AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER (original) UNPOPULAR OPINIONS 👀 

I knew nothing going into Avatar, and when I first watched it, I genuinely thought Zutara was end game. I thought they were going to use their romance as a vehicle to further the theme of forgiveness and reconciliation between the fire nation and other kingdoms.

Me every time someone debates zutara/kataang: "THEY'RE CHILDREN!"

Been more than a decade since I watched the show; but my read at the time was that blood bending requires the full moon. I don't think Katara ever faced Azula during a full moon. So no opportunity to short circuit major firebender threats with a simple moral calculation. Again, as far as I remember … Re: power balance between bender types, this is a fairly soft magic system with vague, seemingly "spiritual" limits on power. So who's to say exactly where the lines are supposed to be? We can imagine them wherever we like. An airbender can move air, does that mean one could trivially just remove the air from around someone's head, suffocating them? Firebenders can create fire in mid-air, could they simply light someone's lungs and/or esophagus on fire, even briefly that should condemn the target to a painful choking death. It seems silly to claim earthbenders are obviously more powerful based on our own rules lawyering of a fictional system. I greatly prefer (not because it's better in any objective sense, just because I *_enjoy_* it more) to assume the characters living in the world are reasonably intelligent and accept their assessments of the situation they live in. The show clearly shows us that the people living there consider the elements to be roughly balanced and that is also what the creators chose to actually show us on screen. So I accept that.

Watching the show I never in my life imagined Zuko and Katara together. Aang and Katara was way too clear at the start so i didn’t even consider anything else

LOL at how many of these are about the relationships. golly gee

Maybe someone has commented it before, but just in case you haven’t seen it yer: the reason Katara didn’t use blood bending is because she can only use it when there is a full moon, as that is when her bending is strongest.

I left the Korra comment on the main channel, watched this to see if you were gonna mention plans of looking at it 😂 Fair enough! Will be interested to see what you think of LOK when you get to it.

Apologies for all the text (it counts as engagement, right?), I'm on hour 36 of a gnarly illness & can no longer read or sleep comfortably … so rambling into the void is as good away to distract my brain as any! Also, thanks for entertaining me this rough morning. I really needed something low-lift and enjoyable. I watched the show as an adult, seeking out good shows to recommend to my (much younger) brother. So my lame paternalistic pov might have influenced my read, but I quite liked the low-key Aang+Katara romance. As I remember it: he's clearly smitten early, but mostly waits to actually get to know her personality before going all in and declaring his feelings. When he does, she rejects him saying that she doesn't have room in her life for a relationship atm. Aang is clearly disappointed, but still accepts this immediately. They continue to grow their friendship. It doesn't read as Aang trying to be her friend in the hopes of earning a romance. He clearly still desires a romance (and is honest about that) but he also genuinely is a good friend and is repeatedly shown to value that relationship for what it is. Much later (at the end of the show) they revisit the issue and seemingly mutually decide to try out a romantic connection. I liked that it wasn't a major focus of the show. I was also grateful that it wasn't treated as a "fated together" type thing or as a reward to Aang for beating up the bad guy but instead as a consequence of their earned, mutual respect for each other. A decent (or at least not terrible) example of how relationships change & evolve. Katara doesn't stop seeing Aang as a kid because he reaches some magic number, but because she repeatedly witnesses him acting responsibly, standing up for their shared principles and generally being a decent human. Overall it seemed quite positve & thoughtful for a show aimed at young kids in the early oughts.

Zutara is not unpopular, it's popular, it's the ship that has been at war with Kataang for almost 2 decades now, the great shipping war, that young adults of today shipped when they were children as well Edit 1: Katara is 14, Aang is 12, Zuko is 16, if Katara and aang is weird cuz of age gap then so should Zuko and Katara. Edit 2: Waw season 3 being the weakest is a hot take honestly I can't even lie, I disagree but it's fine to each their own

I think the comment about mileage, fan service and comparison with Mistborn Era 3 is about all the planned expansions like new Earth Avatar series, Adult Avatar gang movies, Zuko movies(This could be based on comics written following right after the events of AtLA), at least 2 planned spin-off series, a movie about Avatar Kyoshi. I think what the commenter meant to say was that they are adding more new "eras" to ATLA, similar to Mistborn, but Mistborn was planned to be multiple series with enough unanswered questions and plot lines to warrant a new series, whereas in ATLA(especially after Legend of Korma) there are no unanswered question and at this point this would just be milking the Series for all it has to offer.

I didnt really care about the romance of the show, zootara or kaatang i dont mind either to be honest. I was more impressed with other aspects of the show(fight choreography, charcters, worldbuilding, etc)

Bending origins and how it works with families, as well as, the avatar's origins, is explained in Korra.

