Avatar: The Last Airbender is the only kid's show I think still holds up as you get older (though it definitely has flaws). In that same setting I also like The Rise of Kyoshi, which is a book written by some random YA author and I have no idea how that partnership managed to come about.
I do think romance in general is a weak point of bryke, not really specific to any of their characters. The biggest flaw in the story, though, in my opinion is (obviously spoilers) how they kind of circumnavigated the conflict at the end. Aang should have had to come to terms with the fact that nonviolence simply cannot always work. Still, I understand what they were going for, and I wouldn't have any major problems with it if they had just set up the method by which Aang could defeat Ozai without killing him earlier. Then the debate would have been focused more on, "Is it worth the risk of failure to do this without killing him?" Which is a much more reasonable thing to answer either way. As opposed to the debate they were actually faced with, in which Aang was wrong and everyone else was right (if not for the interference of an unknown, undocumented, primordial magic beast). The message, in the end, is that it is more important to root yourself firmly in your cultural beliefs than it is to literally prevent genocide. Which is a very unfortunate conclusion for a victim of genocide to come to and to teach.
It's been a little bit since I last saw it, but I thought the portrayal of fascist imperialism was generally solid. Do you have any particular complaints about that aspect?
Lord help me, I loved it as a child and I never looked at it with a critical eye. I will always complain about a magical turtle beast coming out of nowhere and provide a convenient solution. I don't really have any complaints. The most critical analysis I get from it is looking at it through world building perspectives with Hello Future Me on YouTube. In that sense, I think they did a good job on Azula's characterization, their magic system, etc. I think, with the amount of effort they put into these elements of story telling, it was destined to disappoint. It takes a lot of bandwidth to create a tight story that encompasses the full breadth needed to take on a political philosophy like antifascism. It's hard to fit in sea monsters, kyoshi warriors, penguin sledding, etc. and then pivot into that.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is the only kid's show I think still holds up as you get older (though it definitely has flaws). In that same setting I also like The Rise of Kyoshi, which is a book written by some random YA author and I have no idea how that partnership managed to come about.
What, in your view, are the flaws with ATLA? Is it Katara as a sidekick/love interest? Treatment of fascism in the fire nation?
I do think romance in general is a weak point of bryke, not really specific to any of their characters. The biggest flaw in the story, though, in my opinion is (obviously spoilers) how they kind of circumnavigated the conflict at the end. Aang should have had to come to terms with the fact that nonviolence simply cannot always work. Still, I understand what they were going for, and I wouldn't have any major problems with it if they had just set up the method by which Aang could defeat Ozai without killing him earlier. Then the debate would have been focused more on, "Is it worth the risk of failure to do this without killing him?" Which is a much more reasonable thing to answer either way. As opposed to the debate they were actually faced with, in which Aang was wrong and everyone else was right (if not for the interference of an unknown, undocumented, primordial magic beast). The message, in the end, is that it is more important to root yourself firmly in your cultural beliefs than it is to literally prevent genocide. Which is a very unfortunate conclusion for a victim of genocide to come to and to teach.
It's been a little bit since I last saw it, but I thought the portrayal of fascist imperialism was generally solid. Do you have any particular complaints about that aspect?
Lord help me, I loved it as a child and I never looked at it with a critical eye. I will always complain about a magical turtle beast coming out of nowhere and provide a convenient solution. I don't really have any complaints. The most critical analysis I get from it is looking at it through world building perspectives with Hello Future Me on YouTube. In that sense, I think they did a good job on Azula's characterization, their magic system, etc. I think, with the amount of effort they put into these elements of story telling, it was destined to disappoint. It takes a lot of bandwidth to create a tight story that encompasses the full breadth needed to take on a political philosophy like antifascism. It's hard to fit in sea monsters, kyoshi warriors, penguin sledding, etc. and then pivot into that.