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I'm serious. While a lot of cartoons today are crap, Avatar is one of the best kid's shows I've ever seen, I'll even go as far to say it's one of the best animated shows I've ever seen. I normally hold kid shows and adult shows to different standards, but even if I hold Avatar to the adult standards it still fares pretty well. Why do I like it?

1. The strong female characters. Katara, among many other characters, is a girl who is feminine, but tough. She's a bit girly but she can still kick a** and doesn't constantly need rescuing. She's not a "faux action girl", as TV Tropes call it. (a faux action girl is a female character that the creators try to pass off as tough even though she doesn't do anything, isn't very competent at fighting and constantly gets her a** kicked) No, Katara is the real deal. A new series taking place in the same universe, Avatar: The Legend of Korra, features the next Avatar, a girl. I have no doubt she'll be just as great as the females in the first series, and I'm glad to see a female lead in an action series. Especially in a children's show, mind you, where characters are more prone to stereotypes.
2. The world, and the animation. The world is gorgeous and creative. The architecture in cities is lovely, and the creatures seen in the show are pretty cool too. You can tell the creators did their research on Asian cultures, bonus points for not lumping them all together. (Japan, Korea, and China are NOT all the same thing rofl ) The cool setting, combined with the great animation, sometimes I feel like I'm watching something by Hayao Miyazaki. And that's a huge thing of me to say, seeing as how I practically worship the man.
3. The portrayal of war. People actually die, and there are plenty of refugees. The best part about how they show it, though, is that not everyone in the Fire Nation is an evil war mongerer. There are plenty of nice Fire Nation citizens and firebendings.
4. The balance of seriousness and silly. Everything isn't all srs bsness all the time, there are plenty of jokes and light moments to go around. And the comedy it uses isn't the "randomness" kind a lot of kid shows today rely on, no, it's actual wit.

Who else agrees? 3nodding

is you talking about the movie rolleyes question

I love Toph and Mai, Katara never really interested me much. You make valid points and overall I agree with you completely.

My problem with it is that every time I go to watch it, it seems like the episodes are nothing but a review of what happened in the previous episode. It's like "WTF!? Where's the f-ing new episode content?" :/

Great show. One of my faves. And besides the fat that ATLA has one of the best story lines and characters ever, the animation is pretty good as well. If you go and watch almost any new cartoon, they seem to be doing their best to underwhelm each other.

Oh boy, where to start? Let's see, when Avatar first came out on Nick, they had pretty much gotten rid of all of the awesome shows that I love on there. (Rocket Power, Teenage Robot, Danny Phantom) and then this came out. I was stunned and hooked by the end of the first episode. And each time after that, I would be upset that it had ended; I wanted to know what happened next! Nick really out did themselves by creating a show that can be enjoyed by younger kids and their older siblings or parents. There's something in it for everyone. How do you think Disney movies top the box office almost every single time?

I love all of the characters, and I love how they each had their own back story that helped develop them to who they were. I mean, at the beginning, I saw Zuko as the big meanie, the bad guy, the person you wanted gone. But by the middle of the second season, I was rooting for him! I even pitied Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee. (Though I did like Mai and Ty) Here they were, supposed to be coming from wealthy families, pillars of the community, examples to all of the citizens, yadda yadda. And yet the very structure that tried to form and mold them so much caused them all to experience some very serious emotional problems.

I also liked how they handled the romance too, they made it more realistic than 'Oh, we love each other and nothing will stop our luuuuvv!' The relationships had their ups and downs and complications. I liked how Katara kept her head about things at the end of Book 3, instead of embracing Aang and going off and being all 'our love shall conquer ALL evil!'. And honestly, with the PDA, kids see their parents, their older brother/sister, the older kids at school, people on the street, or anyone else in the world kiss. I'd much rather have my future children learn of good positive reasons to love someone, than simply because it was 'destined' or some other nonsense.

I can't wait until the complete series boxed set comes out so I can enjoy my Avatar goodness for ever and ever.

And I refuse to acknowledge the movie. It never happened.

Yes, they lost that battle, but then there's still a good 2/3 of the season left. You should check it out. smile

You can watch the episodes at animehere.com.