Favorite Stories #1

I love stories, despite the medium in which those stories are told. One of my favorite stories comes in the form of an animated cartoon – Avatar: The Last Airbender.

<Activate deeper, man-voice I use when I imitate other people> “But, BB, I thought this was a book blog?”

Yes, it is, but it’s also where I talk about my story crushes, like Avatar.

If you’ve never seen this show, GO WATCH IT. Right now. Don’t watch that stupid live action movie that came out – pretend that never happened.

Avatar: The Last Airbender had everything I love in a story. It had amazing characters and side characters that each grew and developed over the course of three seasons; it had one of, if not the, best villain redemption story ever; and the world – oh, the world! – was amazing. Everything about the show was amazing. The humor, the plot, the world-building, the side characters.

It held onto a sense of tension and panic while at the same time giving it out in accordance with comic relief and good humor and a sense of wonder. This is something a lot of books/movies/TV shows don’t do well – they either do all comedy all the time or all drama all the time. No, the middle ground between drama and comedy is the sweet spot.

OH! do I want to spend the precious word space here gushing about the bittersweet ending of Season 2? I could.

This show, despite being aimed at children, was able to pull off “the hero doesn’t always win” beautifully. The story continually moved forward, adding, never subtracting, and never straying from the original feeling.

And the magic of the world! It was never called “magic” – it was bending. In this world there were people who could bend the elements: Fire, Earth, Water, and Air. And I absolutely love the depth the creators went to make each element different. If you didn’t know, each element’s “motions” were based off real martial arts. (I saw this in a special they did for the show.)

Avatar: The Last Airbender will remain one of my favorite stories, because it did everything right. 10/10.

What’s your thoughts on this show? Did you see it? What did you think of the spin-off? I thought it was alright; it didn’t have the same oomph as the original. I thought it got a little too political at some points, but that’s just me.