The Media Man Reviews: Avatar: The Last Airbender

When you think of highly beloved Nickelodeon cartoons, many will come to mind. There's Rugrats, Hey Arnold, The Loud House, The Fairly Oddparents and of course, SpongeBob SquarePants. But when it comes to beloved Nickelodeon shows, I don't think any cartoon gets heralded as one of the greatest treasures of TV animation as much...as Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko with future The Dragon Prince creator, Aaron Ehasz, as the head writer for the show, Avatar was released on Nickelodeon in 2005 and ran for three seasons before concluding in 2008 with a four-part finale. The series was a massive hit with audiences due to its deep story-telling, creative world-building, surprisingly mature subject matter for a show aimed at younger audiences, wonderfully complex characters and some epic action scenes and hilarious comedy brought to life with its anime-influenced animation style. This cartoon is so beloved that any criticism against it is borderline sacrilegious in the cartoon community! It later spawned a franchise consisting of a spin-off series, The Legend of Korra (which I'll review another time), some video-games, some graphic novel spin-offs, a prequel novel series, a new movie which I already reviewed earlier this month, and...

That which shall not be discussed.

It also spawned this that will also not be discussed either. Seriously, don't ever ask me to review these, not unless you're willing to pay me £100/$100 or more on Patreon to do so.

Now if you guys are curious, I...never actually watched the show when I was a kid. I'll give you a moment to recover from that shock. XD In all seriousness, I DO remember when it was new and when it was coming out, along with seeing many adverts for it. But for some reason I really didn't take any interest in it. I dunno, my young mind was very strange back then. It took a pandemic lockdown back in 2021 for me to FINALLY watch it! Well, better late than never I guess. (shrugs) I also rewatched the show earlier this year in preparation for the Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender movie (which I've also reviewed) we got last month, and also so I could introduce my younger brother to the series. You'll be glad to know he loved it. ;)

Oh and fun fact, Star Wars alumni Dave Filoni also worked on this series in where he directed a few episodes. His work on the show was even what caught George Lucas's attention and got him hired for Star Wars. Talk about humble origins, am I right?

So is the legend of Aang worth telling? Or should I let the Fire Nation burn this show to the ground? Let's dive in...

Section 1: The Story

Avatar: The Last Airbender is the story of Aang, an airbender who is also the Avatar, a powerful entity that can master all four elements and is the peacekeeper between the four nations. But he's been encased in ice for over 100 years and the world is at war with the Fire Nation as it plots to take over. Now Aang must team up with a pair of Water Tribe kids named Katara and Sokka, find teachers to teach him the other three elements and carry out his destiny as the Avatar to bring an end to a century long war...

I'm probably going to sound like a parrot throughout this review, because pretty much every kind of praise you've heard for this series, you'll be hearing from me as well, and that's because the show is just that damn amazing and every bit of praise it's gotten is well deserved.

One of the greatest things about Avatar is that it's so very un-Nickelodeon for lack of a better term. Seriously, the sheer amount of quality, the way it's written and executed and the heavy amount of dark themes and adult topics the show covers makes this feel like a series from a completely different studio! Seriously, if somebody showed me this series and never told me where it came from, I NEVER would've guessed Nickelodeon created this series! How does the studio that gives us absolute garbage like SpongeBob SquarePants give us a masterpiece like THIS?! Nickelodeon shows tend to be comedies for the most part with very little story to them. This show is like the antithesis of a typical Nickelodeon series! Yes, it does have comedy in it, but this show is more serialized, has stronger use of continuity, features incredibly complex characters and can also be incredibly heart-breaking at times with our heroes not always getting a win in the end. And you know what? I welcome all that! It's nice that Nickelodeon gave us a show that's so unlike what they usually create, and it ended up being the best thing that ever came out of the studio as a result.

But enough about where the show came from, why is this show such a masterpiece. For starters, the writing is above and beyond excellent. This is the kind of show where you can tell it was VERY meticulously crafted and thought out before a single episode was even written. The show from start to finish has a clear story it wants to tell and it makes just about every episode count in one way or another. Seriously, there are only two episodes (The Great Divide and Avatar Day) that can be outright skipped without missing anything. Or more accurately the main plot of "Avatar Day" can be skipped while the subplot should be watched. But as I was saying, the show has very little filler and nearly every episode feels important to watch in some way. It also helps that the continuity of the series is very strong with little to no details left untouched throughout. One example is an episode where the Gaang visit one of the old Air Temples and Sokka teams up with an inventor to make a hot air balloon to use as a weapon against the Fire Nation. The episode ends with the Fire Nation finding the wrecked remains of the balloon and then come Season 3, the Fire Nation now have dirigibles as part of their armada to fight with. It may seem like that plot point was going nowhere, but then Season 3 shows that they didn't forget and they made it a big part of the Day of Black Sun two-part.

