Imagine you are in a conversation with a good friend and whatever you have been discussing brings to your friend's mind an example or just reminds them about any possible number of other thoughts from a movie that they may have seen. They try to tell you about it or make some witty quote from said movie, and you are left grasping for straws as you inform them that you have no idea what they're talking about. They then proceed to look at you as if you were from another planet... because there is no possible way you could be from this one and NOT have seen this!Examples may vary. I'm sure that I've looked agast at people when I discover that they have not seen Star Wars or the Lord of the Rings trilogy. (I try not to. I realize it's not everyone's thing.) But, I really have no room to judge. I've been the guilty party of this "crime" on a number of occasions. I have my reasons, most of the time, but the thing that I continue to be amazed at is the fact that so often, I wish that I'd found whatever it is sooner. The most recent example of this was discovered this last summer:
Avatar: The Last Airbender
All I knew about this show was that it had been recently made into a movie (which almost everyone I have talked with did not like). I watched the last about third of this movie when my wife watched it with my brother- and sister-in-law. Needless to say, I really had no clue what was going on, but the effects seemed really cool. I figured that I just needed to watch it (the live-action movie) from the beginning and it would make more sense. ...Well, I'm sure that it would have made a little more sense, but it would not have done justice to it.
I never ended up watching the movie again*, but I did (finally) get around to watching the first animated season after much encouragement and other general harassment from a good friend of mine. ...And the second season... ...And the third season. Within about a month, or so, I had watched the entire three seasons. I finished the first season in about two days! (I grant you this isn't hard. They are only half-hour episodes, but I usually don't burn through stuff like this!) I couldn't stop watching them! They were so well done! And they only got better as they went!
I loved the story. Yes, the story and the show is written for kids, but it's done so that anyone can appreciate and enjoy the storyline. The whole thing is epic. It's your classic good versus evil. And it's just plain FUN! You learn to love most of the characters. Each one of them has depth. All of your main characters (and even most of the one-episode characters) have something that is driving them. There are reasons that they do the things that they do.
Everyone that has seen these has their favorite character or characters. I will pick my top three:
3) Avatar Aang and Prince Zuko
I know. I shouldn't pick two, but I did anyway. (I did keep it to one for the first-place spot, so quit your complaining!) These two are THE main characters. Aang is the last airbender and the whole story happens because of him, but one of the things that I love about this series is that it's not just a story about what happens to Aang. All of the other characters have their own story to tell as well.
I'll admit, I wasn't really that impressed with Aang at the beginning, but he definitely grew on me. He has a very fun side to him, loves to play games, and enjoys being with and around his friends. He is incredibly loyal and takes the fact that he is the Avatar very seriously. One of my favorite parts with Aang comes at the end, when must face the Fire Lord and make a decision of how to deal with him. He takes the advice of many, but in the end, he makes a decision that really is his own.
Zuko is the banished prince of the Fire Nation. The only hope he has been given to restore his honor and be allowed to return is if he can find and capture the Avatar. For most of the first two seasons, Zuko is unrelenting in his pursuit of Aang. After he thinks that he has killed Aang, he returns to the Fire Nation with his honor restored, but he is still not happy. All this time, he has been seeking his father's approval, but once he has it, he realizes that in order to get it, he has had to make choices that are contrary to who he is, or wants to be. In his exile, he is accompanied by his uncle, Iroh (Uncle). Uncle has always seen the potential of his nephew, even if he is brash and lacking both patience and experience. He tirelessly tries to impart the wisdom that he has accumulated over the years through his experiences to Zuko. Unlike the Fire Lord, Uncle truly cares about his nephew and wants to see him rise above the trials and obstacles that have been put in his way. In the end, Zuko finally finds peace within himself and is at peace with who he is. He becomes a strong character and truly a person who knows exactly where he stands.
2) Avatar Roku
I have always loved the mentor characters in movies and books. I think it's because I hope to be like these characters someday. But none of even these characters got to where they are without going through the process of obtaining wisdom. The same is true of Avatar Roku. He got to where he is by the hard process of life's experiences. In the beginning, he was taught by many different instructors and masters. He learned by practice and repetition. He also learned by and from his experiences. Trial and error is a hard school of learning, but as long as he (or any of us, for that matter) learned from his errors, he grew and gained in wisdom. This is not seen until almost mid-way through the third season, but in it, one can see that, just like the Avatars before him, Roku had to learn all of the bending arts and along the way had to learn how to render judgement, how to be a leader, and how to live with the responsibility that became his as he became the Avatar. He readily admits to Aang that he made mistakes. One in particular he views as the reason that Fire Lord Sozin was able to begin his conquest of the world. Avatar Roku gives instruction to Aang at a few very crucial moments in the series, and even though he has his regrets, he still seems at peace with himself, even if he is very concerned for Aang's well being and that Aang is able to stop the Fire Lord.
1) Uncle Iroh
If you've seen the Avatar series and can't at least say that you enjoyed the character of Uncle, I am tempted to say that there is something wrong with you.
Again, here we have another mentor character. But Uncle is ... just that character that you almost don't know what to expect from him next! In the beginning, he seems like an eccentric old man who loves his tea and is not really taking the task that Zuko is trying to accomplish very seriously. To begin with, he doesn't really think that the Avatar can be found. In spite of this, he is tutoring his nephew and trying to help him believe in himself. He knows that Zuko wants to restore his honor, but as time goes on, Uncle is trying to help Zuko restore his honor to himself. It is not the Fire Lord (Zuko's father) that can restore the feeling of honor that Zuko desires. Uncle knows for himself that you always have honor if you live up to your true self. It's almost as if he is telling him to learn all that you can and live according to what your heart tells you is true and right. If you do this, then you will be at peace with yourself and you will be able to live with your own honor. Uncle Iroh has lived this way (it seems to me) for a long time. The change happened sometime between losing his son and when he began to mentor Zuko. He didn't seem to care what others may have thought of him. He lived up to his own code of honor and was always able to stand tall knowing that he had been true to himself and was able to be at peace with himself.
Such an awesome series! Definitely one that I wish I had discovered earlier, but glad that I have now.
*(I still have not yet tried watching the movie that they made from the Avatar series, but I can understand how it didn't really work out well. There was a lot of material to be covered. Trying to cram a whole season into one movie could not have been an easy thing to do and was inevitably going to leave some things out that people wouldn't like.)
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