Avatar: The Last Airbender Review!

Alright! Today I am reviewing Avatar: the Last Airbender. I had never seen the series before, but it was added onto Netflix about a month ago. I finished watching it in about two weeks, and dang.

What a series.


Now, Avatar: the Last Airbender is about a world that has people who can bend one of four elements; Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. They separate geographically and culturally based on those four elements. One day, the Fire Nation attacks the Air Nation and kills them all, except for one: the Avatar, who can master all four elements. The Avatar, a twelve year old name Aang, traps himself in ice for 100 years before being found by a waterbender, Katara, and her brother, Sokka, who is not a waterbender. Together, they team up to defeat the evil Fire Nation.

That was a lot longer than my regular summaries. But it's such an interesting and detailed world that you can't really leave anything out.

Because I feel obligated to give a spoiler free review, here's what I'll say:

Avatar: the Last Airbender is one of the best television shows to ever air, for one of the following reasons.

• The show is not drawn out, keeping it tight with three seasons (I would love a fourth, though)
• It has surprisingly likable characters who go through real development
• The animation looks amazing - a combination of Anime and Western animation
• The score sounds incredible
• It has really tender and sweet moments
• It has masterfully choreographed fights
• It's funny
• There's a LEGO set on LEGO Ideas that is well on it's way to becoming a real thing. And I need it.
• People love it. And those who don't should.
• Everything about the show

So, now that I've got those things out of the way, let's dive a bit deeper into what I thought about the show. 

Season 1

The first season of Avatar is arguably the worst. But that's like saying the Two Towers is the worst Lord of the Rings film - All are amazing, so singling out the worst just means less amazing then practically being perfect. 

I think it's the worst because it takes a long time to get rolling. The first eleven episodes, while fun to watch, are pretty expository. The first season also has the unfortunate trait of not having some fan favorite characters introduced later in it. 

I would say that some of my favorite things about the first season was the growth of the character Prince Zuko - While at first he seems like a very intimidating, this is the bad guy character, he grows into more of a sympathetic villain, somehow without becoming any less intimidating.

However, this season does a very good job at something unexpected. When I was watching them, I was thinking several times that I would be bored during the episode due to the several stereotypes that children shows have. But no! Each episode is able to turn a seemingly boring premise into something really interesting! It's very neat. 

And this season also has what is probably my favorite finale of the show. The two part episode where we see Aang completely go Avatar state on some Fire Nation dudes, really the only time in the show that we see it, is awe inspiring. And the dramatic plot twists that happen in the finale - oh, they're all so very, very cool.

But there's not a lot of things I can say are particularly great about this season without saying them about the other seasons, so I'll just say those things near the end of the post. 

Season 2

The second season of Avatar is even better than the first, which was already great. It expands the world of Avatar into the Earth kingdom, introducing fan favorite character Toph - although practically every character in Avatar is a fan favorite.

The second season also introduces Azula. Azula has got to be one of the scariest villains I have ever seen - not really scary. More just completely evil. And yet she is still admirable in the simple way she presents herself, style of speaking, and the sass with which her lines are delivered are all awesome! 

I would say that season 2 of Avatar is my favorite. But I can't really decide between this one and season 3. One of my favorite things about this season, however, is Prince Zuko - who was a sympathetic villain in the first season, is now a likable protagonist. And that has got to be one of my favorite character developments ever. 

This season also contains one of my favorite moments in the show - found in episode 15, "The Tales of Ba Sing Se." This is a little clip show featuring the main characters as they go throughout their day. But it also features one of the saddest moments to ever air on television - Little Soldier Boy. The very mention of it, the one note of music that that can carry, can basically bring me to tears. 

If you've seen the show, you get it. If not, watch the show. It's good.

Season 3

The third season of Avatar is completely epic. Everything I would want out of the finale. It also has some of the series' funniest moments; the entire episode of the Ember Island Players is absolutely hilarious, and any interactions with Toph or Zuko are also of the utmost hilarity.