Going back to how meticulously crafted the series is, the world-building is one fine example of how this series wasn't thought up in one night and clearly had a lot of effort put into it. This show is set in a world that has a very long history behind it (emphasis on long given there's been many past Avatars and there's been a 100 year war), we get to see the various cultures of the world and how the people live their lives, how things differ between the Water Tribe, Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation and even how the spirit world fits into everything. You get the idea that the creators didn't just make a series bible, they made a series HISTORY BOOK with how much detailed lore there is and how well everything just adds up here. A lot of the intrigue of this series comes from learning about the world's history as much as just watching what the characters get up to and the battles they have together. This kind of world-building is hard to find in shows nowadays, especially as creators are getting lazier and shows for younger audiences have to be incredibly dumbed down because "kids are stupid" or some crap like that, so it's very much appreciated how detailed the lore of this series is, and it's all fascinating too!

The writing also lends itself to some surprisingly heavy subject matter that few kids shows would dare to touch. It's almost insane how multi-layered the plot and the characters are and how many different themes are covered here. This show tackles totalitarianism, genocide, racism, sexism, colonialism, the horrors of war, abusive upbringing and even the philosophical stuff like fate, destiny and free will. At times, you'll find yourself asking "How did Nickelodeon allow this to air?", because with all these heavy themes it tackles, and it DOESN'T sugar-coat any of them, this really isn't a show that was made with kids in mind. I'm even glad I actually took so long to watch the show as is, because my young mind wouldn't have been able to appreciate just how deep and ballsy it could get. It's so funny how people complain media is "too political" these days, yet this show exists and is unapologetically political! Then again, that's what happens when you watching anti-woke grifter slop on YouTube: it rots your brain and makes you media illiterate. Anyway, this show deserves all the praise it gets for not only tackling such weighty subject matter, but doing so in such a respectful way and as I said, it doesn't sugar-coat its subject matter at all. It tackles it head on, shows how bad some of these things are and lets us see how it effects the people of the world. Even Azula's mental breakdown was handled with tact and grace. It shows us how damaging poor parenting and a terrible upbringing can be to one's psyche and when Azula finally breaks down and becomes a snarling, sobbing wreck, it isn't treated like some grand victory our heroes have scored against her or that the big, bad villain has been defeated and everything's good now. Instead it's just shown as very sad and Katara and Zuko don't feel any triumph in the moment, just pity. Defeating the villain doesn't always mean it's a happy moment after all...

On that subject, I like how the show handles its tone too. We have three seasons worth of plot and I love how each season escalates from the previous one in terms of tone and stakes. Season 1 is the most light-hearted of the three seasons, though it still has its moments, and ends in victory for our heroes. Season 2 has them suffering more defeats and being given a harder task than before and ends in total victory for our villains and Season 3 has the stakes upped to the point everything could end in destruction for our heroes with Sozin's Comet coming by and giving the Fire Nation a power boost, we have the most emotional episodes of the series and some of the darkest too. And yet the show still manages to give us a happy ending that made all three seasons feel worth sitting through and the tone never feels like it gets to the point the show's no longer entertaining. I feel it was perfectly handled.

And yet, despite how much this show loves to punch you in the feels, it can also be very, very funny at times. This really is one of those shows that somehow handles its tone so perfectly in where one minute it can be making you laugh your arse off, then the next it's ripping your heart out. The comedy is very much appreciated in a show like this as it stops the show feeling too depressing and it gives us some much needed levity in-between the darker moments. And for the most part, the comedy doesn't feel too over-the-top or forced. I still wonder how the hell this is by the same Aaron Ehasz who created The Dragon Prince, because that show really overdid it with the comedy to the point it just got obnoxious and made the time-skip era of the series unbearable to watch at times. Avatar by comparison is way more restrained and never feels like it's overdoing it. When the episodes get more serious, they tone down the comedy or don't use any at all and just let the episodes be serious when they need to. This in turn is what makes the more comedic scenes all the better because they don't overdo it and it's really effective whenever we get a funny scene or two. And there's a lot of different comedy styles here too from witty one-liners to savage comments and plenty of slapstick and visual humour. Some of my favourite jokes include people forgetting Toph is blind, some of the over-the-top facial expressions and pretty much every scene involving Iroh being funny. There's a reason he's considered a legend in the fandom.

