Let's talk about Avatar
Feb. 29th, 2008 12:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhienellethThis week, one of my longtime LJ peeps, trixalicious , posted about her discovery and newfound love for the show Avatar: The Last Airbender. Maybe you've heard of it, and maybe you haven't. If you have, you might be thinking "Oh, that's that cartoon on Nickelodeon, right? The one that looks kind of like japanese anime? Eh, I'm not into cartoons/anime/shows that look like pokemon."
But it isn't really any of those things! The animation actually really, really rocks, and it's not an amine, with their often confusing storylines or strange visuals, and it's so much more than just a cartoon. In fact, I'd have to say it's probably the best show you're not watching, and I'm going to tell you why, with pictures and minimal spoilers, so when you capitulate and decide to give it a chance, you can go into it and still be surprised.
To start, I'm going to tell you what the show is about. This is the voiceover that accompanies the credits at the beginning of every episode, spoken by Katara, one of the main characters:
"Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the Four Nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, Master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him the most, he vanished. A hundred years passed, and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar, an airbender named Aang, and although his airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. But I believe Aang can save the world."
That gives you most of the background you need. But saying Avatar is just a show about a bunch of kids trying to save the world is akin to saying Buffy was just a show about a bunch of kids trying to save the world...you get what I mean by that, right? Sure, this is a bunch of kids, trying to save the world, but that's just it! They're kids. Aang is (at first) the youngest at 12, but these are preteens and teenagers who are literally carrying their entire world's future on their shoulders. These are kids who have survived a war, who's families have been ripped apart by it, who have lost loved ones, who continue to fear that what remains of their family will be lost as well. They're running around, trying to learn everything they need to so Aang can fulfill his destiny and defeat the Fire Lord, thus saving the world, and at the same time they're dealing with teenage angst and interpersonal drama, and the fact that sometimes, they just want to give up and pretend that everything's going to be okay without them. But it won't, and that's the truth that drives them onward, and the story forward.
Characters
Aang
Cute kid, right? Yeah, he is. He's also the last airbender, because while he was trapped in ice for one hundred years, the world was being torn apart by the Fire Nation. Raised by airbenders, an order of monks who live in temples high in the sky, Aang lost everyone he knew and loved in that hundred years. When he's discovered and freed by Katara and her brother Sokka, he awakens to a world where the Fire Nation has destroyed his past. He's twelve, and he loves to have fun and play extreme sports, but he's also the avatar, and everyone is looking to him to be the one to save them. He's only trained in airbending, and he must master the other three elements (water, earth, and fire) in a fraction of the time usually given for such things, or the Fire Lord will succeed in wiping out all the other nations, and thus, all the other benders but those who wield fire. That's a lot to shoulder when you're twelve, and you've just discovered the only family you've ever known is long dead.
A little about being the avatar: the avatar is born into each generation. He or she is the link between Spirit and the physical world, the literal spirit of the world given human form, and the only master of all four elements - earth, air, fire, and water. The avatar keeps the balance between the four nations, and keeps the world in harmony. Only one avatar can exist at a time. For hundreds of years, the incarnation of the Avatar Spirit has rotated through each of the nations. The avatar previous to Aang was born of the Fire nation, for example, and the one before that to the Earth nation.
Here's Aang, looking back at all the avatars to come before him. In each of them, the Avatar Spirit is the same, and though each avatar lives their own life, and makes their own choices, they are the reincarnation of all those to come before, and occasionally the memories of those past lives can be accessed, and previous avatars can manifest in Aang. Though it happens very rarely, this is especially helpful because Aang didn't get the chance to complete his training as an avatar should, and is now scrambling find masters of water, earth, and fire to teach him. Avatar Roku (Fire nation) and Avatar Kyoshi (Earth Nation) are the two most recent avatars before Aang, and we see them the most.
