I introduced a friend to ATLA a few nights ago, and they had only
known two things about the entire show: the cabbage meme, and that Aang
apparently wants to ride every large and dangerous animal he can
possibly find. We got through the first five or so episodes, and my
friend noted that Aang is exactly what a 12-year-old would be like if
given godlike powers, and that this is literally just what he
could do with airbending. He can’t even wield any of the other elements,
and he’s one of the most powerful people on the planet, because he’s an
airbender.
And that got me thinking.
This snippet from Bitter Work is one of the few pieces of concrete information we get about the airbenders, at least in ATLA. Iroh is explaining to Zuko how all four of the elements connect to the world and to each other.
Fire is the element of power, of desire and will, of ambition and the ability to see it through. Power is crucial to the world; without it, there’s no drive, no momentum, no push. But fire can easily grow out of control and become dangerous; it can become unpredictable, unless it is nurtured and watched and structured.
Earth is the element of substance, persistence, and enduring. Earth is strong, consistent, and blunt. It can construct things with a sense of permanence; a house, a town, a walled city. But earth is also stubborn; it’s liable to get stuck, dig in, and stay put even when it’s best to move on.
Water is the element of change, of adaptation, of movement. Water is incredibly powerful both as a liquid and a solid; it will flow and redirect. But it also will change, even when you don’t want it to; ice will melt, liquid will evaporate. A life dedicated to change necessarily involves constant movement, never putting down roots, never letting yourself become too comfortable.
We see only a few flashbacks to Aang’s life in the temples, and we get a sense of who he was and what kind of upbringing he had.
This is a preteen with the power to fucking fly. He’s got no fear of falling, and a much reduced fear of death. There’s a reason why the sages avoid telling the new avatar their status until they turn sixteen; could you imagine a firebender, at twelve years old, learning that they were going to be the most powerful person in the whole world? Depending on that child, that could go so badly.
But the thing about Aang, and the thing about the Air Nomads, is that they were part of the world too. They contributed to the balance, and then they were all but wiped out by Sozin. What was lost, there? Was it freedom? Yes, but I think there’s something else too, and it’s just yet another piece of the utter brilliance of the worldbuilding of ATLA.
To recap: we have power to push us forward; we have stability to keep us strong; we have change to keep us moving.
And then we have this guy.
The air nomads brought fun to the world. They brought a very literal sense of lightheartedness.
Sozin saw this as a weakness. I think a lot of the world did, in ATLA. Why do the Air Nomads bother, right? They’re just up there in their temples, playing games, baking pies in order to throw them as a gag. As Iroh said above, they had pretty great senses of humour, and they didn’t take themselves too seriously.
But that’s a huge part of having a world of balance and peace.
It’s not just about power, or might, or the ability to adapt. You can have all of those, but you also need fun. You need the ability to be vulnerable, to have no ambitions beyond just having a good day. You need to be able to embrace silliness, to nurture play, to have that space where a very specific kind of emotional growth can occur. Fun makes a hard life a little easier. Fun makes your own mortality a little less frightening to grasp. Fun is the spaces in between, that can’t be measured by money or military might. Fun is what nurtures imagination, allows you to see a situation in a whole new light, to find new solutions to problems previously considered impossible.
Fun is what makes a stranger into a friend, rather than an enemy.
For the record while ATLA is an excellent show and Zukos redemption arc was perfectly paced, I would kill to have had Zuko join the Gaang at the end of book two, because the first half of book three would have been the funniest thing on the planet. Like. Just picture it. A bunch of unsupervised teenagers travelling undercover through enemy territory, trying to blend in… and the only people who have even been there before are 1. A guy who hasnt been there in a century, and 2. The former crown prince who has literally never spoken to a fire nation citizen who wasnt nobility, military, or one of his servants.
Like. Neither of them have any idea what they’re doing, or how normal fire nation citizens act, but they’re pretty sure the other one is wrong. Rest of the gaang knows even less. No adults. Zuko and Aang getting into a shouting debate over the finer points of fire nation culture is a nightly event. They are both so wrong, and so, so awkward
Zuko, for the fifth and probably not last time: FOR THE LAST TIME, NOBODY USES THE PHRASE ‘FLAMEO HOTMAN’!
Aang, aware of that fact but in too deep to back out now: OH YEAH? THEN WHAT DO THEY SAY!?