And of course, with the kind of show this is, there's plenty of awesome action to enjoy throughout the series as well. The action scenes are where we get some of the most creative visuals and the writing gives us quite a variety of action set-pieces and battles that make for an entertaining watch. More on that in the animation segment.

So yeah, I'm calling a spade a spade here. Avatar: The Last Airbender has amazing writing that is above and beyond the standards we expect from animated kid's shows. What else is new? So, do I have any criticisms about the writing? Eh...sad to say, but I do.

Wait a minute, calm down Toph, before you start Earthbending me or anything, I just want to say I don't have any major criticisms to give! But as is, even this show's writing isn't perfect.

First of all, I agree with pretty much everybody in the fandom that the ending is a massive copout. Aang is put in a very real situation where he has to face the fact that like it or not, he may have to kill the Fire Lord in order to put an end to this war. So how does Aang get out of it? He meets a Lion Turtle and it just grants him the ability to energy-bend. While the Lion Turtle was subtly built-up throughout the show, their energy-bending ability is a flat-out deus-ex-machina and just felt like a lazy copout to me. If they'd foreshadowed energy-bending some more so it didn't feel so out of nowhere, it wouldn't have felt like such a copout. Hell, this might sound like a hot take, but I genuinely think the stronger ending would've been Aang having to accept he has no choice and kill Ozai in the end. That would've felt like a proper payoff to the moral dilemma he's been faced with. Instead, a Lion Turtle conveniently shows up and conveniently gives him a way to peacefully stop Ozai. Come on writers, you could've done much better than that...

Second of all, I feel Season 3 was the weakest season of the show. Not only did it give us that deus-ex-machina ending, but I feel it lacked the great pacing of Seasons 1 and 2 due to being more plot-focused, and thus we don't have as much time to wind down between episodes and some characters like Ty Lee end up a bit shafted. Not saying Season 3 was bad, just that Seasons 1 and 2 felt better paced and structured to me.

And remember how I said "The Great Divide" and "Avatar Day" were stinkers you can outright skip? That's because they are. "The Great Divide" is just a whole load of nothing with a bad moral about how it's good to lie (it's not, it's never good to lie) and "Avatar Day's" main plot was just embarrassing with the Gaang having to deal with an island full of morons who ignore evidence in favour of just deciding based on their own biased feelings if someone's guilty or not. If it wasn't for the Zuko and Iroh plot in that episode being important (and actually good), I would've said you can skip "Avatar Day" entirely. Those episodes really do feel like they're from a much lesser series, because everything else is of such high quality that these two stick out like sore thumbs.

Also, was I the only one who found Pakku being a sexist pig utterly pointless? Seriously, what was the reason to include it here other than unnecessary forced conflict the show didn't need? Our heroes arrive at the Northern Water Tribe, Pakku won't teach Katara how to use water-bending for combat because he's a sexist pig, Katara challenges him, Pakku then notices she has the necklace he gave to her grandmother, sees that his sexism is what drove her away and that's enough for him to knock it off. Why even make him this way if it was going to be resolved THAT bloody easily?! Had I written the show, I just wouldn't have included it whatsoever. Funny how the Netflix series got rid of Sokka's sexism because they idiotically thought it was "iffy", yet they didn't get rid of Pakku's sexism, which definitely WAS iffy because of how unnecessary it was. Either Pakku shouldn't have been sexist at all, or it shouldn't have taken one episode for him to get over it, plain and simple.