Appa
One cannot talk about Aang without talking about Appa, his beloved air bison. Yeah, I see that look - you see the picture and think "a funny Jim Henson-esque creature", but Appa is so much more than comic relief or just a funny looking creature the kids can use for transportation. Air bison are sacred to the airbenders. And like Aang, so far as we know, Appa is the last of his kind. Though he doesn't speak, he very clearly has a personality, and he is very dear to Aang, as Aang is very dear to him. Appa provides transportation, backs them up in battle (dude, don't piss Appa off!), and is as much a part of the group as any of the human characters. Some of this show's most heartrending, poignant moments have involved Appa, and that's all I'm going to say about it, to avoid those spoilers I mentioned above. Oh, and a note about the arrows both he and Aang have - it's a symbol of the airbenders, and one I think the airbenders took from the air bison, though that's never been clearly stated.
The Avatar State
Yes, I'm listing this as a separate character, even though it is still Aang. The Avatar State is an enormously powerful defensive state the avatar can enter that could literally lay waste to nations. Avatar Kyoshi once created a whole island by breaking free a huge chunk of land from a continent and moving it in its entirety. When in the Avatar State, the avatar can access all the knowledge and skill of all the avatars to come before him. Though it is possible to control the Avatar State, it is extremely difficult and requires great concentration and discipline. Initially Aang cannot control it at all, and it is always triggered by great emotional distress - fear, danger, anger. It is when he is in the Avatar State that Aang is at his most powerful, but it is also when he is most vulnerable. And I can say no more about that without spoiling people who haven't yet seen the show. Suffice it to say, there is a very real reason why Aang cannot simply trigger the Avatar State and use it to defeat the Fire Lord, and the show is smart enough to address this in detail.
Katara
Katara is a member of the Southern Water Tribe. She's fourteen years old, and the only waterbender they have left. Her mother died in a Fire Nation attack when she was young, and her father went off to fight the war two years ago. When she and her brother Sokka discover and free Aang, it's just the push she needs to join his search for a waterbending master to learn from. Katara and Sokka have a strong family bond, and as time passes, Katara and Aang grow very close. When he enters the Avatar State, it is most often Katara who can calm him down and bring him out of it. As the series progresses, her powers and skill with waterbending grow, until she is, if not a master, certainly one of the most powerful waterbenders alive. Strong and fierce, yet also soft and very much a caretaker, Katara is a powerful ally for the avatar, and a good friend who helps him keep going when he wants to give up.
Sokka
Ah, Sokka. Sokka is 15, and the oldest member of the group, though you wouldn't always know it. A wisecracking, sarcastic sort, Sokka is a warrior of his tribe. Though his humor is always present, it often masks the responsibility he feels - he became the man of the family when his father went to war, and though he is now a warrior, Sokka didn't get to go off and fight with his father. He's very protective of Katara, and at the same time, often feels he is somehow less than his companions, as the only one who can't bend. Sokka reminds me a great deal of Xander on Buffy. He's the 'normal guy' in the group, the one who isn't 'special' - but that's not true. Sokka is the group's heart. His jokes relieve tension, and his often surprising moments of wisdom keep them moving in the right direction. He's a leader who hasn't yet come into his own, and he keeps them all together. He's also pretty cute, and has a habit of attracting the attention of some pretty interesting girls during the group's travels.
Toph
Toph doesn't join the group until the second season, so I feel the need to be a little careful what I say about her here. Still, no rundown of the group would be complete without her, so you'll just have to deal with a few very small spoilery things. I'll keep it as minimal as possible. Like Aang, she is young. Born blind to a wealthy Earth Nation family, Toph was treated as something fragile and easily broken by her parents, but in reality, she is anything but. She 'sees' with earthbending, so her blindness, far from being a restriction, becomes an asset to her skill -she learns how to earthbend far greater than most, because it is the sense she relies on to see the world around her. Yet her parents won't see her strength, only what they believe is a weakness. To escape the protected, gilded cage they try to keep her in, Toph joins Aang, Katara and Sokka on their quest. Toph is a very 'earthy' personality - frank to the point of insult, often crude, brash, aggressive, and fiercely independent. There are a few bumps in the road when she joins the group, but like Sokka's sarcasm, Toph's brash demeanor is often a cover for what she feels underneath. Her family is never far from her thoughts, and in her heart her greatest wish would be for her parents to see and accept her for who she really is.