The series also has the best costume design, in my opinion. When I think of the characters in the show, I think of their outfits in season 3. Their attitudes, their character arcs. Everything has a huge step up from the first and second season.

And, this is perhaps the only actual blight I have on the entire series - the finale of the show. The finale of the show, which is four parts, barely feels like four parts (In the best way). It feels more like a two episode arc and then a second two episode arc. But one of my biggest problems with the finale is that the midseason cliffhanger, a two part episode called The Day of the Black Sun, felt like a true finale.

It had nearly every character that the series had ever had - the swamp dudes, the flying dudes, the Earth dudes from season one, everyone! It felt like a true coming together, Avatar's Portals scene.

So in the real finale, to not have a jailbreak or the minor characters, or even mentions of the aforementioned characters, or even an appearance from Katara and Sokka's father, felt really disappointing.

A really minor thing was Azula's role in the finale. While I was fine with what she did, I felt like her going insane or something was just an easy way for the writers to come up with a way for the heroes to defeat her. I would've preferred a scenario where the heroes and villains are all at their Max XP and are fighting each other.

And the finale of the show also had a deus ex machina in the form of a giant spirit turtle (Or something), and I wasn't too into that. I honestly wanted someone to die after the three season build up. Ozai needed to die. But I get it. It's still a kid's show, and they were reluctant to say that even Jet had died. So you can't have your twelve year old protagonist kill someone.

So that was fine. I get it for story/network reasons. But still... I wanted blood.But not bloodbending. That was... terrifying.

And, speaking of Ozai, he was kind of a disappointing villain. He wasn't layered like Zuko, or interestingly evil like Azula, he was just... evil... because of... reasons.

Overall Thoughts? 

In my main series overview, I basically only talked about everything I didn't like. But those were very minor criticisms, because I freaking loved everything else. Literally everything. So what if the first season is somewhat slow paced? I still liked all of it. Everything about the show is amazing. The characters arcs that the characters go through make them feel like real people. Even characters who I wasn't particularly fond of (Sokka), ended up having legitimate moments that cemented them as good characters.


Oh, but one more criticism. Sometimes, the show would have child's cartoon sound effects and face animations. And I know, it's ridiculous. It is a child's cartoon. But it is so good! It becomes serious! It's on tier with excellent shows like the Good Place! So when I was totally swept up by the gorgeous animation, music, and character development, to suddenly have noises from the 60's Scooby-Doo cartoon was... jarring. Sokka was especially guilty of this.

And, this was my first time watching anything resembling anime. I have a lot of problems with the genre. For one, it's huge, yet everyone who watches it feels like they are part of a small group. For the other reasons, the sheer number of shows that all look interchangeable. And for another, not a huge fan of the style of anime in general. But Avatar's is different. It's like Western animation + anime, and that made it fine.

All in all, I can not wait to see Netflix's live action adaptation. Done right, they have something golden on their hands. And luckily, Netflix isn't known for screwing up their television shows. At least not to the Shyamalan extent.

And something else. It's not often I finish a show and then think, "Man. I wish there was more of that!" It's not something that happens a lot, since if a show is good, it'll probably get dragged out until it's just a caricature of it's earlier self (Like the Office or Once Upon A Time), but with this show? I wanted more. What about Zuko's mom? Could Azula get a redemption arc? What happened to the rest of the characters?

Most of those questions are technically answered by other media like comics or Korra, but I really wish that there was a fourth season. I need more. And I can't believe the movie may have killed the fourth season. For shame.

And while I'm praising the show, let me just get this out of the way: Toph is one of the best characters on the show, just for being so different and tough yet sensitive. Appa was awesome. Zuko is also one of my favorite characters for his arc and the fact that he's awesome. Uncle Iroh is one of my favorite fictional characters ever, going from comic foil to Zuko to one of the most in depth and saddest characters in the show.

Overall, I give the show a 10/10. "With amazing animation, gorgeous soundtracks, characters that feel real, that grow and mature, Avatar: The Last Airbender, stands out among every single show by being, quite possibly, the best."