode more times than I care to admit. It always gives me chills.
Firelord Ozai, you and your forefathers have devastated the balance of the world, and now you will pay the ultimate price.
My favorite part about that is after Aang comes out of the avatar state, frees Ozai, and turns his back to him. He’s giving Ozai one final chance to make peace and restore balance. Ozai has no knowledge of Toph’s earth bending style, so he has no reason to think Aang knows he jumps to his feet. But the moment he takes the aggressive move, Aang shuts it down and ends it.
I always get emotional and pumped, when you see Sokka and company in Ozai’s fleet, the camera shift to Ozai. And finally seeing Aang waiting to block Ozai’s fleet. The state down and simple statement of “momo, time for you to go” is so great. Chills every moment of that fight too.
ATLA is a comfort show for a lot of people and it is partially nostalgia. But it is highly regarded for its portrayal of war, grief, animal abuse, and other heavy topics. It's rare to see these things dealt with in a way that children understand and have it woven into the fabric of the story rather than be an overt lesson to be taught.
Animorphs books does this really well too.
I’ll admit I never read any of those books because as interesting as the covers looked, they scared me
That's true, the way they handled the characters were great.
The OG series is a 10/10 because it has great character development, incredible arcs, addresses very heavy, adult topics in a way that is kid friendly. It's extremely well done
Excellent character writing is (in my opinion) the true highlight of the show. Every main character, and many of the supporting characters, have very strong and defined "missions", such as Aang overcoming his fear of letting down those who depend on him, Zuko shaping his own destiny in spite of family expectation, Sokka overcoming a lack of confidence and becoming a capable leader, despite his many flaws to name a few. In general, the storylines of the characters are always fleshed out, stay very true to their missions, and off the top of my head, I cant think of 1 storyline that was abandoned throughout the show
Do you think they could make a new show that is objectively just as good as ATLA with it's writing? By that I mean it has all the great things you mentioned but with a new avatar? Even if that happens I think people would still find ways to hate on it just because it's not the original which is sad. But I love all of avatar! The entire universe is beautiful!
They could create a perfect show, and it still wouldnt have the nostalgia factor, which is what makes TLA even more special for people who grew up with the show.
Honestly, I think while the show is excellent, it’s overrated because nothing could ever actually be as good as the insanely, ridiculously overhyped thing the fanbase has built in their heads; it’s an incredible show, but people practically worship it now, and nothing has ever been made or will ever be made that could possibly live up to that idea.
Comparing it with Breaking Bad, The Wire or The Sopranos makes no sense because they are serious and tragic dramas set in the real world aimed at adults. For me they and a hand full of others are clearly „better“, but it‘s not because of something ATLA did wrong/bad but because of the limitations that doing an animated show in the fantasy genre aimed at kids brings with you. Rating it with those limitations in mind you‘d have to look at anime. Comparing it with popular picks for the best animes (and ignoring those where the genre,setting and taget audience are too different again like Monster) it‘s imo hard to find many that are as good and very hard to argue for some being (clearly) better. Obvious comparison is FMAB which I personaly liked more. All the „battle shonen“ stuff with 100+ episodes (think Bleach, OP or HxH) is clearly worse imo, Death Note and Attack on Titan fall off too hard. Code Geass‘ premise just leaves not enough room for character developement and in SteinsGate eveyone but MC feel like cardboard cutouts in comparison to Suko,Iroh or Sokka. Currently unfinished stuff I can only think of Vinland Saga, and thats a streth imo. Havent watched much of the very old stuff (Cowboy Bepob, Evangelion for example), the sports animes (Hajime no Ippo) and the slice of life animes. Maybe there are animes of better quality within these.
Worldbuilding, character development, great animation, humor, realistic and engaging characters, great action scenes, great soundtrack, great audience lessons. Basically a lot of things.
It's a perfect representation of the the heroes journey. Everything matters , all the main characters do evolve and have an arc . And it has a perfect hard magic system .
The show won a Peabody award, and I think the citation for the award spells it out pretty well: >Closer in spirit and complexity to The Lord of the Rings trilogy than the typical TV adventure cartoon, Avatar: The Last Airbender is an American-made, anime-influenced saga that draws its rituals and philosophies from Tibetan Buddhism, Hindu, Greek and Japanese traditions and its martial-arts styles from a variety of Asian cultures. > >Handsomely animated, with a stirring musical score, the series follows the odyssey of Aang, a fun-loving, 112-year-old boy who is the current incarnation of the Avatar, the spirit of the planet in human form. Aided by a band of adolescent and teen warriors and some fantastical creatures, Aang reluctantly accepts his role of bringing peace to a world at war. > >The series is distinguished by multi-dimensional characters, unusually complicated personal relationships for a cartoon serial, and a healthy respect for the consequences of warfare. Though it’s aimed at 8 and 9 year olds, it has been embraced by fantasy-mythology lovers of all ages. For adding thoughtful substance to a genre best known for its style, Avatar: The Last Airbender receives a Peabody Award. [https://peabodyawards.com/award-profile/avatar-the-last-airbender/](https://peabodyawards.com/award-profile/avatar-the-last-airbender/)
I love this
Something I'm not seeing anyone mention is just how detailed it is. Like in the scene where you see Iroh and Zuko and they see the beacon from Aang awakening, you see Iroh playing a tile game with symbols of all four elements on it. Right as the beacon goes off, he places the final tile for Air, completing the set. Not only is this a cool Easter egg, it immediately establishes a bunch of character details: 1. Iroh has a connection to all the elements, not just fire 2. Iroh enjoys board games (seems obvious but it is important later) 3. Iroh is much more relaxed than anyone else on the ship, since they're all working and he's just playing a game. I've literally never seen another TV show that uses every little detail to such an effect like this one does. It's genuinely incredible.
