Getting the Gaang Back Together

If you're reading this article and haven't watched Avatar: The Last Airbender, stop what you're doing, call into work and go watch this show. It has a cast of the most beautiful characters in the world. There is hope and love and friendship and heartbreak and growth. This may have originally been geared toward children, but this is a show for all ages. So go watch it!

This show originally aired when I was in elementary/middle school (has it really been that long???) and it was basically a religion in my house. I can remember when the finale was going to air and Nickelodeon ran a A:TLA marathon with this little timer in the corner until "Sozin's Comet" arrived (basically the huge event that the show is leading up to. Aang--the avatar--must master all four elements before it arrives or the fire nation will win the war) and my sister and I hunkered down that evening and watched every episode. Even my dad got into it.

This show is my pure guilty pleasure. It may be a show made for children, but it is hands down my favorite show of all time. I rewatch/binge-watch this show probably once a year (if not twice!). I have a tattoo of the element symbols on my thigh. I am probably hands down an earthbender because the possibilities of my ability are near limitless and I like to take problems head on. (You know, that is if I can't be the avatar.)

Reasons why I love this show:

1. Uncle Iroh

This man is the grandpa/great uncle that everyone wishes they had. He looks like a cinnamon roll but truthfully is this badass warrior who would protect everyone he loves at whatever cost. Despite being a firebender (the bad guys, #notallfirebenders) he is hands down the best character in the whole show. Uncle Iroh is filled with sage wisdom that maybe isn't followed as much as it should be? but never gives up, especially on his nephew, Prince Zuko, who has a lot of shit going on ("I must capture the Avatar to restore my honor!" smh on honey, no.) And at the end of the day, he really just wants to retire and run a little tea shop (if you have a tea related question, Uncle Iroh is your man.)

2. It Deals With Some Pretty Adult Topics (but in a way that kids can understand)

This show is a masterpiece of complexity that draws you in with the cute stuff then hands out some truth. During the majority of the show, as Aang and his friends travel the world so he can master the elements, they constantly see immigrants and meet people who have been displaced by the war (talk about real world problems). Another over-arching theme is good v evil/giving into peer pressure. Everyone is telling Aang that he will have to kill the Fire Lord in order to bring peace, but he is determined to find his own way because he doesn't want to lose who he is. There is also Zuko's struggle of listening to his family and being the person they want him to be and the person Uncle Iroh knows he can be if he simply believes in himself.

This show deals with loss and grief from a recent loved one (just to give some examples; Sokka and Yue S1:E20, Appa and Aang S2:E10, Iroh's mourning S2:E14) It deals with racism (where two tribes have been at each other's throats for years based off of what their ancestors have believed), brainwashing (in a kids show! I know right??? But the city of Ba Sing Se is determined to pretend like there is no war, especially in the upper rings), class disparity (once again, thanks to Ba Sing Se), genocide (when the firebenders rounded up all of the waterbenders from the Southern Water Tribe in attempts to find the next Avatar--little did they know that their attempts were futile), mental illness (when Azula basically has a mental breakdown at the end because the pressure of continuing to be the child prodigy that she was is too much), and vengeance (Jet trying to mourn the death of his parents and Hama who lost literally everything in the "waterbender holocaust.")

Like whoa, heavy stuff for a kids show, but it works so well into the storyline and they handle it all so amazingly and tastefully.

3. Disabilities As Your Greatest Strength

Toph, introduced in season 2, is a blind earthbender. She literally uses her earthbending to see. She can practically predict an opponents move before they even make it because she senses the vibrations through the earth! Like how f***ing cool is that? What most people, especially her parents, see as a disability she has used to her advantage making Toph one of the shows greatest benders. She even invents metal bending, something that has never ever been done before. Total badass.

There are two different kinds of people in the Avatar universe. Benders and non-benders. Where most of the Gaang is a bender (Aang, Katara, Toph and Zuko), Sokka isn't a bender nor is his girlfriend Suki. For the beginning of the show, Sokka is the butt of most jokes (at his own expense of course) for not being able to bend, but he does have this super cool boomerang he uses during "battle" and he also learns swordsmanship from a sword master. He also uses his wit and sarcasm as part of his defense.) Suki is a Kyoshi warrior, an elite team of badass female warriors inspired by Avatar Kyoshi herself. There is also May and Ty-Lee, nonbenders who help out Princess Azula. May uses throwing knives and Ty-Lee knows the exact pressure points to use to bring down fully grown men! They are truly a force to be reckoned with.

4. Girls Can Be Strong Too

The last point kind of roles into this one. Always growing up, I saw male superheroes and such. But this show offered an opportunity for the females in the show to be just as strong as the men, if not stronger and it is refreshing and inspiring, especially as a young girl when first watching, to know that my gender didn't limit my options or potential.

• Katara and Toph are only kids, but they are both two of the strongest benders that many have ever seen and are told so
• Suki is the leader of the Kyoshi warriors.
• Kyoshi was a female avatar.
• Azula though definitely a villain for many characters in the show, including herself, she leads an elite team and has grown men tremble at her feet.
• Hama, though 100% crazy and off her rocker, invented blood bending to escape captivity
• Ty-Lee and May start off as sidekicks for Azula, but they are also stand alone characters who fight for themselves and have super impressive talents.

Little girls (hell even women don't get to see it often without being over sexualized) need this inspiration and I applaud Nickelodeon for creating such strong and beautiful characters.

5. The Animals

Appa (a flying bison and Aang's animal guide) and Momo (a flying lemur) are the stars of the show if we're being honest. These two feel as much as characters as the rest of the cast. They can't say much but they have so much personality.

And these animals aren't the only strange ones. This world is filled with strange hybrids like turtle-ducks, tigerdillos, platypus-bears, and more! The hybrids are so common in this show (and absolutely adorable!) that when the Earth King announces that he is going to throw a party for his pet bear, everyone is so confused that it is just that, a bear.

6. The Fandom

So if this entire article wasn't a display of fan-girling I don't know what is, but the A:TLA fandom is probably one of my favorites to be apart of. I believe we all agree that Uncle Iroh is our favorite, we would die for basically anybody in this show and that the live action movie was a disaster on epic proportions. We actually don't talk about the movie (*insert Ba Sing Se mind control* there was no live action movie).

This is the most bitchin' song ya'll will ever hear:

We have all wanted to try cactus juice at least once because it's the quenchiest and nothing's quenchier (even though Sokka and Momo were tripping for what could have been days).

And the only cringe worthy thing about this show, is that this man never got his retribution.