Every episode starts with a short explanation of the show. (The first episodes is slightly different but all the rest are like this) It goes as follows.
"Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished. A hundred years passed and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar, an airbender named Aang. And although his airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. But I believe Aang can save the world."
Book 1: Water- is set mostly within the remaining Water Nations.
Book 2: Earth- is set mostly within the still fairly strong Earth Nation.
Book 3: Fire- is set (yep you guessed correctly) mostly within the dominating Fire Nation.
Many characters are met throughout the series but the main ones are: Kitara, a waterbender, age 14, she is the narrator for the opening sequence; Sokka, Kitara's awkward 15 year old brother who aspires to be fighter despite his lack of bending abilities; Aang, he is the hero of the story, (he is the last airbender...kinda) he is 12 and yet has mastered air-bending. The story talks about how some people can bend the various elements, however they can only bend one. That is why the Avatar is special, he can control and bend all 4 elements. Unfortunately for Aang and possibly the world, he only knows airbending. The book titles also correspond to the element that Aang primarily starts learning/practicing at that time. Kitara, while only an adept herself takes on the role of Aang's water-bending teacher and the two develop their skills together. In book two they meet a blind, yet master skilled earthbender named Toph. She becomes his earthbending teacher. And I won't ruin the story by revealing anything about his fire-bending lessons. There are also 2 animals/characters that travel alongside the heros. Momo is a winged lemur who is used as a comical device in many episodes. And Appa the flying bison which fly the heros along their journey.
Those are the heros, now for the villains and "villains." Zuko a young firebender has been tasked by his father Firelord Ozai to find and capture the Avatar to restore his honor. Alongside him is his uncle Iroh who used to be a legend of a general for the Fire Nation. But he has since grown contemplative and lazy seeming. But Iroh throughout the show reveals his wisdom in most cases, explaining things like honor, love, and the truth behind the universe. My favorite episode deals with Iroh, but I will get into that later. Firelord Ozai of course is one of the main bad guys, and spoiler he is the "Final Boss." And the bat-shit crazy Azula, Zuko's extremely volatile and powerful firebending sister.
Throughout the show they reveal many things about bending. Like how the purest form of firebending is lightning-bending. Earthbenders could learn to metal-bend. And waterbenders can plant-bend and more insanely is the blood-bending where you literally control and force a living being's body to move to your will.
Now when I was a kid we had an Xbox and we had the game Azurik: Rise of Perathia. Now this game didn't do terribly well. But my brothers and myself really enjoyed it. It is a good game. The game came out in 2002. Azurik has some similarities that i noticed immediately when watching the show. Because Azurik like Aang can control the 4 elements. Azurik like Aang had to travel to the various elemenal realms and learn how to fully access his abilities.
So the show Avatar: The Last Airbender is a fantastic show. I would and generally do recommend it to people a lot. Its good a good American Anime that shows cultural differences and prejudice along with ideals of friendship and the power a single person could hold. The 3rd season is my overall least favorite, but the last 4 episodes make up the big ending and it is absolutely fantastic ending. I give the whole show a 10 out of 11. I give the last 4 episodes (which were aired all at once as a movie like ending, of which I still consider it to be like a single long episode) a solid 11 out of 11.
Now for the unfortunate live action movie. The movie is artistic. M. Night Shyamalan definitely took his artistic rights and went with them. But in all he failed. I really wanted the movie to be good. I was so excited to see it when I first found out it was going to come out. But boy was I let down. Firstly they changed the pronunciation of the character names to bring them closer to their Japanese originality. The problem with this is that the show was not Japanese. It was an American Anime, so there was no translation that changed them. This was also the time when 3D was hitting us full on in the face. This being mostly due to Avatar having come out only a few months previous(Avatar with the blue aliens and the planet Pandora). The Last Airbender was not filmed in 3D, so it didn't translate terribly well into 3D. But that is what he chose to do. There are a whole bunch of other issues I had with the movie but rather than bore you with details I will just leave you with my verdict. A measly 4 out of 11.
Oh I almost forgot to talk about my favorite episode of the series. Book 2 Episode 15, Tales of Ba Sing Se. This episode separates the various characters into their own individual stories of their relaxation time. But its Iroh's story that I love. I should preface this with the fact that Iroh gets me to cry every time I watch it. I am even getting a little choked up just thinking of the episode. I should also say Spoiler Alert. This episode shows the sincerity of the man. This man who was once General of the Fire Nation armies. He was a warrior, he probably killed hundreds of people. But he teaches a mugger a valuable lesson, cheers up a crying child, then finally has a memorial for his dead son. He sings a beautiful song in memorial. The song was also a memorial to Mako Iwamatsu, who had died. Mako was the original voice actor for Iroh. I have yet to this day seen an episode that touches the heart like this episode. I am not a person who tears come easily to. I can literally count the number of occasions and things that have ever made me cry on 1 hand(childhood not including, with 4 older brothers things happen) And Iroh singing "Leaves From the Vine" gets me to tears every time.
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