Saturday, December 20, 2014

And Now It's Over

Last night, the very last episode of the Avatar franchise aired. The very last episode of my absolute favorite series... ended. I was so excited and so sad and so not ready for it to be over. But all good things come to an end, I suppose. 


I had always intended to do a post about ATLA and LOK, but I never had the time or motivation. Well, now I do, and it's time to say goodbye. Perfect timing. 

Here's a little history of how I even got involved: back when I was younger I saw a promo for Avatar: The Last Airbender, which was showing for the first time that night. I thought it looked kind of cool, and a little while later I was watching it. I don't remember much, I don't think I even watched the whole thing. The point is, I saw it, and I remembered it enough so that when the movie came out it 2010 I wanted to go see it (also, judging by the preview, 12 year old me thought it would be awesome. I did think it was awesome).

Unfortunately, I liked the movie so much I had my dad buy the DVD. Whoops. Now that's sitting in a box somewhere and I will probably deny that I own it. I am kind of thankful for it though, because if I hadn't seen the movie, I probably wouldn't have watched the show. 

Now, fast-forward a few months. My brother was sick, we were trying to find something to watch, and so we checked out Nick... and there it was: ATLA- The Southern Raiders. Sure, my first episode of it wasn't from the first season, and I didn't even see the first half of the episode! But it became a weekly event where my brother and I would watch ATLA re-runs (which were not shown in any specific order that I know of) on Saturday mornings. 



I didn't watch it in order the first time I saw it. Or the second, or third. I started randomly picking them and eventually was able to piece together the whole show. Eventually Mom decided to watch it since Dante and I loved it so much, so we watched it as a family, in order. 

Never had I seen a show with such amazing characters, plot, depth, animation, emotion, or music.  

The characters felt like old friends once I finished the series. I loved them so, so much. If I was sad, I would watch it. If I was lonely, I would watch it. If I was happy, I would watch it. I would watch it and watch it and watch it, and these characters became real to me. Y'all know how much I love FMA, right? And how much I love the characters? Well, it's like that, but x10, or x20, or x100 (being in the fandom for 5 years probably has something to do with that haha).

The heroes were well rounded, the villains were well rounded, the random side characters got their share of development, too. It's rare to see such excellent characterization in any show, let alone an animated kids show!

My Azula costume... she's probably one of my most favorite characters ever!
There are so many layers in ATLA, and every time I watch it I get something new out of it. I'm not saying that kids shows can't be deep or have good meaning, but a lot of them don't, so it's refreshing to see something so amazing made so that kids can understand it and teens and adults can enjoy it, as well.

The music  THE MUSIC is just beautiful and amazing and sooo perfect. So much effort went into ATLA and it's been a HUGE part of my childhood :')

When I found out that there was going to be another Avatar series, I flipped. I was sooooo happy that we would be having 12 more episodes of Avatar awesomeness! Ha. Ha. Ha. Little did I know that this so called "fun mini-series" would become a 3 year ordeal that would become one of my favorite shows.

remember when this was 
all we had of Korra

You can imagine my excitement when Nick called for 3 more seasons! About half way through season two, I got a little disappointed with the writing and plot direction (which was something I could forgive for season 1, they only had 12 episodes to work with, after all), but I still loved it. Season three's writing proved to be a huge improvement from seasons 1 and 2. The writing was better, the villains were darker, the over-all plot was much more enjoyable and intense, and the characterization was fantastic. We got to see sides of character that we had never seen before, new and well developed characters entered the mix, and friendships developed between old characters. Something that I really enjoyed about seasons 3 and was the lack of romantic sub-plot between the Krew. I think that was a let-down for the fans during season 2.

Fan-made trailer for the finale

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, thank you Avatar, thank you Bryke, and most importantly, thank you Fandom for such an amazing 5 years. ATLA was a real treasure of my childhood, and LOK was a wonderful part of my high school experience. I'm sure our fandom will last for quite a while, it was still going strong between ATLA and LOK, so I don't doubt that there will be plenty of fanworks for the years to come, but it's still sad to see such an awesome series end,

Good bye, Avatar, goodbye.


*and then I sob for about 10,000 years*

4 comments:

  1. It was interesting to read about how you were introduced to the Avatar franchise. I saw commercials for Avatar back in 2005, and I heard it referenced by various people, including my friend throughout the years. However, it was not until a few months ago when various people I know convinced me to watch the series, that I finally got around to watching it, and I liked it a lot. For a first time viewer at the age of 20, the series really holds up well for the adult audience, at least after the first season.
    After finishing season 1, I marathoned Avatar seasons 2 and 3, and Korra seasons 1, 2, and what had aired of 3 in around a week, so yeah, I have to say that it lived up to the hype! If I watched back when I was a kid, I definitely would have loved it even more, although watching it as an adult, the themes are more prevalent.

    As for the Korra finale, the fact that it is over has yet to sink in. I already watched the episode a second time, and then it kind of started to hit me, but wow, it was one heck of a journey. I really hope that this is not the end. Maybe, in a few years, there will be an adult oriented series based in the Avatar universe. By the way, my review of the finale is coming tomorrow.

    -James

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    1. Yeah, there are different benefits to watching it younger/older. Kids don't really notice plots and themes, they just enjoy it because it's good (like when I was 12). I love the show on a whole different level because I can analyze themes/plots/writing. I'm glad you liked it so much!

      I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that it's all over... it truly was an amazing adventure. That would be so cool if they did come out with more! I'll pop over and check out your review now :)

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  2. Great review! :) I agree, ATLA and LOK are both such great shows and I'm really glad to have watched them. I'm hoping we get more shows(as well as some more comics).

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    1. Thanks! Yeah, it would be great if we got more shows! But I feel like they won't because Nick didn't really keep Korra on air. It would be cool if they did a web-series of shorts or something!

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