Zuko, clueless and bluffing: …Something about glory to the Fire Lord?
Toph, well aware that both are lying through their teeth and have no idea what they’re talking about, and fucking loving every second of this train wreck: Clearly the only solution is for both of you to go into town tomorrow and test your theories out.
And the side taking, oh my god the side taking from the other three. Katara sides with Aang every single time. Does she honestly believe that the people of the Fire Nation greet each other with ‘Flame on, my em-brother’? Hell no. Would she rather die than say that Zuko’s correct? Yes.
Sokka usually sides with Zuko, unless he comes up with something astoundingly stupid. Zuko’s thoughts, while usually wrong, sound a lot more plausible then Aangs, and fuck it he’s willing to take a gamble.
Toph is the closest thing to a neutral party they have, in that she knows damn well they’re all full of shit, and has chosen to instead egg them on to make it worse. She’s an agent of chaos, and this is free nightly entertainment. She’s having the time of her life right now.
The debate takes a brief pause once they stop going undercover and get to the business of actually saving the world, but holy shit. once things have settled down? it’s back on with a vengeance. Except now Aang and Zuko aren’t the two most wanted people in the Fire Nation, they’re the two most influential people in the world. They are trendsetters. They can make slang become a thing.
When Zuko first hears the phrase ‘flameo, hotman’ being thrown around casually, it takes a lot of deep breathing exercises to not immediately return to his previous occupation of hunting the Avatar.
Iroh: I’m so proud of the way you’ve been ruling, nephew. Flameo, hotman!
10. Over the Garden Wall The shortest entry on this list, but damn if it wasn’t a memorable one from start to finish. This little miniseries has it all: mystery, comedy, drama, horror, insanely catchy songs (damn you, “Potatoes and Molasses”!), surreal imagery, and fantastic characters, and manages to be quite unlike anything I’ve seen before or since.
9. Voltron Legendary Defender AKA how to do a reboot cartoon right. I never watched the original Voltron, but from all appearances, this show took all the elements people loved about the original, kept them, and changed basically everything else. It’s not afraid to branch out and do its own thing when it wants to, but it also pays homage to the series that came before it quite a lot, and you can tell the creators deeply respect the source material. The animation and cinematography are fantastic, the characters all lovable and well-written, and the plot gripping and able to keep you on the edge of your seat the entire season.
8. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (circa 2003, seasons 1-4) THE definitive TMNT for me; if there was a series that combined this series’ sense of maturity and grit with the art style of the 2012 Nickelodeon series, then that would be the perfect TMNT TV show, imho. I am still utterly astonished by how dark this series was allowed to get at times while still never losing the franchise’s unique brand of slightly absurdist humor. Where else can you find a series
rated Y-7
where the lead villain is decapitated on screen, one of the lead characters spends an entire season with blatant PTSD, and a main character’s pet kitten drowns on screen (sure, the episode turned out to be all Just A Dream, but still!), while, in the same series, you have a main character distracting the bad guy with a pigeon puppet, the main characters defeat an entire coalition of armed guards with nothing but a toilet scrubber, a broom, two toilet plungers, and spoons, and this iconic scene? Not to mention the writing is absolutely top notch, and the characters feel so delightfully three dimensional and human (er, for lack of a better term.) [Do keep in mind that my praise for this series only pertains to seasons 1-4; I’m really not a fan of the direction the writers decided to go in after that, and I prefer to pretend that the later seasons don’t exist, especially season 5.]
7. Goblin This show is basically Rick Riordan’s “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series with Korean mythology instead of Greek, and it is absolutely delightful. The character writing here is sublime, as are the performances turned in by every single member of the main cast. The main couple’s chemistry and relationship progression is incredibly satisfying, but honestly, the other relationships in the series are just as intriguing and well-written as the romance, especially the Goblin and Grim Reaper’s budding friendship that honestly is almost more compelling than the actual romantic subplot. The story admittedly does move a bit slowly, but this series is more about the characters and the journey they go on than it is about the plot anyway, so since I loved all the characters so much, I didn’t find myself overly minding that all that much. I also want to give a shout out to just how damn pretty this show is; the cinematography, the special effects, the costumes – both period and modern, they spared no expense on anything here, and it really shows. Oh, and the OST is one of the greatest soundtracks of all time for any show ever, and you can quote me on that.