But the worst part of the show for me is in regards to Toph's parents. They are, without question, the DUMBEST parents I have ever seen in media, and that's saying a lot when we have parents like Homer Simpson, Peter Griffin and Mr. Turner! I really am not exaggerating at how dumb they are, and it's just as forced as Pakku's unnecessary sexism! Get this, they (understandably) are protective over Toph because she's blind. But then they see Toph in action in where she's this really badass Earthbender who can kick all kinds of ass without breaking a sweat and is living proof to them she isn't helpless...and their reaction is "We give you too much freedom, therefore we need to baby you even more!" (facepalms) I...I can't even with those two. How do you watch living proof that your daughter isn't weak and helpless and come to a conclusion like that?! If I saw MY daughter being a badass, I'd be amazed and congratulate her for it! And worst of all, when Toph runs away, her dad sends two guys after her, one of whom literally KIDNAPPED HER AND AANG IN THAT SAME EPISODE TO USE FOR RANSOM! Seriously, how do you even function as a sentient being when you this incomprehensibly stupid?!?!

You're telling me, Scar!

As is, there's very little to actually criticize about the show overall. That should tell you just how damn good it was...

Section 2: The Characters

These are some of the most beloved characters to ever come out of a Nickelodeon show and it's SO easy to see why! In order to keep this segment as short as possible, I'll only focus on the main or major characters or else this review will go on for too long.

Let's start off with our main heroes themselves, Aang (voiced by Zach Tyler Eisen), Katara (voiced by Mae Whitman), Sokka (voiced by Jack DeSena) and Toph (voiced by Michaela Jill Murphy, aka Jessie Flower).

Aang in my opinion is the PERFECT child protagonist. The writing behind him shows that the writers actually understand children very well and Aang is so believable as a result. Yes he has a good heart and he ultimately wants to do good in the world, but he's not some paragon of maturity and wisdom and is just better than all the adults. No, he can get distracted from his main mission and gallivant off to have some fun, and he's also not afraid to be a bit of a troublemaker at times. Again, he's a kid, so of course he's going to act like that. But none of this makes Aang unlikeable or a rotten kid or anything. And yet when all is said and done, Aang will never abandon anyone in need or let the Fire Nation get away with destroying people's lives. All of this boils down to the tremendous guilt that Aang feels over the fact he abandoned the Air Nomads because he didn't want to be saddled with the responsibilities as the Avatar and now a century long war has gone on and his people are all dead. Despite Aang's reluctance at first, he comes to terms with who and what he is and embraces his destiny as the Avatar, thus allowing him to grow and become the hero he was always meant to be. And yet he's still able to goof around and have a fun time when the situation calls for it. What can I say? Aang was just an incredible character and the perfect protagonist for this series.

But as much as I love Aang, my favourite of our heroes is Katara. I once talked about her way back in my Top 10 Nice Girls list, but I'll go over it again here. Katara is easily one of the greatest female characters ever created in the world of fiction. She's the complete package as far as I'm concerned: she's kind and compassionate but not afraid to get her hands dirty when necessary and she will NOT stand idly by and let herself or others be put down or mistreated. Katara's a total badass and her growth over the series is just as, if not more, compelling as Aang's is. Seeing this struggling Southern Water Tribe girl go from Waterbending novice to pro over the course of the series is really awesome and I love how important Katara is to the team with how she's like everyone's mother and has to keep everybody well stocked up on supplies and such. It's always sweet seeing her big heart drive her to help out others, even if sometimes she'll unintentionally make things worse, but she's no push over in spite of her niceness. Let's not forget how she can hold serious grudges if she's well and truly wronged, such as with Zuko and Season 2, and how she outright wanted to kill the man who murdered her mother. But Katara is able to forgive Zuko in the end and also doesn't choose revenge, thus showing her compassionate side is strong enough to prevent her going over the deep end. Katara is an absolute queen and this show wouldn't have been as great as it was without her.

On the subject of Katara, let's cover her brother next. Sokka is another equally vital member to the team. Due to his strict adherence to schedules, his strategic planning and his role as the brains of the group, he keeps the team coordinated and is often the one making plans. He's also the resident Butt Monkey of the group, which isn't surprising as this is a Nickelodeon show, but he's one of the better examples of this trope since Sokka more often than not brings his misfortunes on himself. A lot of the show's best comedy comes from Sokka and I guarantee you'll be laughing at him plenty of times throughout the series. But he's not just the comic relief of the group. Sokka has an insecure side in how he's proud of his warrior heritage and just wants to prove himself a great warrior like his dad. But as a normal guy who can't bend, he can feel pretty useless at times and it really gets to him. That's so relatable! How many times have we felt insecure about ourselves because of how inferior we feel compared to others around us? Also his upbringing has given him a sexist view of women, but because Sokka isn't a complete asshole, he IS able to eat some humble pie and accept his sexist views were wrong and he becomes a more respectable person as a result. Why the Netflix series thought this was "iffy", I'll never understand. Sokka is a well-rounded character who is living proof that even the comic relief can have some depth. Also, what is it with Jack DeSena and playing characters who fall in love with white-haired girls?

