Avatar: The Last Airbender / The Legend of Korra

Avatar: Best animated series or best animated series ever?

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Gondolindrim said:
I think the biggest problem is that Korra. Kyoshi and the Aang comics have tackled all the problems an Avatar could face, even a "modern" one. At this point, the most interesting thing you could do is have an Avatar whose actually a POS or a despot. Kinda like Star Wars Legacy focusing on Cade Skywalker to juxtapose his super heroic ancestor Luke.
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The only idea I can think of is an Avatar so far removed from modern day that Bending is thought to be a myth. Bring it back to technology vs mysticism.
 
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Chilson said:
I really don't understand the mindset that ATLA brand has any level of quality at all anymore given that the only good product in it was the original TV show that was made more than a decade ago.

Korra, the comics and every other product with its name on it has been at best mediocre, but on average dumpster trashfires in terms of quality. Its like a car company that made a great vehicle 10 years ago, but then made nothing but steaming piles of barely operable junk with the same name for the next 10 years and then that same company is expecting you to be excited for next years model to come out. It just doesn't make any sense in my mind..
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I'm starting to think that ATLA was a fluke to be honest, like you said, everything that got made after the original series was mediocre at best. I'd even dare to say that if the original show lasted for one or two more seasons it would've made ATLA overall worse, the cracks were already showing by the later episodes, that fucking asspull with the Lion Turtle giving Aang a new power so he doesn't need to kill Ozai, pretty much tells that the show (and probably the franchise as a whole) was already running out of steam.
 
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Neet Tokusatsu said:
I'm starting to think that ATLA was a fluke to be honest, like you said, everything that got made after the original series was mediocre at best. I'd even dare to say that if the original show lasted for one or two more seasons it would've made ATLA overall worse, the cracks were already showing by the later episodes, that fucking asspull with the Lion Turtle giving Aang a new power so he doesn't need to kill Ozai, pretty much tells that the show (and probably the franchise as a whole) was already running out of steam.
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The entire third season was showing those cracks all over the place if you re-watch it with a critical eye. The first half is a meandering mess that doesn't really accomplish anything of note and actually does serious damage to the main casts development as characters up to that point.

The mid season finale and most of the second half bar the finale is actually what saves that season even if it still shakily written. There are great parts of the finale (the final agni kai is peak kino), but its flaws are many and have been exhaustively elaborated on by everyone else so I won't go into it.

It was overall lighting in a bottle. Where the right creative team at the right time all came together and created something truly special. They are not Vince Gilligan though, they are not genuine masters at their craft who can consistently make good to great products. They need that team and frankly they need the mindset/restrictions they had when creating ATLA that will probably never exist for them again.
 
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Neet Tokusatsu said:
I'm starting to think that ATLA was a fluke to be honest, like you said, everything that got made after the original series was mediocre at best. I'd even dare to say that if the original show lasted for one or two more seasons it would've made ATLA overall worse, the cracks were already showing by the later episodes, that fucking asspull with the Lion Turtle giving Aang a new power so he doesn't need to kill Ozai, pretty much tells that the show (and probably the franchise as a whole) was already running out of steam.
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I'd call it mediocre by todays standards, good by the standards of a lot of 90s shows.

Animation before this was basically either a super hero show, a kids WB action show (there were some good ones), or stuff like Dexters lab.

Its the same thing with Tartakovsky making Samurai Jack- action based and plot driven animated shows were kind of a rarity and starting to make a comeback with the popularity of anime. Most of the action shows just didn't have overarching mega plots. Avatar did, and managed to really world build well
In that sense, avatar wound up being anime-esque, much like Teen Titans, imo, but with a wider world, and one that did try to push a wider story.

If you actually look at the story, honestly- its pretty standard for teen fiction and the plot is no better than something like Eragon, or a million of the Garth Nix novels from the early 2000s.

So I wouldn't say it was a fluke, Id just blame the timing. The writing was always Percy Jackson tier, and that just doesn't cut it today. Its when, half a decade later, that they made Korra, that you really realize that the shows plotlines are the things you see in teen drama books- only Korra didn't have the zany anime esque yaoi paddle like emotions that the original avatar had, imo.
RumblyTumbly said:
The biggest problem I've noticed with western animation since Avatar is that none of it seems to be made for kids anymore.

I mean Steven Universe and the other lol-so-random type of shows feel like they are made for adult autists and fetishists and not actually children.
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Thats basically the other half of the problem- in that these former kids writers just don't know how to write for adults, and their shows shouldn't even attempt to be written for adults. Most of them either just copy plots from old samurai films or insert random ideology (and their own bad takes on ideology) that they think makes the show adult-like, but is really just hackish- so you wind up ruining the show in that regard too.

I feel that if they had just kept it for kids, and kept the whimsical adventure feel and just placed things hundreds of years later, it would have worked much better.
 
