Avatar: The Last Airbender
By Ava Fineza
Image Source: César Moreno
logline: In a war-torn world of elemental magic, a young boy reawakens to undertake a dangerous mystic quest to fulfill his destiny as the Avatar, and bring peace to the world.
I started watching Avatar: The Last Airbender back in 2019 with a few friends, one of which had the DVDs. I really enjoyed it, but other shows caught my attention(S2 of Sex Education, S4 of The Good Place, FLEABAG) and I never got back to it. Flash forward to May 15 - ATLA is on Netflix. I started watching again and oh my god.
Strap in, this review is a long one.
Firstly, the music. Music in television can not only shape the mood or tone of a moment but also add a deeper level in which the audience can take in what’s happening. This is done beautifully in ATLA using leitmotifs, which is a recurring musical phrase that is associated with a certain person, place, idea, so on and so forth. In Avatar, leitmotifs are used from when Iroh spits some hard wisdom to that “ding” noise that strikes fear in my heart cause we all know who’s coming…
^^best villain everIt gives the audience more context as to what’s going on/about to go on and ATLA utilizes it to create parallels and foreshadow. In a wider sense, the soundtrack itself is just amazing. Each scene has a perfectly crafted accompaniment to go along with it, and it can fill your heart with emotion or get you pumped for the next episode as the end credit “chukachukachuka” plays. Hearing the violin in the last moments of the final episode on your first time watching ATLA is… ~magical~. The songs are also wonderful - Leaves from the Vine especially - and even the sillier ones from The Cave of Two Lovers are catchy and fun. Overall, the music in ATLA is really well done and helps to add emotion, context, and excitement that further complements the already great show.
Another aspect of Avatar: The Last Airbender that I adore is the intricacy and complexity of the characters. Too often in kids shows are characters thrown around and played with for a joke or unnecessary trope. This can make the characters’ actions seem OOC, or out of character, and can really screw with the audience in an attempt to subvert the viewer’s expectations. I say this mainly to praise everyone’s favorite character arc, Zuko. The creators could’ve cut a bunch of corners on his journey from evil to good - *spoilers* not explaining why he let Appa go, not showing his growing discontent in the Fire Nation during season 3 - but the writers perfectly fleshed his story out without sacrificing quality or his personality. We all love Zuko so much because we can fully look into his strife and pain, and understand the rough path he took towards redemption. But although Zuko’s character arc is amazing, looking past just his character you can see so much development in the others. I won’t get too into it, but we see Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph grow into better people and better benders(Sokka excluded, sorry), again with no cut corners or OOC actions. Each character is layered - Sokka being more than the comic relief, Aang showing vulnerability and sensitivity(something lots of MC do not do), Katara’s deep anger and need for revenge despite being a pretty forgiving person. I feel like characters in other animated kids’ shows either never change or do a complete 180, and the creators forget how the events they go through are supposed to affect someone. ATLA understands its characters and portrays realistically how people change, even if it’s *spoiler* just small moments like Sokka having somber moments when thinking of Yue. While watching the show, you could tell the writers put thought into every characters’ actions and words, and the audience is given realistic and elaborate characters. Speaking of writers.…..