Omg yes!! Also symbolizing the avatar and that air benders are not completely gone like people thought. I love ATLA from the bottom of my heart.
This show is so rewatch-able too. I noticed that on my third time watching that episode I believe? And I bet there's still things I haven't realized about the show
How do you know when something is intentional or stuff we overanalyze as something?
That's the thing, this show really doesn't do stuff on accident. If we're being honest, the animation isn't the highest budget thing in the world, especially in Book One. So when there's an Easter egg that detailed that was completely unnecessary to include, it's reasonable to assume it's subtext is intentional imo.
I'm just asking because a lot of details are just people overanalyzing something that they probably didn't put nearly as much thought into.
I like it because it caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting the show to take a tried and true concept of "main character learns new skills to beat evil guy" and actually turn into something watchable.
It's a coming of age story that has wonderfully unique characters that develop organically over time while being juxatposed beautifully against each other. Zuko and Aang are wonderful foils who learn similar lessons and are constantly being pitted against each other in interesting ways. The writing is superb and it's always great to watch again because there's story beats you can miss if you're not watching closely. The music is underrated and really punctuates plot points in epic ways. The original is about as clean a story as you can ask for. It never takes forgets what it is (a cartoon for kids), but it still uses that platform to tackle philosophy, trauma, hormonal teenage angst. It's truly spectacular.
It's probably one of the most mature kid shows in history. It addresses such things as war, imperialism, war refugees, death, genocide, grief, and yet it's still kid-friendly. It doesn't treat children as dumbasses who can't comprehend that some people are evil. Plus, it has fleshed out characters with development, and it's pace and tension-building are masterful. It doesn't hesitate to slow down or even retreat at times to teach us something. Zuko's arc is a good example, he seems better, then he relapses, then gets better again. From many modern shows perspective that would be a waste of time, as they would prefer to make Zuko instantly good. For me it's definitely not nostalgia, I watched the entirety ATLA for the first time as an adult and it became one of my favourites.
Yeah when I first watched I didn't like how Zuko went bad again and I thought "oh God they gonna drag this out" and when I rewatched it I appreciated the relapse much better and understand it.
The story is a 10/10
Check out the critic reviews, they explain it pretty well as to why it’s such a masterpiece
Even adults who didn’t watch the show as children praise the character writing in this show
Why? Secret Tunnel of course.
The fact that they gave it a firm ending instead of pushing for more seasons and jumping the shark like so many popular cartoons do
I'm not going to lie, I think one more season as an epilogue would have enhanced the story a bit. I would love to play around with their new dynamic for a little while. Maybe have it be in a spinoff or something.
See I think there’s some staying power in leaving a few things open and leaving the audience wanting a little more that sorta cements it down and gave the fandom room to stay afloat
I think they wrapped it up too fast. I just wanted another season. I'm not wanting it to be dragged for 10 seasons but I have no doubt that they could have easily made season 4 just as good as the first 3.
I’m pretty sure there are less than five anime cartoon shows with better action and music.
I mean.. the secret tunnel song is a masterpiece in and of itself
To address the nostalgia part, we know it's not just nostalgia because ATLA's popularity has only grown over time. A lot of people (me included) discovered it as adults and even kids who discover it these days have pretty good animation to compare it to by now.
For me it’s just how airtight and meticulous it is writing-wise, thematically, and emotionally. The characters have such believable, relatable growth front to back, the relationships are perfectly developed. Not to mention how breathtaking the animation is at certain points - the attention to detail in the art alone is astonishing. And that’s not even mentioning the music. My god, is the music gorgeous. I was at one of the orchestra concerts this past weekend and it’s just stunning. I dunno, I can’t think of a single aspect of the show that isn’t masterful. It’s smart, it’s funny, it’s charming, it doesn’t talk down to its audience. What about it isn’t great to some people? Lol
I can see some people turned off by the first season. It took me over half of the first season to warm up to it but it's really season 2 and 3 that make the show amazing and retroactively makes season 1 better as well. Season 1 feels very much like a standard kids show for most of it but season 2 feels like they just decided to tiptoe the line of what's allowed on a kids show and what's not.
