The best reboot of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” starts in season 2

I feel a little guilty about the way I watch it again Avatar: The Last Airbender.

I count the series as one of my favorite television series ever. Even as an adult, I’m impressed by the way the showrunners used Aang’s journey to defeat the Fire Nation to piece together a whole picture of a world rife with violence and injustice. His characters’ stories, such as Prince Zuko’s redemption, become vessels to create a story that is at once political and personal. Just the mere mention of Avatar can trigger a rush of positive thoughts about why I love the series and want more. But even given all of that, I find it hard to watch most of the series every time I rewatch it, and I end up skipping a lot of it. Whenever I rewatch the series, I start with Book 2, Episode 6, an episode called “The Blind Bandit.”

Here I have to admit – somewhat embarrassingly – that it was at this point in the series that I started doing three reps. At first it wasn’t a conscious decision. I would watch this particular episode again because I’ve always loved Toph as a character and just wanted to rewatch the episode where she joins the gang. I enjoyed the action sequences and the thrill of seeing Toph in action for the first time, but I also appreciated the way she breaks away from her parents’ idea of ​​her as a helpless child. The thing is when you level up Avatar Rewatch Train, even if it’s just for this episode, is kind of hard to get away from.

Image: Nickelodeon Animation Studio

There’s just so much good in this part of the series. Zuko struggles to figure out his own moral compass as he seeks refuge with a family in the Earth Kingdom and we get a glimpse into his childhood life. Princess Azula pursues Aang on lizardback, immediately triggering a new sense of fear and breathlessness in Team Avatar. Aang finally learns how to tame the Earth. Before we know it, we’ll be on the Spirit Library episode and you knowledge I have to keep watching until Appa and Aang are reunited. It really is one banger after another.

I’m not saying that everything that comes before it is bad. Some of my favorite episodes come before Season 2, Episode 6. I love seeing Sokka get his misogynistic ass kicked by the Kyoshi Warriors in the first season, and Aang’s reunion with the bumbling King Bumi at the start of the second season. But I can’t help but feel like the showrunners have really found the beating heart of the series. Aang’s mission to confront the Fire Nation comes with a stronger sense of direction as he learns earthbending and attempts to recruit comrades to fight during the upcoming solar eclipse. But even then, this part of the series shows us what makes “Avatar” a truly great television series. Episodes like “The Tales of Ba Sing Se” don’t add much to the development of the plot, but they enrich the world with emotional portrayals of their characters and creatures.

Image: Nickelodeon Animation Studio

Given the importance of episodes such as the aforementioned “Tales of Ba Sing Se” in Avatar, I feel a little guilty about skipping straight to the juicy stuff. But that’s how I see it. Season 1 lays the foundation for many of the stories I love in the series and develops a much-needed foundation for understanding the world as a whole. The stories of characters like Zuko wouldn’t resonate the way they do if we didn’t see him running around as an angry teenager for so long, and I would never recommend a first-time viewer start with Season 2.

However, with the second season, we have a clear idea of ​​what the world looks like at this point, and we can really see the show blossoming, bearing the fruit of so many points made earlier in the story, and even bringing some new ones of its own Seeds! So now when I start a rep, I just start from there. I imagine I’d see something new if I rewatched it from the beginning of the series, but still, I can’t help but feel like maybe, just maybe, I’m intuitive in the best way and I decided to watch it again Avatar.