6. Motorcity “Sexy Cars, Absurdly Badass Action Sequences, and Heartwarming Bromance: The Series” and there are not enough words in the English language to convey how pumped this series makes me every single time I watch even a gifset from it. No, it’s not the deepest or most profound show I’ve ever seen, but one thing it is is pure, unadulterated fun, and we all need a little fun in our lives every now and then. Plus it has hilarious writing, great characters, incredible animation, and one of the most absurdly entertaining chaotic neutral villains in the entire history of fiction. It has only 20 episodes, due to Disney putting the kibosh on production only one season in, but luckily, the creators were able to account for this and give the show a satisfying ending, so you have no reason to not watch this and then treat yourself to a proper viewing.
5. Stranger Things I’m not sure there’s much I can say about this particular series that hasn’t already been said by other better writers, so I’ll keep this brief. This is THE best live-action show to have come out in at least the last decade, and if you haven’t seen it yet, you have done yourself a disservice.
4. Star Trek: The Original Series The nostalgia is strong with this entry, it’s true, but this show holds too much of a special place in my heart to put it any lower on the list. I have many fond memories of watching episodes on my dad’s old VHS tapes over and over again, just loving the old school sci-fi aesthetic and wonderful character interactions in every episode. Even today, the writing holds up remarkably well, even if the special effects have aged very obviously. Still, it just adds to the show’s charm, and I’d still wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who loves science fiction.
3. Firefly My experience with this series is probably a bit different than most, since I actually watched the theatrical movie (which was basically meant to be the series finale) first. I had no idea who these characters were or even that they came from a series, but the universe and characters were so engaging and different than anything I’d seen before that was incredibly drawn in all the same. When I figured out there was a series, over four years later, I knew I immediately had to watch it, and was hooked from the first episode. The character writing on this show is some of the best I’ve ever seen in my life, the worldbuilding absolutely top notch, and it’s a damn shame it didn’t get the chance to become the next big hit because of FOX’s meddling. There’s a reason this is still one of the biggest cult classic sci-fi shows in the west, that’s for sure.
2. Fullmetal Alchemist (2003/Brotherhood) While I prefer the 2003 anime for personal reasons, I love both anime adaptations of Himoru Arakawa’s magnum opus too much to leave one or the other off this list, so into the number two slot they both go. Besides, I’ve always privately held that if you combined both series into one, they’d basically cancel out each other’s personal failings and you’d be left with the single most perfect anime in existence. And come on, how often do you get two adaptations of the same incredible story and characters that are so drastically different in tone and themes? It’s just more FMA to enjoy, imho, and spending more time in this fascinating world which such dynamic, well-written characters exploring such heavy, thought-provoking concepts and themes would never be something I’d say no to.
1. Avatar: The Last Airbender I think this one speaks for itself.
A fun reminder that Aang was a terrifyingly powerful Avatar.
Most Avatars are informed of their newfound destinies at the age of 16 to begin their training. Because of the approaching war Aang was told of his status at the age of 12. He had already mastered airbending, and in the span of a year he mastered the other three elements, the avatar state, and energybending. He also learned lightning redirection and seismic sense (a technique no previous Avatar had even encountered). In the span of a year.
The next two Avatars, from water and earth, live without ever knowing who they are.
Zuko still spoke out at the meeting, he still refused to fight his father in the Agni Kai.
Zuko was banished, and in his search to find the Avatar, earth bends.
He is the Avatar and doesn’t know what to do about it.
Okay but consider:
Zuko, punching the air: “I MUST FIND THE AVATAR!”
*rock goes flying*
Zuko, waving his arms for emphasis: “IT IS THE ONLY WAY”
*strong wind knocks over grunt in the background*
Zuko, stomping dramatically: “TO RESTORE MY HONOR!”
*deck behind zuko becomes covered in ice*
Iroh, stroking his beard: “…. hmmmmmm…”
And Iroh just decides to mess with him and just goes “Well, I suppose we should start searching” and Zuko doesn’t find out until later in the episode
Nah man, gimme a whole season of Zuko and Iroh’s hijinks as they search for the avatar and it’s Zuko the whole time. A whole season of Iroh waffling between goofy uncle and “here let me teach you about balance-” “I DON”T NEED BALANCE I NEED TO RESTORE MY HONOUR” “okay cool you do you kid i bet the avatar’s behind that rock please move it for me”
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