Zuko
Zuko is the tortured, firstborn son of Fire Lord Ozai. But Zuko's soft heart has always been more like his mother, Ursa's, while his sister Azula shares their father's need for power and domination. When he is thirteen, Zuko speaks out against one of his father' s generals in a war meeting. The general had planned to sacrifice an entire division of new recruits, and Zuko felt such an act would be a betrayal of their loyalty to the Fire Nation. The outburst is considered an insult to the general's (and the Fire Lord's) honor, and Ozai demands Zuko fight the general in duel of honor. Zuko agrees, not realizing that Ozai himself plans to fight his son in the general's place. When Zuko sees his opponent, he falls to his knees and begs his father's forgiveness, but Fire Lord Ozai is not forgiving in nature. He brands his son's shame onto his face by burning him horribly, then proceeds to exile him from the Fire Nation, saying Zuko can only regain his honor and return if he can capture the avatar, who disappeared 100 years ago. 
Accompanied by his Uncle Iroh, a fallen general of the Fire Nation, Zuko clings to the fools' errant given him by his father, hoping he can succeed and win back his place, and more importantly, the approval he has always sought, but never been given by Fire Lord Ozai. By the time Avatar begins, Zuko is sixteen, and has been fruitlessly searching for the avatar for more than two years. With Aang's return, Zuko finds reason to hope and obsess over Aang's capture. Unfortunately, Zuko's obsession keeps tripping over his personal sense of honor, and he ends up a young man constantly at war with himself, always angry without quite understanding why. His Uncle Iroh tries, and tries, and tries to show Zuko the kind of man he is capable of being. He sees in him the potential to be a real leader, but Zuko's need for his father's acceptance is overwhelming, despite the presence of a father figure who already loves and accepts him for who he is (Iroh). Of all the characters, Zuko has the most angst, and it remains to be seen which side he will truly fall on when the final battle between Aang and Ozai finally takes place.
Azula
Azula is Zuko's sister, as cruel, power hungry, and cold as Fire Lord Ozai himself. In fact, Azula is downright crazy. As a child, she tormented Zuko, always showing him up in front of their father. Ursa never really warmed toward her daughter, seeming to sense something dark within her, even as young as she was. Perhaps Ursa's obvious preference for Zuko contributed to Azula's rivalry toward her brother. In any case, she is more than pleased to pick up the search for the avatar when Fire Lord Ozai realizes the avatar has returned, and wants someone more capable than his disgraced son on the search for Aang. It is believed she is about fourteen when she begins searching for Aang, and unlike Zuko, Azula has no pesky honor or morals to distract her from her goal. She is also a highly gifted fire bender, with the rare and dangerous ability to bend even lightning to her will. Still, there are moments when teenage angst and jealousy can be glimpsed through the cracks of her confident, superior demeanor. Even Azula has her weaknesses. She travels with two of her childhood friends, nicknamed The Dangerous Ladies, Mai and Ty Lee. Though neither are benders, they are warriors of skill in their own right. Mai is precise and deadly with anything bladed and thrown, while Ty Lee knows the secrets of kyusho points which will temporarily rob a bender of the ability to bend. Together, they are a powerful, nigh unstoppable trio that pose a serious threat to Aang and his friends. It should be noted here that Azula's inability to care about anyone but herself has occasionally placed a strain on the trio's friendship. It is unclear if this powerful alliance of ladies will remain loyal to one another until the end, or if teenage angst, romance, or more serious circumstances might sway them to work against her.
Why you should really watch
Those character sketches should draw you a pretty good picture of the show, and why it deserves to be watched as much more than a cartoon. But there's more. The writing on this show is tight, precise, and well planned. It was conceived in its entirety from the beginning as a three season arc, and it shows. This is not a show where you can watch an episode, miss a few, and pick it up again and expect to know what's going on. Sure, there are encapsulated episodes that tell a story, and serve to teach Aang (and the viewers) a great lesson, but at its core this show is one overriding story, and each episode leads seamlessly into the next. Things glimpsed in the very beginning turn up again much later, and they're important. For example, Azula is first glimpsed in an episode of season one, a mere face int he crowd watching as Zuko is disciplined by his father. We don't find out who that face is until the season one finale, many episodes later. This is good, smart writing, and it sucks you in and makes you care about every single one of these characters. The villains aren't cut and dry, and neither are the heroes. I have laughed watching this how, and I can think of at least one occasion when I cried. That's good storytelling.
