How's it going everybody? Hope you had a happy holiday. I figured I stretch myself a bit and do something a bit bigger. That and I want to end this crappy year with a high note on my part.

I have been planning on doing this for a while now, so I figured I would do it with this backlog thing I'm doing.

Avatar: The Last Airbender. I'm going to be a bit critical with this story, so I feel the need to say that I do legitimately love this show.

It's easily in my top five and I'm going to go into why throughout. I bought both it and Korra's complete series before it came to Netflix. That's how much I love both these shows.

Please no LoK bashing here. This is ATLA's reviews and I want to stay on topic.

Sitback, listen to whatever podcast you're listening to, and relax as I go over the stuff that I like and dislike in this show.

Sokka and Katara were on a boat, "You are the most sexist, laziest-"

"CUT!"

A director walked on a chunk of ice, "You're not supposed to say laziest."

"Oh. Sorry."

"It's fine. Let's just take it from the top."

Episode Five: The King of Omashu

Aang was staring at King Bumi, "I'll fight the guy with the sytch."

Bumi looked dumbfounded, "Really? Why?"

"Because I'm an Airbender and I can knock him out the easiest. It really doesn't matter who I pick."

Episode Eleven: The Great Divide

Aang was watching the two tribes argue, "Okay. I'll give you all rides on Appa."

Episode Fifteen: Bato of the Water Tribe

Katara and Sokka were staring down Aang, "You hid the letter that gave us the information that our dad was alive."

"I'm just a kid and I lost my entire tribe!"

Sokka and Katara left Aang behind, "Not an excuse! You saved our lives multiple times, but this was too much! Even though you came clean!"

Episode Nineteen and Twenty: Siege of the Water Tribe.

Sokka got on his knees and brought out a necklace, "Yue, will you marry me?"

He looked up at the moon, "Send one wave for yes! Two for no!"

Two waves appeared, "Are you sure?!"

One wave washed ashore this time, "Okay."

Let's do this.

A lot of people say that Book 1 is the weakest season of the show and, honestly, I don't agree with that.

I personally think that Book 3 is the weakest and I'll get into why when we get to it, but for now, let's talk about Book 1.

I get where people come from by saying that Book 1 is the weakest.

It does mostly set up stuff that happens later, but I think they did it in a natural way that's not sloppy.

The worst episode, The Great Divide, isn't the worst thing ever, but it is stupid. Just have Appa carry everyone over. It'd take like an hour tops to do so.

My favorite episode of B1 is the episode where Aang meets the fire bending master. I can't remember his name.

It's good because of how it really does take advantage of Aang being a kid and how he reacts to hurting Katara.

Aang is a likable main character and, aside from Steven Universe, is my favorite child protagonist. He acts like a realistic good kid.

While I do wish that there was more angst about how he is basically the last of his kind, I think they handled it pretty well. With more subtle details, like in the chakra episode.

The concept of the Avatar itself is very interesting. The idea of a power being reincarnated from one life to another is very interesting.

I kinda want to find fanfiction or anything where there's more emotional stories with the past avatars and how they are in….Avatar limbo or whatever the hell the past avatars are in. Aang's soul maybe?

Anyway, back to characters.

Katara is probably my favorite character on the show. She is a very well balanced character.

She's mature, but still has her teenage moments.

I like how they handled her growing skill and strength as a water bender. It just felt very natural.

There are a lot of little details. Like in the fortune telling episode, she can barely bend the rain to cover herself. Then, in the Southern Raiders, she could cover a wider area with her, Zuko, and the guy who killed her mom from the rain.

It's just really cool to see her develop into a very powerful water bender..

That brings us to Sokka.

I never liked Sokka. I get that he was supposed to be the comic relief for kids, but I actually remember not liking him when I was a kid.

It's not that he's a bad character. His development is nice...when you feel like he has developed.

Here's the thing. At times, it feels like they didn't know what they wanted to do with his character.

He is supposed to be both the comic relief and the dead serious guy. Unless you're going for his seriousness playing off the situations in a comedic way, and sometimes it does, you can't do that.

Again, sometimes his comedy does work. Like in the fortune telling episode.

More often than not though, it just feels like they couldn't get a good balance.

I can get a counter argument to that though.

It shows that he has depth and personality beyond serious. I just feel like they didn't choose the best way to convey that. A good chunk of the time at least.

I'll give Sokka this, I appreciate him more after that God Awful Last Airbender movie.

Appa is fun and a really cool character. It's rare for an animal sidekick to do much and be interesting.

Momo on the other hand isn't the best. He does have his funny moments, but he felt so pointless to the show.

I'm not saying they should have gone for the original plan with him to be a reincarnation of Gyatso, but I feel like they should have done something more with him.

Speaking of the Gyatso thing, I'd like to see fanfiction or something about that.

Zuko is a likable character. I want to talk about him more throughout this whole thing and my feelings about his arc.

Iroh is probably my favorite mentor character of all time. He's not over vague or cryptic. He hands out legitimately good advice on both bending and life in general.

He's also an interesting character in his own right. His relationship with Zuko is always a good treat to watch.

Season one does a really good job at establishing the world and how the Avatar works.

I really do enjoy episodes that just let the characters explore this world.

I should nip this one in the bud. I don't agree with all these takes that the series is problematic.

The four nations are based on different cultures, there are superficial connections to most of the aspects of the nation's cultures.

I don't think that warrants anyone saying that the show should be cancelled like I've seen some people claim.

If you have a problem with how they portray things, fine. I'm not gonna try and say you're wrong or whatever.

I'm just saying how I feel about it.

The fact they were able to give the locations their own unique feeling and look. It really does feel like the world of ATLA is it's own world.

The finale of B1 is good. I feel like Yui should have had more screen time for her death to hit harder, but it was a solid finale.

The action in the finale was great, even if it led to something I'll get to in the finale part of this.

Next time is Book 2.