Monday, August 8, 2011

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Hooray, 50th post! I feel like I'm cheating because this is the 3rd post of today... But whatever, it appears you people aren't sick of me yet.


This will be talking about the SERIES. The movie (Both the one based on the series and the stupid blue aliens) are not going to be discussed. (Because I haven't seen the alien smurfs and I'm mad at it for stealing the name, and the one based of the series is terrible and I still want to punch the director.)



Its a anime-style cartoon. It was on Nickolodean. Hey, stop laughing! Its not a kids show! Its a FAMILY show, meaning it can be watched by a five year old and a 25 year old.

Its about a world where people can control the elements- Water, fire, earth, air. The different kinds of bending is modelled after different kinds of martial arts (Waterbending is tai chi, for example).

One person, the Avatar, has the ability to bend all four elements. When one avatar dies, a new one is born. There is only one Avatar in the world. The Avatar brings peace and balance. In this case, the Avatar is Aang, the kid with the arrow on his head. He was born an Airbender.

When Aang was twelve, he was told he was the avatar. They usually wait until the avatar is 16, but the Fire Nation was starting a war. Aang ran away (with his flying bison, Appa) and got frozen in a ball of ice.

100 years later, Katara, a waterbender, and her brother Sokka find Aang in the ice. He's still 12. While he's been gone, there has been a war. The war has destroyed all of the other airbenders, because they knew the avatar would be born into them (The Avatar cycle is Water, Earth, Fire, Air. The last avatar was fire.).

Then we get to out antagonist- Zuko. (Side note: Coolest. Name. Ever!)


He's the Fire Nation prince. He spoke out of term in a war meeting, and was punished by having to fight an Agni Kai, a firebender duel. It turned out to be his father he was dueling, and he didn't fight. His father gave him that scar and banished him. He's been trying to find the avatar for three years (he's 16), to regain his honor and be welcomed back. Oh, and he has a ponytail.

Anyway, long story short, season one is spent with Aang, Katara and Sokka trying to teach Aang waterbending, and running from Zuko. Season two is when I really love the show, because we get Toph.



Toph Bei Fong is the only daughter of the Bei Fong family, a wealthy and well known family in the Earth Kingdom. No one knows she exists. She was born blind, and has been over-protected her entire life. Once, she ran away. She found the Badger-Moles, the original earthbenders. They are blind. She learn earthbending from them, and to sense vibration and basically see with her feet. She is secretly the Blind Bandit, and she fights other earthbenders. And wins. She agrees to teach Aang earthbending. Why is she my favorite? Well, watch this.



And we also get Azula.

Zuko's sister, not banished, trying to find the Avatar for herself. She is evil and crazy and just so awesome. She also brings her friends, Mai and Ty Lee.

Mai's the goth one. I like Mai, not only because she's goth, but because she just doesn't care about capturing Aang. But Ty Lee is sooooo happy.

Season three has more complications, and it circles around three groups of people- Team Avatar, Zuko and his uncle, and Azula and her friends. Azula is trying to kill the Avatar and mess with her brother, Team Avatar is learning earthbending and helping people and just making a mess of things as usual, and Zuko is half trying to capture the Avatar and half being an angsty teen who doesn't know what to do.

And the last, season three. He's now trying to learn firebending, and finish the war. Zuko was AWESOME in this season, I won't say why, but its not because he ditched the ponytail.

You may also notice several people online talking about being in love with Zuko. This was probably from season three.


Also...
I just love Zuko and Mai together. (Not exactly a Goth couple, goth is more "I really don't care what people think of me", and I'd say Zuko is more emo.) And the uninterested-ness of Mai is so funny.


The show won an award for complex character (as well as many other awards, I assume).


GO WATCH IT NOW! Its on Netflix watch instantly if you have it, but if you don't, ask and I'll give you a link of where to watch it.

Over and out.

3 comments:

Rose said...

:D I. LOVE. THIS. SHOW. :D

Aisling Lark said...

Toph is epic

VictorianAndroid said...

I love Avatar! I used to watch it all the time. I admit I love Zuko, from the start. If I were an animated character...well...<3 lol.