I have no idea how this is going to end. I can make some guesses, but I don't really know, and with this show, you can't assume you know where the story is going. They surprise you when you least expect it.
As far as ships go, if that's your cuppa, there are several, both canon and fandom. And they need more well written fic! You should watch this show, and get your friends to watch it, and then good writers should write fic for it. I'm just saying.
What, you thought I went to all this energy and effort out of the selfless, goodness of my heart?
Seriously, though, Avatar is worth the price of the DVDs, or the price of Netlfix, or failing that, there are sources of streaming video episodes online.
trixalicious , posted about her discovery and newfound love for the show Avatar: The Last Airbender. Maybe you've heard of it, and maybe you haven't. If you have, you might be thinking "Oh, that's that cartoon on Nickelodeon, right? The one that looks kind of like japanese anime? Eh, I'm not into cartoons/anime/shows that look like pokemon." But it isn't really any of those things! The animation actually really, really rocks, and it's not an amine, with their often confusing storylines or strange visuals, and it's so much more than just a cartoon. In fact, I'd have to say it's probably the best show you're not watching, and I'm going to tell you why, with pictures and minimal spoilers, so when you capitulate and decide to give it a chance, you can go into it and still be surprised.
To start, I'm going to tell you what the show is about. This is the voiceover that accompanies the credits at the beginning of every episode, spoken by Katara, one of the main characters:
"Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the Four Nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, Master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him the most, he vanished. A hundred years passed, and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar, an airbender named Aang, and although his airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. But I believe Aang can save the world."
That gives you most of the background you need. But saying Avatar is just a show about a bunch of kids trying to save the world is akin to saying Buffy was just a show about a bunch of kids trying to save the world...you get what I mean by that, right? Sure, this is a bunch of kids, trying to save the world, but that's just it! They're kids. Aang is (at first) the youngest at 12, but these are preteens and teenagers who are literally carrying their entire world's future on their shoulders. These are kids who have survived a war, who's families have been ripped apart by it, who have lost loved ones, who continue to fear that what remains of their family will be lost as well. They're running around, trying to learn everything they need to so Aang can fulfill his destiny and defeat the Fire Lord, thus saving the world, and at the same time they're dealing with teenage angst and interpersonal drama, and the fact that sometimes, they just want to give up and pretend that everything's going to be okay without them. But it won't, and that's the truth that drives them onward, and the story forward.
Characters
Aang
Cute kid, right? Yeah, he is. He's also the last airbender, because while he was trapped in ice for one hundred years, the world was being torn apart by the Fire Nation. Raised by airbenders, an order of monks who live in temples high in the sky, Aang lost everyone he knew and loved in that hundred years. When he's discovered and freed by Katara and her brother Sokka, he awakens to a world where the Fire Nation has destroyed his past. He's twelve, and he loves to have fun and play extreme sports, but he's also the avatar, and everyone is looking to him to be the one to save them. He's only trained in airbending, and he must master the other three elements (water, earth, and fire) in a fraction of the time usually given for such things, or the Fire Lord will succeed in wiping out all the other nations, and thus, all the other benders but those who wield fire. That's a lot to shoulder when you're twelve, and you've just discovered the only family you've ever known is long dead.A little about being the avatar: the avatar is born into each generation. He or she is the link between Spirit and the physical world, the literal spirit of the world given human form, and the only master of all four elements - earth, air, fire, and water. The avatar keeps the balance between the four nations, and keeps the world in harmony. Only one avatar can exist at a time. For hundreds of years, the incarnation of the Avatar Spirit has rotated through each of the nations. The avatar previous to Aang was born of the Fire nation, for example, and the one before that to the Earth nation.