Either Jack has a type or white-haired women just go crazy for him. XD

And now we finish off with the fourth member of the team, Toph Beifong. Toph didn't join the group until Season 2, and I'll forever be glad she was added to the main cast, because Toph is an absolute legend. Despite being the youngest of the group, she is easily able to hold her own due to her Earthbending skills being highly advanced to mitigate her blindness. She is a total badass and she'll happily gloat about her awesomeness to your face, while also humiliating you just for a laugh. She is strong, sassy, always has a savage comeback or two and is able to back up her ego. Like Sokka, she's responsible for some of the show's funniest moments and I love her for it. Yet like Sokka, she's not all fun and games and there are times she proves to be wiser than she seems, probably a result of her luxurious upbringing and hanging out with badger moles giving her a perspective on life no one else really has. Despite her tough talking nature and her tendency to troll the living hell out of people, she does have a softer side to her...not that she'd admit it. Toph's parents may see her as a weak and helpless girl, but we fans see her as an absolute legend of the small screen.

And of course, I have to cover one of the most beloved characters in the show, Prince Zuko (voiced by Dante Basco). Introduced as a recurring antagonist at first, we see very quickly that Zuko is more than the sum of his parts and isn't just a villain our heroes have to defeat. Hell, he's not even really villainous at all. He's actually a disgraced, exiled prince who just wants to earn his father's respect again and claim back his honour after he was horrifically burned and scarred by him. Zuko is willing to do what it takes to capture Aang and bring him back to the Fire Lord, but his journey over the world shows him how the Fire Nation isn't as glamorous as he thought and even at the end of Season 2 after he helps Azula conquer Ba Sing Se, he's rewarded with what he wanted and yet he isn't happy. Instead, he sees his true destiny lies with the Avatar and turns on the Fire Nation. Zuko is hailed as an example of how to do a redemption arc, and I'm inclined to agree. If there's ever a writing class that discusses redemption arcs, Zuko should be THE top example to follow. I just love how it was a slow crawl and he didn't just turn good at the drop of a hat. He went through temptations and had moments of going back and forth before he finally settled on what he wanted, and it made for one hell of a compelling arc through and through. It's no wonder he's so beloved.

Next up is Zuko's hilarious, yet wise uncle, General Iroh (voiced in Seasons 1-2 by the late Mako and in Season 3 by Greg Baldwin). What else can I say that hasn't been said already? Iroh's an icon! Like Sokka and Toph, he's responsible for some of the funniest moments in the entire series. Seriously, it's unreal just how hilarious this guy is. There's nearly never a scene where he's not funny! XD And yet he can also be very commanding and serious when the situation calls for it, especially in the Season 1 finale when he demands that Zhao release the white fish that contains the moon spirit. He also acts as Zuko's guide and conscience, which is why Iroh's one of the few characters Zuko has any genuine affection for. What makes it all the sweeter is that even after Zuko's betrayal in Season 2, Iroh still hasn't given up on him and his first reaction upon seeing Zuko again after he escapes custody is to hug him and say he's not mad at him. Who could possibly hate this guy? Iroh's the best uncle anyone could ever ask for.

For the main villains, we start off with Commander Zhao (voiced by Jason Issacs) in Season 1. Zhao is honestly pretty boring as an antagonist. He's just a bland, smug villain who has no charm or charisma to him and is a dick to Zuko...just because. He's so forgettable to me that I've even had to remind myself a few times on what his name is! It's no wonder that after Season 1 ended, the show just moved on and acted like he never existed, because Zhao wasn't worth remembering. He paled compared to the more compelling Zuko and charismatic Iroh if you ask me.

