FEATURE FRIDAY | AVATAR

FEATURE FRIDAY | AVATAR

Welcome to another installment of Feature Friday, in which we share with you some of our favorite Movies & TV shows!  When we first were dating one of the things we bonded over was chatting about some of our favorite shows.  We’ve found that is the same for a lot of our couples too!  So, every now and then, we will showcase a different movie or show and share some of the reasons why we recommend it and the things that we really like about it.  So be sure to tune in, check out some of our favorites, and maybe even turn it into a date night with your fiance!  Make dinner or order in and tune in to watch one of our favorites.

This week: Avatar – The Last Airbender.

M. Night Shyamalan’s movie adaptation was terrible.  It was bad on every level.  If that is your only exposure to the world of Aang and friends, please don’t let that prevent you from watching the series. Avatar is a story told in three acts across three seasons, each corresponding to one of the elements that Aang (who, as his title would suggest, has already pretty much mastered Air) must learn to become the new Avatar.  In the first, after being rescued from a hundred years encased in ice, Aang must learn to master Water as the dangerous Fire Nation hunts him.  Then, Earth, his “opposite” element and the most difficult for Airbenders to learn.  Finally, he must literally fight Fire with fire.

That’s an over-simplistic way of looking at an incredibly complex and sophisticated show (especially when you consider this was a show aimed at children), but to go much deeper would deprive you of one of the most genuinely funny, intense, and heart-rending shows around. Aang himself is a great character, a century old but with the body and mind of a child, he’s expected to be a legendary leader when he would rather play.  He almost immediately falls in love with aspiring Waterbender Katara, and it’s the kind of earnest childish love we all remember from childhood.  His rival, Fire Nation Prince Zuko, is Aang’s opposite in many ways, but with a tragic backstory that makes him almost lovable as he commits atrocious acts. Please don’t let a terrible movie keep you from a delightful show.  We’ve never met anyone who’s watched it who didn’t love it.