Here's Aang, looking back at all the avatars to come before him. In each of them, the Avatar Spirit is the same, and though each avatar lives their own life, and makes their own choices, they are the reincarnation of all those to come before, and occasionally the memories of those past lives can be accessed, and previous avatars can manifest in Aang. Though it happens very rarely, this is especially helpful because Aang didn't get the chance to complete his training as an avatar should, and is now scrambling find masters of water, earth, and fire to teach him. Avatar Roku (Fire nation) and Avatar Kyoshi (Earth Nation) are the two most recent avatars before Aang, and we see them the most. Appa
One cannot talk about Aang without talking about Appa, his beloved air bison. Yeah, I see that look - you see the picture and think "a funny Jim Henson-esque creature", but Appa is so much more than comic relief or just a funny looking creature the kids can use for transportation. Air bison are sacred to the airbenders. And like Aang, so far as we know, Appa is the last of his kind. Though he doesn't speak, he very clearly has a personality, and he is very dear to Aang, as Aang is very dear to him. Appa provides transportation, backs them up in battle (dude, don't piss Appa off!), and is as much a part of the group as any of the human characters. Some of this show's most heartrending, poignant moments have involved Appa, and that's all I'm going to say about it, to avoid those spoilers I mentioned above. Oh, and a note about the arrows both he and Aang have - it's a symbol of the airbenders, and one I think the airbenders took from the air bison, though that's never been clearly stated. The Avatar State
Yes, I'm listing this as a separate character, even though it is still Aang. The Avatar State is an enormously powerful defensive state the avatar can enter that could literally lay waste to nations. Avatar Kyoshi once created a whole island by breaking free a huge chunk of land from a continent and moving it in its entirety. When in the Avatar State, the avatar can access all the knowledge and skill of all the avatars to come before him. Though it is possible to control the Avatar State, it is extremely difficult and requires great concentration and discipline. Initially Aang cannot control it at all, and it is always triggered by great emotional distress - fear, danger, anger. It is when he is in the Avatar State that Aang is at his most powerful, but it is also when he is most vulnerable. And I can say no more about that without spoiling people who haven't yet seen the show. Suffice it to say, there is a very real reason why Aang cannot simply trigger the Avatar State and use it to defeat the Fire Lord, and the show is smart enough to address this in detail.Katara
Katara is a member of the Southern Water Tribe. She's fourteen years old, and the only waterbender they have left. Her mother died in a Fire Nation attack when she was young, and her father went off to fight the war two years ago. When she and her brother Sokka discover and free Aang, it's just the push she needs to join his search for a waterbending master to learn from. Katara and Sokka have a strong family bond, and as time passes, Katara and Aang grow very close. When he enters the Avatar State, it is most often Katara who can calm him down and bring him out of it. As the series progresses, her powers and skill with waterbending grow, until she is, if not a master, certainly one of the most powerful waterbenders alive. Strong and fierce, yet also soft and very much a caretaker, Katara is a powerful ally for the avatar, and a good friend who helps him keep going when he wants to give up. Sokka
Ah, Sokka. Sokka is 15, and the oldest member of the group, though you wouldn't always know it. A wisecracking, sarcastic sort, Sokka is a warrior of his tribe. Though his humor is always present, it often masks the responsibility he feels - he became the man of the family when his father went to war, and though he is now a warrior, Sokka didn't get to go off and fight with his father. He's very protective of Katara, and at the same time, often feels he is somehow less than his companions, as the only one who can't bend. Sokka reminds me a great deal of Xander on Buffy. He's the 'normal guy' in the group, the one who isn't 'special' - but that's not true. Sokka is the group's heart. His jokes relieve tension, and his often surprising moments of wisdom keep them moving in the right direction. He's a leader who hasn't yet come into his own, and he keeps them all together. He's also pretty cute, and has a habit of attracting the attention of some pretty interesting girls during the group's travels. Toph
Toph doesn't join the group until the second season, so I feel the need to be a little careful what I say about her here. Still, no rundown of the group would be complete without her, so you'll just have to deal with a few very small spoilery things. I'll keep it as minimal as possible. Like Aang, she is young. Born blind to a wealthy Earth Nation family, Toph was treated as something fragile and easily broken by her parents, but in reality, she is anything but. She 'sees' with earthbending, so her blindness, far from being a restriction, becomes an asset to her skill -she learns how to earthbend far greater than most, because it is the sense she relies on to see the world around her. Yet her parents won't see her strength, only what they believe is a weakness. To escape the protected, gilded cage they try to keep her in, Toph joins Aang, Katara and Sokka on their quest. Toph is a very 'earthy' personality - frank to the point of insult, often crude, brash, aggressive, and fiercely independent. There are a few bumps in the road when she joins the group, but like Sokka's sarcasm, Toph's brash demeanor is often a cover for what she feels underneath. Her family is never far from her thoughts, and in her heart her greatest wish would be for her parents to see and accept her for who she really is. Zuko