12:12 Aang lies constantly just usually not in a way to resolve a conflict. 13:14 AOT has a lot of similar themes and ideas to ATLA. 20:45 no she could not, there were not the full moon. 25:10 that is exactly what it is. Zuko is not in the right place while in the firenation.

For context: the most popular ship on Ao3 is Zutara and the second most popular is Zukka

They could've just given a whole episode to Azula instead of a rehashed Katara episode (a la The Painted Lady)

i completely agree with your take about katara and aang! but im also a zutara shipper lol

Lol thanks for answering my comment. Even as a Zutara defender, my ultimate opinion is with yours, that none of the romance (besides Sokka, maybe) was necessary in the show since the characters are so young. Also, going to elaborate on the "Aang being the least dynamic character" thing: I do recognize all of his complexity and love those moments where we see another side of him, like when Appa is taken. I don't think he's in any way a bad character, but now when I think of some of the best, big character moments, I dont think of him (this changed drastically for me because when I first watched the show, Aang was my favorite of the Gaang. Katara became my favorite on re-watch).

16:59 Thank you. I've been saying that the season finale's of ATLA were terrible and horribly written besides S2. They never make any sense.

So I’m the person who said the thing about “Tales of Ba Sing Se” so let me defend myself😅 I LIKE the episode. Really, it’s good, but I have seen it in SEVERAL people’s best episodes, like I’m talking top 5 in the SERIES. I just don’t see it, and the only parts of the episode they talk about to justify their ranking of it so high is Iroh’s bit and the last scene with Momo🤷🏼‍♀️And I’ve heard a lot of people give it so much love and singling it out and I just don’t get it😅Again, it’s a good episode but it is nowhere near the top episodes of the series IMO. Also, just want to say it’s always so nice to see someone watch and fall in love with Avatar in adulthood. I watched it as a kid and loved it, and I found that when I went back and watched it as an adult it actually got even better. And it gets better every time I watch it❤

My hot take: the fate of Zuko's mother should have been addressed in the series, leaving it out was a cash grab to get people to buy the comics. I completely agree that they could have left it as a mystery, BUT they made sure to remind you of it at the very end of the last episode, ie, Zuko demanding his father tell him what happened to her (fades to black) AND it is even brought up AGAIN in the first episode of Korra. Sorry not sorry, I'm not going to buy (or try to figure out how to download) a comic just to have one question answered. I just looked up the spoilers 🤷🏾‍♀️ Sorry for the rant, but I'll die on this hill😂😂

I'm a fan, but not in the fandom. Ships were far from my mind when I watched this series. Never thought more of the relationships beyond what was explicitly shown (Sokka and Suki, Zuko and Mai). I thought Aang was just being cute with a cute girl and nothing more. So I was mildly surprise by the kiss at the end.

The Great Divide isn't awful. It's the weakest of the early episodes. When the show initially aired so many episodes were played all the time so watching it 4 times a week wasn't exactly helping it leave a good impression

Katara is the most talented bender in the group

I can tell you right off the bat that your dislike of "the Beach" is an unpopular opinion though I'm sure you would've picked up on that already because people tend to be very vocal about that episode. This is probably an unpopular opinion but I enjoyed the episode until the bonfire scene which I did not enjoy. I thought the episode provided a good setup for more character development for Azula: showcasing her inability to function or socialize as a normal teenager; her moment of apologizing to Ty Lee and admitting that she was jealous; showing her being vulnerable for some short moments but ultimately rejecting her vulnerability. It also did a good job of showing a toxic romantic relationship (i.e. Zuko and Mai). And then the bonfire scene happens, which I felt was awkward in a bad way (unlike Azula trying to be a teenager which I felt was awkward and cringy in a good more relatable way), and everyone suddenly understands each other and all their issues are resolved and Zuko and Mai's toxic relationship is all better now because "love". Granted, I did like the "my own mother thought I was a monster... she was right of course but it still hurt". I did think the ending with Azula and her crew destroying and burning down Chan's house at the end was appropriate: Azula attempting to obliterate any sign of her moments of vulnerability by burning down the home of the guy who rejected her and the others projecting their anger and resentment towards each other (and themselves) on Chan.

Can I just say that I hate how much ship discourse everyone's focused on when first this is a kids show and second there's far more interesting things about ATLA and katara than who she should've end up with

re iroh war crimes. im pretty sure all fire weapons which i imagine would extend to fire bending are under our laws. so yes iroh is a war criminal as are all fire benders who use their bending in combat with the intent to burn their opponents/ victims. other then this though i see no ways displayed in the show that iroh is a war criminal. and as bending is inherent to a person you could argue that its in a grey area. i think iroh renouncing his right to the throne is proof enough that his time at war changed him at a fundimental level from who he was before the loss of his son.