From Season 2 onwards, the main antagonist role goes to the best villain in the series, Princess Azula (voiced by Grey DeLisle). She was a HUGE step-up from Zhao! Not only is Azula way more memorable with a larger personality and some really quotable lines, but she's just as compelling and complex as her brother is and is even a pretty scary villain at times because of how eerily close to real life villains she can be. You often hear stories about some of the worst people you've ever heard of that start off creepy and disturbed as children and then go on to be really messed up as they get older. Azula is no different with flashbacks showing she was one REALLY screwed up kid and as she got older, she didn't get any better. Yet Azula isn't just an evil person with a messed up mind. She's pretty efficient to the point she's doing all the heavy-lifting while her father sits back and does nothing. Azula is incredibly intelligent and a cunning strategist who plays chess while everyone else is playing checkers and will no doubt have you played for a sucker before the thought you've been played would even cross your mind. As she says, she's a "people person" and so she can get a scarily good read of people she meets and interacts with (unless that someone is Mai). But much like the other characters in the series, Azula can also be really damn funny at times too. Just watch "The Beach" and you'll see what I mean. It's unreal how Nickelodeon managed to create such a compelling and messed up villain for one of their shows, and that's why Azula stands to me as one of the best villains in animation history.

And of course, there's the overarching villain of the series, the man in charge of the Fire Nation, Fire Lord Ozai (voiced by Mark Hamill). It's so weird how he's treated as the overall big bad of the series, yet he's barely in the show and doesn't really do anything until the series finale. He really set up a fantastically wicked first impression Season 1's "The Storm", but with so much screentime going to his children and Azula doing all the heavy-lifting, it just feels a bit of a shame that we don't see him do anything until the end, and he gets defeated too. Not a great look for the guy who's hyped up to be the final boss of the series, is it? The first time we see him in action and he gets defeated. They should've done what they did with Azula and show this guy scoring victories beforehand so his defeat would've felt more rewarding. In the end, Ozai was kind of all talk and no show if I'm going to be honest, and that's disappointing to me. He could've been a fantastic villain in his own right. Instead, he's an accessory to Zuko's character development when all is said and done.

There's a whole lot of other characters I can get into like Suki, Jet, Long Feng and the Dai Li, Pakku, Yue, King Bumi and many more, but as I said, I wanted to make sure this review didn't go too long, so I'll stick with just the ones I covered.

Avatar: The Last Airbender quite possibly has the greatest cast that's ever been put together for a TV series. No matter who you are or what your thoughts on the series is, you are guaranteed to leave this show with a favourite character or at least one that left a memorable impression on you...

Section 3: The Animation

This isn't just one of Nickelodeon's best show in terms of story and characters, but in terms of visuals too.

The best way to describe Avatar's animation is that it's very much a part of the anime boom of the 2000's era. While obviously it ISN'T an anime due to being a Western made show, the visuals and character designs are very clearly anime-inspired with the way the eyes are drawn, the fluid action scenes and how detailed everything looks from the creature designs to the backgrounds. And all of this is to the show's benefit I find, for the show has a very appealing art-style and look to it that makes every episode appealing to look at. It also shows that despite being animation for a TV show, it doesn't mean the visuals aren't impressive to watch. It's pretty amazing how much they were able to do on a TV budget and make the show look as good as they did. The sheer amount of detail put into the settings and backgrounds, the stellar fight choreography, the expressive character animation, it's all so good here!

Let's start with the character designs. This is a show that makes every character in it visually distinctive and memorable in one way or another. I guarantee that you show somebody the cast of this show and they'll likely identify who's who from a first glance. The anime art-style really helps in giving these characters a distinctive look and for the designers to get creative with their costumes and hairstyles. The big standouts for me include Aang's arrow tattoos and airbender uniform, Katara's "hair loopies", Toph's iconic green outfit and Zuko's scarred eye. It's not just the main characters who have memorable designs too. You have the incredibly creative wildlife in where many of the animals are hybrids of one another such as the iconic platypus bear or the turtle ducks and there's even more fantastical looking species like Appa the Sky Bison or Momo the winged lemur. I'll forever be amazed how the animators managed to make these creatures look believable, even the hybrids, and how they all fit in so believably in this world. Not one of these animals looks out of place here. And then there's the distinct ways of dressing that makes the world of Avatar so unique and memorable with the most notable for me being the Kyoshi warriors who's face paint, dress style and culture is based on Avatar Kyoshi, the soldier uniforms of the Fire Nation, the blue coats of the Water Tribe and the uniforms of the Dai Li. Not only are much of the costumes distinctive looking, but the fact each part of the four nations has their own dress sense makes this world feel so rich with culture and diversity and that this truly is a world full of many different people who have their own ways of living. This all factors in to how damn good the world-building of this show is, as well as the incredible amount of effort the animators put into the designs. I only wish I had the kind of talent these animators could pull off...

