HOME | DD

Description
Avatar gets a lot of credit for a lot of things. Fluid fight scenes, great dialog, original idea. Amid all of this hype, the beautiful storytelling of the creators seems to get forgotten.

Yes, the art is wonderful, But its not the best I've seen. Yes, It has fantastic comedy, but other shows have that too. Yes, it's original, but originality is common these days. But what this show has, that no other Television show I've seen has, is a real and defined story.

Look at shows like Naruto, Bleach; even live action shows like MASH and more recently House. The motivation to watch these shows is often on an episode basis, the formulaic Problem/solution one hour deal (and yes Avatar has this for each episode as well). But Avatar also has a long term motivation, a climax that each individual episode leads up to. An Epic Battle and more importantly, an end.

One could Argue that many shows have this long term motivation, Like Naruto and the main evil group fights, or Bleach and rescuing Rukia; and in a way it's true. But, once you have that Climax and Fall from action, another hurtle emerges, one more World ending fight with similar rising action (train, fight low-lings, etc; what I like to call the Dragon-Ball Z effect). In the real world, things like this just don't happen, and even if they did its just not plausible that one man or group could be at the center of defense against every Apocalyptic event. It's just not relatable and after a while, it gets boring.

Beyond just having an end, Avatar has one more fantastic story element, something that is often attempted but almost never done correctly (and the reason why this rant is here); a smooth Bad-guy to good-guy transition.

We all face tough choices, and we all regret our decisions. Zuko is the ultimate representation of this human quality, and I think that is the reason why Avatar fans love him so much; he's just like us.

Thanks for looking
-Matt

Avatar belongs to Mike, Bryan and Nick. Art belongs to me.

See More of my Avatar Fanart here: [link]

Description
Avatar gets a lot of credit for a lot of things. Fluid fight scenes, great dialog, original idea. Amid all of this hype, the beautiful storytelling of the creators seems to get forgotten.

Yes, the art is wonderful, But its not the best I've seen. Yes, It has fantastic comedy, but other shows have that too. Yes, it's original, but originality is common these days. But what this show has, that no other Television show I've seen has, is a real and defined story.

Look at shows like Naruto, Bleach; even live action shows like MASH and more recently House. The motivation to watch these shows is often on an episode basis, the formulaic Problem/solution one hour deal (and yes Avatar has this for each episode as well). But Avatar also has a long term motivation, a climax that each individual episode leads up to. An Epic Battle and more importantly, an end.

One could Argue that many shows have this long term motivation, Like Naruto and the main evil group fights, or Bleach and rescuing Rukia; and in a way it's true. But, once you have that Climax and Fall from action, another hurtle emerges, one more World ending fight with similar rising action (train, fight low-lings, etc; what I like to call the Dragon-Ball Z effect). In the real world, things like this just don't happen, and even if they did its just not plausible that one man or group could be at the center of defense against every Apocalyptic event. It's just not relatable and after a while, it gets boring.

Beyond just having an end, Avatar has one more fantastic story element, something that is often attempted but almost never done correctly (and the reason why this rant is here); a smooth Bad-guy to good-guy transition.

We all face tough choices, and we all regret our decisions. Zuko is the ultimate representation of this human quality, and I think that is the reason why Avatar fans love him so much; he's just like us.

Thanks for looking
-Matt

Avatar belongs to Mike, Bryan and Nick. Art belongs to me.

See More of my Avatar Fanart here: [link]