Avatar: The Last Airbender

The DVD covers of each of the three seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I wouldn't mind owning them all myself....

This post has been in my head for a week or two now and I have been meaning to write this much sooner then I have. Now I could say that I was just keeping it in, to further process what I've seen and what I thought about it. That wouldn't be entirely false, but then that statement wouldn't be all truth either. I admit that I have gotten a bit lazy this month and this crazy weather hasn't helped my thinking process any. But anyway, onto what I am here to write!

Now before I even watched the first episode, I watched the live action movie and was absolutely not loving much of anything about it. So my expectations going into the animated series was very, very low to say the least. I was expecting a typical kids cartoon series, you know the type with the moral lessons and typical kid stuff. And don't get me wrong, there is a bit of that peppered throughout the series. But what surprised me at the very start was the amount of personality that each of the characters possessed. I just could not believe that these kids in this cartoon were supposed to be the same kids in the live action movie! They are almost NOTHING alike!

Aang, for example, is more or less a carefree kid who didn't want to be tied down by the all consuming responsibilities of becoming the Avatar (the only being capable of wielding all 4 elements). He laughs a lot, jokes even more and is just freaking happy.

Kitara is absolutely the motherly type of the group and tends to keep everyone in line as best as she can. Hell she is a strong girl and as the series progresses, her beliefs and the reasons behind her mature nature comes to the surface (I don't want to spoil anything here). Another point of interest, towards the end of the first book (season), she proves to be a formidable Water Bender and can very much hold her own right along side the Avatar himself.

Sokka, Kitara's older brother, is the comic relief whom I initially didn't care much for of the trio. For the most part, he is the awkward joker who just never seems to "get it." And he doesn't have the ability to be any element, so what good does he do in a fight? But as the story progresses, he develops from being just a sidekick to the two element benders (Aang and Kitara), to being almost the unofficial leader of the group and actually fights along side much more effectively as the story goes towards it's finale.

And what I admire about this show so much is every episode is actually tied in together. Unlike a lot of cartoons, where each episode is almost like its own world, everything that happens in each episode is carried into the story telling down the line. So ultimately everything feels like one flowing story, as it absolutely should always be.

So I guess I don't really need to share the fact that, despite feeling like this would be just another kid's cartoon, actually enjoyed this entire series. Would I recommend this to anyone? I would to anyone who likes great story telling and characters you can actually give a damn about. As for myself? I'm already starting my second watch through of the series...