But it's not just designs that are great here. Not only do the characters look great, they move great too. The character animation is also where you'll find some of Avatar's best visuals. The characters show a lot of personality and character through their body language and facial expressions alone and the lively character animation brings them to life so effortlessly. These characters wouldn't have been anywhere near as iconic as they were if it weren't for the animators, that's for sure. The anime art-style also allows them to get very playful at times whenever there's a more comedic scene happening in an episode or whenever a character has an explosive or comical reaction to what's going on. This is especially evident with how many hilarious expressions you'll find on the character's faces in this show.

But the highlight of the character animation for me comes from the action scenes. Every bender has their own unique fighting style, from the lightweight and speedy movements of airbenders to the graceful handmovements of waterbenders to the aggressive attacks of firebending and the heavy blows from earthbending and it's always a treat to watch these characters use their bending. The animators really take advantage of the show's setting by showing how creative the bending can get. Just about every chase or battle sequence shows some really creative use of a character's bending that can turn the tide in battle or help them make a quick getaway. The most noteworthy examples I can list include Azula chasing after Aang and Bumi in "Return to Omashu", Toph using her earthbending to get around her blindness, Katara vs. Pakku in "The Waterbending Master" and the extremely clever way Katara defeats Azula in the final episode. Even fight scenes where it's between normal non-benders can be exciting and intense to watch too, such as Sokka vs. Piandao in "Sokka's Master". And speaking of intense, the show knows how to make the action scenes feel nail-biting, especially in the finale with Aang vs. Ozai or Zuko and Katara vs. Azula. The animators really went all out for those big scenes and made them so impressive that they could rival animated movies for how impressive they look.

The animation also plays with tone as much as the writing does. As mentioned earlier, the character animation can get pretty zany during the more comical scenes, thus making them land even harder than they already do. Need I bring up Katara's "I'M COMPLETELY CALM!" outburst from "The Chase"?

But it's not just the comedic scenes where the animation really nails it. Even the darker and more emotional scenes hit like a truck too because of the execution. One scene that stands out to me is when Jet is taken prisoner by the Dai Li and the Dai Li agent gives the infamous line "There is no war in Ba Sing Se". The scene is darkly lit and very ominously played out with the Dai Li agent saying the line while a green light slowly circles around in front of Jet as he's being hypnotised. And then there's "The Puppetmaster" episode which introduces bloodbending. The entire episode feels like a horror movie with its creepy atmosphere, the ominous build-up to the witch's reveal and the bloodbending itself looks very unnerving with how the characters are reduced to just puppets that Hama can do with as she pleases. And even in the slower scenes where there's little to no dialogue and they just let the visuals tell the story, they're done so well and manage to be really effective. This is a show where its visuals can amaze you, make you laugh your pants off and scare the daylights out of you all over the course of a single season, and it only makes the show an even more incredible viewing experience as a result.

Of course, with this being a TV show, the animation isn't perfect by any means. Like with any TV animation, you get your occasional animation goofs or characters looking off-model at times and those kinds of things, but nothing that really ruins the visuals in my eyes. I even feel I'd have to nitpick if I wanted to find anything to criticize about the animation.

This is a show that's truly the complete package. It's written well, it's characters are enjoyable and to top it all off, it LOOKS great too. Everybody at Nickelodeon studios should be proud of the work they put into this show, especially the animators...

Conclusion

WHY THE HELL DID I NOT SEE THIS SHOW SOONER?!?!

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a masterpiece of TV animation with an engaging story that only gets better as it goes along, deep lore and creative world-building, engagingly complex characters that are a lot of fun to watch, amazing animation that really brings this world to life and some sensational voice-acting. Yes it has its problems, but every show has problems. No show is perfect after all.

It still amazes me that this came from Nickelodeon of all studios, because this show is in a league of its own compared to what they usually create! Avatar is a great show and I only regret not seeing it back in its heyday. I really did miss out on something special. Still, the Avatar State awoke within me and I got to see the show for the greatness it truly is. This is one adventure I'll happily go on again some time soon...

And that's it for my review on Avatar: The Last Airbender. I hope you enjoyed this review and of course, feel free to share your thoughts on the show in the comments below. What do you think to the show? Do you love it as well? Do tell me.

Next time, I'll returning to Robot Wars with an essay all about Dominator 2. See you then media fans!

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