If Fantasy, then ...

Who doesn’t love a good fantasy?

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Alright, you caught me, there are more than a few people who can’t stand the fantasy genre, but just hear me out for the next approximately 600 written words of your life and I promise I will give you at least one reason to TRY entering the world of the fantastical.

That being said, I believe the most important question to visit when thinking of a widely beloved show is, why is it so widely beloved by so many people? And of course not every person on the planet is going to love the same show, but, you must admit, there are those great works of small screen entertainment that will always hold a soft spot in pop culture.

And what exactly ARE some of these widely beloved shows I’m rambling on about, you ask? Well, you know them, of course, because, more likely that not, you have loved them just as well. Friends, Breaking Bad, Sherlock Holmes, Game of Thrones, Doctor Who, and Star Trek are just a few but the list of greatest shows of all time goes on for a novel’s worth of pages. Moreover, if you hadn’t noticed, more than just one of those popular shows is based entirely in fantasy or has at least a little bit of the unrealistic thrown in there along the way.

But those are mere examples to get your potentially cold, hardened heart to thaw just a little to the idea that, maybe fantasy isn’t so bad after all. The real Superstar of the Shows that I want to focus on here is Avatar: The Last Airbender. I mean, for real this time, who actually doesn’t love Avatar: The Last Airbender (I want to take this time to specify that I am, indeed, talking about the masterpiece of a Nickelodeon show, and NOT of the movie that will not be spoken of from here-on-out.)?

Of course it has common fantasy tropes like the use of magic, fantastical beasts and landscapes, but it also has romance, friendship, politics, outstanding character development, humor, and the most universal truth of them all: that love, acceptance, and growth can change an entire world. And if you’ve stayed away from this show thinking it was made for kids, think again, because, yes, it is a “kid’s show” in the sense that it is animated and aired on a kid’s network and follows a group of preteens on their journey to save their fantasy world. However, it also deals with such universal and very much adult issues like the politics of a fascist society and the rewards and consequences of fighting back against the status quo, mass genocide (hence the name in the title, “The Last Airbender”), classism, loss, abuse, etc. It’s truly a show for all ages and walks of life and regardless of the package it comes in, everyone can learn a great deal from a work so beautifully written.

Now that I have sung my endless praises for Avatar: The Last Airbender (which, like, go watch that now if you haven’t already), we can talk about what comes next. What should you watch, assuming you’ve watched Avatar, to satisfy your hunger for more once you’re heartbroken over the ending of Avatar? Well, you’ve obviously come to the right place because I have just the remedy for you and it comes equipped with 3 totally bingeworthy seasons: The Dragon Prince.

The Dragon Prince has all the appeal that drew you to Avatar: it’s animated, it follows a hero’s journey, it’s set in a fantasy world, it addresses difficult issues with humility and grace, and, it was even written by one of the original writers who worked on Avatar!

And if all that isn’t enough to convince you, they’ve already been approved for a fourth season so you know right away there’s more to come. I would also venture to say it reaches further and is even more loving and accepting than Avatar does or is sometimes. The representation of different races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and love as a whole is absolutely stunning and if you watch it for no other reasons than those, then you are absolutely doing yourself a favor. The normalcy with which it addresses these topics is breathtaking and makes you hopeful for the future of the world we live in.

So, if you’ve made it through to the end with me, then I’ll leave you with this: if you love Avatar: The Last Airbender (the show), then I promise you’ll love The Dragon Prince.