In every great show, writers always put in an immense amount of effort and care in order to build a series up to what it is. But when thinking of kids’ shows, animated kids shows I notice a lot of the time that same care isn’t applied, the main thing being that the characters either don’t actually have one story arc to face, or that they do, but seasons are stretched out with tons of filler episodes that mean absolutely nothing (shows like Phineas and Ferb and Amazing World of Gumball fall under the first category, but they don’t attempt to have a plot and the show is meant to be kind of silly. Besides...the writing makes up for it tenfold…). And I definitely get that - kids sometimes don’t want to pay too much attention to what’s happening on the screen, and they just watch for easy entertainment. I do that all the time. But children deserve high-quality television too, with an interesting plot and story arcs. I know I would have loved to watch Avatar as a child, and I’m sure the children who watched it back in 2005 loved it just as much as teens and even adults do today. The writers - Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko, Aaron Ehasz, John O'Bryan - didn’t treat their audience as just “stupid kids,” and thus were able to develop a story filled with details and lore, with aspects of this fictional world reflecting real-life issues in history and our modern world. Examples of this - censorship of speech and media in Ba Sing Se, arranged marriages and sexism in the Northern Water Tribe, the secret police in Ba Sing Se (honestly that arc was so well written also Earth Kingdom Zuko>>>), the list goes on. ATLA doesn’t try to dumb things down or shy away from more serious moments of the show, and the writers respect the audience and the characters. Because of this, you get a gratifying, sensible storyline filled with twists, character development, action, humor, and heartfelt moments. It is clear that because of all of the effort and care the writers put into Avatar that the show has garnered all the love and attention it deserves - if its record-breaking hold in the top 10 on Netflix means anything…
There is a lot I didn’t get to talk about. The actually hilarious dialogue that doesn’t depend on sophomoric humor (I had to look that up I just wanted to sound cool, it basically just means stupid humor like poop jokes or whatever), the amazing lore and how it pulled from the beautiful Chinese, Japanese, and Inuit cultures, the progression in quality of animation and how it evolved wonderfully over the seasons…. Azula’s sick burns….. There is a lot to say, a lot to unpack about Avatar: The Last Airbender, and that’s excluding the movie that I will make my life goal not to watch. But today I have focused mainly on the outstanding music, characters, and storyline of this show, and I hope that this literal essay could help you decide to watch this wonderful show(can you tell I’m running out of adjectives??). Flameo, hotman!
My Favorite Characters:
Mae Whitman as Katara - Katara goes through so much during ATLA and sticks with Aang and the Gaang through the whole ordeal. She starts off struggling to get a grasp of her powers but by the end of the series she one of the most powerful waterbenders, and an extremely strong bender in general. The mom of the group, she is defensive of her friends and would do anything for them, and I strive for that sense of loyalty. Lastly, she is level-headed and a voice of reason, but that doesn’t mean she’s a perfect good girl. She has anger and hatred for those who have wronged her in the past, and while some see this as being too stubborn, I see it as a reasonable way to react given all that has happened in her past. Also, her alter ego as The Painted Lady is literally the coolest thing ever, matched only by the Blue Spirit perhaps….
Dante Basco as Zuko - If I had written this review without including Zuko as a favorite character then I would lose all honor in this fanbase. He is the epitome of perfectly imperfect, and as I mentioned before his character arc is absolutely beautiful. Basco really brings out the emotion in Zuko, something that can be hard to translate into animation, and basically anyone who is a fan of ATLA loves Zuko. Whether the creators meant to or not, Zuko stole the show and watching him grow over the three seasons is so gratifying. Maybe he’s supposed to be seen as a “bad boy”(that hurt to write) but really he’s this socially deprived and awkward adolescent trying to find out who he is supposed to be, and what his destiny is. I think a lot of us teenagers face these same questions(though the circumstances are far from similar), and because of that Zuko seems that much more relatable. As for his alter ego, the Blue Spirit - the concept is so cool(double swords um yes please) and I would watch a whole show based on his adventures as the masked hero. Maybe him and the Painted Lady could team up….
Mako Iwamatsu and Greg Baldwin as Uncle Iroh - I said earlier that each character was complex, and this doesn’t only reach to the main Gaang. Uncle Iroh would be seen first-hand as the wise old man, but he really stretches beyond that. He’s extremely wise, yes, but he’s also funny and sweet and caring, and his relationship with Zuko really evolved over the course of the series until he was essentially his father figure at the end. Iroh seems to be able to make friends wherever he goes, and his wisdom is shared with all he meets. His short clip from The Tales of Ba Sing Se is heart-wrenching as you watch his normally happy demeanor fall away as he mourns his son, and of course his song, Leaves From The Vine only adds to the emotion when you realize Iroh is crying because his voice actor, Mako, was struggling with throat cancer and knew he didn’t have much time left(it makes the song five million times sadder, I hope Mako knows how many people he affected. Just read the comments on the video). Both actors did a great job portraying Iroh, and in my mind he lives forever, spreading his wise words to everyone.
Fun Fact: Each episode, from the time the script writing began to the time the episode was finished and ready to air, took about nine months to make. (These time periods overlap, of course, as the show has 61 episodes, which would take more than 45 years, if production had been sequential.)
Source: IMDb
Rated TV-Y7-FV for thematic violence.
Number of Seasons: 3
Where to Watch:
IMDb and Reddit Thread:
