Ask someone what his or her favorite TV show is, and they’ll most likely say one along the lines of “Game of Thrones”, “Pretty Little Liars”, “CSI”, or “The Simpsons”. Even though I’m not that old, I’m proud to say that “Avatar the Last Airbender” (ATLA) is my favorite TV show of all time, and it will continue to be for at least the next few years. I know you might be wondering, “Dang, this girl needs to get out more…”, but trust me when I say that I’ve watched enough TV shows to know that ATLA surpasses them all. Here are 7 reasons why ATLA is my favorite TV show:
1. Each episode is a smaller story that is part of a larger story.
Every episode of ATLA has it’s own plot that makes it entertaining, yet it still contributes an important piece of the whole story. The events that happen in each episode lead almost directly to the next one from the beginning til the finale, creating a detailed story that people love.
2. Bending is cool.
This is simple, or not so simple if you consider how hard it is to master all four elements. The presence of the elements in ATLA give the series a fictional aspect that doesn’t detract from its character’s human nature. Bending also gives kids a way to imagine what it’s like to be in the avatar universe. Everyone who watched ATLA under the age of 10 that says he or she didn’t try to “bend” at least once is lying. I remember zooming around my house the way that Azula ran on the gondola lines at the Boiling Rock; with my hands flailing behind my back and my body hunched forward in an effort to gain speed. I also took karate in elementary school, and I would imagine myself bending all the elements at the same time just as Roku did in one of Aang’s flashbacks. Occasionally, I’ll try to perfect the hand movements that I saw Azula and Iroh perform when they bend, or rather guide, lightning.
3. The Avatar Universe is complicated, yet simple.
As previously mentioned, each episode in ATLA has it’s own story, with all the details I could hope for. The concept of ATLA is following the path of a couple kids on their journey to defeat the fire lord before Sozin’s comet arrives. (Was I the only one that didn’t realize that Aang didn’t technically defeat the fire lord before the comet arrived until he or she watched the series several times even though Aang specifically said that he was planning to wait until after the comet had passed?) The creators turned this simple concept into an amazing story that is compelling and vivacious, but can still be traced back to the concept.
4. It has the innocence of a kid’s show AKA, nothing horrible happens.
This is mainly my own opinion; I’m not one for extreme violence. I’m one of those people who will have a hard time continuing to watch or read when a character I have grown to love dies, or even any character who has an important place in the story. In kid’s shows, it never happens! Sure, the gang could have died plenty of times, and the show was this close to killing Ozai, but it all turned out alright in the end. It could have even been Aang’s extremely stubborn refusal to kill Ozai that helped shape my dislike of violence.
5. It has a perfect ending, and potential for more.
No, not just Aang and Katara, but all of the characters. We see characters that were destined to be enemies laughing over Sokka’s odd depictions of all of them. The world has been saved, but not restored. Everyone’s efforts (except the fire nation’s of course, unless you believe they were justified in their actions) payed off, and I especially love the scene where people of all the nations are standing in separate sections when Zuko and Aang talk to them, and how they began to mix with the other nations at the end, signifying how the nations are all one as Guru Patik told Aang, and how they will work together to fix the damages caused by the war.
6. The characters couldn’t have been better designed.
I could delve more into this, but I think it’s safe to say that the creators phenomenally developed each character throughout the series while including humor in all the right places.
7. I could see how my perception of the world changed.
A 6-year difference separated the first time I watched ATLA from the last time I watched ATLA, and boy, did the way I see things change over those 10 times. For instance, when I was younger, the scene in the Ember Island Players where Aang and Katara talk about what’s going on between them didn’t make sense to me, or even register in my mind until the more recent times I watched the series. To be honest, I didn’t actually completely understand why Iroh was in distress when the pirates blew up the ship the first time I watched the series… but as I kept getting older and older, I began to realize the lessons that ATLA had embedded inside it. The struggles of all the characters gradually hit me as I gained a deeper understanding of a kid’s show, my favorite kid’s show.