Zuko is the tortured, firstborn son of Fire Lord Ozai. But Zuko's soft heart has always been more like his mother, Ursa's, while his sister Azula shares their father's need for power and domination. When he is thirteen, Zuko speaks out against one of his father' s generals in a war meeting. The general had planned to sacrifice an entire division of new recruits, and Zuko felt such an act would be a betrayal of their loyalty to the Fire Nation. The outburst is considered an insult to the general's (and the Fire Lord's) honor, and Ozai demands Zuko fight the general in duel of honor. Zuko agrees, not realizing that Ozai himself plans to fight his son in the general's place. When Zuko sees his opponent, he falls to his knees and begs his father's forgiveness, but Fire Lord Ozai is not forgiving in nature. He brands his son's shame onto his face by burning him horribly, then proceeds to exile him from the Fire Nation, saying Zuko can only regain his honor and return if he can capture the avatar, who disappeared 100 years ago. Accompanied by his Uncle Iroh, a fallen general of the Fire Nation, Zuko clings to the fools' errant given him by his father, hoping he can succeed and win back his place, and more importantly, the approval he has always sought, but never been given by Fire Lord Ozai. By the time Avatar begins, Zuko is sixteen, and has been fruitlessly searching for the avatar for more than two years. With Aang's return, Zuko finds reason to hope and obsess over Aang's capture. Unfortunately, Zuko's obsession keeps tripping over his personal sense of honor, and he ends up a young man constantly at war with himself, always angry without quite understanding why. His Uncle Iroh tries, and tries, and tries to show Zuko the kind of man he is capable of being. He sees in him the potential to be a real leader, but Zuko's need for his father's acceptance is overwhelming, despite the presence of a father figure who already loves and accepts him for who he is (Iroh). Of all the characters, Zuko has the most angst, and it remains to be seen which side he will truly fall on when the final battle between Aang and Ozai finally takes place. Azula
Azula is Zuko's sister, as cruel, power hungry, and cold as Fire Lord Ozai himself. In fact, Azula is downright crazy. As a child, she tormented Zuko, always showing him up in front of their father. Ursa never really warmed toward her daughter, seeming to sense something dark within her, even as young as she was. Perhaps Ursa's obvious preference for Zuko contributed to Azula's rivalry toward her brother. In any case, she is more than pleased to pick up the search for the avatar when Fire Lord Ozai realizes the avatar has returned, and wants someone more capable than his disgraced son on the search for Aang. It is believed she is about fourteen when she begins searching for Aang, and unlike Zuko, Azula has no pesky honor or morals to distract her from her goal. She is also a highly gifted fire bender, with the rare and dangerous ability to bend even lightning to her will. Still, there are moments when teenage angst and jealousy can be glimpsed through the cracks of her confident, superior demeanor. Even Azula has her weaknesses. She travels with two of her childhood friends, nicknamed The Dangerous Ladies, Mai and Ty Lee. Though neither are benders, they are warriors of skill in their own right. Mai is precise and deadly with anything bladed and thrown, while Ty Lee knows the secrets of kyusho points which will temporarily rob a bender of the ability to bend. Together, they are a powerful, nigh unstoppable trio that pose a serious threat to Aang and his friends. It should be noted here that Azula's inability to care about anyone but herself has occasionally placed a strain on the trio's friendship. It is unclear if this powerful alliance of ladies will remain loyal to one another until the end, or if teenage angst, romance, or more serious circumstances might sway them to work against her. Why you should really watch
Those character sketches should draw you a pretty good picture of the show, and why it deserves to be watched as much more than a cartoon. But there's more. The writing on this show is tight, precise, and well planned. It was conceived in its entirety from the beginning as a three season arc, and it shows. This is not a show where you can watch an episode, miss a few, and pick it up again and expect to know what's going on. Sure, there are encapsulated episodes that tell a story, and serve to teach Aang (and the viewers) a great lesson, but at its core this show is one overriding story, and each episode leads seamlessly into the next. Things glimpsed in the very beginning turn up again much later, and they're important. For example, Azula is first glimpsed in an episode of season one, a mere face int he crowd watching as Zuko is disciplined by his father. We don't find out who that face is until the season one finale, many episodes later. This is good, smart writing, and it sucks you in and makes you care about every single one of these characters. The villains aren't cut and dry, and neither are the heroes. I have laughed watching this how, and I can think of at least one occasion when I cried. That's good storytelling.
