Thoughts about Avatar The Last Airbender?

skykiii

skykiii

kiwifarms.net
Joined
Jun 17, 2018
I've watched this show myself, and thought it was "just okay," but I'm interested in what Kiwis think about it since this seems to be one of the few places on the internet where it isn't praised to the high heavens.

Another question, has anyone else ever ran into people presenting ATLA as a "moral alternative" to anime (and thus a reason we should stop watching evil sexist anime in favor of a PC western equivalent) or am I the only one?

(Hope this is the right section for this question, I had a hard time telling)
 
  • Agree
  • Dislike
Reactions: Lowlife Adventures, Grumpy Pickle Rick and Toolbox
It was alright, good writing for a kids show that was able to handle more mature and darker themes whilst maintaining a childlike innocence and wonder, with the later books taking a more mature approach which really suited it, really good cast of memorable characters (Uncle Iroh is the best) and a world that felt lived in and that was reacting from what was going in regards to the fire nation. Also no gay people
 
  • Like
  • Agree
  • Disagree
Reactions: The Foxtrot, Morethanabitfoolish, No One of Note and 7 others
It's aight. It's indisputable that it has heart. I'd argue it's pretty good-- or rather, if we got into it, I'd talk about why I like X and argue why you should recognize how right I am. I felt the character arcs were very thoughtfully done, and the general narrative does a good enough job in providing tinder for those personal journeys.

That general quality, and my bias towards the story, does mean that I'm more forgiving where charity arguably isn't merited, though. There are parts I can't rationalize or find good value in, and also realize that they didn't really have any good maneuvering options given the very premise of the story.

That aside, the only other thing of note that I can think of that you haven't already totally witnessed (e.g. animation, music) but isn't explicitly spoiler territory and is something I just felt like talking about is its romantic developments. Those are... fine. It's probably one of the weakest thing about the series, and the general way that it's carried out isn't precisely to my liking (and that would be no shipteasing, no romcom subroutines, either one is dignifiedly loyal to the other and either is provably willing to murder beast and man alike in order to protect the other) but they're all based off of mutual respect and I never got the sense that they were totally detached from the character's main deal and therefore superfluous (and at least two of the romances have that last thing I was talking about liking, in addition to there not being any ship war bait).

Another question, has anyone else ever ran into people presenting ATLA as a "moral alternative" to anime (and thus a reason we should stop watching evil sexist anime in favor of a PC western equivalent) or am I the only one?
Click to expand...

You... might be the first. Pretty sure ATLA had its own cheesecake.

Lone MacReady said:
I've never seen the cartoon personally, but I know from E;R vids that the Whorra shit is absolute cancer. I really don't feel like starting a route that ends in an inevitable dumpster fire. There's much better stuff to watch this season.
Click to expand...
The good thing is that you don't have to bother with TLOK to enjoy ATLA, since the latter is self-contained.
 
watched it back in the day. the early seasons were a bit slow but gets better once Topah joins the gang. i still think the earth empire arc was the series at its peak and its one of the few shows when the final season did not suck ass. in fact, i thought it was fucking great.

im still mad Soka lost his sword in the final season. and he barely got to use it.
 
  • Like
  • Agree
Reactions: The Foxtrot, Johan Schmidt, Sergeant Major Buzzkill and 3 others
Soka was the main reason I watched it at all but overall it was really good. Too bad Legend of Korra dropped the ball.
 
  • Feels
Reactions: DeadwastePrime
The shippers are absolutely mental but the show itself is very nice and tightly-written. There's a reason everybody still remembers Uncle Iroh, Zuko's redemption arc, Azula and Toph. Personally I think some of the filler episodes are boring but none of them were outright bad.

Seriously, though, avoid the shippers. They're up there with Evangelion and Harry Potter fans in terms of never moving on from Baby's First OTP. Yet another reason to avoid Korra because it panders to them hard.
 
  • Agree
  • Like
  • Feels
Reactions: The Foxtrot, Johan Schmidt, Jonah Hill poster and 4 others
It's one of those solid "great for kids, good for adults" shows. If you're 8-11 years old it's a solid transition into mature storytelling. If they hadn't lost the good writer and left it up to the dopey series creators to continue it, they could've had a nice franchise. Korra didn't have to be bad.

It's proof that you can do "anime" in a Western style and absolutely beat the shit out of Japanese cartoons but nobody learned any lessons from that so we're stuck with beanface until Hollywood goes bankrupt.
 
  • Agree
  • Autistic
Reactions: The Foxtrot, madethistocomment, Grumpy Pickle Rick and 1 other person
I like it, and as a kid catching it on Nick it definitely felt like a really fucking good show because of how polished it was compared to other cartoons of the time.
 
Mega Man 2 Intro - NES said:
It's proof that you can do "anime" in a Western style and absolutely beat the shit out of Japanese cartoons
Click to expand...
This much I disagree with. ATLA may measure up against shit like Pokemon or your average battle anime (it strikes me as trying specifically to compare to Naruto, in which case yeah I'd say ATLA is better).... but it can't hope to compete against any anime that is actually good.

Part of my own "its just okay" feeling towards ATLA comes from that in some ways it predicted the "meta" trend in fiction. There's a lot of parts where it feels like the writers are just trying to show how clever they are by subverting a cliche and then highlighting that they did, sorta like Frozen would do years later. At that point it starts to feel like a fan-work to me.

I don't even think ATLA is that great compared to American shows, Like, Thundercats 1986 blows it out of the water and is a much better case of Americans doing anime just as well or better than the Japanese.