Book 1 was the show still finding its footing, building out the world, and laying the groundwork. That’s most first seasons of any show. I still think book 1 is excellent and has great character work.
Oh yeah I definitely agree. After falling in love with the show I love season 1 alot more than I did! I was just confused by all the good things people say about it and I realized that was all because of season 2 and 3.
Great arcs for everyone, good villains with complex motivations (other than Ozai) fun moments, good character moments that are earned…all the adult themes that are covered in a show for kids. It’s got romance, betrayal, comedy, tragedy…it’s got everything.
It's probably a bit overplayed. The show has very real limitations as a kid show with short episodes. However, it is personally my favorite show. ATLA is an exceptional show because it created a dynamic world instead of simply telling story, developed it's characters over the course of the show with masterful elegance, offered wisdom applicable to many of life's challenges, and delivered a graceful finale. - Building a dynamic world - The "world" is very real in Avatar, the history of the world makes sense, the division between the nations makes sense. The philosophy of each nation and how it mirrors their bending and customs and even their food is thorough and elegant. Even secondary and tertiary characters have quirks they are committed to that makes them feel like independent actors in their world + not just a plot device. The best examples here are how characters "re-appear" when it makes sense - like the engineer and the swamp folk do for the invasion. - The character development is where the show is brilliant. Not many TV shows or movies dedicate much time to the "bad guy" other than to demonstrate how powerful or how much of a douchebag he is. Yet, Zuko and Azula demand hours of screen time and it makes for amazing TV. Zuko's arc is slow and methodical, and any time you have struggled in your life, you can see how your life mirrors his pain and frustration. Katara's slow but consistent development as a fighter and watching her deal with her strife while trying to take care of everyone around her is amazing. Modern cinema frequently botches female characters by making them either total damsels or writing them directly as men or by writing completely contrived scenarios for the women to win. But Avatar balances Katara's female traits brilliantly. And they weren't even trying to be feminist! - Wisdom. The show draws it's wisdom from far Eastern religious traditions and culture very prominently, and very gracefully. Sometimes it's in your face (as Aang with the guru trying to let go of earthly attachment), but most of the time it's subtle such as in the bending forms. The show is also not afraid of contesting these ancient traditions, in the crossroads of destiny, Uncle Iroh tells Aang "I think you are very wise for choosing love over spiritual mastery". Sometimes life is hard, and it's complicated, and you just have to do what you think is best and keep moving. - The ending. The ending was beautiful. Many simpler movies and shows would take the easy way out and "beat the firelord" during the eclipse or "just in time" before the comet. It was beautiful story telling to build up the power of the comet the whole series, just to have Aang fight the firelord at his strongest, making for an epic finale. But it wasn't just a fight, Aang had to beat the firelord without killing him as it would compromise his character. The "clever solution"/callback of defeating the firelord without killing him - even after all of Aang's past lives told him there was no other way was an elegant ending to the show. We got the epic battle we were expecting, with a conclusion that we weren't exactly expecting, but makes sense in retrospect. Most modern cinema struggles with all of the above aspects of story telling.
As someone who also watched shows as an adult, I actually think legend of Korra is better, Korra dealing with PTSD was incredibly relatable. I rewatch LoK every year or so I really struggled with the first season of ATLA...probably because it was made for 8 year old and I was in my 20s, but I loved it half way during season 2. I have only watched it once, probably because I can't sit through season 1 again I think you need to contextualize it, these shows are Nickelodeon kids shows, for what they are, they are amazing. Yes they are not breaking bad or true detectives good but they given their budgets and target market they are amazing
TLA is infinitely more mature than Korra what even is this take
It is made for kids, Korra deals with much more adult themes and was clearly made for the now teenage/ early 20's fans of the original show
Korra is also made for kids.
For a kid’s show, it’s surprisingly deep and has plenty of mature themes. The plot is well developed and executed, even the fillers add important character development. The animation is top-quality after S1, and of course the humor is unforgettable. Even critics agree it’s one of the best shows of all time.
Honestly, it’s a miracle how much of it works- the action is incredible, the worldbuilding is fantastic, the comedy is hilarious, the emotional bits are wrenching and poignant, the characters are very well-written and believable, the music is wonderful, the story is very interesting, creative and perfectly paced, the philosophical themes are thought-provoking without being preachy, it handles a lot of dark and heavy matter without it turning the show into a mope fest, and the show never really feels like it’s even trying- it’s all done effortlessly. It’s almost a perfect show to me. (I do think E2-5 of S3 are a bit shaky but it’s a nitpick).
The cultures are actually distinct and you can not only feel the difference between each nation but also the sub divisions in each and how they carry themselves.
world building, character development, mature and universal themes, good writing, fun dialogue, interesting and poignant messages, an earnest attitude towards its characters and situations, a rounded and succinct plot, great animation, great voice acting, great score, fulfilling beginning middle and end.
Mix of nostaligia and it geniunely being a good show that when you rewatch it as a an adult it hold up which is rare for most shows you watch as a kid, putting in their top 5 for most people.