Classic Aang hate from a middle aged woman

Ok I'm the one who hates Aang 😅 Oops. I think that comment came off a little harsh when I left it and lacked some nuance. ⚠️Long comment ahead: ⚠️ I stand by my opinion. I think the issue comes from Aang being a reflection of the cishet male main writers, and is painful to watch. Because the way he acted with Katara when he kisses her after she specifically states she doesn't want anything romantic at the moment, is exactly the way young boys act because that's how they've been socialized to act. It's this whole idea of "if she says no, keep insisting until she says yes". Like think about how Katara felt? Betrayed. Disrespected. Confused. If she had ANY feeling for him surely that didn't help to make his case. I dont think is wording is strong, I'm sorry. Forcing a kiss on someone, or kissing someone who has not consented or given any indication of cosent is SA. Period. I didn't want to call it that in my original comment because people get really angry when I say that because it is a heavy topic and because I get "you're weird they're kids" or "you're saying Aang is an abuser??". No, it's actually somehow worse they're both kids characters in a kids show, because there's a level of unconscious approval of this behaviour as the breach in consent is never adressed in the series after, and it should have been. I'm criticising the writing here, not the characters as people. Katara never explicitly states later she wants to be with Aang romantically either, it's just glossed over and she's basically given to Aang as a price. A similar issue is also present with Sokka, and AFTER he's like reformed/grows out of his misoginy, when he basically shuts Suki up with a kiss. Also Iroh is kinda creepy to that young woman mercenary with the mole-nose animal. These tropes everywhere in media at the time, though, so whatever. On Aang being preachy, maybe he just gives me conservative religious old man vibes 😂 (Which I guess is fitting given he's technically 100+ years old, so from another time). He always holds his own moral code and philosophy as superior to everyone else's. Not textually, but the message is there. He constantly fails to consider other cultures' or point of views, and also that there's some issues, especially social/political, that are very morally complex and have no easy answer, like with Ozai or Katara with revenge. Yeah, he's a kid, but I think it would have been really good for a kids show to explore moral ambiguity in life, like Aang comes face to face for the first time with the fact that the world isn't black and white and pacifism isn't always possible. He also never speaks with Katara about the souther riders after he disaproves of her going for revenge, missed opportunity for a good thematic discussion there. He's an hypocrite, too. He preaches peace but has no qualms at flying fire nation people over walls. Like yeah, those people definitely survived a 10+ meter fall.... Definitely survived... I haven't watched the show in a while though, maybe I'm just blowing things out of proportion but idk. These things irk me so much about Aang. He does sort of grow a little like you said, especially on delegating, but not so much with actually handing the responsibility of Avatar and not comparing it to the other characters. Being insensitive to other people's plinths and being self sacrificing are not mutually exclusive. All his growth yet he's still looking for the easy way out in the last episode so as not to break his spiritual morals aka kill Ozai?? But he was perfectly fine to dismiss the airbender philosophy when he didn't want to let go of Katara to access the Avatar state in s1, and he eventually gets away with not leaving said attatchments. Which one is it??? (And Katara isn't preachy she's just bossy! Annoying? Sure. But I will defend her with my life! She's such an amazing example of how to write female characters ❤) I watched ATLA as a kid and later as a teen, at the time I was neutral about Aang and I loved the show, but now as an adult as began to reflect on it, I started to hate him more and more. This has happened to me with books too 😅 I still like the show and think is good, I just don't like Aang. He's the reason I'm not a die hard fan I guess and the reason I won't rewatch it 😅 The worlbuilding, politics and other characters are really fascinating though (like Toph, Zuko, Azula, the Earth and Fire nation politics, the general history of the world, the technology mixed with bending, themes of forgiveness/revenge, trauma, abusive families, legacy, etc., Sokka's arc., Suki being amazing, and Iroh being such a fascinating character to discuss.) Really nothing else major bothers me a lot, there is no perfect tv show. The show is fun, iconic, and the animation is pretty great. I guess the issues I have with it are products of the time... P.s. Oh and I'm so sorry for almost spoiling Korra! I don't think I mentioned anything big, just that he became worse, essentially. All his unresolved flaws from ATLA turn into fatal character flaws and the consequences of it aren't pretty for anyone.

Unpopular opinion: Netflix adaptation is better than book one. The tone is more grounded and serious, the stakes are higher and the world feels more lived in...The characters act realistically, and do not goof off doing useless stuff knowing that the world is at stake.....The series, contrary to the popular opinion, shows rather than tells - especially in comparison to the original, which has twice the amount of exposition.

I've always thought Aang was a bad avatar. Man was about to let the world burn to keep his morals. Weak.