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Scolopendra Dramatica said:
Oh now I'm back on board, thank you friend! They look goddamn awesome. First rate art, it really is. I will give the Korra team that though, they aged everyone up beautifully and wrote their parts with all the love and respect I could have hoped for.
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lol i love the pure hatred u put into that sarcasm
Chilson said:
The entire third season was showing those cracks all over the place if you re-watch it with a critical eye. The first half is a meandering mess that doesn't really accomplish anything of note and actually does serious damage to the main casts development as characters up to that point.

The mid season finale and most of the second half bar the finale is actually what saves that season even if it still shakily written. There are great parts of the finale (the final agni kai is peak kino), but its flaws are many and have been exhaustively elaborated on by everyone else so I won't go into it.

It was overall lighting in a bottle. Where the right creative team at the right time all came together and created something truly special. They are not Vince Gilligan though, they are not genuine masters at their craft who can consistently make good to great products. They need that team and frankly they need the mindset/restrictions they had when creating ATLA that will probably never exist for them again.
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even vince's talent is knowing that he's not THAT talented, he consistently says "yeah my stuff's good because i've got a great team of writers"
 
Trollblade69 said:
I can't believe people can still treat Avatar as the best cartoon ever made when its legacy is nothing but shitting inside-out.
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I suppose it depends on your view point. I like plenty of media that has shit elements or spin-offs that completely fail to capture the charm of the original. Does that somehow change my opinion of the original? Not really. You just learn to ignore parts of a franchise you dislike.
 
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starborn427614 said:
I suppose it depends on your view point. I like plenty of media that has shit elements or spin-offs that completely fail to capture the charm of the original. Does that somehow change my opinion of the original? Not really. You just learn to ignore parts of a franchise you dislike.
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I think it's fair to say that Avatar the Last Airbender animated series is one of the best children oriented media ever made along with something like Gargoyles or Duck Tales. I also think it's very fair to say that the Avatar the Last Airbender franchise is a piece of shit for the most part that caught lightning once and failed miserably every other time.
 
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ShitLurker said:
I think it's fair to say that Avatar the Last Airbender animated series is one of the best children oriented media ever made along with something like Gargoyles or Duck Tales.
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Don't forget to add these shows; Batman TAS, X-Men TAS, Invader Zim, Kim Possible and OG Powerpuff Girls; as the best children-oriented animated shows
 
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TVB said:
Don't forget to add these shows; Batman TAS, X-Men TAS, Invader Zim, Kim Possible and OG Powerpuff Girls; as the best children-oriented animated shows
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Oh definitely, just wanted to drop a couple of quick examples, but all of those are bangers (though I didn't watch Kim, would add Dexter in there and so on).
 
TVB said:
Don't forget to add these shows; Batman TAS, X-Men TAS, Invader Zim, Kim Possible and OG Powerpuff Girls; as the best children-oriented animated shows
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Hey Arnold, Recess etc.

ShitLurker said:
I think it's fair to say that Avatar the Last Airbender animated series is one of the best children oriented media ever made along with something like Gargoyles or Duck Tales. I also think it's very fair to say that the Avatar the Last Airbender franchise is a piece of shit for the most part that caught lightning once and failed miserably every other time.
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Oh I absolutely agree with the lightning in a bottle sentiment. I may have really enjoyed Season 3 of Korra, but that doesn't remove its flaws nor make the first two seasons not exist.
 
starborn427614 said:
If a new Avatar isn't your thing, a film featuring the adult versions of the original cast is also due out next year.

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Unless it's an alternate reality, then the film will just be depressing since just about everyone in the cast grew to have a fucked up homelife besides maybe Zuko and Sokka. Especially Toph who just banged random men and ended her wife as a literal bog witch.
Gondolindrim said:
I think the biggest problem is that Korra. Kyoshi and the Aang comics have tackled all the problems an Avatar could face, even a "modern" one. At this point, the most interesting thing you could do is have an Avatar whose actually a POS or a despot. Kinda like Star Wars Legacy focusing on Cade Skywalker to juxtapose his super heroic ancestor Luke.
Click to expand...
Korra wanted to have it both ways of a setting time skip but with fanservice to the original cast. The end result is that the time skip was too small to justify the jump in technology, while the fanservice was dropped to make everyone miserable for plot points.
 
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Stab You in the Back said:
X-Men: TAS, Invader Zim and PowderPuff Girls are garbage and aged terrible.
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So let me guess, you watched Barney, Teletubbies or Steven Universe?

Shitty roast against you aside, please to rewatch these shows. Personally, I think X-Men Evolution is better than X-Men TAS, but it's still a well made, well written show, even for something made for children. Invader Zim and Powerpuff Girls were products of their time, but this doesn't automatically mean they suck, especially in the writing and visual department
 
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