I have no idea how this is going to end. I can make some guesses, but I don't really know, and with this show, you can't assume you know where the story is going. They surprise you when you least expect it.
As far as ships go, if that's your cuppa, there are several, both canon and fandom. And they need more well written fic! You should watch this show, and get your friends to watch it, and then good writers should write fic for it. I'm just saying.
What, you thought I went to all this energy and effort out of the selfless, goodness of my heart?
Seriously, though, Avatar is worth the price of the DVDs, or the price of Netlfix, or failing that, there are sources of streaming video episodes online.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-02-29 09:19 pm (UTC)My guy and I marathoned the first season on Netflix, but the second season was still trickling out DVD releases, and we fell off. Thanks for reminding me why I need to get them all on our queue :D
Although Avatar isn't anime, the ongoing story aspect is one of the things I like about anime (or at least the ones I watch!), and one of the big reasons I like this show. Still, the show (despite Eastern-culture influenced) still feels very Western conceived and accessible... if that makes any sense ;)
no subject
Date: 2008-02-29 09:50 pm (UTC)It is excellent, and only gets more so in S2...and then 3. :D
How ironic
Date: 2008-02-29 09:25 pm (UTC)Funny. Guess we'd better get on that. After we finish the big game hunting. :)
Re: How ironic
Date: 2008-02-29 09:49 pm (UTC)Re: How ironic
Date: 2008-02-29 10:09 pm (UTC)Re: How ironic
Date: 2008-02-29 10:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-29 11:51 pm (UTC)SOME NOTES THO: "Oh, and a note about the arrows both he and Aang have - it's a symbol of the airbenders, and one I think the airbenders took from the water bison, though that's never been clearly stated."
CONFIRMED. Mike and Bryan have mentioned this on a few META occasions.
Also, Sokka is supposed to be 15! And Azula is supposed to be 14!
no subject
Date: 2008-03-01 12:00 am (UTC)But I got Zuko's age right at 16?
no subject
Date: 2008-03-01 12:08 am (UTC)But, Sokka was originally referred to as 15 and nothing in the canon has ever really contradicted it. Azula was listed as 14 on the official site and, again, nothing in the canon ever outright contradicted it.
Zuko is presumably 16, though since early season two most people have been assuming that he's 17 by now. Though, he might have vaguely been re-established as 16 since in DoBS he mentions that he was 13 when he was banished and we know that was over three years ago. Of course, "over three years ago" could still end up with him 17 if his birthday is in the summer! Then there have been other things that have said he's 17.
Also, going by canon, Mai is 17. But going by the official website, she's 15.
SO...YEAH.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-01 03:59 am (UTC)I love that you wrote this, and I'm probably going to link to it in my journal later.
(I saw The Beach! I think it's my favorite yet! It'll probably be the first episode I re-watch once I finish up S3.)
no subject
Date: 2008-07-09 04:53 pm (UTC)