What is Avatar: The Last Airbender?
A show based upon an alternate-fantasy of mostly Asian culture created by two white guys (yeah, it was 2005) and aired on Nickelodeon for 3 years and 3 seasons, that recently regained popularity (not that it ever truly waned) during the pandemic. There’s also less South East Asian culture despite taking quite a lot from it, which should be pointed out.
It stars Aang, the titular Avatar / Last Airbender, his new friends Katara and Sokka, trying to end imperialism and an 100 year war.
Also, Appa.
Where can I watch it?
Very rarely, Nick will air it on TV at like 7 AM on Saturdays. But for certain, Netflix US, and well, iykyk. There is also a DVD boxset from like 2011 and I believe a Blu Ray set recently came out, there’s also a fan-revised HD version I think.
What else should I be aware of before watching?
It is a bit childish for the first handful of episodes, try to make it to episode 10 (The Storm) if you can. At the least, try to watch episode 3.
I’m keeping it quite vague.
- There are stories with refugees trying to make their way to a safe place, secret police, colonizers, manipulation, familial abuse, and many other serious topics.
- There are also awesome fight sequences that are creative, a lot of recurring characters, beautiful backgrounds (although in season 1, it was animated by two different studios and you can kind of tell, but it does start looking better and more seamless in season 2.
- There’s also a great redemption arc.
Is there a movie?
No. And if there was, it would have Dev Patel in it. But there isn’t – and there are books.
Ok, so, there are…comic books?
Sure are; The Search, The Promise, The Rift, North and South, Smoke and Shadow, Azula and The Spirit Temple, Suki Alone*
90% of the comics take place after the show. Some of them came out around the time of the show and are supplementary materials. I haven’t found them reprinted anywhere.
*This is the only one that takes place during the show, but if you watch the show first, you know that this isn’t really a big earth shattering deal.
And there’s real books?
Yep; They’re called Chronicles of The Avatar, and focus on the Avatars before Aang; so far, it’s Kyoshi and Yangchen, but Roku’s book(s) are next year. They are not required reading to watch the show.
And who the hell are they.mp3
Well, watch the show.
What other supplementary material is there?
Nick.com had a ugly but endearing like visual novel thing from 2006 that fleshed out the previous Avatars, but I think it may only be on the Wayback Machine.
Who’s talking about this show still?
Avatar The Podcast is my personal favorite, and there’s a Nick-official one, Braving The Elements, starring Janet Varney (Korra, from her show) and Dante Basco (Hello – Zuko here). There’s also the recently-found Overanalyzing Avatar on YouTube, if you want to breeze through it but you shouldn’t.
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Nickelodeon? also inline.
