- Released: February 1, 2005
- Creator: Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko
- Amount of seasons: 3
- Seasons watched: 3
- Rating: 5/5
Synopsis
My Thoughts
This one will likely be brief. Everyone and their grandma has seen and loves this show. To me, this show is incredibly personal. Before, as a kid, I saw cartoons as fun and entertaining but nothing more. I only watched shows such as Spongebob Squarepants and The Fairly Odd Parents at that time, which are fun but also nothing all that serious.
Then came Avatar. At first I wasn't sure about the series when it was first announced, I do recall a little reluctance of a young me at that point because it looked so different, but eventually I watched the first season and I liked it. Then as I got older and the other seasons were released I truly saw this series as something fantastic and unique. Unlike pretty much all other Nickelodeon cartoons, this one took itself seriously, had an actual continuity and more mature themes while also still not being dour and depressing as hell. It was art, and I finally saw it as such as the later two seasons were released, even if dumb kid me probably couldn't put it into words yet.
Then as I got even older and there kept being re-runs and I finally got to experience the series more chronologically (remember, this was before streaming and we didn't have the series on DVD if that was even out yet at this point) by watching it daily each morning during breakfast. So the older I got the more and more I got to see the show as a cohesive story and not just a journey I sometimes missed one or two episodes of. On my first two-three watches of the show I still loved it a lot and could appreciate it, but I always missed some episode of the bunch, which is a problem since this story has an actual continuity and story-line it's progressing. But as I grew older I got to appreciate the series even more as a whole as I got to watch it as it was meant to be experienced.
It's just fantastic. Great characters, an epic story, very deep and well thought-out world-building, a great attention to detail and continuity, great (for TV show standards at least) animation. It's all there and I love it so much. The best character arc is probably still Zuko's, which so many people have tried (and often times failed) to replicate in more modern times.
I do realize with my more modern watches, however, that the series isn't perfect. None of the flaws I'm bringing up here are going to dissuade me from that five star rating, but at the same time I don't think this series is flawless like I used to when I was younger. It's absolutely fantastic, but nothing's perfect and Avatar is no exception.
Some flaws include Ozai not being the greatest villain (he's threatening and has a cool voice, but at the same time I wasn't that invested in him), the romances often being handled kinda awkwardly and while I don't hate the ending with Ozai's firebending being taken away like some others, I do think that it should've been established as an option more beforehand. Just even a little bit more hints at the lion turtle and energybending. Another option I would've been okay with is Aang accepting that he shouldn't be putting his own beliefs before the safety of the world and actually killed Ozai, but I also get that this is a children's show and there's no way that Nickelodeon would've let the series end like this. I'd just have liked an ending that was a little less of a deus ex machina, is all.
However, with those minor gripes out of the way I still enjoy the heck out of this series each time I re-watch it. I'm so glad that this show opened up my eyes (and those of many others) to how great cartoons could actually be, and that they don't always have to be comedic things geared mostly exclusively towards children. I love revisiting this series every few years or so and will no doubt continue to do so many more times in the future.
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