Thankfully I've never watched Korra, which everyone says takes the bad parts of ATLA and amplifies them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: The Foxtrot, Gar For Archer and Grumpy Pickle Rick
Mega Man 2 Intro - NES said:
It's one of those solid "great for kids, good for adults" shows. If you're 8-11 years old it's a solid transition into mature storytelling. If they hadn't lost the good writer and left it up to the dopey series creators to continue it, they could've had a nice franchise. Korra didn't have to be bad.

It's proof that you can do "anime" in a Western style and absolutely beat the shit out of Japanese cartoons but nobody learned any lessons from that so we're stuck with beanface until Hollywood goes bankrupt.
Click to expand...
At least we have Gennedy and his show Primal coming later this year with season 2. Basically all of his works have been solid with the exception of Hotel Transylvania.
 
  • Like
  • Agree
Reactions: The Foxtrot, Jonah Hill poster, Sergeant Major Buzzkill and 2 others
Last time I saw it I was a little kid seeing on the dvds with my older brother. It was pretty solid and got better episode by episode. It was one of those shows everyone had to go and see at least once. Didn't care, like, or ever could get into Kora.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Prophetic Spirit
skykiii said:
This much I disagree with. ATLA may measure up against shit like Pokemon or your average battle anime (it strikes me as trying specifically to compare to Naruto, in which case yeah I'd say ATLA is better).... but it can't hope to compete against any anime that is actually good.
Click to expand...
Why wouldn't it? Stories are stories-- doesn't matter where they come from.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: Jonah Hill poster, madethistocomment, Rome's rightful successor and 1 other person
Someone in a Tree said:
I watched it for the first time with my son last year. I was past the age of the target audience when it premiered and was weary of the faux-anime style. That being said, I really enjoyed it. Had the show come out a dozen years earlier, I probably would have been obsessed with it.
Click to expand...
If AtLA came out in the 90ies nobody involved would've called it anime as normies still didn't know what exactly "anime" is. Plus the early 90ies were the twilight years of the era when nobody GAF where the "cartoons" came from. Be it USA, Canada, Japan, Bongland, western Euroland, and wherever else for the remaining odds and ends.
 
Last edited:
  • Agree
Reactions: The Foxtrot, Zero Day Defense and Prophetic Spirit
I liked it. Obviously far from perfect but it was leagues above Whorra and friends.
do you like my hat said:
The shippers are absolutely mental but the show itself is very nice and tightly-written. There's a reason everybody still remembers Uncle Iroh, Zuko's redemption arc, Azula and Toph. Personally I think some of the filler episodes are boring but none of them were outright bad.

Seriously, though, avoid the shippers. They're up there with Evangelion and Harry Potter fans in terms of never moving on from Baby's First OTP. Yet another reason to avoid Korra because it panders to them hard.
Click to expand...
I wonder why those shows attract those certain type of fans. It kind of soured my opinion of Avatar/LOK as the years have gone by. Quite frankly, I didn't really like the romantic elements. It seemed kind of awkward or hamfisted. Maybe I'm just someone who doesn't like/care about romance and shipping in the media I watch.
Uranus Pink said:
Legend of Korra never had the ball as the best writer(s) and tard wranglers for Avatar nope TFO instead of working and tard wrangling on Korra.
Click to expand...
It's a shame how much of a shitshow the show was because I liked the animation of Korra over the original. Though that's obviously expected given how it came out almost a decade after The Last Airbender premiered.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: The Foxtrot, Sergeant Major Buzzkill and Prophetic Spirit
Is a good show; i can compare the writing of both Batman: Animated Series with ATLA and they're pretty solid being from aimed at children.
You have main characters which you actually like or not, but at least they're good on their own (even Suki, Zuko, Azula & Ty Lee are in the same level as the main characters without the main narrative focus). Plot is consistent & somewhat simple with a lot of emphasis in spiritualism.
I'm sure Aaron was the engine in the writing team. Bryke are always a pair of retards, and could actually make damage to ATLA without Eschasz's supervision.
Ending felt rushed thought.

Now, with TLOK... is another story.
You basically had your miniseries basically expanded by Viacom's demand. That explains why S1 is so clusterfucked (man, you can't deny how the romance plots are basically shit in the first episodes; worsens the plotline, which isn't bad if Bryke actually had some brain). At least the suicide ending was worth.
S2 is literally worse (Wang's arc is inconsistenly good thought). With that, i'm sure people simply can't forget how Korra technically destroyed all their own spirit ancestors without an actual explanation (retardness sounds so bitchy to defend a unforgettable act). The thing about Unalak is actually more stupid than Amon.
S3 actually felt a nice refresh. Probably animating & writing for the on-demand crap on the website let Bryke & company more liberty to write gruesome scenes and plot. Death of the queen of the Kingdom of Earth and the head exploding inside a steel canister with one of the Red Lotus are good "factor shock" scenes, and somewhat pretty impressed by how they're give more screentime to actual good characters (Tenzin & Lin) which i'm sure they can work better with those in narrative focus than Korra's worthless team (well... except Bolin and somewhat Asami IMO).
S4 started something good but entirely crashed in the ending. At least seeing Kuvira as a cheap knock-off of Azula but in a own way wasn't bad to see. Sadly they're stucked in the "mommy problems" plot device to weaken a good character. Shame on Bryke like always.
Well, that's a quick summary. I know a lot of things are missing, but i don't want to remember everything.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back