Originally posted at the DL May 2015
Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked...
It's been rather a long time since I revisited Season 1, so a good portion of the season was being a bit surprised at some things that changed as the show progressed. Some standouts.
- Boy in the Iceberg/The Avatar Returns look... off. I think it's the coloring, it feels washed out compared to the later parts of the show.
- Katara is... kiiinda lame for most of the season. A lot of her focus episodes boil down to her feeling inadequate or becoming jealous, and I was very happy in the finale when she replaced those with being really badass instead. Sokka is also weaker in the first half or so of this season, being the designated "Is Wrong" guy, but I remembered that being the case and his moments of eating crow definitely decrease in frequency as he matures and he starts getting moments.
- But more generally I think of Avatar as an ensemble show but season 1 is considerably more about Aang himself than I remembered. Which is fine, we'll get to it in more detail later, and later seasons continue to pay off storylines he has here in fact. Just a little surprising.
In general season 1 has some weaker episodes scattered in, though notably I remembered liking at least two that I ended up thinking kinda sucked upon rewatch (Warriors of Kyoshi and Imprisoned). Actually, let's mix things up a bit because it'll lead more naturally to the conclusion.
Weakest Episode: "It's the Great Divide, the largest canyon in the Earth Kingdom!"
"Ehhhh, let's keep flying."
Anyway a lot of season 1 was devoted to showing off the size and variety of the world, and the depths of the bending and what it could do. It's almost as though Avatar was a show with tons of research and cultural allusions going on behind the scenes and they wanted to show off all their work. Fancy that. The Great Divide is the worst of the episodes devoted to this, but is typical of the problem most of them had; they didn't have anything for Our Heroes to DO in their backstory showcase so there's a lot of visible strain to have something, well, HAPPEN. And by and large none of it comes to anything. Great Divide stands out from its peers mostly for the sheer irritation of its core plot. It's nice that you want to show Aang doing some mediation or whatever, but jesus fuck don't make the different sides both completely loathsome doing it. Especially since, and the episode is dull so you have time to think about these things... even by the most generous interpretation short of "one side is straight making shit up" the Zhangs are pretty much inescapably in the right. If their guy did straight up steal the Sacred Thing... he then proceeded to run in the one direction he could actually be caught, upon which he was imprisoned and his entire tribe declared enemies of the state for the actions of one dude. Sorry dudes I think y'all just elitist fucks, get bent.
Anyway the real trouble with these episodes is, because they were strained to figure out how the heroes fit in, they were detracting from the core strength of the show.
Best Episode: "I always thought... Prince Zuko was in a training accident."
"It was no accident."
So yeah, obvious pick, The Storm. I can't help but think of this as the moment where Avatar goes from a good show to a show that was seriously vying for best show ever. They have the actual balls to say "We can have an episode that's all character and backstory", but more than that it's a split episode between the main character... and the main villain. And basically you're hit with the realization that they're very similar people with similar problems, just raised in very different cultures which mean Aang's coping mechanisms were largely constructive while Zuko came inches from getting himself thrown overboard most days. It's no coincidence I'm sure that the immediate next episode is The Blue Spirit, in which Aang himself comes to basically the same conclusion. It's also the first moment in the show where the actors really got to show off; Zuko pleading with his father is heartbreaking, and the emotional rollercoaster Aang is on reliving those memories is palpable in his speech.
Rating: 8/10. There's some unevenness, both in the season as a whole and in most of the better episodes, The Storm aside, which keeps it from being really top tier, but still some excellent stuff even in season 1.
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